turtle-paced:

Oh gosh. So many. And not a silly question at all.

Penny’s one of them, for exactly the reasons you mention. A common-born female disabled character? In Game of Thrones? Get out of here! We don’t have time to show how the intersectionality of her class, gender and disability throw Tyrion’s experiences of wealth into sharp relief. Nor do we have time for her resilience to highlight just how awful a person Tyrion’s become over the course of the books. (There can never be too many links to @poorquentyn‘s fantastic Tyrion meta.) Seriously though, aside from the social points Penny’s mere existence in ADWD brings up, to include her in the show would have required the writers to think long and hard about Tyrion’s series arc, not just a season arc. Insofar as Tyrion has season arcs anymore. Much easier to write bro-trips.

Then there’s Jon Connington. I do not think I would have enjoyed seeing D&D’s take on him. Middle aged, conventionally masculine gay man filling a quasi-parental role to the teenaged son of the man he was in love with? That sure sounds like the sort of thing D&D would handle in a sensitive manner. JonCon’s issues with the closet would also need sensitive writing – not that JonCon’s in denial about being in love with a man, but he’s constantly aware that he could never outwardly express his romantic feelings for the man he loved. Compare also his flowery internal monologue over his “silver prince,” always avoiding the language of physical attraction, to Loras’ candid admission that he and Renly looked at porn together. Just going on the treatment of Loras – yeah. Better off not in the show for more than one reason.

Arianne Martell, of course. I’m not a a stan of hers (@gotgifsandmusings, @theculturalvacuum, can we still be friends?) and if I were writing the show I would probably have excised or minimised her plot in order to focus on North/Riverlands/Vale, but we saw how epically the Dorne plot we got was botched. Arianne wants to be the Princess of Dorne. She wants to make Myrcella the Queen of Westeros. She interacts with other female characters and there’s dramatic meat to her relationship with her father. All this makes her the most logical character to cut from any projected Dornish storyline. In all seriousness, she’s well spared the fate that befell her cousins and Ellaria.

Barbrey Dustin’s another character I would have both liked to see and am glad we haven’t seen. On the one hand, she’s really very impressive – a widow controlling a sizeable chunk of land halfway across the region from her birth family and their direct support. She provides crucial manpower and resources to Roose Bolton as he tries to get control of the North, yet has a very low tolerance of Ramsay, and Roose flat out will not allow Ramsay to alienate her further. On the other hand, she’s motivated by an anti-Stark agenda that has its roots in the fact she didn’t get to marry Brandon (or even Ned). I get the feeling that in adaptation we would have seen less of the major backer and more jealous harpy trope.

Honourable mentions go to a lot of Northern ladies, actually. Early on in the series we lost Maege Mormont, ruling lady of Bear Island, and her heir Dacey Mormont, one of Robb’s informal kingsguard. With the absence and murder of a lot of Northern lords and male heirs, ADWD unsurprisingly shows a lot of women step up to the plate. There’s Alysanne Mormont, single mother of two, who helps repel the Ironborn invasion. Wynafryd Manderly, with her father hostage, her uncle murdered, and her mother paralysed by fear, is her grandfather’s anti-Frey co-conspirator. Her little sister Wylla’s in the same mold as Lyanna Mormont of Bear Island, announcing in front of the Freys that they’re a bunch of murderers and their excuses for murder are pathetic. (I still hope we see those two, but I doubt it.) Alys Karstark is having none of this locked-up-until-the-wedding nonsense. These ladies are all clearly too awesome for the show.

Lady Stoneheart! Technically she’s an extension of Catelyn and her arc, but so thematically central to AFFC and onwards. But lacking the initial investment in and exploration of how Catelyn was reacting to the steady destruction of her family, and the non-presence of the Brotherhood Without Banners, Lady Stoneheart would be just a revenge zombie.

There are just so many. Quentyn Martell, whose storyline exists to show how much it sucks to be expendable. The Widow of the Waterfront, who would have improved the middle part of Tyrion’s season five plot immensely. Galazza Galare and the Shavepate. Either Arys Oakheart or Balon Swann to make a point about the cowardice of “just following orders.” Chataya, the anti-Littlefinger in terms of brothel management, and Satin, who despite being unconventionally masculine and a former sex worker with all the prejudice against him that entails is still the best squire Jon Snow can find. (Respect for sex workers, what is that.) Val, who’s clearly not hanging out in Mance’s command tent for decoration. The older Tyrell brothers. Sarella Sand. There’s this paradox – I’m glad they’re not in the show because they don’t get butchered, but their inclusion would demonstrate a greater appreciation for the points GRRM was trying to make when he wrote them in.

And I know we could never have all of them, or even most of them, but so many of them don’t even get to be faces in the crowd, and yet we have time for Olly…