Warning: spoilers ahead for the latest episode of Game of Thrones.
One of the most unlikely plot twists of Game of Thrones has to be the friendship that formed between Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth. The two could not have been more different when they met, and their journey together to King's Landing seemed likely to end in one of them dead at the other's hand. Instead, they eventually bonded, and there's been a level of ambiguous affection between them ever since. They separated when Jaime sent her off on a quest to recover Sansa Stark in Season 4. Now, they've finally reunited, and Jaime's portrayer, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, has opened up to share his thoughts on a possible romantic element of the Jaime/Brienne dynamic.
In a chat with EW, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau had this to say about Jaime and Brienne after the events of the latest episode:
[Bronn] tells us what the audience suspects. It's a great way to get all that stuff into the audience's head before the scene because then there's this added subtext. Jaime is always about Cersei and what he can do to help her and how to achieve whatever she wants. And for Brienne, it's the same -- she has an oath to Catelyn Stark. She's extremely strong willed and has her honor and has to do the right thing always.
Game of Thrones has never been explicit about the possibility of mutual romantic feelings between Jaime and Brienne, but Bronn's theories about what the pair was up to while alone in a tent together overtly introduced the question of "What if?" to the scenario. Cersei once accused Brienne of having fallen in love with Jaime, but nobody in the show had ever really said the same of Jaime falling for Brienne. Still, no one can say that Brienne isn't at least somewhat Jaime's type. She is blonde, after all.
The episode didn't end in a way that promised progress on any sort of relationship between Jaime and Brienne, but Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has hope for what could be in store for them.
Sometimes, with both of them, you just want to go, 'For goddsake, let it go for one second. What about what you want?' They never listen to themselves. And what I love about the end of this scene is there's some heartbreak. Because, once again, they were close. But are they ever gonna be able to talk about something other than someone else's agenda?
Now that Brienne is headed back up North and Jaime's victory in negotiating an end to the siege at Riverrun to free him up to return south to King's Landing, the two likely won't be able to talk about anything at all in the near future. It doesn't look like we're in for a torrid love triangle between Jaime, Brienne, and Tormund Giantsbane, which...is kind of a shame, actually. There's not a ton of humor on Game of Thrones, and Jaime/Brienne/Tormund would be worth a laugh.
We may not see much more of Jaime and Brienne for a while, but the next episode should be exciting as Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton face off. Be sure to tune in to HBO at 9 p.m. ET on Sundays to catch the rest of Season 6 of Game of Thrones.
