Bella Ramsey's Game Of Thrones Role, Explained

This post contains spoilers for HBO's "Game of Thrones."

Young actor Bella Ramsey has impressed audiences with their performance as Ellie on the post-apocalyptic HBO series "The Last of Us," starring opposite Pedro Pascal's Joel on the horrifying and heartbreaking video game adaptation. But before they served as the beating heart of the fungus-zombie series, Ramsey starred as a very different kind of young hero on HBO's fantasy series "Game of Thrones." 

In "Game of Thrones," based on the "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels by author George R.R. Martin, houses of sprawling, ancient families go to war over the throne before eventually contending with supernatural invaders from beyond the Wall in the north and a dragon-riding princess from across the Narrow Sea. The leader of one of those families was a young girl from a long line of warriors who spoke up and took charge when men many times her age failed to act, and eventually she proved herself as an incredible warrior in her own right. In season 6 of "Game of Thrones," Ramsey joined the cast as Lyanna Mormont, the Lady of Bear Island, and audiences everywhere were introduced to one of the show's best characters played by a talented young actor. 

Lyanna Mormont's mother, Maege Mormont (Elizabeth Barrett) was the former Lady of Bear Island and a formidable female warrior, but unfortunately she was slain fighting for Robb Stark (Richard Madden) during the War of the Five Kings. This forced the young Lyanna to take over in her stead and make some very adult decisions despite still being a preteen, but she proved herself more than capable. Named for the murdered Lyanna Stark, Robb's aunt, Lyanna is every bit the Northwoman as her namesake. 

She first appears onscreen in season 6, episode 7, "The Broken Man," though she had previously sent a letter to Stannis Baratheon informing him that the only king she would ever stand by would be a Stark. She meets with Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) and Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), joined by Ser Davos Seaworth (Liam Cunningham), who seek her help fighting the wights and White Walkers from beyond the Wall, not just joining in petty battles between men. Though she initially questions whether either Jon or Sansa truly count as Starks, she ends up being one of their strongest champions. 

Though Lyanna is unable to give the North a great contingent of men to fight with because so many of them were massacred at the Red Wedding (where Robb and many, many others were brutally slaughtered by the Freys and their southern allies), she is able to give them 62 fighting men and she leads them herself, which is pretty badass. She ends up being present during many of the North's most important moments moving forward, and is the first to call Jon Snow the new "King in the North," saying that his being a bastard doesn't matter because he still has Ned Stark's blood running through his veins. (She's kind of right, since Jon's mother is actually the deceased Lyanna Stark and Ned is therefore his uncle, but I digress.) 

Because she has earned the respect of the other Northern lords, they rally behind her and therefore Jon Snow, declaring him King in the North and joining him in both his battles against the Lannisters and their allies and the supernatural White Walkers. She even joins alongside in the battles herself, although that unfortunately leads to her (admittedly epic) death. 

Lyanna goes on to rebuke Jon Snow for abandoning the North when he falls in love with his aunt Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), and she's also not a fan of Dany well before the Targaryen ruler burns King's Landing on dragonback, but Lyanna's coolest moment comes when she decides to join in the battle for Winterfell, protecting the Stark family home from invading undead forces. She even argues with her uncle, the fallen knight Ser Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen), who tells her to stay out of the fighting because she's the future of their family. 

After the walls of Winterfell are breached, Lyanna does one-on-one battle with a wight giant, essentially a super-strong 14-foot-tall zombie, and as he's crushing her to death, she stabs him in the eye with a dragonglass dagger, killing him once more. She dies from her wounds and is brought back as a wight by the Night King, but once Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) defeats the original White Walker, Lyanna apparently falls dead again. She is among those burned on the pyre after, protecting her from being brought back again by anyone else. It was a suitable death and funeral for a warrior from the North, though it was truly a bummer knowing we wouldn't get to see Lyanna onscreen anymore.

Lyanna Mormont is barely written about in George R.R. Martin's books, leaving her personification largely to the show's writers, but Ramsey's performance is what makes Lyanna so great. They can convey so much emotion with a single facial expression, like a scowl shot at Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) when the Starks meet with the monstrous bastard. Ramsey manages to bring the gravitas necessary to the role despite their young age, embodying a battle-ready and world-hardened young warrior who simultaneously manages to be incredibly lovable. It's truly impossible to imagine anyone else in the role (even if "Stranger Things" star Millie Bobby Brown auditioned for it), and while they were hesitant to audition for the role of Ellie on the HBO juggernaut "The Last of Us," it's likely that their performance as Lyanna helped them get the coveted role on the post-apocalyptic drama. 

While some fans of "The Last of Us" have had criticisms of Ramsey's casting, they have proven their skill as an actor time and time again despite their young age and incredibly challenging material. If anyone can hold their own against both magical White Walker zombies and freaky fungus zombies, plus star alongside some of TV's biggest heavy hitters, they're the real deal, and I can't wait to see what Ramsey does next.