Kristian Nairn (Hodor) explains why he liked the ending to Game of Thrones

The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones aired back in 2019, and a lot of fans were very unhappy. The show ended with Daenerys Targaryen burning the city of King's Landing, Bran Stark becoming the new ruler of the Seven Kingdoms and Jon Snow getting banished beyond the Wall. Did fans not like this sequence of events? Was it the execution? Either way, the backlash was ferocious. Nearly two million people signed a petition to remake the season, criticisms flew fast and furious online...it was nuts.

Was the ending really that bad? It depends on who you ask — I've long since settled my thoughts on the story — but discussion about it continues even now. Take Kristian Nairn, the actor who played Bran's hulking bodyguard Hodor. He's putting out a book on September 24 called Beyond the Throne: Epic Journeys, Enduring Friendships, and Surprising Tales, available for pre-order now. In the book, he mentions that he loved the ending to Game of Thrones, which Polygon points out is a "controversial" take. But Nairn has his explanation ready.

"I really didn’t see what people didn’t like about it. My only comment was 'It could have been longer,'" Nairn said. "But listen — name me one show that people have really loved and were really invested in, where they loved the ending. Name it! I can’t! Even with Breaking Bad, people complained about the ending. I mean a show of that level, where people are really waiting for each episode. Not like a comedy or whatever, but a show with this kind of high stakes. Everybody had their own version of how they wanted it to end. And everyone was so obsessed with the Dragon Queen, I don’t think they saw the bloody signs! It’s like, did she not say she was going to burn King’s Landing about three times? I remember seeing that, I’m not going crazy. Well, maybe I am, but not for that reason."

"It didn’t shock me. I knew it was going to happen. I knew she was going to lose the plot. And I just thought there were some beautiful, beautiful scenes. People were upset because Jaime and Cersei weren’t put through, like, a mincer or something tragically awful. But look at that beautiful scene you had, almost like a Renaissance painting, where they’re lying in the rubble and Tyrion is walking through and finds them — my God, it’s art. It’s just art."

It is nice to hear some positive things about the final season of Game of Thrones that don't often get said, because I agree that it had a lot to offer, whatever misgivings fans have about it.

I also like that Nairn seems engaged with some of the actual criticisms of the ending — e.g. Daenerys turned heel out of nowhere — rather than saying, "You can't please everyone" and calling it a day. As he says, he's "a fan of things." He sounds like it.

Game of Thrones veteran Kristian Nairn "preferred the first season" of House of the Dragon

And as a fan, he's been watching the Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon, which has also been getting a decent amount of backlash from fans following its second season finale. On that point, Nairn is more in line with some of the naysayers, although he's too diplomatic to provide specifics.

"I really enjoyed it, but I preferred the first season," Nairn said. "It felt more Game of Thrones to me in the first season. So don’t get me wrong, don’t misquote me, I did enjoy it, but. To me, the first season just felt like the next episode of Game of Thrones, only it was in the past. This season felt like a whole new show to me. Still good, but it didn’t feel like Game of Thrones."

We here around WiC preferred the first season as well. And we have a lot of reasons why:

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