We’re nearly a year on from the eighth and final season of HBO’s popular fantasy series “Game of Thrones” which left a foul taste in the mouth of quite a few fans with its rushed ending.
Many still have issues with how the series came to a close, and that includes those who made it. Actress Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen for all eight seasons of the show, has now opened up candidly about the finale and her decidedly mixed feelings about how the show resolved itself.
Daenerys’ arc came to an end in such a way that fans felt she was screwed over, did stuff that was out of character, and was overall badly mishandled in those final few episodes by series showrunners and finale writer/director duo David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
Speaking with The Sunday Times, Clarke says her feelings match those of fans:
I felt for her. I really felt for her. And yeah, was I annoyed that Jon Snow didn’t have to deal with something? He got away with murder – literally. I knew how I felt [about the ending] when I first read it, and I tried, at every turn, not to consider too much what other people might say.
But I did always consider what the fans might think – because we did it for them, and they were the ones who made us successful, so it’s just polite, isn’t it?. It was all about the set pieces. I think the sensational nature of the show was, possibly, given a huge amount of airtime because that’s what makes sense.”
Clarke also admits she’s sad Dany didn’t get a ‘happy ending’ and thought the final season might have been more satisfying if it had lasted for more episodes: “we could have spun it out for a little longer.”
In related news, author George R.R. Martin says that he’s doubling down on finishing the book “Winds Of Winter” as he self-quarantines during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said in a blog post recently he feels fine and is by himself in a remote isolated location where he’s spending most of his days ‘back in Westeros’.
