Jaime Lannister Apparently Grew Back His Hand As a Result of Game of Thrones’ Most Recent Editing Error
Last week, a coffee cup that shouldn’t have been there; this week, a hand that shouldn’t have been there.
Game of Thrones has invested a lot in its celebrity cameos. Ed Sheeran appeared as a wandering troubadour because young Maisie Williams was a fan; members of Sigur Rós, Of Monsters and Men, and Coldplay showed up as musicians briefly in Westeros; singer Chris Stapleton appeared as a wight; and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator Rob McElhenney and Silicon Valley star Martin Starr were ill-fated crew members in the Golden Company-Iron Fleet. The showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, have also made cameos on their own show; and last night, during the series’ penultimate episode, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers made his Game of Thrones debut as a member of the Lannister guard.
Cameos might be entertaining, but keen-eyed fans have instead turned their gaze to scavenger-hunting the show’s frequent discontinuities this season. Last week, a coffee cup (presumed to be Starbucks, though this has been disputed) appeared in Winterfell during a celebratory banquet where everyone was otherwise drinking wine; and this week, Jaime Lannister, the one-handed kingslayer, managed to respawn his missing hand.
Towards the end of Sunday night’s fifth episode, shortly after Rodgers was presumably dispatched by Daenerys Targaryen’s invading forces, Jaime and Cersei Lannister met their end. They went down beneath the Red Keep, as the whole structure—the “safest place in the city,” Cersei told Qyburn earlier in the episode—was reduced to rubble over their heads. Just before they died, Jaime wrapped his sister-slash-romantic soulmate in a tight embrace. (In a sense, Vanity Fair pointed out, he did fulfill the witch’s prophecy, sort of, since he did put his hands on Cersei’s neck before she died. This still seems like a generous interpretation.) And in one frame during this tender moment, actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s right hand—the hand Jaime Lannister lost defending Brienne of Tarth, who deserves better, the hand that was a plot point at several other moments during the episode—was clearly visible. It’s not gold, like his extremely ostentatious prosthetic. (The “stupidest Lannister,” remember? An ostentatious prosthetic that got him captured.) It’s just a hand. A hand that had presumably been cut off several seasons ago.
Coster-Waldau won’t be able to blame Emilia Clarke for this one.
