Tyrion Lannister (played by Peter Dinklage) is considered to be one of the greatest characters in the show thanks to his sardonic humour and intellect. Throughout the course of Game of Thrones, he’s managed to survive and out-wit those around him despite constantly getting ridiculed and treated like a social outcast. However, the character was supposed to take quite a dark turn originally in George RR Martin’s novels.
Martin’s letter pitching Game of Thrones to publishers HarperCollins has resurfaced online and offers further insight in the epic story.
Since the writer’s original pitch in 1993, there have been a number of big changes to the story and particularly with Tyrion’s character.
The author’s pitch reads: “Tyrion Lannister will continue to travel, to plot, and to play the game of thrones, finally removing his nephew Joffrey in disgust at the boy king’s brutality.”
In the end, Joffrey Baratheon’s (Jack Gleeson) death at the Purple Wedding was orchestrated by Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) and the Tyrells.
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In the commotion, Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) escaped King’s Landing but Tyrion was thrown in prison for killing Joffrey with Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) later freeing him.
The HBO show then diverges from the books when Littlefinger uses Sansa as a pawn in his own power play. He married her to Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) in a bid to re-take the North and form an alliance after murdering Lysa Arryn (Kate Dickie) to become Lord of the Vale.
In the novels, Sansa assumed the false identity of Alyne Stone and it was Jenny Pool who was married off to Ramsay.
While it’s not clear why Martin changed this plot point, the revision maintained Tyrion’s likability and kept him as an underdog, who was constantly fighting to rise in a world intent on keeping him downtrodden.
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However, there are some even more shocking scenes that didn’t make the final cut in either the novels or the TV series.
The pitch goes on to state: “Jaime Lannister will follow Joffrey on the throne of the Seven Kingdoms, by the simple expedient of killing everyone ahead of him in the line of succession and blaming his brother Tyrion for the murders.
“Exiled, Tyrion will change sides, making common cause with surviving Starks to bring his brother down, and falling helplessly in love with Arya Stark while he’s at it.
“His passion is, alas, unreciprocated, but no less intense for that, and it will lead to a deadly rivalry between Tyrion and Snow.”
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The writer confirms that this part is for his second proposed book with Game of Thrones originally slated to be a trilogy before it became a fully-blown saga.
Again, the story has now taken a very different trajectory with both Tyrion and Jaime becoming more sympathetic characters.
The change from the pitch has also made them more nuanced and less two-dimensional, while the disturbing incestuous romance between Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) was cut.
Jaime, in particular, underwent a transformation and had an intriguing redemption arc through the course of the show thanks to his interactions with Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie).
One other big change saw Sansa having a baby with Joffrey and then betraying the Starks in a move that she will rue forever.
Although a lot of the pitch deals have changed, the bare bones of the story still remain the same with the multithreaded narrative and large cast of characters.
Game of Thrones prequel series Bloodmoon is in production
