This post contains frank discussion of several plot points from Season 8, Episode 1 of Game of Thrones. If youre not all caught up or would prefer not to be spoiled, now is the time to leave. Seriously, this is your last chance and you wont have another so get while the getting is good.
In an episode full of emotional, flirtatious, and fraught reunions, none was quite so important as the series-in-the-making reckoning for Jaime Lannister that came when, as the episode closed, he set eyes on Bran Stark for the first time since Season 1, Episode 1. It somewhat likely that this is who Bran was referring to when he told Samwell he was waiting for a friend. Though, intriguingly, theres another possible interpretation of that line that we can dig into below. Anyway, back to Jaime. You remember what happened the last time he and Bran met, right? Of course you do.
Brans inability to remember what, exactly, caused his fall from that tower was the cause of much strife in Season 1. But that was human Bran. The person Jaime locked eyes with in the premieres final moments was Brans new form, the Three-Eyed Raven, and he remembers everything. Which should prove problematic for Jaime.
Okay, but as narratively satisfying as it would be to see Jaime confront Bran after all these years, is it all that compelling to watch everyones favorite morally conflicted Lannister meet the Three-Eyed Raven? Here, actor Isaac Hempstead-Wright has good news. Last season, a heartbroken Meera Reed exclaimed that Bran died in that icy cave north of the Wall, but in a recent interview with Vanity Fairs “Still Watching” podcast, Hempstead-Wright explained that Bran Stark is not entirely gone: “Theres still a bit of Bran Stark in Bran and when hes at his home surrounded by people he knows that will obviously be brought out a bit more. He hasnt completely forgotten who he is, its just not as important to him anymore.” You can listen to the full interview here.
Okay so Jaime will have to reckon with the real Bran and some of the many other sins of his past as he makes one last stab at breaking good during his return to Winterfell. We can probably expect that juicy fallout to comprise much of Episode 2. This season is rich with possibilities of chickens finally coming home to roost and its fascinating to see Winterfell as the nexus for so many moral reckonings and past sins, remembered.
So lets circle back to Brans comment about waiting for a friend. Was he actually talking about Jaime Lannister? I mean, probably. But some Game of Thrones fans think Bran is headed for, potentially, an even more complicated reunion this season. In the Season 8 trailer, you can hear Bran say to someone “everything you did brought you to where you are now. Where you belong: home.” Assuming the “home” is Winterfell, there are a few people he could be talking to there. Certainly all the Starks—Arya, Sansa, Jon—have complicated pasts that brought them home. Is he offering closure and absolutionRead More – Source
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Vanity Fair
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