Fair?
Game of Thrones has been done and dusted for a couple of months now, but its difficult legacy rages on.
The general consensus is that the final season was a major collapse, with fans turning on the show in increasing numbers as the last episodes aired one by one.
We’ve had think-pieces, Twitter threads, YouTube essays and even JOE’s very own dedicated podcast, which is well worth a revisit, by the way.
The backlash is real, and it likely won’t go away any time soon.
Reflecting on the negative reception on Friday at the 2019 Comic-Con International in San Diego, cast members gave their take on things.
One such actor was Conleth Hill, who played Varys with distinction right up until the character’s abrupt demise.
Hill hasn’t been shy about his feelings regarding the writing in the later stages of the show’s run, giving a candid interview to Entertainment Weekly that ran in May, in which the 54-year-old shared his frustrations in a calm and reasonable manner.
Asked about that chat this weekend, Hill was once again honest.
“The question was, ‘How did you feel at the time?’,” he noted.
“I was very honest that I was gutted to get so close and not make the end.
“So I thought I gave a very honest answer to how I felt but I put that in the context of, that was one of the risks of being in a multi-character show.”
Vulture points out that Hill went on to speak highly about a “life-changing experience” that he clearly holds very dear, but he had stronger words for those who took against GoT’s conclusion.
“You look at the amount of people who are here,” he said, referring to the 6,500 fans in attendance at the Hall H panel on Friday.
“We are here to thank you for watching us all those years. This is the reality rather than a media-led hate campaign.”
When the subject of the ridiculous ‘remake the final season’ petition was raised, Hill and colleagues Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Liam Cunningham scoffed accordingly.
“I don’t regret starting the petition,” Hill joked, to a chorus of laughter.
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