Janos Slynt
A butcher's son risen to command of the City Watch of King's Landing, greedy and self-serving, who knows exactly which way to bend.
A soul born at King's Landing, sworn to The Night's Watch.
The fuller tale
Season Two
Tyrion removes Janos Slynt from the gold cloaks and gives them to Bronn.
Where they stand. Castle Black.
Season Five
Jon Snow, elected Lord Commander, gives Janos Slynt one order ÔÇö and then the sword.
How it ends for them
On the screen. Beheaded at the Wall (S5┬ÀE3)
The former commander of the gold cloaks, who sold Ned Stark and butchered Robert's bastards, refused a direct order from the new Lord Commander. Jon Snow took his head in the yard himself. 'I was afraid. I've always been afraid.'
On the page. Beheaded for refusing an order (ADWD, ch. 8)
The butcher's son who sold Ned Stark refused the Lord Commander's order three times, sure his friends in King's Landing made him safe. Jon Snow did not hang him. He took Slynt's head himself, in the yard, with Longclaw ÔÇö and Stannis nodded.
Ordered to take charge of a derelict castle down the Wall, Slynt refuses ÔÇö once with scorn, twice with cronies at his back, a third time with open contempt for the boy commander. Jon Snow does not hang him. He orders the block brought out into the yard of Castle Black and takes Janos SlyntÔÇÖs head himself with Longclaw, in the old northern way his father taught: the man who passes the sentence swings the sword. In the show SlyntÔÇÖs bluster shatters at the last into terror ÔÇö ÔÇ£IÔÇÖve always been afraidÔÇØ ÔÇö and the stroke falls anyway; in the books his end is steadier but no less final, and Stannis, watching, nods once. Either way the debt sworn on the steps of BaelorÔÇÖs sept years before is paid in full, by the son of the man he sold.
Their chapters, book by book
A Game of Thrones 1 chapter that name them
A Clash of Kings 1 chapter that name them
A Storm of Swords 2 chapters that name them
A Dance with Dragons 1 chapter that name them
Where the page and the screen part
The tellings differ mainly in choreography and company. In the books Slynt arrives at the Wall with his cronies in tow and comes within a few votes of winning the Lord Commandership ÔÇö a genuinely near thing, averted by SamÔÇÖs midnight politicking ÔÇö which makes his subsequent insubordination a sore loserÔÇÖs gamble rather than mere spite. The order he refuses differs too: on the page it is command of the ruined castle of Greyguard; on screen, oversight of the same sort of restoration work. Both versions agree that he refuses three times, publicly, banking on Lannister protection that no longer exists, and that the sentence that follows is carried out by the Lord CommanderÔÇÖs own hand ÔÇö the show adding a last-second collapse into begging, the books adding Stannis BaratheonÔÇÖs silent, approving nod from the KingÔÇÖs Tower.
Their journey
Where the two tellings send them to the same place the road runs whole; where they part, the screen keeps the left and the books the right.