Peter Dinklage is opening up about the mixed response to Game of Thrones Season 8.
The Tyrion Lannister actor aired his thoughts in a recent New York Times interview.
There were many fan complaints about the ending of such a monumental series, with many believing it did not track well with the rest of the series.
“They wanted the pretty white people to ride off into the sunset together,” Dinklage said when asked about the criticism, “By the way, it’s fiction. There’s dragons in it. Move on.”
“No, but the show subverts what you think, and that’s what I love about it,” the actor added, before touching on the questions from fans.
“Yeah, it was called Game of Thrones, but at the end, the whole dialogue when people would approach me on the street was, ‘Who’s going to be on the throne?'”
“I don’t know why that was their takeaway because the show really was more than that.”
“One of my favorite moments was when the dragon burned the throne because it sort of just killed that whole conversation, which is really irreverent and kind of brilliant on behalf of the show’s creators: ‘Shut up, it’s not about that.'”
“They constantly did that, where you thought one thing and they delivered another,” he added.
“Everybody had their own stories going on while watching that show, but nobody’s was as good as what the show delivered, I think.”
Dinklage opened up about his theory on why the finale did not sit well with some fans.
“I think the reason there was some backlash about the ending is because they were angry at us for breaking up with them.”
“We were going off the air and they didn’t know what to do with their Sunday nights anymore,” he continued.
“They wanted more, so they backlashed about that. We had to end when we did, because what the show was really good at was breaking preconceived notions: Villains became heroes, and heroes became villains.”
“If you know your history, when you track the progress of tyrants, they don’t start off as tyrants. I’m talking about, spoiler alert, what happened at the end of Game of Thrones with that character change,” he said.
“It’s gradual, and I loved how power corrupted these people. What happens to your moral compass when you get a taste of power? Human beings are complicated characters, you know?”
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Game of Thrones is streaming on HBO Max.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.