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DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BOOK!DANY AND SHOW!DANY — The freedmen's perception of Dany

On HBO: Dany decides to execute Mossador for killing a hostage suspected of being a Harpy’s Son, which leads the former slaves to turn against her. After she departs Meereen with Drogon, it's revealed that they started to see Dany as a master herself.

In the books: Dany never executes Mossador (his book equivalent is murdered by the Sons of the Harpy). After Dany flies away on Drogon’s back, the freedmen still call her their mother, want her to return and refuse to acknowledge Hizdahr as their king. The slaves in the Yunkish camps want Dany to defeat the Yunkai'i and to free them. Barristan Selmy rides Dany’s silver because he expects the sight of it will give heart to the former slaves fighting for her. The widow of the waterfront tells Tyrion that she and the slaves of Volantis want Dany to come soon.

Making the freedmen become hostile to Dany in season five was a show departure that (along with others) helped to spread the misconception that Dany made things “worse” for the slaves (which ignores her efforts to rebuild Meereen’s economy) and shouldn’t have tried to abolish slavery (even though, as shown above, freedmen and slaves all over the world continue to support her throughout all of ADWD).

George R. R. Martin to the New York Times: By Season 5 and 6, and certainly 7 and 8, I was pretty much out of the loop. [...] So I think what you’re going to find is, when “Winds of Winter” and then, hopefully, “Dream of Spring” come out, that my ending will be very different.

ASOIAF!Daenerys vs GOT!Daenerys: Episode 5.1 - The Wars to Come

ASOIAF chapters adapted in this episode: ADWD Daenerys I, ADWD Daenerys II, ADWD Daenerys IV

This gifset’s purpose is not to argue that every single book!Dany scene had to (or could) have been added in Game of Thrones. The show writers had to deal with many constraints (e.g. a limited budget, multiple storylines to adapt, having to write scripts under a deadline, actors who may have asked for more lines and screentime, etc), so, in theory, it’s understandable that some material would be left out.

However, in light of show!Dany’s ending, it is interesting to remember a) which book scenes were included and how they were changed and b) which book scenes were completely omitted. Having them in mind makes it even more absurd to believe that Daenerys Targaryen will also be turned into a villain in A Song of Ice and Fire because it becomes clear that her show counterpart - even before season eight - was written to have flaws and make mistakes that book!Dany never did in the first place. At the same time, as one can see above, a lot of book!Dany’s positive qualities and good decisions (most of which could’ve been displayed here and in other episodes considering the chapters that the show writers drew from) were either downplayed or completely erased (such as her efforts to rebuild Meereen’s economy, her ability to culturally assimilate and compromise, her courtesy, her love for her people, her modesty, her desire for equality for everyone, her mercifulness, her sense of fairness, her playfulness, her love of reading, etc.) because the show writers always had an inaccurate understanding of Dany’s character and storyline.

Other changes not giffed or mentioned above: 1) In the books, it’s never stated that Daario was sold into slavery or that he was ever a gladiator like show!Daario; 2) in the books, Mossador is the name of one of Missandei’s brothers, who were all trained as Unsullied. Show!Mossador is an entirely different character.

Dany fanarts made by @adreamofspring and @pepelinkri.