James Norton Reflects On 'Delicious' And 'Ludicrous' House Of The Dragon Finale Scene

This article contains major spoilers for the latest episode of House Of The Dragon.

House Of The Dragon actor James Norton has weighed in on how things played out for his character in the season three finale.

James joined the cast of the Game Of Thrones prequel as Lord Ormund Hightower in its third outing, with the character meeting his end as season three drew to a close, being first stabbed in the bum (ouchie) and then burned to a crisp by a dragon (double ouchie) during an epic battle sequence.

Speaking to Variety in an interview published after the finale aired, James insisted that it was a “lot of fun” to shoot his character’s “big, delicious death”.

“Before I read the script, there was a lot of chatter around how it was going to happen,” he claimed.I” knew it was going to be very different from the books. It happens a lot with this show where they push it to the extreme. When they realise where the boundary is, they pull it back a bit.

“So there was originally a version where Ormund gets impaled like 20 times, and then we’re like, ‘That’s probably a little too much!’.”

James praised the “odd intimacy” in Ormund and Roddy the Ruin dying together and being “preserved”, comparing their fate to “the graves when you find these couples intertwined”.

“These incongruous people end up dying in the same dragon fire and looking the same way in a strangely intimate sort of pose,” he said.

He also admitted it was “bittersweet” to be saying goodbye to House Of The Dragon after having such a “really lovely time” shooting his character’s arc, and praised the fantastic work of his colleagues across all departments.

He also claimed: “In a way, Ormund wouldn’t have been so delicious were he to have survived. I don’t think the show would have allowed me to be as brave and courageous and given me such license to be as playful because that type of character can tire, probably. There’s less places for him to go.

“It was inevitable, I imagine. The way his character was developed and allowed to be big and breathe, taking risks only happened because they knew he was not going to survive. So it was a blessing and a curse. It’ll be weird when they go back to shoot the next season and I won’t be there. But I’m so grateful that I got to come in and have this big showy moment and ludicrous memorable death…”

Besides Ormund, Phia Saban’s Helaena Targaryen also met her end in the latest House Of The Dragon finale, describing her character’s demise as an “honour”.

House Of The Dragon’s fourth and final season is likely to premiere in 2028. Before then, there’s plenty more to look forward to from the Game Of Thrones universe.

Source: Read the original article on www.huffingtonpost.co.uk