This summer, Peter Dinklage and the rest of the Game of Thrones cast said a "beautifully bittersweet" goodbye to one of the biggest shows of the decade. When they wrapped filming the final season of the HBO fantasy hit, Dinklage told Vulture that it was really hard. I won’t say their name or their character’s name, but one of the young people on the show wrapped this past season and everybody was a wreck."
Dinklage continued: "This person had grown up on the show, you know? They were a child and now they were an adult. And then they’re done. It’s like we were witnessing this person saying good-bye to their childhood. I know Game of Thrones is just a TV show, la-di-da, but it was our life."
Though Dinklage is usually pretty good about not giving away Game of Thrones spoilers in interviews, his comments about Tyrion's fate in the final season hint at a pretty grim conclusion. When asked how he felt about where Tyrion ends in the final season, Dinklage tells Vulture:
I feel very, very — I’m trying to find the right word. I think he was given a very good conclusion. No matter what that is — death can be a great way out.
Yes, it's vague, but it does seem pretty dark. It's worth noting that the author pointed out in a footnote that, "I took what Dinklage was saying here not as a suggestion that Tyrion dies, but rather his attempt to leave open the possibility that the character might meet that fate."
However, Dinklage's language doesn't seem like it's a rather happy ending for Tyrion. And, since this is Game of Thrones and all, no one is safe from death. Dinklage also explained how he felt about Tyrion's trajectory in the show:
He certainly developed a deeper sense of responsibility over the course of the show. He was a pretty irresponsible character to begin with. He used his position as the outcast of his family like an adolescent would. He pushed it in their [the Lannisters’] faces. The beauty of Tyrion is that he grew out of that mode in a couple of seasons and developed a strong sense of responsibility. Not morality, because he always had that, but what to do with his intelligence.
You know, despite living his life as an outcast, the emotional abuse, the war, killing his father and his lover, at least Tyrion found a sense of responsibility. Let's just hope his ending is a little more happy than his life.
