Spoilers for last night’s episode!

Olenna Tyrell, also known as the Queen of Thorns – played by the amazing Dame Diana Rigg (a Bond girl none-the-less) has been one of the sharpest and quick witted characters on the entire show, but all great things must come to an end and yesterday Game of Thrones said adieu to a fantastic character.

After the deaths of her son and grandchildren, Olenna, angry at herself mainly for not seeing the extent of who she was dealing with, decided to ally House Tyrell, one of the most influential Houses in all of Westeros (not in just power, but money and food as well), to Daenerys’ cause. She did this mainly to stick a thorn in Cersei’s side.
This was unfortunately her downfall, but from her position, Cersei had taken everything away from her and she would not stop until Olenna was dead, so what over choice did she really have? She could have stayed at Highgarden and just sworn fealty to the new Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and yadda yadda yadda, providing her with food and men whenever her Queen needed, but that is not the Queen of Thorns’ way.

When the Lannister army came and sacked Highgarden, Jaime granted her a quick and painless death (which is a lot better than what Cersei would have done to her), but in true Olenna fashion, she didn’t leave the stage without leaving her mark; confessing to Jaime that she was the who orchestrated Joffrey’s death at the Purple Wedding and making sure that Jaime passed the information back to his sister. It was a very powerful moment that you should check out in further detail in Bearded Robot’s episode review coming in the next couple of days.

For the moment, let me give you a little more information on just who was the Queen of Thorns…


Born Olenna Redwyne; one of the biggest families of the Reach (the Kingdom ruled by Highgarden), she was betrothed to Prince Daeron Targaryen (Daenerys’ Granddad’s brother) when they were both nine. She has claimed before in the show that she was engaged to a member of House Targaryen, as it was “all the rage” at the time. Olenna did everything that she could to make sure that the marriage never happened. Apparently it was Daeron who cancelled the betrothal, so we can imagine that Olenna did not make life easy for the Targaryen Prince. It would have been interesting what life would have been if she had married him, but sadly Daeron was defeated in a battle long ago.

Olenna then married Luthor Tyrell (who too was betrothed to a Targaryen, but this one ended because the Targaryen Princess married her brother, as the Targaryens often did) and together they had a son; Mace Tyrell.
Together Olenna and Luthor ruled Highgarden until one day when he rode off a cliff to his death while hawking. He had been looking up and not paying attention to where his horse was going. People who know Olenna and the way she often speaks to people wonder if he had rode off of that cliff one purpose as to get away from her.

Her son took over as the High Marshal of the Reach and Warden of the South after his father’s death. He had two children; Margaery and Loras, who we all now meet a rather terrible fate at the end of Season 6. It is in that moment that Olenna loses everyone she loves to Cersei and the destruction of the Great Sept of Baelor.

Although her past is not as interesting as say Euron Greyjoy’s, Olenna was still a very important character in the show. She is a master of court politics and, up until she met her match with Cersei Lannister, she knew how to play the game (of Thrones). Just because she was old, didn’t mean that there was not blood on her hands. She orchestrated a King’s death, liaised with the Master of Whispers, and even worked with her arch nemesis in a plot to remove the High Sparrow from power. Overall the Queen of Thorns knew what she needed to do to get things done.

She was a fantastic character to watch on-screen and it was sad to see her go. She snappy tongue and surprisingly foul language has amused us for the last four years, and the show will not be the same without her.

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