Game of Thrones Season 8 episode 4 “The Last of the Starks” saw the much-anticipated union of Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth. However, sad as it is, the union also didn’t last long, with Jaime leaving Brienne to go south to try and save Cersei. In an interview with Time, Gwendoline Christie, who plays the role of Brienne, talked about how she felt about the whole thing that went down between the two characters. Read on!
Speaking of Jaime and Brienne finally having sex, Gwendoline said:
“I was quite surprised actually because I wasn’t expecting that to ever happen at all so it took me quite a while to digest.”
She continued:
“The way I had conceived that the relationship was written was that it had no clear outset to it. I never felt that it was purely about romantic love. What I thoroughly enjoyed playing with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was exploring all these different machinations of the stages that the relationship would go through — the fact that it would move from distaste to admiration to a feeling of intimacy to anger to all of these different things.”
Gwendoline then talked about how episode 3, “The Long Night” set up this particular plot point:
“After the Great War in episode 3, I thought it was fascinating exploring the idea of what happens after those kinds of battles when people have pushed themselves to such extreme physical, emotional and mental levels.
I thought it was really beautiful that prior to the war, they had all been contemplating what may have been their last night on Earth. Then they managed to cheat death and so I suppose it feels like life is up for grabs really. It felt to me like the idea of acting on euphoria. What I particularly liked and I thought was important was that Brienne chooses that moment to occur. She chooses to have sex. It’s her choice. I felt that was really important.”
She then spoke about the scene where Jaime leaves, and we see Brienne just break down crying:
“I don’t think Brienne knows in that moment exactly what he’s saying. I don’t think she knows whether it’s that he can’t overlook his bond with his sister, whether it’s too frightening to overlook that, whether change is too much for him or whether he’s protecting her. But I think it’s very clear that whatever its motivations, it is rejection. And what I loved about that scene is that we’ve never seen Brienne decide to grab the chance for something new and optimistic.”
We’ve never seen her chance romantic love. She has no sexual experience and she decides to allow herself that opportunity. And I don’t think she’s a fool. I think that she’s very aware — due to the closeness of Jaime and Brienne’s relationship over the years — where that intimacy with his sister lies and how much it means to him, but also how dysfunctional it is. But in a way it can be perceived that that was the inevitable. I think when someone grasps for a rare moment of optimism in their lives, it’s incredibly killing to see that dashed, to see that just smashed.”
She also said that it was brilliant to see a side of Brienne we hadn’t seen before, and we could not agree more. What did you guys think about this story arc? Talk to us in the comments, down below!
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