'Game Of Thrones' Series Finale "F*cked Me Up," Says Emilia Clarke
The break between Game of Thrones seasons can sometimes feel like the Long Night: a particularly harsh and dark winter that gripped George R.R. Martin's fictional land of Westeros and lasted an entire generation. Thankfully, we don't have that much longer to wait until we see how HBO's mega-successful fantasy series ends – the show is coming back in 2019. But when it does finally arrive, it sounds like it's going to be devastating.
Emilia Clarke, who plays Daenerys Targaryen on the show, has already shot her character's last moments of the series, and in a new interview, she hints that audiences may not react very well to Dany's final appearance.
Clarke is the subject of a new Vanity Fair cover story that highlights her role as Qi'ra in Solo: A Star Wars Story. But during an interview with writer Joanna Robinson, the conversation turned briefly to Game of Thrones season 8.
There's still a lot of filming and post-production work to be done, but Clarke has already shot her character's final on-screen moments. "It fucked me up," she says. "Knowing that is going to be a lasting flavor in someone's mouth of what Daenerys is..."
Clarke trailed off after that and didn't offer any more concrete Thrones details, though she later vaguely teased that she's "doing all this weird shit" in the new season and "you'll know what I mean when you see it." How mysterious!
Speculation: What Does Dany Do?
But back to that first quote. Clarke's choice of words there seems especially appropriate since it recalls one of my favorite Game of Thrones quotes:
"Ashes in your mouth"..."a lasting flavor in someone's mouth"...it's all connected, man.
But Daenerys has done some pretty heinous things during her quest to sit on the Iron Throne, so what could she possibly do that's so bad that it messed Clarke up so drastically? And since the audience has followed her character through it all, what major action could she take that defines Dany to such an extent that it's the major thing audiences will think of when we look back on that character?
I'm certainly not the first person to wonder this, but what if Dany kills Jon Snow in the show's final moments? She seems very into him based on what we've seen of her last season, but once Jon discovers that he's actually her nephew, I imagine that's going to considerably change their dynamic. If the honorable Jon Snow refuses to continue the relationship and finds himself to be an obstacle in Dany's path, I wouldn't be surprised to see her take him out in order to achieve her long-held goal of ruling the Seven Kingdoms. Such ruthlessness (killing a fan-favorite character) just might be that "lasting flavor" Clarke was talking about.
Game of Thrones season 8 premieres on HBO in 2019.