Game of Thrones only became such a titanic success because it identified some of the most entertaining aspects of A Song of Ice and Fire to adapt. From epic battles of dragons against armies to dazzling displays of magic and visual effects seldom seen on television, the show understood what people wanted to see. Yet at the same time there were other mystical elements to the story that the show neglected to adapt, some of which were every bit as cool.

In fact, the most badass character from the books never even appeared on screen. Varamyr Sixskins may have not been a major character, but not including him at all was one of Game of Thrones'  biggest missed opportunities.

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Game of Thrones warging

Varamyr Sixskins was one of the free folk, known by the Night's Watch as wildlings. North of the Wall society is far different than it is throughout most of Westeros, and Game of Thrones only ever really talked about wildling life in generalities. While the show made it clear that magic and mysticism were far more common north of the Wall, with giants showing up for the Battle of Castle Black and the free folk often speaking openly of their spiritual beliefs, there were some aspects the show never truly delved into. Perhaps the biggest is warging, most familiar to viewers of the show through characters like Orell, who enters the mind of an eagle companion in order to scout the skies.

Warging is a powerful mystical ability available to those known as skinchangers, and while it is still considered a rare ability in the books, it is downplayed even more in the show. Each of the Stark children share a close bond with the direwolves they adopted as pups, but the books go so far as to make it clear just how magically intimate that bond becomes. Arya enters Nymeria's body through her dreams, and Jon is outright identified as a warg by one of the biggest authorities on the matter: Varamyr Sixskins. Since there was less emphasis on warging in the show we didn't get to see Varamyr, which is a shame because he's possibly the coolest character in A Song of Ice and Fire.

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In the books Varamyr commands several villages north of the Wall when he is introduced, uniting with Mance Rayder out of the common fear against the approaching wights. There is little else Varamyr is afraid of, however, as the skinchanger commands a small army of animals at his side at all times. He rides on the back of a great snow bear, sends a shadowcat to stalk his prey, and keeps a trio of wolves at his side at all times. Following Orell's death he even commands the slain warg's eagle as his own, gaining all the same advantages of scouting while maintaining his fierce force of beasts.

Ghost Direwolf Game of Thrones

Varamyr even wanted to claim Jon's companion Ghost as his own, partly out of the hatred for Jon he inherited from Orell's remnant psyche. Inhabiting the minds of animals when they are slain and taking the animals of other wargs as his own was such a constant in Varamyr's life that it created a rich and singular character unlike any other in the series, uniquely traumatized and destabilized by the inhuman experiences he's suffered since childhood.

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Fans disappointed they never saw Varamyr in the show only have so much to go off in the books themselves. A Song of Ice and Fire features a dizzying number of characters, and there are too few who receive the focus they deserve. Varamyr is luckier than most in that he serves as the point-of-view character for the prologue to A Dance with Dragons.

Unfortunately, the same chapter ends in his death -- or something like it. Stubborn to the end, however, Varamyr goes out unlike any other character in the series, attempting to warg into the mind of a human who is driven mad by this intrusion and claws out her own eyes. In his dying moments Varamyr seemingly manages to transfer himself to one of his wolves, meaning he survives at least in some fashion in the books. It would have been hard to connect the mind-blowing scene to the rest of the story in the show, but it stands out as such a remarkable moment that not including it all speaks to everything Game of Thrones' could have adapted and chose not to, often to its detriment.

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