The novel "A Clash Of Kings" has

Robb Stark paired alongside Jeyne Westerling, and we also notice a large part of the House Westerling become an integral component of Robb Stark's court and council

whereas nothing as such is seen in Game of Thrones with the inclusion of Lady Talisa. What are the reasons for such a change?


In an interview panel in Chicon7, George R. R. Martin explains the name change. At about the 55 minute mark in the podcast he starts talking about character changes between the books and the show, and ends up talking about the process of how Jeyne Westerling became Talisa Maegyr.

Briefly, the show writers wanted to flesh out the relationship between Robb and Jeyne, which in the books happened mostly off panel due to the POV writing style of the books. So after several rewrites Jeyne became a noblewoman from Volantis who is also a nurse. At that point George realized that she was now a completely different character and that "Jeyne" wasn't a Volantine name, so he advised that they change her name also. Thus we have Talisa Magyer.

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    It's also worth noting that after recent events, her character's fate was changed in order to make them more tragic. – Tablemaker Jun 6 '13 at 15:01
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    I just so hate when sensible book is eviscerated on screen, and for no good reason either. :( – Balog Pal Jun 7 '13 at 19:23
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    @BalogPal: FWIW, this appears to be a very good reason. Since keeping the name Jeyne would have been an even worse choice merely for the sake of keeping the name. – slebetman Mar 16 '16 at 6:48

The character went through many re-writes, George R. R. Martin suggested changing the character all together, including name. I know a lot of people didn't like it, but I felt she acted as a foil for Robb and actually enjoyed Talisa more.

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    "the character went through many re-writes, GRRM suggested changing the character all together" Is there a source for that? – System Down Jun 4 '13 at 3:04
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    Found it. See my answer. – System Down Jun 6 '13 at 14:58

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