Remember Game of Thrones? The hit HBO drama series that wrapped its impressive run a billion years ago just over three months ago is now ramping up for one final battle: The 2019 Emmy Awards. The show will be vying for wins in the various categories of their record-setting 32 nominations (including Creative Arts Awards), with 14 of those being major awards categories. Jon Snow himself Kit Harington is the sole GoT cast member in the running for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series", and he's already making the rounds to rally the clans and drum up support for his claim to the title.

In chatting with THR, among many other hopefuls in the race for the 71st Emmy Awards, Harington threw back the veil of secrecy that had surrounded his character and the plot of Game of Thrones over the last decade or so. He got candid about the first time he read the scripts for the final season at the cast's table read, learning about Season 8's major moments, and his favorite moments from the show. Be sure to read up on his responses over at THR, but some highlights follow below. Spoilers also follow if you haven't finished the series yet.

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Image via HBO

Here's how Harington found out about the, shall we say, pivotal final moment between Jon Snow and Daenerys:

I hadn't read the scripts for the final season until the table read. I wanted to hear them around the table, without having read anything first. I sat on a plane next to Emilia on the way to the read-through in Belfast, and she had read them already, and she was like, "Shit, Kit. You are in for some surprises." That piqued my interest. (Laughs.) I didn't realize what was going to happen the whole way through until maybe half a page before Jon kills Dany. I remember my mouth dropping open and looking across Emilia at the table, who was slowly nodding as I went, "No, no, no!" It was a "holy fuck" moment, pardon my language. Jaw dropping. I was completely surprised by it, even though you can kind of see the path through the season of how it was getting there — and even the previous couple of seasons before that, once you can look back. But it was still a big shock to me.

And here's what Harington recalls about shooting that controversial scene:

We felt a sense of responsibility over it. We shot the hell out of it. It was essentially a page and a half of dialogue, and we spent three weeks filming it. They wanted to shoot every conceivable angle, every way, to make sure they got it the way they wanted it. When you're shooting the same scene for two weeks and it's a page and a half, it becomes a long exercise in concentration. You have to remember the energy you're bringing in, every day, and making sure it's consistent. With a highly emotionally charged scene like that, it's quite a lot, for everyone — the crew, me and Emilia. It was tiring. It's one of the hardest things we filmed.

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Image via HBO

But how does he reconcile that final moment for his character's relationship with Daeny?

It's that horrible conflict in a relationship: "Do I stay or do I go?" We've all been through it at some point … except this one involves a knife. (Laughs.) So, the stakes are even higher. But that's the way I looked at it: "Do I leave my lover?" It was the same kind of thing between Jon and Ygritte [Rose Leslie] earlier in the series, betraying someone he loves for the greater good. But what it really comes down to, the real crux of it, is the decision is made when she puts it between her and his family. Jon essentially sees it as Daenerys or Sansa and Arya, and that makes his mind up for him. He choose blood over, well, his other blood. But he chooses the people he has grown up with, the people his roots are with, the North. That's where his loyalties lie in the end. That's when he puts the knife in.

Lots of Game of Thrones fans, including Harington himself, thought that Jon would have and should have offed the Night King. How did Harington react to Arya (Maisie Williams) getting that honor?

I was a bit pissed off, only because I wanted to kill the Night King! I think I felt like everyone else did, in that it had been set up for a long time, and then I didn't get to do it. But I was so happy for Maisie and Arya. I was secretly like, "I wanted to do that!" Especially because I love fighting with Vlad, who also played the White Walker I fought at Hardhome. I've never seen a better swordsman. But it was a really great twist, and it tied up Maisie's journey in a really beautiful way. Over the seasons, we've seen her build up these skills to become this hardened assassin, and she uses it all to kill our main antagonist.

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Image via HBO

So, did Jon have any hand in encouraging Arya to do it, as a fan theory proposes?

Yeah, come on. What, the big man goes and tells the little girl to go and [do it]? No thanks. That's crap. She did it all on her own. It had nothing to do with Jon.

Finally, here's how Harington reacted to his character's final scene for Game of Thrones:

I loved it. When I read it, that bit really made me cry. What really made me cry was on the paper: "End of Game of Thrones." But as far as an ending for Jon Snow, this character that I loved for so many years and had grown so close to, and had meant so much to me … seeing him go beyond the Wall back to something true, something honest, something pure with these people he was always told he belongs with — the Free Folk — it felt to me like he was finally free. Instead of being chained and sent to the Wall, it felt like he was set free. It was a really sweet ending. As much as he had done a horrible thing [in killing Daenerys], as much as he had felt that pain, the actual ending for him was finally being released.

See how many awards Game of Thrones walks away with when the 2019 Emmy Awards airs Sunday, September 22nd.

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