Bad news, Game of Thrones fans – Ser Pounce didn’t make it

We were rooting for him.

Game of Thrones usually isn't one to keep its violent flourishes offscreen, though their have been some notable exceptions. We never saw Syrio Forrel go down, but it seems highly unlikely that he survived his scrap with Meryn Trant. Despite being a major player, Stannis Baratheon didn't receive the honour of a confirmed kill in the traditional sense as we had to wait for another season to arrive and for Ramsay Bolton to note that he happened upon the corpse. So despite the show's many, many, many depictions of grisly demises, they do sometimes opt for restraint. We just wish it hadn't come to this particular scenario, but here we are. Proof that Game of Thrones relishes in misery and pain arrived this week via a new interview with showrunners David Benioff and David Weiss in which they revealed that they had, indeed, sanctioned the exit of fan favourite Ser Pounce. Remember Ser Pounce? Tommen's beloved cat with the best name in all of the Seven Kingdoms? The adorable feline who appeared only briefly but stole hearts across the globe? Yep, dead. Gone. Murdered. Ser Pounce in happier, more simple times In conversation with Entertainment Weekly, Benioff and Weiss confirmed that they pulled the trigger via their most hateful of characters. "Cersei hated the name ‘Ser Pounce’ so much she could not allow him to survive,” said Benioff. “So she came up with her most diabolical [execution]. Ser Pounce’s death was so horrible we couldn’t even put it on the air.” Dig a little deeper and it seems that the cat portraying Ser Pounce fell victim to the dreaded 'creative differences' problem that has haunted so many productions. “That cat was really not fun to work with,“ Benioff admitted. “There’s a reason the phrase ‘like herding cats’ came into existence.” “Dogs generally do what you ask them to do if they’re smart and well trained,” Weiss added. “Cats have their own agenda.” Farewell, Ser Pounce. What is dead may never die, and all that. Clip via Daenerys Targaryen