Game of Thrones: What Gwendolyn Christie Loves Most About Her Character and Why Sansa is Woke

Usually, a San Diego Comic-Con panel comes with answers – or at the very least, some interesting teases.

That logic doesn’t hold with Game of Thrones, of course.

Maybe because the show is already so huge that it needs no more teasing, perhaps because the panel was right before the second episode of Season 7, and the cast was trying really hard not to spoil not just that episode, but the season.

Or maybe these people are just really good at playing coy.

If anything, the panel was a showcase of the camaraderie between these actors, most of who don’t actually get to actually share that many scenes together.

Gwendoline Christie (Brienne), Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), Liam Cunningham (Davos), Alfie Allen (Theon), John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei), Issac Hempstead-Wright (Bran), Conleth Hill (Varys) and Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm) chatted amongst themselves and answered the softballs thrown at them by Kristian Nairn (Hodor), the moderator.

Add to that the fact that Alfie Allen brought a dog – yes, a dog – to the panel, and it was obvious that there was going to be very little usable information coming from it.

We did get some fun quips, like the “Do you miss me?”/ “It’s been so empty without you,” exchange between Nairn and Isaac Hempstead Wright and Liam Cunningham announcing that the HBO spinoff of Game of Thrones would be called “Better Call Davos.”

Plus, it seems like Peter Dinklage really, really wants the series finale to be a musical.

Somehow, we don’t think that one’s going to come true.

Among the most interesting things the cast did discuss were the prospects for the romantic relationship between Grey Worm and Missandei –and hey, if you’ve seen Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 2, “Stormborn,” you know those two took a huge leap – but even in that respect they were coy.

Jacob Anderson merely volunteered, “I want them to find happiness with each other. Everything’s so sad.”

Gwendoline Christie, meanwhile, had this to say when asked about the romantic prospects of her character with Tormund Giantsbane: “What I love about Brienne of Tarth, I don’t think at the foremost of her consciousness is based on a value system of how men appreciate her.”

The room promptly erupted into cheers. She also added that her character might come to like Tormund one day, but of course, it’s more than possible that she still likes someone else.

*cough* Jaime *cough*

Finally, she said that Brienne’s loyalty to the Starks comes from the fact that, in Catelyn Stark, she saw through strength, and that helped her realize that she didn’t have to be masculine to be taken seriously, she could “be propelled by her own sense of what is right.”

Sophie Turner also fielded questions about Sansa’s romantic prospects, and they seemed as bleak as Brienne’s.

“She doesn’t really see the world through rose-colored glasses anymore,” Turner said.

“She’s woke now, guys. She’s real woke,” she finished, pointing out that this worldview was important when you played the Game of Thrones.

As for her relationship with Jon, Turner could only say that Sansa hopes Jon will realize that she’s much better at the political aspect that he is, and that he won’t let the sexism that’s prevalent in the culture keep him from relying on her.

The cast closed a fun, if uninformative panel, telling us which character they’d bring back from the dead, and though Sophie Turner’s answer of Joffrey was met with boos, John Bradley’s answer was perfect for the tone of the panel: he just wished they’d never killed Jon, so he wouldn’t have had to talk about that every five seconds for a whole year.

Oh, if they only knew. We get the sense everyone on this cast will be talking about Game of Thrones and nothing else for years to come.

That’s how big the show is. Even without any actual information to go on.

Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.

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