And Now His Watch Has Ended
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Peter Vaughan, best known for playing Maester Aemon in HBO’s hit show Game of Thrones, which is due for its seventh season next year, has died. Vaughan was 93.
His family shared the news with Variety, saying he “died peacefully with his family around him” in the early hours yesterday in England. The Maester had been acting since his 50s, but wasn’t fully recognised until his part in Game of Thrones.
He only appeared in 11 episodes in the first five seasons, which is less than you might think, simply due to the impact he had on the audience and the characters. The blind Maester will be a part of that world forever, and his words, and indeed the writing behind the show, really hit home. Here’s some of our favourites:
And who could forget his monologue before the fight at the wall:
“Death should hold no fear for a man as old as me, but it does. Isn’t that silly? It is always dark where I am, so why should I fear the darkness? Yet I cannot help but wonder what will follow, when the last warmth leaves my body. Will I feast forever in the Father’s golden hall as the septons say? Will I talk with Egg again, find Dareon whole and happy, hear my sisters singing to their children? What if the horse-lords have the truth of it? Will I ride through the night sky forever on a stallion made of flame? Or must I return again to this vale of sorrow? Who can say, truly? Who has been beyond the wall of death to see? Only the wights, and we know what they are like. We know.”
Rest in Peace.
And seriously, 2016, anything else you want to take away while we’re on? Am I going to get home and find my cat in the washing machine and my house on fire?