Everyone knows that Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss sidelined George R.R. Martin from Season 5 onward. What’s less known is that, before their split, Martin handed in a script that charted a different course for Game of Thrones – until Benioff and Weiss requested rewrites.
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Admittedly, Martin’s original draft of Game of Thrones Season 4, Episode 2, “The Lion and the Rose” – the infamous Purple Wedding installment – wouldn’t have altered everything. Before their estrangement, Martin shared a rough outline of the two unpublished A Song of Ice and Fire novels with Benioff and Weiss, to help them navigate Seasons 5 to 8. So, however Martin plans to end the books, it’s presumably broadly in line with how Game of Thrones wrapped up its run. Even so, Martin’s “The Lion and the Rose” hints that the in-between bits were very much subject to change.
Indeed, if Martin’s final Game of Thrones script had been shot as written, the show’s final seasons would’ve resembled their finished form far, far less.
Not All of Martin’s Cut Game of Thrones Content Matters
Now, it’s important not to oversell George R.R. Martin’s original draft (which Vanity Fair did a breakdown of back in 2018). Some of the material Benioff and Weiss trimmed out didn’t really matter. For example, Martin’s more gory death for Joffrey Lannister – gouging deep wounds in his own neck, while blood pours from his mouth – is well-deserved, but doesn’t really move the narrative needle. Either way, he’s just as dead. Downgrading the elaborate wedding feast Martin describes doesn’t do the wider story any harm either, nor does ignoring his many POV shot descriptions.
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The same goes for a scene showcasing Varys’ impressive powers of disguise. It’s interesting stuff, but not essential to the overarching plot. Even the revelation that Joffrey (not Littlefinger) ordered Bran’s assassination in Game of Thrones Season 1 isn’t that vital. Sure, Tyrion Lannister learning the truth more convincingly positions him as Joffrey’s supposed killer (the reason why is complicated; basically, Tyrion’s sniping is later misconstrued as a threat). Yet all this really does is strengthen Season 4’s storytelling. It doesn’t meaningfully alter Tyrion’s series trajectory.
Martin Tried to Set Up a Bunch of Cut Subplots
Caveats out of the way, what was significant in Martin’s original “The Lion and the Rose” draft? One word: subplots. Unsurprisingly, Martin was eager to set up a bunch of secondary narrative threads that appear in his books. Most notably, his final Game of Thrones script tees up Ramsay Snow’s marriage to Jeyne Pool; Benioff and Weiss ultimately substituted Sansa Stark for Jeyne.
Martin also has Jaime Lannister’s Riverlands escapades on the near-horizon, instead of two seasons and a Dornish detour away. What’s more, he squeezes in several minor characters missing from the finished episode, including Ser Osmund Kettleblack. Kettleblack breaks up Jaime’s incestuous relationship with his sister Cersei in Martin’s books. He’s barely in the show, and as a result, their affair plays out differently in Seasons 5 to 8. Martin foreshadows a showdown with House Stark’s surviving direwolves and Ramsay’s dogs, too. No such set piece ever appears in Game of Thrones (and the world is poorer for it).
Just as importantly, Martin tried to beef up the signposting for other subplots that did make the cut. His version of the Bran Stark vision sequence boasts additional glimpses to the past and future, including the Children of the Forest and Arya Stark in face-changing assassin mode. Martin also handles Melisandre’s non-believer bonfire differently. Aside from placing greater emphasis on the Lord of Light’s mystic powers (think multicolored flames and transfigured apparitions), his script more heavily foreshadows Shireen Baratheon’s fate in Season 5. Would this controversial scene have gone down better with a more gradual build-up? It certainly couldn’t have hurt.
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Why Did Benioff and Weiss Change Martin’s Last Game of Thrones Script?
So, why did Benioff and Weiss rework Martin’s last Game of Thrones script so heavily? They’ve never commented publicly, but we can guess. For starters, some of what Martin envisioned would’ve been too expensive, even for a big budget production like Game of Thrones. Direwolves, supernatural light shows, and morphing mugs all add to the VFX bill. Also, as a novelist, Martin is big on sprawling casts and narratives. Benioff and Weiss presumably worried that audiences would struggle to keep track of (much less invest in) the number of characters and plot threads he had in mind.
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Then there’s personal preferences to consider. As the Vanity Fair piece correctly observes, Benioff and Weiss resisted using flashbacks for the longest time. Meanwhile, Martin’s books are full of them (in the form of characters’ memories). Different creators just have different instincts; whether Benioff and Weiss’s were the equal of Martin’s – particularly once they forged ahead without him – is up for debate. But what’s not debatable is that had they followed Martin’s last-ever script to the letter, Game of Thrones final seasons would’ve been a very different beast.
All eight seasons of Game of Thrones are currently streaming on HBO and Max.
Published: Aug 5, 2024 05:25 pm