Spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 8 are discussed below.
Game of Thrones has left fans with a lot of emotions and opinions to decompress. Star Emilia Clarke has opened up about the final season, as well as that petition came up. (You know, the one that is calling for the entire eighth season to be reshot.) In a recent interview, Clarke said she had not heard about it, though it did allow her to consider what she would like to have changed for Daenerys' story in Season 8.
The Game of Thrones star was given the hypothetical question about what she would want to have happened if she got the opportunity to redo the entire final season. At the top of her list was having Daenerys spending more time with her best friend, Missandei. Emilia Clarke told The New Yorker:
Oh, my goodness. Well, I can only speak to my own character, and the people that I interact with on the show. But I would’ve loved some more scenes with me and Missandei. I would’ve loved some more scenes with me and Cersei. [...] I would’ve loved some more scenes between Grey Worm and Missandei. I would’ve loved to see a bit more between Cersei.
Previous seasons of Game of Thrones had developed the deepening friendship between Missandei and Daenerys. Only to have much of it stripped from Season 8, which barely showed any interactions or dialogue between the two.
There was a lot of reason for Daenerys and Missandei to have talked, too, considering everything that was happening. The women usually spoke on numerous occasions throughout various episodes each season, but Season 8 unfortunately saw a sharp departure from that.
Would Emilia Clarke change what Daenerys did, or did she think her actions stayed true to the character? Clarke continued with her desires for the final season, saying:
I feel like there was...the genocide was there. That was always going to happen. And I just think more dissection and those beautifully written scenes that the boys have between characters -- that we are more than happy to contently sit there and watch ten minutes of two people talking, because it’s beautiful. I just wanted to see a bit more of that. But I’m in no position to critique the geniuses that have written eight seasons’ worth of wonderful stuff.
Emilia Clarke does say that Daenerys’ actions were there all along, explaining the destruction was an inevitability by saying it was “always going to happen.” Having more scenes of conversation, however, was another aspect that Clarke would have liked to have also been an inevitability for Thrones' final season.
A grand conversation between Missandei and Daenerys would have been nice early on. They barely interacted at all before Missandei was captured and killed by Cersei in Episode 4. The friends’ last scenes together took place from a substantial distance. Daenerys on the ground as Missandei was held prisoner on the high up ramparts.
The bleak standoff saw Cersei threaten to kill Missandei if Daenerys did not relinquish her claim to the Iron Throne. Daenerys did not give in, and Missandei was murdered, making it impossible for any future conversations to go down.
Emilia Clarke also wanted more scenes between Grey Worm and Missandei, who shared few of them. Their love story was another aspect that got focused on far more during previous seasons.
And who wouldn't have wanted more face-to-face scenes between Dany and Cersei? While the two queens had been fighting over the same thing for multiple seasons, their personal interactions were limited. In their one and only scene in Season 8, the woman did not actually spar. Despite being in close quarters, they were far apart from each other.
Again, it comes down to a lack of conversations between characters that had a lot to discuss. Daenerys and Cersei's battle ended up without much dialogue between the pair throughout their conflict. Part of the reason for those missing conversations was likely that reduced episode count, which saw a compression of events.
Game of Thrones has gotten criticized for what some believed was a rushed exit. The first six seasons were comprised of ten episodes, whereas the seventh season had seven episodes and the final season only got six. That left a lot less time for conversational lead-ups to the finale. Discussions about the ending will continue to be abundant, though.
All eight Game of Thrones seasons are available to stream on HBO Go and HBO Now. Don't forget about the documentary The Last Watch, airing Sunday, May 26 at 9:00 p.m. ET.
