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

Image: Game of Thrones/HBO

Missandei, Grey Worm, and Dany’s isolation

Missandei and Grey Worm get a nice exchange in “A Knight of Seven Kingdoms” that reminds us of how much they mean to each other. It’s good, but that’s about all the time the final season devotes to their relationship. The original script for “The Last of the Starks” gave us a bit more, and better yet, it does it in a way that highlights what Daenerys is going through.

Onscreen, Missandei and Grey Worm are nowhere to be seen at the feast following the Battle of Winterfell. But they’re present on the page. Missandei, seated by Dany, steals a look at Grey Worm, and Dany sees it. “When [Missandei] notices Dany looking at her, she stops smiling and faces forward, trying to look dignified.” Dany, happy for her friend, smiles as well, but it fades when she looks at Jon, who’s “wrapped in his own thoughts.”

Later, Dany tells a “stoic and vigilant” Grey Worm that she’s safe in the Great Hall of Winterfell, that he fought well in the battle, and that he’s free to leave the feast and go get some rest. Missandei, clearly wanting to follow her boyfriend, tells Dany she isn’t feeling well and asks to be excused. Dany, who clearly knows her friend is lying, can’t help but tease her a little. “Oh no,” she says. “Your belly?” Missandei scrambles for an answer, but Dany suggests that she has “a headache,” tells her to go and that she hopes she feels better soon. “Missandei leaves the feast, trying not to run.”

And then this: “Dany is happy for her friend. But she’s also aware that everyone seems to be having fun except for her. She’s lonely and Varys clocks her loneliness…”

Image: Game of Thrones/HBO

Should it have been changed?

To me, the big problem with season 8 was that it didn’t properly set up Daenerys’ descent into madness — or snap transformation into mad woman, if you like. In addition to underlining Dany’s sense of isolation, this scene would’ve reminded us of her friendship with Missandei, which would have helped us understand how Dany was feeling when Cersei executed her right-hand woman at the end of the episode.

Any scene that helped us understand Daenerys’ state of mind leading up to “The Bells” is welcome in my book. Also, the Dany-Missandei-Grey Worm moments are just cute all around. I wish this had been left in.