‘Game of Thrones’: Will Bronn Kill Tyrion or Jaime?

After the Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere, it looks like the most dangerous thing facing Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) may not be the Army of the Dead, but their old friend Bronn (Jerome Flynn). Ever since Season 4, Bronn has been reluctantly in Cersei’s (Lena Headey) pocket, and now the queen who sits upon the Iron Throne has a new favor to ask of the sellsword: murder Jaime and/or Tyrion.

Bronn’s killed men before. He’s unscrupulous when it comes to siding with whomever will pay him the most. However, this might be too much for even him. When Qyburn (Anton Lesser) explains to Bronn that Cersei wants her treasonous brothers dead, he looks wary of the task at hand. “This fucking family,” is in fact what he curses. So the question is will Bronn be the one to kill Jaime and/or Tyrion, or will he actually remember that he’s friends with them? Ultimately what will he choose? Money or loyalty?

Ever since we met Bronn all the way back at the Inn-at-the-Crossroads in Game of Thrones Season 1, we’ve known he’s only out for one person: himself. He introduces himself as an opportunist, happy to give up his room at the inn in exchange for Tyrion’s gold. Later, he’s the one person who’s willing to serve as Tyrion’s champion in trial-by-combat in the Eyrie — and he succeeds. He would go on to shoot the arrow that blew up Stannis Baratheon’s fleet with wildfire at the Battle of the Blackwater and he’d save Jaime Lannister at the Loot Train Battle (and be the first man alive to bring a dragon down). Forget scorpions and wildfire, Bronn is the Lannisters’ greatest secret weapon.

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It makes sense that Cersei would ask Bronn to the do the job. He’s not only been unfathomably successful in taking on a variety of dangerous tasks, but she knows that Tyrion and Jaime both have a soft spot for him. They wouldn’t trust their safety around the Mountain, but they would trust Bronn. Plus, as Qyburn says as he hands Bronn the crossbow Tyrion used to slay Tywin, Cersei likes poetic irony. It was Tyrion who brought Bronn into the family in the first place — Tyrion would have hired his own assassin.

Everything we know about Bronn suggests that he’ll go through it. In fact, he’s already chosen Cersei over Tyrion before. In Season 4, he awkwardly has to explain to Tyrion that he can’t be his champion in another trial because Cersei has paid him off. So it would seem that Bronn’s fate is set: he will be the one to take down Tyrion, and maybe even Jaime.

Or is it?

I’m not going to argue that Bronn will somehow be overcome with sentimentality. What he might do is take Tyrion up on his last offer.

In Season 7, Episode 7, “The Dragon and the Wolf,” Tyrion tells Bronn, “Remember my offer; whatever they’re paying you, I’ll pay double.”

Bronn’s mum on what exactly Cersei is paying him, and Qyburn doesn’t exactly offer specifics. We do know that he’s been promised a high-born wife and castle, and has yet to receive either. So there’s always the chance that Bronn could choose both. He could choose loyalty and money. If Bronn betrays Cersei for Tyrion, he might not just get a castle or two, but an entire kingdom. You know something, Dorne’s looking pretty empty these days… Maybe Ser Bronn of the Blackwater will wind up a Prince by the end of this story.

Then again, as we’ve been told before, this story doesn’t have a happy ending, so it is looking more and more likely that Tyrion is going to die by Bronn’s hand.

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