HBO cut a lot from George R.R. Martin’s final Game of Thrones script

A MSYTERY SOLVED

Remember the scene where Tyrion gifts Joffrey with a very nice book and Joffrey immediately cuts it to pieces with the Valyrian steel sword he just got? Well, in A Storm of Swords, that scene also contained the answer to a long-simmering mystery, but that part didn’t make it into the final cut. It’s in Martin’s original script, though:

"“I am no stranger to Valyrian steel.” Martin then writes: “That chance remark means something Tyrion; we see it on his face. Before he can react, however, Joffrey brings the blade down in a savage two-handed cut on the book that Tyrion had given him.” “Perhaps Your Grace would sooner have a dagger to match his sword. A dagger of Valyrian steel… and a dragonbone hilt. Your father had a knife like that, I believe.” Martin writes that Tyrion’s words “strike home,” and the king becomes “FLUSTERED” as he responds with “guilt” on his face: “You . . . I mean . . . my father’s knife was stolen at Winterfell . . . those northmen are all thieves.” Then, to underline it all, Martin concludes in his stage directions: “Tyrion’s eyes never leaving the king. It has just fallen into place for him. It was Joffrey who sent the catspaw to kill Bran, the crime that started the whole war. But now that he knows, what can he do about it?” Tyrion is later tempted to tell his wife, Sansa, what he’s figured out, but decides instead to answer her innocent question about whether Joffrey might enjoy a dagger with a double entendre: “It would certainly please me to give him one,” Tyrion says."

On the show, the mystery of who sent the assassin to kill Bran Stark during his coma in season 1 is never conclusively solved. They kinda-sorta imply that it was Littlefinger in season 7, but nothing’s certain. In the books, it’s heavily implied that Joffrey did the deed…possibly to impress his father, possibly as an early experiment in being a heartless murdering jackass, maybe both. Martin wanted that included on the show, but it was not to be.

Why was this cut?

I’m not really sure. One idea is that Benioff and Weiss may not have thought solving this mystery wasn’t crucial to the story of Game of Thrones, and I see their point. Bran’s assassination may set the story in motion, but it quickly grows into something much greater. I think part of the point of A Song of Ice and Fire is that, in history, it’s ultimately impossible to isolate the singular cause of any large conflict; life is just too complicated. This is the narrative’s last chance to finger Joffrey as the culprit for Bran’s assassination attempt before Joffrey dies, but putting this mystery to bed almost feels too neat for such a sprawling story. When Benioff and Weiss were looking for things to cut, I understand why this went.

Or that’s my take, anyway. What do you guys make of it?