Warning: Contains Spoilers
HBOGame of Thrones ended two weeks ago and it’s fair to say the finale raised more questions than it did answers.
Mainly: why did (spoiler alert) Bran Stark of all people become King, where did Drogon fly off to, and what on earth happened to Robin Arryn?!
No seriously, I think it’s fair to say Robin’s character arc was more satisfying than literally anyone else’s – primarily because he did a Neville Longbottom on us and glowed the hell up.
HBOIf you’re not familiar with the term ‘Longbottoming,’ let the very reliable source of Urban Dictionary blow your mind.
In their terms, Longbottoming is:
The sometimes slow, sometimes overnight, always surprising transformation of someone, usually a man, from decidedly unattractive to hot as hell a la Matthew Lewis, the actor who played Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter film series.
Enter: Robin, played by Lino Facioli, who everyone is saying has become the latest Neville Longbottom with his appearance in the final episode of Game of Thrones.
Why is nobody talking about this glow up wtf #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/ex6W0MgPdL
— Emily Ginn (@ginn_emily) May 20, 2019
How excited was the kid who plays Robyn Arryn when they told him he’d be back for the series finale and also hot now #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/mPf6dWFvmv
— Ruth Kinane (@ruthiekinane) May 20, 2019
Basically, a lot of people were impressed with Robin’s new lewk – and if you’re wondering whether Facioli has seen your tweets, he has. And he has a lot to say about it.
In an interview with Variety, the 18-year-old said he didn’t believe it was real when he saw the attention he was getting online.
The actor explained how his phone was going ‘bonkers,’ saying:
I thought it was my alarm or my phone was malfunctioning. I went to my Instagram, and I gained more followers in a night than I did throughout my whole time on Instagram.
I’m still a bit like, ‘is this real?’ To me, I don’t feel like I’ve changed that much. It’s just a funny situation.
I didn’t notice the bottled water because of Robert Arryn. #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/DAl60V70O0
— kierarktina (@AelinsRowan) May 20, 2019
Facioli went on to say how he was ‘still taking it all in,’ describing how both of his parents reacted when they saw what was going on.
He said:
To be honest, I’m still taking it all in. My parents are just… we were laughing, we were like, ‘this is hilarious, this is crazy’. I’ve got friends being like, ‘You’ve got memes about you, man.’ That’s their definition of fame.
After a while, I was like, ‘shit okay, I’ve got to do something else. I’m gonna go take a shower, go for a run, clear my head out’. And when I came back, it was still going! I was thinking it’d run out, but it just kept going. I thought, I’m gonna wake up any second and I’ll just go back to bed.
the main theme of Game of Thrones finally became clear in the finale: the importance of breastfeeding to grow up big and strong pic.twitter.com/axazLAnW58
— Andrew Bridgman (@bridgmandrew) May 20, 2019
Hilarious. Keep doing you, Lino.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).