I distinctly remember the moment I fell in love with Game of Thrones. There is a party going on; a kind of savage baby shower, if you will. A beautiful young girl sits with her friends, laughing and enjoying the company of these people that, at one point, were completely foreign to her. She has won them over. Suddenly, a lunatic walks in and begins to make demands. He believes he deserves a crown. If he does not get it, he threatens to cut the baby out the young girl’s womb. I am going to repeat that: HE THREATENS TO CUT THE BABY OUT OF THE YOUNG GIRL’S WOMB. The hulking chieftain relents. The young girl translates to the raving lunatic that he will receive the crown he deserves. The lunatic relents, and is immediately forced to his knees. He receives a crown of boiling hot gold over his head, as the young girl watches and comments that, no, the lunatic was most assuredly not a dragon.
In my opinion, the major strength of Game of Thrones was not so much that it subverted expectations, but instead that, more than any show before, it played fair. You might have cried during the Red Wedding, became angered when Ned was betrayed, or sat in stunned silence when Stannis allowed his daughter to be burned, but every single one of those moments was foreshadowed. The only expectations that were ever subverted, was the learned expectation that a hero can make multiple idiotic moves and somehow still emerge victorious. The claim that the show is nihilistic is just fundamentally wrong. Tyrion escapes a death sentence because his brother loves him, Arya decides she does not want to be an assassin because she does not want to kill people that do not deserve it, and the only reason Jon is able to be raised from the dead is because he has turned the wildlings into his allies. Nothing happened in Game of Thrones because Westeros is a nihilistic society. Instead, everything happened due to the choices that its principal characters made.
At least that was the case until season 8.
What happened to Daenerys Targaryen in this season is nothing short of a betrayal. And let me make it clear that I have no problem with Daenerys becoming a villain. The problem is that she is most assuredly not a villain until season 8, episode 5. And to argue that her character arc led to her burning innocent women and children is just wrong. In order to prove it, let us look at every act of violence that can be led back to Daenerys.
Season One:
- She watches Viserys die. (Thoughts: I do not even want to include this, but since Benioff and Weiss claim it as a moment where the viewer is supposed to see Dany’s callous nature it warrants a mention. Dany tries to make Viserys leave, and pleads with him to stop being an idiot. It is only when her child is threatened, does she stop trying to save Viserys. So, not really sadistic).
- She burns Mirri Maz Duur. (Thoughts: Probably not necessary, but the witch did cause her to miscarry and send Drogo into a vegetative state. So… not really sadistic, but definitely vengeful).
Season Two:
- She commands her totes adorbs dragons to burn Pyat Pree. (Thoughts: She was chained up in his dungeon, so self-defense).
- She places Xaro Xhoan Daxos and Doreah in a vault and leaves them there to die. (Thoughts: they had betrayed her, conspired to slaughter several of her men, killed her closest handmaiden, stolen her dragons, and tried to have her killed. Once again, vengeful, but not really sadistic).
Season Three:
- She has Drogon burn Kraznys, the slave master. (Thoughts: Do I really have to defend this? Fine, Kraznys crucified insubordinate slaves, castrated the Unsullied, forced the Unsullied to rip a baby from their mother’s arms and kill it, and was in general the worst. If you had a problem with this, Game of Thrones is not the show for you).
- Sacked and killed the Masters at Yunkai. (Thoughts: Its important to state that this is the moment when Daenerys became truly altruistic. And yes, Davos points out that her altruism tends to work in her favor, but there were no warriors in this city; only sex slaves. So her mission at Yunkai was truly one of emancipation. So, definitely not sadistic).
Season Four:
- Sacks Meereen. Crucifies the Masters. (Thoughts: Probably the harshest act of violence she commits. Its also around this time where she states that those who oppose her, “Can live in my new world, or die in their old one,” which is a tyrannical statement, I suppose, but it is important to realize that the statement is made in reference to evil men who oppose the freeing of slaves. Also, she crucifies the masters in response to their actions of crucifying slave children, so, once again, not really sadistic).
- Drogon kills a child. (Thoughts: Not her fault, but her response to Drogon killing a child is to lock up her other two dragons in a cave. She is so distraught by the thought of her dragons killing innocents, that she risks stunting their growth by putting them underground. So, at the very least, at the end of season four we have a Daenerys who is attempting to do the right thing, even if it hurts).
Season Five:
- Daenerys uses Rhaegal and Viserion to burn a great master. (Thoughts: The great masters were almost certainly plotting against her. Even if they were not, they were definitely not helping her keep peace in Meereen, and due to their inaction the Sons of the Harpy had gained a tremendous amount of power. So, maybe necessary, at the very least vengeful, but not execution without reason).
- Daenerys reopens the fighting pits. (Thoughts: Daenerys agrees to do this as a compromise, even though she considers it needless violence. She is visibly horrified by what transpires, which is sort of hilarious to think about now, as we have seen her burn down an entire city).
Season 6:
- She burns the Khals. (Thoughts: This is another moment that has been brought up to show how bloodthirsty Dany is, but I am certain that there was not a single person who watched this happen and thought that Dany was acting irrationally. She had offered Khal Moro horses in exchange for her return to Meereen, but he balked at the offer. Right before she burns all the Khals, they had threatened to rape her to death. Seriously, how is she in the wrong here)?
- She burns the fleet that attacks Mereen. (Thoughts: This is a battle. They attacked first. No reason to give any more explanation than that).
Season 7:
- She burns the loot train. (Thoughts: Another battle. But, this one does conclude with her burning both of the Tarlys. But Randyll essentially states that if given the chance he will be in open rebellion against Dany. So, is this really sadistic? In my opinion, we believe it is, because Tyrion acts completely out of character here. The Tyrion of the first 4 seasons would have told Daenerys to burn Randyll Tarly, because he was a brilliant commander, and they could not afford to let such an aggressor live. Instead, Tyrion pleads for their lives. Still, I admit this is not entirely defensible, and yet it is still leaps and bounds away from burning an entire city full of women and children).
Season 8:
- She executes Varys. (Varys had tried to poison her, so definitely warranted)
Now, after that (admittedly arduous) journey through Daenerys’ history of violence I personally cannot see the moment that she went from well-meaning and high idealed liberator to Mad Queen. Maybe the case could be made that Dany’s trail of bodies ultimately led to her destruction of King’s Landing, and that all conquerors are destined to become despots. Perhaps, but in order to make that case, one must admit that their are several missing steps in Dany’s trajectory from idealist to despot. Something that tells the audience how someone can go from looking upon 163 crucified children and vowing vengeance, to burning down a city full of children without any regret. It is just lazy writing, and every defense for why Daenerys was written this way is indicative of this laziness.
My suspicion is that they waited till the last minute to turn her because they have made a ton of money off of Daenerys Targaryen. It is hard to kill the cash cow, but if the plan was truly always to make her a despot, then the writers should have leaned into that the moment she set foot on Dragonstone. But, then how do you sell the t-shirts, the new McFarlane action figures, and all the other items emblazoned with Daenerys? I honestly hope I am wrong about this.
I realize I could talk about Bran the Broken, or Jaime’s entire story arc being demolished, but at the end of the day, Game of Thrones was Daenerys and Jon’s story, and the fact that a character who had been written so beautifully was turned into a rambling dictator at the end is incredibly hard to stomach. Perhaps my favorite part of the finale is the fact that Tyrion tells Jon that every time she kills evil men we cheer, then when he is brought before the Lords and Ladies of Westeros he nominates Bran because Bran has the best story. Did you notice the contradiction? Jon should kill Daenerys because of her story, but Bran should be king because of his? The irony is that Tyrion told us already who had the best story, and it was Daenerys. That is why he joined her as Hand of the Queen. Daenerys, the outcast who has no claim to the throne, survives the viciousness of her evil brother. Daenerys, the glorified sex-slave, becomes Khaleesi and brings three dragons to life. Daenerys walks into the House of the Undying, and lives to tell the tale. Daenerys destroys the slave-trade across the narrow sea. Daenerys fights for people that no one else in history has cared for. Daenerys unites the Dothraki under her rule. Daenerys fights to turn back the dead, and defeat the forces of the Night King. And then… she burns down the city that she had spent her entire life preparing to liberate? What happened to breaking the wheel? What happened to the Prince that was Promised? Daenerys’ entire story arc is reduced to nonsense, due to the rushed nature of this final season. I am not going to cry, or say that that the last 10 years of this show have been a waste. But it is a shame that so much time, effort, talent, and money was used on this show, only for the final episodes to be such a letdown. I might be in the minority, and I realize I absolutely take this stuff way too seriously, but in my opinion, every person who was involved in bringing Daenerys Targaryen to life deserved a better ending.
