Game of Thrones: Iwan Rheon on Ramsay's Lasting Impact on Sansa 

Game of Thrones: Iwan Rheon on Ramsay\'s Lasting Impact on Sansa

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Full spoilers for Game of Thrones continue below.

The bastard of House Bolton finally met his end in Sunday\'s episode of Game of Thrones, "Battle of the Bastards." Ramsay Bolton, nee Snow, has done many, many terrible things throughout the years, but after mutilating Theon, raping Sansa and killing his own father, he\'s finally been unseated as the Warden of the North.

As despicable as Ramsay often was, the actor who played him, Iwan Rheon, is always a delight to speak to. He got on the phone to talk about Ramsay\'s long-anticipated death, his lasting impact on Sansa Stark and who he\'s betting is going to come out on top on Game of Thrones.

IGN: I feel like everyone, including you, knew that Ramsay\'s days were numbered on a show like Game of Thrones. Did he last longer than you expected him to?

Iwan Rheon: I didn\'t really know how long he would live, but on a show like this, anyone can go at any time. You\'re reading that next episode with caution. I think this year I knew. He\'s done so many horrendous things and he\'s risen so far; unless he goes all the way now, it\'s time for him to moved aside. As a fan of the show, it\'s the right thing to do as well in terms of the storyline and the Starks getting Winterfell back. It\'s all starting to go full circle and it\'s starting to look toward the end of this whole amazing saga.

IGN: When we found out this episode was called "Battle of the Bastards" and saw it was Jon Snow versus Ramsay Bolton, there weren\'t many people who expected Ramsay would make it out alive.

Rheon: Yeah, you can\'t kill Jon Snow again!

IGN: We already did that story! Beyond David and Dan\'s writing and Miguel Sapochnik\'s directing, what did you do as an actor to still imbue that dramatic tension up until the end, even if people might have seen his death coming?

Rheon: Miguel\'s fantastic. He\'s a wonderful director to work with. He knows what\'s going on and he\'s brilliant at doing this huge set pieces, but he\'s great also on a one-to-one level as a director. A lot of the things we discussed were how Ramsay feels about Jon Snow. I was thinking he has this mutual respect because they come from such similar places, even though they\'re the antithesis of each other on screen as characters, as bastards in the North. He has got this respect for Jon Snow, and he finds him intriguing. Had they met in another circumstance, maybe they would have -- well, I don\'t think Jon would have liked Ramsay very much. Ramsay would have loved to have a little Jon to play with. [

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Iwan Rheon as Ramsay Bolton in Game of Thrones

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That\'s what we were trying to bring to it, not just to make it about these two sides against each other, but actually this mutual respect and this feeling that this is the way of things. He knows it\'s over when the giant comes through the door, and he makes his decision, "Right, I\'m going out with a bang here." He knows he\'s dead, even though somewhere in his mind he thinks he\'s probably going to get rescued or something. His own arrogance. It was an interesting one to play.

IGN: There was the scene where Ramsay started firing arrows at Rickon, and the Internet collectively went, "Run serpentine! Run serpentine!" Do you think Ramsay was a good enough shot that more evasive maneuvers wouldn\'t have protected Rickon?

] I think Ramsay\'s a good enough shot to have got him with the first arrow. I think the whole point was for him to reach a certain point and then get him there so that Jon Snow was close enough for the archers.

IGN: What do you think Ramsay meant when he told Sansa "I\'m a part of you now"?

Rheon: He sees this woman standing there and he\'s like, "Yeah, I\'ve done a good job with her." He feels he\'s broken her and he\'s brought this darkness out of her, but at the same time by doing that he\'s created a very strong woman, which I think kind of impresses him. It\'s great as well for the show to have another strong female character coming into her own in this really male-dominated world.

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IGN: As a fan of the show, are you concerned about the path Sansa is going down? Is she becoming too dark and too Ramsay Bolton-like instead of Stark-like? Or do you think this is a positive shift for her?

Rheon: It\'s tricky to see. I think we\'re going to see a change. I don\'t think she\'s going to be happy now just to be the woman in the corner. I think that\'s what he\'s done for her. I think now she\'s going to be like, "I\'m the bloody Stark around here." It\'s going to be interesting to see what happens, and it\'s going to be interesting to see, going into next season, how she develops as a character.

IGN: You\'ve had to do some twisted things over the years as Ramsay, so looking back: what\'s your favorite thing you got to do with Ramsay, and what was the hardest thing you had to do with him as a character?

Rheon: The hardest thing was the post-wedding rape scene. It was just such a horrible thing to do because it was such a young girl and the reality of it and trying to get your head around doing it. That was a really difficult day. There\'s always one or two scenes in every season that jump out to me. The shaving scene in Season 4, I thought that was a brilliantly written scene and it was the first time you saw Ramsay with his dad.

There was that wonderful dinner table scene in Season 5 -- you just get this amazing dialogue and you get all day to shoot the scene. Although it gets a bit tiring after a bit saying the same thing over and over again all day [

], it\'s been brilliant. The one in episode 9, that wonderful parlay scene on the horses where we\'ve got Ramsay facing off with Jon Snow, it\'s great that they finally got to meet. I always wanted them to meet.

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IGN: Since you were mostly relegated to the North for the series, was there anyone you didn\'t get to shoot scenes with who you would have liked to act opposite?

Rheon: Ooh, I\'d have loved to have done a scene with Charles Dance, with Tywin Lannister. I think that would have been really cool.

IGN: I think Tywin would have liked Ramsay in his own way.

Rheon: Yeah. Well, he would have found a use for him, anyway. He would have found him useful, his faithful little hound. It would have been great to do a scene with Tyrion as well. That would have been really cool.

IGN: Looking forward, House Bolton no longer has a stake on the Iron Throne. Who\'s your money on coming out of this on top?

Rheon: Daenerys Targaryen, definitely. Who\'s going to stop her now? It\'s going to her against the White Walkers, surely. I can\'t wait. [

Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.

Game of Thrones First Aired Apr. 2011

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Season 6 Differences, Season 5 Differences, Season 4 Differences, Season 3 Differences, Season 2 Differences, Season 1 Differences,

House Stark, House Tully, House Lannister, House Baratheon, House Targaryen, House Greyjoy,