Ser Brienne of Tarth – Historic Moment in Game of Thrones

Spoiler Alert: This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 2, ‘A Knight of Seven Kingdoms’.

The second episode of Game of Thrones Season 8 made me cry. It had many significant moments, moments which I don’t think fans saw coming. 

One of them was Brienne finally getting what she deserved. In the history of Westeros, women haven’t been anointed knights even though there have been brave women in Westeros history. 

Some History

Lady Brienne swore to protect Renly Baratheon in the second season of Thrones as member of his Kingsguard. That was a first for a woman in Westerosi history to be named a member of a Kingsguard. 

But Renly Baratheon gets killed by a shadow and Brienne then vows to serve Catelyn Stark and to protect her daughters, Sansa and Arya Stark.

As a means to free Sansa and Arya (Catelyn doesn’t know that Arya fled Kings Landing), Catelyn tasks Brienne to deliver Jaime Lannister safely to Cersei Lannister in order to seek freedom of her daughters. Quid pro quo!

On their journey to the Kings Landing, Brienne develops feelings for Jaime Lannister but she has always bottled up her feelings for the sake of her duty towards Catelyn Stark and her daughters. Brienne is always teased for being big and not womanly enough. 

But being a warrior and serving Catelyn Stark always remains a priority for Brienne and in tonight’s episode we see a historic moment. 

Ser Brienne of Tarth

Tyrion Lannister feels that they all might survive the Battle of Winterfell. He says that Ser Davos has survived Battle of Blackwater Bay & Battle of Bastards. Jaime has survived the siege of Pyke and Ser Brienne and then he corrects himself and addresses Brienne as Lady Brienne.

Tormund asks Brienne that is she not a knight? Brienne says no because women can’t be knights and it’s just tradition to which Tormund says, “fuck tradition”. He says if he were a king he would anoint Brienne as a knight ten times over.

Jaime informs others that a knight can anoint another as a knight. So Jaime asks Brienne to kneel and then anoints her as a knight of the Seven Kingdoms. 

Historic Moment

This is a historic moment for women warriors in the Seven Kingdoms. This is a huge moment for Brienne for getting acknowledged for her bravery, for her courage. She smiles BIG! This is probably the first time we have seen Brienne smiling like this. 

And this is historic in a way that a wildling arouses awareness in the high borns that women should be treated equal to men and that when women can fight battles they should be recognized for their achievements.

Tormund is so happy for Brienne that he starts clapping and celebrating Brienne’s knighthood. Then everyone else joins in the applause.