Game of Thrones · books and TV compared

Major spoilers for all five covered novels and all eight seasons of HBO’s Game of Thrones.

One consolidated timeline of events that happen in the fictional world, not book publication dates or episode air dates. Filter or Separate by tags using books and tv series. Each novel also has its own book - … tag and each season its own tv season - … tag. Gold markers identify book events; blue dashed markers identify the show’s estimated calendar placements.

Calendar and uncertainty

The display uses AC — After the Conquest, the setting’s own year convention. One stored unit is one fictional year, not a conversion to Gregorian years or Earth seconds. Moments read early, mid- or late in their year (thirds of it), because positions within a year are estimates; zoomed out, the ruler shows whole years. Typed and edited times stay exact ("300.92 AC"), and "late 300 AC" can be typed too. Book moments take their year from A Wiki of Ice and Fire’s chronology, and a place within it reconstructed from the novels’ order of events: a reading order, not stated dates. Concurrent viewpoints are interleaved by best estimate.

TV dates are approximate comparison positions, not canonically fixed calendar dates. This view uses the common fan model that places season 1 near 298 AC and later seasons progressively near 299–305 AC. The show’s time clues are inconsistent, and one season does not necessarily equal one year. Each TV moment links its actual season/episode and labels the reconstruction. Sources: book chronology, TV fan chronology, explicit approximate watch-order model. Within a season’s year, TV moments are spread by episode. Do not infer an exact elapsed interval from a gap between TV markers.

Read the differences

Shared incidents have separate markers for each continuity, linked as adaptation counterparts. Purple comparison cards explain changed characters, omitted stories and incompatible outcomes: Jeyne Westerling/Talisa, Lady Stoneheart, Jeyne Poole/Sansa, Young Griff, Dorne, Stannis and Jon’s fate. Links also join the consecutive steps of each storyline within one continuity (Robb’s war, Daenerys’s road, Stannis’s campaign, Jon at the Wall). Links are connections, not causal arrows or a claim that the two universes literally branch at one canonical moment.

The book track covers A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. Feast and Dance overlap. Jon’s stabbing, the northern campaign, Young Griff’s claim and Daenerys’s immediate future remain unresolved within that coverage. HBO’s later plot and ending are never substituted for book canon. This is selected major-event coverage, not every scene. Spin-off shows and other literary prequels are outside this timeline’s scope.

The bands are coverage brackets, not measured reigns, episode runtimes or publication intervals. Open a marker for its story source, dating convention and sources, or its stack for a continuity comparison.

Sources and media

Primary story locators name the novel or the HBO season and episode. Linked plot summaries and fan chronologies are secondary references, not official calendar decrees. Text is paraphrased, with no reproduced dialogue or commercial franchise artwork. The author’s bibliography identifies the literary works. This is an unofficial fan comparison, not affiliated with or endorsed by George R. R. Martin or HBO.

Cover: William Marnoch from Cambridge, UK; CC BY 2.0; Commons file and license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0. The photograph shows a real Castle Ward location, used only as a setting illustration—not a screenshot, map of Westeros or proof that the books’ castles look like a filming location. No per-event stills or copyrighted character portraits are used.