Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Clive Russell (Blackfish) on the siege of Riverrun and Brienne

The siege of Riverrun ended not with a bang but with a whimper last week, as Jaime Lannister coerced long-held prisoner Edmure Tully into being his Trojan Horse and to turning the castle over to the besieging armies. After watching Jaime go from being one of the most hated characters on the show (after he ended the pilot by throwing Bran Stark out a window) to one of the most sympathetic, it was startling to see him return to his old ways here, complete with a callback to his memorable line from the pilot: “The things we do for love.”

The Daily Beast sat down with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who has been bringing Jaime to life for the last six seasons, and asked him about this about-face.

"I love that scene. Jaime took the most precious thing Edmure had—his self-esteem and honor—and took that away from him by basically saying, listen, I know you’ve been in captivity for years now and have refused to budge, and I admire that, but this is the way it’s going to go down… It’s very brutal and when you hear him say it you think, wow, what a terrible thing to do, but at the end of the day, it’s saving the lives of many of the people in the castle because Jaime’s going to take it with his men—it’s just a matter of time and how many people are killed. At the end of the day, Edmure’s pride is hurt beyond repair but I’m sure the hundreds of people inside the castle with families appreciate that they’re still alive."

Meanwhile, as Edmure betrays his honor for the lives of his son and those dependent on him, Clive Russell, who plays the Blackfish, is inside, screaming at the Tully loyalists not to fall for it. Russell talked to Vulture this week about that scene.

"Had I confronted him, I would have had to get through lots of enemy soldiers. So everything falls down. There’s a moment where we catch each other’s eye. My soldiers lay down their arms, and there’s a phalanx of guys coming across the drawbridge, and he’s on horseback. I’m basically looking at him saying, “Well, f*** you.”"

A lot of fans complained that the Blackfish’s death was offscreen, but Russell actually liked it that way, comparing it to a version of King Lear he did where the lead character was blinded offscreen, to the benefit of the production.

"You can have so much horror, and the violence in Game of Thrones is pretty near the edge, but I think in that case, it was absolutely right. What has been set up as an impregnable castle just suddenly dissolves by treachery, and that the Blackfish should die offstage is absolutely right… I’m trying to stop the soldiers coming through the corridor, stop them discovering her making her escape in the little boat. My concern is to get Brienne out. By the time I do, the soldiers are upon me. But I’m also refusing to run. It’s very much him dying honorably, fighting an enemy, which is what part of him felt he should have done at the Red Wedding."

Speaking of Brienne, both actors had a lot to say about their relationship with Sansa’s guardian knight. Coster-Waldau says that the intense emotion of Jaime’s scene with her goes beyond anything phyiscal they could have had.

"I think it’s one of the purest forms of love that Jaime’s experienced. The fact that he risks his life to save her from the bear attack, as well as when he stops the rape of her—and loses his hand because of that—is powerful. In the bathtub scene, he opened up to her and told her things he hadn’t told anyone, including the truth of why he killed the Mad King and the enormity of that trauma. For her to embrace him after that was, as I see it, an act of love."

Meanwhile, Russell is amused to hear that there are people who ‘ship him and Brienne after their scenes together, especially because it wasn’t until recently that he learned that a lot of book-readers assumed that the character was in the closet on the page.

"I made the mistake of looking at the blogs, because there were plenty of them, and they felt he’d been too soldierly, too aggressive. They’d been looking forward to a more avuncular sort of character. But his gayness is not flamboyant, if he is gay. That’s a perfectly valid thing to say. Who knows, though? It’s a nice possibility… (Brienne is) terrifically tall woman, with just a charismatic presence. I’d like to come back as a younger man, and Brienne could have a relationship with me! [Laughs.] We could redo the whole series!"

As for Jaime, Coster-Waldau suggests the reason he allows Brienne to get away is because of that deep relationship they have.

"…they have so much in common because they’re both outsiders, soldiers, and strongly believe in loyalty… And she’s the only one—apart from his sister and brother—who calls him Jaime and not “Kingslayer.” She sees him as a human being."