Curtain Call: Brenock O’Connor 

Well, the #FuckOlly movement has finally paid off.

In the last scene of “Oathbreaker,” the newly resurrected Jon Snow executed his traitorous Brothers, including Olly, the teenage boy who’d become one of the most hated characters on the show.

To be perfectly honest, I never understood the fandom’s bile towards Olly and I probably owe much of my sympathy for him to Brenock O’Connor’s performance.

Admittedly, Olly got the short end of the stick in terms of writing –

“Hey, did I mention the Wildings killed my parents? Hey, guys? Didja know about m’parents? Wildings killed ’em. Hey.” #Ollie

which led many viewers to denounce him as an annoying, one-note thorn in Jon Snow’s side. However, O’Connor still deserves credit for his performance, for not playing Olly as a young Brutus biding his time, but as a boy whose childhood was stolen from him, who witnessed atrocities and turned bitter when he was denied justice. As David Benioff put it in Inside the Episode for “Mother’s Mercy,” “Olly’s not a bad guy. Olly’s a kid who’s seen just way too much horror way too early and he makes a decision that’s a really hard decision for him but you understand where he’s coming from.”

Neither Benioff nor D.B. Weiss ever planned for the peasant boy from the Gift to develop such a tragic arc. In fact, the role was originally so small he didn’t even have a name.

In an interview with Westeros.org, Bryan Cogman revealed that O’Connor’s character was originally written only as “boy in hamlet” and was never intended to do more than deliver the Thenns’ message to the Wall.

Benioff and Weiss told Variety that it was Dave Hill, their assistant at the time (who’s since been promoted to staff writer and story editor) who proposed giving “boy in hamlet” a name and expanding his role to make him a Night’s Watch recruit and Ygritte’s killer.

According to Cogman, Brenock’s talent was a major factor in the decision.

“Brenock also had given an amazing audition so we knew he could handle it. And he and Kit have a nice dynamic- Kit rightly honed in on the idea that Olly reminds Jon of Bran and the family he lost.”

Despite the strength of his performance (and my assumption that most

viewers are old enough to distinguish between reality and fiction) … or perhaps because of it, O’Connor received some pretty deplorable hate mail when “Mother’s Mercy” aired in the United States.

“‘I’m going to murder you and your family, rape your corpses and feed them to my dogs.’ That was the first ever comment I got from that. So, yeah, it was quite brutal.” C’mon,

O’Connor will appear next in the World War II drama,

. Hopefully the sixteen-year-old is at the beginning of a long and successful career.

I wish you well, O’Connor. Don’t let the bastards get you down.

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He did an amazing job and I hope people appreciate that. It’s not an easy gig, and handling that as a teenager is pretty remarkable.

I think Olly is the most iconic show-only character. I met many people who were shocked that he wasn’t part of the book.

Anytime I have a strong and visceral reaction to a character in a show like GOT, I attribute it to the quality of the actor/actress. Olly, Thorne, Joffrey, Ramsay etc. All great actors.

Poor Olly, I never hated him. I understood why he acted as he did, his situation (and age) considered.

Well, he is and he isn’t. I do think he’s MUCH more unique from Satin than say Locke was from Vargo Hoat.

Olly was a kid who tried to put on his big boy pants and was killed because he was not ready to be a big boy. If Jon Snow is Westeros Jesus, Olly is Westeros Judas. And he got hung too Hahaha, fuck you Olly

Let’s remember that Curtain Calls are about paying respect to the actor. Not about dancing on graves. Thanks.

Ya after I posted that I noticed I was the only asshole in the room, sorry. The actor did great for his part in the show

Olly, himself, sucked and we’re supposed to feel this intense anger and betrayal towards him, same as Jon at the end of Oathbreaker. But O’Connor was great as Olly. That character would have felt so corny or cheesy in most other young actors’ hands. So, bravo to him.

I’ll admit, I was one of the people who was looking forward to see Olly die, and was satisfied when he did. But, saying things like that to the ACTOR? Seriously, people…?

Brennock’s performance was a large part of the reason this character drew such a reaction from so many people, and he should be commended for that. And, as much as I hated Olly, I could totally see where he was coming from, and I completely understood his feelings (though yes, in the end, #FUCKOLLY). I thought the character was written well, and I really liked the tragedy to his arc. But none of that would have come through as strong as it did, were it not for Brennock.

I wish Brennock the best of luck in the future. This kid is going places (assuming he decides to continue acting).

I feel bad for saying “fuck olly” after he killed Jon Snow, he did have a tragic storyline, and I understand why he wanted to help kill Jon. He didn’t deserve so much hate, and the death threats the actor got because of a fictional role he played.

Props to O’Connor for doing such a great job in this small role. After seeing Olly’s dead face after being hanged made me feel sick to my stomach, it was gut wrenching.

The strong reactions from fans shows was a great job he did in his role! A big thank you and all the best to him in his future adventures!

Are Hodors allowed in Curtain Calls? Feels awfully cheap.

Well done Brenock! It isn’t hard to play a character that is hated (rightly or wrongly) by the show’s audience, but it is even harder when that character is in the biggest TV series in the world. It makes it an even bigger achievement when you think that Brenock is only a teenager.

The fact that people hated Brenock showed what a great job he had done. He wasn’t just “that random kid” who stabbed Jon Snow. You actually knew who he was, why he did it, and his whole character arc. I think many people actually could sympathise with the actions taken by Olly, and didn’t actually hate him at all (including me). They could understand how he found himself in that position, and only a supreme acting performance could help achieve that.

Thanks to Dave Hill for the initial idea of expanding Olly’s role. It made Jon Snow’s death much more tragic as we felt for both Jon and Olly. Alliser and company are great, but bringing in a child like Olly really elevated the scene as we knew the friendship that once existed between Jon and Olly.

Good Luck for the future Brenock. I’m sure you will go on to some fantastic roles. Hopefully they will be as memorable as your role as Olly.

Ignoring one lil Hodor is easier than quibbling over it.

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