Thrice the moving pictures have taken up the tale. Here the chronicle lays the calendars side by side and names the ten deepest partings of the ways — veiled, for those who have walked only one road.
The shared calendar
Page and screen, laid on the one true calendar. Ice for the page, ember for the screen; a hatched reach is a promise — seasons yet to come, or years the books have not yet written.
150100150200250300
The Dance of the Dragons
Fire & Blood2018 · history, vol. I
The Targaryen chronicle, Aegon’s Conquest to the regency.
House of the DragonHBO · 2022 – present
Adapts the Dance chapters. Three seasons aired — the third airs as this is written; a fourth and final is promised.
The hedge knight
The tales of Dunk & Egg1998 – 2010 · three novellas
The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, The Mystery Knight.
A Knight of the Seven KingdomsHBO · 2026 – present
Season 1 adapts The Hedge Knight; a season per novella is the stated plan, and a second is already sworn.
The song itself
The five novels1996 – 2011
A Game of Thrones through A Dance with Dragons.
Game of ThronesHBO · 2011 – 2019
Seasons 1–5 walk with the books; seasons 6–8 outrun the published page.
In-world years for the screen are the chronicle's best estimate — the shows rarely date themselves aloud.
Season by season
What each season carries, and from which pages. Where the screen passes the published books, the chronicle says so plainly.
Game of Thrones
HBO · 2011 – 2019 · 8 seasons, 73 episodes
S12011A Game of Thrones298 – 299 ACThe novel, nearly page for page.
S22012A Clash of Kings299 ACFive kings; wildfire on the Blackwater.
S32013A Storm of Swords, first half299 – 300 ACThrough the Red Wedding.
S42014A Storm of Swords, second half300 ACThe Purple Wedding, the trial, the battle for the Wall.
S52015A Feast for Crows & A Dance with Dragons, compressedc. 300 ACDorne and the north begin to part sharply from the page.
S62016The novels’ last chapters — and past themc. 301 ACHere the screen passes the published books entirely.
S72017Beyond the published pagec. 302 ACDrawn from the broad strokes of the unfinished books.
S82019Beyond the published pagec. 303 ACAn ending the novels have not yet told.
House of the Dragon
HBO · 2022 – present · a fourth and final season to come
S12022Fire & Blood: Heirs of the Dragon101 – 129 ACThe Great Council to the deaths of Viserys and Lucerys.
S22024Fire & Blood: the Dance begins129 – 130 ACBlood and Cheese; Rook’s Rest; the armies gather.
S32026Fire & Blood: the Dance at full fury130 ACOpens with the Battle of the Gullet — airing as this chronicle is written.
S4t.b.a.Fire & Blood: the Dance’s end130 – 131 ACAnnounced as the last; expected to close the war.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
HBO · 2026 – present · renewed before it aired
S12026The Hedge Knight209 ACAshford Meadow in six episodes, faithfully kept.
S2t.b.a.The Sworn Sword211 ACA season per novella is the stated plan.
Where the roads part
Ten partings of the ways, for the reader who would walk both roads. Each names what the page holds, and what the screen chose instead.
Lady Stoneheart The page ≠ The screen
Catelyn Stark rises three days dead, and the brotherhood without banners turns to hanging Freys.
She stays dead. The books’ grimmest resurrection never happens.
Young Griff The page ≠ The screen
A boy claimed to be Elia’s son Aegon sails for Westeros with the Golden Company at his back.
No such claimant exists; the Golden Company arrives late, and merely hired.
Robb’s queen The page ≠ The screen
Jeyne Westerling — wed for honor, left behind, and alive after the Red Wedding.
Talisa of Volantis — wed for love, murdered at the wedding, with child.
The false Arya The page ≠ The screen
Jeyne Poole, Sansa’s friend, is passed off as Arya Stark and given to Ramsay.
Sansa herself is given to the Boltons — a road the books never send her down.
Dorne The page ≠ The screen
Arianne Martell crowns a princess; Prince Doran plays a game decades long.
A coup by the Sand Snakes; the long game cut to a short knife.
Stannis Baratheon The page ≠ The screen
Alive at the last published page, marching on Winterfell through the snows.
Burns his daughter, loses everything, and dies broken beneath Winterfell’s walls.
Barristan the Bold The page ≠ The screen
Hand of the Queen, ruling Meereen at the chronicle’s edge.
Dies in a Meereenese alley, midway through the fifth season.
Euron Greyjoy The page ≠ The screen
A sorcerer-king with a dragonbinder horn and designs darker than thrones.
A swaggering pirate whose fleet appears wherever it is needed.
The Others The page ≠ The screen
Uncommanded and unnumbered; no single king rides at their head — so far as the books have said.
A Night King leads them, and one dagger-stroke unmakes the host entire.
The ending The page ≠ The screen
Unwritten. The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring still owe the realm its final verses.
Seasons 7–8 reached the destination first — the same broad strokes, the author has said, by another road.
These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.
How closely does Game of Thrones follow the books?
Seasons 1–4 walk closely with the first three novels. Season 5 compresses two books, and seasons 6–8 pass the published page entirely, telling an ending the novels have not yet told.
Is the show's ending the books' ending?
The author has said the broad strokes are shared, but the road differs. Several major book threads — Lady Stoneheart, Young Griff, the true Dorne plot — never reach the screen at all.
What is House of the Dragon based on?
Fire & Blood — the Targaryen history — specifically the chapters on the Dance of the Dragons, a civil war set some 170 years before the novels.
Are the Others the same as the White Walkers?
The books call them the Others; the show renamed them White Walkers and gave them a single leader, the Night King, who does not exist on the page.