For this, and any other Wacky Writing Ideas, I happily release them into the wild for anyone to use. If you like the idea and want to write it up, do so with my blessing! If you want to change it or use it for something else, have at it! If you really want to do something nice for me, feel free to acknowledge me and let me know if you’ve used one of them (I’ll link to your creative work from my blog). If you don’t feel like it, no worries. If there’re a few comments with enthusiasm for an idea, I may write it up, so please comment if it sounds like something you’d like to read.
What If…? was a Marvel comic line that would take pivotal moments from its comics’ histories and speculate about how things might have turned out differently. For example, one story is about what if Spider-man’s uncle wasn’t killed and Spider-man didn’t fight crime; using his powers to make money instead. They were usually entertaining and anything could happen since they were set in alternate realities. They’ve recently made a series of What If…? animated tv episodes for Disney+.
Elsewhere was the same idea for DC comics and would examine ideas such as what would have happened if Superman had landed in the USSR or during the Roman Empire or if Batman was been born to aristocrats before the French revolution.
J.J. Abrams did an alternate version of the Kirk and Spock era of Star Trek, with the instigating event of the “real” Spock going back in time and creating a different version of reality. This led to three movies.
Star Wars: Infinities was the same idea, for the Star Wars universe. Each set of 4 comics changed one event from the original trilogy, then had the story play out with that change.
The concept behind this wacky writing idea is the same concept, but for Game of Thrones. Each “episode” could branch from a specific event such as “what if Ned Stark hadn’t been executed?” or “what if John Snow wasn’t resurrected?” The rest of the narrative would then examine the consequences of that change. This could be a series of books, a TV series (animated or not), or a series of comic books.
There has been anger about how Season 8 of the show was made by HBO, and this could be used to give them another chance to finish the series differently.
This idea has the added challenge that it’s intrinsically tied to an existing intellectual property. With many ideas based off of existing IP, my view would be to just create your own, similar world and move forward. With this, it has to be Game of Thrones, since the reader needs to understand the original narrative that’s being changed. Only George R. R. Martin, HBO, or someone with their permission could do this.
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