This Game of Thrones Scene is Yet Another Proof Martin's Books Are Way Better

But today we're talking about this one.

In case you're struggling to remember when that happened, this is the scene where Arya Stark meets her direwolf, Nymeria, after they've spent nearly all of the series separated.

And struggling to remember this scene is quite understandable for more casual fans, because it was notable for being completely inconsequential.

The showrunners just remembered that Nymeria is supposed to be still alive, so they made her appear before Arya in a scene, meant to remind the audience that the showrunners remember that Nymeria is still alive.

By comparison, while George Martin 's books have yet to reach the stage where the girl and her wolf might meet face to face (currently they are on different continents), the mental connection which Arya has with Nymeria without fully realizing its existence, proved to be important to the plot at least twice.

First, without it Arya and her companions, poor riders as they were, would have been caught and executed after their attempt to escape Harrenhall – but as Arya presence drew Nymeria close, the small group sent to pursue them got torn apart by a wolfpack.

And second, Arya's ability to enter the mind of Nymeria in her dreams resulted in Nymeria fishing out Catelyn's dead body out of the river downstream of the Twins, which, subsequently, led to Catelyn's botched resurrection into a zombie-like avenger.

Who dedicated herself and the band of outlaws she took command of to exterminating all Freys (the character of zombie Catelyin was omitted from the show, and Arya pretty much managed the whole revenge by herself through methods which not even the magic abilities of the Faceless could not explain).

The whole thing is quite emblematic of the show simplifying and often rendering borderline incomprehensible complex and intricately interwoven plots of Martin's books.

Sometimes this can be sort of justified by lack of screetime… but then again, they've wasted a lot of it in later seasons by adding pointless scenes where little happened.

Still, however flawed storytelling of Game of Thrones was, it has one big advantage over the books – it actually managed to complete the story.

Sad as it is, the chance of George Martin doing the same while his health still allows him to work is very slim, as 12 year-long hiatus since A Dance With Dragons clearly indicates.