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What Benioff said about the backlash
ComicBook.com reported Benioff’s response to online criticism from an interview with The Hollywood Reporter: “You always hope everyone’s going to love anything you do and it would’ve been great if 100 percent of people loved it, but they didn’t.”
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The remark recognizes that the season had a divided reception; it does not offer a detailed defense of particular story or character decisions. The “100 percent” is a rhetorical expression of what Benioff hoped for, not a poll result or a measurement of audience opinion. ComicBook.com is the source for the reproduced quotation; the original interview was not directly available in the reporting reviewed here. Read ComicBook.com’s account.
What Weiss said about viewers’ reactions
In a post-Emmy exchange reported by TheWrap in 2019, Weiss said: “It’s not really up for us to decide what people feel about it.” The comment leaves the judgment with viewers rather than arguing that they should approve of the ending. Read TheWrap’s report.
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Why “finally respond” needs a qualification
The later interview was a more direct discussion of backlash, not the creators’ first public response after the finale. The reports describe two earlier 2019 moments:
- After the Emmy win: TheWrap reported that cast members and creators were asked about the divided response after Game of Thrones won Outstanding Drama Series. Weiss gave the brief answer quoted above.
- Remarks to Japan’s Star Channel: Vanity Fair reported that Benioff and Weiss made rare comments to the Japanese outlet in August 2019, but did not wade into debate about the final episodes’ quality. Read Vanity Fair’s account.
The distinction is between brief, limited comments in 2019 and a later interview that more plainly acknowledged the online backlash.
Keep the creators’ comments separate from HBO’s response
In 2019, HBO president Casey Bloys also answered demands from fans to remake Season 8 during the Television Critics Association summer press tour, according to The Independent. That was an executive’s response to the remake campaign, not a statement by Benioff or Weiss. Read The Independent’s report.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the comments do—and don’t—tell us
Benioff’s reported comment concedes that some viewers did not like the ending; Weiss’s 2019 answer says it is not for the creators to decide how viewers feel. Neither statement supplies a reliable count of how many people objected, nor does either settle arguments about specific plot choices.
Yahoo Entertainment also summarized a comment from Weiss in the later interview: after they stopped looking at fan feedback, he said, the ambient stress in their lives dropped “by about 50 percent overnight.” That is his personal characterization, not a measured change or a statistic about the audience. Read Yahoo Entertainment’s summary.
The available reports do not establish a dependable audience poll, critic score, petition count, or other figure that quantifies the backlash. Benioff’s “100 percent” line should not be mistaken for one.
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