The finale of Game of Thrones remains controversial to this day.
While Season 8 drew massive viewership, it also caused a lot of fan indignation against its overall plot direction and fates of specific characters. Accordingly, actors who helped to bring Game of Thrones to life were routinely asked about their opinions on the finale in interviews since then.
Carice van Houten, who played Melisandre throughout seven seasons of the series, was no exception, though how earnest was her answer in her interview with The Hollywood Reporter is questionable:
“I just love the fact that the whole throne was blown away. The whole thing was gone. I really loved it, and also the randomness of talking about who’s going to be king. The silliness of it was very smart. I thought, ‘This is what life is. Some dumbo can become president.'”
Of course, Bran was supposed to be some sort of oracular living computer at that point, not “some dumbo.” But then again, we all know who she’s really talking about here.
While Carice concluded her assessment of the finale with “I really liked it, to be honest,” her choice of arguments in its favor raises the question of whether she might have been damning the rushed nature of Bran’s ascension, coming off, at the first glance, as showrunners simply running out of named characters to place on the throne and time for a proper epilogue with (non-)faint praise. It is also notable that she did not comment on other controversial aspects of the finale.
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Of course, actors hardly can be expected to condemn a series they’ve starred in, unless there is an established consensus about that series being bad. In fact, most of Game of Thrones’ cast had strong and passionate arguments in favor of the finale.
On the other hand, it has to be admitted that the hatedom exaggerated the finale’s flaws and that many of its core ideas were solid, assuming you did not delude yourself about the possibility of a classic happy ending, though the execution was questionable.
Speaking about execution, Carice revealed one interesting thing about Game of Thrones in the same interview: one of her most important and memorable scenes in the series, the resurrection of Jon Snow had her improvising most of her lines.
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So, there is more to making a good series than making a good script, and who knows how many improvisations and compromises have occurred during filming of Season 8.
