Interview roundup: Emilia Clarke says Season 6 is the “biggest, baddest” so far, and more

Game of Thrones stars are coming out in force to promote Season 6. First up, Emilia Clarke (Daenerys) sat down with Variety and immediately broke into hyperbole when discussing the upcoming episodes. “I’m going to be surprised if people’s televisions don’t explode, like actually explode or computers have to be pushed aside,” she said. Them’s fighting words.

"It’s huge, it’s ridiculously huge. I remember reading the scripts and being like, “So, everything we’ve ever managed to do in one entire season, we’re like doubling and putting into Season 6?” It’s astonishing. It’s really, truly astonishing how much work has been done out of one season. It’s the biggest, baddest season so far, for sure."

Clarke talked about several things in the interview, but spent most of her time praising showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss. She praised their work ethic, saying that the pair was on set every day “for one character or another,” she praised the way they cultivate a positive environment on set, and she praised their writing abilities. “They have absolutely spoiled me rotten for reading any other kind of script because they’re so good at what they do,” she said. She sounds genuine, but it also can’t hurt to be on good terms with the guys who have the power to kill your character.

She also weighed in on a subject that’s gotten a lot of play lately: the end of the show.

"I would like to see it go on as long as it’s needed. I think that’s something they’re very aware of and we are all are  very aware of, is to finish on a high and to do the story justice, which isn’t doing a million of them. It’s doing just the right amount to keep people happy and satisfied, but not like, “Eh, we can watch something else now.” Every story has a beginning, a middle and an end, and so does “Game of Thrones.” I don’t know when our end will be, but it won’t be ten years from now."

Next, Dean-Charles Chapman talks with IGN about where Tommen Baratheon’s head is during Season 6. The kid’s been better.

"[W]hen it starts off this season, Tommen’s in sort of a sad, depressing way. His sister’s been brought back on this boat, and she’s just a dead corpse, and his brother’s dead. His mom’s gone through all this trouble. His wife’s still in a dungeon. So he feels alone. As well, we see his guilty conscience is kicking in, because he’s in such a good position to do something — but he’s king. He could do whatever he wants, and he could have changed the whole fate of the show, or the situation that’s going on in King’s Landing — and he hasn’t. Now it’s eating him away."

Where might that guilt lead him? We’ve seen shots of Tommen talking with the High Sparrow in trailers. Tommen’s a sensitive and emotionally pliable kid—I feel like he might be a good candidate for religious conversion, but we’ll see for sure when the season arrives.

Chapman also teases that Cersei goes “Super Mom” in the new season, and after losing her two other kids, it only makes sense that she’d want to cling to Tommen for dear life. Apparently, Tommen is ambivalent about this. “He’s got his own life; he’s a married man. He should be doing what kings do, but he’s not,” Chapman said.

Overall, Chapman just doesn’t think Tommen has to stomach to rule. “He’s not got it in him, does he? I mean, he would be a good friend. He wasn’t meant to be king…He’s just been trapped in this mad story by George R.R. Martin, and it’s all kicking off…” Chapman’s final advice to Tommen is dire: “But for Tommen, I’d say, “Just die, mate. Just get out of there.” Considering Tommen is regularly at the head of the “Who’s going to die this year” talk, that’s not very cheering.

Finally, Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth) stopped by Yahoo TV to discuss playing one of the few decent, moral characters on a show populated with a lot of double-dealers. “The moral compass of the show tends to sway all over the place, so you do need a few characters to hang your hat on,” he said.

"And with Davos, one of the reasons fans like him is because he’s not a powerful guy. He’s a quiet hero, the guy you want on the other end of the phone…Samwell is a bit like that, in a sense, and Jon Snow was, but he had to make a point that he was in charge. I love the fact that Davos is from the worst place in Westeros, Flea Bottom, but he has more nobility than the people who were born into money…What worries me is that when the audience really likes someone, the writers are like: “Let’s kill him!” [Laughs.] So I don’t want to be liked too much; they’ll come in with the axe."

Davos is also ahead in the Game of Thrones death pool, so I’m tempted to take that final comment as a sly admission that bad things are on their way for the Onion Knight, but I hope I’m wrong for all the reasons Cunningham just outlined. We do need a few characters we can hang our hat on, and Davos has been a reliable presence for four years running now.

Some other highlights:

• On Davos getting friendly with his “former enemy” Melisandre: “They’re not former enemies — they still are! But they find themselves together, because [of Stannis]. They’re like chalk and cheese, and yet they’re both suffering the same consequences.”
• Obligatory oblique reference to the coming end of the show: “And we’re over the peak here in Season 6. We’re climbing back down the mountain, and that’s the difficult bit!”
• Remember that cute little wooden stag Davos carved for Shireen, the one she was playing with right before her own father burned her to death at the stake? Cunningham took it home from the set and gave it to his adult daughter. Then they watched the episode where Shireen burns together, with her holding the stag. Creepy? Sad? Funny? All of the above?