After a decade of extreme emotional investment, game of thrones’ eighth and final season in 2019 really he did not impress his legion of fans.
While there were a whole host of criticisms, from feeling “rushed” to lacking consistency with previous seasons, probably the most deafening outcry was directed at Daenerys Targaryen’s death ride, in which she burned thousands of innocents despite the fact that their victory had taken place. it has already been sealed with the rings of the surrender bells.
He got what he wanted, defeated Cersei Lannister, why did he proceed to murder an entire city?
It made no sense, many argued, with a petition to rewrite the final season boasting half a million signatures at the time. Even GoT author George RR Martin admitted that writers Dan Weiss and David Benioff went in a different direction than he would have liked.
Dany was the heroine of this story. The ethereally beautiful, silver-haired dark horse that rose from the ashes – dragons in tow – to follow his destiny and rule a better Westeros.
He showed empathy throughout his campaign. moral judgment He promised to “break the wheel” to his army of downtrodden followers.
While these things are true, if you were surprised by Dany’s fall from grace in Season 8, you simply weren’t paying enough attention.
British actress Emilia Clarke said it Weekly entertainment in 2020 she was “surprised” by the fate of her beloved character, but there was a long list of moments that foreshadowed Dany’s destruction.
In the first season, Daenerys watches her brother Viserys die brutally, appearing cold and emotionless as she pleads for mercy at the hands of the Dothraki.
While of course Viserys was a horrible person, Dany’s lack of empathy in this moment hinted at her darker side.
And then in Season 2, in the early days of Dany’s campaign in the realm, she made it clear that she was a force to be reckoned with, capable of doing the same thing she did in Season 8.
Speaking to The Spice King in Qarth, in a desperate attempt to convince him to let her take his fleet, Dany proclaimed: “I am Daenerys Stormborn of the blood of old Valyria and I will take what is mine. With fire and blood, I’ll take it.”
In the same episode, he declares: “When my dragons grow, we will take back what was stolen from me and destroy those who hurt me. We will destroy armies and burn cities!
And then in Season 4, Dany crucify 163 Grandmasters in Meereen for their treatment of child slaves, never mind that some were innocent. She says: “I will crucify the teachers. I will set their fleets on fire. I will kill all their soldiers and bring their cities back to the ground. That’s my plan.”
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Season 6 ended with a bang of glory when Dany burned all the Dothraki lords inside the dosh khaleen in one fell swoop after she was taken prisoner.
Again, these guys were bad men. But it showed how much Dany enjoyed burning her oppressors alive.
One of her most brutal moments was in Season 7, when Dany was given the choice to kill or imprison the laudable Lord Tarly and his son Dickon after the Unsullied won a battle against the Lannister forces. So what does she do? She burns the duo in broad daylight. She enjoyed it.
The death of the same nature of Lord Varys in the eighth season was equally hard to swallow.
Having killed countless people at this point, it’s fair to assume that the lines will eventually be erased.
Which brings us to the rest of that fateful season. Dany repeatedly follows her first instinct: attack King’s Landing without mercy. Tyrion and co have talked him up, but he never seems on board to hit the road.
Then watch as Cersei leads the Mountain to behead her loyal advisor, Missandei, just days after watching Jorah Mormont die in the bloody battle against the White Walkers. At this point, after repeating to herself that she is a good girl in the face of personal loss, she is truly on the verge of a psychotic breakdown.
His final rampage was clearly a brain-break, which may have felt “rushed” in the moment, but the evidence that he was capable of having one without using his moral judgment was always there.
The people of King’s Landing were not going to support his government. She knew it. He was hungry for loyal followers. And in that split second, as he had done many times before, he burned them all.
And a quick look at his lineage shows why the timing was a no-brainer.
Dany’s father, King Aerys II Targaryen, who is referenced several times GoT, was known as the ‘Mad King’. His transformation from benevolent leader (hello, Dany?) to murderous psychopath (looking at you, Dany) was supposedly brought about by an incestuous bloodline, one of which Dany inherited.
Aerys began to show traits of insanity, sadistic intentions, schizophrenia, and paranoia regarding his own claim to the throne, and only burned people he thought were against him.
It is surely not far-fetched that the apple ultimately did not fall far from the tree.
While Dany was indisputably the pin-up character of GoTand the fan favorite to make it to the top, I wonder if we would have been satisfied or not if the credits rolled with her sitting on the Iron Throne.
Or maybe you were on the side that wanted Jon Snow to rule – what do you suggest they do with Dany? She might have loved her, but she wasn’t a first lady, as Tyrion pointed out to Jon at the end.
So what was the other option? What would be a plot twist that would also make sense?
The same result they gave us.
Dany was never going to “break the wheel”. She was simply too desperate for power to lead peacefully. Kind of like that rogue lady who ran the hunger games rebellion
And as for Jon, well, he never wanted to rule. The humble hero’s final act was to thwart evil, even at great personal cost, and he was sent back to the Night’s Watch, where he had spent much time as one of the main defenders amid the mostly blind menace of the white walkers. . It was a bitter pill, but it was branded.
There is the idea that those who are hungry for power are not cut out for fair and balanced leadership. That’s why Bran Stark, while a little underwhelming, was the obvious choice in the end.
As for Cersei’s crushing death. I hear the argument that one of television’s most evil villains should have had a more epic demise.
But it seemed rather fitting that someone who caused so much distress should die in rather pathetic fashion, crushed by falling rocks in the basement of his empire.
Arya Stark already killed the night king the long night. For her to make another big kill wouldn’t have brought the same delirium.
And since Cersei’s brother/lover Jamie Lannister, who had a brilliant character arc with moments of redemption, was with her, it did have to have a poignant element.
Maybe Dany’s downfall will make more sense with the upcoming prequel, House of the Dragonwhich focuses solely on how insane the Targaryen family was about 200 years before the events of GoT.
House of the Dragon premieres express from the US on Foxtel and Binge on August 22
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