'Game of Thrones' Season 5 Premiere Spoilers, Plot Recap: Series Starts to Depart from the Novels

Episode 1 of "Game of Thrones" Season 5 on HBO on Sunday, April 12, set the stage, and now, we are excited to see what the next episodes have in store for everyone.

The departures from the books are starting to show. Entitled "The Wars to Come," the first episode sets the pace for the entire season by putting in perspective where everyone is and prepares the audience for what's coming next.

Back in Season 4, Stannis Baratheon saved the day when the Wildlings attacked the Wall.

At the start of Season 5, Mance Rayder found himself a prisoner of Stannis.

Stannis needed the Wildling army to help him overthrow Roose Bolton in the North. He enlisted the help of Jon Snow to convince Mance to "bend the knee" to him. If he did, his people would be pardoned and would be given a place to settle. If not, Mance would be burned at the stake. Mance refused to yield, and true to his word, Stannis burned him at the stake. Jon Snow, unable to bear what was happening, shot an arrow and killed Mance to end his suffering. There was no mention of Mance's child – a major departure from the books .

In King's Landing, Tywin Lannister's death was being mourned. As Cersei paid her respect to her dead father, she berated Jaime for letting Tyrion go, eventually leading Tyrion to killing their father.

Cersei had a flashback to when she was a child when she and a friend visited a witch to learn about her future. She was given some cryptic predictions about marrying a King and not a Prince (she did marry King Robert Baratheon, and not Prince Rhaegar Targaryen), about her being a Queen until a younger and more beautiful one would replace her (Margeary perhaps?). "The king will have 20 children, you will have three. Gold will be their crowns and gold their shrouds," the witch told her. This meant that Robert Baratheon would father a lot of children out of wedlock and that Cersei's three children would be crowned (Joffrey was King before he died, and Tommen followed). Does this mean Myrcella will be queen and potentially be killed as well?

Speaking of Tyrion, he and Varys escaped together at the end of Season 4 after Tyrion killed his father.

The first episode of Season 5 saw the two engaging in witty banter as they traveled and then reached Pentos. This was probably the biggest departure from the books, because in the books, Varys never joined Tyrion.

It would be interesting just how far the show would go and how much different the storyline would be from the books.

In true Tyrion fashion, when asked what he would rather do: Stay at Illyrio's mansion and drink himself to death, or join Varys to go find Dany and her dragons, he answered, "Can I drink myself to death on the road to Meereen?"

In Meereen, Dany was facing some challenges. Two of her dragons had been locked up while one was still missing. The Sons of Harpy were killing off her Unsullied. She was also pressured to reinstate the Fighting Pits. At least she had a lover (Daario Naharis) to keep her bed warm.

Littlefinger and Sansa were seen conversing and almost crossing paths with Brienne and Podrick. Little Robin was shown trying to get trained in swordplay. Back in Season 4, Littlefinger pushed Lysa to her death and Sansa lied for him. Brienne fought with the Hound in a bid to save Arya, but Arya escaped and left the Hound dying in agony.

Episode 1 did not show Arya, who was last seen boarding a boat for Braavos.