Game of Thrones Star Defends the Ending, Calls It “Perfect”

Game of Thrones‘ Pilou Asbæk was having the time of his life at the SAG Awards this year and he’s got a hot take about the show now. The actor told Entertainment Weekly that he believes the ending is perfect. Now, the last season of Game of Thrones is full of ups and downs. Twitter over the course of those final episodes was more fun than the show itself on Sunday evenings. As people debated coffee cups and screen brightness, something became very clear. The final episode was going to have to be spectacular to prevent the series from getting shredded online. Then the last one dropped and the Internet descended into true chaos for about two days straight. Still, Asbæk believes that this was the best way to go out.

“When we had the read-through… we ended up doing a standing ovation for 15, 20 minutes. It was a perfect ending,” Asbæk explained. “But people were upset because an era finished.”

He had a little bit of sympathy for the people who felt a bit betrayed by how things came to a close. “I kind of get it,” Asbæk added. “I was a big fan of the show before I became a part of it, and if it had ended in that way, I would have been angry as well. Because when something you like so much says, ‘No,’ it’s like a break-up. And Game of Thrones broke up with millions of people all over the world, and they got upset.”

That might sound like an over-distillation, but honestly, other stars from the series have said that they don’t have as much of a beef with the ending either. All of the other players with big parts have been asked their feelings about how those final hours went down and there don’t seem to be many regrets. There has to be a sigh of relief for a lot of them as the journey came to a close. Emilia Clarke gave her own read of the finale for her character. The emotion in her words comes through on the page.

I thought she was going to die. I feel very taken care of as a character in that sense,” she told EW, “It’s a very beautiful and touching ending. Hopefully, what you’ll see in that last moment as she’s dying is: There’s the vulnerability — there’s the little girl you met in season 1. See? She’s right there. And now, she’s not there anymore…”