Alan Taylor explained that although George R.R. Martin has released his book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, in individual installments — not to mention that only five of the seven have been finished so far — the author seems to have the entire story fully mapped out in his head. And, that has been the case since the show began filming. Taylor saw Martin demonstrate his completed vision of each character's story when the two were working on the first season. The director told Business Insider, "We were in Malta shooting episode ten of the first season, and the show wasn't a big deal yet and we weren't being very secretive because nobody cared yet, and [Martin] just sort of mentioned in passing, 'Oh well it's all about Dany and Jon Snow' and at the time I thought, 'Really? I thought it was about Sean Bean and Robb Stark?' But he knew from the very beginning where he was driving and now we're starting to see that come to fruition. We know that it's circling tighter and tighter on Dany and Jon and their partnership is starting to form, you know, 'fire and ice.'"