Emilia Clarke is still not exactly at peace with Daenerys Targaryen’s ending.
The 39-year-old actress, who played the Mother of Dragons on HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ from 2011 to 2019, recently revisited her character’s final moments. And yes, she still has feelings. Big ones.
During a May 29 interview with Variety, Clarke was asked to recall some of her famous lines. That brought her back to Daenerys’ last words to Jon Snow, played by Kit Harington: “We break the wheel together.”
Then came the dagger. Literally.
Emilia Clarke Still Hates Daenerys’ Ending
“That’s the last thing I say before that cheeky little punk stabs me,” Clarke joked.
She did not stop there. Clarke said Jon killing Daenerys in the 2019 finale still bothers her years later.
“It’s absolutely outrageous,” she said. “I was furious. I mean, I was completely livid.”
The finale sparked fierce debate when it aired. Daenerys’ destructive turn divided fans, and her death at Jon’s hands became one of the most argued-about endings in modern TV history.
Clarke, however, seemed focused on the emotional betrayal of it all.
“Outside of the controversy around her actions, him killing me really bummed me out,” she said. “It felt like a betrayal.”
Then she leaned into the drama with full Daenerys-level flair.
“I mean, come on, I gave that guy everything,” Clarke said. “I burned entire cities to the ground for him, for us.”
Reading The Finale Left Her In A Daze
Clarke also remembered the first time she read the final season scripts. She had just returned from vacation when the scripts arrived on her phone.
“I went home, sat down, and did what I always do, read through the entire script,” she said.
After learning Daenerys’ fate, Clarke said she walked out of her house in shock.
“I forgot my keys, my phone, everything,” she recalled. “I just walked for hours, trying to process what I had to do in that final season.”
The ending was not just another wrap day. For Clarke, ‘Game of Thrones’ had shaped her entire adult career.
“It was like, ‘I don’t even know what’s happening to me’ kind of crying,” she said.
Clarke Is Grateful, But Still Processing It
Clarke said the show’s ending, followed by the COVID era, left her facing a major personal reckoning.
“This show was such a pivotal part of my life and the launchpad for my career,” she said. “Ending it, and then having COVID hit… talk about an existential crisis!”
Even now, Clarke said she is still trying to fully understand what ‘Game of Thrones’ meant in her life.
“I’m grateful it happened,” she said. “But I still can’t quite wrap my head around it all.”
She remains especially grateful to Daenerys.
“She taught me so much,” Clarke said.
Clarke later returned to television with ‘PONIES,’ the Peacock spy thriller co-starring Haley Lu Richardson. The series, which premiered in January 2026, follows two widows who push the CIA to let them become operatives in Soviet-era Moscow.
For Clarke, it marked a serious TV comeback after seven years away. Still, no matter where she goes next, Daenerys clearly has not left the building.
