In the season finale of Game of Thrones season 7, Cersei and Tyrion Lannister have a long private conversation where Tyrion found out Cersei was pregnant and used it as leverage to get her to help fight the army of the dead with Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. It was a terrific scene that found actors Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey at the top of their game.
It was also a pile of bullshit. As she later revealed to Jaime, Cersei had no intention of sending her army north and doing her part to prevent humanity’s extinction. Aghast, Jaime finally left his sister and headed north to fight the good fight, but ever since this scene, fans have wondered about Tyrion’s part in all this. Did Cersei fool him like she fooled Jaime, or did he hatch some sort of plan his sister, a plan that we still don’t know the full extent of?
If you go by “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” she did indeed fool him. Jaime arrived at Winterfell, told everyone Cersei wasn’t coming, and Tyrion was well and truly chagrinned, openly wondering if Daenerys would soon revoke his handship. If he’s plotting something with Cersei, he’s keeping it well hidden.
Speaking to HuffPost, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” writer Bryan Cogman favors the simple explanation.
"I think he did [trust her] because, in his mind, the only time she’s really acted in a way that wasn’t utterly selfish was in regard to her children. The fact that she told him she was pregnant, and then he — on a real brother- and-sister level because of his history with her — believes that she was, that it would be one of those moments where love of her children trumps her own selfish ambitions, so I think that precedent is what made him confident about that. And Cersei is smart enough to know that he would think that."
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) agrees. When HuffPost asked him if there was anything sneaky going on with Tyrion, he dismissed it out of hand and got right into talking about the relationship between the brothers:
"No, God, listen, Jaime, he loves his brother. That’s the thing, it was a beautiful scene by the fireplace and it was nice for Tyrion and Jaime to have a moment where they go, we still love each other and we’re good. I mean, he still killed their father, which is a really uncool thing to do, to kill your parents. But at the same time, there’s no one Jaime trusts more than Tyrion apart from, I think, [Brienne of Tarth]."
So the word from the cast and crew is that there was no collusion between Tyrion and Cersei. Tyrion just messed up, as he has been wont to do these past couple seasons. The lesson here is that these two need to learn to respect each other. Thankfully, Elmo is here for that:
Circling back to Coster-Waldau, he had more to say about Jaime’s relationship with Brienne. “She likes Jaime Lannister, and she believes in him and the goodness in him, and he absolutely admires and believes in Brienne of Tarth,” he said. “I love that he goes to her and says, ‘Listen, I would be honored to serve under your command.’ He’s letting down all his guards and this is the truth. The truth is I want to be close to you for many reasons but first and foremost, you’re the best…e wants to be close to her when they face death.”
The scene where Jaime knights her Brienne already become a classic, and it sounds as interesting to film as it was to watch.
"There’s something about that atmosphere: You have the lightness of Tormund Giantsbane (Kristofer Hivju) telling his insane story and then you have the beauty of his honesty. There’s no bullshit, if you will. When he asks Brienne why she isn’t a knight and she says women can’t be because of tradition, he says, ‘Fuck tradition.’ And that rings a bell with Jaime because it’s the truth. She is clearly the most honorable, the most worthy of the title of knight of anyone in the Seven Kingdoms."
The knighting is the latest in a series of “weird love letter” Jaime has given Brienne, the other big one being Oathkeeper, which he gave her in season 4 so she could use it help keep the Stark girls safe, which she has. “When he gave her Oathkeeper, she comes to give it back and he says, ‘No, it’s yours. It’s always been yours.’ It’s easy to read into it that he’s talking about more than just the sword.” Like maybe his HEART? HUH?
Speaking of Oathkeeper, it isn’t lost on Coster-Waldau that Brienne and Jaime are both carrying Valyrian steel swords fashioned from Ice, Ned Stark’s giant Valyrian steel sword that Tywin Lannister had melted down in season 4. Brienne has Oathkeeper and Jaime has Widow’s Wail, Joffrey’s old sword. Is there anything particularly meaningful about that? Maybe:
"Hopefully, the horrors that were done to the Starks will come to good. But I don’t want to talk about deeper meanings when we still have a few episodes to go. Things will be revealed and certain things won’t, but obviously, there’s meaning. Will it have special meaning in the future? Who knows. But it has meaning in the fact that the Stark children, the girls, were given this sword that was made from Ned Stark’s sword to protect them.”"
Interesting. Let’s all put a pin in that.
For Coster-Waldau, it sounds like Valyrian steel weapons are on the brain. A lot have changed hands over the years. Jaime and Brienne are using swords refashioned from a blade that use to belong to Ned Stark. Jon Snow has Longclaw, a Valyrian steel sword that once belonged to House Mormont. Thanks to Sam, Jorah Mormont now has Heartsbane, the Valyrian steel sword of House Tarly, and Arya has a Valyrian steel dagger once owned by Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish. “The whole point is that we have to do this together if we want to survive,” said Coster-Waldau. “I think that’s one way of reading it, for sure. It is ‘The Song of Ice and Fire,’ it’s the way it should be.”
And finally, Coster-Waldau gave his thoughts on Daenerys learned the secret of Jon Snow’s heritage. “I love how it’s not at all about them being related and having sex ― clearly that’s not a big deal. But she’s like, ‘What? Are you going to fucking claim my throne?! Is that it?’” Yeah, those two have some issues to work out.
We’ll next see Jaime, Brienne, and the rest this Sunday in the still-untitled “Episode 803.” Pray for them all.
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