In the series finale of Game of Thrones, Varys (Conleth Hill) kept up with his mysterious, shady ways right until his death. Though it was never expressly stated that he was actively trying to kill Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), it was heavily implied. Now, Hill himself has confirmed that yes, Varys was working on killing the Breaker of Chains, because he foresaw her villainous turning coming.
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Hill was on-hand at San Diego Comic-Con earlier tonight to make the revelation during a send-off Hall H panel for those involved with the show.
“Yeah…The coin, when a Targaryen is born, is going to be one side or the other,” Hill explained. “And [Dany’s] has come down a bit cray cray towards the end. I think Varys knew long ago he was going to die, and what the sorcerer might’ve said to him, might’ve been what [Dany] says when he’s burnt to death.”
“So I think all this has an inevitability; he knew he couldn’t get through to Jon Snow, orTyrion because they were both in love with Daenerys,” the actor continued. “That blinds people’s judgements. So he knew he had to try anyway to stop her, and that it was very possible he’d be killed. I thought it was a cool death, very dignified… there are ways to get fired and that was one of the best.”
Shortly after the scene where it was implied Varys tried poisoning Daenerys, the former was burned at the stake for treason.
“I took it very personally,” Hill said of his character’s death at the time. “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.”
What’d you think of the show’s final season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below! Game of Thrones is now streaming through HBO’s various apps such as HBO Go and HBO Now.
