It took me till Episode 4 to let the changes sit alright with me. Adapting a book series like this for TV is an enormous tasks, and things will get left behind, or changed, to make the story flow. Besides, the show isn't really for the people who have read the books: we already love it. But there is the rest of the world that needs to experience it. This is to show them what is to love so, one hopes, it can bring them in.
Besides...it's not Winter Dragon...