So there’s a couple different places where I think you can see the original “Plan A”:
“Dragon’s eggs, from the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai,” said Magister Illyrio. “The eons have turned them to stone, yet still they burn bright with beauty.” (AGOT, Dany II)
He lifted his eyes and saw clear across the narrow sea, to the Free Cities and the green Dothraki sea and beyond, to Vaes Dothrak under its mountain, to the fabled lands of the Jade Sea, to Asshai by the Shadow, where dragons stirred beneath the sunrise. (AGOT, Bran III)
“To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.”
Asshai, Dany thought. She would have me go to Asshai. “Will the Asshai’i give me an army?” she demanded. “Will there be gold for me in Asshai? Will there be ships? What is there in Asshai that I will not find in Qarth?”
“Truth,” said the woman in the mask. And bowing, she faded back into the crowd. (ACOK, Dany III)
So GRRM is creating a very strong link between Asshai and dragons from early on – Dany’s eggs come from Asshai, Asshai are where dragons are still alive tho slumbering, and Dany gets a prophecy telling her to go to Asshai.
At some point, however, I think GRRM realized that he didn’t have enough time get Dany to Asshai and back, not so much due to physical limitations (although Asshai is 2700 miles east of Qarth, so it’s not a nothing voyage) but more due to how that would screw up everyone else’s timelines.
My guess is that point was either when he decided against the five-year gap (which would have given people plenty of time to get to where Dany is and vice versa), or when he was struggling through the Meereenese Knot and realizing that the timing and sequence of who meets Dany was more important than whatever he had planned in Asshai.
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