The Prince of Magpies Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 So this has been playing on my mind a lot since the initial outline for aSoIaF GRRM sent to his publishers was leaked. I'm really fascinated by GRRM's writing process in planning such a long and complicated multi-book story. In particular, I'm interested in the ideas that he entertained early in the series but decided against going with for whatever reason. I thought it would be nice to start a thread where we can share information about these what-might-have-beens (as well as indulging in wild speculation if that takes your fancy). I should stress that what interests me here is ideas GRRM did consider (even if he did not do so for very long or very seriously) rather than our own original ideas of how he might have done things differently. So to kick us off I'm including a short list of some of the more intriguing possibilities I've heard. If anyone has any more information on these, I'd be delighted to hear them. - Dragons didn't factor into very early conceptions of the story and the Targaryens were going to be pyromancers instead. - Dany would hatch just one dragon and find the egg in the Dothraki Sea, rather than being given three by Illyrio. -Tyrion's acrobatics (seen briefly in AGOT and later resurfacing in ADWD) were part of an earlier, different idea of the character. Does anyone have any idea what other differences to his character were supposed to be? - Jaime was going to be much more of an unambiguously 'evil' character (a sort of Tywin/Cersei hybrid) and murder his way to the Iron Throne. Does anyone know of any other interesting what-might-have-beens, or have any more info on the ones I've outlined? (particularly the first one - I've heard the Pyromancer thing mentioned on this board once but haven't been able to find any more info on it). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruzaderJC Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 The Jon/Arya romance would have been weird in retrospect, now that we've seen their current character incarnations, but that would have made for a nice reverse star wars reveal if Jon was still revealed to be Rheagar and Lyanna's son in the original story. I wonder if Arya would then have fulfilled the Nissa Nissa role for Jon to sacrifice to create Lightbringer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarah.jenice Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 Sansa marrying Joffrey and bearing his heir and choosing to side with him over the Starks. Jaime as one of the lead villains and sitting on the iron throne really surprised me, too. Tyrion growing close with both of the Stark girls while they were at court. Catelyn going back to Winterfell. Her not returning to her younger sons was one of the things that really frustrated me with her character. I actually prefer what GRRM had originally planned for her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Good Guy Garlan Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 I think we would've still gotten UnCat, only revived as a wight (since she dies Beyond the Wall in the outline, I believe?) instead of a R'hllor zombie or whatever Beric was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floki of the Ironborn Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 Wasn't Tyrion also supposed to not be a dwarf? And also have a love triangle with Arya and Jon? I'm actually very relieved GRRM didn't do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thuckey Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 He is like a sculptor, defining features once they are planned out to beautiful artwork. Any of these roads not taken would have been of the same great quality I think. Whic is wierd to think about, as we would be today discussion a totally different plotline and turn o events. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RainGhost Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 2 hours ago, sarah.jenice said: Sansa marrying Joffrey and bearing his heir and choosing to side with him over the Starks. This could explain why Lady died. Maybe it was part of GRRM's original outline but he liked the idea and kept it in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mountain That Flies Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 I believe Joffrey and Robb were supposed to actually meet in combat in the WOT5K, with the former being a notably better swordsman than the character we got. If I remember that's why when they practice fight in Game Robb doesn't wipe the floor with him, which is what should have happened given how the characters turned out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purple-eyes Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 Who can tell me if tyrion is a dwarf or not in this plan? It does not look like there is rickon. So I guess jon and arya married and inherit the winterfell as king and queen? Sansa must be dead with joff and their son. Not sure what happened to Dany. Maybe she married tyrion since tyrion was refused by arya? The last five happened to be two couples plus a bran who can not marry. So I think it is highly likely dany married tyrion and they became king and queen of south. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaybeINeverSawACamel Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 10 hours ago, CruzaderJC said: The Jon/Arya romance would have been weird in retrospect, now that we've seen their current character incarnations, but that would have made for a nice reverse star wars reveal if Jon was still revealed to be Rheagar and Lyanna's son in the original story. I wonder if Arya would then have fulfilled the Nissa Nissa role for Jon to sacrifice to create Lightbringer As an insane person, I have not ruled this out yet, minus the Tyrion bits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curled Finger Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 For all it's worth, it's not in the outline. Some characters change so dramatically from Game to Feast it is as though they are different people. I think Jorah really was intended to go to The Wall per Jeor's wishes--after he meets up with Dany and she rejects him. I think he would have been a better Jorah had that happened. You can see where the story changes throughout the series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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