History AdaptationInducedPlotHole / GameOfThrones

* The whole business of Myrcella's marriage pact is treated by Cersei as something she vehemently abhors but is powerless to prevent, and she only impotently rages at Tyrion. This makes no sense given that Cersei is ''the Queen Regent", the de-jure leader of the state, and she most definitely has the final say in the matter of her daughter's fate. Book Tyrion understands that and makes sure to get her consent and convince her that this is the right decision.

* In both books and show Jon Snow is accused of being a turncloak by Alister Thorne and Janos Slynt. In the book this happens in the middle of the massive wildling attack, and Thorne&Slynt spare Jon from the hanging only to send him on a suicide mission to assassinate Mance Rayder. In the show Jon's trial takes place way before the attack, and he's spared just because Maester Aemon says so. Except that as a "maester chained and sworn", Aemon is explicitly a servant of the Watch, not a part of any ruling council as he's presented in the show. His expertise is respected, sure, but he has no authority to overturn the decisions of the acting Lord Commander, and Thorne was clearly at odds with him.

* The whole business of Myrcella's marriage pact is treated by Cersei as something she vehemently abhors but is powerless to prevent, and she only impotently rages at Tyrion. This makes no sense given that Cersei is ''the Queen Regent", the de-jure leader of the state, and she most definitely has the final say in the matter of her daughter's fate. Book!Tyrion understands that and makes sure to get her consent and convince her that this is the right decision.

* In the books, at the outset of the conflict between the Starks and Lannisters, Robb divides his forces sending all his infantry and a small number of cavalry under the command of Roose Bolton to engage Tywin while he takes the rest of his cavalry to ambush Jamie. Roose ended up engaging a roughly equal force of 20k westermen against his 17k northerners and while he was ultimately defeated, Tywin's army still suffered losses and Roose was able to retreat with the majority of his strength intact. However, in the show Robb detached a small force of only two thousand to face an army ten times that size, which predictably resulted in them being completely wiped out at no significant cost in men to Tywin's host. Putting aside why this diversionary force still engaged in open combat when facing such suicidal odds instead of retreating or deserting, this makes Robb's victory against Jamie much less impressive, as instead of being outnumbered more than two to one, Robb would have had about as many men as Jamie and had to send 2K men to certain death to win. The praise Robb receives for this victory thus becomes all but inexplicable, and later Robb comes off as hugely hypocritical when he angrily chides Edmure over an engagement where he lost just 200 men - and inflicting heavier losses against Lannister forces as well - because "We need our men more than Tywin needs his", but no one points this out.

* While Sam’s position at the end of the books is still unknown, in the show he ends up as the Grand Maester in King’s Landing. This ignores the fact that Sam swore his life to the Night’s Watch, and was sent to the Citadel specifically to become a maester in service to the Watch. He has essentially deserted his obligation to the Watch, something that is taken ''very'' seriously in the books, and even in the show, his friend Jon’s desertion at least had to pay lip service to some LoopholeAbuse to get him out of it. But in the show, no comment is made, presumably because Sam was the only important character with any sort of maester training (even though it was never finished) to fill the Grand Maester role because TheMainCharactersDoEverything. Also, it looks like Bran and/or Tyrion chose Sam because they knew him; in the books, the Grand Maester is appointed by the council of archmaesters of the Citadel, who are unlikely to send a runaway novice as their representative.

* In order to identify Cersei's spy, Tyrion goes to Maester Pycelle, Littlefinger and Varys and [[FeedTheMole tells each of them about his plans]] to wed princess Myrcella to Tristan Martell, Robert Arryn and Theon Greyjoy respectively. Not only is the last option patently absurd (Theon is a hostage of the Starks and obviously cannot marry anyone without their consent, wedding Myrcella to him is tantamount to making ''her'' a hostage, and Theon's father cannot help the Lannisters in their war with the Starks anyway, ''because his son is a hostage''), but no adequate reason is given as to ''why'' Tyrion is revealing these plans to Pycelle or Varys. He doesn't ask them for any help, only [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial that they don't tell Cersei]]. Varys' face perfectly summarizes everything he thinks of this "ruse". In the books Tyrion takes a lot more care to feed each suspect their bate in a natural way - he gives Pycelle a letter to send to Martells, asks Littlefinger to broker a pact with Arryns (both times expecting Varys' informants to be listening in), and then tells Varys that the letter was about fostering Tommen with the Martells, when it was really about wedding Myrcella to them.

* Sam Tarly realises something is wrong with the two bodies found north of the Wall because they don't stink. This was, indeed, very unusual in the book, where even that far north it was still relatively warm, the events of the books being set at the dusk of the singularly longest and warmest summer in the history of the setting. But in the show that area was already heavilly snowed in from the start, so the bodies would've been frozen solid and the lack of stench wouldn't have been notable in the slightest.

* In the books Catelyn Stark helps Jaime Lannister escape from the dungeons of Riverrun, which sounds plausible - it is her home castle, so it makes sense she knows the layout well, she's the daughter of the local Lord and has some authority there, and the garrison is away at war. In the series Jaime is being held in a stockade in the middle of a busy war camp, and yet Cat somehow leads him out off-screen.

* In order to identify Cersei's spy, Tyrion goes to Maester Pycelle, Littlefinger and Varys and [[FeedTheMole tells each of them about his plans]] to marry Princess Myrcella to Tristan Martell, Robert Arryn and Theon Greyjoy respectively. Not only is the last option patently absurd (Theon is a hostage of the Starks and obviously cannot marry anyone without their consent, wedding Myrcella to him is tantamount to making ''her'' a hostage, and Theon's father cannot help the Lannisters in their war with the Starks anyway, ''because his son is a hostage''), but no adequate reason is given as to ''why'' Tyrion is revealing these plans to Pycelle or Varys. He doesn't ask them for any help, only [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial that they don't tell Cersei]]. Varys' face perfectly summarizes everything he thinks of this "ruse". In the books Tyrion takes a lot more care to give each suspect their bate in a natural way - he gives Pycelle a letter to send to Martells, asks Littlefinger to broker a pact with Arryns (both times expecting Varys' informants to be listening in), and then tells Varys that the letter was about fostering Tommen with the Martells, when it was really about wedding Myrcella to them.
* The whole business of Myrcella's marriage pact is treated by Cersei as something she vehemently abhors but is powerless to prevent, and she only impotently rages at Tyrion. This makes no sense given Cersei is ''the Queen Regent", the de-jure leader of the state, and she most definitely has the final say in the matter of her daughter's fate. Book!Tyrion understands that and makes sure to get her consent and convince her that this is the right decision.
* In the books, at the outset of the conflict between the Starks and Lannisters, Robb divides his forces sending all his infantry and a small number of cavalry under the command of Roose Bolton to engage Tywin while he takes the rest of his cavalry to ambush Jamie. Roose ended up engaging a roughly equal force of 20k westermen against his 17k northerners and while he was ultimately defeated, Tywin's army still suffered losses and Roose was able to retreat with the majority of his strength intact. However, in the show Robb detached a small force of only two thousand to face an army ten times that size, which predictably resulted in them being completely wiped out at no significant cost in men to Tywin's host. Putting aside why this diversionary force still engaged in open combat when facing such suicidal odds instead of retreating or deserting, this makes Robb's victory against Jamie much less impressive, as instead of being outnumbered more than two to one, Robb would have had about as many men as Jamie and had to send 2K men to certain death to win. The praise Robb recieves for this victory thus becomes all but innexplicable, and later Robb comes off as hugely hypocritical when he angrily chides Edmure over an engagement where he lost just 200 men - and inflicting heavier losses against Lannister forces as well - because "We need our men more than Tywin needs his", but no one points this out.
* Robb decides to besiege Casterly Rock to raise morale and make the Lannisters engage him as if it's a brilliant new idea in Season 3, but judging by his trip to the Crag and Jaime's guise as a thief from Ashemark, that's exactly where Robb ''was'' campaigning in Season 2. Assuming Oxcross is in the same place, Robb probably could've ''seen'' Casterly Rock from the battlefield. In the books, this was Robb's initial plan but it was foiled by Balon's refusal to blockade the Rock by sea and Edmure's unexpected victory over Tywin at the Battle of the Fords, so his new plan is to restore his prestige by retaking the North hence why his whole army accompanies him to the Twins, a manoeuvre that doesn't make sense if his target is Casterly Rock.

* In both books and show Jon Snow is accused of being a turncloak by Alister Thorne and Janos Slynt. In the book this happens in the middle of the massive wildling attack, and Thorne&Slynt spare Jon from the hanging only to send him on a suicide mission to assassinate Mance Rayder. In the show Jon's trial takes place way before the attack, and he's spared just because Maester Aemon says so. Except that as a "maester chained and sworn", Aemon is explicitely a servant of the Watch, not a part of any rulling council as he's presented in the show. His expertise is respected, sure, but he has no authority to overturn the decisions of the acting Lord Commander, and Thorne was clearly at odds with him.

** While not exactly a full blown plot hole, the absence of the captured wildling chieftain Rattleshirt who testifies against Jon in the books, means that Jon basically signs his own death warrant for no good reason by admitting he'd killed Qhorin Halfhand and slept with a wildling girl.

* Sam Tarly realises something is wrong with the two bodies found north of the Wall because they don't stink. This was, indeed, very unusual in the book, where even that far north it was still relatively warm, the events of the books being set at the dusk of the singularly longest and warmest summer in the history of the setting. But in the show that area was already havilly snowed in from the start, so the bodies would've been frozen solid and the lack of stench wouldn't have been notable in the slightest.

* The whole business of Myrcella's marriage pact is treated by Cersei is something she vehemently abhors but is powerless to prevent, and she only impotently rages at Tyrion. This makes no sense given Cersei is ''the Queen Regent", the de-jure leader of the state, and she most definitely has the final say in the matter of her daughter's fate. Book!Tyrion understands that and makes sure to get her consent and convince her that this is the right decision.

* In the books, at the outset of the conflict between the Starks and Lannisters, Robb divides his forces sending all his infantry and a small number of cavalry under the command of Roose Bolton to engage Tywin while he takes the rest of his cavalry to ambush Jamie. Roose ended up engaging a roughly equal force of 20k westermen against his 17k northerners and while he was ultimately defeated, Tywin's army still suffered losses and Roose was able to retreat with the majority of his strength intact. However, in the show Robb detached a small force of only two thousand to face an army ten times the size. Putting aside how or why this diversionary force still engaged in open combat when facing such suicidal odds instead of just retreating or deserting, in the end they were completely wiped out at no significant cost in men to Tywin's host. This not only makes Robb's victory against Jamie much less impressive, as instead of being outnumbered more than two to one, Robb would have had about as many men as Jamie but also makes Robb come off as hugely hypocritical when he angerly chides Edmure over an engagement where he lost just 200 men - and inflicting heavier losses against Lannister forces as well - because "We need our men more than Tywin needs his".

* In order to identify Cersei's spy, Tyrion goes to Maester Pycelle, Littlefinger and Varys and [[FeedTheMole tells each of them about his plans]] to marry Princess Myrcella to Tristan Martell, Robert Arryn and Theon Greyjoy respectively. Not only is the last option patently absurd (Theon is a hostage of the Starks and obviously cannot marry anyone without their consent, wedding Myrcella to him is tantamount to making ''her'' a hostage, and Theon's father cannot help the Lannisters in their war with the Starks anyway, ''because his son is a hostage''), but no adequate reason is given as to ''why'' Tyrion is revealing these plans to Pycelle or Varys. He doesn't ask them for any help, only [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial that they don't tell Cersei]]. Varys' face perfectly summarizes everything he thinks of this "ruse". In the books Tyrion takes a lot more care to give each suspect their bate in a natural way - Tyrion gives Pycelle a letter suggesting the pact with Martells (knowing that Varys' informants could learn about the existence of the letter, but not its contents), then asks Littlefinger to broker a pact with Arryns, and then lies to Varys about the letter's contents.

* In order to identify Cercei's spy, Tyrion goes to Maester Pycelle, Littlefinger and Varys and [[FeedTheMole tells each of them about his plans]] to marry Princess Myrcella to Tristan Martell, Robert Arryn and Theon Greyjoy respectively. Not only is the last option patently absurd (Theon is a hostage of the Starks and obviously cannot marry anyone without their consent, wedding Myrcella to him is tantamount to making ''her'' a hostage, and Theon's father cannot help the Lannisters in their war with the Starks anyway,''because his son is a hostage''), but no adequate reason is given as to ''why'' Tyrion is revealing these plans to Pycelle or Varys. He doesn't ask them for any help, only [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial that they don't tell Cercei]]. Varys' face perfectly summarises everything he thinks of this "ruse". In the books Tyrion takes a lot more care to give each suspect their bate in a natural way - Tyrion gives Pycelle a letter suggesting the pact with Martells (knowing that Varys' informants could learn about the existance of the letter, but not its contents), then asks Littlefinger to broker a pact with Arryns, and then lies to Varys about the letter's contents.
** The whole business of Myrcella's marriage pact is treated by Cercei is something she vehemently abhores but is powerless to prevent, and she can only impotently rage at Tyrion. This makes no sense either. Cercei is ''the Queen Regent", the de-jure leader of the state, and she most definitely has the final say in the matter of her daughter's fate. Book!Tyrion understands that and makes sure to get her consent and convince her that this is the right decision.

* In order to identify Cercei's spy, Tyrion goes to Maester Pycelle, Littlefinger and Varys and [[FeedTheMole tells each of them about his plans]] to marry Princess Myrcella to Tristan Martell, Robert Arryn and Theon Greyjoy respectively. Not only is the last option patently absurd (Theon is a hostage of the Starks and obviously cannot marry anyone without their consent, wedding Myrcella to him is tantamount to making ''her'' a hostage, and Theon's father cannot help the Lannisters in their war with the Starks anyway,''because his son is a hostage''), but no adequate reason is given as to ''why'' Tyrion is revealing these plans to Pycelle or Varys. He doesn't ask them for any help, only [[SurprisinglySpecificDenial that they don't tell Cercei]]. Varys' face perfectly summarises everything he thinks of this "ruse". In the books Tyrion takes a lot more care to give each suspect their bate in a natural way - Tyrion gives Pycelle a letter suggesting the pact with Martells (knowing that Varys' informants could learn about the existance of the letter, but not its contents), then asks Littlefinger to broker a pact with Arryns, and then lies to Varys about the letter's contents.

** Season 6 takes this UpToEleven when Littlefinger takes Moat Cailin offscreen with no discernible stratagem, leaves his army there long enough to ride through hundreds of miles of hostile territory to speak with Sansa at the Wall, then marches on to Winterfell to win the Battle of the Bastards, all ''[[FailedASpotCheck totally undetected]]'' by Ramsay. In the novels, no one's ever taken Moat Cailin from the south at all, nevermind this easily.

** Season 7 takes this UpToEleven when Cersei reveals she's pregnant with a ''fifth'' child without even ''mentioning'' the three-child prophecy that caused her so much angst in Seasons 5 and 6. In order to downplay this discrepancy, she also veers from claiming YouCantFightFate after Myrcella's death because of the prophecy to basically blaming Tommen for his.

** Leading from this is a scene in season 6 where Bran and the Three-Eyed Raven observe Ned’s duel with [[WorldsBestWarrior Ser Arthur Dayne, Sword of the Morning]] back at the tail-end of Robert’s Rebellion. Both Bran and the Raven remark that Ser Arthur is “far better” a fighter than a young, in-his-prime Ned Stark, and this made sense in the books, where Ned was explicitly a strategist with little physical prowess compared to his late older brother, Brandon. In the show, however, Ned is an AdaptationalBadass described as a “superior physical specimen to [Brandon]” by Littlefinger, who had previously fought the late Stark brother, and duels [[MasterSwordsman Jaime]] in the above scene blow-for-blow. According to the [[WordOfStPaul screenwriter]] for the fight between Jaime and Ned, Ned would have won if not for his injury, indicating that he was a superior fighter to Jaime.

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* In "Breaker Of Chains" when Daenerys chooses a champion to fight against the Meerenese champion, she muses that it has to be somebody capable but, preferably, expendable, since the fight is pretty much symbolic. For this reason she dismisses Jorah and Barristan (as her chief bodyguards and advisors) and Grey Worm (as the commander of her Unsullied), and settles on Daario Naharis. Except that Daario is by no mean expendable - he commands the mercenary company that accounts for 20% of her forces and only follows her because he does. In the book she chooses her bodyguard Strong Belwas, who '''was''' expendable, as he hadn't yet proven himself really useful, and who was also a former slave, so if he wins it will raise the slaves' morale, but if he loses it will not bring honor to the Meerenese champion.

* In "Breaker Of Chains" when Daenerys chooses a champion to fight against the Meerenese champion, she muses that it has to be somebody capable but, preferably, expendable, since the fight is pretty much symbolic. For this reason she dismisses Jorah and Barristan (as her chief bodyguards and advisors) and Grey Worm (as the commander of her Unsullied), and settles on Daario Naharis. Except that Daario is by no mean expendable - he commands the mercenary company that accounts for 20% of her forces and only follows her because he does. In the book she chooses Strong Belwas (whom the show kinda merged with Daario), who by that point hasn't yet proven himself useful, and who was also a former slave, so if he wins it will raise the slaves' morale, but if he loses it will not bring honor to the Meerenese champion.

* "Book of the Stranger" clearly shows that Littlefinger rules the Vale only by fear since his solution when Lord Royce doesn't believe his BlatantLies is to show how he can convince [[EnfantTerrible Robin Arryn]] to execute any lord at will. Yet from then on, Robin remains far off in the Vale while Littlefinger leads those same threatened lords to war without any of them [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim just]] [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident disposing]] of him and selling the impressionable Robin some story. In the books, instead of ruling by fear, Littlefinger [[MachiavelliWasWrong deftly ingratiates himself to the lords]] by appealing to their self-interest with [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal presents, payments, and promotions]].

* Arya says Rorge can't be on her kill list because she doesn't know his name, [[SuddenlySignificantRule nevermind]] that her first victim was "the Tickler" and her current list includes "the Mountain", "the Hound", and "the Red Woman". In the books proper names are never particularly important to her and she never targets Rorge even though she knows his name.

* In the first three seasons, Shae is a HookerWithAHeartOfGold who's NotWithThemForTheMoney to Tyrion and a CoolBigSis to Sansa, a characterization that's incompatible with her ultimately [[SurpriseWitness testifying against them]] as she does in the novels, so late in Season 3 her characterization suddenly swerves into a ClingyJealousGirl pitted ''[[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis against]]'' Sansa with scant justification in order to make her a WomanScorned. This deliberate DerailingLoveInterests is unnecessary in the novels where Shae is always just a [[GoldDigger coy opportunist]] Tyrion projects feelings onto and Sansa means nothing to her and dislikes Shae. In fact, Tyrion is actually somewhat dismayed by her ''lack'' of jealousy when he tells her he has to marry Sansa, and her response is basically "You'll get her pregnant and then be back to visit (and presumably pay) me."

* In both book and show, Alliser Thorne is shown to have contempt and hostility for virtually every Night's Watch recruit. In the books, this makes him incredibly unpopular among his Watch brothers to the point that he stands no chance of winning the Lord Commander election, and instead pushes Janos Slynt as a proxy. The show however makes Thorne Jon's main rival for the leadership, without giving an explanation why Thorne is so popular despite his dislike for seemingly everyone (beside ''maybe'' his bravery during the battle of Castle Black).