'Game of Thrones' Revealed a Major Way the Night King Could've Been Totally Different
So, that’s it, now that The Last Watch documentary has aired, Game Of Thrones has really, really, officially ended now. Well, until the books come out anyway.
But that’s not stopping fans from wondering (and petitioning) about how season eight could have been different.
As it turns out, there’s lots of information out there to suggest that the show could have been completely transformed by the showrunners’ original plans.
Would it have been better? Let's investigate.
1. The Night King’s death was very different
In the script for 'The Long Night', the Night King’s death went down differently.
‘Something is hurtling towards [the Night King] out of the darkness: Arya. She vaults off a pile of dead wights, leaps at the Night King, and she plunges the dagger up through the Night King’s armor. The Night King shatters.’
So, not only do we get an explanation of how Arya was able to leap through the sky from seemingly thin air (oh, how we wish we’d seen Arya jumping off that pile of wights), the death itself is a lot simpler – the Night King doesn’t turn and grab her, and Arya doesn’t do the cool knife trick that was seeded in season seven.
So, yeah, we’re not sure how we feel about this one.
2. Ser Jorah was supposed to survive
Oh, Ser Jorah. Lovely, friend-zoned Ser Jorah. You died long before your time, old friend. Especially as, originally, you weren’t supposed to die at all.
D&D originally wanted to keep Ser Jorah in play so he could go to the wall like his father before him in a cute mirroring of season one’s cold (literally) open. Sadly, the writing team couldn't make it work.
"The amount of logic we’d have to bend to get Jorah up to the Wall and get him to leave Dany’s side right before [the events in the finale] … there’s no way to do that blithely," writer Dave Hill said.
He’s right, Jorah would have made for an awkward component to the story from the minute Dany went full Mad Queen. Logically, he would have needed to be involved in her death to complete his arc.
Actor Iain Glen agrees it would have been complicated.
"It’s a blessing for him that he never found out what happened to her," Glen told EW. "And from a pragmatic story point of view, his death served a greater purpose. Where could we have taken Jorah from there? F- if I know."
3. The Prince of Dorne wasn’t supposed to be so chill
The new Prince of Dorne may not have had much season-eight screen time, but his supremely laid-back attitude was enough to turn him into a meme.
And, according to the actor who plays him, Toby Osmond, his extreme chill wasn’t actually the showrunners' original intention.
“In my mind, I’m thinking ‘We’re in Dorne, we’re safe, we’ve got the mountains, in Sunspear they can’t get us." Osmond said. "Unbowed, unbent, unbroken. White Walkers aren’t coming, dragons can’t get us, we’re good, man! We’re good! I don’t want to sit on the Iron Throne!’”
“Then on day three or four – and I suspect this is why they panned off from my ‘aye’ – Dan (Weiss) comes up to me and we’re about to do my close-ups, and he says ‘Okay, Toby, this is a really important decision, you need to work out what’s going to be best for Dorne, you’re really invested in this.’ And I’m like, ‘I wish I’d heard this on the first day of shooting!’ [laughs]”
Thank goodness Toby didn’t have the full story – or the now-iconic Prince of Dorne might have been very different. And much more intense.
4. Jon should have met Cersei
Leaked set shots showed that Jon Snow (in full Northern furs, which we didn’t see him wear during the invasion of King’s Landing) was supposed to have a scene with Cersei earlier in season eight.
We can only guess what it would have entailed, but presumably Snow was either trying to convince Cersei to keep her promise to provide soldiers to Winterfell, or he was warning her that Dany was on her way to torch EVERYTHING.
Either way, it really doesn’t make sense – so there’s also a chance this was one of the fake scenes they shot to fend off leakers.
Still, we wish it was real, if only because it would have given Cersei a scene that didn’t involve her looking out of a window (even if she’s still looking out of a window in these leaked shots).
5. The White Walkers nearly spoke
The original Game Of Thrones pilot included descriptions of White Walkers speaking to each other, and ‘the Others’ in the books (no relation to the the Others in Lost) do communicate using a made-up language. So, there’s a chance we could have heard some dialogue from the Night King in the final season.
It’s not as ridiculous as it seems – if you watch the interview footage with Night King actor Vladimir Furdik in The Last Watch documentary, you’ll see his prosthetic mask has been specifically designed to allow him to talk without taking it off. That’s a lot of extra effort for the special effects department, for a character who’s not actually supposed to speak.
6. It could have been even more violent
Nestled in a series of (very accurate) Reddit leaks was the reveal that season eight was supposed to involve a sequence where a horse gets ripped in half by a dragon.
That sounds very death-metal album cover, but seeing as everything else on the list was true, this probably was filmed / CGIed, but was cut for being waaaay too intense and upsetting. And we're actually fine with not seeing a horse torn in two.
7. Jaime and Brienne should have reunited
According to the same leaker who got pretty much everything else right, the unsatisfying conclusion to Jaime and Brienne’s story could have been even more unsatisfying.
Apparently, there was originally supposed to be a scene where Brienne tries to see Jaime, and Jaime refuses to see her. So, yeah, we’re glad they got rid of this one. If only they could have lost the bit where Brienne cries in the snow in her PJs.
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