It’s no secret that many of us were disappointed with the character arcs of our Game of Thrones faves in the final two seasons, not least the cast members themselves. And this week, Lena Headey has spoken out about her character Cersei's final storylines – and the things we never got to see.
In an interview with The Wrap, Lena Headey revealed that she actually filmed scenes she thinks would have given her character of Cersei more depth towards her end, one of which was a traumatic miscarriage.
‘We shot a scene that never made it into Season 7 which was where I lose the baby and it was a really traumatic, great moment for Cersei,’ she said, ‘and it never made it in and I kind of loved doing that because I thought it would have served her differently.’
Revealing last week to The Guardian that she also wanted a ‘better death’ for Cersei, she has spoken about her character arc multiple times, telling Entertainment Weekly last month that she wished Cersei could have had a ‘big piece or fight with somebody’.
The miscarriage scene itself could have been a profound moment in the show, a chance to show how truly traumatising the experience can be given how much taboo still revolves around it in today’s society. How it could have informed viewers perception of her, and the subsequent way she dealt with it, seems like a missed opportunity for the writers.
While Lena has said she warmed up to her narrative after talking with her co-star, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who played her brother/lover Jaime Lannister, it seems she is one of many Game of Thrones cast members that had to be persuaded round to season seven and eight’s scripts. Emilia Clarke has said her ending ‘f*cked her up’, with Kit Harrington agreeing it was ‘disappointing’ and Joe Dempsie saying the writers abandoned character development for shock value in the last two seasons.
All the clues you missed leading up to THAT Arya Stark moment...
1 of 9The first target
As Bran attempts to draw his arrow and hit the target, Arya interrupts him with a sudden intervention and hits the target with her own arrow – to the surprise of Jon Snow and Rob Stark. It was one of the first times we saw Arya's skill with a weapon, and her surprise Bran with a secret attack.
2 of 9The first lesson
Her first lesson, Jon tells Arya 'stick him with the pointy end', advice she then gave to Sansa in Sunday night's episode. Considering many expected Jon to kill the Night King, the foreshadowing is quite chilling.
3 of 9Melisandre literally told us...
The most obvious clue came in season three - while still following the narrative of the books – when Melisandre, the red priestess, told Arya, 'I see a darkness in you, and in that darkness, eyes staring back at me. Brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes. Eyes sealed shut forever.' Of course, she's killed many brown-eyed men, including Walder Frey. Now the Night King with blue eyes, and who do we know with green eyes?!
4 of 9The 'not today' lesson
Then came her training with Syrio Forel from season one. 'What do we say to the God of death?' he asked her, 'Not today', he taught. The Night King largely represented death, and she sure proved it was NOT today. In service of the House of black and White in Braavos, Arya goes blind in her training with Jaqen H'ghar. As she struggles with her identity, she becomes 'no one', and able to wear the masks then will see her kill many men. When Bran explained the danger incoming, he stated 'no one can kill the Night King'. And 'no one' truly did.
5 of 9Then she became 'no one'...
In service of the House of Black and White in Braavos, Arya goes blind in her training with Jaqen H'ghar. As she struggles with her identity, she becomes 'no one', and able to wear the masks then will see her kill many men. When Bran explained the danger incoming, he stated 'no one can kill the Night King'. And 'no one' truly did.
6 of 9Arya could surprise Jon easier than he could her...
Of course, the clues came thick and fast in the most recent season. We saw Arya sneak up on Jon in episode one of season eight, to his surprise ('how did you sneak up on me?', he asked), in the exact same place she would sneak up on the Night King on Sunday night's episode.
7 of 9The all-knowing Bran knew to give her something special...
Then, when Arya is reunited with Bran for the first time in years, he returns the dagger that would later be used to kill the Night King in the exact place she would kill him.
8 of 9And we saw her signature move used right before...
And just before battle, as Arya trained with Brienne of Tarth (that's Ser Brienne of Tarth to you), she used the same move flipping her knife from one hand to the other to stop her in battle.
9 of 9So, what else have we missed?
Of course, will all of these clues, there are now tons of fan theories about what's happening next. The main clue comes from that Melisandre quote about green eyes, are we to expect Arya to kill Cersei next, or at least one of the green-eyed Lannister's? It almost seems too obvious at this point, given that we literally missed every tiny clue they gave us about Arya's fate for an entire eight seasons – would they make it that easy for us? We're betting not.
Conleth Hill too, who played Varys, said he was ‘frustrated’ for season seven and eight, telling Entertainment Weekly, ‘It just felt like after season 6, I kind of dropped off the edge. I can’t complain because it’s six great seasons and I had some great scenes these last two seasons. But that’s when it changed for me a little.’
Alas, we’ve had two long months to move on from the disappointment that was the Game of Thrones finale, here’s hoping we one day get a prequel that sees George R.R Martin return as writer to give the characters, and cast members, a narrative they truly deserve.