Should these scenes have been cut from Game of Thrones season 8?

Image: Game of Thrones/HBO

Ahead of the 2019 Emmys, the script for “The Iron Throne” — the Game of Thrones series finale, was posted online. Reading it revealed lots of goodies, from interesting stage directions to cut lines of dialogue to some more insight into why the lords of Westeros elected Bran king.

Now, all six of the scripts for the final season of the show are available to read at the Writers Guild Foundation library in Los Angeles. Writing for Insider, Kim Renfro — author of The Unofficial Guide to Game of Thrones — absorbed them all, breaking down seven of the most interesting alternations and deletions. Let’s go through them and judge if they should have been changed, starting with…

Euron, Harry Strickland, and yet more incest

In the first episode of the season, “Winterfell,” Euron and Yara Greyjoy share a brief moment in the brig of the Silence, Euron’s flagship, before Theon comes to rescue her. The scene is pretty much the same on the page as it is onscreen — Euron taunts Yara some and tells her he’s going to “f**k the queen” — expect in the original script, Euron also “kisses his niece on the lips.”

Also, there’s some additional dialogue between Euron and Harry Strickland, the leader of the Golden Company. Euron again mentions that he’s going to sleep with Cersei. Harry says that Jaime Lannister won’t like that. Euron: “She can think of him while I’m inside her. I don’t mind.” Harry: “You’re a strange man, Greyjoy.”

Should it have been changed?

I don’t think we lost much of value here. I would have liked for Harry Strickland to get another line or two before Daenerys mows him down in “The Bells,” but not if it means we had to sit through more Gross Euron antics. I’m fine with cutting the uncle-niece kiss, too.