Kristian Nairn clears up lingering questions about Hodor’s death, has no hard feelings

We’ve had a lot of death on Game of Thrones this season. But none has hit as hard as the passing of Hodor, whose death last week broke the hearts of fans around the world.

One might think that Kristian Nairn, who is now technically out of a job, might also be grieving. But that’s only if you don’t know Nairn, who is not only one of the most lovable actors on the show, but one with a fantastic sense of humor.

For those who don’t know, that’s YouTuber Turps, who runs the gaming website Yogscast. Nairn is a longtime friend of the show, and has granted them interviews as far back as the very first season, before the show was the hit it is today. Still…awkward.

Nairn hasn’t just found himself holding doors for people in the wake of last week. He’s also been receiving them…in the form of cake!

And in the grandest gesture of them all, Nairn shared his door cake with a very special friend.

Awwwww. The fact that Bran, who has been in a symbiotic relationship with Hodor since the very first days, was the one responsible both for Hodor’s death and for seriously limiting his vocabulary, was probably the hardest part for fans to take last week. There was a lot of anger out there towards Bran, and Isaac Hempstead Wright said he knew there would be. (He said he was dreading the fan response.) But with Nairn showing that there’s no hard feelings and that the two of them are pals for life, perhaps that will soften the feelings towards him and his character a little bit when we return next week and find out how Bran and Meera manage to escape the wights and the snowstorm without the help of their gentle giant.

Nairn’s been on the interview trail this week, and topped things off by talking to The New York Times. He answered a couple of lingering questions, such as: now that Hodor has been killed by wights, is there any chance he could come back as one himself?

"There’s always a chance. It’s actually very freeing — I have a really big mouth and it’s difficult for me to not tell things. The fact that I can watch the rest of the show and not have to hold back because I might let something slip is freeing. But I don’t think he’s coming back."

I don’t think any of us would want to see wight Hodor attack his friends, so that’s good news.

Next, Nairn firmed up another debate: in his final moments, was Hodor holding the door closed of his own free will, or was Bran warging into him?

"Although Bran was responsible for the whole chain of events that killed Hodor, Hodor didn’t have to hold that door. He wasn’t being warged into at that stage. It was Meera who asked him to hold the door, it wasn’t Bran. He wants to protect the little guy. That’s all he’s ever done. He wants to help — this is the ultimate helping hand here. I just think he would be happy they could continue without him."

Did Hodor know how he was going to die ever since that pivotal moment in the Winterfell courtyard when he lost his speech?

"I don’t think so. I don’t think he had any sense of what was coming. I don’t think he recognized Bran when he saw him the second time around. He maybe felt some sort of connection to him, which was why the bond was there. But I don’t think he said to himself “Oh that’s that little [expletive] from the courtyard, stay away from him. Run!”"

Nairn holds no hard feelings to the end.