It looks like Emilia Clarke still isn’t over the end of Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones, given a recent reaction to the finale!
After all these years, the finale of Game of Thrones is still inciting debate. Even if some have come around to the idea that it is overall strong, the vast majority of the fandom feel anything from disappointment to pure outrage.
Speaking to Variety to promote the Power of Women London event, Emilia Clarke took part in the magazine’s “Do You Know Your Lines” videos, where she was presented with lines from her past movies and shows to identify.
It kicked off with “we break the wheel together,” and Clarke was quick to identify it as the last words Dany says to Jon Snow in the finale. “Yes, Khaleesi, that is the last thing I say before the cheeky little sh– stabs me. F—ing outrageous, I was so pi—ed. I was absolutely livid.”
Clarke’s works summarize the feelings of so many fans who watched the finale. After eight seasons as a flawed yet seemingly well-meaning leader, the final two episodes had Daenerys, with almost no build or reason, go on a rampage, commanding her dragons to wipe out King’s Landing, massacre civilians, and embrace the madness of the Targareyen line. That was bad enough without having her killed by her own lover.
Clarke continued to discuss the context of learning about the closing scene itself. “They wrote every single episode before we started filming the show. So we did the table reads of every single episode. And Kit hadn't read it, because he wanted to be surprised, or he's lazy. I question his method. But yeah, that last season, I read them all.”
Clarke added that when she binge-read the scripts for the final season, her reaction was so extreme she literally had to get out of her house to settle herself.
“And [I} then found myself walking out of the house in a daze, forgot my keys, forgot my phone, forgot everything, and just walked for hours just to try and assimilate what it was that I had to do that season. It was kind of super, super intense.”
Clarke did put a humorous spin on her rant by joking that “outside of the controversy around her actions, him killing me really bummed me out. Kinda rude. I gave that man everything. I burnt cities to the ground for him, for us, so we can do this…I'm over it, clearly. I'm so over it, it's unreal. Livid.”
However, Clarke became more emotional as she discussed how it felt to end the show that had rocketed her to stardom. “You always get a bit emotional at the end of every single shoot. But this was like, I don't know what's happening to me, kind of crying. It was such a significant part of my life that was the entryway to my career, that ending it and then COVID happening...existential crisis, here I come.”
Clarke continued to reflect on the finale and its impact on her. “It's taken me years to comprehend what it was. It's taken me years to comprehend what it meant. I meet as many people who haven't watched it as who have, so I'm just grateful that it happened. But I still can't quite wrap my head around it, if that makes sense. I'm grateful to her. She taught me a lot.”
Clarke’s words emphasize that, no matter how the journey ended, she will always be grateful for having played Daenerys and making the character an iconic one in fantasy television. That doesn’t mean she can’t still be miffed at just how that character wrapped up, and many fans still agree with her take that Daenerys deserved a better fate.
Game of Thrones is streaming on HBO Max.
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