Maisie Williams on Season 6: People are “going to hate it, but love it”

And the hype train rolls on. We’ve got two new interviews for you, one where Maisie Williams looks to the future, and one where Emilia Clarke reflects on the past. Let’s look at Williams’ first.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Williams dropped a steady stream of knowledge about Season 6, filters off.

"Every year I think, “This is really cool.” But this year, as I opened the scripts, it’s so exciting because nobody knows what’s happening. They’re going to hate it, but love it, and I can’t wait."

This sounds similar to when Williams said fans would be “unhappy” with some of the things that happen in Season 6. What does she mean by that?

"Just that they don’t know what’s going to happen. I know the showrunners don’t take [criticism] personally any more and that’s nice. People are outraged by last season, but they secretly love it too – because they don’t know what’s really going on."

Like I said: filters off. I’m not sure everybody who was outraged last season secretly loved what they saw, but I agree with Williams that any claims about quitting the show are probably exaggerated. We’ll see for sure when the ratings come in after the Season 6 premiere airs on April 24.

EW also asked Williams to weigh in on the ongoing debate regarding the role of women on the show, which flared up last year following Sansa Stark’s rape. Her response was long and thoughtful, which this probably being the highlight:

"You are either a normal person or a sexist."

She also addressed how the topic relates to the show more directly.

"On the show specifically, it’s always been a constant debate because women are treated badly on the show, and they’re treated well on the show. But it’s the same as the boys and the girls and the men and the animals. The themes are very dark. I get it that people don’t want to watch scenes like that. I understand, and you shouldn’t have to…I think everybody’s allowed to be upset about what they’re upset by."

So this never actually happened, right?

Williams also dropped some hints as to what will happen to Arya in Season 6, which in some cases required stating the obvious:

"People don’t realize last season Arya went blind. Last season people asked: “Is she dead?” I’m all, “No, she’s blind.” It’s too easy to kill her. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from Game of Thrones it’s that death is the easy way out. They’re gonna keep her and make her have a s**t time. Look at Reek."

Let’s hope Arya doesn’t suffer quite as much as Reek did. Williams went on to tease the tactile nature of Arya’s journey this year:

"Arya is being more physical again, but she’s blind. So her training has progressed even more but it’s on a more physical level and a more technical level because she’s lost her eyes…And I love doing stunts. I’m so happy I’ve got some again. Last year, people have been like “Arya’s sweeping floors!” And everything I tweet they’re like, “Oysters, clams and cockles!” It’s part of the training okay? It’s what goes into that. And this year there is more of that, but it’s also more exciting."

Arya’s being trained, Bran’s being trained…there’s a lot of apprenticeships going on. Happily, it sounds like characters like that may be springing back into the thick of things before long.

"This year is so great because we’ve whittled it down. You can see the final storylines forming. We lost a lot of people last year and that makes it really exciting. There are fewer people on Arya’s list. But there’s also fewer people to fight for the throne."

Also, really quick: Williams maintains that Jon Snow is dead, might be appearing in a Pacific Rim sequel, and is very upset that she made the choice to wear prop contacts during the filming of Season 6, since they hurt so badly. Maisie!

Let’s hop on over to Glamour, where Emilia Clarke did a photo spread for the May issue. The magazine conducted a free-wheeling interview with the actress, and while it kept calling Daenerys “khaleesi” (Clarke seems too polite to correct the interviewer), she dropped enough fun sound bites to make it worth it. To wit: what does Khal Drogo’s penis look like? “I saw his member,” Clarke said, “but it was covered in a pink fluffy sock. Showing it would make people feel bad. It’s too fabulous.”

That quote didn’t come out of nowhere, by the way. Glamour asked Clarke about the disparity between male and female nudity on the show, and while she admits that getting naked on TV can lead to awkward moments (“[T]here are times with certain dudes where I’m like, ‘You’ve seen my tits. OK, sure, you can have a selfie.'”), she also reminds people of the first time Daenerys and Daario Naharis had sex, which involved him giving her a strip show.

More generally, she’s very happy that Game of Thrones has so many female fans—by Glamour’s count, 40% of the audience is female. “I love that so many women watch the show,” she said. “If you look at Game of Thrones on face value—blood, tits, dragons, swear words—you’re like, Oh, this must be for guys. But if you take that away, the story lines are fascinating depictions of the struggle for power. And women are in on that conversation!”

Miraculously, the subject of Jon Snow doesn’t come up, which is so surprising I’m going to end the article right here and compose myself.