Game of Thrones season 7 showrunners on how *that* character won, even in death: "I just love how she goes out"

Deaths in Game of Thrones season 7 have been coming thick and fast, so much so that we’ve not really had chance to pause for breath (or lack thereof). The end of Game of Thrones season 7, episode 3, however, gave viewers and characters alike a chance to see a key character’s last key moments – and how they stuck the metaphorical knife in deeper than any murderous intent ever could. Spoilers follow…

Everyone who hasn’t seen the most recent episode of Thrones has gone, right? Last warning.

It may have been tough to say goodbye to Lady Olenna, especially being the foul-mouthed old stalwart that she is, but, as showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss explained to EW, her ultimate defeat at the hands of the Lannisters actually provided the Tyrell matriarch with a chilling victory.

“What I love about the way she plays the scene is that even though you leave the scene knowing she’s soon going to be dead shortly after you cut to black you still feel like she won,” Weiss says, “She’s probably the only character to win her own death scene.”

He’s not wrong. The poison may have taken her shortly after the episode’s end but the poison rattling around in Jaime’s mind after Olenna’s confession of her hand in his son Joffrey’s death will live long in the memory.

Jaime’s actor, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, was also full of praise for Olenna bowed out,“I just love how she goes out. She goes out with bite. She’s never going to beg. She did an amazing job. It was fun to be there and when we wrapped the showrunners came around and said a few words. She’s had a huge impact on the series.”

Olenna, though your time with us is over, we’ll always have your spiky wit and you dropping the C-bomb on Joffrey. 

Image: HBO