Over the past few months, we’ve gotten plenty of sneak peaks at the scripts for the final season of Game of Thrones, noting what changed, what stayed the same, and everything in between. Kim Renfro of Insider has particularly heroic, reading through the scripts at the Writers Guild Foundation library in Los Angeles and detailing deleted scenes and sequences.
And she’s still at it! Let’s look at some more recent ones she uncovered.
More Theon and Yara
After Theon rescues Yara from Euron Greyjoy’s ship, the two share a brief scene together at sea. It’s longer on the page. In the script, Theon brings up his abandoning Yara in “Stormborn” when Euron attacked them, calling himself a coward. Yara argues back, he presses the point, and she says there’s no point in talking about it. Then they move on to the dialogue we actually hear.
I wouldn’t have minded a little more Yara-Theon interaction, but I also like the whole thing being forgiven with one headbutt. Also, Game of Thrones writer Dave Hill plays one of Euron’s henchman, the one who gets an axe through the head when Theon rescues his sister:
Image: Game of Thrones/HBO
Sorry for the picture.
Remember Rast?
Jon, Sam and Dolorous Edd share a brief Night’s Watch reunion in “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” before the Night King brings the hammer down on Winterfell. They reminisce about their fallen comrades Pyp and Grenn, and talk about the fateful day Sam killed a White Walker.
The script also includes an aside when Jon brings up Rast, a Night’s Watchmen who tormented Sam and joined the mutiny against Lord Commander Mormont. “F— Rast,” Sam says, simply. That bit didn’t make the final cut.
Image: Game of Thrones/HBO
No rest for the dead
Another “Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” moment: the conversation between the Hound and Beric Dondarrion some extra stuff. The Hound tells Beric to get some rest, and Beric replies that he hasn’t slept since he died. “No point starting now.”
I agree with Renfro that this line was probably removed because it would have raised too many questions about Jon, who was revived in a way similar to Beric.
Bran’s ravens
In “The Long Night,” there’s a bit where Bran wargs into some ravens and goes off to find the Night King in the sky. In the script, there are more ravens, “a massive flock” that “converge[s] on Winterfell from all sides, all piloted by Bran.” The script details how Bran would use them to keep tabs on Jon and Dany, in addition to the Night King.
I’ve seen some sights reading this and using it to claim that the script shows that Bran “actually wasn’t totally useless” during the battle, which I think is disingenuous at best. Just because the episode didn’t show Bran looking at multiple things doesn’t mean he wasn’t, nor do those takes touch on the stated reason for Bran being in the godswood: to lure the Night King into the open, which he did.
Image: Game of Thrones/HBO
The Mad Queen
In “The Bells,” before Daenerys and her forces invade King’s Landing, Jon and Tyrion have a bit more of a conversation about the plan to lay down arms once the city bells are rung in surrender.
Tyrion: “A million people live in that city.”
Jon: “I know.”
Tyrion: “If you hear the bells ring, they’ve surrendered. Call off your men.”
Jon: “I don’t think she’s letting anyone surrender today.”
Tyrion: “We have to try. How many children are in there? She’s not her father.”
Then Jon nods, “unconvinced.” On TV, Tyrion just tells Jon to call off his men if the he hears the bells, and Jon nods.
Image: Game of Thrones/HBO
There’s also some stage directions for Emilia Clarke for the moment when Daenerys decides to burn it all down, after she’s seen that the Lannisters are surrendering:
But she sees the Red Keep. The castle that her family built, that belongs to her. Occupied by the False Queen. She has come so far and she will go further. Oh, blood will out. It cannot be contained. Drogon takes to the sky.
“Blood will out” is a line from Robert Frost’s poem “The Flood.”
I’ve talked about this before, and I know a lot of people disagree, but for me, this is where the season sorta fell apart. I felt like the writers pushed the characters to these places without showing how they got there. What has Dany done up to this point to make Jon think she won’t let anyone surrender? Why does Dany go so far beyond anything she’d done before and burn the whole city like she does, including the children? I think the Jon-Tyrion scene works better onscreen than on the page — Tyrion is pretty much just repeating lines he’d said a few times already — but the execution of the whole thing still throws me off. Deleted portions or not, I don’t buy it.
Image: Game of Thrones/HBO
The Pale Horse
Interestingly, in the script, “The Bells” ends with the Red Keep falling down on Cersei and Jaime, not the poetic moment where Arya encounters a white horse in the ruins of the city and rides it on out of there. On the page, Arya finding a horse and riding away is just an aside.
Most likely, this was an insertion from director Miguel Sapochnik, and considering how beautiful the sequence is, I’d say it was a good one.
S’more interesting stuff:
- A few characters not named onscreen get names in the script. For example, the young girl who reminds Davos and Gilly of Shireen Baratheon is named “Teela.” The giant who kills Lyanna Mormont is “Crum” and weirdly, and one of the wights who attacks injures Arya during the Battle of Winterfell is named “Bertram.”
- During the “Jenny of Oldstones” montage in “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” the script says we’re supposed to see “Bran sitting in his chambers,” awake and alone. He doesn’t get a shot in the episode.
- Some interesting stage directions describing Jaime’s state of mind after he sleeps with Brienne in “The Last of the Starks”: “Brienne sleeps the sleep of the happily drunk and devirginized. Jaime can’t sleep, however. He just helped save the world. So why does he feel like a traitor?”
Image: Game of Thrones/HBO
- After Jon kills Daenerys, the script says she “lies dead, Pietà-style, as the snow drifts down.” The Pietà is a famous sculpture by Michelangelo.
- When describing the destruction of King’s Landing and its aftermath, the script references several movies and real-life events, including the fall of Saigon, the bombing of Dresden, Hiroshima, and a 2015 movie about the Holocaust called Son of Saul.
- There are little compliments to the cast and crew members strew throughout the scripts. For example, here’s how the script for “Winterfell” describes Cersei’s new outfit: “[Cersei] wears black, but not the glittering triumphant black of [season seven]. This outfit is brooding and somber, a Michele Clapton masterpiece.” Another bit from the same script compliments Emilia Clarke’s ability to convincingly act with a foam green head that stands in for a dragon.
Check.
For more insights, head over to Insider!
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Watch Game of Thrones for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels
