While at this year’s Con of Thrones, Game of Thrones star Hannah Murray (Gilly) talked to several media outlets, including us! She also spoke to Watchers of the Wall, where she got a little dark describing the ending of the show:
"I knew to expect the unexpected. Anything that felt too obvious to me I knew was not going to be what [happened]. So there were certain things where I was like, “Well it can’t be that but I don’t know what it is going to be.” It’s not like a fairytale happy ending by any means at all and I think it’s a really wonderful final season. I’m really excited for people to get to see it."
Murray, who has finished filming her scenes for season 8, wouldn’t get into specifics, but we’re glad to hear that the ending won’t be predictable. The lead characters got out of season 7 relatively unscathed, but can their luck possibly hold out until the end of the show?
Murray also looked back on Gilly’s journey, which she considered unique among Game of Thrones characters:
"Her beginnings are so harrowing and so awful and we’ve watched her get given things and we’ve watched her grow and we’ve watched her gain in strength … if anything she’s become softer and warmer as time’s gone on."
You can surely chock some of that up to her relationship with Samwell Tarly, which is among the healthiest and most mutually supportive on the show. “I think there’s something about them both coming from such a vulnerable place that no one’s paying enough attention to them to ruin their lives,” Murray said.
It is definitely easier to have a successful relationship when, for example, your almost-father-in-law doesn’t get angry that you spurned one of his daughters and makes it his mission to see you dead. No one really seems to care or feel threatened by Sam and Gilly’s relationship, give or take Randyll Tarly, so perhaps Murray is on to something.
One of Gilly’s biggest moments came during season 7, when she stumbled on the shocking truth about Jon Snow’s parentage while perusing a High Septon’s diary at the Citadel. But should Sam have given her credit when relying the information to Bran?
"I hadn’t read the scene where he passes on the information to Bran and I was like, ‘Wait you’re not even going to give me credit! But also, to be fair, she didn’t know the weight of information at the time. She was just reading a book and she was lucking to stumble across it. They were both lucky that they stumbled across that piece of information."
We’ll see if Gilly gets the credit she deserves in season 8.
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