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[SPOILERS] George R.R. Martin Confirms a Well-Loved Character Has a Different Fate in the Books

By October 22, 2020Adaptations, News

Fans of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy novels will no doubt have watched the HBO adaptation Game of Thrones. Given Martin’s slow writing pace, the show quickly went beyond the books and gave viewers a look at how the series will end, broadly speaking. However, in the new book Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, which chronicles the making of the hit show, Martin confirmed that there will be some significant differences between the show and the books, including the fate of the character of Hodor.

 

In both the book and the show, Hodor is presented as a gentle giant who, while only being able to say his own name, helps the characters Bran, Rickon, Meera, and Jojen escape Winterfell and get to safety. In the show, it’s later revealed that Hodor’s mental disabilities were caused when Bran looked back in time using his Greenseer abilities and entered the mind of young Hodor with his Warging powers, as adult Hodor was holding a door against hundreds of undead wights. Bran accidentally caused a link between the past and the future, which broke young Hodor’s mind and caused him to only say the word ‘Hodor’, meaning ‘hold the door’. In one of the most tear-jerking scenes of the show, Hodor sacrifices himself to save his friends, and a great mystery regarding him is solved.

As DigitalSpy reports, Martin has confirmed that things may transpire differently in his books. “I thought they executed it very well, but there are going to be differences in the book,” he said.

“In the book, Hodor has stolen one of the old swords from the crypt. Bran has been warging into Hodor and practicing with his body, because Bran had been trained in swordplay. So telling Hodor to ‘hold the door’ is more like ‘hold this pass’ — defend it when enemies are coming — and Hodor is fighting and killing them. “A little different, but same idea.”

Game of Thrones‘ co-producer, Dave Hill, explained the change was made as it was felt it showed a different kind of bravery and looked better visually. There’s plenty of fighting in the show, but Hodor saved his friends with a different kind of action.

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