'Game of Thrones' star weighs in on petition to redo final season: 'That sucks'
Jacob Anderson, who plays Grey Worm on "Game of Thrones," told TMZ he was bummed to learn there's a Change.org petition circulating that calls on HBO to redo the highly-criticized final season with new writers.
"That sucks," said the actor, whose Unsullied commander led the ground troops during the siege of Kings Landing while dragon queen Daenerys Targaryen rained down fire from above. Like her, Grey Worm committed uncharacteristic atrocities out of anger over the execution of his longtime love, Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel).
"Anderson also had advice for any fans thinking of naming their children "Grey Worm": "Don't do it. That's forever!" (He has a point: parents who named their daughters Daenerys or Khaleesi may be regretting that choice after watching their namesake napalm an entire city in the penultimate episode.)
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As of Friday, more than 850,000 fans had signed the petition originated by Texas resident Dylan D. last week. He argued that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who diverged from author George R.R. Martin's source material beginning in Season 6, "have proven themselves to be woefully incompetent writers when they have no source material (i.e. the books) to fall back on."
He pleaded: "This series deserves a final season that makes sense. Subvert my expectations and make it happen, HBO!"
One fan, Penni-Anne, who signed the petition explained: "I have loved GoT since the beginning. All the twists and turns. But this season is the worst yet. It's too rushed. Needs MORE episodes. Ugh so disappointed."
Another user named Casey chimed in: "This series has been so good and then it got dumped into a trash fire this season. The characters deserve better, the actors deserve better, George RR Martin deserves better and frankly the fans deserve better."
Viewers and critics, including USA TODAY's Kelly Lawler, have complained throughout Season 8 that the show's writers – which include Benioff and Weiss, who penned all but the first two – have trashed 7½ seasons worth of character development in their rush to end the epic fantasy series in just six episodes.
Listen to this week's episode of USA TODAY's podcast, The Mothership, to hear our Film and TV Critic rate the "Game of Thrones" series finale.
Many have been especially dissatisfied with the final character arc for Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke). While the Iron Throne has been her goal practically since the beginning of the series, she was previously able to curb her worst impulses in favor of doing what was right.
In previous seasons, Dany spoke of how she wanted to leave the world a better place than her evil father, the "Mad King" Aerys II.
Reaction: 'Thrones' fans fume over handling of Daenerys' 'mad queen' arc
But since the Battle of Winterfell ended, she has been impatient. And in last week's penultimate episode, she went full mad queen.
In a survey of more than 133,000 "Thrones" fans in Reddit's popular r/gameofthrones community, 86% thought Dany's actions weren't justified.
"The series just burned itself to the ground," Lawler wrote in her recap of this week's episode. "For viewers who have stuck around for eight seasons of the HBO fantasy series, all that's left after the penultimate episode is ash and a bad taste," she lamented. "When Daenerys Targaryen lived up to her terrible family's reputation and burned King's Landing to the ground, she incinerated the last hope for "Thrones" along with it."
'Game of Thrones' recap: The series just burned itself to the ground
Reddit poll: 'Thrones' Fans loved the Cleganebowl, but not Dany's fiery reign of terror
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Game of Thrones' star weighs in on petition to redo final season: 'That sucks'
