Many viewers felt that the finale to Game of Thrones was shockingly unpredictable but actress Gwendoline Christine, better known as Brienne of Tarth, guessed the ending in an interview two years ago. Ultimately, the only predictable thing about the Game of Thrones’ final episode is the huge amount of controversy it generated. The show’s eighth season has attracted much criticism but opinion on the final episode was more evenly divided and while the infamous petition to remake season 8 enjoyed a surge in support following the finale’s airing, a recent survey found that nearly half of the audience were satisfied with the conclusion - a respectable result considering the inherent difficultly in delivering a final episode that will please all viewers.
Game of Thrones’ final episode saw Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister conspire to assassinate Daenerys Targaryen after her roast of King’s Landing and Jon was exiled to the North for his part in the act. Sansa Stark successfully bought the North independence and became Queen in the process, while her sister Arya took to the seas on a mission of exploration. Perhaps the biggest surprise in the episode, however, came when Bran Stark was nominated to be the new King of the Six Kingdoms. As the Three-Eyed Raven, Bran has become almost completely detached from his surroundings and has never been a potential ruler, so his appointment caught the vast majority completely unawares.
That is, with the exception of a certain Gwendoline Christie. A two-year old ExtraTV interview has resurfaced in which Christie and co-star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau were asked by A. C. Slater from Saved By The Bell who they thought would be sitting on the Iron Throne come the end of the series. While Coster-Waldau plumped for either Dany or The Night King, both very much safe bets, Christie had a wildly different point of view. The actress answered:
Gwendoline Christie has now acknowledged her awesome powers of prediction in a typically humble Tweet.
“Don’t you think it’s going to be someone out of left field? …What we know about the show is that it constantly surprises you, so I’m wondering if it might be Bran. Just because we keep seeing the world from his perspective, don’t we? We keep seeing the visions, so is he in the future projecting in the past?”
While her time-travel reasoning might have been a little off the mark, Christie’s pick is, of course, spot-on and full credit is due to the actress for backing an underdog that, at that time, seemed like a completely outrageous choice. Perhaps even more interesting is the reaction to Christie’s prediction. A. C. Slater barely managed a “huh,” while Coster-Waldau echoed the sentiments of many Game of Thrones fans right now by exclaiming, “that doesn’t make sense.”
And indeed it’s difficult to disagree with him. Bran actor Isaac Hempstead-Wright recently admitted that he thought his character’s ending was a joke when he first read the script and while Bran The Broken’s fate isn’t the main point of criticism surrounding the episode, it arguably serves more to surprise viewers and subvert expectations that it does to bring the story to a logical conclusion. One of the main messages throughout Game of Thrones seemed to be that Kings and Queens should rule with compassion rather than fear but, since becoming the Three-Eyed Raven, Bran has possessed a cold detachment that separated him from the whims and wants of regular men. As with many of the problems in Game of Thrones season 8, this issue would perhaps have been solved with additional episodes and more time to delve into Bran’s abilities and draw out some of his former humanity before he ultimately took the throne.
More: Game Of Thrones: Why Tyrion Wasn’t Written About In A Song Of Ice And Fire
Source: ExtraTV
