We can never accuse Game of Thrones of being a show that made a lot of sense. Especially not after showrunners David Benioff and D.B Weiss ran out of written material from the author of the book series that the show was based on and were left to their own devices. It’s no secret that everything went downhill after that, leading to an ending so explosively bad that it was essentially wiped from the cultural zeitgeist.
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But among the things that leave us scratching our heads the most is the show’s treatment of House Stark, one of the oldest and most prominent Houses in the series at large, and a good chunk of the protagonists throughout the entire story. So while you’re waiting for the finale of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, read on to see which moments about House Stark make the least sense.
5) Arya Stark Abandons Her Kill List
Arya Stark, the second youngest Stark sibling and fan-favorite character, made plenty of promises about who she was going to kill. There was a whole list, one she recited each night before she went to sleep, allowing it to shape her journey and her identity. Entire plotlines were centered around this list. And then in the final season, she simply abandons it, without even a word, meaning that she never truly became a No One herself. And in the books, there is plenty of internal dialogue that shows her struggle with these choices and how difficult it is to leave her name behind her. But we get none of that in the show, and it felt like such a huge letdown that she went through all of the training with the Faceless Men and abuse at their hands, only to abandon her goal. And not only that, but she abandons the entire Stark name at the end of the show to sail “west of Westeros.”
4) Jon Snow Is… Not A Smart Man
Like most things on this list, this entry comes down to differences between the show and the books. In the novels, Jon is relatively clever and more than adept at reading people. He’s received the education befitting a son of a lord, even if he is a bastard, and has a talent for arithmetic, being even better than his brother, Robb, at it (which annoys Cat Stark to no end). However, in the show, he was dumbed down to an almost comical degree, and “you know nothing, Jon Snow” became a silly mantra for viewers when he did something stupid, instead of the phrase that book-Jon used to push himself into learning more. It’s not a smart man who refuses to show the evidence that he came back to life or bring a wight down from the North to King’s Landing (a journey that takes over two months), or chooses to send a cavalry into an undead army so big that we can’t even comprehend the numbers. We just know Maester Luwin is rolling in his grave.
3) Everything to do With Sana’s Storyline (No, Not Like That)
Oh, Sansa, the Stark everyone loves to (incorrectly) hate. Everything that happened when Benioff and Weiss chose to give her Jeyne Poole’s book story just sends her entire narrative off the rails. In the books, instead of being abused, assaulted, and married off to the world’s worst bastard, Sansa is living in the Vale as Alayne Stone, eyeing a marriage to Harry “The Heir” and slowly isolating Littlefinger with a taste of his own medicine after learning at his feet. But for whatever reason, the choice was made to turn her into a twisted version of a girl boss who implies that her abuse was actually what made her strong. Book Sansa, you would never.
2) Robert Coming to Winterfell to Bully Ned into Taking a Job
Okay, to be fair, this one also happened in the books. And we get it, we need that massive kick-off moment that starts the whole story, and there’s something both ominous and endearing about watching Ned and Robert come back together as adults with families, as opposed to the young, battle-weary men they were when they last saw one another. But have you ever considered just how huge Westeros is? I mean, we’re talking about the country created by the man who made a giant wall of ice 800 feet tall and 300 miles long. It takes over 2 months to travel from the southern end, where King’s Landing is, to Winterfell, which is about as far north as you can go before you smack into the aforementioned giant wall. And yes, Robert knew that Ned Stark, more honorable than any Arryn, wouldn’t tell him no to his face, though he could feasibly lie about a raven getting lost in the mail. But still, it sounds like the world’s worst road trip—especially when you remember that Joffrey was there the whole time.
1) Ramsey Having Hold of Rickon
Why did the Umbers have him? Where did they find him? What was that boy doing for years, where no one but Smalljon Umber or Ramsey and his “20 good men” could find him? And why is the Starks’ most staunch ally swearing fealty to Ramsey Snow of all people? In the books, Rickon is six years old and very much off doing his own thing under the care of Osha the Wildling on the island of Skagos, which is said to be inhabited by cannibals. And Wyman Manderly, another Northern lord, has just discovered a rumor that he’s still alive. Is this the most pressing question about the series? Absolutely not. But it is one that makes book fans pull out their hair in record numbers.
What moment from Game of Thrones do you find the most nonsensical? Let us know in the comments. And don’t forget to check out the ComicBook forum to see what other fans are saying.
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