Bella Ramsey, the teenage actress who gave the powerhouse performance as Lyanna Mormont in “Game of Thrones,” opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about what it was like to have ― here’s your spoiler warning ― died on the show in the most epic way.
“If you’re going to die on Game of Thrones, you have to die well, haven’t you? I was very pleased,” Ramsey said. “She’s the littlest fighter taking out the biggest wight. It did feel fitting.”
She added that Lyanna has “always been sticking up for what’s right, especially in a room filled with grown men and women.”
“Here, she’s doing the same thing, just extended a bit. It was very fitting that little Lyanna came up against a giant and killed him.”
Lyanna, the sharp-witted and strong-spoken head of House Mormont of Bear Island, fought valiantly in the Battle of Winterfell in Sunday night’s episode. She met her demise while taking on the Night King’s largest undead solider, a zombified version of a giant (possibly Wun Wun who fought alongside Jon Snow before being killed in Season 6′s “Battle of the Bastards.”)
Lyanna was crushed to death in the undead giant’s hands, but not before she stabbed him in his blue eye with some dragon glass.
Ramsey told The Hollywood Reporter she had known her character would die since she first got the scripts “about two years ago.” She said she “did a mini-battle cry” because she got “so excited” about her triumphant exit.
“I was so grateful to be given such a great death,” she said.
Lyanna’s demise caused shockwaves on social media, with many people on Twitter tweeting tributes to the teensy star.
Ramsey told The Cut in an interview earlier this month that she’d miss the “opportunity to stand up in front of a load of grown men and shame them.”
“I think playing confident characters also helps with your own confidence. Say you’re in a situation where you’re feeling anxious or nervous — you can become a character and work through it that way. I’ll miss that about her,” the actress said.
We couldn’t agree more. RIP Lyanna Mormont. We’ll miss you, too.
This has been updated to acknowledge the possibility that the giant Lyanna fought was not Wun Wun.