In 2015, a letter containing George RR Martin’s original 1993 pitch to his editor for his A song of ice and fire series leaked on the Internet. Well, most of the time – there was a paragraph at the end that had been written with black marker, followed by the words “But this is the second book…” Now the fans have deciphered (mostly) what went wrong. been typed under these lines, and it’s quite a surprise… and maybe a spoiler.

If you’ve seen the letter (spotted via Winter is coming, but you can Check it out here) or are just familiar with your GRRM story, you will recall that his original plan for A song of ice and fire was like a trilogy. The first book, A game of thrones, was to focus on the war between the Starks and the Lannisters, followed by the invasion of Westeros by Daenerys in A dance with dragons, and concluded in The Winds of Winter where the Others (aka White Walkers) would make their attack. The letter mainly detailed the many, numerous events that were to take place Thrones, which were very different from those in the finished novel, including:

• After the deaths of Ned and Robb Stark, Tyrion would go on to lead an army of Lannister to burn Winterfell down. Catelyn was going to flee with Bran and Arya to Night’s Watch for protection, but Jon Snow was going to have to push them back (no family allowed), forcing her to go beyond the wall and seek the help of Chief Wilding Mance Rayder. . Then she was going to be killed by the Others.
• Sansa was going to be pregnant with Joffrey’s child and side with the Lannisters against the Stark family. Tyrion ultimately poisoned Joffrey because he sucked, but Jaime was going to assassinate everyone else in the line of succession until he sat down on the Iron Throne and frames Tyrion.
• Tyrion would then have joined Bran and Arya, and would have fallen in love with the latter. Arya, meanwhile, was reportedly in love with Jon Snow, whom she believed to be her half-brother. Not good on either account.

Once again, everything is in the first volume! And, using a fascinating process that I don’t understand but you can read here, fans discovered most of what Martin wrote about the second book in this passage written:

“At the end of A game of thrones (the first novel) …………… on the Iron Throne with a somewhat …………… premature death, Bran sits free. However, his seat is hardly comfortable. In the North, Jon Snow is his bitter enemy. Beyond the strait, Storm Daenerys prepares his invasion. And across the Wall, the Others gaze with cold dead eyes and gather their strength.

Looks like Bran Stark was going to be on the Iron Throne by the end of A game of thrones, presumably with the help of Tyrion, who is savage. It seems like an entirely arbitrary development – just as arbitrary as it was when Tyrion named him the new Lord of the Seven Kingdoms in the finale of the Game Of Thrones TV shows. This begs the question: Did the show make its decision based on this original schematic? Is Bran’s rise still part of the author’s plan to A song of ice and fire? Or has Martin changed his mind, whether it’s because of the massive evolution of the story since he made the original pitch or because of how the TV series finale was? received?

These are all great questions that will likely be answered when Martin’s publishes. The Winds of Winter and a dream of springhopefully in our lifetime.

Wondering where our RSS feed went? You can pick up the new one here.