The final season of Game Of Thrones is still a sticking point for many, but nuggets from the script continue to be unearthed which help explain character motivations.
Game Of Thrones came to a controversial end back in May this year, with cast members frequently subjected to scrutiny over the backlash which followed.
The full scripts for the final season are available at the Writers Guild Foundation Shavelson-Webb Library in Los Angeles, with cut dialogue and trimmed scenes now shown in their entirety for the world to see.
The script for the finale was previously made available online, explaining why Drogon set the Iron Throne ablaze, but a detail from an earlier episode has now been spotlighted which refers to the incest romance between Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen more explicitly.
In the script for episode five The Bells (via Insider), a scene between Jon Snow and Varys on the beach of Dragonstone, where the latter expresses his concerns about Daenerys.
After the scene, Daenerys confronts Jon Snow about what was discussed, before she laments how she has no love in Westeros, only fear.
After Jon tells Danerys he loves her and she’s his queen, Dany replies: ‘Is that all I am to you? Your Queen?’
After responding ‘no’, they kiss. The script, in a deviation from the aired episode, then says, ‘[Dany] is desperate for a connection; she cannot remember a time she has felt this alone. She pulls back from the kiss and looks at Jon. This is complicated for him. He loves her. He disapproves strongly of what she’s doing. He lusts after her. He fears her. She feels his ambivalence’.
Daenerys then replies: ‘It disgusts you.’
As Jon trails off, her expression ‘hardens’ before she says the line: ‘All right then, let it be fear.’
In the episode, Jon doesn’t respond when Daenerys asks about being more than a queen – with the pair sharing a kiss, only for him to pull back and hurt Daenerys’ feelings, who utters ‘let it be fear’.
While it’s only a small detail which was cut, it could have gone a long way in driving home Daenerys’ frustrations which resulted in her burning down King’s Landing – something many fans believe was rushed in the aired episodes.
Interestingly, another scene was trimmed which also would have helped emphasize Daenerys’ loneliness, which saw Missandei and Grey Worm attend the feast of Winterfell.
After Daenerys notices the flirting between them, she compares it to the affection she receives from Jon, who is distracted and wrapped up in his own thoughts.
Grey Worm is dismissed from the table when Missandei makes up a lie to be excused, with a key note in the script, noting: ‘Dany is happy for her friend. But she’s also aware that everyone seems to be having fun except for her.
‘She’s lonely and Varys clocks her loneliness.’
While some of these are stage notes, these small cut moments may have gone some way to conveying the transformation of Daenerys in a more effective way.
Emilia Clarke has recently expressed how she feels ‘heartbreak’ at the fan backlash to season eight, on behalf of showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss.
Game Of Thrones is available on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV.
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