--- title: Game of Thrones' Davos Talks Shireen: 'It Hit Very Close to Home' description: Spoiler alert: actor Liam Cunningham spoke about Sunday's episode canonical: https://time.com/3916034/game-of-thrones-shireen-davos/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-10T17:05:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T08:05:12.190Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Game of Thrones' Davos Talks Shireen: 'It Hit Very Close to Home' og:description: Spoiler alert: actor Liam Cunningham spoke about Sunday's episode og:url: https://time.com/3916034/game-of-thrones-shireen-davos/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt401f12ffc64bf438/6988535555a859620fa8c612/shireen-davos-got.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Ser Davos and Shireen in Game of Thrones' "The Dance of Dragons" og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Game of Thrones' Davos Talks Shireen: 'It Hit Very Close to Home' twitter:description: Spoiler alert: actor Liam Cunningham spoke about Sunday's episode twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt401f12ffc64bf438/6988535555a859620fa8c612/shireen-davos-got.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Game of Thrones'_ Davos Talks Shireen: 'It Hit Very Close to Home'  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jun 10, 2015 5:05 PM UTC  Helen Sloan—HBO  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jun 10, 2015 5:05 PM UTC _Game of Thrones_ fans who were devastated by the loss of Shireen on Sunday’s penultimate episode of season five are not alone. Liam Cunningham, whose character Davos forged a relationship with Kerry Ingram, the actress who played the greyscale-ridden Baratheon, over the duration of the show, [told the New York _Times_](http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/08/game-of-thrones-interview-davos-shireen/?%5Fr=0) that her death was a shock. “I was astonished,” he says of learning how the HBO hit would kill her off. “Well, listen, nothing astonishes me on this show, to be honest with you. But it hit very close to home.” (His character, however, won’t learn of Sunday’s events until this weekend’s season finale.) Cunningham anticipated some backlash around the death, as the show has been [criticized recently for its gratuitous violence](http://time.com/3914125/game-of-thrones-hannibal-violence/) against women after the character Sansa (Sophie Turner) was raped earlier in the season. “I think there’s going to be controversy after Shireen,” he said. “We had that thing with Sansa. I completely get it, but it’s a challenging show. One of the reasons it’s as loved and admired as it is, is it doesn’t take the easy route. It really does throw things in your face.” The season five finale airs Sunday at 9p.m. on HBO. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3916034/game-of-thrones-shireen-davos/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3916034/game-of-thrones-shireen-davos/"},"headline":"Game of Thrones' Davos Talks Shireen: 'It Hit Very Close to Home'","datePublished":"2015-06-10T17:05:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:05:12.190Z","description":"Spoiler alert: actor Liam Cunningham spoke about Sunday's episode","url":"https://time.com/3916034/game-of-thrones-shireen-davos/","keywords":["Television","game of thrones"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt401f12ffc64bf438/6988535555a859620fa8c612/shireen-davos-got.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt401f12ffc64bf438/6988535555a859620fa8c612/shireen-davos-got.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ser Davos and Shireen in Game of Thrones' \"The Dance of Dragons\"","caption":"Ser Davos and Shireen in Game of Thrones' \"The Dance of Dragons\"","creditText":"Helen Sloan—HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3916034/game-of-thrones-shireen-davos/","name":"Game of Thrones' Davos Talks Shireen: 'It Hit Very Close to Home'"}}]}] ```