“We’re probably going to die soon. I want to know what it’s like before that happens.”
Those words will no doubt be familiar to anyone who watched last night’s episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones, as they prefaced Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) and Gendry’s (Joe Dempsie) steamy sex scene, which was hands down one of the biggest talking points amongst the fanbase after the credits rolled on “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.”
Indeed, it wasn’t long before the Internet began freaking out over Williams’ age and what this newfound relationship could potentially mean for the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones. For instance, will Gendry become something of a dark horse to inherit the Iron Throne? We’ll find soon enough, but in the meantime, co-creator David Benioff has chimed in with an explanation for why they decided to do this scene in the first place, saying:
“For us, what was interesting about this episode was that this is our last night together, and I think everyone would face the end in different ways. Some characters want to make love for the first time because they’ve never done it before, and other characters are getting drunk and singing songs.”
“Everyone faces [the end of the world] in different ways,” he says, “but they’re all facing it and that’s why this episode was so important to us because, it’s all these characters that we’ve been following for so long and now they’re facing a common enemy.”
For his part, Dempsie said that it was a bit strange filming the scene, just because he’s known Maisie for so long.
“It’s obviously slightly strange for me because I’ve known Maisie since she was 11, 12 years old,” said the actor. “At the same time, I don’t want to be patronizing toward Maisie — she’s a 20-year-old woman. So we just had a lot of fun with it.”
So, where does this all leave Arya and Gendry going forward? Well, we’ll have to keep tuning in to find out, but what we can tell you for now is that the Battle of Winterfell lights up HBO this coming Sunday when Game of Thrones returns for 8×03, and it promises to be a can’t miss episode that’ll surely give us even more to talk about as the hit fantasy series quickly approaches its finale.
