A guide to how Daenerys went from Khaleesi to Mad Queen
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Elahe Izadi
When we last saw Daenerys Targaryen, she was weeping at the surrender bells in King’s Landing — and then scowling, taking off on Drogon and setting the city on fire in methodical, concentric circles.
That’s . . . not what her top backers expected her to do. But while Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister and many viewers at home were busy picking their jaws up off the ground, most of her army crew kicked it into high gear, pillaging the city and killing enemy soldiers who had already given up their weapons.
Daenerys’s longtime fighters had been following the Breaker of Chains for a while now, and from what they’ve seen, it may not have been that big of a leap for her to also become Scorcher of Cities. She has always demanded unwavering loyalty and promised hell for her enemies. In earlier seasons, Dany promises to “lay waste to armies and burn cities to the ground” once her dragons are grown, and that she will “take what is mine with fire and blood.”
Still surprised by her fiery rampage at King’s Landing? Let’s go to the tapes and revisit how Daenerys got here:
Her origin story
While it’s unclear whether Daenerys is doomed by her history, don’t discount her genetics. Dany’s papa was the Mad King, and her parents were also siblings. As the saying goes, “Every time a Targaryen is born, the gods flip a coin.” Centuries of Targaryens marrying brother-sister pairs meant half of their lineage — quite a shallow gene pool — descended into madness. Dany’s eldest brother, Rhaegar, was a stand-up guy, while middle kid Viserys was temperamental and cruel, but no matter; the probability was still 50-50 with each coin toss, including Dany’s birth (thanks, high school statistics class!).
Chilling with the Dothraki
Daenerys comes to very much appreciate Khal Drogo’s intensity. When Drogo killed her brother with molten gold, all she could muster up was, “ He was no dragon .”
Drogo also makes a promise to retake the Iron Throne for the couple’s son, and, well, we haven’t seen Daenerys want to hop in the sack more than when Drogo talks sacking cities.
Here is Drogo’s pledge in full:
And to my son, the Stallion Who Will Mount the World, I will also pledge a gift. I will give him the iron chair that his mother’s father sat upon. I will give him the Seven Kingdoms. I, Drogo, will do this. I will take my Khalasar west to where the world ends and ride wooden horses across the black salt water as no Khal has done before. I will kill the men in iron suits and tear down their stone houses. I will rape their women, take their children as slaves and bring their gods back to Vaes Dothrak. This, I vow. I, Drogo, son of Bharbo. I swear before the Mother of Mountains as the stars look down in witness.
A few seasons later, the Dothraki recapture Daenerys, and their leaders ponder whether to have her live with the other khal widows, as she was supposed to do in the first place. But the deliberations descend into violent threats after Daenerys reminds them of Drogo’s pledge. She tells them she will actually rule them all in her quest to take over the world, and when they laugh, Daenerys enacts her plan: She sets the place on fire, emerges unharmed (dragons can’t be hurt by fire, after all) and gets the loyalty of the Dothraki people.
Later, she reunites with Drogon and rides him to her Dothraki army to deliver a rousing, fiery speech: “Will you kill my enemies in their iron suits and tear down their stone houses? Will you give me the Seven Kingdoms, the gift Khal Drogo promised me before the Mother of Mountains?”
After last Sunday, we know the answers: Yes, yes and yes.
Breaker of Chains
The reputation that Daenerys would be good to the masses comes in large part from her attitude toward slavery. She first expressed such sympathies when married to Drogo (which led to another guy challenging Drogo, who gave him a wound that would lead to his death). Then she went on to buy the Unsullied army in exchange for a dragon that she then used to kill the slave master who sold the army. Daenerys promptly freed the soldiers, telling them they could leave or fight for her.
Was such a move the result of a strong moral compass? Or was it a surefire tactic to get a giant army to love a leader and fight more fiercely for her? If the latter, it worked; the Unsullied all stayed, and Grey Worm remains her most trusted companion.
[ What to expect in ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8, Episode 6 ]
At the gate of Meereen, she tells the enslaved gathered: “I am not your enemy. Your enemy stands beside you. Your enemy steals and murders your children. Your enemy has nothing for you but chains and suffering and commands. I do not bring you commands. I bring you a choice. And I bring your enemies what they deserve.”
After she takes the city, Daenerys orders 163 masters crucified, a response to the 163 slave children the masters had crucified on her road to the city. “Sometimes it is best to answer injustice with mercy,” counsels Barristan Selmy, to which Dany responds, “I will answer injustice with justice.”
Daenerys also went to Yunkai, overthrowing masters of some 200,000 slaves who threw a big ( and embarrassing ) welcome party. In all of these cities, Daenerys overthrew leaders and, in return, common folk gave her their cheers and love. Maybe the “I give up” vibes at King’s Landing were both unfamiliar and unacceptable to her.
Loyalty pledges
Daenerys gave a speech way back , telling Tyrion that the great houses are just “spokes on a wheel,” crushing those beneath while they vie for power: “I’m not going to stop the wheel. I’m going to break the wheel.”
Throughout the series, though, Tyrion has talked Daenerys out of laying waste to cities, while she has also demanded immediate loyalty of those surrendering. When slave masters besiege Meereen, Daenerys tells Tyrion , “I will crucify the masters. I will set their fleets afire, kill every last one of the soldiers and return their cities to the dirt.”
Tyrion reminds her, “You knew what your father was,” and reveals the Mad King’s plans for King’s Landing: He put wildfire underneath the city and wanted to blow everything up rather than surrender. “This is entirely different,” Daenerys responds. “You’re talking about destroying cities. It is not entirely different,” Tyrion says. So he suggests an alternative plan, which they enact: demand the slave masters surrender unconditionally. They laugh it off, so Daenerys sets their fleet on fire via dragons, the Dothraki attack, and Grey Worm kills two of the three slave master negotiators (the third gets to live so he can spread the word).
Later, Olenna Tyrell, Yara Greyjoy and Ellaria Sand urge Daenerys to attack King’s Landing with her giant army. “I am not here to be queen of the ashes,” Daenerys responds, as she lays out a different plan . Olenna tells her that sounds nice, but her granddaughter was a beloved queen, and now she’s just a bunch of ashes.
“Commoners, nobles, they’re all just children, really. They won’t obey you unless they fear you,” Olenna tells Daenerys, and urges her not to be a sheep but a dragon.
Daenerys does grow weary of Tyrion’s “clever” plans and wants to just ride her three dragons to the Red Keep but holds back. When she defeats Cersei’s forces at the Battle of the Goldroad, she tells the surviving soldiers that she hasn’t come “to destroy your cities, burn your homes, murder you and orphan your children,” while that’s what Cersei is about. “All I want to destroy is the wheel that has rolled over rich and poor to the benefit of no one but the Cersei Lannisters of the world. I offer you a choice: Bend the knee and join me. Together, we will leave the world a better place than we found it. Or, refuse and die.” Two Tarlys say “no thanks,” and Tyrion tries to talk Daenerys out of executing them. “I meant what I said. I’m not here to put men in chains. If that becomes an option, many will take it. I gave them a choice. They made it.” And then she lights up the Tarlys with dragon fire.
This season, Tyrion revived his “don’t destroy King’s Landing” campaign, and it didn’t go well, costing Daenerys one of her dragons and Missandei (whose last word was “dracarys”). Just like in Meereen and the Battle of the Goldroad, Daenerys demanded Cersei surrender or die.
For the Mother of Dragons, this is a choice. For Cersei, it’s a non-starter. And King’s Landing, along with Cersei, become ashes.
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Can't take credit for this comment, I found it on a youtube video, but to me it sums up Dany:
Daenerys "snapped" because she didn't actually really win. Sure she won the war, but she didn't win "her" war. What she wanted in Westeros and craved above all else is love. Its the feeling she had when she freed Yunkai, and the people carried her around and called her "Mhysa". She has a savior complex, one that found positive reinforcement in Essos, because her intentions there were noble i.e. "freeing slaves", but only found negative reactions in Westeros where her intentions were selfish i.e. "I want to rule".
This is why she was so distraught after the battle against the dead and continuously asked why they didn't love her, its because she expected this to be like Essos, where she would swoop in, save the day, and be carried to her throne by the people, but the situation in Westeros is completely different to the one in Essos. There she was a divine savior, in Westeros she is a foreign conqueror at the head of Dothraki and Dragons, who came to join a fight many fought in all their lives and expected all the glory, the mad kings daughter who burned families alive and now claimed ownership of their homes, a Dragon Queen who claimed to have noble intentions, when all she wanted was power.
She sacrificed half of her armies and a dragon against the dead, and still the people do not trust her. Daenerys doesn't understand that Westeros isn't as simple as Essos, that some of these people have sacrificed far more, that loyalty is earned, not demanded, but most importantly, that she isn't as special as she thought. Sure she birthed dragons from stone, but Jon for instance rose from the dead. She isn't the last heir to the Targaryans, Jon is. Her destiny wasn't to save everyone, it was to be a part of stopping the White Walkers. Its like Davos said, the lord of light leads you on with a bunch of miracles and then just fucks off once the war is done. Daenerys cannot accept that her "destiny" which she based her entire life around is like that of everyone else who is there and over now.
She didn't win in Kings Landing, the only thing she accomplished was killing a few Lannisters and getting a chair. When she is up there on Drogon, the only thing she sees are the people who do not love her, who do not appreciate her or what she has sacrificed, who refused to hail her as the savior who she believes she is, who betrayed her and took everything from her, who cheered when her father died and are now running away in fear when in reality they should be bending their knees to her, who disgraced the castle her ancestors built, who sat in HER CHAIR and conspired there to kill her, she sees the the halls of the red keep which she dreamed of exploring aside Missandei, she sees the throne room where she expected to rule at the side of Jorah, she sees the room where she wanted to make love to Jon and the dragon pit where she wanted to keep Rhaegal and Viserion.
Those things aren't really hers, not really, and the people there aren't really her friends, allies or subjects. They are enemies who hate her and refuse to support her, who think they can get off scot free by just laying down their arms now. She based her existence around her destiny to rule, went from hardship to hardship, trauma to trauma, loss to loss, and now that she has what she always thought she wanted, it doesn't feel earned, her pain is still there, her loss is still there, its worse actually then it ever was before, and so she does what she always does when she feels at a loss. She lashes out against her perceived enemies with Fire and Blood. If she can't get love, then fear it is.
This is the essence of why this makes no sense. The storyline has the citizens of King's Landing as oppressed poor who despise Cersei and do not even know Daeny. They may indeed favor Jon over Daeny but that has not played out at the point when Daeny burned them all and wreaked havoc with the buildings and infrastructure of the city. The bloody destruction served no purpose (the battle was over) and, indeed, is the exact opposite of what Daeny should do if her intent is to rule and have people love her.
Makes no sense.
Maybe the screen writers have a brilliant way to explain this. We shall see tonight.
The difference between Daeny's past acts of violence and this one is that the citizens of King's Landing did nothing to harm Daeny. They hated Cersei too. They were oppressed by Cersei. They did not even know Daeny at this point.
This is the first time that Daeny took violence on innocent people - especially those who also hated Cersei. Makes no sense to do this since the battle was won. And if she felt that the citizens would not immediately love her, burning them alive is not a great way to encourage love.
Makes no sense. Crappy writing IMO.
The only sensible explanation is that she inexplicably went mad and engaged in a pointless act at a time when she could have simply directed her remaining rage at the Red Keep (not King's Landing). Fly directly to the Red Keep and burn it down if you must. Makes no sense even if she went mad.
A bit of trivia ... Aaron Rodgers had a cameo in the last episode.
Keep telling yourself, "It's only a TV show. It's only a TV show. It's only a TV show".
As a series it is no more profound than is Battlestar Gallactica, Lost or even Alf...
Bah Humbug, LOL.
Alf was pretty profound tor 1980s TV...
(sigh)
Right - really???
I loved the episode....all the starks went on to what they really wanted in life.
eh. I felt the writers lost interest in the show.
HBO was ready to pay for 10 seasons but the writers wanted to pursue other interests.
It shows. Seasons 1-7 were, in my judgment, brilliant.
Season 8 (starting with episode 4, failing miserably in episode 5, a little better in 6 ... enabled by the leaps established in 5) writing strikes me as the level of work one would expect after an employee has submitted their 2 week notice.
My only complaint is the writing. The balance of the factors (and there are many) matched that of the prior seasons.
My biggest complaint remains — Daeny's inexplicable killing of the oppressed citizens of King's Landing. They hated Cersei and did not even know Daeny.
And in her victory speech Daeny complimented her supporters on freeing the people of King's Landing. The people she just burned alive for no reason whatsoever.
Haven't watched it yet. Was intrigued with a damn high school type show from France. Had to finish a season.
Called Skam, originally from the Netherlands, I believe. Reminded me of a show I watched from Spain called Física o Química.
I do know what happened but don't know if I like it. I am going to watch it this night.
All in all, not very satisfied. Don't like Arya drifting off into the unknown and I still would rather have had Gendry as king.