In George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series, the Sand Snakes, a.k.a. the bastard daughters of Oberyn Martell, made a vivid and lasting impression. But they’re also one of the best examples of how not everything on the page has translated well to the screen on Game of Thrones. The trio of women—pared down from the original eight—made their ignominious debut in the rocky fifth season of the popular fantasy series, standing at the center of the show’s maligned Dorne plot. After backlash from both disappointed book readers and confused show-watchers alike, Nymeria (Jessica Henwick), Obara (Keisha Castle-Hughes), and Tyene (Rosabell Laurenti Sellers) were largely shelved in Season 6—and are on their way to being wiped out completely in Season 7. In a rather frank exit interview Sunday night, Henwick explained why the Sand Snakes were doomed from the start.

Henwick isn’t the first former Dorne resident to get a little blunt in a Game of Thrones exit interview. Alexander Siddig, who played Dornish Prince Doran, practically torched the place on his way out. Henwick is far more diplomatic when describing to Entertainment Weekly how her character, Nymeria, started at a disadvantage. Despite the fact that the Dornish plot was significantly pared down—the show ditched the other Sand Snakes and a popular book princess, to name but a few—Henwick says “it was always acknowledged that it was going to be very hard to give each of us a story line.”

In its previous season, Game of Thrones had taken its time introducing Pedro Pascal’s Oberyn Martell in a leisurely premiere episode scene that deftly demonstrated the Red Viper’s sexual charisma and violent edge. The Sand Snakes didn’t arrive on the Season 5 scene until Episode 4, where, Henwick explains:

They had to introduce three characters all at once and differentiate them. When you’re limited to an introduction of two lines per character and there are four characters in the scene—during our introduction scene in Season 5—it’s hard to create a lasting impression. You kind of have to shove a character down the audience’s throat and Game of Thrones’ success is in its multifaceted characters. At the time it was definitely frustrating feeling like there’s so much potential here, and a lot of the stuff that we shot didn’t make the final cut. It was hard.

That would help explain the over-the-top unsubtlety of Oberyn’s daughters. Henwick softens her frustrations with several acknowledgments of how lucky she was to be cast on the popular series in the first place, and how her visibility, even in an unpopular role, likely helped her land a small role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens—and a much-better-received leading role on Iron Fist. (Her Colleen Wing was a bright spot in a bumpy Netflix season.)

But unlike most actors—champing at the bit to return to Game of Thrones—it took the producers a lot of convincing to get Henwick to come back for Nymeria’s last call. Henwick couldn’t get time off her Iron Fist shoot, but says that show-runners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff were insistent that her character not just disappear from the series. “I’m not going to lie,” Henwick says, “a part of me was like, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t do it. Maybe she just does disappear!’’’ Henwick filmed the Episode 2 naval battle over two weekends, flying “back and forth while I was doing Iron Fist in New York to Belfast.”

Because of her limited availability, Nymeria (and, I would imagine, Obara’s) death was significantly truncated; Henwick agrees that she and her sister got rather “brutal” ends. The pair ended the episode draped or strung up on the prow of a ship. So even with Ellaria and Tyene as Euron’s prisoners and likely headed towards Cersei’s vengeful clutches, that’s curtains for the Sand Snakes. But it’s not all bad news. Despite their widespread bad reputation among the fandom, there are some Game of Thrones lovers who have room in their hearts for the saffron-clad daughters of Oberyn Martell. At a recent Game of Thrones convention, the snakes were a very popular costume. Then again, that might have just been the most comfortable choice in the scorching Nashville heat.

And Henwick owes her rising star to her time on HBO. “Overall, given the size of the character, I’ve been very happy with how it’s come out. It is what it is. There’s nothing I can say, really.”