Imagine it or not, Game of Thrones wrapped on HBO greater than six years in the past, with many longtime characters useless by the point the ultimate credit rolled. Season 8 was actually divisive amongst followers, however the consensus appears to be that the finale was simply not a powerful conclusion. I personally have not rewatched many episodes for the reason that 2019 finale, however the temper lately struck me to revisit one very particular scene with Jaime and Brienne, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s efficiency has me bitter yet again about how Jaime’s story ended.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s Unforgettable Scene
The scene I’m referring to comes from the fifth episode of Season 3, known as “Kissed By Hearth” and accessible streaming with an HBO Max subscription. By this level within the sequence, Jaime was at his lowest. He’d violently misplaced his sword hand, and he appeared to be at demise’s door from the contaminated wound. It was on this state that Jaime stepped into a big steaming bathtub, the place a dismayed Brienne was already cleansing up.
Barely holding on to consciousness, Jaime revealed the backstory how he turned referred to as the “Kingslayer.” On this telling, he wasn’t an conceited younger knight who killed the king on the first alternative, however a devoted member of the Kingsguard in King’s Touchdown… to a sure level. Jaime was nearly growling when he bought to the important thing a part of the story, telling Brienne:
[Aerys] informed me to deliver him my father’s head. Then he turned to his pyromancer. ‘Burn all of them,’ he stated. ‘Burn them of their properties, burn them of their beds.’ Inform me, in case your treasured Renly commanded you to kill your personal father and stand by whereas hundreds of males, girls, and youngsters burned alive, would you’ve gotten accomplished it? Would you’ve gotten stored your oath then? First I killed the pyromancer, after which when the king turned to flee, I drove my sword into his again. ‘Burn all of them,’ he stored saying.
Game of Thrones had established Ned Stark’s model again in Season 1, and followers had no cause to doubt him. Ned was the great man, in any case, and Jaime was the man who tossed a child out of a window to cowl up his incestuous affair. The primary season did not give me cause to doubt Ned’s phrase.
“Kissed by Hearth” did. Feverish and lacking a hand, Jaime was in no form to spin an elaborate. When he snarled that he didn’t inform the story to Ned as a result of “by what proper does the wolf choose the lion,” I believed him.
Why I’m Mad Again About Jaime’s Ending
To be trustworthy, I by no means actually cared a lot for them. Harmless or in any other case.
Had been there some stable moments on this sequence between the brothers? Certain. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Peter Dinklage delivered as Jaime and Tyrion stated their closing farewells, however I was soured on the entire scene as soon as Jaime dropped that line. I might consider Jaime falling again into outdated habits about Cersei, however I simply could not purchase that the person who killed King Aerys to save lots of the town would say that he “by no means cared a lot” for the frequent individuals.
For me, this scene was the worst for Jamie in “The Bells,” and that is saying one thing. The truth is, apart from the brothers’ farewell, my favourite factor in regards to the sequence might be that it is about as darkly lit because the Battle of Winterfell, which might assist me attempt to neglect it. Nonetheless, with the passage of six years and now rewatching Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s efficiency within the Season 3 bathtub scene, I can at the very least look again on the highlights with out dwelling on that ending.
