Game Of Thrones: How the books and show stack up

We have to admit, we're going through withdrawals. With season two of True Detective not quite managing to conjure up as magnetic as the world of Westeros, we've resorted to joining in the Kit Harington Hair Watch 2015 for clues about Jon Snow's future. The latest? He's in Belfast, with the curls and the facial hair, telling fans he's not allowed to take pictures. Glean from that what you will.
Slightly more constructively, our own German GoT super fan (of both the books and the HBO show) Tobi Beierer has taken it upon himself to outline where we're at now that season five is done and dusted, and how exactly events stack up with GRR Martin's novels. Is there anything less to spoil for non-book readers? Quite possible? With that in mind, only check this out if you want a comprehensive guide – and critique – to how thing stand in Westeros...

At least theoretically, Game Of Thrones has caught up with the book series A Song of Ice And Fire, so the timing is perfect for a detailed comparison of two increasingly divergent plots.
First of all, I have to mention that I’m a big fan of both the books and the TV show. Considering the fact I started out with the print version, however, I'll have a few criticisms of the changes the show has made, while trying to stay as neutral as possible.
To kick things off, we see change from the very beginning with the title switch-up.
While it was probably necessary for the small screen adaptation to go with the name Game Of Thrones just to differentiate the two media, it is interesting how the title of the original book series is becoming more and more meaningful as the story progresses.
‘Ice’ symbolises the dark powers from beyond The Wall and ‘Fire’ the opposite strength with Daenerys with her Dragons and R’hllor the Lord of Light (whoever that might end up being...).
On to the specific conflicts between books and show after the last book and Season 5. The best way doing that is to go by character.
Jon Snow
Who else could we start with? His final scene in the final episode of the latest seasons caused a proper social media scream and with good reason.
In the books, as with the show Jon Snow is The Lord Commander of The Night's Watch. He is also a "friend" of the wildlings beyond The Wall and sees the need to bring them south because of very real threat the White Walkers pose out there in the icy landscape.
The difference in the books is that it wasn’t him alone. After Stannis' arrival, he was the one, with the Lord Commander’s permission, who brought the wildlings behind The Wall and let them swear to his god R’hllor the Lord of Light. Once Stannis marches to Winterfell, Snow goes to deal with an incident between a wildling giant and some of his Night's Watch brothers. As he tries to calm the people, he is stabbed and... died?
In the show of course, he brings the wildlings to Westeros, earning the mistrust and hate of many of his brothers. His own steward Olly lies to him with talk of his uncle Benjen Stark having been spotted and draws him outside, only for Jon to find Ser Allisar is already waiting with several other crows. Seeing a wooden cross with the word “traitor” on it, Jon recognises it is a trap but it’s too late and approximately seven brothers, beginning with Allisar and ending with Olly, stab him in his torso. The scene ends with Jon bleeding out in the snow.
In the show, his impending death seems more assured, compared to the books where, in my eyes, it is a more ambiguous cliffhanger. 
Nevertheless, I would guess that in both he will ride again in some way; the Red Lady Melisandre also happens to be at Castle Black at the time in both and could very well have powers of reincarnation.
Tyrion Lannister, Ser Jorah Mormont and Lord Varys
Tyrion is one of my favourite in both media. In the books, after his escape from King's Landing with the help of Varys, he reaches Essos and also Magister Ilyrio who sends Tyrion on his way together with a small crew. Later on, a “young Griff” who is part of the crew sailing aboard the Shy Maid claims to be Aegon Targaryen (the son of Prince Rhagear Targaryen and Elia Martell, thought to have been killed as an infant.
They are heading for Daenerys Targaryen to combine their strengths, but Ser Jorah Mormont, who intends to bring him to Dany to win her forgiveness, kidnaps him in a brothel. The journey is not as easy as Mormont has hoped – slave traders catch them.
Tyrion and Mormont, together with a female dwarf Penny, can make their way out of slavery and join the sellswords of the “Second Sons” who are holding Dany's city of Meeren in a siege. In the books, we still don't know if they will reach the Khaleesi.
In the show he also flees with the help of Varys and reaches Essos, from there heading off to Meeren. As in the books, Jorah kidnaps him in a brothel and both end up in the reopened fighting pits. Jorah finally presents Dany with Tyrion but is once again exiled, while Tyrion becomes her advisor.
Jorah returns again to fight in front of his Khaleesi, and manages to defend her against a surprise attack from the Sons Of The Harpy, before Drogon give the Mother Of Dragons a lift out of danger.
Jorah and Daario Naharis elect to head off in search of Dany, while Tyrion stays in Meereen to rule alongside a reappearing Varys. In the books, Varys doesn't show up again.
Sansa Stark, Ramsey Bolton, Petyr Baelish (Littlefinger), Theon Greyjoy (Reek)
To the books first, and Sansa Stark has been brought to The Eyrie by Petyr Baelish and is going to marry a Lord of the Valley. Ramsay Bolton, meanwhile, has married Sansa's friend Jeyne Poole, thinking she is Arya Stark. Theon Greyjoy (Reek) is forced to swear she is Arya Stark. On a misty night, Theon and Jamie make good their escape.
In the show, things are quite different. Petyr delivers Sansa to Winterfell, where she is forced to wed Ramsay Bolton. Infamously, Ramsay goes on to rape and mistreat his new wife, essentially making Joffrey seem like a saint in comparison for the entirety of the fifth season. 
Theon confesses to Sansa that he didn’t kill her brothers Bran and Rickon – until then something only the Boltons have known.
When Ramsay and his father march against Stannis' army, Sansa lights a candle in the watchtower, hoping to alert whoever had previously sent her a message (Brienne, though Sansa does not know this) and get their help. 
Brienne missing the sign to go and deal with Stannis, and as she returns to her bedchamber she runs into Theon and Ramsay's mistress Myranda.
Myranda threatens Sansa with a bow but Theon finally drops the Reek roles and saves Sansa, throwing Myranda off the wall to her death. With Ramsay and his men returning to Winterfell, they make a quick decision to jump from the outer wall of the castle, down into the snow drifts below. We don’t know as yet if they successfully escape.
Lord Baelish returns to King's Landing, where he first plots with Cersei to get Margaery and Loras Tyrell imprisoned by the High Sparrow and, after that ,with Olenna Tyrell to get Cersei imprisoned too.
Brienne of Tarth and Podrick Payn
In both the books and the show, this pair are looking for Sansa and Arya Stark.
In the print version, however, Brienne and Pod have a long, arduous journey through Westeros before The Brotherhood Without Banners catch them. The undead Catelyn Stark, now called Lady Stoneheart, is leading The Brotherhood – something plenty of book fans reckon is a pretty huge thing to omit from the TV show!
Lady Stoneheart doesn’t believe that Brienne and Pod are searching for Sansa and Arya to help them, and gives them the choice of "the sword or the noose" – Brienne can go and kill Jaime Lannister, or she will be hanged.
As we know, Brienne has a fondness for Jaime and in contrast to Lady Stoneheart, is aware that the Kingslayer has become a different man. So she refuses to kill him and both herself and Pod are sentenced to death.
Seeing Pod struggle on the noose, she changes her mind and cries out “sword”.
The next time we meet her, she is trying to convince Jaime to help her free Sansa from “The Hound” (not meaning Sandor Clegane,  but rather the man now in possession of his helmet, Lem). We don’t get to know if Pod died or not.
In Game Of Thrones, after defeating The Hound the pair find Sansa together with Petyr and follow them to Winterfell. Here, she delivers Sansa the message "to light a candle in the abandoned tower if she ever needs someone to help her’. Right at the moment when Sansa lights the candle, Brienne leaves her lookout point to confront Stannis. She finds him defeated and wounded in the Wolfswood and sentences him to death. The last thing we see is Brienne swinging her sword. The abrupt segue to Ramsay leaves us in the dark as to whether Stannis is really dead or not. There is speculation that Lady Stoneheart might appear in the sixth season.
Arya Stark
In book five, A Dance With Dragons, Arya is located in Braavos, living in the Temple of Black and White and is still blind due to drinking the milk she gets daily from the Faceless Men.
She is travelling through the city pretending to be a blind beggar, collecting every piece of information she hears. After some challenges, she gets her sight back and her first task is to kill a man for the Many-Faced-God. The target of her assassination is an old man trading with some kind of insurance for sailors. For the assassination she gets a new face from the room of faces and kills the old man with a poisoned coin.
In the show, we can see her also in Braavos at the Temple of Black and White. She is working as a serving girl and helps to take care of the dead, before wandering around Braavos selling mussels as a way of collecting information. She meets the old insurance seller and is tasked with poisoning him the next time she sells him some of her clams. But suddenly Lord Mace Tyrell and Ser Meryn Trant appear in Braavos – as we know Ser Meryn Trant is one of the persons on her ‘list’. So instead of poisoning the old man, she steals a face from the room of many faces, follows Ser Meryn into a brothel and kills him. When she brings back the face to the room, Jaqen H’ghar sees her and, with the sentence “a debt must been paid”, kills himself just to reappear behind her. The man who died was “no one”. As a punishment she becomes blind.
Jaime Lannister & Ser Bronn
After a bloodless taking of the holdfast of Ser Blackwater, Jaime is heading for Riverrun and camps near Pennytree when the lord forbids him from entering the castle. Once again, you can see that Jaime has changed – instead of storming the holdfast as his follower suggests, he doesn't get into any conflict. The last thing we read of Bronn is that he married Lollys Stokeworth, named her bastard son Tyrion and, after killing Ser Balmann in a duel, he claims to be Lord Stokeworth.
Similarly, the show presents us with a complete different Jaime from early on it the story. But here, he and Ser Bronn are travelling to Dorne by command of Cersei Lannister to rescue/kidnap his niece/daughter Myrcella Lannister from House Martell. He reaches the Water Gardens at the same time as the Sand Snakes (working for Ellaria Sand) who are also trying to kidnap Myrcella and to use her against the Lannisters. As it happens, Prince Doran Martell smells the treason of the Sand Snakes and sends his guard, led by Areo Hotah, to stop them. The Sand Snakes and Bronn are imprisoned, while Jaime and Ellaria Sand are brought to Prince Doran Martell, Myrcella and Trystan Martell. Prince Doran decides to send Jaime and Bronn back to King's Landing, ordering Trystan and Myrcella to do the same as a gesture of good will. Doran is not interested in conflicts with the Lannisters at all.
On the ship, Jaime reveals to Myrcella that she is his daughter, which goes incredibly well (clearly too well!) until Myrcella suddenly starts bleeding from her nose. Poisoned by Ellaria Sand, we don’t see her actual death...
Some characters are missing for example Cersei Lannister or Bran Stark. To my mind, either there haven’t been changes here worth discussing or the people simply don’t appear in A Dance with Dragons or season five.
If you have followed both the books and the novels, you will have noticed how the differences have become more and more marked this year.
Some reasons for that is the budget the show has to create everything. For example the animations of the dragons and the direwolves are just too expensive which is why we see so little of them.
Next year, the discrepancies between the two in season six should be even more significant considering George RR Martin's sixth book, The Winds of Winter, is still not finished. HBO’s Game of Thrones will continue to run past the plot lines of the source material, which could well make for an almost totally independent TV show the season after...