Game of Thrones’ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau weighs in on Jaime and Cersei’s finale fate

Winter came. The game of thrones has been played for one last time. And one star is looking back and talking about his character’s major — and final — decisions. 

** WARNING: There are obviously major spoilers ahead from the last three episodes of Game of Thrones. **

Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau spoke with Entertainment Weekly about why it was important for his character Jaime Lannister to be with his twin sister Cersei (Lena Headey) at the end. 

After leaving his sister’s side at King’s Landing to fight for the living, and later finding romance with Ser Brienne (Gwendoline Christie), Jamie decides to return to King’s Landing to be back with his one true love, Cersei.

“You know he’s gonna go back,” Coster-Waldau told EW, “and it’s not gonna have a happy ending, is it?”

The actor explains that, in being with Brienne, Jamie briefly “tricks himself into thinking there is an alternative” to “this destructive relationship” with his sister. But alas, no. Jamie is “so bound by this code of honor of family first, and him and Cersei have a strong bond on every level him. He didn’t say, ‘Cersei, I don’t love you anymore.’ He said, ‘I’m going to fight for the living because ultimately that’s the only way you and the child you carry can live.’ He has to go back.”

And although the actor does find Jamie and Cersei’s ending “heartbreaking,” he admits “it was a great ending for that couple.”

“It does make sense, even though you don’t want it to,” said Coster-Waldau, adding: “in season 4 … Bronn asked, ‘How would you want it to end?’ And Jaime says, ‘In the arms of the woman I love.’ So this was foreshadowed and that’s what happened.”

The GoT star also talked about that love scene between him and Christie, which he found “awkward” because they had been friends for so long (Christie herself has discussed the weirdness of doing that scene).

Christie’s warning to Coster-Waldau: “ ’Don’t f***ing laugh!’ ”

In the penultimate episode, "The Bells," Jamie and Cercei reunite in the Red Keep as Daenerys has her last living dragon, Drogon, destroy King's Landing. The Lannister twins try to escape, but their way out has collapsed, and they realize they're trapped. Realizing there's no hope of escape or rescue, they hold each other and look into each other's eyes as they're buried under rubble. 

In the final epsiode, "The Iron Throne," their bother Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) uncovers their bodies and sees that they died in each other's arms.