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Miltos Yerolemou Talks Arya’s Big Moment Enjoying ‘Game of Thrones’ as a Fan

Miltos Yerolemou Talks Arya’s Big Moment and Enjoying Game of Thrones as a Fan

During Con of Thrones 2019, Miltos Yerolemou talked about how much he enjoyed watching the show as a fan. Yerolemou played Syrio Forel in Season 1, who was Arya’s dancing teacher. Unfortunately, Syrio was killed, though fans loved to theorize that the Braavosi survived his brush with Ser Meryn Trant. At the panel, Yerolemou finally put that theory to rest.

Though he enjoyed the rumblings of Syrio’s suvival, he knew that the character was dead. “He’s not alive,” he said. “I can tell you this now. I remember Pat, George R.R. Martin’s wife saying to me, ‘I will never forgive George for killing you off.’ And that’s all you need to know… He’s dead. So dead.” Yerolemou added that Martin knew exactly what he was doing leaving Syrio’s death open-ended. This fueled Arya’s story, which is one Yerolemou was very invested in.

“If she’d seen the death of Syrio, it would’ve closed something off, but the fact that it was ambiguous, meant that the echo kind of existed all that time. It kind of kept it alive. I think it was deliberately ambiguous for that reason. It’s like being a Force Ghost, in Star Wars. You’re kinda dead, but you’re kinda still around.”

And of course, when Arya had her big moment in Season 8, killing the Night King, Yerolemou was thrilled. “There was a little bit of me that kind of felt like a proud dad,” he laughed. “I even cried a little. It was a pretty spectacular moment.”

Since his departure, Yerolemou still enjoyed tuning in every Sunday and watching. He describes the experience as being “communal” as fans clamored to watch new episodes as they launched. When asked about the legacy of the show, he said that he would miss the hype and fan engagement. He commented that “the television hole that’s left is going to be quite something.”

Miltos Yerolemou Talks Arya's Big Moment Enjoying 'Game of Thrones' as a Fan
Game of Thrones/HBO

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