Four ways they could have improved... A Song of Ice and Fire
George R. R. Martin's series sure is impressive, but it's also gotten extremely convoluted. The author allowed the story to "grow in the telling". One gets the impression that it's grown a bit out of control, and that a more selectivist approach early on could have resulted in a more neatly-confined, tightly-plotted saga. My advice would be (or rather, would have been, at the time):
— Strip all the supernatural stuff away. No Wall, no Others, no Faceless Men, no warging, no 'greenseeing', no Children of the Forest (except in old stories that may or may not be true), no fire god magic (to revive the dead etc.) and certainly no dragons (that are alive in the present).
— This allows you to significantly tidy up the mess of plot-lines. The least fitting characters, in my opinion, are actually the one tied to the great big supernatural arc: Jon and Daenerys. I think both of them are superfluous and weaken the stronger elements of the story. Since we've gotten rid of both the 'ice' and the 'fire', they can both be left out completely. You could also cut out Mellisandre, but her religion is an interesting element. Just have it be a religion, with no overt magic. She can still burn people alive, and then Stannis might win battles that seemed stacked against him, and we may ask ourselves "is there really a god aiding his cause?" ...but that question must never be outright answered in any way.
— Naturally, magic and dragons can still exist in the setting's past, but this should be a world where the magic has (almost?) entirely gone away... and stays away.
— All plots relating to the Wall and Essos can now be scrapped, and we end up with a much more tightly-plotted story about brutal Westerosi politics and warfare. It would require three, maybe four books, and (depending on the exact number and length of said books) three to five full seasons of a television series adaptation.
— Strip all the supernatural stuff away. No Wall, no Others, no Faceless Men, no warging, no 'greenseeing', no Children of the Forest (except in old stories that may or may not be true), no fire god magic (to revive the dead etc.) and certainly no dragons (that are alive in the present).
— This allows you to significantly tidy up the mess of plot-lines. The least fitting characters, in my opinion, are actually the one tied to the great big supernatural arc: Jon and Daenerys. I think both of them are superfluous and weaken the stronger elements of the story. Since we've gotten rid of both the 'ice' and the 'fire', they can both be left out completely. You could also cut out Mellisandre, but her religion is an interesting element. Just have it be a religion, with no overt magic. She can still burn people alive, and then Stannis might win battles that seemed stacked against him, and we may ask ourselves "is there really a god aiding his cause?" ...but that question must never be outright answered in any way.
— Naturally, magic and dragons can still exist in the setting's past, but this should be a world where the magic has (almost?) entirely gone away... and stays away.
— All plots relating to the Wall and Essos can now be scrapped, and we end up with a much more tightly-plotted story about brutal Westerosi politics and warfare. It would require three, maybe four books, and (depending on the exact number and length of said books) three to five full seasons of a television series adaptation.
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