Martin's Original Outline for GoT Ending Was Way Better Than the One We Got
Almost 1.9 million people have signed the well-known petition to remake Game of Thrones Season 8 with competent writers (at the time of the writing) but it seems the initiative did fall on HBO's deaf ears.
Millions of people wanted a different ending to the GoT series they adore. And the ending could have been completely different.
Back in the days – in 1993 to be precise – George R.R. Martin made a pitch to his publishers offering his vision of how the story could evolve. A picture of a typewritten letter circulated online with certain bits in its end blackened. But there's nothing the inquiring minds on Reddit can't solve. So, they did.
"By the end of A Game of Thrones ( the first novel)……………onto the Iron Throne with a bit……………premature death, Bran sits free. Yet his seat is hardly a comfortable one. In the North, Jon Snow is his bitter enemy. Beyond the Narrow Sea, Storm Daenerys prepares her invasion. And on the far side of the Wall, the Others are watching with cold dead eyes and gathering their strength," allegedly reads the final bit of George R.R. Martin's letter deciphered by GoT enthusiasts.
And as we all know Bran Stark did in fact become the King of Westeros in the GoT finale. But what about the rest of the characters?
Imagine a showdown between Jon Snow and Bran – after all, Jon left his family for good and who knows what could have happened. Thirty years ago the author came up with a pretty nice ending but 3 decades is a lot and people tend to change their vision. Martin could have abandoned this plot for sure.
There are other interesting takes from the author's letter such as Tyrion ousting Joffrey from the Iron Throne in disgust over his brutality. Jaime taking the Iron Throne for himself by killing everyone ahead of him in the line of succession and blaming the murders on Tyrion with the latter switching sides and joining the Starks to dethrone Jamie and falling in love with Arya.
All these twists and turns of A Song of Ice and Fire look absolutely exciting. Can we all hope that the HBO writers would get inspired by George R.R. Martin's original ideas and adapt them for at least the Jon Snow GoT spinoff – the one in development as GRRM himself confirmed this summer? We'll learn the answer when the spinoff is released but it appears the premiere will not happen any time soon.