'Game of Thrones' actor warns that the finale won't 'please everyone'
The cryptic messages about the Game of Thrones finale continue.
Years ago, George R. R. Martin promised that the ending would be "bittersweet." Recently, HBO execs have been hinting about what the "bitter" and what the "sweet" parts might be.
But in an interview with Indian Express, Ser Friendzone -- I mean Jorah -- actor Ian Glen added a more measured warning: some are inevitably going to walk away unsatisfied:
“When I read it, I thought it was rather brilliant. I am a bit of a fan of the series as well, and it satiated my expectation and hopes, I felt (it was the) conclusion… But we will just have to see. You know with something this big like Game of Thrones, you cannot please everyone... All I can say is that we will be doing what we have done before and the writers have written great episodes. They have had a great strike rate up to now and I am sure that will continue.”
😬😬😬 "We will have to see," isn't the most glowing promise we've heard so far.
But honestly, apprehension over the end of Game of Thrones has been growing for a long time. Even book fans -- waiting indefinitely for the next installment of the series -- have started to suspect that Martin is struggling a lot with how to finish the sprawling story it in a satisfying way.
At the heart of this doubt is the fact that George R. R. Martin began A Song of Fire and Ice with the intention of avoiding all the usual, tired conventions of the fantasy genre.
As he explained in a 2011 Assignment X interview:
"The whole concept of the Dark Lord, and good guys battling bad guys, Good versus Evil, while brilliantly handled in Tolkien, in the hands of many Tolkien successors, it has become kind of a cartoon... It is certainly a genuine, legitimate topic as the core of fantasy, but I think the battle between Good and Evil is waged within the individual human hearts... A villain is a hero of the other side, as someone said once, and I think there’s a great deal of truth to that, and that’s the interesting thing. In the case of war, that kind of situation, so I think some of that is definitely what I’m aiming at."
Martin's deviation from the typical good vs. evil fantasy dynamic is exactly what enabled him to create such a compelling universe of complex characters and shocking twists -- like Ned Stark's premature death or the Red Wedding.
But the thing is: those fantasy conventions were there for a reason. They allowed writer's to come to pretty clear, satisfying, triumphant conclusions when the good guys won.
Game of Thrones can't rely on that. Instead, it needs to tie all these ambiguous narratives together, without the "good guys" just winning. And that probably means we'll eventually have to see the White Walkers -- which are Martin's closest equivalent to orcs -- as more than just "pure evil."
Will fans be happy with that kind of anti-climactic turn, when we've been slowly amping up for a big battle between our human heroes and the army of the dead for, like, a decade?
As Glen said, "You cannot please everyone."
Topics Game Of Thrones
Jess is an LA-based culture critic who covers intimacy in the digital age, from sex and relationship to weed and all media (tv, games, film, the web). Previously associate editor at Kill Screen, you can also find her words on Vice, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Vox, and others. She is a Brazilian-Swiss American immigrant with a love for all things weird and magical.
