The Utterly Bizarre Original Ending To Game Of Thrones

In the original draft of A Game of Thrones, Tyrion Lannister spends time in King’s Landing bonding with Arya and Sansa Stark, and after getting betrayed by his brother, Jaime, he joins the Stark cause. During this time, he falls madly in love with Arya Stark, although his love is not reciprocated.

Unfortunately, Jon Snow had already fallen in love with Arya, and she with him, during their time together at the Wall. This would lead to a “deadly rivalry” forming between Jon and Tyrion, but its unclear what the ultimate result was meant to be.

To really get a handle on the insanely uncomfortable nature of the plot points in Martin’s origin draft, let's look at the central love triangle between Arya Stark, Jon Snow, and Tyrion Lannister. The fact that Arya has remained so young in the story audiences are familiar makes this idea downright creepy, to say nothing of the fact that Jon and Arya were raised as siblings. For most of the series, in fact, they believe they are. 

It’s also incredibly uncomfortable to realize the early family bonding between Jon and Arya, like him mussing her hair or gifting her with Needle, were originally meant to set up a future romance.

In Martin’s original draft of A Game of Thrones, Robb Stark still went to war against Jaime Lannister after the death of his father, Ned, but things went quite... differently. Jaime was directly aided in battle by the sharp military mind of his brother, Tyrion, which eventually led to Robb getting killed after a few early victories.

While Jaime and Robb were at war, Tyrion played the eventual role of the Greyjoys by besieging and then burning down Winterfell, despite his apparent friendship with Arya and Sansa Stark.

The character arc for Daenerys Targaryen stayed largely the same from the earliest outlines for Game of Thrones to the current state of the story. In both versions, she ends up invading Westeros with a Dothraki horde, but the details of her plot were quite a bit different in the first draft.

She still marries Khal Drogo, and he still murders her brother, Viserys, but things go sideways from there. Originally, Daenerys was meant to murder Drogo to avenge her jerk of a brother, leading to her becoming an outcast among the Dothraki until the discovery of her dragons.

Not all of the differences between the original draft of A Song of Ice and Fire and the finished product are necessarily positive changes. Robb Stark still died young, but he got to do some serious damage to the Lannisters before he passed on.

Joffrey Baratheon took to the battlefield against Robb, and the two eventually faced off in one-on-one combat. Robb badly maimed Joffrey, which is something any Game of Thrones fan would have dearly loved to see.

After Tyrion Lannister sacks Winterfell, Catelyn, Bran, and Arya Stark are forced to flee. As Starks are wont to do, they head north to the Wall. There, they seek help from Jon Snow and Uncle Benjen, but the vows of the Night’s Watch prevent Jon and Benjen from helping their endangered family members.

Although this troubles Jon, due in part to his (gross) budding romance with Arya, he and Benjen send the Starks north of The Wall to seek help elsewhere. Martin maintains that this causes “bitter estrangement” between Bran and Jon in particular. This element doesn’t seem to have made it into the final story at all, and seems like it must have just been another way to get Bran Stark north of the Wall.