Game of Thrones writer George R.R. Martin is busy working on The Winds of Winter, the highly-anticipated new instalment from his A Song of Ice and Fire novel series. The American author has been working on the book series since the early 90s with the first published in 1996. The expansive story has undergone some major changes since the writer first pitched it to publishing house HarperCollins way back when.
Since his pitch and the books coming out, there were some pretty major revisions including the initial trilogy expanding into a fully-fledged saga of books.
However, one other big change saw Sansa Stark (played by Sophie Turner) betraying the Starks for the Lannisters.
While the character did make a huge mistake in the first book when she essentially betrayed her father Ned Stark (Sean Bean) to Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), it was done out of fear for him.
Ned’s death triggered a chain of events and saw Sansa remain trapped in King’s Landing for many years until she was finally able to flee from the city with the help of Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen).
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She was also shown to remain loyal to the Starks throughout her various ordeals including her violent marriage to Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) in the TV show, which had surpassed the source material at this point.
Sansa eventually became Queen in the North as the kingdom ceded from the rest of Westeros to become an independent nation.
But in a leaked pitch from Martin from 1993, which has surfaced online numerous times, Sansa makes a conscious decision to betray the Starks.
A photograph of the letter reads: “Each of the contending families will learn it has a member of dubious loyalty in its midst.
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“Sansa Stark, wed to Joffrey Baratheon, will bear him a son, the heir to the throne, and when the crunch comes she will choose her husband and child over her parents and siblings, a choice she will later bitterly rue.”
This pitch also included an incestuous relationship between Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) and Jon Snow (Kit Harington) that didn’t make the final cut as well as Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) getting killed by the stoic man of the Night’s Watch.
Another difference between the pitch and the final product saw Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) fleeing with Arya rather than remaining in Winterfell and later dying at the Red Wedding.
While it’s not clear why Martin decided to make these major changes, Sansa’s growth and development as a character has played out wonderfully both in the books as she assumes the guise if Alayne Stone and her rise of Queen in the North in the show.
READ MORE: Game of Thrones: Why did George RR Martin cut Catelyn Stark twist?
Although many things have changed between his pitch and the novels, Martin has been quite clear that that TV series won’t change the ending he has in mind.
He previously said: “There are characters who never made it onto the screen at all, and others who died in the show but still live in the books.
“So if nothing else, the readers will learn what happened to Jeyne Poole, Lady Stoneheart, Penny and her pig, Skahaz Shavepate, Arianne Martell, Darkstar, Victarion Greyjoy, Ser Garlan the Gallant, Aegon VI, and a myriad of other characters both great and small that viewers of the show never had the chance to meet.”
Martin continues in his Not A Blog Livejournal: “How will it all end? I hear people asking. The same ending as the show? Different? Well… yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes.
“I am working in a very different medium than David and Dan, never forget.
“They had six hours for this final season. I expect these last two books of mine will fill 3000 manuscript pages between them before I’m done… and if more pages and chapters and scenes are needed, I’ll add them.”
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