If you walk into a room, unsure of how to start a conversation with those around you, a safe bet is to just walk up to a random person and say, "Game of Thrones." The eighth and final season, which aired just last year, brought up a lot of emotions for fans and...never mind, who am I kidding here? When I say "emotions" I really mean that a lot of people hated Season 8 with a passion that could ignite a thousand suns. Well, Carice van Houten, who played sorta redeemed Red Priestess Melisandre, has some strong words for you.
We may be a full year past the finale, but some folks are still pissed as hell about what happened at the end of Game of Thrones. And, I'm not just talking about the actual last episode, either, as fans continue to be upset about aspects of the entire final season. So upset, in fact, that people are actually still signing that infamous petition to remake the entirety of Season 8. Even if you have no intention of taking your GOT Season 8 hatred that far, rest assured that Carice van Houten has something to say about your long-standing disappointment.
The actress spoke to Insider recently, and had this to say about everyone who participated in the strong backlash over Game of Thrones' final season:
The fact that some people were so disappointed is because everything before that was so good. So 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.
Ain't this the truth? Just think about all of the other shows that you've loved which have ended. How many of them truly ended in exactly the way you wanted them to? Even if they came close, there's always going to be some aspect of a finale for a series you've followed for years which is going to disappoint or rub you the wrong way. And, if you really were totally satisfied with every finale you'd seen up until GOT, you can bet that there were others watching the same shows who felt the exact opposite. You can't please everyone, folks.
As Carice van Houten said, she thinks the backlash (which really was extreme) showed how "ungrateful" those fans were, and she might have a pretty good point. Throughout most of the main portion of the backlash, there was almost no mention of how wonderful Game of Thrones had been for those fans previously or recognition of how successful co-creators / showrunners / writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had been at crafting most of the series before the point where people got so unbelievably angry with them.
The petition to get the final season remade, especially, makes things personal with regards to the showrunners supposed ineptitude, but Carice van Houten said that she still believes that Benioff and Weiss are "fucking great," and she doesn't let herself get pulled down by that kind of negativity:
People sometimes take it too far and get too personal, but I can't take that seriously. I just thought it's people being really emotional about this show. It just always amazes me how people can go behind their computer and just type 'die bitch die,' I'm fascinated by that human psyche.
I'm glad that van Houten is able to distance herself from the harsh criticisms that Game of Thrones has gotten (and probably will continue to get) about its last season. She hasn't quite taken the Alfie Allen approach to the whole thing, but seeing it as a lesson in the human psyche works just as well as anything.
You can stream Game of Thrones on HBO Now, but if you're looking for something less dragony to fill your time, be sure to check out our 2020 Netflix guide and see what's coming to TV this summer!
