Remember the petition to remake season 8 with better writers? About 1 million fans had signed it and in a recent interview, Sophie Turner even termed it as disrespectful. Now, the Reddit community, r/freefolk, that had started this petition, is once again in the news for another reason.
After everything that went down with the current season, Reddit user elle_ellaria, decided she would use the community for a better cause. She launched a fundraiser for SameYou, a charity Emilia Clarke helped develop that focuses on recovery from brain injury and stroke. In just three days, they have raised more than $30,000.
The fundraising campaign reads as “Honouring Emilia Clarke & her battle through 2 brain aneurysms to bring us Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, one of the most iconic characters in TV history. #ThankYouEmilia #WeStandByDaenerys.”
The description further mentions, “Since the tongue-in-cheek nature of that petition has flown over a lot peoples’ heads, to the point that it’s prompted backlash from some of the cast, we wanted to show that Game of Thrones fans appreciate the hard work of the incredible cast & crew despite their constraints. Any disappointment we felt with the conclusion of the series was not in them, but rather in the potential that was lost due to the rushed pace of storytelling.” It ended with a vote of thanks for all the cast members and crew of the show.
elle_ellaria, or Sarah as she wanted to be addressed as, told EW that, “We wanted to send a message that even though fans have been very vocal in their disappointment with the conclusion of the series, none of that is directed at the cast and crew — all of whom did an incredible job bringing Westeros to life.”
At the end of an interview with EW a few days back, Emilia Clarke had opened up about how much Daenerys’ character had affected her. “It’s gotten to that point now where you read [comments about] the character you [have to remind yourself], ‘They’re not talking about you, Emilia, they’re talking about the character”
Sarah spoke about this interview and showed her support for Daenerys and Emilia by saying, “At the end of the interview she walks away, but then turns back to say, ‘I stand by Daenerys. I stand by her! I can’t not.’ It was adorable. So the fundraiser [was] kind of to let her know hey, don’t worry. We stand by Daenerys, too.”
