Maisie Williams grew up with Game of Thrones, being only 14 when the first season came out (and younger than that when she started working on it). As she was one of the stars of the long-running series, she couldn’t really be objective about it. But now that some time has passed since it ended in 2019, Williams has managed to watch the series more like an audience-member and fan.
Reflecting on the series with her brother James on a recent Twitch stream, Williams said; “You know, I re-watched it all recently. It definitely fell off at the end.” The pair then cracked up laughing. Even the most avid Thrones fans (and some cast-members) are in general agreement that the final season was pretty much a travesty, and are not happy about how most of the characters ended up.
“The first time that I was surprised by Arya I guess was probably in the final series where she whips off her clothes and sleeps with Gendry,” she previously told Teen Vogue. “I thought that Arya was queer, you know? So… yeah. That was a surprise.”
Williams continued [during the Twitch stream] and said; “For the longest time… I could never see it from the outside. So I could never…actually understand it, you know? Whereas, like, for the first time, it feels good to be proud of it. It was 10 years of my life.”
Speaking of the experience of re-watching it from the beginning, Williams said; “It started really strong. I was heartbroken when Ned died, and I knew it was coming. For the first time, I could really feel the story.” Ned Stark’s death is of course just one of Sean Bean’s many memorable death scenes over the years.
House of the Dragon has gone a long way in redeeming the reputation of Game of Thrones, as it’s been hugely popular and critically acclaimed. Get up to date with our Targaryen family tree.