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Emilia Clarke Defends Daenerys’ Reaction To Jon Snow Revelation On Game Of Thrones (Spoilers)

April 22, 2019 | Posted by Jordan Huie
Game of Thrones Season 8 Daenerys Jon Image Credit: HBO

Warning: This article contains spoilers for last night’s episode of Game of Thrones.

This week’s episode of Game Of Thrones, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” (check out our full review of the episode) finally saw Jon reveal his true identity of Aegon Targaryen to Daenerys, along with the implicit knowledge that it made her his aunt. This of course meant that the two of them had been engaging in an incestuous relationship all along. When the truth came out, Jon’s concern had been that he was in love with a blood relative, but Daenerys didn’t seem bothered by that and instead took immediate note that it gave him a greater claim on the Iron Throne than her.

This of course led to quite a stir among Game Of Thrones fans. Daenerys’ actress, Emilia Clarke, took to Entertainment Weekly where she defended her character’s reaction:

“The related thing, to her, is so normal. She could have easily married her brother. It’s not a thing. It’s a thing for Jon, but let’s just forget about that. The main thing is we’re up for the same promotion and I’ve been working for it for my entire existence…Since birth! Dany literally was brought into this world going: RUN! These f–ers [in Westeros] have f–ed everything up. Now it’s, ‘You’re our only hope.’ There’s so much she’s taken on in her duty in life to rectify. There’s so much she’s seen and witnessed and been through and lost and suffered and hurt to get here … and Jon doesn’t even want it!”

Episode writer Bryan Cogman added, “What really upsets Jon is that he’s a blood relative to the woman he’s in love with. Jon is taken aback when essentially the first thing she says is acknowledging that he has a claim to the Iron Throne. Kit and Emilia play it beautifully. It’s a very difficult scene to pull off; so much has to go on behind the eyes.”