Dear Reader,
What follows is a transcript of the final scene from Season 8 episode 6 of Game of Thrones. It was unearthed on Tuesday by my team of skilled operatives assigned to dig through David Benioff’s trash. It takes place after Bran the Broken is wheeled from the small council chamber. We were unable to learn why this scene didn’t make the final cut, but we believe it sheds some light on how the series ended. I present it here for your kind review.
The chair’s left wheel squeaked as the Kingsguard attendant rolled him into his chamber. He’d have to get that fixed. While the noise was almost imperceptible, and in truth, didn’t bother him in the slightest, there were appearances to maintain. But, that was a bother for another time.
“That will be all. I’d like to rest now,” said the new king. The Kingsguard withdrew, closing the oaken door behind him with a gentle click.
Bran the Broken, First of His Name, King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord of the Six Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm sat for several minutes, gazing out the window with his practiced air of detachment. Already, he found the litany of titles was grating on him. He briefly considered shortening it. The people in the streets below wouldn’t care. Likely, they wouldn’t even notice. But, the nobles were a different matter. They would care. They would take it as an affront. Even now, in a realm weary and depleted, one had to account for such things. No, this was just another appearance he had to maintain. One of many, and by no means the most arduous.
A short time later, after the servants completed their tasks and left him in royal silence, Bran rose. His feet carried him silently across the room to a little shrine to the Seven set in an alcove, another nod to the expectations of others. He turned a ring on his middle finger half-way around. The Dire Wolf sigil of his House disappeared, replaced by a small oval of weirwood bearing a man’s face. He pressed it against a tiny defect in the stone wall, twisted it, and the section of wall at the back of the little altar slid aside.
Behind the shrine of the Seven was another. Bran took a moment to enjoy the symbolism. The one god behind the seven. There were many likenesses, totems and icons representing this true god. A larger weirwood face. The hooded skull of The Stranger. A driftwood man. A black goat. There were dozens of these articles of faith, but there could have been thousands and still not represent all of the visages his lord had revealed to men.
With the skill born of his well-trained years of service, Bran removed his face.
He placed it carefully on the stand set aside for that purpose and selected another. One he hadn’t worn in a few years. He pulled the face over his head, taking a moment to adjust the fit in the mirror. He smiled, and Jaqen H’ghar smiled back.
“A man serves,” he said as he pressed a stud to close the shrine.