Gwendoline Christie: Tormund may have “a chance” with Brienne now
By Ariba Bhuvad
Still sorting through the aftermath of the Game of Thrones series finale, Gwendoline Christie (Ser Brienne of Tarth) spoke to Indie Wire and revealed that she felt “pathetically thrilled” that she guessed how the show would ended years before it happened. Kudos to her! I don’t think a lot of us saw that ending coming.
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Like many other fans, Christie initially assumed that the ending would feature Dany or Jon on the throne, which she really didn’t want but felt was the most likely outcome. Learning that the council would elect Bran the Broken made her all kinds of happy.
"I thought it would be Bran because I thought it would be the least likely person. In my mind what ‘Game of Thrones’ has always done is subvert narrative. As viewers we’ve really not known what’s going to come to us and we’ve not known how to predict it. That’s what’s made it so intoxicating. It’s the idea of the final ruler being someone who isn’t interested in power, who isn’t ambitious and therefore is entirely unlikely to become corrupted by power. That’s what I thought that George R.R. Martin would go with."
When you put it that way, it sort of makes sense, right?
Between getting knighted and sharing a night of passion with Ser Jaime Lannister, Ser Brienne of Tarth had a very emotional journey in the final season. Unfortunately, the love story was short-lived, but it was all part of Brienne’s path to becoming a stronger person. “When Jaime comes into Brienne’s room, she chooses to push that action forward and it’s very clear that she is consenting,” Christie said. “More than that, she wants it, and the kiss is passionate and she is filled with desire in that moment. And when Jaime leaves her, she feels extreme pain in the way that human beings do when they put themselves on the line, [when] they invest themselves and things don’t work out as planned. And then he dies.”
Ser Jaime Lannister may no longer be around, but there is still a giant, milk-loving man out there desperate for Brienne’s attention. Just saying! “Yeah, maybe [Tormund] has a chance, but she would really make him work,” Christie said. “I mean, you know, she’s landed her dream job. Also, the story about the giant’s milk might take a little bit of getting over. But maybe not.”
Gwendoline Christie is most proud of how Game of Thrones broke the mold of the stereotypical roles usually given to men and women, with Brienne of Tarth leading the charge. “And I think that Game of Thrones has been an element in that landscape that has shown that audiences want something outside of our previous conventional patriarchal construct,” she said.
"I truly didn’t think that she would be embraced because she wasn’t conventionally attractive, and she wasn’t sexy or cute or sassy. I feel like we saw this incredibly unconventional character and we saw her display all the behaviors that we’re taught as women not to display. She was purely herself and in pursuit of behaving in a way that’s noble, doing what is truly right, and being happy to sacrifice her own immediate wants and needs for the good of others."
And we will miss her dearly!
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