I was bored and decided why not release the unused storylines just for the heck of it? So originally, the story that has been released was not what was originally planned. Before I brought Longclaw onboard, I had several different paths to take things but ultimately decided that the main points to take were Jon revealing his birth and taking the Iron Throne as Aegon Targaryen and rejecting to advance on Daenerys until the battle. When Longclaw came along, we decided that adding Sansa into the love fest was actually the ultimate move to do and it evolved as you have read and that was that.
The ideas that did not come to fruition varied as follows:
Rather than revealing his birth, Jon would have actually done everything needed to bury the secret as best he could, having High Septon Maynard's journal destroyed and swearing Howland and the Raven and Bran to Secrecy. He would have continued to take the throne, but as Jon Snow instead. With the North, the Riverlands, and the Reach backing him, there would have been no challenge of conquest from him despite him taking it as a bastard.
Things would have diverged from this point into more possibilities.
Jon taking Margaery for his wife to further distance himself from Daenerys but things would have lead to Margaery being the one to have their marriage annulled so he could be with Dany and she would have gone on to become much like her grandmother. (this was legitimately just an idea that was barely played with. One of those, humor it until it's written down then dislike it.
Alternatively, the other path that I most favored with this one:
Jon would have remained a total loner until the battle against Euron and rescuing Daenerys. However he would divulge his true identity to Daenerys and the close members of his family but ordered them to keep it a secret still as the realm did not want to be led by a Targaryen.
Jon may or may not marry Dany before the battle, but they would lay together and Dany would fall pregnant with his child.
The biggest difference would be the conclusion of the final battle which was going to happen at Eastwatch
Jon would still engage in a duel with the Night King, same way it went down in the story with Dany present and delivering the final blow with Longclaw after Jon deliberately took a hit to distract the night King, but the wound would have been fatal.
Daenerys would get her final moment with Jon one of two ways. 1) Jon from the future would still be present long enough to say goodbye and that he loves her. 20 the even sadder route, Future Jon's conscious would have vanished since the future had changed and present Jon would awake just to be on death's doorstep again, but he and Dany would have a moment. He's afraid but he dreamed of everything. Daenerys would comfort him letting him know that his family and his people are saved now and he can rest. They'd have a kiss and he'd whisper "Dany" before he died.
Jon would have had a grand funeral pyre and Eulogy from his family. Daenerys would have had her turn and revealed to all who he really was and her words would have mirrored Tormund's and Barbrey's in chapter 4 that it's not the blood or name that matters, it's the action.
Peace is made between House Targaryen and Stark, with a meeting of the great Lords and Daenerys being chosen to return to her family's seat as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, however she would have declared the North to become independent but supported.
The epilogue would have been recycled from the Ghost in which Jon's son would be in Winterfell many years later and through the magic of the weirwood, see Jon before the final battle and have a one sided heart to heart from his father. And then the end.
Quite a different story huh? Wouldn't have been as great as the final product, but like i said when I released The Ghost's summary, who knows how it could have evolved?
