5 characters from the 'Game of Thrones' books left out of the show

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In the show, Jaime Lannister has his hand chopped off by a plain-looking man named Locke. The book version of this character was Vargo Hoat, a man with a long goatee and strong lisp. Book readers were most looking forward to seeing Hoat refer to Jaime, often called Kingslayer, as "Kingthlayer."

Another one of his classic lines involves Brienne of Tarth, who Hoat mistakenly believes is from the Sapphire Islands, making her a valuable prisoner. "Thee'th worth a bag of thapphireth," he says in the book. But instead of giving viewers the lisping Hoat, showrunners simplified things by having Locke take over this role.

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Shireen Baratheon, the daughter of Stannis Baratheon who has greyscale, spends a lot of time with a jester named Patchface in the books. His face is covered in red and green motley tattoos — a mark of his former slave life. Patchface speaks in rhymes and incoherent phrases. His brain was damaged after barely surviving a shipwreck, but sometimes his "jests" are creepy and prophetic.

For example: "Fool's blood. King's blood, blood on the maiden's thigh, but chains for the guests and chains for the bridegroom, aye, aye, aye." Not exactly a cheerful rhyme, and it seems to allude to the infamous Red Wedding. Sadly, the showrunners not only left Patchface out the show, but they've now killed off Shireen (who is alive so far in the books).

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Season five of "Game of Thrones" introduced the Sand Snakes — a trio of Oberyn Martell's bastard daughters who were determined to avenge his death. But in the books, the main relative of Oberyn featured was Arianne Martell. She is a princess of Dorne, and seeks revenge against the Lannisters by kidnapping Myrcella.

The show producers swapped out Arianne's plot with the Sand Snakes, and fans were not happy. The Sand Snakes were often pointed to as the weakest part of season five. And Myrcella is now most likely dead in the show, based on the shocking season finale, so there's little hope of seeing Arianne in the future seasons.

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Everyone is familiar with Margaery and Loras Tyrell, but show-only fans might not know about the two brothers left out of the Tyrell family tree. Garlan and Willas Tyrell were important side-characters in the books, despite being mentioned only briefly. Garlan is the second-eldest son in the Tyrell family, and known as a great fighter and knight.

Willas is the oldest, and therefore the heir to the family house of Highgarden. Leaving these two out of the show automatically made Loras the heir to Highgarden. This is problematic because he is supposed to become of member of the Kingsguard (according to book canon). But that position would mean he could never marry or hold a lord's title, so they had to axe this plot from the show.