Game of Thrones season 8: Gwendoline Christie’s take on Brienne and Jaime’s relationship

Game of Thrones fans have already heard Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s opinion on what’s going on between Brienne and Jaime. Now, Gwendoline Christie has her say.

The course to a one true pairing never did run smooth, and sometimes that extends to the characters themselves. On Game of Thrones, things, as always, remain something of a mystery when it comes to Brienne of Tarth and Jaime Lannister.

Earlier this week, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau used some particularly choice words to refer to Brienne’s knighting ceremony: “an act of love.” But that’s just Jaime’s view on these things.

Vulture, however, had the chance to ask Gwendoline Christie her opinion on the matter, and things are somewhat muddier yet again. “What I like about those two is there is a real ebb and flow to their relationship. They’re often repaying the favor and that’s something really beautiful. […] Brienne doesn’t really operate in that sexual realm.”

Note that she doesn’t say that Brienne “doesn’t operate” — it’s “doesn’t really operate.” She’s capable of recognizing when something could get sexual, as in the bath she shares with Jaime, and she’s also capable of being in love, as with Renly Baratheon.

All of this lines up with this writer’s analysis of Coster-Waldau’s statement on the matter, with the added bonus of some context of how Brienne views all of this. The two of them don’t just take from the other, or only give, as you might say Jaime and Cersei do. That doesn’t make this relationship necessarily romantic — something that Dan Selcke and I discussed on this week’s episode of WiC Club — but it does make it healthier overall than the one Jaime left behind.

Speaking of Jaime, Christie did weigh in on him as well: “I feel like what we saw in Jamie Lannister [sic] is a broken man reformed.” Some of that has to be credited to Brienne’s influence on him and her general goodness — something which Christie did highlight in her commentary on the character.

But before we say that Brienne is completely responsible for Jaime being a better person, let us note that Christie didn’t. Instead, as she says, their relationship is an “ebb and flow.” She’s a bit more flexible, morally speaking, than she used to be, and he’s much more in that “reformed bad person space.” However, she learned that from others around her just as much as she learned from Jaime; he did the same.

They just keep coming back to each other, down to Jaime wanting to work with Brienne on the battlefield, and that’s what has the shippers intrigued.

Let’s see how long that lasts, though, as episode 3 of Game of Thrones season 8 promises to be brutal.

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