Goodbye Love, The Romeo and Juliet of 'Game of Thrones'

Game of Thrones lovers Grey Worm and Missandri survived countless battles, but fate had something fatal in store for them. 

"Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow," Juliet to Romeo.

After the most recent Game of Thrones' season eight episode The Last of the Starks, did we all cry into ice cream pints and watch the quixotic over pouring of Missandei and Grey Worm reminisce videos and read the limited fanfic over the course of the week? Maybe that was just me.

Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) innocently asking Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) why the Unsullied visit brothels.

Game of Thrones, a deeply uncomfortable guilty pleasure (due mostly to treatment of women on-screen and lack thereof behind-the-scenes), managed to crawl into my heart with this brown version of Romeo and Juliet. The pure, gentle romance between Missandei of Naath, the translator fluent in nineteen languages and Grey Worm aka Torgo Nudho of the Summer Isles, the eunuch leader of the Unsullied soldiers came to a devastatingly unexpected conclusion. Their final scenes together consisted of him telling her to get to the skiff (even raising his voice), resulting in her kidnapping by Euron Greyjoy and later dying in chains right in front of Grey Worm at Cersei's call. A freed brown woman-- the only brown woman character who rarely has scenes and lines to begin with-- executed in chains? The writers knew exactly what they were doing here. This viciously cruel shock value continues eight seasons of objectifying women characters and killing off Missandei in that manner was downright unforgivable.

In No One, episode eight of season six, Tyrion gets the uptight and serious Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) and Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) to tell bad jokes. 

Grey Worm is positively affected by Missandei's contagious laughter. They definitely don't have these unguarded, humanist moments enough.

In a supernatural fantasy realm that cannot imagine brown and Black bodies beyond slavery, from the beginning Missandei and Grey Worm were doomed. While Missandei remembered her past and being stolen away, Grey Worm recalled his cruel, military training. These two former slaves (now given crucial roles) were surrounded in what some perceived white saviorness fronted by The Dragon Queen, Daenerys Targaryen. Whenever Missandei and Grey Worm were allotted screen time together, their feelings for each other were so quiet, so painstakingly obvious in its beguiling intensity. Down the memory road lane, their beginnings were like fruitful buds of spring, building during Missandei's "precious" common tongue lessons to Grey Worm. Things came to a rather amorous heed in The Mountain and the Viper, the seventh episode of season four. She catches him staring at her nude form. Later, he apologizes. Yet they both admit their happiness at him seeing her. Or in Kill the Boy, Missandei tearfully sits vigil at wounded Grey Worm's bedside. They confess their fears and share their first kiss. Their beautiful love scene in season seven, episode two’s Stormborn was almost overshadowed by stupid jokes about Grey Worm’s castration (because men still believe that penises are the only thing that can satisfy a woman’s sexual needs in 2019).

In Stormborn, Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) admits why it is hard to say goodbye to Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel).

Missandei and Grey Worm were everything that Still Star Crossed's Rosaline Capulet and Prince Escalus were not, embodying the skeletal framework of the Romeo and Juliet's forbidden story. Missandei and Grey Worm only loved the other, there was no third party except an endless war that meant frequent separation. In Stormborn, the second episode of the seventh season, Missandei visits Grey Worm to wish him a good journey and the tides turn quite honest and passionate. It is a poignant scene suspended in a very sense of intrusive voyeurism, as though this privacy must be guarded in secret, the softly delivered words, the undressing, their close up faces lit by candles. Grey Worm feels less than deserving of her due to castration. Still, Missandei accepts every part of him. Thus, in a sea of gratuitous white flesh, Grey Worm's bodily shame is dissolved through Missandei softly embracing his external as well as interval. Grey Worm then conveys his only physical way of loving her. This candidly expresses that the intimacy between man and woman can become an even more gratifying act when fulfilling the woman's pleasure becomes greater than sating his own. More importantly, Missandei understands why the Unsullied visit brothels. 

Grey Worm returns from battle and is next seen with Missandei riding through the snowy north of Winterfell experiencing terrible racism together. In A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, their dialogue was definitely red flag territory. Still, one couldn't resist holding onto hope despite characters (especially minor) having no real longevity. 

"When Daenerys takes her throne there will be no place for us here," Grey Worm states. "I am loyal to my queen. I will fight for her until her enemies are defeated, but when the war is over and she has won... do you want to grow old in this place? Is there nothing else you want to do, nothing else you want to see?" 

"Naath," Missandei replies. "I'd like to see the beaches again." 

"Then I will take you there." 

"My people are peaceful. We cannot protect ourselves." 

"My people are not peaceful. We will protect you."

Goodness gracious. How can one not cry? They're too beautiful for other words. And that searing kiss they share before he heads off to battle the undead….. ugh, the explicit promises their lips ravenously joined lips exhibited, as though this one kiss would be the last and another would be needed to suffice a seemingly eternal drought. 

Jacob Anderson and Nathalie Emmanuel at a Game of Thrones event.

While Missandei and Grey Worm are minor characters often flushed silently in the background, have rare time to converse and revel as opposed to the main counterparts of the television series, they brought an endearing rootability thanks to the spellbinding portrayals by Nathalie Emmanuel and Jacob Anderson. They gave so much in that granted screen time. With her thick brows, intelligent brown eyes, and clipped articulation, Emmanuel plays the strong, resilient Missandei, a genuine, loving kindred to Anderson's stoic face and heavy accented Grey Worm, whose disposition remarkably evolves from resolute to affectionate. They put such attentive grace into rendering a heartfelt love story rife with all degrees of tenderness and respect. Every stolen scene in eyes and body language is conveyed due to their believably expressive commitment. Although they will not garner the big awards and media attention, Emmanuel and Anderson deserve any praise granted their way. Kudos to them for the incredible resonance that they've brought to this otherwise dark and complicated show. Their characters represented a humbling devotion and brilliant light in a gritty world of monstrous ugliness, vehement greed, and senseless evil. 

In The Last of the Starks, unbeknownst to Grey Worm and Missandei, this precious serenity on the boat will be their last time together. Damn it. All she wanted to do was see the white beaches of Naath with her lover.

A captured, death sentenced Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) gazes at Grey Worm one last time.

A helpless, devastated Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) looks right back at Missandei, before turning away at the grisly sight of her unjust execution. It is the most emotional displays, he has ever exhibited.

Whether or not the utterly broken Grey Worm falls in upcoming battle within these two final episodes, one thing is certain-- he is the lone brown figure now. His other Unsullied will not have a voice. And Missandei, who spoke for her queen, has been snuffed out to further a lopsided plot.

Missandei deserved better. Grey Worm deserved better. The brown and Black people who watched for them deserved better.