No one's first draft is perfect. And, long before it was a massive cultural phenomena, Game of Thrones started as a show that even the creators said was terrible.
“It took us almost four years to get the pilot made,” co-creator David Benioff has said. “We finally got it finished, and we show it to [screenwriters] Craig [Mazin], Ted Griffin, and Scott Frank. And watching them watch that original pilot was one of the most painful experiences of my life.”
While there have been unverified attempts to find this infamous script, we still don't know what made it so awful. But now, Huffington Post's Bill Bradley says he's uncovered the original script at Texas A&M’s Cushing Memorial Library, where George R.R. Martin has deposited his old writing for decades.
And this script, as rumoured, is not good.
A number of characters are much different from how we know them today. For example, the sex scene between Cersei and Jaime—where Bran gets pushed out of the window—was much more confusing. The original scene describes non-consensual sex between Jaime and Cersei. As the script reads:
Woman: Stop...
He does not stop. Keeping one hand on her hair, he pushes himself to his knees. He seizes her hip with his free hand and pulls her toward him, thrusting deep into her.
Woman: (moaning) stop it ... stop it ... please...
It's a disturbing description. In contrast, the episode that aired only showed Cersei protesting Jaime's advances when she saw Bran in the window. This script shows her protesting much sooner—like the book—which makes the characters' relationship, along with Jaime's eventual change of heart, difficult to accept.
Another character that acted much different in the original script is Catelyn Stark, who pushes Ned into marrying off Sansa so she can become queen. Of course, this would have made Catelyn seem power-hungry from the get go, which couldn't be further from the actual character, who values protecting her family above all else.
Elsewhere in this original script, the White Walkers talk and have their own language. Also, Jon Snow gets wasted at the big feast at Winterfell—which might have been kind of fun.
Now, as book readers will notice, some of these details in the original script align with what happens in Martin's novels. In that context—where he is able to delve into the characters with more depth and intimacy from their perspective—these choices can be explained and justified. He's able to develop these characters in a way that's not possible, and wouldn't have worked, in a pilot episode.
Matt Miller is a Brooklyn-based culture/lifestyle writer and music critic whose work has appeared in Esquire, Forbes, The Denver Post, and documentaries.
