HBO's Game of Thrones built its titanic reputation off of betraying viewers' expectations, and that came as much in betraying social mores as narrative conventions. While the death of Ned Stark may have shocked viewers at the end of the first season, the reveal of the Lannisters' incestuous romance between brother and sister came as one of the series' earliest gut-punches.
And yet, there was almost a different romance between brother and sister far more shocking in the series. A since-deleted tweet from the publisher to A Song of Ice and Fire revealed an early story outline by author George R.R. Martin that would have meant Jon's late-series romance with Daenerys was not necessarily always the plan. Instead, it may have been the intention to have Jon end up with Arya.
An early outline for the series tipped author Martin's hand toward later twists in the story familiar to fans of the HBO adaptation. The deaths of Ned and Robb Stark stand out as notable examples, and though the timeline for the deaths of other characters was plotted to occur much differently, the broad strokes of the story should appear familiar. But in adapting the novels, the HBO series famously had to project past the timeline of the books, leaving many fans to wonder about which plot elements were part of Martin's original plan. In particular, the incestuous romance between Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen, discovered in the show to be nephew and aunt, stands out as an element many fans balked at.
However, it turns out it could have been far worse. In the since-redacted outline reveal, there were apparently early plans by Martin to build up a romance between Jon and his younger sister Arya. Though he was raised as a bastard among the Starks, believed to be the illegitimate son of Ned Stark, it was not until later in the television series that Jon discovers his true parentage descends from the Targaryens. A relationship with Arya would set up the incestuous romance to reverse the twist created with Daenerys. Rather than Jon discovering he was related to his beloved, he would instead discover he was not related.
While they would not be biologically related, the fact that Jon and Arya are raised as siblings would make a romance between them difficult to handle. In both the books and the show, the kinship they share stands out as one of the most touching relationships among any of the expansive cast of characters. Both considering themselves outsiders who never quite fit in, their early kindness toward each other creates a tenderness that each desperately needed. Contorting that tenderness into a romantic attraction would only sully it, and the age difference between the characters only makes it worse.
Though the Stark siblings were aged up for the show, in the book series, Arya is only 9, whereas Jon is about 14 years old. The time span in the early outline is hard to say, but the age gap would be a significant hurdle for readers to overcome when Jon is meant to be a heroic character the audience roots for. In looking through the prism of endless possibilities in how the books could have been different and how the TV show may have diverged in adapting those differences, it's hard to find an angle in which Arya is actually a better romantic partner for Jon than Daenerys.
The Game of Thrones finale reached infamous proportions in the criticism it attracted, and perhaps for a story so ambitious and far-reaching in scope operating with an unprecedented level of scrutiny, it would have been impossible for it to find the perfect ending. However, considerations like these can help fans appreciate how that ending could have been far worse.
Both the books and the show have plotlines and characters that stand out as exemplary among comparable installments in genre fiction. Crafting so much from the ground up is no easy task, and Martin speaks frequently about the organic process by which his stories grow in directions even he cannot anticipate. Perhaps considering worse ideas early on and scrapping them is the best way to end up with better ideas later on in the process. To that end, leaving a Jon and Arya romance on the cutting room floor may have been a necessary step in the process.