Game of Thrones: Here's what George RR Martin *originally* intended for the plot 

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Who remembers the February before last, when a leaked 1993 letter from George RR Martin to his publishers revealed his plans for

Thought not. So as we viewers head into the back end of season 6, here\'s a reminder of what could have been: the plot lines Martin later abandoned, revised or reversed.

Seeing as there are still at least two books yet to come, not to mention two TV seasons, any of this might still come to pass, so consider this a spoiler warning. Seriously, some of it still seems to be part of the master plan.

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The first volume was planned as a story of "plot, counterplot, murder, ambition and revenge" between the Houses of Stark and Lannister, with the Iron Throne as the ultimate prize. So far, so familiar. Martin planned, however, for Daenerys and her Dothraki horde to invade in volume two,

(which ended up as the title of volume 5, in which she still hasn\'t got round to actually invading Westeros).

The White Walkers, meanwhile don\'t feature much till the third and "final" book (yeah, sure, George),

, where they do battle with the Night\'s Watch in a "huge climax".

Martin warns his publisher that even characters who seem to be heroes could die at any moment ("I want the reader to feel that no-one is ever completely safe"), but he singles out five characters he means to last through the entire saga: Jon, Daenerys, Tyrion, Arya and Bran. Well, they\'re all still with us.

Ned Stark still discovers that his friend Jon Arryn was murdered and falls foul of Joffrey, but in the original version, he helped Arya and Catelyn escape King\'s Landing before he is arrested.

Sansa marries Joffrey and has a child by him, eventually taking sides with the Lannisters against the Starks, a "choice which later she will bitterly rue". Tyrion, on the other hand, makes friends with Sansa and Arya at the expense of relations with his own family.

Robb leads the North into war with the Lannisters and maims Joffrey in battle, but loses to the combined forces of Jaime and Tyrion. Robb dies in battle and Tyrion burns Winterfell. (Tyrion! How could you?)

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Jon Snow, meanwhile, succeeds his uncle Benjen as commander of the Night\'s Watch. Catelyn, Arya and Bran flee to the Wall, only to find that Jon cannot take them in, having renounced his family as part of his vows. He makes an enemy of Bran, but Arya falls in love with Jon (ergh!). "Their passion will continue to torment Jon and Arya throughout the trilogy till Jon\'s true parentage is revealed in the last book," says Martin - which seems to be a ringing endorsement of the many theories that place Jon as the child of someone other than Ned Stark.

Catelyn, Arya and Bran go beyond the wall and fall in with Mance Rayder. When the White Walkers attack, their wolves fight them off long enough for the Starks to escape - except Catelyn. RIP, Catelyn.

Across the narrow sea, Daenerys kills Khal Drogo in revenge for the murder of her brother and staggers off into the wilderness, where she JUST HAPPENS TO FIND SOME DRAGON EGGS.

Tyrion, meanwhile, finally kills Joffrey as an act of mercy to the state, Jaime kills everyone else with a claim to the throne before taking it himself and blaming the murders on Tyrion. Going into exile, Tyrion joins the Starks and falls in love with Arya (AWKWARD and a little bit noncey). This leads to a deadly rivalry with Jon Snow.

The final paragraph in the letter was redacted, so we may never know what the intended ending was. Our money\'s on Littlefinger waiting for literally everyone else in the world to be dead before jumping out of a box by the Iron Throne and yelling "Ta-daaa!" We won\'t know for at least two more years...

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