He was the Prince That Was Promised. Well, not really, but for about forty-five seconds back in 2014, Ser Pounce was the only thing the internet cared about. If you blinked during Season 4, Episode 4, "Oathkeeper," you might have missed the feline debut that launched a thousand memes. Tommen Baratheon—the sweet, doomed boy-king—is sitting on his bed when a calico cat jumps up, interrupting a rather tense, manipulative conversation with Margaery Tyrell.
It was adorable. It was wholesome. It was entirely out of place in a show where people regularly had their eyes gouged out or were burned alive by dragons.
But where did the cat go? Fans of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels know that the feline presence in the Red Keep is actually a pretty big deal. In the books, Ser Pounce isn't alone; he's part of a trio of kittens including Lady Whiskers and Boots. In the HBO show, he was a one-hit wonder. Honestly, the story of what happened to Ser Pounce behind the scenes is almost as chaotic as the War of the Five Kings itself.
The Cat That Couldn't Be Coaxed
Let’s get the "behind the scenes" gossip out of the way first. Working with animals is notoriously difficult, but working with cats is a special kind of hell for a television production operating on a tight schedule. Dean-Charles Chapman, the actor who played Tommen, has been very vocal about the fact that his four-legged co-star was a total diva.
The cat was apparently a nightmare to work with.
It wouldn't stay on the bed. It wouldn't hit its marks. The "pounce" that gave the cat its name was more of a "stroll in the opposite direction while the cameras were rolling." This is why we never saw him again. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the showrunners, basically decided that the logistical headache of wrangling a cat wasn't worth the screen time.
While the internet was demanding a spin-off, the crew was just trying to get through a scene without a cat jumping into the rafters of the Titanic Studios in Belfast. Natalie Dormer (Margaery) also hinted in interviews that the cat was the most difficult actor on set. That’s saying a lot when you’re working with a cast of hundreds.
✨ Don't miss: Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett: Why Fans Are Still Divided Over the Daimyo of Tatooine
What Happened to Ser Pounce in the Story?
If you're looking for a happy ending, you've come to the wrong franchise.
For years, fans theorized about the cat’s fate. Did he flee King's Landing before the Great Sept of Baelor exploded? Did he find a nice family in the Reach? David Benioff eventually dropped the hammer in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. He confirmed that Cersei Lannister—in her infinite bitterness and grief after Tommen’s suicide—had the cat killed.
"Cersei hated the name 'Ser Pounce' so much she could not allow him to survive," Benioff said. He joked that the cat's death was so "horrific" it couldn't even be aired.
It’s a brutal, albeit off-screen, end for the show version of the character. It perfectly encapsulates the tonal shift of the later seasons. Everything pure had to be destroyed. If Tommen loved it, Cersei was going to make sure it ceased to exist, even if it was just a small animal that did nothing but exist.
The Book Version: A Different Tail
In the books, the situation is much more nuanced and, frankly, more interesting. Ser Pounce isn't just a prop for a cute scene. He’s a gift from Margaery to Tommen, intended to keep the boy occupied while the adults play the deadly game of politics.
George R.R. Martin uses the kittens to highlight Tommen's innocence. While Joffrey was busy skinning cats (a horrific detail mentioned in the books to show his psychopathy), Tommen is busy worrying about whether Ser Pounce will catch a mouse.
🔗 Read more: Why Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Actors Still Define the Modern Spy Thriller
There’s also a fascinating fan theory involving the "Old Cat" of the Red Keep.
Readers will remember Balerion, the black cat with a torn ear that terrorizes the castle. Many believe this cat belonged to Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, who was killed during the Sack of King's Landing. There is a scene where Ser Pounce defends himself against this older, scarred cat. Some fans think this is a bit of heavy-handed foreshadowing about the Targaryen/Baratheon conflict. Or maybe George just really likes writing about cats. He is a cat person, after all.
Why the Internet Obsessed Over a 10-Second Cameo
You have to remember the context of 2014. Game of Thrones was at its peak. Every episode was a gauntlet of trauma. Seeing a kitten was like finding an oasis in a desert of decapitations.
The "Ser Pounce" phenomenon was one of the first times the show's fandom truly took over social media with a niche obsession. He became a symbol of the innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire of the Iron Throne.
- He had his own Twitter accounts.
- Fan art depicted him sitting on the Iron Throne.
- Theory videos (some serious, most satirical) claimed he was a "warg" controlled by Bran Stark.
People wanted him to be important because the world of Westeros is so bleak that you need something to root for that isn't going to betray you for a bag of gold or a castle.
The Reality of Animal Actors in Epic Fantasy
Think about the Direwolves. We barely saw them in the later seasons because the CGI costs were astronomical and the real-life wolves (Northern Inuit dogs) were hard to manage on set. If HBO struggled to keep the Stark family symbols on screen, a random cat stood no chance.
💡 You might also like: The Entire History of You: What Most People Get Wrong About the Grain
The show eventually prioritized dragons. Dragons are cool. Dragons sell merchandise. But dragons are also entirely digital, meaning they do exactly what the animators tell them to do. Ser Pounce was a real living creature with his own agenda, which usually involved sleeping in a sunbeam rather than hitting a mark for a high-stakes drama.
It's a bit of a bummer that the showrunners went for the "Cersei killed him" explanation. It felt a bit mean-spirited, even for her. Most fans prefer to imagine that when the bells rang and the city burned, Ser Pounce was already long gone, living out his days in the countryside, far away from the smells of wildfire and the sound of Lannister debts being paid.
The Legacy of the King's Cat
While he won't be appearing in any House of the Dragon flashbacks (unless there's a very long-lived ancestor), Ser Pounce remains a legendary figure in the lore of the TV adaptation. He represents a moment when the show was still playful, before the darkness of the final seasons fully took hold.
If you’re looking to dive deeper into the lore of the Red Keep’s feline residents, your best bet is to go back to the source material. The books offer a much richer look at how these animals interact with the royal family. In the novels, Tommen is still alive (for now), and his kittens are still safe in his chambers.
To truly understand the "Ser Pounce" phenomenon, you should:
- Read the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' books: Specifically A Feast for Crows, where Tommen's relationship with his pets is most prominent.
- Watch the Season 4 DVD commentaries: The cast and crew discuss the difficulty of the scene and the "diva" behavior of the cat.
- Explore the 'Balerion the Cat' theories: Look into how the cats of the Red Keep might actually be linked to the Targaryen dynasty.
- Ignore the showrunners' "Cersei killed him" comment: If it didn't happen on screen, you can choose your own ending.
Ultimately, Ser Pounce was a tiny flash of light in a very dark story. He reminded us that even in a world of ice and fire, there’s always room for a kitten to jump on a bed and demand some attention.