Coughing Varys

2019reaction imageclassic

Published August 17, 2026

Coughing Varys is a reaction image pulled from Game of Thrones season eight, showing the character Varys hacking up seawater on a beach after a shipwreck. It took off on Reddit in May 2019 as both a reaction shot for disappointing realizations and an exploitable where Varys's dialogue is broken up by wheezing.

game of thrones memesreaction memesexploitable templatesdialogue edit memessubreddit origin memes

Overview

Coughing Varys, also known as Heaving Varys, is a reaction image lifted from a scene in Game of Thrones season eight, in which the character Varys is shown flat on a beach coughing water out of his lungs after surviving a shipwreck1. The character is played by Conleth Hill, and the still crops tightly on his face mid-heave3.

Online, the shot works two ways. As a straight reaction image, people drop it under captions about crushing letdowns, usually pointed at the final season of the show itself2. As an exploitable, posters rewrite Varys's dialogue with coughs and wheezes cutting up the words, so the character sounds like they are trying to speak through a lungful of saltwater4.

Origin & Background

Platform
HBO (source scene) / Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
Redditor enterprise1
Date
2019

The image is a screengrab from episode four of Game of Thrones season eight, "The Last of the Starks," which premiered on HBO on May 5, 20191. During the scene, Varys, played by Conleth Hill, is washed up on a beach and shown coughing seawater out of his lungs after a shipwreck3.

How It Spread

One day after the episode aired, on May 6, 2019, Reddit user enterprise1 posted the still to /r/freefolk as a reaction image2. The post pulled in more than 51,200 upvotes within a week, according to Know Your Meme3.

Over the following days the shot spread further inside /r/freefolk and neighboring Game of Thrones subreddits, where users paired it with setups about various disappointing realizations tied to the show's final season2. It also picked up traction on the /tv/ board of 4chan, where a common convention emerged of writing out Varys's speech with the words interrupted by parenthetical coughing and wheezing4.

How to Use This Meme

Two conventions are common. In the reaction format, people post the still on its own under a caption describing a bleak or embarrassing realization, often about Game of Thrones season eight2. In the exploitable format, posters write a block of dialogue for Varys with the words typically broken up by coughs, hacks, and wheezes in parentheses, so the character sounds like they are choking through the sentence4.

Frequently Asked Questions

Coughing Varys

2019reaction imageclassic

Published August 17, 2026

Coughing Varys is a reaction image pulled from Game of Thrones season eight, showing the character Varys hacking up seawater on a beach after a shipwreck. It took off on Reddit in May 2019 as both a reaction shot for disappointing realizations and an exploitable where Varys's dialogue is broken up by wheezing.

game of thrones memes reaction memes exploitable templates dialogue edit memes subreddit origin memes

Overview

Coughing Varys, also known as Heaving Varys, is a reaction image lifted from a scene in Game of Thrones season eight, in which the character Varys is shown flat on a beach coughing water out of his lungs after surviving a shipwreck1. The character is played by Conleth Hill, and the still crops tightly on his face mid-heave3.

Online, the shot works two ways. As a straight reaction image, people drop it under captions about crushing letdowns, usually pointed at the final season of the show itself2. As an exploitable, posters rewrite Varys's dialogue with coughs and wheezes cutting up the words, so the character sounds like they are trying to speak through a lungful of saltwater4.

Origin & Background

Platform
HBO (source scene) / Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
Redditor enterprise1
Date
2019

The image is a screengrab from episode four of Game of Thrones season eight, "The Last of the Starks," which premiered on HBO on May 5, 20191. During the scene, Varys, played by Conleth Hill, is washed up on a beach and shown coughing seawater out of his lungs after a shipwreck3.

How It Spread

One day after the episode aired, on May 6, 2019, Reddit user enterprise1 posted the still to /r/freefolk as a reaction image2. The post pulled in more than 51,200 upvotes within a week, according to Know Your Meme3.

Over the following days the shot spread further inside /r/freefolk and neighboring Game of Thrones subreddits, where users paired it with setups about various disappointing realizations tied to the show's final season2. It also picked up traction on the /tv/ board of 4chan, where a common convention emerged of writing out Varys's speech with the words interrupted by parenthetical coughing and wheezing4.

How to Use This Meme

Two conventions are common. In the reaction format, people post the still on its own under a caption describing a bleak or embarrassing realization, often about Game of Thrones season eight2. In the exploitable format, posters write a block of dialogue for Varys with the words typically broken up by coughs, hacks, and wheezes in parentheses, so the character sounds like they are choking through the sentence4.

Frequently Asked Questions