Tyrion Lannister’s speech during the trial for his life will no doubt go down as one of the more epic TV doings, ever — I mean them’s just the facts. Even by Game of Thrones standards, the moment was brilliant dizzyingly impressive. After being put on trail for the death of King Joffrey in “The Laws of Gods and Men,” the biggest little Lannister’s fate was forever changed, and boy oh boy, could you feel it in his delivery. Jeez, that Peter Dinklage can’t do anything other than be amazing, can he?

Entertainment Weekly got access to the final pages of the script thanks to the episode’s writer, Bryan Cogman. And, given that the fate of Tyrion is — at least the time of this posting — still very much up in the air, it felt appropriate to relive one of his best and brightest. Of the moment, Cogman explained exactly why it went down as it did. “The Shae moment triggers what’s been building up inside him his entire life.”

“He was going to take his father’s deal and go quietly and then decides he’d rather die than give in. But before he dies, he’s going to tell them all what he really thinks of them. … Really it’s a scene about the Lannister family.” Namely, his family’s perma-disdain for him given his, uh, affliction and affections. It’s no surprise that rather than go quietly into that good night, that Tyrion sprung for a blaze of glory.

For Cogman, the whole thing boiled down to Dinklage’s delivery “… It’s an incredibly physical acting performance from Peter even before he launches into his speech. … I keep coming back to how piercing his gaze is throughout that speech, he’s just stabbing daggers into every person he’s talking to.”

Take a look at the pages in the gallery below:

What’d you think of Cogman’s script and how it stacked up to what happened on-screen? Let’s discuss in the comments!