I used to know who was about to get offed.

I knew all the major plot twists and where the story was going.

But since the end of last season of Game of Thrones, all you TV watchers are caught up to us book readers.

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The last scene of season five, with Jon lying on the snow, is the final scene of the latest book — A Dance With Dragons.

Now I’m quietly stressing out at the arrival of season six on Monday morning.

Here’s why…

I’ll finally feel the pain when my favourite characters die

Remember our good friend Oberyn Martell, the Red Viper?

It’s hard to wipe the image of his shocking, head-crunching death in season four from your mind.

Stay safe Tyrion Lannister. HBO

When I read that scene in the book I tried to avert my eyes when I saw the details of his untimely and stupid end during a duel with The Mountain.

But when it was coming up to that scene on the show, his death didn’t shock me. I already knew.

My main fascination was focused on whether they would actually reproduce the disturbing details of his death exactly as it was in the book (they did).

That’s not going to happen anymore. I’m not going to know the spoilers.

I’ll instead be yelling at the TV and tearing out hair with the rest of the show’s watchers when all the good characters get annihilated — I can’t even blame George RR Martin anymore.

For me, the show is going to become stressful viewing.

I got a tiny taste of what that feels like last season when Barristan Selmy, who left the Seven Kingdoms to become an adviser to Daenerys, died on the show.

He’s still alive in the books at the spot we’re up to. I didn’t expect it.

In fact he’s actually one of the few characters from whose point of view the story is written, so his death is a pretty big deal.

Valar morghulis Ser Barristan the Bold.

And that leads me to…

The show keeps changing things from the books

I could handle it when King in the North Robb Stark’s new wife came along with him to the red wedding and was killed.

In the books she stayed behind with the Tullys at Riverrun and survived.

She was basically phased out in the books, she didn’t matter. So I had no problems with the TV showrunners including her in the red wedding carnage.

But season four and five started to make bigger and bigger changes that were wildly different to the books.

Why is Jaime in Dorne? He didn’t do that.

Hey Jamie, go home. You were never meant to be in Dorne.
Supplied: HBO

Umm, Varys doesn’t actually meet up again with Tyrion after he finally gets to Daenerys.

In fact, Varys has a completely different motive and endgame in the books. What’s going on?

But then the most frustrating thing of all.

What seems like a very major character with an important plot in the books didn’t show up last season when they should have.

I’m guessing they won’t be in the show at all.

And that just frustrates me as a book reader, because if that seemly really important character is not important to the show, they probably aren’t actually important in the book and will get killed off.

Now the show is giving me spoilers for future books.

There’s also an awesome central character of both the TV show and books who is extremely dead on the show but very much alive and causing trouble in the books.

That character has a part in genuinely one of the most jaw-dropping moments in the books. But it looks like that’s been completely cut from the show.

I’d love for it to come back in a later part of the show, but I just don’t see it happening.

These changes to the books are just going to keep piling up.

The show will probably finish in three years, the books won’t

HBO president Michael Lombardo has said showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss are “feeling like there’s probably two more years after [season] six”.

That would take us to eight seasons, ending the show in 2018, if that’s still their plan.

By that stage we’ll probably have the next book, The Winds of Winter, but there’s no way Martin will have finished the final seventh novel, A Dream of Spring.

Martin has reportedly filled in the showrunners on the broad strokes of where the story is heading, so while the show is going to start inventing a lot of dialogue, the major plot points are likely to be similar to the upcoming books.

Which means that if I watch the show I’ll know the ending and all the plot twists along the way, stealing the thunder from the book series I’ve spent so much time reading.

Martin probably wasn’t betting on the show catching up to him before he finished the books.