London: Not many know that ‘Game of Thrones’ was in for another incestuous relationship had author George RR Martin gone ahead with his planned romantic angle between Arya Stark and Jon Snow.

According to The Independent, when the writer was prepping the outline for his book series ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’, he originally had Arya falling for her half-brother Jon, who is later revealed to be her cousin.

Martin described how the character, played in the HBO series by Maisie Williams, would have fallen for Snow (Kit Harington) after joining him on his journey to the Wall alongside mother Catelyn (Michelle Fairley) and brother Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright).

“Wounded by Lannister riders, they will seek refuge at the Wall, but the men of the Night’s Watch give up their families when they take the black, and Jon and Benjen will not be able to help, to Jon’s anguish. It will lead to a bitter estrangement between Jon and Bran. Arya will be more forgiving… until she realises, with terror, that she has fallen in love with Jon, who is not only her half-brother but a man of the Night’s Watch, sworn to celibacy.

“Their passion will continue to torment Jon and Arya throughout the trilogy, until the secret of Jon’s true parentage is finally revealed in the last book,” the plotline read.

In the show, however, Arya and Jon share a strong familial bond. Jon is shown as a mentor to Arya, who gifts her The Needle, which she later masters to become a faceless assassin, in the first season.

‘GOT’, which is currently in its eighth and final season, has featured two incestuous relationships – of brother-sister Jaime and Cersei Lanniser and the currently unknown nephew-aunt relationship between Daenerys and Aegon Targaryen (Jon).

PTI