All things considered, Jon Snow got a…fairly happy ending on Game of Thrones. Or at least, he got as happy an ending as he was likely to get after killing Queen Daenerys Targaryen and being imprisoned in the Red Keep by her faithful servant Grey Worm for gods-only-know how long. In the end, as a compromise, Grey Worm agreed to let Jon live out his days as a member of the Night’s Watch up at (what was left of) the Wall. No one was particularly happy with that compromise, but as Tyrion said, that’s probably how you know it was a good one.
Still, that doesn’t stop Jacob Anderson, who played Grey Worm, from having unresolved feelings. “I’d take his head off!” he told Metro. So why didn’t he?
"I feel like from Grey Worm’s perspective, it’s just there had been enough violence by that point. Grey Worm was all about peace at that point, he was like, “right I just wanna go and chill on an island and fulfill my promise to Missandei.”"
And indeed, that’s what Grey Worm got to do. But the idea of Jon Snow roaming (kind of) free somewhere might eat at him. “Personally I feel like he got off a bit lightly,” Anderson continued. “Can you imagine? People would be very upset if Jon Snow was beheaded. People love that guy.”
Best to just focus on the positive, like the paradise that awaits Grey Worm on the island of Naath, where Missandei was born. “I think it’s probably a peaceful place, I imagine there’s not a lot of beef going on there at the moment,’ Anderson said. “I think maybe he’s actually had a chance to relax for once in his life. That’s how I like to think of it anyway. That’s what I want for him. Just being able to have some sleep.”
Image: Game of Thrones/HBO
This contrasts a bit with something Anderson said a few months back, when he theorized that Grey Worm and the rest of the Unsullied would “die straight away” when they reached the shores of Naath thanks to the butterflies that live there, butterflies that spread a deadly disease to which natives like Missandei are immune.
Or at least, that’s what it says in The World of Ice and Fire. Having had some time to reflect, Anderson thinks Grey Worm and friends will be okay. “I think the book and the show are different,” he told the Evening Standard. “I think he definitely made it.”
"That’s what I want, he’s like, he had a job to do. He had to go and fulfill his promise to Missandei, that was part of his promise. I like to think romantically, that the Unsullied made it without a hitch and it was all good.”"
Finally, Anderson weighed in on the well-publicized backlash to the final season of the show, which is still going on in some corners of the internet, and maybe even on his social media feed. “t’s such a subjective thing,” he said. “Some people are going to love it and some people are going to hate it and that’s always going to be down to taste.”
"So if somebody has a problem with it and they kind of tell me about… I don’t know what they expect me to do. So it doesn’t really bother me, because I can’t help it. I had the time of my life shooting the show, it was amazing and I’m really grateful to be a part of something that people really care about so much."
At the moment, Anderson is working with Italian fashion brand ellesse on their For the Win campaign, not to working on a new album to be released under the name of Raleigh Ritchie. He and Grey Worm will both be fine, we know it.
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