PLEASE BE ADVISED. SPOILERS AHEAD. FULL STOP.
No, really. If you haven’t watched “The Wind of Winter” and yet for reasons we cannot explain are here on this website, please exit immediately, and do not return until you are ready to read about last night’s spoilers.
Spoilers?
Yes, spoilers.
Last night, we spent nearly 30 minutes in King’s Landing at the top of the hour, and when it was over, hundreds were dead, including eight named principle characters, leaving Cersei to rule the Seven Kingdoms.
One of those named characters was Margaery Tyrell, played by Natalie Dormer. As Entertainment Weekly takes pains to point out, her death is probably the most unfair of the night. After all, Margaery knew how to play the game, and she played it well—three kings in a row chose her as their Queen. She had all of King’s Landing fooled about her conversion to the Faith. And she smelled a rat way before anyone else this past episode, even though she reacted too slow, and then was denied the chance to escape by the High Sparrow, who could not believe he was about to be checkmated.
It is known that, when their characters are going to die, the actors receive a phone call from the production to let them down easy. But in true Margaery style, Dormer actually preempted hers, when she asked if she could be let go early during filming for Season 5.
"I requested [while making season 5 that showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] release me from working on the show earlier than usual so I could do another project, and they ended up phoning me — and that was The Call. But I got it six months ahead of normal. They were like, “We weren’t going to tell you this for a few more months, but we’re not going to release you now, so you can’t do that job you really want to do and we’re really sorry about that. But on the bright side, we are going to release you proper in the not-so-distant future.” It was good news, bad news — no you can’t do this, but don’t worry, you’re going to have lots more opportunities very soon."
Dormer certainly doesn’t seem to be mourning the loss of her character. “I appreciate they have to streamline and they’ve come up with some ingenious ways to do that that the audience will not see coming. That’s Game of Thrones all over, isn’t it?”
"I thought it was an inspired choice. And it’s really interesting that I am given a moment of some vindication at the very end, which was the perfect way for Margaery to leave the show. She’s given a platform to say that she was right, as she always is. But because the power was taken from her, she couldn’t do anything about it."
Personally, I comforted myself that it wouldn’t have mattered even if Margaery had gotten out of the Sept—the explosion was large enough that she wouldn’t have survived even if she had gotten a decent distance away. Dormer, for her part, thinks the mistake was when Margaery ceded control to the High Sparrow. According to her, if Margaery had remained in control, Cersei would not have been able to pull this off. (She doesn’t mention the fact that Cersei got Margaery tossed in jail the last time Margaery was in control.) But she is right that the High Sparrow underestimates Cersei ability to seize power once she’s back in the Red Keep. He thinks he’s shamed her so much that she’s been neutralized, and once he has Tommen under his thumb, he takes his eyes off her for a moment. That’s something he should never have done.
Dormer is very pleased with how her run on the show went, especially in comparison to how Margaery is portrayed in the books, where she’s only seen through the eyes of others.
"Margaery had a fantastic arc in comparison to what’s in the books. David and Dan stood by what they originally said they would do, which is give me stuff to get my teeth into. It’s the longest time I’ve every spent playing a character. I’ll always have a little yellow rose after my heart, and I think it was just the right length of time, to be honest. It’s time for the Westeros story to move on and it’s a perfect time for her to exit."