4 Important Game Of Thrones Characters Who Weren't In The Books

When you're adapting a book series for a movie or television show, things can seriously shift during the adaptation process. Entire plotlines and characters can change as showrunners and directors take control of the narrative, which makes sense, especially with larger tomes. In 2011, George R.R. Martin's sprawling fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire," which helped define and repopularize the genre when it was released in 1996, turned into the TV show "Game of Thrones" — and based on the sheer page count of "A Song of Ice and Fire," it makes sense that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss probably had to make a few cuts and tweaks.

What that doesn't account for, though, is that "Game of Thrones" actually added some characters in the adaptation — although that too has a reasonable explanation. "A Song of Ice and Fire" is, as previously mentioned, extremely long, and Martin has no shortage of characters involved in the action (many of whom have very, very similar names to boot). By either changing existing characters, combining a few to make a new one, or simply adding new players into the story, "Game of Thrones" did its best to streamline Martin's world of Westeros and make it slightly more manageable — so here are 4 characters you won't find in "A Song of Ice and Fire" that play fairly prominent roles in "Game of Thrones."

Played by Charlotte Hope, Myranda is introduced as a servant of House Bolton — but pretty quickly, audiences realize just how evil she really is. In Season 3, we first meet Myranda as she and another servant girl "seduce" an imprisoned Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen), which is just a cruel, demented ruse concocted by major "Game of Thrones" antagonist Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon). It's revealed, shortly thereafter, that Myranda is Ramsay's lover and not-so-secretly hopes the two will get married eventually, especially as he's elevated from bastard Ramsay Snow to the house's rightful heir. When Ramsay is ordered to marry Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) for political gain, Myranda is furious and takes it out on Sansa — which means the eldest Stark daughter is facing abuse from all sides — which presents a serious issue when Sansa and Theon stage a daring escape from Ramsay's captivity at the end of Season 5. At first, the two victims seem trapped ... until Theon, brainwashed and broken by Ramsay's torture, attacks Myranda, sending her off of one of Winterfell's ramparts and killing her instantly.

There is actually a character named Myranda in "A Song of Ice and Fire," but she's a friend of Sansa and a daughter of House Royce. Really, the only similarity here is that, in both the book and show, Myranda is jealous of Sansa's arranged marriage; in the books, she hopes to marry Harrold Hardying, a man intended for Sansa by her "caretaker" Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish (Aidan Gillen on the show).

In both "A Song of Ice and Fire" and "Game of Thrones," Robb Stark, played by Richard Madden onscreen, makes a wild miscalculation in the name of love ... and it eventually costs him not just his life, but that of his own mother, his wife, their unborn child, and his army. In the HBO series, Robb, the King in the North waging war against the powerful Lannister family over the beheading of his father Ned Stark (Sean Bean), is instructed to make a political marriage by his mother Catelyn (Michelle Fairley). Specifically, Catelyn agrees, without Robb's direct consent, to marry her son to one of the many daughters of Walder Frey (David Bradley) ... which presents a problem when he meets the beautiful healer Talisa Maegyr, played by Oona Chaplin, and falls in love.

Before long, Talisa becomes Queen Talisa Stark after she and Robb marry quietly, and shortly after that, she reveals that she's pregnant with the royal couple's first child. Just when it seems like the two might actually have a happy ending, the infamous "Red Wedding" happens, wherein Walder Frey accepts Catelyn's brother Edmure Tully (Tobias Menzies) as a replacement son-in-law only to massacre the Starks and Tullys at the wedding reception. (Chaplin later revealed that filming this scene was, understandably, horrific.) Here's the thing: Talisa isn't Robb's beloved wife in the book. Instead, what happens is that Robb suffers an injury and is treated by Lady Jeyne Westerling; after they bond, he sleeps with her and feels duty-bound to marry her as a result. Jeyne also isn't killed during the Red Wedding, unlike poor Talisa.

Another "Game of Thrones" original associated with the evil House Bolton (we don't like to generalize, but their sigil is a flayed man) is Locke, a man-at-arms who serves Lord Roose Bolton (Michael McElhatton) and, ostensibly, power player Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance). While Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) is attempting to bring a captive Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) back to King's Landing and his powerful family — on the orders of Catelyn Stark, who hopes to receive at least one of her daughters back in return — she and Jaime run afoul of Locke, who takes them both captive for his own gains. One night, Locke and his men set out to sexually assault Brienne, who, despite being a formidable warrior, is obviously frightened; Jaime manages to convince them all that her father is a wealthy man and that she's the heiress to a sapphire fortune. Instead of attacking Brienne, Locke quickly pivots ... and chops off Jaime's right hand.

Locke ultimately makes his way to the Wall after dropping Jaime off with Roose Bolton and ingratiates himself with Jon Snow (Kit Harington), who, by that point, is the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. Unbeknownst to Jon, Locke is there on Roose's orders so that he can find Bran and Rickon Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright and Art Parkinson), but when he does, Bran "wargs" into his giant caretaker Hodor (Kristian Nairn) and breaks Locke's neck. So what about the books? In essence, Locke is sort of a simpler version of Vargo Hoat, the head of the sellsword group the Brave Companions — who are capable of truly heinous acts.

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Olly, played by Brenock O'Connor, is one of the most divisive characters in "Game of Thrones" — and he also goes through quite a lot during his relatively short time on the series. In Season 4, Olly is living happily with his family in a village north of the Wall when it's attacked by a group of wildlings that includes Ygritte (Rose Leslie), with whom Jon Snow fell in love when he infiltrated their Northern society. Frankly, it's understandable that Olly's main character trait is "hating wildlings," but in two moments, he takes this a bit too far. At the end of Season 4, he personally kills Ygritte as she and Jon have a stand-off, unable to bring themselves to attack one another ... but what he does in the Season 5 finale "Mother's Mercy" is far worse. After a full season of building resentment against Jon for his embrace of the wildlings — and his instinct to save them from the incoming undead army led by the Night King — Olly is part of the group of mutineers who stab Jon and leaves him for dead.

After Jon is raised by the Red Priestess Melisandre (Carice van Houten) at the beginning of Season 6, he retaliates swiftly. Jon orders Olly, as well as the rest of the traitorous men, hanged at Castle Black, as those who supported Jon look on. It's reprehensible to watch Jon, one of the show's great heroes, kill a child — but he did literally stab Jon in the heart. Olly is a combination of several characters from the books, including Bowen Marsh (who stabs Jon) and a young steward named Satin, and he also "solves" one "mystery," as the identity of Ygritte's killer is unknown in the novels.

"Game of Thrones" is streaming on Max now.