The 30 most heartwarming moments on Game of Thrones

24. Margaery’s warning to Olenna (“The Broken Man”)

SARAH: It wouldn’t be right to talk about meaningful Game of Thrones moments and leave out one of the show’s strongest relationships. Olenna Tyrell has a tongue that could cut steel, but there’s one person who has always been spared the edge of her razor wit: her beloved granddaughter Margaery. To Olenna, Margaery represents the future of House Tyrell. She adores her, favors her above the rest of her family members, and has even killed for her. It takes an iron will to murder a man in front of hundreds of people, and at his own wedding feast. But for Olenna, it was worth it to ensure her granddaughter’s safety.

In Season 6, Margaery secures her release from the High Sparrow’s custody in return for delivering sweet, malleable Tommen into his hands. Olenna is dismayed by her conversion to religious fanaticism, and her attempts to reason with Margaery seem to fall on deaf ears. All seems hopeless, until Margaery covertly hands her a token to prove that, as she did with Joffrey before him, she has fooled yet another man into believing her act. Olenna’s prize flower is still growing strong—smart, observant and playing a better long game than anyone else in King’s Landing.

The strength of the scene relies on its two leads. Diana Rigg always portrays Lady Olenna as a sassy, biting woman, and she does it brilliantly, but what makes this scene a triumph is that we see the vulnerability that hides beneath all of that attitude. “I’ll never leave you,” she insists to her granddaughter, and she means it, with all of her heart. This is a character who has always appeared unflappable, and her devastation is testament to her love for her favorite grandchild. As Margaery’s love is no less powerful. The one crack in her near-flawless performance—the one moment where she risks being found out by the formidable Septa Unella—occurs when she places her drawing into her grandmother’s hand. Her only concern is for Olenna’s safety, and just like her grandmother, she would risk a great deal to ensure it.

Unfortunately, Margaery is killed in the Season 6 finale, making this her last meeting with her grandmother. As devastating a blow that this has been to the Queen of Thorns, she can at least take comfort in the knowledge that Margaery knew her own mind to the last. That’s something that not even Cersei can take away from her.