As the matriarch of the powerful, well-regarded Tyrell family of Highgarden, Olenna Tyrell (Diana Rigg) strikes an imposing figure right up until her very last moment on Game of Thrones. The grandmother of Margaery Tyrell, the ambitious heiress of the Tyrell house who serves as queen of Westeros for two brief stints, Olenna thoroughly earns her nickname as the “Queen of Thorns,” famous for her sharp wit and barbed words (though the nickname is also a play on the Tyrell house sigil, which features a rose). Olenna is a shrewd, smart strategist, and she looks out for herself and her loved ones above all else. So when Sansa tells her that Joffrey is as cruel as everybody says, she, not Tyrion, poisons him at his wedding, and eventually, she takes arms against the Lannisters to side with Daenerys Targaryen, her dragons, and her foreign armies.
However, Olenna ends up overpowered by enemy armies and faced with Jaime himself, and when the Kingslayer offers her a merciful death of poisoned wine, she accepts gladly. Before drinking the entire glass, she confesses to Jaime that not only did she kill Joffrey, but she knew the young king was Jaime’s son, proving that despite the Tyrell house becoming extinct in that moment, Olenna still had the upper hand up until her last breath.
