'Game of Thrones' Broke the Plot With Two Changes in Season 5 HBO's Game of Thrones deviated significantly from its source material in Season 5, particularly with the storylines of Sansa Stark and Jaime Lannister. These changes not only failed to enrich the series but also broke the narrative coherence of the show. HBO's Game of Thrones had a notoriously unsatisfying ending, but in the years since the finale, many fans have revised their estimations of when the series went off the rails. The fantasy series started out strong, not least of all because it stuck closely to its source material, A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. It's an oversimplification to say that adaptations fail when they don't stick to the books, but for Game of Thrones it's more or less true. The show began to break away from Martin's plot in Season 4, then went wildly off-book in Season 5.Two of Season 5's story lines broke the narrative irretrievably: Sansa Stark's (Sophie Turner) marriage to Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) and Jaime Lannister's (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) adventure in Dorne. There are plenty of other places where Game of Thrones deviated from A Song of Ice and Fire - mostly for the worse. In many places, characters and side quests were completely omitted, but these two cases are different.In Martin's books, it's not Sansa but another character who married Ramsay, which had all kinds of ripple effects on the plot. Martin himself has written about the "butterfly effect" when adaptations make small changes, and this is a prime example. As for Jaime's time in Dorne, it pulled him away from a compelling part of the books without adding anything significant, breaking the pacing of his redemption arc.Deviation From Source Material Begins'Game of Thrones' Hardly Adapted 'A Feast for Crows' and 'A Dance with Dragons' Close With some exceptions, the first four seasons of Game of Thrones are a pretty faithful adaptation of the first three books in A Song of Ice and Fire. After that, the show played it fast and loose with the material from the fourth book, A Feast for Crows and the fifth book, A Dance with Dragons.Sansa and Jaime's stories in Season 5 are the most emblematic of this issue. In the books, Sansa is actually still in the Vale, disguised as Littlefinger's (Aidan Gillen) daughter. The show made this look like a prison sentence for her, but in the books she spends this time learning quite a bit. She applies the lessons she took from King's Landing, analyzes Littlefinger's political machinations, and begins cultivating her own rapport with various allies.Meanwhile, in the books Ramsay announces to the world that he is marrying Arya Stark (Maisie Williams), not Sansa. However, he is actually marrying Jeyne Poole, the daughter of Winterfell's chief steward and a childhood friend of Sansa. This means Jeyne is able to pose as Arya convincingly, lending some legitimacy to House Bolton as they try to take over the North.Jaime Lannister Dorne Plot DifferencesIt's not clear who knows Jeyne is an imposter and who is fooled, but Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) believes she is the real Arya, and he sends wildlings south to rescue her. Presumably, if the books have a confrontation similar to the "Battle of the Bastards", Sansa will be there in part to rescue either Arya or Jeyne. As for Jaime, in the books he doesn't even consider traveling to Dorne to rescue Myrcella (Nell Tiger Free).After their father's funeral, Cersei (Lena Headey) sends him to the Riverlands against his will. Ostensibly, she wants him to secure House Lannister's hold there and put down any remnants of the war with the North, but on a personal level she is angry with Jaime and wants to be away from him.She sees his lost hand as a failure, and even blames him for the deaths of their father and Joffrey (Jack Gleeson), as well as for Tyrion's (Peter Dinklage) escape. Cersei is also having affairs with several other people, and does not want Jaime to find out. Jaime is heartbroken by Cersei's dismissal, but he does his best to act with honor back in the Riverlands.It's an uphill battle considering his reputation, but he still manages to avert some fighting and broker compromises. It's worth noting that he does not have Bronn (Jerome Flynn) with him. In the books, Bronn has married a minor noble and retired to her estate in the country. Jaime gets a letter from Cersei begging him to rescue her from the Faith of the Seven, but he burns it and leaves her to her fate.The last we see of Jaime, he is running off with Brienne (Gwendolyn Christie) to see the reanimated Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley), now known as "Lady Stoneheart".Show Changes Add Nothing To Story'Game of Thrones' Adds Nothing With These Changes We don't know where Martin is heading with either of these plots, and unless he publishes The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, we may never know. What we can say is that the plots Game of Thrones' showrunners put in their places do nothing to enrich the series.Much has been written about Sansa's marriage to Ramsay - it is gratuitous, it leads nowhere, and many survivors find it to be an insulting depiction of abuse. By the end of the series, Sansa has processed the experience entirely off-screen, and seems only to have become more shallow and cruel because of it. Jaime's time in Dorne is equally pointless. In the books, Jaime's redemption arc is about him realizing just how selfish and corrupt his family is.It's a hard truth for him to swallow, and it makes him more empathetic as a character. In the show, Jaime learns pretty quickly that King's Landing is the problem and then leaves it, never to return. His plot in Dorne is just a side quest, and it doesn't push his personal story forward. It's also tonally inconsistent with the rest of his arc.While he is wandering around the desert, his sister is having the worst day of her life. The Faith of the Seven are persecuting her, her son has died, and she has to watch her other son get murdered. None of this affects Jaime in the show, but in the books he is devastated to learn his fate is tied so closely to a woman he can no longer stand.While we shouldn't judge the show only by what it doesn't show, the fact that the plot holes are so large indicates a lack of care. Game of Thrones would have been much better off sticking to the books, where the politics are more complex, characters have multiple layers, and nothing is gratuitous.If you want to read about a world with more women, more people of color, and a more nuanced approach to morality, pick up A Song of Ice and Fire.