It was the biggest series on television for years, but the hastily wrapped up final season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” left many unsatisfied and turned the tide of the discourse on the show.
Of course, with that came a lot of overly hysterical reaction to the point that some called for the network to completely remake the final season which was never going to happen.
Several years on, one of the show’s leading names has reflected upon the ending whilst out doing promotional rounds for the film “Cyrano”. Peter Dinklage, who played Tyrion Lannister throughout the series, tells The New York Times that the final season is exactly how the show should have ended and he understands why some fans got upset:
“They wanted the pretty white people to ride off into the sunset together. By the way, it’s fiction. There’s dragons in it. Move on. [Laughs.] No, but the show subverts what you think, and that’s what I love about it.
Yeah, it was called ‘Game of Thrones,’ but at the end, the whole dialogue when people would approach me on the street was, ‘Who’s going to be on the throne?’ I don’t know why that was their takeaway because the show really was more than that.
One of my favorite moments was when the dragon burned the throne because it sort of just killed that whole conversation, which is really irreverent and kind of brilliant on behalf of the show’s creators: ‘Shut up, it’s not about that.’ They constantly did that, where you thought one thing and they delivered another. Everybody had their own stories going on while watching that show, but nobody’s was as good as what the show delivered, I think.”
As time has gone on, even source material author George R.R. Martin has spoken about his disappointment with the show’s ending and how the series should’ve run for more seasons to help flesh out the final act of the story more.
However one feels about it, “Game of Thrones” remains available on HBO Max, disc and multiple digital platforms.
