How are Game of Thrones charcaters portrayed in the the books?

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

To limit the sheer amount of characters, how different are the following charcaters in the books and who I think are and were the main charcaters, and assume I know everything there is to know about these charcaters in the show.

Jon Snow
Daenerys Targaryan
Joffery "Baratheon" Lannister
Tywin Lannister
Tyrion Lannister
And the Stark Children, Robb included.

Because I have a friend that has all the 5 books and I am thinking if she can at least lend me the first one.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

I mean, most of them are several years younger, so there's that. Been a while since I've either read the books or rewatched the series so can't remember too many differences. I remember Catelyn Stark being way more sympathetic in the show than in the books but thats more to do with not hearing her stream of thoughts in the show...

 

[Ironman126]

I remember Catelyn Stark being way more sympathetic in the show than in the books but thats more to do with not hearing her stream of thoughts in the show...

Holy shit. She was possibly the least sympathetic character in the show, so I can only imagine how awful she must be in the books. It's a bad sign when I hate Cersei less than Catelyn.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I remember Catelyn Stark being way more sympathetic in the show than in the books but thats more to do with not hearing her stream of thoughts in the show...

Holy shit. She was possibly the least sympathetic character in the show, so I can only imagine how awful she must be in the books. It's a bad sign when I hate Cersei less than Catelyn.

Cersei does not the sympathetic aspects she has in the show in the books, I.E. her motherly side.

She is just straight up pure evil in the books from what I heard.

 

[Terminal Blue]

As mentioned, the characters are mostly a lot younger than they are portrayed. Most of the young adult characters are in their early to mid teens, and a lot of their more stupid decisions make sense in this context.

Jon is quite similar to his TV counterpart, except for being younger. He's the closest we get to a normal protagonist.

Daenerys starts out as a young teenager and is quite different. Her book character is generally more innocent. The TV show plays up the possibility that Daenerys has the Targaryen madness, while in the books it's much more subtle. That said, the books do not fuck around in showing the consequences of her actions.

Joffrey is a bit more subtle. In the book, he just seems like a massive twat rather than the literal satan-child he comes across as in the TV show.

Tywin is a much less sympathetic or understandable character. He doesn't have those moments of warmth we occasionally see in the show, but I think that stems from Charles Dance being a hugely charismatic actor.

Tyrion is probably the most different character. Like, he is a genuinely, genuinely horrible person in the books. I think it's possible not to realise this because he's a POV character so a lot of scenes are from his perspective but he's much crueler, pettier and less sympathetic. He's also implied to be genuinely physically repulsive.

The Stark children are all younger, and their stupid decisions make more sense in the context of being younger. Robb's whole story arc is also very different and frames him less as a naive romantic and more as someone who puts conscience before pragmatism. Sansa's innocence and childishness makes sense because she is literally a child. Arya's obsessions and weird ritual behaviour comes off less as a rational quest for revenge and more as a child's attempt to process trauma.

Cersei does not the sympathetic aspects she has in the show in the books, I.E. her motherly side.

Her motherly side is still very definitely there, and is a big motivation for her. She is frightened of losing her children due to the prophecy she heard as a child.

Cersei is less sympathetic because she lacks the warmth of her TV show personality, and because she's less competent and smart. Even though she's depicted as less overtly cruel and sadistic, she comes across as more petty and also doesn't seem to feel any real love for any of the people she's supposedly close to (except arguably her children).

 

[jademunky]

Cersei does not the sympathetic aspects she has in the show in the books, I.E. her motherly side.

She is just straight up pure evil in the books from what I heard.

The books have the advantage of being able to show her actual thoughts in print and it is all just venom and paranoia.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Cersei does not the sympathetic aspects she has in the show in the books, I.E. her motherly side.

She is just straight up pure evil in the books from what I heard.

The books have the advantage of being able to show her actual thoughts in print and it is all just venom and paranoia.

The scene where she was forced to do the walk of shame naked, we see into her thought during the event
in the books and she gets hallucinations, she first see Tywin frowning at her, than Tyrion laughing at her, than Ned and Sansa Stark and her wolf Grey Lady all 3 starring daggers at her.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Tyrion in the books doesn't have a cute little nick of an injury, he basically narrowly missed losing his life and had an ugly wound on his head for the rest of time. Make up, of course, meant Peter Dinklage couldn't portray it as severe as it was originally written.

Also all of Dorne was handled much differently, with the Prince of Sunspear playing a more intricate long-term plan regarding securing a marriage alliance with Dany after it was apparent she was becoming a force to reckon with. That was... handled poorly by the show, as in ignored until written out in a most egregious way.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

I remember Catelyn Stark being way more sympathetic in the show than in the books but thats more to do with not hearing her stream of thoughts in the show...

Holy shit. She was possibly the least sympathetic character in the show, so I can only imagine how awful she must be in the books. It's a bad sign when I hate Cersei less than Catelyn.

Honestly the two are kind of similar. Both assume that they know best all the time, make ridiculous decisions that they justify "because family" and blame everyone around them when it all goes wrong, both are really stuck up (though, they are high born women in a feudal society so you kind of expect that), they both hold petty grudges via the sheer power of spite and expect everyone to just do what they say all the time because...because. The only difference is we're expected to root for Catelyn even as we're subjected to her short-sighted, small-minded thoughts, whereas by the time we get to Cersei's inner monologue we know she's a ***** and its just hilarious watching her careen from bad move to bad move

 

[Spade Lead]

4 years ago I took a break from reading the series because I had finished the second book and wanted to reward myself by reading something enjoyable. I haven't started the 3rd book yet.

All of the characters are unlikable fuckheads, full of hate and paranoia, and the ones that are most likable tend to die. Maybe it is just that I don't like Fantasy, but the books were a terrible slog through of shit characters doing shit things with very little redeeming heroism and a lot of offputting weirdness and gross stuff that didn't need to happen. Melassandre's demon baby pretty much being a stake in the heart of my interest in the series.

Cersei was an unfeeling ***** who wanted revenge on literally anyone, especially those that had no reason to do her any favors.

The mountain who rides (whatever the fuck his name was) had this really creepy scene where he snuck into Not Arya's (whichever of the Stark sister's it was, anyway) room and described this massive battle in a literal case of violating the "Show don't tell" rule in the most boring way possible, all while making rape seem like an imminent and real outcome of the whole conversation.

It was the worst thing I have read, barring maybe "Great Expectations."

 

[twistedmic]

Maybe it is just that I don't like Fantasy, but the books were a terrible slog through of shit characters doing shit things with very little redeeming heroism and a lot of offputting weirdness and gross stuff that didn't need to happen.

It could be that you just don't like Martin's style of writing. I greatly enjoy fantasy books (The Malazan Book of the Fallen and Stormlight Archive books being particular favorites of mine) but I had to force myself to finish reading book one of A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones and gave up on less than a quarter of the way into book two.
I'd suggest that you try other fantasy books before writing off the genre entirely.

 

[Trunkage]

Maybe it is just that I don't like Fantasy, but the books were a terrible slog through of shit characters doing shit things with very little redeeming heroism and a lot of offputting weirdness and gross stuff that didn't need to happen.

It could be that you just don't like Martin's style of writing. I greatly enjoy fantasy books (The Malazan Book of the Fallen and Stormlight Archive books being particular favorites of mine) but I had to force myself to finish reading book one of A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones and gave up on less than a quarter of the way into book two.
I'd suggest that you try other fantasy books before writing off the genre entirely.

Finding SoFaI harder to read than Malazan? I think Malazan is much better written but its Tolkienesque in its delivery. I remember parts of stories that were in different continents, that only tied up neat very close to the end. Sometimes that didn't even happen. He's every opaque with how he writes (actually I find Terry Prachett that way too)

Martin is like a blockbuster book. "Epic", needs popcorn, Simple in comparison

 

[Hawki]

To limit the sheer amount of characters, how different are the following charcaters in the books and who I think are and were the main charcaters, and assume I know everything there is to know about these charcaters in the show.

Jon Snow
Daenerys Targaryan
Joffery "Baratheon" Lannister
Tywin Lannister
Tyrion Lannister
And the Stark Children, Robb included.

Bear in mind it's been ages since I've read them, but:

Jon: Pretty much the same.

-Dany: A bit less aggressive than the TV version. She's two years younger, and it shows. Slightly more naieve, at least early on. However, she's shown to be more of a thinker, likely allowed for by the books having more time to flesh out her character and strategies.

-Joffrey: You know how Joffrey in the show has a sort of "magnificent bastard" feeling to him? As in, he's a shit, but he's a grinning, stuck up shit that has a layer of menace? Book!Joffrey is still petulant, but without the menace - he's a child through and through.

-Tywin: Less present in the books IIRC. He's more of a cold fish than TV!Tywin.

-Tyron: Pretty similar.

-Sansa: Pretty irritating. People complain that Season 5 ruined Sansa's character, but IMO, the books are just as guilty of resetting her character arc. I don't find her book version very endearing.

-Arya: Similar, I guess? I barely remember her arc in the books.

-Brandon Stark: Pretty similar

-Robb Stark: Less direct. The TV differs with him in that he's a major character for the first three seasons, while he's not a POV character in the books. He's less fierce in the books in my mind, more committed to honour and whatnot (and still gets killed for it).

On that note, I'd reccomend giving the books a shot. I think the first three books are very good. Book 4 is where the series starts to lose steam though, and while Book 5 recovers some of it, it's not to the level of the first three. Still pretty decent though. Plus there's various spin-off material, such as the Dunk & Egg series.

But since other people have weighed in on it, I'll chime in and say that Malazan can go [censored] itself. Stormlight could be decent, though Edgedancer is the only installment I've read of that series.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Do you read Tywin's lines in the book in Charles Dance's voice? Because I cannot think of any other voice to fit Tywin better than Charles Dance. I mean look at this guy's book incarnation:

I can totally see Charles Dance's voice coming from this picture.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Also, I ask Jon Snow because the issue people have with the charcater in the show is that the actor has the charisma of wood, same with Dany.

I wondered how their book's incarnation faired.

 

[twistedmic]

Maybe it is just that I don't like Fantasy, but the books were a terrible slog through of shit characters doing shit things with very little redeeming heroism and a lot of offputting weirdness and gross stuff that didn't need to happen.

It could be that you just don't like Martin's style of writing. I greatly enjoy fantasy books (The Malazan Book of the Fallen and Stormlight Archive books being particular favorites of mine) but I had to force myself to finish reading book one of A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones and gave up on less than a quarter of the way into book two.
I'd suggest that you try other fantasy books before writing off the genre entirely.

Finding SoFaI harder to read than Malazan? I think Malazan is much better written but its Tolkienesque in its delivery. I remember parts of stories that were in different continents, that only tied up neat very close to the end. Sometimes that didn't even happen. He's every opaque with how he writes (actually I find Terry Prachett that way too)

Martin is like a blockbuster book. "Epic", needs popcorn, Simple in comparison

Part of why I didn't like SoIaF is that Martin spent far too much time describing his characters, right down to the type/color of thread in their clothes, and explaining how they got their name ( I read how the Onion Knight got his name at least three times in one and a half books) for my tastes. In Book of the Fallen Erickson didn't spend a lot of time describing his characters (or explaining how they got their names) but that didn't keep me from getting invested in what happened to Dujek One-Arm, Anomander Rake or Ganoes.
Sanderson doesn't describe his characters all that much in Stormlight Archive but I still get invested in what happens with Kaladin and Shallan.
And I found SoIaF to be dark just for the sake of being dark. The violence, death and rape struck me as being there just to make the world 'dark and edgy' (though I will admit that I might be wrong in that assumption) rather than being there to further the story.

 

[Hades]

I think Varys is the character that was changed most when comparing the book and the show version.

In the show Varys is ''just'' a noble schemer but the schemes of his book counterpart go much further than the one of the show and he's willing to use far more extreme methods ''for the children''

Doran Martel is the character that was most negatively affected by his changes. In the book he seems like a mild man but who's actually shaping up to be a Dornish Tywin Lanister. The show version of him is just a wimp who can be overthrown in a couple of seconds.

 

[Silvanus]

To limit the sheer amount of characters, how different are the following charcaters in the books and who I think are and were the main charcaters, and assume I know everything there is to know about these charcaters in the show.

Going into depth about the various character and storyline differences as they relate to each character, spoilers within;

Spoiler: Jon Snow

Jon is perhaps the most similar. In both incarnations he is dedicated, earnest, loyal to his friends and to the mission of the Night's Watch. He is also harbouring resentment about the way in which he was treated as a bastard, particularly by Catelyn, which is portrayed in both the show and the books.

Several of Jon's actions lead others to doubt his commitment to the mission of the Night's Watch: falling in love with Ygritte,
travelling with the Wildlings, and allowing the Wildlings to pass through the Wall. In the books, his assassination is masterminded by Bowen Marsh, Lord Steward of the Night's Watch, rather than Ser Alliser Thorne and a child from a nearby town (who is not in the books at all). In the books, he announces his plan to march on Winterfell and to battle House Bolton-- Bowen Marsh presumably sees this as siding with the Wildlings against the noble Houses of Westeros, which is antithetical to the mission of the Night's Watch.

Spoiler: Daenerys Targaryen

Daenerys is younger, 13 when the story begins, in the books. This makes her treatment at the hands of Viserys and Khal Drogo even more severely wrong.

In the books, her stay in Qarth is hugely different: the Warlock Pyat Pree does attempt to seal her in the House of the Undying, that much is the same, but she is met inside not by Pree, but by the Undying themselves-- ancient Warlocks who appear to have lived beyond the mortal span of years, and attempt to blind her with visions while they leech her life away. She experiences visions of her brother, Rhaegar, while going through this ordeal.

Her judgement becomes worse and worse in both book and show; she crucifies the Great Masters, the slavers of Meereen, and in the show it is made explicit that she finds out later at least some of them may have been good people. In the book it is implied that Daenerys did not distinguish between good and bad, but it is not made explicit.

In the books, we can read the internal monologue, and Daenerys' wilful stubbornness-- "I must not look back"-- is a recurring theme. There are clearer indications, from the reader's perspective, that she may have inherited some of the Mad King's madness, or some of his cruelty.

George R. R. Martin has also made clear that Daenerys is not immune to burning, or to fire. The show seems to enjoy showing that she is.

Spoiler: Joffrey Baratheon

In both book and show, Joffrey is petulant, cowardly, and immensely sadistic and cruel. The show seems to create additional scenes to hammer this point further: in the show, he murders a prostitute with a crossbow in his bedchamber, while this scene does not appear in the books.

He is otherwise quite similar. His death is more grotesque in the book; fighting to breath, he claws through his throat.

Spoiler: Tywin Lannister

The Tywin Lannister of the show has a lot more screentime, because Arya acts as his cupbearer while he is stationed at Harrenhal. In the books, Arya acts as Roose Bolton's cupbearer briefly, but never as Tywin's.

As such, we almost always see the Tywin of the books as he is at war, and rarely as he is in private.

If you remember, in both book and show, Jaime and Tywin tell Tyrion that his first wife-- Tysha-- was actually a prostitute under their hire. They then have the soldiers have sex with her, and have Tyrion pay her for her time. In the books, however, just before Tyrion leaves King's Landing, Jaime admits to him that this was a lie: she was actually what she appeared to be at first: a woman who genuinely loved him, and was not hired to act the part. This means that Tywin and Jaime intentionally broke up Tyrion's first marriage, and allowed their soldiers to rape his wife, and for him to pay her for it.

The is one of the coldest acts Tywin ever commits, and it is omitted from the show.

Spoiler: Tyrion Lannister

Tyrion in both book and show is quick-witted, a cunning strategist, and a keen manipulator. However, in the books, we see that he is also a deeply unpleasant and misogynistic individual, resentful and angry towards almost everybody he meets, particularly women.

He is scarred much more heavily at the Battle of Blackwater in the book: Ser Mandon Moore gashes his face deeply, taking almost his entire nose and leaving him severely disfigured. In the show, the scar is minor in comparison.

In the book, he also meets another dwarf performer named Penny when he leaves for Essos, with whom he feels a protective kinship and possibly a romantic spark. His thoughts and feelings towards her seem at times semi-romantic, but they are still essentially self-serving and dismissive.

 

[Trunkage]

Maybe it is just that I don't like Fantasy, but the books were a terrible slog through of shit characters doing shit things with very little redeeming heroism and a lot of offputting weirdness and gross stuff that didn't need to happen.

It could be that you just don't like Martin's style of writing. I greatly enjoy fantasy books (The Malazan Book of the Fallen and Stormlight Archive books being particular favorites of mine) but I had to force myself to finish reading book one of A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones and gave up on less than a quarter of the way into book two.
I'd suggest that you try other fantasy books before writing off the genre entirely.

Finding SoFaI harder to read than Malazan? I think Malazan is much better written but its Tolkienesque in its delivery. I remember parts of stories that were in different continents, that only tied up neat very close to the end. Sometimes that didn't even happen. He's every opaque with how he writes (actually I find Terry Prachett that way too)

Martin is like a blockbuster book. "Epic", needs popcorn, Simple in comparison

Part of why I didn't like SoIaF is that Martin spent far too much time describing his characters, right down to the type/color of thread in their clothes, and explaining how they got their name ( I read how the Onion Knight got his name at least three times in one and a half books) for my tastes. In Book of the Fallen Erickson didn't spend a lot of time describing his characters (or explaining how they got their names) but that didn't keep me from getting invested in what happened to Dujek One-Arm, Anomander Rake or Ganoes.
Sanderson doesn't describe his characters all that much in Stormlight Archive but I still get invested in what happens with Kaladin and Shallan.
And I found SoIaF to be dark just for the sake of being dark. The violence, death and rape struck me as being there just to make the world 'dark and edgy' (though I will admit that I might be wrong in that assumption) rather than being there to further the story.

Whiskey Jack as well. He's always my favourite with Coltaine and the Chain of Dogs. He describe people through actions not just appearance. Martin also spends a lot of time on buildings and food too, particularly how they are eaten. Erickson is willing to write a battle to, which Martin tries to avoid.

I only read Sanderson through Jordan. All I'll say is that he's a different writer. I will say Martin seems like a breath of fresh air having the heroes not win all the time and their choices really bite them in the butt sometimes

 

[Squilookle]

You know how Joffrey in the show has a sort of "magnificent bastard" feeling to him? As in, he's a shit, but he's a grinning, stuck up shit that has a layer of menace?

That couldn't be further from what the 'magnificent bastard' trope is.