When you play the Game of Thrones...

[Sinfonian]

After watching and loving what episodes have been released I couldn't help but get the books. I'm only a little way into the first but i'm somewhat surprised by the age difference of certain characters! Ned is 35 Jon is 14 and Daenerys, Daenerys is 13! 13~! After knowing what happens to her from the show I'm kinda dreading reading onwards a little. (not that I could stop if I tried, the writing is very compelling). I can understand the changes made to the show. And i'm not criticizing the book or anything, I just found it, well, surprising.

I've commented on this before, and I'll say it again. This is one of the things I think the show's producers really did right. Not only does this mean that many character actions are more believable, especially later on, but it allows the show to get actors better able to act serious scenes. Plus, there's precisely no way that they could ever get away with doing the Daenerys scenes where she is naked/partially naked/having sex, even on HBO; some of which are important to her character arc (ASoIaF is a rare series that way).