‘Game of Thrones’ season 5 finale: Gwendoline Christie on Brienne’s big moment, season 6
Just when we started to think that the Brienne story on “Game of Thrones” season 5 was not going anywhere, the show surprised us with one of the best seasons of the entire finale Sunday night. Also, this may have been one of the few stories that actually excited you to a certain extent in the middle of all of the depression.
As a quick refresher, Brienne stumbles across Stannis Baratheon outside of Winterfell, and this moment comes after the potential king loses a massive battle against the members of House Bolton, which in turn comes after him losing half his army and his wife following his decision to sacrifice his daughter to the Lord of Light. Melisandre is somehow still out there, but that is all we know for the time being about her circumstances.
For Gwendoline Christie, this was a big turning point for her character in that killing Stannis was not just entirely about her duty; instead, she tells Entertainment Weekly that there is a personal reaction and an emotional play that comes with avenging the death of Renly Baratheon, who she served dutifully at the start of the second season:
“Brienne is depressed about the situation she’s in. She hasn’t been able to achieve what she’s wanted. Arya slipped through her fingers and she just went through the fight of her life. The notion of the oath comes up again and again and she remains resolute. A lot of her personal needs remain unacknowledged. She puts all of her life’s focus on the greater good. What occurs is something very interesting. There’s an exploration of this character as a person—she’s dedicated to the greater good, not acknowledging her personal wants and needs in favor of something better than her. [Going after Stannis is] the one moment she responds to her emotional world and her feelings. She’s overtaken by something that we haven’t seen before. She chooses not to stand vigilant and to go and seek Stannis. In the script it says, ‘a darkness comes over her,’ in that way it does when you’re hell-bent on something.”
Christie claims that she has no idea what the future holds for her character, though at the same time, she does say in humor that she’s already prepared to die. If it can happen to Jon Snow, it can happen to anyone.
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