Mero
The Titan's Bastard: a huge, vicious captain of the Second Sons, a boastful drunk who badly underestimates the dragon queen he's hired to fight.
A soul born at Braavos, sworn to Sellswords & Free Companies.
The fuller tale
How it ends for them
On the screen. His head answered Daario's ambition (S3┬ÀE8)
The Titan's Bastard drank, spat, and plotted to murder the dragon queen he was paid to fight. Daario Naharis chose a different employer and delivered his captains' heads to Daenerys's feet.
On the page. Gutted by Strong Belwas (ASOS, ch. 60)
The Titan's Bastard escaped the rout at Yunkai and came for Daenerys with a beggar's face weeks later. Strong Belwas took a knife across the belly for her and gutted him in the dust ÔÇö then complained about the scar.
The showÔÇÖs Mero dies the night the Second Sons change allegiance: sent with Prendahl and Daario to settle which of them will murder the dragon queen for YunkaiÔÇÖs gold, he is instead settled himself ÔÇö Daario kills both his captains and delivers their heads to DaenerysÔÇÖs tent in a sack, laying the companyÔÇÖs swords at her feet with the trophies. The books kill him later and better: escaped from the rout at Yunkai, Mero stalks Daenerys to Meereen disguised as one of the begging brothers along her road, and lunges from the crowd with a knife when she passes close. Strong Belwas takes the thrust across his belly to reach him and opens the TitanÔÇÖs Bastard from groin to gullet in front of the crowd ÔÇö then, in the booksÔÇÖ perfect grace note, grumbles that Mero has spoiled the symmetry of his scars. In both tellings the moral is identical and entirely sellsword: he underestimated everyone in the story exactly once.
Their chapters, book by book
Where the page and the screen part
In the show Mero commands the Second Sons with Prendahl and Daario as his lieutenants, and dies off-screen the night Daario changes sides ÔÇö his head arriving in a sack at DaenerysÔÇÖs feet along with PrendahlÔÇÖs. The books arrange the companies differently: MeroÔÇÖs Second Sons and PrendahlÔÇÖs Stormcrows are separate outfits in YunkaiÔÇÖs pay, Daario belongs to the Stormcrows, and Mero survives the turning entirely ÔÇö his company routed, the TitanÔÇÖs Bastard escapes and goes to ground. He resurfaces in A Storm of Swords hidden among the beggars of MeereenÔÇÖs road, springing at Daenerys with a knife when she walks among her freedmen; Strong Belwas, her eunuch guardian, takes the blade across his belly and guts Mero in the dust, then complains at length about the scar. Same man, two deaths: the showÔÇÖs a line item in DaarioÔÇÖs courtship, the booksÔÇÖ a lesson in what unpaid grudges do between chapters.
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.