Not everyone loved the first season of House of the Dragon, which just ended on Sunday, but it was certainly a step up from the final season of Game of Thrones. Endings are hard, but few shows have ever generated as much negativity as Game of Thrones‘ eighth season did. Three and a half years after the series finale aired, even one of the show’s stars is willing to admit that Game of Thrones didn’t end nearly as strongly as it started.
During a recent Twitch stream, Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) said that she recently rewatched Game of Thrones from start to finish. Her brother James asked her what she thought, and her response was pretty much what we all said in 2019.
“It definitely fell off at the end,” Maisie said, causing herself and her brother to break out in laughter. “But it started really strong.”
Whether or not Williams was just trying to get a rise out of her Twitch viewers, the numbers certainly back her opinion up.
You can see IMDb user ratings for each episode of Game of Thrones right here. From the first episode up through season 7, not a single episode scored below an 8.1 out of 10. Meanwhile, none of the episodes in season 8 topped 8.0, and the series finale has a putrid rating of just 4.2. Viewers weren’t just disappointed; they really hated the last season.
We’re obviously not going to see Maisie Williams or any of the original Game of Thrones cast members on House of the Dragon, given that it’s set nearly 200 years earlier, but perhaps she will return in the rumored Jon Snow spinoff series. She did play one of the few characters that survived the finale, so don’t be surprised to see Arya in Westeros again one day.
Related: House of the Dragon’s season finale leaked, and HBO is pissed
