More Differences from the Books

Differences from the booksEdit

Aging up the cast by adding two years between Robert's Rebellion and Season 1Edit

The timeline of the books is broadly similar to that of the TV series, with several minor differences. Several younger characters - most notably Jon Snow, all of the Stark children and Daenerys Targaryen - are two to three years older than their book equivalents, which has required the date of Robert's Rebellion to be pushed back from fifteen to seventeen years before the events of the series begin.

Other characters are older (Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon are ten years older than their book counterparts) or younger (Ser Vardis Egen is decades younger than in the book, while Theon is two years younger), though for the most part this has no bearing on the timeline.

In the book chronology, roughly two years pass between the beginning of A Game of Thrones and the end of the third novel, A Storm of Swords. Less than a full year actually passes in each novel. The child actors in the TV series, however, still age at a normal rate during production, so in order to keep consistent, the TV series generally follows the rule that one TV season equals one year in the storyline. This made them gain a full year by the end of Season 3, as the Red Wedding occurred only two years after Jon Arryn died.

Moreover, the third novel is so long that the TV series producers have announced that they will split it into two separate seasons of ten episodes each, for a total of twenty episodes to adapt the story. Due to practical considerations, the cast & crew of the HBO TV series physically cannot film more than one ten episode season in a single year. Writers Benioff & Weiss have repeatedly insisted that they are adapting Martin's books as a whole, and don't think of each season as a specific unit adapting each book one at a time. Nonetheless, due to using the child actors and the one TV season equals one story year rule, this means that another extra year was added as a result of splitting the third novel into two TV seasons.

Arya Stark is 9 years old in the first novel, but due to aging up all of the characters by two years in the TV continuity, she directly states that she is 11 years old in Season 1. In the books, Arya was 11 years old at the time of the Red Wedding, and remained 11 years old for the rest of the third novel (which will correspond to the end of Season 4). In the TV continuity, however, Arya was closer to 13 at the time of the Red Wedding. Ultimately, Arya will be 15 years old in the TV continuity by the end of Season 4: one year gained from expanding a two year storyline into three years, and another gained from splitting the third novel in half. In contrast, book-Arya was only 11 years old at the end of the third novel (corresponding to the end of Season 4).

Ideas abandoned by George R.R. Martin during the writing of the novels were including longer, multi-month gaps between chapters in A Game of Thrones and also jumping forwards five years after the events of A Storm of Swords. In both cases, the need to continue addressing in-progress storylines meant that these time jumps could not be carried out. Whether the TV series employs such devices in the future remains to be seen.

The date given on Jorah's letter of pardon from Season 1 is "298 AL", the same as in the books - which has been taken as establishing that both the TV series and first novel begin in the year 298 AL, though time moves more slowly in the TV series.

A key point is that it isn't actually certain what calendar year it is supposed to be in the TV continuity. Two extra years were added between Robert's Rebellion and the death of Jon Arryn, but it isn't certain exactly how this was achieved: either that Robert's Rebellion occurred two years earlier than it did in the books, or that Jon Arryn died two years later than his book counterpart. There has been no on-screen statement about what the exact date is. In the books, the Red Wedding occurred slightly before the calendar year changed over into 300 AL (Joffrey and the Lannisters gloated that the defeat of the Starks would usher in a glorious new Lannister century). However, prop letters written in Season 1 (such as the royal pardon for Jorah Mormont) are dated as being written in 298 AL - which is the same year that the first novel begins. Game of Thrones Wiki has taken this as indicating that Robert's Rebellion must have occurred two years earlier in the TV continuity.

The major datable event from King Robert's reign in the TV continuity is that the Greyjoy Rebellion is still consistently stated to have occurred 9 years before the beginning of the story, i.e. Balon remarks that it has been nine years since he saw Theon when he returns to Pyke in early Season 2 (not quite 10 years yet because it is still early in Season 2 and this is spillover dating from Season 1; other references also give it as 9 years). In the books, the Greyjoy Rebellion also occurred 9 years before the story begins - to necessitate just how long Theon was functionally raised in the Stark household as Ned's ward. In the book continuity, with a 15 year gap since Robert's Rebellion, the Greyjoy Rebellion occurred 6 years after Robert was crowned. In the TV series, the 17 year gap since Robert's Rebellion means that the Greyjoy Rebellion occurred 8 years into Robert's reign (and in both continuities, it was 9 years before Jon Arryn died). Even so, the Greyjoy Rebellion isn't a useful dating point, because we only know of its date relative to Robert's Rebellion. It doesn't necessarily mean that the extra two years were inserted earlier in Robert's reign or that Robert's Rebellion started two years earlier - the Greyjoy Rebellion is not a fixed point, and Balon might simply have decided to wait an extra two years before attempting his rebellion in the TV continuity.

The combined result of all of this is two major principles:

• Both Season 1 and the first novel begin in 298 AL, but Robert's Rebellion occurred two years earlier in the TV continuity, from 280 to 281 AL, instead of 282 to 283 AL as in the novels.
• Time moves more slowly in the TV adaptation, roughly at the speed that one TV season equals one year of story-time, which was not always the case in the novels. Only about two years pass between the beginning of the first novel, and the point when Joffrey dies in the third novel (his marriage occurred on new year's day of the year 300 AL). The TV series, however, had to acknowledge pragmatic concerns, particularly the use of child actors who age at a normal rate.

In the novels, Robert's Rebellion occurred 15 years before the first novel, then two years later Joffrey died, meaning that about 17 years passed between the death of the Mad King and the death of Tywin Lannister. In the TV series, the rebellion began two years earlier, and another year was gained due to time moving more slowly across three seasons of the TV series, so in the TV continuity, closer to 20 years passed between the death of the Mad King and the death of Tywin Lannister. Indeed, in Season 4 episode 8 "The Mountain and the Viper", Littlefinger mentions to the other Vale lords that it has been "twenty years" since Robert's Rebellion: apparently he was not rounding up, as this number matches the "one TV season equals one year" principle.

Removing King Jaehaerys IIEdit

Other notable changes include the removal of King Jaehaerys II from the Targaryen dynasty for the TV series. This change makes King Aegon V - Maester Aemon's brother - the direct father of the Mad King and grandfather of Daenerys and Viserys. This was presumably done to make Aemon's explanation of his genealogy to Jon Snow more concise and less convoluted.

When directly asked about this, writer Bryan Cogman confirmed that Jaehaerys II has been officially removed from the TV continuity: "Yes, he’s officially out of show canon. In the Game of Thrones (TV series) canon, Egg is the Mad King’s father."^[16] "Egg" is the nickname of King Aegon V Targaryen in the "Tales of Dunk and Egg" prequel novellas. This has wider implications for the potential live-action adaptation of the prequels that HBO has been discussing with George R.R. Martin.

Sansa Stark's ageEdit

Sansa Stark prominently states in the first episode of Season 1 that she is thirteen years old - following the rule that younger characters have been aged-up by two years as she was only eleven at this point in the books. Generally the TV series has followed a rule that "one TV season = one year", which the first three books also loosely followed. Yet on her wedding night in Season 3's "Second Sons", Sansa tells Tyrion that she is fourteen, not fifteen as expected. This is not quite as big of an inconsistency, as Sansa might just be "on the verge" of turning fifteen but her exact nameday hasn't passed yet (plus she is so afraid of having sex with Tyrion that she might just be emphasizing how young she is to deter him).

Lannister agesEdit

The TV series also introduced some inconsistencies with the ages of Cersei Lannister, and her son Joffrey. The TV series has Cersei state in "Blackwater" that she was four years old when her mother died (giving birth to her younger brother Tyrion), but in the books she was roughly eight years old at the time. Moreover, in "Second Sons" Cersei tells Margaery Tyrell that she remembers the Reyne Rebellion: in the books, Cersei was born in roughly 266 AL, after the Reyne-Tarbeck rebellion which occurred in roughly 260 AL. The numbers simply don't match up: Tywin was made Hand of the King to Aerys II Targaryen because Aerys was impressed with how he ruthlessly crushed House Reyne, Tywin then served as Hand of the King for twenty years, resigned soon before Robert's Rebellion, then another 17 years passed (in the TV continuity). Thus in order for Cersei to be able to remember the Reyne Rebellion she would have to be in at least her mid-forties, but both Cersei the character and actress Lena Headey were in their mid-thirties in Season 3.

In the TV series, Tyrion says that he was sixteen when he married Tysha, while in the books he was thirteen. This may be part of the TV series overall attempt to avoid even mentioning thirteen year-olds having sex (such as Daenerys at the beginning of book 1).

In Season 2's "The Prince of Winterfell", Tyrion makes an off-hand remark that Joffrey is seventeen years old, contrasting this with how his "uncle" Jaime was already a highly skilled warrior at seventeen but Joffrey is not. In the books, Jaime was fifteen years old when he was knighted following the destruction of the Kingswood Brotherhood, and was named to the Kingsguard only a few months later. It would seem that the TV series's principle of raising the age of adulthood in Westeros by two years was also extended retroactively (as otherwise it would seem strange to a modern audience that Jaime was barely fifteen when appointed to such a prestigious position).

Joffrey is actually only thirteen years old in the second novel: his nameday tournament in the Season 2 premiere was explicitly stated to be for his thirteenth nameday in the books, but the TV series avoided giving a number at the time. While many of the younger characters have been aged-up by about two years (generally), this would make Joffrey fouryears older than his book counterpart. It is possible that this was simply a stray line in "The Prince of Winterfell" meant by the writers to contrast Joffrey with Jaime, but which didn't take the timeline into account. Yet this strains the limits of the timeline: if Joffrey is seventeen in Season 2, that makes him sixteen in Season 1 - which in the TV continuity takes place seventeen years after Robert's Rebellion. Robert and Cersei married at the end of the rebellion, so Cersei would have to have become immediately pregnant with Joffrey (well, pregnant by Jaime, but enough time had to transpire that she could plausibly pass off Joffrey as Robert's son, i.e. if she gave birth to Joffrey only four months into their marriage even Robert may have become suspicious). Even so, the TV series has not kept good track of this relative to other changes they introduced: possibly to make Cersei more sympathetic, the TV continuity introduced that Cersei actually did have a child by Robert in the first year of their marriage, when she held out false hope that she might be able to make it work out. She states that the boy died of a fever in infancy - which means it was not stillborn but carried for a full nine month term. Because Joffrey's age was already pushed back too far they end up overlapping: if Joffrey was 17 in Season 2, eighteen years after Robert's Rebellion, Cersei would have had to gone through two separate nine month pregnancies within only a twelve month period after she married Robert at the end of the war.

Tyrion also states in "The Prince of Winterfell" that Cersei was nineteen years old when she became queen, by marrying Robert Baratheon at the end of the War of the Usurper. In the books, she was born in 266 AL, Jaime killed the Mad King in 283 AL, and Joffrey was born in 285 AL. The TV series figure of nineteen does loosely match the books, given that it isn't clear exactly when Cersei married Robert from 283 to 285 AL - given that a major royal wedding to herald in the rise of the new Baratheon dynasty would take some time to prepare. Jaime is the same age as Cersei because they are twins; in the books Jaime was named to the Kingsguard at 15, Robert's Rebellion broke out a year later then lasted one year, and he killed Aerys II when he was 17, the same year Cersei married Robert.  The TV series kept the idea that two years passed between when Jaime joined the Kingsguard and when he killed the Mad King, but if he (and Cersei) were 17 at the time, then two years later Cersei would indeed be 19 when she married Robert.

Joffrey was born in 285 AL, but this could still fit if Joffrey was simply born late in the calendar year - though with great difficulty.

Nonetheless, this confirmation that Cersei was nineteen when she married Robert means that the other statements about her age are even more contradictory. Aerys II made Tywin Hand of the King as a result of the Reyne Rebellion, and the TV series consistently confirms that he was Hand of the King for about twenty years...meaning that Cersei (and Jaime) would have to have been born around the same time that the Reyne Rebellion happened, and could not possibly remember it.

The TV series's statement that Cersei was four years old when her mother Joanna died (and Tyrion was born) instead of eight years old would mean that Tyrion was fifteen when she married Robert (either at the very end of the rebellion or within the next two years). Adding another seventeen years would mean that TV-Tyrion is 32 years old in Season 1, compared to 23 years old in the first novel (two years added after Robert's Rebellion, two years added to Cersei's age when she was married, and then made four years older because his birth is a fixed point relatively to how old Cersei had to be when Joanna died giving birth to him). eight when mother died, says she was four.

In summary, the books' statements about Lannister ages are:

• ~260-261 AL - Tywin Lannister puts down the Reyne-Tarbeck Rebellion. King Aerys II Targaryen subsequently notices his skill and appoints him Hand of the King, at which he serves for "twenty years" (possibly rounded).
• 266 AL - Twins Cersei and Jaime are born to Tywin and his wife Joanna Lannister.
• 274 AL - Joanna Lannister dies giving birth to Tyrion; Cersei is eight years old at the time.
• 280-281 AL - Jaime is knighted and then a matter of months later raised to the Kingsguard, all at the age of fifteen.
• 281 AL - Robert's Rebellion breaks out a matter of months later (Jaime was formally raised to the Kingsguard at the same Tourney at Harrenhal where Rhaegar Targaryen named Lyanna Stark the Queen of Love and Beauty, then kidnapped her not long afterwards).
• 283 AL - Robert's Rebellion ends with the Battle of the Trident, then Sack of King's Landing. Cersei married Robert Baratheon "at the end of the war", though how much time elapsed while making elaborate preparations for a royal wedding is unclear.
• 286 AL - Joffrey is born to Cersei.
• ~287 AL - Tyrion, at thirteen years of age, marries Tysha but the union is annulled by his father, who forces him to watch as his guards gang-rape her. This happens four years after the rebellion ended.
• 298 AL - Jon Arryn dies and the narrative of book 1, A Game of Thrones begins. Joffrey is stated to be twelve years old - thus meaning that there is a three year gap between when Aerys II died and Joffrey's birth, though exactly when Cersei married Robert is unclear (obviously Robert wasn't his father, but Cersei was able to plausibly pass him off as Robert's son, meaning he couldn't have been born say six months after the wedding).
• 299 AL - The Battle of the Blackwater and events of A Clash of Kings.
• 300 AL - The Red Wedding occurs.

The TV series's statements about Lannister ages:

• Tywin served as Hand of the King for twenty years.
• Tywin was appointed Hand of the King after King Aerys was impressed with how he crushed the Reyne Rebellion.
• Cersei was nineteen years old when she married Robert after he won the crown...slightly over twenty years after her father was made Hand of the King and thus twenty years after the Reyne Rebelion.
• Cersei states to Margaery Tyrell that she was old enough to remember the Reyne Rebellion...despite at most being a baby at the time.
  • The simplest answer might be for the writers to later retroactively establish that Cersei was simply lyingbecause she wanted to intimidate Margaery Tyrell, and she actually doesn't remember the Reyne Rebellion.
• Jaime was named to the Kingsguard at seventeen instead of fifteen, meaning that Cersei was also seventeen (or slightly older) when the war began...which then lasted two years, meaning she had to marry Robert immediately afterwards when she was nineteen and not seventeen as in the books...and indeed the TV series has confirmed that she was nineteen when she became queen.
• The practical result is that TV-Cersei was indeed born two years earlier, relative to Robert's Rebellion, than her book counterpart. Yet she would still have to be four to five years older to plausibly remember the Reyne Rebellion.
• Instead of being born eight years after Cersei as in the books, Tyrion was only born four years after her. Book-Cersei was seventeen when Robert's Rebellion ended and Tyrion (who was born when she was eight years old) was thus nine years old at the time the war ended. Cersei's birth date and age during the rebellion are fixed points, thus making Tyrion's birth occur four years earlier in Cersei's life would in turn make Tyrion four years older - combined with the fact that TV-Cersei is herself two years older than her book counterpart. The result is that TV-Tyrion was six years older than book-Tyrion when Robert's Rebellion ended, being fifteen instead of nine.
• TV-Tyrion marries Tysha but Tywin annuls it when he is sixteen years old, one year after the rebellion ends, instead of four years afterwards as in the books, when Tyrion was thirteen.
• The only practical result of making Joanna's death and Tyrion's birth occur four years earlier is therefore to make Tyrion older when he married Tysha (possibly due to censorship issues), though in both versions he married her at some time after Robert's Rebellion, so the sequence of events is not particularly altered.
• Robert's reign was two years longer in the TV series, increasing from fifteen to seventeen years (in order to increase Daenerys's age for censorship reasons).
• Book-Cersei and Jaime were seventeen when the war ended, which plus fifteen means that they are both 32 years old at the beginning of the narrative, and Book-Tyrion who is eight years younger than them is 24 years old. In contrast, TV-Cersei and Jaime were nineteen when the war ended, which plus seventeen years means that they are both 36 years old, while Tyrion (stated to be four years younger than them) is 32 years old.
• The TV series also states that Cersei had a full term pregnancy fathered by Robert who died not long after birth from a fever (days or weeks is unclear). Cersei then became pregnant again with Joffrey, secretly fathered by Jaime. Joffrey cannot be more than fifteen and a half years old in Season 1.
• The books give some leeway in this, as Cersei did not immediately become pregnant with Joffrey after marrying Robert: she married him fifteen years before the start of the narrative and Joffrey is twelve at this time, meaning there was a three year gap between when they married and when she gave birth to Joffrey. It is still plausible that she may have had a stillbirth during this three year gap.
• Tyrion then states in Season 2, one year later, that Joffrey is seventeen years old...which is stretching the timeline but still vaguely possible, if Cersei became pregnant with her black-haired child with Robert in the very first few weeks of their marriage, then it died of a fever not long after birth, and then she became pregnant by Jaime with Joffrey. Even so, Joffrey physically could not have been born earlier than 18 months into her marriage to Robert, making him about fifteen and a half in Season 1, and sixteen and a half in Season 2. Ultimately Tyrion could,vaguely have rounded up from sixteen and a half to seventeen, but speaking very loosely.
• Thus the basic sequence of events remains the same and there are no outright contradictions (or at least, ones that can't be solved by simply rounding up) - save for that it is simply impossible for Cersei to be able to remember the Reyne Rebellion. Tywin was Hand of the King for "twenty years" (which might be rounded up), but resigned when Jaime was named to the Kingsguard at age seventeen - and because Jaime and Cersei are the same age, the Reyne Rebellion had to have occurred three years before she was born.
  • There is one other possible way to justify Cersei's statement, without resorting to the explanation that she was simply lying to intimidate Margaery. Cersei does not specifically say that she remembers the Reyne Rebellion, but remembers seeing the corpses of the Reynes which Tywin left hanging above the gates of Casterly Rock "all summer". Keeping in mind that seasons last for several years in Westeros, this may help solve the contradiction. First, Tywin would actually have to have been Hand for seventeen years or so, and everyone just rounds up to "twenty years", in order for Cersei to be born at roughly the same time. Second, Cersei could remember seeing the corpses...as a very small girl of three to four years old, and the Reyne corpses had rotted to skeletons by that point. Even so this is still quite a stretch, and Cersei speaks of Lord Reyne giving his wife diamonds bigger than Cersei's mother ever wore as if she witnessed this herself.
• In Season 4's "First of His Name", Cersei says that she has been a queen for 19 years. Robert had been king for 17 years in Season 1, and presumably 3 years have passed since then, which would make 20, not 19. The exact date of Cersei's marriage anniversary may simply not have passed yet, or she was married some months after the war, so she is rounding, etc.