Thoughts on the Vale Portion of GRRM's 2003-2004 Outline

Background

Recently u/zionus posted GRRM's 2003-2004 Outline for AFFC which contains some great info on what GRRM was planning to do at that time. I posted about the "The Dornish Portion" of GRRM's 2003-2004 Outline of AFFC already and in that same vein, I thought I would post about the Sansa section.

This is the section (as best as GRRM's hand writing could be read):

Sansa: Divide chapter. LF: Cersei has overreached. She’ll soon be done.

and:

Sansa: ?Old - Resolve to be SS[?Sansa Stark] & take north. 1. Tourney of Winged Knight. 2. Sweetrobin woos [or weds]. 3. News from W.H.[?White Harbor]. Kill the Mouse. 4.

I thought I would go through the sections a bit and post a few thoughts.

Meta/Chapter Stuff ("4"/"Divide Chapter"/etc.)

It seems like GRRM at this point planned for there to be 4 Sansa/Alayne chapters in AFFC, and while we currently have 4 Sansa/Alayne chapters since ASOS (including TWOW, Alayne I which was written at the same time as the canon AFFC chapters) but they are vastly different. As you can see from the #'d chapters below, GRRM had Sansa's AFFC chapters much further along than we are currently.

We know he had scrapped the 5 year gap by the end of 2001, so this wasn't supposed to just pickup 5 years later:

I have scrapped the idea of a five-year gap, as I announced not to long ago. I was originally going to make the 4th book five years later. So I’m now picking it up immediately after the third book. -SSM, Fantasy Online Interview: 2001

If interested: The Lords Declarant of the Vale

#1 Tourney of the Winged Knight

Instead of being Sansa's first AFFC chapter, it is looking like this will be her second TWOW chapter.

If interested: The Tourney of the Brotherhood of the Winged Knights

#2 Sweetrobin Woos or Weds

I think this likely references Sweetrobin's attempt/desire to marry Sansa that we in the chapters we have:

Before she could summon the servants, however, Sweetrobin threw his skinny arms around her and kissed her. It was a little boy's kiss, and clumsy. Everything Robert Arryn did was clumsy. -AFFC, Alayne II

and:

"I don't want you to marry him, Alayne. I am the Lord of the Eyrie, and I forbid it." He sounded as if he were about to cry. "You should marry me instead. We could sleep in the same bed every night, and you could read me stories." -TWOW, Alayne I

and:

Alayne stroked his fingers. "There, my Sweetrobin, be still now." When the shaking passed, she said, "You must have a proper wife, a trueborn maid of noble birth."

"No. I want to marry you, Alayne." -TWOW, Alayne I

#3 News from W.H./Kill the Mouse

I am thinking that this is what GRRM wanted to split in half. While we don't know what the news from WH is (it could range from the Cersei "overreaching herself" to White Harbor bending the knee, etc.)

Then what would potentially be chapter #4 would be about the climax of the mad mouse's plot to try and kidnap her:

"A good melee is all a hedge knight can hope for, unless he stumbles on a bag of dragons. And that's not likely, is it?" -TWOW, Alayne I

which from GRRM's outline seems to end in failure/death for the Mad Mouse (but still probably not ending the Howland Reed theories lol)

If interested: Ser Shadrich of the Shady Glen aka The Mad Mouse

?Old -Resolve to be SS & take north

While this may have changed, I do think this places a dent in theories regarding Sansa going south (not that the Ashford Theory was evidence for it anyway). We see our current storyline (canon) ending that same way so far:

and you come out with your long auburn hair, clad in a maiden's cloak of white and grey with a direwolf emblazoned on the back . . . why, every knight in the Vale will pledge his sword to win you back your birthright. So those are your gifts from me, my sweet Sansa . . . Harry, the Eyrie, and Winterfell. That's worth another kiss now, don't you think?" -AFFC, Alayne II

I think the worry that many people have with Sansa going north is that she will lose some sort of influence, etc. which I don't think that will be the case at all. I don't think it ever comes to actual war, but during the "war of the wolves II" (figuring out which Stark to back in the North) Sansa is the eldest, trueborn and has an army. That says a lot. But again things can change.

TLDR: GRRM's story arc for Sansa/The Vale was much further along (seemingly starting with The Tourney of the Brotherhood of The Winged Knights) during this outline than we currently are in the story. That said the general flow seems to be staying the same.