Warning: This article contains spoilers for the most recent Game of Thrones episode, “The Queen’s Justice.”
Fans had a lot riding on Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen’s first meeting on Game of Thrones, and they weren’t left disappointed as the two faced off with one another. But the scene also contained something fans weren’t expecting: humor.
When Missandei introduces all of Dany with all of her titles, as she has for countless lords, masters, and citizens who wished to speak to the Mother of Dragons, she does it with her usual dignified flair. In comparison, Davos Seaworth—the closest thing to a hype man that Jon has—gives Jon a much more muted introduction: “This is Jon Snow… He’s King in the North.” Fans loved it, but so did members of the cast, including Nathalie Emmanuel, who plays Missandei.
"You now stand before Daenarys Stormborn of House Targaryan… the mother of dragons etc etc…"
— Nathalie Emmanuel (@missnemmanuel) July 31, 2017
-"This is Jon Snow"
😂
“It had a comedic quality to it,” Kit Harington said in a behind-the-scenes video. “You know, he walks in, him and Davos walking in with no entourage.”
“They haven’t even really decided what he’s called yet,” he added.
Both he and Emilia Clarke understood the weight of their characters meeting for the first time as they described what Jon and Daenerys were thinking while they spoke with one another. Dany knows nothing of any Jon Snow (though she knows Tyrion Lannister trusts him) while Jon has a one-track mind about the Night King.
“She sees his kind-of noble choices and his clear-headed, kind-of ideas of what he needs for his people and what he believes to be right,” Clarke said. “And it’s an attractive quality for her because it’s something that she also agrees with.”