There were a lot of things that let fans down when it comes to the final season of Game of Thrones, but seeing Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) leave Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) had to be one of the hardest scenes to watch.
Now, the GoT showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have revealed more details from behind the scenes of that controversial final moment between the pair and they’re absolutely heartbreaking.
We know that when GoT first started, Jaime was a cruel, selfish character who regularly slept with his sister Cersei. However, he began to change after meeting Brienne in season 2.
At first, the pair didn’t get along, but they slowly found themselves trusting and respecting each other. They were separated for a few seasons but their bond was always strong.
When Jaime left King’s Landing and his sister to fight in the North, fans were hopeful that it signalled a huge change in his character.
Then in the fourth episode of season eight, he and Brienne slept together, but it was just moments after that things went downhill.
Jaime hears that Cersei is in danger and decides to leave Winterfell and help her. He breaks Brienne’s heart in his final scene with her and it’s now revealed that their goodbye was even harsher than we thought.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Benioff and Weiss revealed in the home video commentary that there was a line that wasn’t in the script, nor in the show, that Coster-Waldau said to Christie to “help provoke Brienne’s grief”.
In his brutally classic Jaime way, he told her, “I don’t love you. No one loves you.”
While the line didn’t make the final cut, it definitely added to the pair’s performance in the scene.
Had the line been included fans would have been even more heartbroken than they already were and would have thought even worse of Jaime than they did.
It would have also undone all the lovely moments between them, including the scene where Jaime knights Brienne before the Battle of Winterfell.
Benioff and Weiss might have made a lot of mistakes, but at least they didn’t include this one.