Art Parkinson defends Rickon’s running technique, talks “synergy” between Daenerys and Jon Snow

Game of Thrones Season 6 is receding in the rearview mirror, but some of the cast members are still tidying up with interviews. Art Parkinson, who played the ill-fated Rickon Stark on four of the show’s six seasons, stopped by Empire to discuss his character’s final moments and where the show goes from here.

And what did Rickon Stark’s final moments entail? According to many fans, they consisted of a failure to run properly. As Rickon ran across the field of battle to meet Jon Snow, half the people watching at home were likely yelling at the screen with variations of, “ZIG-ZAG, RICKON, WHY WON’T YOU ZIG-ZAG?”

Unfortunately, Rickon didn’t heed those calls, and ended up with an arrow through the heart. Parkinson tried to justify Rickon’s conduct to Empire, but he still got plenty of grief about it after the episode aired.

"It felt like a feral instinct to just sprint. To just get to my brother. Whenever I saw comments on Instagram and Twitter about zigzags, I was like, ‘What the hell is everybody going on about?’ and then my mum was like, ‘Yeah, you should have zigzagged!’"

His own mother thought he should have run serpentine…ah, well. It you’d like to change history and guide Rickon to safety, feel free to check out ZIGZAG RICKON, a videogame that attempts to right a great wrong.

Talking about the series more generally, Parkinson was pretty sure that “Khaleesi” will survive to the end of the show. (It’s kind of amazing that even cast members call Daenerys by this name.) He also zeroed in on the moment from “The Winds of Winter” when we learned that Jon Snow was not, in fact, the son of Ned Stark and some mysterious women, but rather of Ned’s sister Lyanna and, by implication, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. That means that Jon Snow and Rickon were cousins rather than half-brothers, and that Jon Snow are Daenerys Targaryen are nephew and aunt rather than…well, nothing.

"I think with the thing that they’ve released as well, saying that Khaleesi’s brother is Jon Snow’s father [means] there is going to be some sort of synergy between Jon Snow and Khaleesi."

“Some sort of synergy between Jon Snow and [Daenerys],” huh? Well, they’re closer to meeting than ever before, although many miles still lay between the two of them. We’ll have to see how that synergy works out in Game of Thrones Season 7.