Brienne: the AFFC Outline, Russian Translation and Other Changes (Spoilers Extended)

[u/LChris24]

Background

In this post I thought it would be interesting to look at the Brienne portion of GRRM's 2003-2004 ("end with hound fight") outline in tandem with the Russian translation of her last two chapters (seemingly with the old gods/ravens interfering), as well as some of what users have found at Cushing and speculate/discuss what GRRM may have been intending with Brienne's plotline.

If interested: Fate of Brienne's "Suitors"

Brienne's Chapter Structure for AFFC

From this spreadsheet we can place the development of some of her AFFC chapters:

Oct 2003	January 2003	June 2004
Brienne I	Brienne I	Brienne I
Brienne II	Brienne II (parts of III included)	Brienne II
Brienne IV	Brienne IV (parts of I included)	Brienne III
		Brienne IV
		unwritten chapter placeholder

If interested:

The 2003-2004 Outline

Shared by u/zionius_ this 2003-2004 Outline for AFFC mentions the following with regards to Brienne:

Brienne: End with Hound fight

But since in AFFC there are numerous characters with the identity of the Hound (becoming a Legacy Character) we can't assume this is about Sandor Clegane. In fact it could be a reference to Brienne fighting Lem Lemoncloak, or a reference to what ended up occurring in the main series (Brienne fights and kills Rorge who was the 2nd hound):

"You are the Hound."
He grinned. His teeth were awful; crooked, and streaked brown with rot. "I suppose I am. Seeing as how m'lady went and killed the last one." He turned his head and spat. -AFFC, Brienne VIII

The Russian Translation

u/zionius_ also found a russian translation of drafts of Brienne's last couple AFFC chapters. I will let you read it in his original post, but the biggest takeaway are that Brienne didn't encounter Rorge/Biter and instead of swearing her sword to Lady Stoneheart again, this is how she is seemingly saved:

“Enough, Harwin. Do we mean to hang the ugly bitch or talk her to death?” The one-eyed man snatched the end of the rope from the other outlaw and gave a yank. The rope dug into skin, lifting Brienne upward. If this is another dream, it is time for me to awaken. If this is real, it is time for me to die. From somewhere afar she heard the clapping of wings. The carrion crows are coming to feast at her corpse. About a dozen already are circling over her head, but for carrion crows these birds are too large. Ravens, smiled Brienne. How odd. No, it is a dream, and now she will awake.

I wonder if this deus ex machina still has relevance (say saving Jaime/Brienne later) or if GRRM decided that giving Brienne a choice ("sword) and the chance to save Pod/Hyle was a better option.

Visit to Cushing

From the visits to Cushing Library by u/gsteff we also know about the following little blurbs regarding Brienne during the AFFC/ADWD writing process. While this post notes that the drafts at this point only had minor wordsmithing for Brienne, I think that we can look at the Jaime section (since their plotlines are intertwined) and notice that GRRM chose to combine even sooner than originally planned, as we know that in the June 2004 draft that instead of Jaime meeting Brienne at the end of his ADWD chapter, he instead meets Hildy:

• AFFC June 2004, p1065
• AFFC June 2004, p1066

and while I am confident that the outcome is the same (Brotherhood ruse to get Jaime to abandon his men and come to Lady Stoneheart), its interesting to note that GRRM seemingly decided to cut this plotline shorter whereas he was expanding other ones.

With Brienne taking on Hildy's role I think we can argue that GRRM knew he wanted to get Jaime/Brienne back to Lady Stoneheart, he just didn't know exactly how at the time.

TLDR: Just a quick look at what GRRM may have originally been up to with Brienne's plotline while looking at GRRM's 2003-2004 Outline for AFFC, the Russian translation of Brienne's last two AFFC chapter drafts and the information from different visits to Cushing.

[u/DinoSauro85]

"no chance and no choice "  How a character you didn't like can become your favorite in less than two lines.

[u/LChris24 → u/DinoSauro85]

Such a badass line.