Eyes High

Apparently, in the Jaime/Brienne goodbye scene, David Nutter told Nikolaj (as Jaime) to tell Gwendoline (as Brienne) he didn't love her anymore between takes, and that's what got the shattered Gwendoline reaction shot that ended up in the show. Brutal! Yeah, that cracked me up, along with Maisie Williams saying of the shot where Arya's lying stunned and bloodied in the rubble "They want you to think Arya is dead for a moment, but I think the audience is smarter than that." Ha!

I was rereading the 8x06 Cleganebowl leaker summary (such as it is), and it actually doesn't list that many scenes. The leaker mentioned that his source had "skimmed" the episode and had only seen "parts," but looking at the list of scenes, there really aren't that many: 1. Jon, Davos and Tyrion walk through the ruins, Tyrion finds Jaime and Cersei's bodies 2. Jon finds Grey Worm with the Lannister soldiers 3. Dany gives her big speech, Tyrion in disgust throws his Hand pin down, leading Dany to imprison him 4. [Throwaway spoilers] Tyrion tries to convince Jon that Dany is a threat to his family 5. Jon comes upon Dany in the throne room and kills her, Drogon leaves with her body 6. Big council scene where Grey Worm and the council argue over what's to be done with Jon and Tyrion, Bran is made king, Tyrion is made Hand 7. Jon bids Sansa and Arya goodbye, Arya informs them in that same conversation she's going west of Westeros 8. Tyrion leads the council 9. Closing montage: Sansa rules Winterfell, Arya sails away, Jon is reunited with Tormund and Ghost (and that last one was filmed in a day, so it must be a very short scene) The thing to remember is that GOT scenes are individually extremely short, usually 2-3 minutes. There is no way all of this takes 80 minutes. Even the big Dragonpit council scene can't take that long. So this is maybe 40 minutes' worth of stuff. Where's the rest of the episode?

I think D&D learned something at that April 2013 meeting with GRRM that made them change their minds about including the Tysha reveal in S4. Since D&D have made it clear they're going to keep quiet about post-ADWD book/show differences other than the three WTF twists, we may never know what it was unless the post-ADWD books are published.

And this is what I don't get. Everyone except for Bronn hates or at least distrusts the Lannisters and has wanted them gone for ages, and they're all fine with letting a Lannister rule them all? Again? It's not going to take them long to realize that Bran is little more than a puppet, if they haven't already, and then what? I doubt the Northerners or the Valemen will feel too great about King Bran if they know that a Lannister is the one making all the decisions. Sansa at least already knows the score. Ha! I imagine Bran busting out humiliating anecdotes at the worst possible times during council meetings.

I'm less weirded out by King Bran than Tyrion somehow successfully persuading a bunch of lords and ladies to vote him in. What's the pitch, other than "He'll keep the North in the Seven Kingdoms and he doesn't want anything"?

It seems as if it's Tyrion who will be doing the ruling, so any "real concerns and problems" will be his affair. Bran will be chilling and warging out. There's not really much to get excited about in the democracy department, since the council chose Bran, not Tyrion, and Tyrion will rule (and I'm guessing only Bronn is going to feel good about that, given the general anti-Lannister sentiment).

I wonder if the issue of succession will be raised at all with Bran. since that was such a big concern with Dany. Would Sansa's kids be his heirs? Would they just vote on another king/queen when he dies? Or would Bran go full God Emperor and merge himself with a weirwood as the previous 3ER did to prolong his lifespan?

It doesn't sound like there's anything else in 8x06 resolving Tyrion/Sansa from the summary, contrary to my prediction. Oh, well. I wouldn't have predicted Tyrion ordering Jon to the NW, either, or Sam ending up Grand Maester (can they even have wives and families?), and that apparently happens as well. Jon volunteering to join the NW to protect his brother's crown would make a lot of sense, and would be a nice callback to Maester Aemon (who did the same thing), but Tyrion sending Jon to the NW to appease Grey Worm? Much less satisfying in my opinion. Also, Grey Worm raging about Tyrion and Jon's supposed crimes (in trying to stop his queen from committing mass murder!) is quite something given that he attacked unarmed soldiers who had thrown down their weapons (and apparently summarily executes remaining Lannister soldiers in 8x06).

I don’t see how any of this is that far out of left field. Jon and Dany being left out of the endgame power structure for whatever reason was speculated for a long time. The betting odds shifted so heavily towards Bran as the endgame ruler that it must have been based on inside information. We’ve known for at least a year that the odds favoured King Bran. Tyrion being endgame Hand to whichever ruler has been predicted for a long time. Sansa running Winterfell makes sense, too, since who else is left at this point? Arya leaving Westeros at the end has also long been predicted, ever since her “west of Westeros” chat in S6.

Sansa loses Jon forever as a result of a series of events set off by her own decision to break her oath: Tyrion orders him to the NW, and in the end he leaves north of the Wall, presumably never to return. She also ends up with her brother in the south as king and her sister leaving Westeros forever, again as an indirect result of her actions. I'd say that's a consequence.

According to a Q&A with the leaker, it is designed to be a compromise that pleases no one:

I see it now, thanks. The whole bit with the council makes no sense whatsoever.

Source? I can't find it on FF. ...This seems like piggybacking off the legit leaks, which are nowhere near this detailed and much more fragmented. Sam as Grand Maester also sounds fake. (Sam seemed extremely done with the maesters.) This also sounds like someone unfamiliar with the Dragonpit scene, since Kit was only there for the last little bit of filming and not the whole time.

Not only that, but it seems like the Tyrion/Sansa long look and hand kiss moment was the entire point of that whole sequence in the crypts. Everything else (Varys, Missandei, Gilly, mass chaos, etc.) was just window dressing. Tyrion didn't even need to be down there in the first place! Even the actual wight fighting Tyrion and Sansa did wound up on the cutting room floor, as you said. That long look and hand kiss were the point. The writers locked Sansa and Tyrion up in an enclosed space together, got Tyrion really drunk, and threw wights at them for long enough so that they could get past their bullshit and baggage for five fucking seconds and have a genuine moment of connection. Of course, in 8x04, Sansa was back to being curt and dismissive, and it was as if the whole hand kiss never happened (although Tyrion catching Sansa looking at him after Dany confirmed that legitimizing Gendry was a power move was very interesting). Still, the relationship feels unresolved, and we never got to see a proper goodbye between the characters even though Tyrion was heading south indefinitely (unlike with Jon/Sam). Tyrion and Sansa have had multiple scenes together in Season 8 (or scenes concerning each other like Sansa defending Tyrion to Dany in 8x02 and Tyrion defending Sansa to Dany in 8x05). The other (not necessarily romantic) relationships that got similar attention in S8 were definitively "resolved," if not always in warm and fuzzy fashion (Jaime dumping Brienne, Tyrion telling Jaime that he was the only one he had as a child, Arya turning down Gendry, Sam telling Jon that he was the best friend he ever had, Beric sacrificing himself for Arya, Sandor sweetly warning Arya off a life of revenge, etc.). So one way or another, Sansa and Tyrion's relationship will be resolved, whether Tyrion grants her an annulment or they get back together or Sansa tells him to fuck off once and for all or what have you. Hopefully it will fall towards the warm and fuzzy end of the spectrum as opposed to the brutal and heartbreaking end, but we'll have to see.

Nah, it's about Sansa. 1. The show swapped out Book Tyrion's reply to Sansa when she asks what happens if she never wants him from a comment about whores to "And so my watch begins," a reference to the NW celibacy vows. Unlike the books, he's (jokingly) promising Sansa that he'll stay faithful to her until she wants him, too. 2. Shae complains in 4x01 that Tyrion won't sleep with her. In the same episode, Tyrion declines the offerings at the brothel with a claim that he's a married man. 3. At Tyrion's trial in 4x06, Shae bitterly says that her affair with Tyrion was before he married; after he married Sansa, "all he wanted was her." 4. In 5x03, Tyrion seeks out a brothel, but when a prostitute he'd been talking with offers to have sex with him, he can't go through with it. He also appears to be genuinely confused as to why that is: "Believe me, no one is more shocked than I am. I hope it passes. What will I do in my spare time?" (If it were about Shae, presumably there would be no great mystery.) 5. In 8x02, Jaime says that whoremongering is still an option for Tyrion, and Tyrion sighs "It's not. Things would be easier if it were." Jaime looks confused and is about to ask him to elaborate, but Tyrion plays it off with a joke about the perils of self-betterment. 6. In 8x03, Sansa saying the most heroic thing they can do is look the truth in the face prompts a very drunk Tyrion to suggest that they should have stayed married. He also kisses Sansa's hand when he thinks they're about to die. 7. In 8x04, Tyrion tells Jaime that he hasn't been with a woman for years. Also, when Bran says that he doesn't want anything anymore, Tyrion sighs again and says "I envy you." I'm not sure what the point of all of it is with only one episode remaining, but the subtext is pretty strong that Tyrion's celibacy has to do with Sansa. Tyrion also seems very much in love with Sansa in S8, which is probably not a coincidence if he's kept celibate for several years because he took his wedding vows that seriously. All the relationships that have gotten any attention from the writers in S8--Sandor/Arya, Grey Worm/Missandei, Theon/Sansa, Jorah/Dany, Jaime/Cersei, Beric/Arya, Jaime/Brienne, Tyrion/Jaime, Gendry/Arya, Jon/Sam, etc.--have gotten closure one way or another, even if the closure was death or something emotionally brutal. Tyrion and Sansa have had multiple scenes together in S8. I do think Tyrion and Sansa along with this celibacy issue will get closure as well, even if they end up apart because Tyrion stays south and Sansa heads back north.

Tyrion getting the saint/hero edit really got cranked to 11 in S8: 1. His belief in Cersei is the product of his genuine compassion and goodness (per the writers) and making the mistake intelligent people make of underestimating their opponent, not the product of conflicted loyalties. 2. He reveals that he has given up whoremongering and has been celibate for years, which...is nice, but why is that important information? The show hasn't touched on Tyrion's sex life since S5. 3. He is the only one to take any sort of interest in Bran as a person, while everyone else finds him creepy and is content to ignore him. 4. Jorah and Sansa crisply defend Tyrion to Dany when she (rightly!) expresses frustration with his track record, pointing out his good qualities and arguing on his behalf. 5. He chivalrously kisses Sansa's hand when they're facing certain death (...while the Hound has a scene where he sneers about Sansa being "broken in rough"). 6. Despite being completely wasted in the crypts, he still picks up a dagger to fight when Sansa asks him to, and (improbably) manages to hold off the wights with Sansa until the NK is killed. 7. He is the only person apart from Varys who expresses any concern whatsoever about civilian casualties in KL. Even Jon doesn't say anything on this point. 8. He's polite to Sansa and expresses genuine concern over her provoking Dany, even when she's being rude and dismissive. 9. He is revealed as being afraid of Dany, which seems like a retcon, frankly. 10. He walks into the archers' line of fire to attempt to reason with Cersei. 11. He admits to Varys he betrayed him and weirdly comforts Varys before he dies (?). He's a mensch even when he's selling you out, apparently. 12. He commits treason, knowing it will mean his death, to give Jaime a shot at convincing Cersei to surrender. 13. He still tries to save Cersei's life several times even after she sent his own friend to assassinate him. ...I mean, really. Even his one dick move the entire season--outing Brienne as a virgin in front of Jaime--was calculated to enable Jaime and Brienne's hookup. It's kind of ridiculous. I'm not sure what the purpose of it all is. I also get the sense that Jon's heroism and concern for the masses are being downplayed so that only Tyrion is the one other than Varys wringing his hands about dead children. Jon in S7 seemed to care a lot about Dany burning cities and protecting the innocent and such, but it's Tyrion running around trying to prevent wholesale slaughter while Jon just makes sad faces.

So as the end of 8x05, of the remaining characters who has any substantial storyline left? It seems like most of the surviving characters--Sam, Gilly, Tormund, Pod, Brienne, Davos, Yara, etc.--are pretty much done. It's possible that Sam, Brienne, Yara, etc. may only appear at the epilogue Dragonpit scene. Sansa's arc is pretty much over, apart from her goodbyes to Bran, Jon and Arya. Her appearances may be limited to the Dragonpit scene and a few short goodbyes. We may get some closure to her relationship with Tyrion, if they go their separate ways as the spoilers indicate, maybe a proper annulment. I doubt Sansa will come south until Dany is dead, though. Arya's arc also seems to be over for the most part, with her choosing life over revenge and deciding to forge a new path for herself in 8x05. Bran needs to become king if the episode spoilers are correct. Hopefully they devote enough time to that so that it makes some sort of sense. Bronn needs to collect on Tyrion's promise, but that can be dealt with in a short scene. It's not clear what's going to happen with Grey Worm, so there's another question mark. ...So pretty much the only characters left with any substantial plot left are Jon, Dany and Tyrion (as well as Bran if King Bran is going to be a thing). Since they've always been the most important characters in the show, it makes sense that their arcs would only be concluded in the final episode.

Sansa ends up in KL towards the end along with Sam, Brienne and Bran (also currently at Winterfell), since she's at the Dragonpit for the big powwow with all the lords and ladies. The episode spoilers indicate that she rules the North alone, so her last scene is probably of Sansa alone at Winterfell. That would explain why Sophie displayed the storyboard of Sansa's last scene in the show in her home without anyone noticing what it was: Sansa has had so many scenes at Winterfell that a scene of Sansa at Winterfell wouldn't strike anyone as strange. The episode spoilers didn't say anything about Sansa other than the fact that she ends up ruling the North, so it does seem likely that her role in the story is essentially over, like Brienne's and Sam's. She'll still presumably have to say her goodbyes to Bran, Jon and Arya, though, since Bran will be staying south, Jon will be taking the black and Arya will be leaving Westeros if the spoilers are correct.

If D&D knew from very early on that Tyrion was going to end up as the endgame ruler for all intents and purposes, that probably explains the straightforwardly heroic way he was written in the show. Jon pulling an Aemon and taking the black for much the same reasons (so that no one could ever try to force him to claim the throne or make use of his claim) makes a lot of sense to me. He would be protecting Bran as well. And the NW probably isn’t the worst gig in the world anymore with the WW threat eliminated and with Jon having great relations with the wildlings.

Brienne being stuck as Sansa’s bodyguard is less depressing to me than her being knocked up with the bastard baby of a man who never loved her and who broke her heart, which is the other fan theory getting batted around for Brienne’s endgame, but’s that a pretty low bar in my opinion.

Nikolaj warned in a recent interview that there would be very few happy endings, but I dunno, it sounds like a number of characters make out all right. Sansa gets to run the North by herself as she wanted. Tyrion gets to rule and help build a better world. Sam ends up with Horn Hill, a great relationship and a family of his own. Gilly ends up with a good man she loves. Davos serves a king and a cause worth serving. Arya moves beyond her nihilistic focus on revenge. Jon ends up North where he was happiest with Ygritte and is reunited with Ghost. It’s not really all that bleak in my opinion, but we’ll have to see how it plays.

One of the things I noticed in this episode was that in the "Previously" segment, they used quotes from previous seasons voiced over the shot of Dany looking angry at Missandei's execution. These are the quotes they used, in the order in which they were used: Varys: "He has the better claim to the throne." Cersei: "Every time a Targaryen is born, the gods flip a coin." Barristan: "The Mad King gave his enemies the justice he thought they deserved." Tyrion: "Children are not their fathers." Olenna: "Be a dragon." Jorah: "You have a gentle heart." Aemon: "A Targaryen alone in the world is a terrible thing." Viserys: "You don't want to wake the dragon, do you?"

Costume watch: Arya has yet to wear her grey outfit, seen on the TV Guide S8 covers. Tyrion has yet to wear the Lannister outfit from the EW photo shoot. Given how formal it is, and what we now know about Tyrion being arrested in 8x06, I'm wondering whether it's the last thing he wears in the show. At the cover shoot, he's wearing a Hand pin. Is he Bran's Hand, or did they just give him the pin to avoid spoiling anything? No remaining outfits seen elsewhere in promotional materials for Sansa, although it looks like her Dragonpit outfit is a new one, since it's missing a collar unlike her other dresses to date. (She also has a different hairstyle, with more braids.) Gendry still has yet to wear the brown leather outfit Joe Dempsie was wearing in the BTS interviews. It must be from the Dragonpit scene. User Afraidpart, who previously provided legit information (and who said 12 months ago that Jaime and Cersei would die holding each other), provided the following info about 8x06 (and I think this was just before 8x05 aired):

Tyrion crying in Jaime's arms, realizing that he's never going to see his brother again no matter what happens, put any Stark sibling interactions to shame. That was truly heartbreaking.

Tyrion is the only remaining character on the show who cares at all about the people of Westeros, so yeah, he is the most qualified at this point. As I said upthread, the person who actually gives a shit about the people of Westeros is the one who should be ruling them. I really like the idea of Tyrion getting to build a better world without having to kowtow to tyrants and abusive assholes as he has had to do for his whole life, surrounded by people he can truly rely on, finally free of his toxic family. Good for him.