Game Of Thrones: Jaime Lannister Originally Planned To Rule From The Iron Throne

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Spoilers for Game of Thrones.

George R.R. Martin’s initial plan for Game of Thrones would have concluded the story sooner and featured a surprising character as the ruler of the Iron Throne. When he first started writing what became A Song of Ice and Fire in the early 1990s, Martin shared an outline with his agent.

The initial draft – an outline and a 200-page manuscript – contained story elements that would later appear almost exactly as they did in the published books, alongside sections that were ultimately rewritten completely. He originally envisioned the series as a trilogy, with titles like Game of Thrones, A Dance of Dragons, and The Winds of Winter, but it eventually grew beyond those three books.

Originally, the story featured a bitter conflict between the Stark and Lannister families, with Robb Stark meeting an early death. Daenerys and her army were set to arrive from across the sea, and the primary threat came from the Others. But the plans shifted, and a surprising change was made: Jaime Lannister was ultimately destined to rule as king.

The Original Outline Of Game Of Thrones Had Jaime Lannister Becoming King

Initially, George R.R. Martin envisioned Jaime Lannister as a straightforward villain in Game of Thrones. Over time, he evolved into the complex, morally ambiguous character seen in the books and TV series. Many of the cruel traits originally planned for Jaime were ultimately given to Cersei, Joffrey, and Tywin instead.

Martin initially envisioned Jaime ascending the Iron Throne after Tyrion killed Joffrey – a just outcome, in his view. He didn’t detail the logistics, simply stating Jaime would eliminate anyone standing between him and the throne. This plan would have significantly streamlined the story.

If the show had focused only on Jaime and Tyrion Lannister, it would have lost so much of what made it great. Honestly, without seeing Jaime change and Cersei’s dramatic downfall, the story would have been way shorter and a lot less interesting – those two arcs were some of the best parts of Game of Thrones, in my opinion.

Jaime Lannister Becoming King Would Not Have Made Any Sense

George R.R. Martin deliberately builds his fantasy worlds, like those in Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire, with elements inspired by real-world systems and how things actually work. Making Jaime a traditional king would have undermined that sense of realism, which is a key part of what makes his stories stand out.

Jaime Lannister has a very weak claim to the Iron Throne simply by being Joffrey’s uncle. He’d have almost no chance of becoming king unless he eliminated all of the Baratheon heirs and even his own siblings’ children, if they were still alive in this story.

The king, a strikingly handsome and skilled swordsman, feels like a character straight out of the fantasy stories George R.R. Martin intentionally set out to subvert. Thankfully, Martin’s choice to make Jaime more relatable, and other similar decisions, ultimately improved the narrative.

It’s ironic that George R.R. Martin hasn’t finished his story, likely because he made the right call to broaden the scope of Game of Thrones. While he might have completed a series based on his initial plan, it probably wouldn’t have achieved the same incredible popularity.

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2026-04-03 23:38