Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon

by James Hibberd

  NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU: It was really weird [to film]. It was awkward. I was trying to laugh, and Gwendoline was like, “Don’t fucking laugh!”

  GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE: Yeah, there had to be a few conversations. “Now, you’re going to need to be very professional about this. . . .” I care for the character so deeply, it was important that it was taken care of well, and I believe it was. Though . . . personally? I always wanted to see her get together with Dany.

  Speaking of Daenerys, Jaime learned the Dragon Queen was readying to attack King’s Landing. The Lannister made the fateful choice to leave Brienne and try to rescue his twin sister and lifelong love.

  GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE: I was so upset for Brienne. I know it’s just a character and I’m an actor who’s lucky to do her job. It’s just so heartbreaking. That’s Game of Thrones, isn’t it? Just when you think things are going to go well it punches you harder than ever in the guts. I could feel a million hearts breaking.

  NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU: You wonder if he’s changed and if he’s escaped the destructive relationship. He’s so bound by this code of honor of family first, and he and Cersei have a strong bond on every level. But he has to go back. She’s all alone. He’s the last one she has. He has to try to save her. It makes sense even though you don’t want it to.

  GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE: I believe the reason Jaime left is because he wasn’t very good [laughs].

  NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU: It would have been wonderful if he and Brienne could have had a life together. But he says it himself as he’s leaving: “Have you ever walked away from a fight?” I have to do this. The things you do for love . . .

  DAVID NUTTER: I wanted her to feel something she didn’t expect to feel. So I had Nikolaj say other dialogue that wasn’t in the script [when he leaves]. It caught Gwen off guard and she broke down and it was incredible.

  The cruel off-script line that Jaime said to Brienne wasn’t included in the scene, but it was revealed in the episode’s DVD commentary: “I don’t love you. No one loves you.”

  Jaime returned to King’s Landing, where he was promptly attacked by Euron Greyjoy. While Jaime won the fight, he was almost certainly mortally injured. One could say the Kingslayer wasn’t killed by the Red Keep’s eventual collapse, as seen later, but by Euron—which is certainly how Euron, and actor Pilou Asbæk, preferred to see it.

  PILOU ASBÆK (Euron Greyjoy): The only one who dies with a smile is me. I told Dan and David, “I’m not going to die. You’re not going to see me go [makes a dying wheeze].” They said: “But you’re gonna die.” I said, “No, I’m not. I’m not gonna act it.” It’s a happy ending for Euron Greyjoy.

  Jaime located Cersei and attempted to escort her to safety. The two were buried under the collapsing Red Keep, where they were later discovered by Tyrion. Their death mirrored their birth, the twins leaving their lives as they came into them. What Martin has planned for the characters is unclear, but in his books there is a similar hint, with Jaime thinking at one point, “We will die together as we were born together.”

  NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU: I thought it was a great ending for that couple. She was never going to surrender. Bronn asked Jaime in season four: “How would you want to end?” “In the arms of the woman I love.” So it was foreshadowed, and it’s what happened. There’s at least a moment that they do connect: “Just look at me, just look in my eyes, it’s just you and me. . . .”

  LENA HEADEY (Cersei Lannister): It was a quick season for me. It’s more about the other characters and where they go. I genuinely wanted her to have some big piece or fight with somebody. But Nikolaj and I talked about it, and the more we talked the more it seemed like the perfect end. They came into the world together and now they leave together.

  CHRISTOPHER NEWMAN (producer): Some say they had an ignominious death. But Tywin died on a toilet. There are no heroic endings in life.

  LENA HEADEY: The important thing in their last scene is Jaime had a chance at freedom and to liberate himself finally from her, but ultimately they belong together. Cersei realized just how much she loved him and just how much he loved her. It’s the most authentic relationship connection she’s ever had. It’s maybe the first time that Cersei had been at peace.

  The last day for me on set was walking up and down the stairs twenty thousand times. During one scene I told Nikolaj, “I’ve never seen you so sweet and sentimental,” and he was all, “What’s happening to me?” We kept cuddling and going, “I love you. . . .”

  Brienne filled in Jaime Lannister’s pages of the White Book of the Kingsguard. In season four, Joffrey had mocked Jaime for his lack of accomplishments in the book. The final entry for the man formerly known as the Kingslayer read: “Died protecting his queen.”

  NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU: The scene with Gwen where she fills in the last pages [of the White Book] is also Jaime’s last scene. It was beautiful. It was a beautiful way of telling his story and her story and how we live on. We make our mark in this world by the impact we have on other people.

  After he was crowned king, Bran Stark appointed Brienne commander of the Kingsguard at the capital and gave her a seat on the small council. It was the ultimate fulfillment of her quest to become a knight serving a worthy cause.

  GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE: I love that she doesn’t crumble from him leaving. She goes back to work. Because she always loved work. That feels refreshing—a woman can be happy without a companion. She chooses to do what she loves, dedicating her life to service. It’s what I love about the character. Women don’t have to be defined by their partner.

  Sandor “the Hound” Clegane faced off against his abusive brother Ser Gregor “the Mountain” Clegane on a stairway in the Red Keep. Their clash had been teased from the first season, when we learned Gregor disfigured Sandor when they were kids. “You know who’s coming for you,” Sandor warned his brother in season seven. “You’ve always known.”

  The Clegane Bowl was one of the last major scenes filmed for Thrones, and by the time the actors, Sapochnik, and the crew began to work on the long-anticipated fight sequence, everybody involved felt as half-dead as the Mountain. The fight was even grueling for professional strongman Hafþór Björnsson, who has broken several world records for feats of strength.

  HAFÞÓR BJÖRNSSON (Gregor “the Mountain” Clegane, seasons 4–8): Modern Icelandic is by far the closest of the Nordic languages to the original Viking language. We have a saying: “Bræður munu berjast,” which literally means “brothers will fight.” Never has that been more true than in this scene. It was some of the hardest work I’ve had to do, bar none. I lost over thirty pounds of body weight during the fight. Makeup started at four A.M. and went on for hours and hours. A big part of my body was covered in prosthetics and there were lenses in my eyes. I was in full armor, and it’s a proper heavy armor. We were working for up to eighteen hours per day, and a great deal of the time we were shooting the fighting; the whole scene, doing the same actions again and again and again. Rory McCann was great to work with, and I am proud to have been an integral part of one of the most epic fight scenes ever created.

  MIGUEL SAPOCHNIK: My least favorite experience on Thrones. Hard set, tired crew. Exhausted actors—though Rory saved the day. There were so many details that you would never know about looking at it, but they were the stuff nightmares are made of.

  The brothers’ fight claimed both their lives.

  RORY McCANN (Sandor “the Hound” Clegane): I’m very happy with the way the Hound’s story ended, thank you very much. My last filming days were the fight. I’m absolutely sure I’m going to be limping for months. It’s a glorious death. He’s laughing at it. He can see the Mountain can’t be killed by sticking a dagger in his eye. He had to be burnt. Of all the things Clegane had to do, it was to go in the fire. That’s the sacrifice. But his pain is over.

  Yara Greyjoy, having been rescued from captivity by her brother Theon, returned to her home on the Iron Islands, which were reincorporated into the Ki
ngdoms with Yara as its leader.

  GEMMA WHELAN (Yara Greyjoy): I really wish Yara had killed Euron. But a lot of people wished they could have killed Euron. I’m very happy to have made it to the end, and there’s not always space for all the characters to get the full truth of their storyline as they might hope it would be. But Yara got what I feel rightfully should have been hers and did the right thing by winning it graciously.

  In the wake of Missandei’s execution, Grey Worm regressed to a remorseless order-following killing machine. In the finale, he decided to give up soldiering and fulfill his pledge to his love by traveling to her birthplace of Naath, an island in the Summer Sea. Never seen in the show, Naath is described as a tropical land of white sands and tall trees.

  JACOB ANDERSON (Grey Worm): There came a point for Grey Worm where he was like, “Enough is enough.” That’s why he left. Everybody dear to him was dead, and he had only just learned how to have people dear to him. This was a violent place, and I don’t think he wanted that to be his existence anymore. He’s keeping his promise to Missandei, and he’s sitting on the beach drinking piña coladas and protecting everyone.

  Anderson’s final day of filming was also the last for Kit Harington and Liam Cunningham (whose Lord Davos Seaworth would end up serving on Bran’s small council as the master of ships).

  LIAM CUNNINGHAM (Davos Seaworth): The last day of shooting was the scene where Jacob was going to kill the King’s Landing guards. It was incredibly difficult because, coldheartedly, it was another filming day. Jacob, Kit, and I, during shooting breaks, we were just looking at the fucking ground. Whenever we caught each other’s eyes we couldn’t prolong the gaze because we knew how momentous the moment was. We knew David and Dan would be there at the end of the day presenting us with shit. It was really weird, trying to be professional while at the same time wanting to bawl your eyes out.

  Dan Weiss told Harington after his final shot, “Your watch has ended, and it has been a hell of a watch,” in the documentary Game of Thrones: The Last Watch. Harington, in turn, gave a farewell speech—this time, a real one. “I love this show,” Harington tearfully told the cast and crew. “It’s never been a job for me. It will always be the greatest thing I ever do.”

  Ser Jorah was laid to rest after the Battle of Winterfell, with Iain Glen among several actors lying on funeral pyres.

  IAIN GLEN (Jorah Mormont): In that moment, I was aurally saying goodbye, listening to the set operating. What a vast, slick machine it had become, and to hear it orchestrating . . . I got into it. Everything echoes backward over the past decade. Trying to let the whole thing go.

  But when Daenerys said farewell to her faithful friend, she bent forward and whispered something in his ear. In the script, her words are described as “something Jorah will never hear, and we will never know.” Appropriately enough, Iain Glen will not reveal what Emilia Clarke said.

  IAIN GLEN: It was something entirely sincere and true to the moment and something that I will never forget. I’ll always cherish it because it’s something no one will ever know but the two of us. And that’s a memory to hold on to.

  Samwell Tarly was perhaps the show’s most unlikely survivor, a character who seemed doomed from the moment he struggled to pick up a sword in season one and then somehow made it through so many journeys and battles. Yet Samwell had perhaps the show’s happiest ending. He was with Gilly, and they had a child together, Sam; and he joined Bran’s council as grand maester, where his scholarly knowledge and gentle wisdom would finally be appreciated and put to good use.

  JOHN BRADLEY (Samwell Tarly): Sam wanted a domesticated, low-key happiness. So it’s a spectacular ending for Sam because the chances of that happening are so outlandish. He’s one of the few characters who had been unhappy from the first moments of his life. He’s had so much pain and so much darkness that you never think he’s going to be happy.

  One of the nice things about the final scene at the small council is we left them bickering amongst themselves. We’ve set up a slightly more comic space. I felt like you wanted to stay with them.

  Tyrion Lannister served as Hand of the King to Joffrey, then Hand of the Queen to Daenerys. He struggled in both roles, his compassion and practicality clashing with their self-serving agendas. Tyrion was named Hand of the King yet again to Bran Stark. The position was part honor, part punishment—a chance to correct his past failings.

  PETER DINKLAGE (Tyrion Lannister): We’re so used to the standard formula of bad guys dying and good guys living. David and Dan had a beautiful, gentle touch with some and a hard touch with others. I had all these ideas in my head [for Tyrion’s fate], and a version of one of them is how it ended up. He wanted to make amends for what he’s done.

  DAN WEISS (showrunner): Tyrion is the smartest guy and the funniest guy and one of the most pragmatic guys on the show. Wouldn’t it be great if he was in charge? By the time you get to the end, like many people who have those qualities, he’s made many mistakes. It was a fun way of having Tyrion driving the day-to-day operations of things without having him be on the Iron Throne, which for reasons he himself states wasn’t really feasible. He was always going to be doomed or blessed to not be the person in that situation. He was always going to be the person who doesn’t show up in the history books but made a lot of decisions that determined things.

  Brandon Stark was named Bran the Broken, First of His Name, and Lord of the Six Kingdoms. A central question posed by Thrones from the very beginning was: “Who will end up on the Iron Throne?” Many fans wanted their favorite hero to rule the Seven Kingdoms because so many viewed the Iron Throne as a prize to be won. HBO’s marketing likewise embraced that idea, teasing different characters ending up in the ultimate seat of power.

  But across eight seasons, ruling in Thrones was always shown to be a burden, not a reward. The Iron Throne is the Westeros version of the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings; it is a quest item many seek for reasons good or ill, but even those with the best intentions are eventually corrupted by its power. The Iron Throne and the One Ring also shared the same fate—each destroyed by the mythical fire that forged it. That’s why Daenerys was wrong for the throne—she wanted it too much—and why the Three-Eyed Raven might be right for it, even if the choice feels unsatisfying.

  DAVID BENIOFF (showrunner): Who’s going to rule at the end was an important question. It’s got to be somebody who’s earned it in terms of the experiences they’ve gone through, but we also wanted somebody we thought would be a good ruler, which means not somebody who’s doing it for the wrong reasons. We try to avoid conversations about theme, but if there’s any theme to this show, it’s about power—power corrupts people, and a lack of power will also hurt you. Bran doesn’t care about power.

  ISAAC HEMPSTEAD WRIGHT (Bran Stark): I can’t imagine his government is a barrel of laughs. It might be quite serious. And I guess for all intents and purposes, Westeros is now a surveillance state, as Bran knows everything everybody’s doing. Perhaps there will be something missing in having a real emotive leader, which is a useful quality in a king or queen as well. At the same time you can’t really argue with him. He’s like, “No, I know everything.”

  DAVID BENIOFF: It’s what Bran says in that scene: “Why do you think I came all this way?” We’ve been following his storyline for so long. With Arya we see she had an incredibly important role in destroying the Night King. And Sansa becomes Queen in the North. What have Bran’s experiences led to? There had to be some purpose for all these things he’s gone through. We try to avoid the prophecies for the most part. But there’s something about Bran you can’t avoid. He has chosen to be the Three-Eyed Raven, and to what end? If that didn’t lead to something incredibly consequential, it would feel anticlimactic.

  ISAAC HEMPSTEAD WRIGHT: The more I thought about it, the more I thought it made perfect sense. He’s an ideal person to be in control of everything. By definition he’s levelheaded and totally impartial and armed with an
entire knowledge of history—which is quite useful. I think he’ll be a really good king.

  DAVID BENIOFF: It’s a fruition of Varys’s hopes all along. Who’s going to think about what’s best for the realm? In order to be that disinterested in self and family, it almost takes somebody who isn’t human. Because we all have those flaws and weaknesses.

  Sansa Stark had long sought a sense of security and stability for herself, for her home, and for the North. Appropriately enough, she was named Queen in the North, which would now be an independent kingdom, and she was crowned at Winterfell.

  SOPHIE TURNER (Sansa Stark): Ever since the end of season one, Sansa has not been about the capital and being queen. She knows her place is in the North, and she can rule the people of the North and rule Winterfell. She has no desire to be ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. She’s probably capable with the help of her family and advisors like Tyrion, but on her own but I’m sure she’d feel out of her depth. I thought it was an awesome way to end.

  BRYAN COGMAN: In the pilot, Sansa’s main function was informing members of her family and the audience that the only thing she wanted was to get out of Winterfell and go live in the big city and become queen—except a very different kind of queen than the one she ended up being. So Sansa’s storyline was always meant to have a note of triumph at the end, especially after all that she went through in the middle of the series. It was appropriate that she came full circle at the end. She was the only Stark left in Winterfell and leads the North into this new chapter. She’s the best hope for the North’s future.