Well, it happened: In episode 2 of season 8 of Game of Thrones, Brienne (Gwendoline Christie), Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), and Tormund (Kristofer Hivju) finally found themselves in a room together. Not only that, but they drank around a fireplace together in a strange pre-battle breakfast club, along with Podrick “Magic Dick” Payne (Daniel Portman), Davos “Daddy” Seaworth (Liam Cunningham), and Tyrion (Peter Dinklage). So what did it mean for everyone’s favorite love triangle? Let’s just say the three pointed shape is definitely not equilateral.
First of all, we knew that Brienne and Jaime were deep — way deeper than Tormund’s infatuation. Brienne and Jaime (aka Braime) went from being adversaries to having deep mutual respect (and love of some sort) for one another. But this episode displayed some Braime sexual tension the likes of which we’ve never seen. When Jaime went to chat with Brienne in the field and asked to serve under her, you could feel the sexual chemistry. We know Jaime loves powerful women. Serve under her? We know exactly what he's getting at.
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As for Tormund, well, he continued to provide comic relief (what exactly was the white liquid in that horn he poured it all over himself?), in addition to being unabashedly horny for Brienne. But as far as I’m concerned, Tormund is just a Brienne stan. He doesn’t really know her, but he loves her work and has a big ole crush. If social media existed in the Game Of Thrones world, Tormund would be tweeting videos of Brienne fighting with captions like “Invented combat!” or “I want Brienne of Tarth to throw me out the moon door and then run me over with her horse.” He’s not really bothered that Brienne doesn’t seem interested — he just wants to bask in her glory any way he can.
To get into some real compatibility stuff, though, Tormund seems to have exactly two modes: lethal warrior, and horny clown. When he’s not fighting, he’s spouting weird jokes. And as we learned last night, Brienne only cracks a smile for one thing: being made a knight of the seven kingdoms. Jaime is a much better match for her, temperament wise — serious, honorable, and witty. The question now is not who Brienne would choose, but whether or not she’ll live long enough to be with him.
As we know, being happy on Game Of Thrones puts you in danger, and Brienne has never been happier. She is going into the Battle Of Winterfell accepted and rewarded by her peers, and happy in her most significant relationships (Jaime, Podrick, and Sansa). When Jaime told Brienne to “arise,” as a knight, his eyes said, “I love you.” Is Brienne’s death just the next step in Jaime’s emotional journey to becoming a hero? I really, really hope not.