As expected, this season of
Game of Thrones has pretty much been a bloodbath. In addition to the regular slaughter of extras in wars, main characters - including those who have been built up over the last eight seasons - are finally meeting their end.
We knew there would be lots of carnage in the final season of
Game of Thrones, especially as neither the show nor the book series on which it's based on ever shied away from killing off main characters. However, this season does seem to have a bit of a 'child playing with legos' feel, as everything and everyone we have come to know in Westeros since the show's beginning is falling apart.
In this past Sunday's penultimate episode, we saw Daenerys Targaryen reach a point of no return when she burned King's Landing - and everyone in it - to ashes. Fans said goodbye to many characters, such as Euron Greyjoy, both Cleganes, Maester Qyburn, two of the three remaining Lannisters, and Varys, the Spider.
Conleth Hill, who played the latter, gave an interview with
Entertainment Weekly regarding how he felt about his demise as well as the wrap-up of the series in general. While his comments seem strained, it's obvious that he cared very much for the character he spent the last eight years bringing to life.
I took it very personally. I took it as a person, not as an actor or an artist. I understood the reactions of previous actors who had been in the same position a lot more than I did at the time. You can’t help feeling that you failed in some way, that you haven’t lived up to some expectation that you didn’t know about. The only thing that consoles you is people who worked a lot harder than you are in the same boat. So that helps. I don’t think anybody who hasn’t been through it can identify with it. They think, “What’s all the fuss about? You’re all finishing anyway.” But you take it personally, you can’t help it.
Unfortunately, like all actors who bit the dust in the final season, there was little glory in how he discovered his ending.
At the time, nothing could console me. I kept thinking: “What did I do wrong?” There wasn’t any pre-warning. All these famous stories about [actors on Thrones] being taken out for a meal or being phoned at the very least [to notify them that their character was being killed off]. This was just reading cold hard copy.
Even though he didn't get to see his way through to the end, Hill was happy with how his character stayed true to himself until the very end.
All brilliant. All noble. He was absolutely true to his word the whole way through. All he wanted was the right person on the throne and a fair person on the throne. He said it so many times in the scripts. I don’t have the distraction of love or desire or any of those things. And the people he needed to see clearly were both in love. So that makes perfect sense. And now with hindsight, I’m okay, but I really was inconsolable.
When looking back at it, Hill does admit that this is a better way to go than living silently and unclimactically through one more episode.
That’s true. You can’t possibly begin to understand. It’s a human nature thing. It’s stupid. Because with a bit of perspective to the view, you go, “Oh it’s a great way to go, it’s noble and for the good.” I think that’s true now. But no one could have told me that at the beginning of the season. I’m glad I didn’t say anything at the time. It’s just that feeling of not living up to some expectation, but it’s not that, and I know that now.
What about his favorite scenes as Varys from the series, now that his time is over?
I loved the traveling with [Tyrion actor Peter Dinklage] and just the two of us in that cart. I think the stuff that was said in there understood the nature of freaks and outsiders so precisely. In a way, that was lost when we got past [the narrative in George R.R. Martin’s] books. That special niche interest in weirdos wasn’t as effective as it had been. Last season and this season there were great scenes and then I’d come in and kind of give a weather report at the end of them — “film at 11.” So I thought he was losing his knowledge. If he was such an intelligent man and he had such resources, how come he didn’t know about things? That added to my dismay. It’s now being rectified with getting a great and noble ending. But that was frustrating for a couple seasons.
Hill tries to be nice with what he says, but at the same time it is clear he has a lot of unresolved feelings about where his character headed in the past few years and ultimately ended up. That's not the first we've heard of cast members being disappointed with the series' end, but we still have one more episode left before fans can judge for themselves!
What do you think of Hill's remarks? Do you feel that Varys deserved to die the way he did, or did his death help preserve his character even more? Let us know below!
In Season 7, Daenerys Targaryen has finally set sail for Westeros with her armies, dragons and new Hand of the Queen, Tyrion Lannister. Jon Snow has been named King in the North after defeating Ramsay Bolton in the Battle of the Bastards and returning Winterfell to House Stark. In King's Landing, Cersei Lannister has seized the Iron Throne by incinerating the High Sparrow, his followers and her rivals in the Sept of Baelor. But as old alliances fracture and new ones emerge, an army of dead men marches on the Wall, threatening to end the game of thrones forever.
Game of Thrones ends the game May 19