The Worst Romantic Couple on <em>Game of Thrones</em>
This story contains major spoilers through the most recent episode of Game of Thrones.
Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones announced its theme early. “The things we do for love,” Bran Stark said, echoing the words Jaime Lannister had spoken to him in the series premiere all those years ago. “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” set on the eve of the Battle of Winterfell, did the emotional work that much of last season failed to do. It offered some long-delayed character development in the form of a moving meditation on the question of what we do, and whom we seek, when death is at our door. This week’s answer was, resoundingly, that it’s love—often romantic love—that matters most when the chips are down.
While has featured plenty of lost or troubled romances over its run, it can sometimes be easy couplings ended with death. “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” spent time on two of the remaining romantic pairings: Gilly and Samwell Tarly, as well as Missandei and Grey Worm. Viewers also witnessed the new but long-awaited hookup between Arya Stark and Gendry Baratheon, some affection between Brienne of Tarth and Jaime, and even a flash of tenderness between Daenerys Targaryen and Jorah Mormont.
