George R.R. Martin Had One Condition To Turn Game Of Thrones Into A TV Show

Before David Benioff and D.B. Weiss could get their "Game of Thrones" adaptation greenlit, they had to prove themselves to the books' author, George R.R. Martin. After all, they were asking for a lot in 2005 when they first pitched Martin their idea for a "Game of Thrones" TV show; by that point, the pair had little on their resumes indicating they could handle overseeing a decade-spanning HBO fantasy drama. The most high-profile achievement between the two at that stage was Benioff writing the screenplay for the 2004 Brad Pitt vehicle "Troy."

Be that as it may, Benioff and Weiss had two things working in their favor when they spoke with Martin. The first was that they were clearly genuine fans of the original novels, and the second was that they had figured out the answer to one of the books' biggest mysteries. As Weiss explained in a 2015 interview with Variety:

"I think with us, he understood that we didn't have to fake anything. We had become instantly and genuinely obsessed with his books to the point where we knew lots and lots about the minutiae of them — and then he asked us the question about Jon Snow's parentage. Maybe if we had gotten it wrong, he would have let us do it anyway. It was still obvious that we love this, and that we wanted to do it more than anything in the world, and that we would respect it and honor it. I think getting (the answer) right probably helped."

As fans today all know, Jon's mother turned out to be Ned's late sister Lyanna, while Jon's father was none other than Rhaegar Targaryen. The clues for all this were subtle but still laid out pretty clearly in Ned Stark's point-of-view chapters in the first book. Readers knew that Lyanna had died under vague circumstances around the same time Jon was born. They also knew Lyanna had asked Ned to promise he'd do something for her. Combine that with Ned's secretiveness around Jon's mother, the idea of Ned cheating on his wife Catelyn being out of character for him, and how Robert Baratheon wanted to wipe out the entire Targaryen bloodline, and it was easy for savvy readers to connect the dots.

D&D had no way to know for sure who Jon's parents were, but the fact that they'd figured it out anyway showed that they were true fans. It implied that they'd put a lot of thought into Jon's character and were prepared to handle this reveal in a thematically compelling way.

The irony of it all is that, by the time the season 8 finale came along, it was clear D&D had no idea what to do with this information. Jon (Kit Harington) learning about his parents had little impact on his long-term character arc. He didn't want to be king before he found out, and he didn't want to be king after. The biggest impact it had on the story was the way it sped up Daenerys' (Emilia Clarke) arc of growing paranoid and vindictive, a storyline that was already unpopular with the "Game of Thrones" fanbase anyway. 

Was there a way to let Jon's parentage have a stronger, clearer impact on the story? It's not clear, especially since Martin himself has yet to actually finish his books. Until Martin completes both "The Winds of Winter" and "A Dream of Spring," fans are stuck imagining amongst themselves how the storyline could've been handled in a satisfying way. Maybe Jon in the books will actively use his newly-discovered lineage to his advantage. Perhaps the books will dedicate some time to showing the other Stark siblings properly react to the news. And maybe Martin has something more planned for Jon's ending than having him wander back north of the wall. Jon's conclusion may be set in stone on the "Game of Thrones" TV series, but a happier ending for book Jon is still up in the air.