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  ===Cast response===
  In an interview published just as the final season premiered, Kit Harington said, "whatever critic spends half an hour writing about this season and makes their negative judgement on it, in my head they can go fuck themselves. ... I know how much work was put into this ... Now if people feel let down by this final season, I don't give a fuck—because everyone working on the series tried their hardest. That's how I feel. In the end, no one's bigger fans of the show than we are, and we're kind of doing it for ourselves."
  In an interview with ''The New Yorker'', Emilia Clarke said she had to hold back her innermost anxiety from Beyoncé: "I was just, like, Oh, my God, my absolute idol in life is saying that she likes me, and I know for a fact that by the end of this season she's going to hate me. ... All I wanted to scream was 'Please, please still like me even though my character turns into a mass-killing dictator! Please still think that I'm representing women in a really fabulous way.'"
  Nathalie Emmanuel, who played Missandei, was heartbroken when she read her character's sudden demise: "...I think the fact that she died in chains when she was a slave her whole life, that for me was a pungent cut for that character, that felt so painful". Emmanuel, who was the only woman of color who was a regular on the series for the last several seasons, said, "It's safe to say that ''Game of Thrones'' has been under criticism for their lack of representation, and the truth of it is that Missandei and Grey Worm have represented so many people because there's only two of them."
  Conleth Hill, who played Varys, told ''Entertainment Weekly'' that the seventh and eighth seasons were "kind of frustrating" and not his "favorite", noting that Varys "kind of dropped off the edge". Hill reacted with "dismay" to Varys apparently "losing his knowledge": "If he was such an intelligent man and he had such resources, how come he didn't know about things?" After being "very bummed to not have a final scene with Littlefinger", Hill was "bummed not to have any reaction to Littlefinger dying, if he was Varys' nemesis". Also, once the series ran out of book material as a source, Hill noted that "special niche interest in weirdos wasn't as effective as it had been". However, Hill was "not dissatisfied on the whole" regarding the series.
  Lena Headey had a "mixed" initial reaction to the manner of death of Cersei Lannister, the character she played. Headey would rather have Cersei die by "some big piece or fight with somebody". Eventually, fellow actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau persuaded Headey on how to appreciate the scene, and she said her eventual belief that "it seemed like the perfect end for" Cersei because Cersei and Jaime "came into the world together and now they leave together".