Varys

Editor's Note: This entry contains spoilers for Game of Thrones; read at your own caution.

About

Varys, also known as Lord Varys, is a fictional character from George R.R. Martin's fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire and the series' television adaptation Game of Thrones, where he is played by actor Conleth Hill.

Origin

On August 1st, 1996, Varys made his debut with the release of Martin's first Ice and Fire novel a Game of Thrones. In the book, Varys is known as the master of whispers, an all-knowing character who holds many of the secrets of the book's most powerful characters.^[1]

Spread

On May 1st, 2011, the character was introduced in the third episode the American television adaptation Game of Thrones.^[2] With the show's release, Varys soon became a frequently used meme for fans, producing image macros using screenshots from the series (examples below).

Coughing Varys

On May 5th, 2019, episode four The Last of the Starks of season eight of HBO-produced fantasy series Game of Thrones premiered.^[3] In one scene of the episode, character Varys, portrayed by Conleth Hill, is shown lying on the beach, coughing to get water out of his lungs after surviving a shipwreck.

On May 6th, 2019, Redditor enterprise1 posted the image to /r/freefolk subreddit as a reaction image.^[4] The post gained over 51,200 upvotes in one week.

Conleth Hill's Reaction to Final Season

On May 12th, 2019, the episode of Game of Thrones entitled "The Bells" aired on HBO. In the episode, the character Daenerys executes Varys. Following the episode's premiere, Conleth Hill expressed some grievances he had with his character's arc.^[5] He said:

I think they tried to make that work and couldn’t. It just felt like after season 6, I kind of dropped off the edge. I can’t complain because it’s six great seasons and I had some great scenes these last two seasons. But that’s when it changed for me a little.

That’s been my feeling the last couple seasons, that my character became more peripheral, that they concentrated on others more. That’s fine. It’s the nature of a multi-character show. It was kind of frustrating. As a whole, it’s been overwhelmingly positive and brilliant but I suppose the last couple seasons weren’t my favorite.

On May 26th, 2019, the Game of Thrones documentary The Last Watch aired on HBO. In the film, Hill participates in a table reading of the final season, including his death (clip below).

Many online interpreted his reaction as one of disappointment and anger as a result of his character's death. Twitter user @Peg_lin1 tweeted, "Varys throwing the game of thrones script across the table is all of us right now." The tweet received more than 260 retweets and 1,200 likes in 24 hours (shown below).

Varys throwing the game of thrones script across the table is all of us right now #TheLastWatch pic.twitter.com/1nZcBuTfpL

— Peg-lin (@Peg_lin1) May 27, 2019

The following day, Redditors made memes about their apprecation for actor Conleth Hill and his commitment to the show. Redditor^[6] SwitchTow posted an image of Hill with the caption "THIS 👏 MAN 👏 DID 👏 NOT 👏 KNEEL 👏." The post received more than 59,000 points (91% upvoted) and 1,100 comments (shown below, left). Redditor^[7] KillLaKyle90 posted an image of Mark Hamill, who reportedly had issues with the script for his film Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Hill with the caption "Both actors hated the script but still gave amazing performances." The post received more than 47,000 points (89% upvoted) and 1,300 comments in 24 hours (shown below, center).

Throughout the day, Redditors continued to share memes that express their appreciation for the actor (example below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References