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[Vulcano's assistant]

Jon Snow actually says in the show that Robb was the better swordsman between the two.

I can accept that this was the standing before Jon spent who knows how many years at the wall and beyond, but Jon has grown a lot since.

 

[Mithrarin]

People putting Arya as nr. 1 but then proceed to ignore Jaqen completely makes no sense at all. There is no way she is stronger than Jaqen anyways.

 

[Ocarina_117]

Qhorin half hand is worth a about also. A legend in the books.

 

[jdstorm]

True, but we have to remember that Jon is absurdly humble, almost to a fault. People around him have to point out his strengths and talk him up because he won't. Jon was Rob's sparring partner, along with Theon I believe. If I had to guess, I think Jon was downplaying his swordsmanship...a lot.

I think it was meant to be a subtle callback to Ned and his older brother Brandon Stark. Where Brandon was better yet Ned ended up with the responsibility of ruling Winterfell. Its a nice bit of foreshadowing in hindsight.

As for the show. Game of Thrones copies/pastes and combines characters with regularity. In the case of Barriston Selmy he was clearly replaced by Jorah Mormont due to the popularity of the actor and the familiarity the audience had with him while Grey Worm replaced Strong Belwas.

When you look at Tier lists both show characters Jorah and Grey Worm fit about where you would expect Barriston and Strong Belwas to fit. (Although Jorah slightly lower then Bariston)

As for Jamie Lannister. Show Jamie is a bit of a jobber and he didn't even lose his sword hand. GoTs Jamie is so shit compared to ASOIAF Jamie.