Game of Thrones fans might be pondering a Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen romance right now, but there could have been a much more complicated – and disgusting – storyline playing out according to George RR Martin's original idea.
While the author was pitching A Song of Ice and Fire back in the '90s, his original concept for the main Westeros canon was very different to the one we know now.
The idea was leaked through a series of tweets back in 2015, which contained excerpts of Martin's pitch letter to HarperCollins, but the posts were hastily deleted – the publisher has confirmed that the letters were legitimate though.
Now Vanity Fair has dug them out in order to give us all a glimpse at the reimagined version of the story.
The pitch read: "Arya will be more forgiving … until she realizes, with terror, that she has fallen in love with Jon, who is not only her half-brother but a man of the Night's Watch, sworn to celibacy. Their passion will continue to torment Jon and Arya throughout the trilogy, until the secret of Jon's true parentage is finally revealed in the last book."
First of all, ewww. Secondly it's easy to see that this story was eventually copy-and-pasted onto Jamie and Cersei Lannister, as it's hard to sympathise with the goodies being in an incestuous relationship, after all. Well, unless it's Jon and Daenerys…
This also pretty much confirms, as if it needed confirming again, that Jon Snow is probably a Targaryen. While the previous plot would've made way for a romance between him and Arya without all those icky incest issues, it might just throw a great big dragonglass spanner in the cogs for Jon and Daenerys.
There was also another twist in the tale, as fan-favourite Tyrion Lannister was set to be caught up in the great battle for Arya Stark's affections.
"Exiled, Tyrion will change sides, making common cause with the surviving Starks to bring his brother down, and falling helplessly in love with Arya Stark while he's at it. His passion is, alas, unreciprocated, but no less intense for that, and it will lead to a deadly rivalry between Tyrion and Jon Snow."
This one doesn't seem to have made it off the drawing board, except the idea of Tyrion being exiled and defecting to the opposite side. We all know he is in fact has a bastards' bromance with Jon Snow – perhaps, though, his Arya storyline was transformed into his forced marriage to Sansa Stark.
Elsewhere in the pitch, George made it clear that he wanted Daenerys Targaryen, Arya Stark, Jon Snow, Bran Stark and Tyrion Lannister to survive through the entire trilogy of books he initially planned. Fans sometimes refer to this pack as 'George's children', however the HBO showrunners have expressed their love of Sansa Stark's character, so perhaps she'll be safer for longer, as well?
