The author, a butch lesbian, is to Brienne of Tarth in 2019 what Chris Crocker was to Britney in 2007.

Last Sunday, Game of Thrones destroyed another character.

Everyone thought Brienne of Tarth was sure to die in the Battle of Winterfell, which aired the week before — because the week before that, she had “completed her character arc,” which is to say, gotten what she most fiercely wanted in life: she was made “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.” It was supposed to be a big deal; they even named the episode that.

Brienne is played by a stony though not emotionless Gwendoline Christie, with severe cropped blonde hair and towering height. At 6'3", Christie’s tallness is the definitive mark of Brienne’s unwomanly nature. (My wife, who is funnier than me, has nicknamed her coffee order — a tall blonde roast — a Brienne.)

In “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” as most of the interesting surviving characters sit around a hearth contemplating their mortality, Jaime Lannister knights Brienne. In order to adequately explain the disaster that befalls Brienne just two episodes later, let me catch you up or refresh your memory on their linked stories.

If somehow you’re not watching the show, and haven’t read the source novels by George R. R. Martin, and still hope to glimpse the dyke-cultural catastrophe that was Sunday’s episode (number four out of the final season’s six), Jaime Lannister is known in the world of Westeros as the Kingslayer, infamous for betraying his vow as a knight of the Kingsguard by killing “The Mad King” Aerys Targaryen when Jaime was only a young man. The rest of his life has been devoted to his manipulative twin sister Cersei, who is the current occupant of the contested Iron Throne (and apparent final antagonist of the series), and with whom he conceived three now-dead (mostly murdered) children.

Brienne and Jaime first meet in Season 2 by way of Catelyn Stark. Catelyn is in attendance when Brienne wins her place as a knight of the Kingsguard* for throne-contender and known homosexual Renly Baratheon — right before Renly is murdered by a shadow demon commissioned by Renly’s own brother. Brienne knew Renly since her awkward childhood, when he spared Brienne embarrassment from a bunch of mocking young lords at her father’s dance. The series insinuates that her affection for Renly might come from unrequited romantic love, but it’s really more bromantic. In season 5, Brienne says Renly “saved me from being a joke — from that day until his last day.” He honors her queerness by treating her strength and ambition seriously. The cloak he gives Brienne as a member of his Kingsguard is even striped rainbow.

When Renly is murdered, only Catelyn and Brienne survive the violence, and Catelyn convinces Brienne to flee with her life, which Brienne promptly pledges to Catelyn’s service. When Jaime is captured in battle with the Starks, Catelyn — who thinks two of her three sons are dead and that her daughters, Sansa and Arya, are Cersei’s captives — charges Brienne with the rogue mission of exchanging Jaime for the Stark girls.

* Did you notice how Brienne has already been a knight since Season 2?

So Jaime becomes Brienne’s prisoner. In the third season, Jaime and Brienne are both captured on their way to Cersei by soldiers from the sadistic House Bolton. Since the Boltons are planning to betray the Starks, Jaime eventually does get sent on to his sister — without Brienne — but not before his captors cut off his legendary sword hand. It’s a tax Jaime pays for convincing them not to rape Brienne. It’s a rare penalty paid by the elite son of a great family for the even rarer act of defending a vulnerable person. Jaime goes free, but Brienne goes into a bear pit, wearing a dress, armed only with a wooden sword. When Jaime learns of the spectacle the Boltons make of Brienne, he goes straight back to their camp to save her life.

Undergoing a shared captivity, torture, and mutilation is the real source of Brienne and Jaime’s bond. They survive it together. The pair part ways after reaching the capital city, when the Boltons help murder Catelyn Stark, and Brienne, learning of her death from across the continent, resolves to find Catelyn’s daughters — who by then have both slipped through the grasp of the Lannisters. Because Jaime has learned to admire Brienne for her singleminded pursuit of honor, to say nothing of her skill with a sword, he gifts her a squire, a suit of armor, and a sword forged from Stark family steel.

Adventures ensue. Brienne faces a series of challenging failures, whilst Jaime struggles with his sister’s lust for power. Brienne finds Arya, traveling with another brutally tall quasi-knight called the Hound. Arya, a tomboy since childhood, is alone practicing with her sword when Brienne finds her. Maisie Williams, who plays Arya, noted a direction in the script when they meet: “Arya smiles. She likes this weirdo. Brienne smiles. She likes this weirdo.” Butch weirdos forever. But actually only for a moment, because the Hound won’t let Brienne take Arya — not that anyone asked Arya, who slips away (to become a world-class assassin) while Brienne and the Hound are busy beating the crap out of each other.