When it comes to the reaction over the final season of “Game of Thrones,” the internet is dark and full of terrors. Now, just like how she helped at the Battle of Winterfell, Melisandre is showing up to defend the finale.
One of the most contentious points of the final season for fans is Bran becoming king. Tyrion’s (Peter Dinklage) justification for crowning Bran, a character who was absent in Season 5 and seemed to go out of his way not to use his magic powers in the final season, was that he had the best story. Many fans — including Packers quarterback and “Game of Thrones” extra Aaron Rodgers — disagreed.
(Funnily enough, Bran actor Isaac Hempstead Wright initially thought the choice to make Bran king was a joke.)
But Carice van Houten is a stan for Bran.
In a recent interview with Insider, the actor who played Melisandre said she “loved the ending,” likening Bran becoming a reluctant king to Mark Addy’s Robert Baratheon being one in the first season. (Baratheon originally became king after rebelling against the Mad King Aerys years before the show takes place. )
“I loved the randomness and clumsiness of picking some guy, which is very representative of the world right now, as crazy people are ruling the world,” van Houten said. “I thought it was a great comparison.”
The actor seemed to believe the disappointment stems from things not turning out exactly how fans hoped they would.
“It feels a bit ungrateful. You’ve had such great times and then yeah, you’re going to be disappointed because it’s not going to go exactly how you anticipated. Of course, you’re going to have all sorts of criticisms and I just thought it was a sign of how good the show was,” she said.
Van Houten said she doesn’t take negativity towards the show too seriously, but she did call out the infamous viral petition to redo Season 8, which specifically attacked showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, calling it “extremism” and “scary.”
“Knowing the writers and knowing how fucking great they are, they don’t deserve that,” van Houten added.
The actor’s thoughts echoed those of many other cast members.
At San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, Jaime Lannister actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau responded to the backlash, saying, “Obviously it comes to an end, it’s going to piss you off no matter what because it’s the end, but at the end of the day, it’s absolutely fine if you hated the ending, loved it, that’s great. Just don’t call people names.”
As far as refraining from name-calling, Tyrion, who made Bran the king by calling him Bran the Broken, should probably take notes.
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