Game of Thrones Season 8 was disappointing to the fandom at large, yet to this day we can’t stop ourselves from picking through the pieces and looking for hidden gems. In late 2019, the scripts for the entire season were published online, including scenes that were either edited or or never filmed in the first place. Some fans feel that these could have made a big difference for the infamous finale.
Warning! Spoilers for Game of Thrones are ahead! Game of Thrones started out as a very faithful adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s book series A Song of Ice and Fire, created for TV by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. The show exceeded expectations and helped revitalize interest in the fantasy genre itself for adult audiences, in the process making Benioff and Weiss a coveted pair in Hollywood. However, as the show approached its ending with no source material to work from, Benioff and Weiss were the ones who decided to rush to the finish line with eight seasons – two of which were shortened – against the wishes of Martin and HBO. Unsurprisingly, fans were left wishing for a bit more as well.
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The scripts for the final season have some fans looking at their own disappointment in a new way. All six screenplays were added to the Writers Guild Foundation Shavelson-Webb Library in October of 2019, allowing the public to view them in their entirety. We can now see dialogue that was edited or ad-libbed, lines that were cut or added and whole scenes that never made it to the final version. In some cases, fans wish that they had.
Here is a look at some of the scenes that could have made a real difference in Game of Thrones Season 8.
Strickland Speaks
First up is an additional speaking scene for Harry Strickland (Marc Rissman), the commander of the Golden Company. At the beginning of Season 8, Euron Greyjoy sailed to Essos as Cersei’s command, ferrying Strickland and his mercenary army back to King’s Landing to defend Cersei’s throne.
Strickland really only spoke once in his short season on the show — in the throne room, when Euron presented him to the queen. However, the scripts reveal that before that, Strickland was supposed to have another conversation with Euron on his ship.
Predictably, the conversation was just exposition about Euron’s plan to sleep with Cersei, thereby cementing his own control in Westeros. Strickland remarks that Cersei’s twin brother, Jaime, will not be pleased.
“She can think of him while I’m inside her,” Euron was meant to say. “I don’t mind.”
“You’re a strange man, Greyjoy,” Strickland would have replied.
This scene would have at least given Strickland one more moment to speak on screen, perhaps justifying his addition in the final season. In general, fans felt that the Golden Company was under-utilized, and they questioned why they were included at all. Most assume this is a perfect example of the “check-box theory” at work — meaning that author George R. R. Martin told Benioff and Weiss that the Golden Company were supposed to end up in Westeros, and the two simply put them there like pieces on a chess board, without really thinking through how or why.
Incidentally, that scene with Strickland was supposed to lead into Euron’s confrontation with his niece, who was prisoner below decks. There was dialogue cut here as well, and even a kiss. Fans were not upset by this omission.
Alys Karstark’s Redemption
Another side plot cut short was the redemption of Alys Karstark and her kinsman in the Battle of Winterfell. During Episode 2, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” Karstark volunteers herself and her men to defend Bran in the Godswood, alongside Theon Greyjoy. In the script, however, this is framed more overtly as a moment of redemption for the Karstarks, who betrayed house Stark early on in the series.
“I’ll go with him,” Alys says to Jon in the script. “The Karstarks betrayed your House. Allow us to earn back your trust.”
For those that do not recall, it was the Karstarks that killed all of the Lannister prisoners in Robb Stark’s camp after Jaime Lannister was freed, back in the War of the Five Kings. Robb was forced to execute the Karstark patriarch as punishment, and the whole army began to dissolve after that. In the show, the Karstarks then sided with Ramsay Bolton during the Battle of the Bastards.
According to the script, Jon Snow “appreciates the girl’s sense of honor” after Alys makes her offer. He gave her an approving nod. While this exchange did not make it to screen, Alys and her men were shown defending Bran during the battle in the next episode.
However, the script gave Alys a more shocking death than she ended up getting. She and her men were supposed to encounter a small group of wights in the Godswood. Swallowing their fear, they would have crept through the trees, finding a group of “child wights.” The zombie kids would have descended on the Karstark’s, killing Alys as she tried to run away.
It’s worth noting that Alys Karstark has a much more prominent role in Martin’s books. In the fifth book, Alys arrives at Castle Black in a blizzard, explaining to Lord Commander Jon Snow that she has just escaped imprisonment at the Karstark family castle, Karhold. She claims that her uncle has seized control of the castle and hopes to ally himself with Roose Bolton. Part of his plan is forcing Alys to marry her cousin, bolstering the legitimacy of his claim to the Karstark lands.
While Jon is wary of getting involved in politics south of the wall, he eventually agrees to help Alys, even imprisoning her cousin when he comes chasing after her. Jon then arranges a marriage between Alys and a wildling leader, giving her a fighting force strong enough to take back Karhold from her uncle. Again, the TV version may be showing us a condensed version of what is coming in the books – Jon’s friendship with Alys and her new husband may pay off in the final war against the Others.
Sansa & Tyrion in Action
In that same battle episode, another fight was cut short: the battle in the crypts. In the show, we saw Tyrion and Sansa ducking behind a coffin, clutching dragonglass daggers and sharing a moment of familiarity when they thought their deaths were imminent.
According to the script, we actually should have seen the two do some slashing before it was all over. The two were supposed to sneak up behind a pair of wights approaching Gilly and Baby Sam, stabbing them in the back before they could kill her. The script even notes that Sansa “stuck him with the pointy end.”
This cut is a shame, as it takes away Sansa’s biggest action moment. In a behind-the-scenes video about the episode, Sophie Turner said the scene was “really fun, because I never get to do any action.”
It would have been a nice moment for Tyrion as well, since the supposed strategist made so many bad calls this season. Fans were furious that Tyrion led his people down into the crypts, saying he should have known that the wights would rise up down there. At least if he had taken a few out himself, he would have corrected his own mistake.
Missandei & Grey Worm
There were two scenes in the script that would have highlighted Grey Worm and Missandei’s romance, had they not been cut out from the final version. The first would have come in the very beginning of the season premiere, as Daenerys’ army was marching into Winterfell.
As they rode side by side, Missandei was supposed to look at Grey Worm and say that he “must be freezing.” After feigning toughness for a moment, Grey Worm would have cracked a smile and said: “I am cold.”
“She smiles back at him,” the script says. “Boy oh boy they’re in love!”
Their next big flirtation would have come after the Battle of Winterfell, as the survivors were feasting. Missandei was supposed to steal glances at Grey Worm in the subtle scene, smiling to herself until Daenerys noticed. Finally, the queen would have dismissed Grey Worm for the night, while stealing her own glances at Jon Snow.
After Grey Worm left, Missandei was supposed to ask Daenerys for permission to leave, saying she was not feeling well.
“Oh no. Your belly?” Dany was supposed to ask.
“Missandei, a terrible liar, struggles for a response, while Dany (who knows she’s lying) watches her squirm,” the script says. Finally, Daenerys would have suggested that Missandei has “a headache.” The adviser was supposed to leave the feast, “trying not to run.”
“Dany is happy for her friend. But she’s also aware that everyone seems to be having fun except for her,” the script goes on. “She’s lonely and Varys clocks her loneliness…)”
Tyrion’s History Lesson
As Daenerys prepared her forces to leave the north, there was a cut line of dialogue that was short and simple, yet it would have gone a long way to appeasing fans of the show’s magical mythos. It would have come when Tyrion and Varys were discussing Jon Snow’s true parentage. In it, Varys would have questioned whether Jon really was a Targaryen. Tyrion would have made one astute observation about Jon’s actions in the battle.
“He rode a dragon,” Tyrion was supposed to say. “Has any non-Targaryen ever rode a dragon?”
This was a point of frustration for fans, who felt that it was not discussed enough when Jon took a ride on Rhaegal’s back. In Game of Thrones and the source material novels, only people descended from the ancient civilization of Valyria could hope to ride dragons. The Targaryens are the last remaining house with dragon-riding genes, which is why they often have incestuous marriages. However, there may be an exception to this rule coming up in House of the Dragon Season 2.
The fact that Jon somehow had this ability was overlooked in Season 8 — except for this one line of dialogue on the cutting room floor.
Jon & Daenerys’ Last Confrontation
There was another scene before that the Battle of King’s Landing that had a whole lot of dialogue cut from it, and some fans think it would have been better off as it was in the script. It was the scene where Jon and Daenerys spoke in front of the fireplace before attacking King’s Landing, just after Daenerys executed Varys for treason. In it, Daenerys was supposed to ask Jon what he and Varys had been speaking of down on the beach. Jon, never a good liar, would have told her.
“I think you know,” he was supposed to say. “He knew about me. And he wanted me to claim my throne.”
Here, the script returns to the dialogue that did make the cut, with Daenerys admonishing Jon for telling Sansa about his parentage. When Daenerys complains that she has “no love” in Westeros, “only fear,” Jon was supposed to say that he does love her, and that she is his queen. There were more lines cut from the final product here.
“Is that all I am to you? Your Queen?” she would have asked.
“No,” he was supposed to answer, thoughtfully. The two would have kissed, but the script directions note that Jon looked conflicted and uncomfortable.
“It disgusts you,” Daenerys was supposed to say, referring to their incestuous relationship.
“Dany…” Jon would have said. Here, Daenerys would have delivered the line she did end up saying.
“All right then, let it be fear.”
The cuts here made Daenerys’ reasons for burning King’s Landing a little more ambiguous, which many fans hated. On the other hand, as it was written this scene would have emphasized the fact that her breakup with Jon was a big factor in Daenerys’ distress, which also outraged some fans. In many ways, there is no saving this scene, but a little more context like this might have helped.
In Daenerys’ Head
Finally, the last big omission from the script is actually a visual moment — a close-up on Daenerys that fans might have appreciated before her death. In the penultimate episode, after the bells ring, Daenerys looks to the Red Keep, growls, and flies her dragon over the city, burning everything and everyone indiscriminately. This is the last time we get a close-up on her face. After that, she and her dragon are one.
In the script, there was actually supposed to be one more look at Daenerys’ expression. It would have come when she was wrecking the castle itself. The script directions call for a shot “tight on flying Dany as she looks at the exterior of the Throne Room, the room her ancestors built.”
The script called specifically for Daenerys to focus on the stained glass window with the lion sigil of House Lannister in it, where the Seven-Pointed Star of the faith once was. It was supposed to highlight how personal this family feud was, with the sigil being a “symbol of everything that has been taken from her” which “drives her to fury.”
From there, the destruction would have continued as it was shown, however, this moment would have brought all of the confusion and chaos back to a human level, where Daenerys was trying to get revenge for the crimes of one family against another. Still, fans ultimately still would have been upset by the Dragon Queen’s disregard for human life, particularly for the smallfolk in the rest of the city.
The scripts for Game of Thrones are available to read at the Writers Guild Foundation Shavelson-Webb Library in Los Angeles. The show is still available to stream on Max, along with House of the Dragon Season 1. Season 2 premieres in the summer of 2024, and Martin’s books are available in print, digital and audiobook formats.
