| In the Book |
In the TV Show |
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The White Walkers are of different appearance in the TV series. In the book, they have white skin and reflective light armor. In the TV series, they have frozen grey skin, dark hair, and a brutal face similar to a skull and the armor they wear in later seasons is black and non reflective. |
In the TV series, Gared and Waymar Royce face the White Walkers' first attack, while Will is exploring the area. In the book, Gared has left a short distance away to protect the horses and Will is climbing a tree to get a visual on the wildlings while Waymar Royce was left beneath the tree to face the White walkers alone. |
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In the book, a group (at least five) of "the Others" (White Walkers) approach Ser Waymar Royce, who has a duel with one of them before finally being killed by the group. In the TV series not more than two White Walkers appear, and Waymar is killed in a surprise attack by one. |
The wight girl, who frightens Will in the series, is never mentioned in the book.
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In the book, Ser Waymar Royce is transformed into a wight. |
In the TV series, Gared is the second one to be killed by the White Walkers and Will escapes. In the books, Will is strangled by the wight of Ser Waymar Royce and Gared escapes but is later executed by Ned for desertion. There is a key difference in the fact that in the TV series the death is a beheading at the hands of a White Walker as opposed to being killed by a wight. |
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The Winterfell soldiers' capture of Will is not described in the book.
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There are several additional scenes in the TV series, taking place in Winterfell, which introduce the Stark family. Bran is shown practicing archery, while his father is watching him. The scene with needlework, which involves Sansa and Arya, is moved to the beginning of the series, before King Robert arrives. In the book, the scenes in Winterfell begin with the deserter's execution.
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In the books, Arya doesn't know how to fire a bow and wishes she could learn. She has not shot a single arrow in any of the books. |
Arya is shown to be an accurate archer and shoots one past Bran unexpectedly and hits the target. |
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In the books, Theon Greyjoy kicks the severed head of the executed deserter and laughs. This action disgusts Jon Snow, who dislikes Theon and vice versa. |
In the TV series, Theon does not kick the severed head of the executed deserter and he is shown to be on good terms with Jon before they part ways.
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In the books, between the execution of the deserter and the discovery of the direwolf pups, Robb and Jon have a riding race. |
this is omitted in the TV series. |
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Events of the TV series are seventeen years after Robert's Rebellion. |
The books begin fourteen years after, thus the Stark children are each about three years older than their ages in the books. Robb and Jon Snow are 17 instead of 14 (turning 15). Bran is 10 instead of 7 and Rickon's age is increased from 3 to 6.
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The Stark girls' birth years are altered to Sansa 13 And Arya 11. |
In the book Sansa is 11 and Arya is 9. |
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The White Walkers are mostly called Others in the books, especially by the people of the Seven Kingdoms. It is the wildlings and Old Nan that refer to them as 'White Walkers'. |
The white walkers are referred to the white walkers and on rare occurrences "The others"
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There is no mentioning in the book that the wildlings' corpses have been arranged in any pattern.
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In the TV series, Will discovers the wildlings massacred and their bodies brutalized. In the book, he says they appeared to be sleeping and likely froze to death. |
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In the book, the White Walker attack happens after several days of riding North of the Wall, but in the TV series, it happens in a forest close to the Wall on the same day the rangers leave Castle Black.
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The TV series starts with three rangers of the Night's Watch going beyond the Wall. In the book, they have already been ranging for days.
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