The ending was not a touchdown. Aaron Rodgers is one of many Game of Thrones fans who were disappointed in the show’s series finale, which aired on Sunday, May 19.
The Green Bay Packers quarterback, 35, spoke about the final episode of the HBO hit during a post-practice interview on Tuesday, May 21. “I love the show and it was a great 10 years, but no,” he said when asked if he was satisfied with the ending. “I mean, you come down to the end and Tyrion [Peter Dinklage] says the person with the best story is Bran [Isaac Hempstead Wright]?! Who, by the way, three episodes ago said he wasn’t Bran Stark anymore. No. Jon [Kit Harington] had a better story. Dany [Emilia Clarke] had a better story. Arya [Maisie Williams] had a better story. Sansa [Sophie Turner] had a better story. Tyrion had a better story. Varys [Conleth Hill] had a better story. Bronn [Jerome Flynn], a lot better story. Jaime [Nikolaj Coster-Waldau], better story. Cersei [Lena Headey], probably better stories. Any Baratheon, better story.”
As for who he thought should have reigned supreme in the end? The professional athlete’s choice was clear: “I think Dany should’ve been on the throne.”
Rodgers added that Bran, who was named the ruler of the Six Kingdoms on the finale episode, was not as innocent as he made it seem. “Here’s the thing, though … if Bran, the Three-Eyed Raven who’s, you know, all about the health of the realm, let’s think about what he did,” the NFL star noted. “He basically wanted the throne the whole time because he’s the one who told the Starks, knowing that Sansa would tell Tyrion, knowing that Tyrion would talk to Varys, knowing they’d scheme for Dany’s death, knowing that that would piss her off, which led her to be the Mad Queen. So he, this entire time, kinda set this whole thing up. And at the end he goes, ‘Well, yeah. I don’t want to be king. But why did I travel all this way to be here?’ No.”
The Super Bowl champion has been open about his love for Game of Thrones over the years, and even made a cameo appearance on the penultimate episode of the series. Rodgers made it clear that although he did not enjoy the finale, he still loved “the opportunity to be in the show.” The football player quipped, “But, you know, the writers are also doing Star Wars, so I think they might’ve been a little busy this last season.” (GoT showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss are reportedly writing and producing a new series of Star Wars films.)
Rodgers was not the only Game of Thrones fan who did not enjoy how the small-screen hit concluded. More than 1.3 million people signed a petition to remake the show’s eighth and final season, which Turner, 23, found to be incredibly rude.
“All of these petitions and things like that — I think it’s disrespectful to the crew, and the writers, and the filmmakers who have worked tirelessly over 10 years, and for 11 months shooting the last season. Like 50-something night shoots,” she told The New York Times. “So many people worked so, so hard on it, and for people to just rubbish it because it’s not what they want to see is just disrespectful.”
