Game of Thrones season 8: What to expect between Jon and Daenerys

When it comes to Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen, Game of Thrones has a lot of work to do in season 8. Here’s what David Benioff and Dan Weiss have to say.

Game of Thrones‘ big relationship these days is not familial in origin, although its two characters are, unbeknownst to them, related. We’re talking, of course, about Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen, two of the show’s most powerful characters, who hook up in season 7 after he bends the knee, she saves him on a dragon, and they gaze at each other dramatically.

“The course of true love never did run smooth,” though, and with a throne to win, the incest to deal with, and an ancient enemy to defeat, things are looking rough for both our secret Targaryen and our Khaleesi.

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, David Benioff and Dan Weiss had a brief moment to bring the two up. Weiss, specifically, had this to say:

"Jon and Dany are obviously together-together now. We didn’t have much time, or any time, to explore that relationship as a real relationship in the seventh season. It came to fruition at the end. It was a lot of fun to write them meeting each other, and now there’s a new kind of relationship between them. And here they’re together from the beginning."

Essentially, the tack Weiss seems to be taking is that for these two, sleeping together on the boat was the “start of something new,” just with less singing and more everything else. That tracks with how it’s presented, down to the episode cutting back and forth between the Wall being attacked and these two.

This relationship is apparently even more romantic, too, which we can take from Weiss using both “together-together” and “new kind.” The trailers and teasers don’t always keep them together, but when they are, it’s pretty showy, as when they ride in with the Unsullied ahead of them. In other words, it doesn’t look like this is something being kept secret, and that throws an entirely different set of conflicts at them as well: other people’s approval.

Sure, two dragons does a lot of work, but if you don’t have at least some support, you don’t last long on Westeros. Jon knows that intimately after his death and resurrection. His bending the knee might be a deal breaker for some, and that could lead to strain between him and Daenerys.

Of course, the imminent threat of the Night King will probably patch some of that up, but the cracks might still be there after the threat is defeated. In that same interview, both Benioff and Weiss stress that no ending is completely lovable across the wide spectrum of TV watchers. Perhaps that strain coming back, leaving the sense that the game will continue long after we leave these characters for the last time, will be part of that.

Stay tuned to Culturess for all the latest in Game of Thrones throughout the season.