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I think the thing that’s really striking about the got books as opposed to the show is the way Martin never shies away from how physically damaged everyone is left. In the show Tyrion gets a badass scar but in the books he looses half his nose, Briennes teeth are broken and a chunk of her face is literally bitten out. Theon looks like an old man, his body is completely wrecked -
But they’re still not beyond hope. Their stories don’t finish with the horrible things that happen to them, their scars and deformities, they go on, and it’s not pretty and tragic and romantic like a story
Every single book in the series makes a point about how violence and war is romanticised in literature and history and Martin makes his character a living testament to the reality of war, the ugliness, the trauma, and that depth is just another thing that got glossed over in the show where people stay pretty and everything that made the books special is watered down.
Let your characters be ugly. Let them get hurt. Let them be scarred, and watch them get up anyway.