As season 8 of Game of Thrones draws near, it’s time to look back at the original pilot script for the show, and it’s almost as bad as when Facebook reminds you of how weird you were seven years ago. Brace yourselves, a sh*tstorm of a plot is coming. Among several WTF-details, though, is probably the best thing Westeros could have had in the past decade: Sansa Stark as their queen.
The Huffington Post found the secret original script at a library at Texas A&M, one of George R.R. Martin’s favorite hangouts, and arguably the smartest thing written in there is how Sansa’s mom, Catelyn Stark, really wanted her to be queen. Get in line, but also great idea, Catelyn!
According to this pilot, Catelyn was hungry for power and urged Ned Stark to agree to go to King’s Landing to be the Hand of the King so Sansa can marry literal garbage Joffrey Baratheon.
The script goes like:
Ned:
“I’ll refuse him. I’m a northman. I belong here, not down south in that rats’ nest they call a capital.”
Catelyn:
“He would make our daughter Queen.”
Ned:
“Is that what you want for her? A pretty crown to wear?”
Um, no, Ned. She wants Sansa to be the best ruler of Westeros ever, because she gets Sansa’s potential to be a boss queen unlike a certain someone.
This is a big difference from what actually aired on HBO, which gives Catelyn a less plotting nature. Even though Sansa still went down to King’s Landing with Ned in the real pilot, maybe if Ned was on the same strategic level as Catelyn, Sansa would’ve actually married Joffrey and he wouldn’t have gotten his head chopped off. Just some food for thought. This show would’ve been very different if Ned had listened.
Aside from Sansa, the script also changes the tune of Khal Drogo and Daenerys Targaryen’s relationship to be more consensual, but makes Jamie and Cersei Lannister’s less so. If you remember, in the HBO pilot, Cersei only objects to having sex with Jamie when Bran Stark sees them. In the original pilot, Jamie and Cersei’s brother-sister relationship isn’t even established. She objects to having sex with him the whole time, which makes things more confusing and worse, if that’s even possible.
There was also apparently a scene where Jon Snow gets drunk. Oh what could’ve been.
Ignoring the gross misstep of not making Sansa queen, the actual HBO pilot seems much better.
