As far as killing off important character goes, Game of Thrones certainly takes the top spot, and that is the beauty of the show. In its six seasons till now, the show has killed off so many characters we thought to be important, and it seems to do so without flinching. Game of Thrones is adapted from A Song of Ice and Fire series, by George R. R. Martin, with showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss making the calls for how different it will be from the books. Similarly, the final scenes have their differences from the written scripts, as well, considering the fact that, at times, crucial decisions about the direction of a particular scene are made while filming it, simply because it goes well. Quite recently, we had talked about how the episode ‘Battle of the Bastards’ was different from the official script. Now, another script posted online highlights the difference between how Stannis Baratheon‘s death was originally written, and how it came to be. Read on!
Stannis Baratheon was killed off in the last episode of Season 5, titled ‘Mother’s Mercy’. Thefull script of the episode is available on the official website of the Emmys, as it had been submitted for consideration by HBO when Game of Thrones was nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, which it won. The difference was pointed out by a Redditor namedclouddragon94. The original dialogue read :
BRIENNE: “Do you have any last words?”
Stannis considers.
STANNIS: “Do you believe in the life to come?”
Brienne nods.
STANNIS: “I don’t. But if I’m wrong, and you’re right… tell Renly I’m sorry when you get there. I don’’ imagine I’ll see him wherever I’m going. (beat) And my daughter. Tell her… tell her…”
“Sorry” doesn’t begin to cover what he feels about Shireen. The thought of it brings tears to his eyes, and he’s not going to die weeping in front of a woman he doesn’t know. Stannis stares up at her.
STANNIS: “Go on. Do your duty.”
Brienne raises her sword and brings it down with a mighty swing.
As you might remember, most of this was cut out. Stannis isn’t shown to get a speech which offers him at least some sort of redemption before Brienne of Tarth kills him. It wouldn’t have really made sense, either, considering how the whole speech seems very un-Stannis-y. We feel like it was a good decision to chop this off, and we prefer the way they chose to bid Stannis goodbye.
What do you think? Would this have been a better way to let Stannis Baratheon go? Or do you like the way it was actually done in the series? Talk to us in the comments, below!
