Many fans were left seriously unimpressed by Game of Thrones Season 8 – especially given how long they had to wait to watch it – but Emilia Clarke’s reaction to the controversy is one of the reasons we love her so much.
Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen on the show, was asked about the mixed fan reaction by Variety while attending the Emmys and managed to turn it into a positive, saying the response was “flattering”.
She explained that the fact people were so passionate about the show, proves they cared about it, which is a good thing.
“It was profoundly flattering,” she said. “Because when someone cares that much, that they’re ready to make such a noise about how they believe how the characters should have been finished, and how the story should have gone, that’s just enormously flattering. That just shows how much everybody loved it.”
She added that the cast and crew put their all into making the show, “We put our absolute heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears, muscle, brain energy, everything into this. And I feel like everybody’s families are like ‘Thank God, you’re done, we can get everyone back!'”
Many fans were upset about Daenerys’ character arc which saw her becoming the Mad Queen and attacking King’s Landing, killing thousands of innocent people. In the final episode of the show, she’s killed by Jon Snow (Kit Harington), her nephew/lover.
When Clarke first read the script she was shocked to find out what happens to Dany, telling Entertainment Weekly her immediate thoughts were, “What, what, what, WHAT!?”
“Because it comes out of f**king nowhere. I’m flabbergasted. Absolutely never saw that coming,” she added.
Meanwhile, Kit Harington revealed at the Emmys he hasn’t even watched Season 8, but he’s proud of the work he put into the show’s final season. He also added that he believed in the story arc of the season and what happened to the characters.
“I still haven’t seen the show, that’s how I dealt with that controversy… But I know what it took to shoot it, and it was hard; everyone put all of their love and effort into it,” he said.
“Controversy, I think for us, we knew what we were doing was right story-wise. And we knew it was right for the characters because we lived with them for 10 years. Controversy didn’t really affect us.”
Game of Thrones took out the award for Outstanding Drama Series and Peter Dinklage won his fourth Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor.