At this point in Game of Thrones, it’s expected that we lose a few characters every episode, whether to poison, supernatural elements, or the vicissitudes of war. In Sunday’s episode, “Eastwatch,†the bell tolled for Dickon Tarly, son of Lord Randyll Tarly, who lost badly to Daenerys’s armies, refused to bend the knee, and then was burned alive by Drogon. Dickon died as he lived: hot. Let us remember him as such.
We first met Dickon back in season six, when he was introduced as Samwell Tarly’s annoyingly athletic and handsome older brother, the second son who had taken over as heir after Randyll sent Sam to the Night’s Watch. Dickon looked a little different back then: He was played by another actor, Freddie Stroma, known for being in the good season of Unreal and having abs in Pitch Perfect.
Stroma had to pull out of playing Dickon due to commitments to ABC’s time-travel drama Time After Time (RIP), which meant that Thrones had to cast a new Tarly for season seven. Enter Tom Hopper: While you might use the words “cute,†“adorable,†or “possessed of a lil nose†to describe Stroma’s Dickon, the words that come to mind for Hopper’s are decidedly more bulky. His armor, with its exaggerated breast and shoulders, makes him look very swole. This is because he is, in fact, very swole.
A brief biography, for the purposes of refining your Tom Hopper Dickon Tarly thirst: Hopper’s a British actor who has appeared in various stage and TV roles, including the BBC’s Merlin and Starz’s Black Sails, in which he played Billy Bones, who looks a lot better than you imagined him looking in Treasure Island. Hopper has a wife, Laura Hopper, and a son, Freddie. Sometimes he uses his son for resistance training. Personally, I do not mind.
If you have more, uh, questions about Tom Hopper’s workout plans, perhaps you might enjoy reading this nautical, rope-filled Muscle and Fitness spread with the cast of Black Sails. Or perhaps this Men’s Health spread with the cast of Black Sails. (The cast of Black Sails was really into working out.) You might also enjoy a thorough perusal of Hopper’s Instagram, from which I have learned that he likes a good roast, motor bikes, and watching Frozen at 6 a.m. If you’re going to miss Dickon on Game of Thrones, know that Hopper’s next project is about a rock climber, and he is very dedicated to his training for it.