Nikolaj Coster-Waldau talks about Jaime Lannister's charge at Daenerys in 'The Spoils of War'

Game of Thrones Season 7 is already over halfway done. Last Sunday, aired the fourth episode of the seven, titled ‘The Spoils of War‘, and it is the best we have seen in Season 7 yet. The highlight of the episode was the ending, where Daenerys Targaryen attacks the Lannister army with Drogon, and the Dothraki army. Bronn managed to hit Drogon with the giant spear-bow that Qyburn put together, and when Daenerys was trying to wiggle the spear out of Drogon’s hide, Jaime Lannister chose to risk his life to charge at Daenerys, which all of us, including Tyrion Lannister, agreed was stupid. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays the role of Jaime Lannister, talked about this scene, in an interview with New York Times. Read on!

First of all, Nikolaj said that he was amazed with the final cut of the episode :

“I just saw it this morning! I was pretty blown away by the realism of that insane beast. It’s so weird, because the technology’s so advanced and what they can do is so unbelievable, so when you watch it, you almost forget for a second that that’s not what we shot.

It took a long, long time to shoot. We shot for more than three weeks in Spain, outside of this town called Cáceres, and as you might imagine, it’s very complicated when you have all these elements. You have fire, which is difficult to work with. You have horses, which don’t necessarily enjoy fire. And because the dragon was sweeping over the whole set, they have these amazing wires for this camera, which is just zooming by us. I can’t even imagine how they pulled it off.”

So, what does Nikolaj think was on Jaime’s mind when he decided to charge at Daenerys? He explained :

“Yeah. Jaime’s not a complete idiot. He knows that this is a long-shot. But he also knows that there is no way that they can beat this woman. They cannot beat these dragons. The only way would be to somehow kill her, and for a brief second, he sees that opening. It’s like a Hail Mary.

But this is Jaime. He sometimes acts before he thinks. And you have to, in war situations. It would be glorious. He would save his sister, even if he’s the only one who believes she needs saving. Because you also see the horror of these weapons of mass destruction, it’s so overwhelming. The truth is, Dany could do this without the Dothraki army. They’re just there to clean up the mess. So yes, you can have Qyburn’s scorpion machine, and if you had 100 scorpions, you might be able to do something. But unless they do that, it’s going to be difficult to beat. Or they’ve got to go get their own dragon eggs and build a big fire! [Laughs]” 

He also talked about whether it will make a difference now that he knows for a fact that Tyrion didn’t kill Joffrey, especially with Cersei. Speaking from Jaime’s point of view, he said :

“He’s such a great military man, but when it comes to Cersei, he’s just flailing because he doesn’t have that same level of cynicism, or that ability to lie, like Cersei, Littlefinger or Varys. They operate in a parallel universe. What is the endgame? When you see Cersei with the banker, it’s all about how she wants to control everything. It’s never going to be enough for her, no matter what. And it’s a tricky situation for Jaime. He’s more romantic about that whole relationship, and she’s not that romantic. So how will she react to all of this? It’ll be interesting.”

We see at the end of the scene that Jaime is falling into the water, with his armor on. Nikolaj said it was awful to film that particular bit :

“It seems impossible to survive that. Luckily, he’s not wearing the Kingsguard armor, which is made of brass. But oh my God, don’t get me started on the water! We had a full day of going to the bottom, and that was not nice. I got a little sick, after. You have to go down, you have to equalize the pressure, and I’m not very good at that. It was just a tough, tough day.”

So, do you think Jaime Lannister survived? We think he did! Talk to us in the comments, down below!

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