Gwendoline Christie hints at a “deep alliance” Brienne makes and Pilou Asbaek and Gemma Whelan on Greyjoy family ties

In some particularly introspective interviews, Gwendoline Christie shared her thoughts on what makes Brienne such a unique character and how she’d like to see her to conclude the series and Pilou Asbaek and Gemma Whelan discussed what’s in store for the Greyjoys (hint: they’re probably not gonna hug it out).

In an interview with Newsweek, Gwendoline Christie dropped some exciting hints about Brienne’s journey this upcoming season.

“[W]hat’s recurrent in Brienne’s life is forming relationships with people that start with an opposing force, then a begrudging mutual respect and, out of that, a deep respect and pure love,” she said. “That happens again this season. Brienne will realize a deep alliance.”

Christie also discussed how part of Brienne’s initial appeal to her was how different she was from the sort of female characters Christie grew up with.

“Even when I was very young, I didn’t understand why the women had to have the boring parts. I didn’t understand why the women had to be submissive,” she recalled. “They predominantly seemed to be of one type — they were often beautiful, but I didn’t understand the relationship between virgin or whore, mother or sex object.”

It’s true that Brienne’s rejection of both Westerosi gender roles and television archetypes is one of the many factors that makes her a fan favorite. It’s additionally significant that, though she isn’t framed as a sex object, she still garners male attention. However, Christie doesn’t seem to think Brienne has much of a romantic future with either Tormund or Jaime (though seemed a little bit keener on the latter).

“I think it read, ‘Tormund hasn’t seen a woman like her before,'” Christie said of Tormund’s reaction to Brienne. “I don’t often laugh during filming. [Tormund’s chicken eating scene] was really difficult. Because he is so intensely hilarious.”

As for Jaime? Well …

“There’s a whole world there,” she said. “But I don’t think either of them has any idea of what’s going on or how to deal with it.”

It’s worth noting that when Christie was asked for her idea for Brienne’s perfect ending she didn’t mention any love interest. Instead, Christie envisions Brienne riding into the sunset, closely followed by Pod, heading home to Tarth and the “Finishing School for Unconventional Young Ladies” that she’s established there.

Shifting from one badass female warrior to another, Gemma Whelan spoke with Yahoo TV about about Yara Greyjoy and offered her take on her character’s sexuality, which received special attention last season after she and Daenerys exchanged a few flirtatious glances (which were apparently improvised).

“It wasn’t in the script,” she said. “I guess that Emilia and I must have just found some chemistry. But then the episode before we’d seen Yara with a prostitute — so we know that she’s up for anything. Not a lesbian, as I often have to point out. She’s up for anything, she doesn’t discriminate — which I think is fantastic: she’s a very modern character in that sense. I’m really proud to represent her and I know from the Comic Cons I’ve done that she’s hugely loved as a strong, forward thinking, independent woman.”

As for Yara’s storyline in season 7 … it looks like things are about it get really rough for the Kraken’s Daughter. “[If] it starts out with everything looking tickety-boo for Yara, very quickly the wheels come off,” Whelan warned. “She soon finds herself in a diabolical situation.

However grim as it may get for Yara, though, family will remain at the heart of her storyline.

“Yara’s got a huge faith in family at the heart of it,” Whelan said. “Greyjoys have always had to stick together. Remember how hurt she was when she went to rescue Theon and he wasn’t the brother she loved anymore? Well this year he’s coming back, and there’s a beautiful circularity to what happens.”

Of course, Yara’s abounding familial love probably doesn’t extend to her uncle, Euron, whom Pilou Asbaek described to Yahoo TV as “a fearless psycho pirate.

“In the writing he’s not just evil – he’s evil with a little smile,” he said. “There are scenes this year when he’s fighting at sea and I’m covered in blood and I’m stabbing and screaming and yelling and that’s the destructive side of Euron – a fierce warrior who doesn’t give a shit because he’s untouchable.”

That’s not to say that he’s one dimensional, however: “It’s my job in those scenes to make him charming and seductive and interested and a little bit more nuanced,” Asbaek said. “He can even be pretty funny when he wants to be.”

Asbaek was fairly upfront about Euron’s plans this season. He’ll be “coming to Westeros” and primarily focused on making some powerful friends .

“He knows his nephew and niece are on their way to meet the dragon mother. The viewers know that they’ve already teamed up and that the Ironborn ships are now part of Daenerys’ invasion party,” he said. “But Euron’s only gone and built the biggest fleet in the world. So now he needs a power base to use it. Just like his niece and nephew has, he needs to form some kind of alliance.

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