Game of Thrones: The importance of Riverrun and Highgarden – the two places promised to Bronn
Luckily for Tyrion, Bronn's a gambling man
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Your support makes all the difference.**Spoilers for Game of Thrones season eight, episode four “The Last of the Starks” below**
The Mad Queens meet again. After being enraged by the deaths of nearly everyone close to her, Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) finally looks set to storm King’s Landing to take the Iron Throne from Cersei (Lena Headey).
Episode four of season eight – titled “The Last of the Starks” – also saw Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) being threatened by Bronn (Jerome Flynn). The sellsword had been promised Riverrun by Queen Cersei in exchange for killing Jaime and Tyrion. She gifted Bronn the crossbow Tyrion used to kill Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) for the occasion.
However, upon meeting Jaime and Tyrion once again, Tyrion bargains for their lives and offers Bronn double what Cersei’s offering. And what’s double Riverrun? Tyrion surmises that being named Lord of Highgarden is more than suitable for Bronn. Being a “gambling man”, Bronn takes those odds and disappears once more.
Game of Thrones fans will recognise both the places promised to Bronn.
Riverrun sits in the Riverlands and once belonged to the Frey family (until they were all murdered by Maisie Williams’s Arya Stark). The location is important in allowing access from the south of Westeros to the north, as passers must go through the Riverlands.
Highgarden is much more glamorous. The site once belonged to House Tyrell, the richest family in all of Westeros. However, the majority of the Tyrell family was wiped out by Cersei, when the Mad Queen blew up the Great Sept of Baelor. That left only Lady Olenna, who drank poison after Jaime Lannister took Highgarden.
Whether Tyrion will be able to deliver on given Highgarden to Bronn remains to be seen. Daenerys likely will not want to give somewhere so glamorous quite so easily. Chances are thing will not go to plan and that Tyrion could end up meeting his demise at the hands of Bronn’s crossbow.
“The Last of the Starks” was described as “an oddly structured and not hugely satisfying episode” by The Independent‘s critic. The fourth episode of the show’s final season also saw Daenerys (Clarke) suffer some devastating losses after arriving in King’s Landing to face Cersei Lannister (Headey).
You can watch the intense new trailer for the penultimate episode of the show here. Click through the below gallery to see our extensive ranking of every character in the series – from worst to best – is below.
The final season of Game of Thrones continues every Sunday. The show is available on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK.
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