HBO

When Kristofer Hivju (Tormund Giantsbane on Game of Thrones) joined Instagram recently, he discovered that fans aren't done shipping Briemund just yet.

"When there's so much darkness, if you give a piece of light, they grab it with both hands," he told Vulture about his character's budding relationship with Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie). "That was unexpected for everybody! Nobody saw that coming, even us! And there wasn't a single fan theory beforehand that would have made it seem possible."

Hivju said this popular Titanic meme particularly caught his eye. The wildling makes a pretty good Jack Dawson, don't you think?

"The funny thing with those characters, it works both ways, if you want to reverse the genders," he explained. "He can hold her, or she can hold him, because if you get those two characters together, you don't know who would be the more masculine of the two of them. In some ways, I feel like the feminine part of that relationship. It's the peak of emancipation!"

In other words, gender roles go out the window for this would-be couple, which is refreshing in the male-dominated Westeros world. The only hiccup is that Brienne hasn't yet returned his affections.

"We're finally seeing a new side of Tormund," Hivju continued. "For so many reasons, he's been kind of a bad guy in the series, and now you see the romantic, the lover."

Tormund has two more episodes left this season to make the magic happen before Jaime Lannister does. Good luck, fellas!

Can’t get enough of Game of Thrones? Listen to this week’s "Game of Crones" podcast, featuring MTV News pop culture writers Teo Bugbee, Rachel Handler, and Crystal Bell.