Game Of Thrones doesn’t exactly shy away from icky romances – episode one hadn’t even wrapped up when we were introduced to Cersei and Jaime’s incestuous relationship.
But there was one scrapped relationship which we can’t even imagine making it to the screen.
It turns out that George RR Martin planned on Arya Stark falling in love with Jon Snow – which is all kinds of wrong.
Way before Game Of Thrones was brought to HBO, when Martin was laying out the family dynamics in the outline for his A Song Of Ice And Fire series, he thought up a storyline in which Jon and Arya fell in love.
Arya – who is Jon’s cousin, but at this time believed they were half-siblings – was originally slated to join her mother Catelyn and brother Bran on their journey to the Wall, and when she arrived at Castle Black, Martin planned for Arya to realise she had feelings for the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch.
The outline read: ‘Wounded by Lannister riders, they will seek refuge at the Wall, but the men of the Night’s Watch give up their families when they take the black, and Jon and Benjen will not be able to help, to Jon’s anguish. It will lead to a bitter estrangement between Jon and Bran.
‘Arya will be more forgiving… until she realises, with terror, that she has fallen in love with Jon, who is not only her half-brother but a man of the Night’s Watch, sworn to celibacy.
‘Their passion will continue to torment Jon and Arya throughout the trilogy, until the secret of Jon’s true parentage is finally revealed in the last book.’
Not only had Martin planned for the relatives to have an incestuous romance, but Tyrion Lannister was also originally set to fall in love with the youngest Stark sister.
Martin’s outline read: ‘Exiled, Tyrion will change sides, making common cause with the surviving Starks to bring his brother down, and falling helplessly in love with Arya Stark while he’s at it.
‘His passion is, alas, un-reciprocated, but no less intense for that, and it will lead to a deadly rivalry between Tyrion and Jon Snow.’
Thankfully, this plot was thrown out, and we got to see Arya (Maisie Williams) and Jon (Kit Harington) bonding as outcasts of the Stark clan.
However, Jon hasn’t avoided the ick factor, as he has fallen for Daenerys Targaryen – who he has just discovered is actually his aunt.
Dating in Winterfell, what a nightmare.
Game Of Thrones airs Sunday nights on HBO in the US and is simulcast on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV.
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