5 Ruined Game of Thrones Character Arcs Fans Can’t Forgive (Daenerys Wasn’t The Worst)

The HBO show changed many aspects of the books, and these five characters deserved better. Fans still can’t forgive Game of Thrones for butchering their stories.

5. Sansa Stark

As hard and brutal as her journey was, George Martin wrote Sansa Stark’s story as one of empowerment — something that the show clearly misunderstood when it paired Sansa with Ramsey Bolton. In the books, it was her friend who was married off to Ramsey, but the show decided that Sansa had to undergo those terrible trials herself. Why? What for? We may never know. But Sansa didn’t deserve that fate.

Sansa’s character development would’ve been better suited by her saving her friend.

4. Jaime Lannister

The most ambiguous character of Game of Thrones, Jaime starts the show as a textbook a-hole and as time passes, we watch his character grow. Through pain and suffering, Jaime Lannister becomes a better man, and we see the noble warrior he was hiding behind the facade of a jerk. But in the finale, Jaime drops everything, including his very personality to return to his monster sister and die with her. Why?

Jaime changed his ways, and he would’ve been better off staying away from Cersei.

3. Daenerys Targaryen

One of the most bitter demises in the entire series, Daenerys Targaryen was done dirty. Sure, she had already shown more than enough signs of ruthlessness before burning down King’s Landing, but even though her methods were at times unhinged, Daenerys would have never resorted to a genocide of civilians. Showrunners used that scene to show that Dany’s coin flipped on madness — and we all hated it.

Even if Daenerys was to go insane, she would’ve rather destroyed the Red Keep.

2. Bran Stark

Let’s face it: Bran Stark’s plotline has always been the most boring one. No excitement, no fan love — the boy was just doing his thing no one was interested in. Sure, becoming the Three-Eyed Raven and a warg is cool and all, but how does that lead to becoming the new King of Westeros? Bran’s sudden ascent to the throne left no one happy, both because it was illogical and because his story was generally dull.

Bran should’ve stayed in the North as Queen Sansa’s personal warg and Hand.

1. Night King

The ultimate Big Bad of Game of Thrones, Night King was being hyped up for many seasons. The Long Winter, the army of undead, the most powerful and ruthless White Walker … All it took was a trained girl with a knife to end the Night King’s story arc. What was even the point of his existence if in reality, he went down in such an underwhelming fashion? Night King had the most disappointing finale of them all.

We all wanted Night King to have a proper face-off with Jon Snow and see him in action. Preferably, not before he would’ve taken over a solid half of Westeros.