May 20, 2019 – Like Battlestar Galactica and Lost, the final season of Game of Thrones has upset much (most?) of the show’s fanbase. What happened?
The main complaint about the final season is Dany’s abrupt turn from good to bad – her killing of innocent civilians in King’s Landing. Some fans, however, weren’t so upset and saw it coming. I myself was fooled by it, and didn’t like what they did to her character. Here’s why:
1. DANY’S PREVIOUS HISTORY WITH CHILDREN
Dany’s fight against slavery intensified when she saw 163 children crucified by the masters of Meereen.
When Drogon burned a little girl (season 4), Dany was horrified. She locked up two of her dragons as a result, and would have locked up Drogon, too, had he not flown away.
Based on this previous history, I didn’t think there was any chance of Dany killing children in King’s Landing.
2. DANY’S PREVIOUS HISTORY WITH CITIES
Dany had killed murderers, thieves, slave masters, exploitive noblemen, evil magicians, and warlords.
At the same time, she defended the helpless, weak, and innocent of the cities she took over. She was the breaker of chains. Therefore, I assumed she
would jump at the chance to treat King’s Landing’s citizens better than Cersei had.
3. THE PEOPLE DIDN’T LIKE CERSEI.
Varys and Tyrion would have told Dany that the people of King’s Landing hated Cersei.
This would have given Dany even more reason to give those civilians a chance to bend the knee and accept her rulership. She would have viewed them as
victims of Cersei, and her pattern of wanting to help victims would have kicked in.
4. HER CHANGE SEEMED TOO ABRUPT.
I understand the idea that power can corrupt.
However, when characters changed on GoT, it was incremental, not sudden.
Some characters were humbled and became more noble over time (The Hound, Theon, Jaime, Melisandre).
Other characters became stronger over time (Sansa, Arya). But Dany’s change didn’t fit this pattern. (see funny graphic below)
5. DANY USUALLY GAVE PEOPLE A CHANCE.
Dany killed masters and slavers without warning, as part of ending slavery. She knew their deeds.
She also killed her opponents in war, but gave surviving soldiers a chance to bend the knee (example: Randyll and Dickon Tarly).
Therefore, I thought Dany would have given the people of King’s Landing the opportunity to bend the knee to her,
without killing them first.
6. THE PROBLEM ISN’T THAT IT WAS SHOCKING.
GoT was known and admired for its shocking events. But those events made sense within the
character histories. I believed it when Joffrey ordered the beheading of Ned Stark, Locke cut off Jaime’s hand,
Ramsay Bolton emasculated Theon,
Olenna Tyrell poisoned Joffrey, etc. But, because of what had come before with Dany’s character, I had difficulty believing her sudden turn.
7. THERE WAS ALREADY A MAD QUEEN.
With the burning of the Sept, the show had already established Cersei as the mad queen. Cersei burned not only
innocent civilians within the Sept, the footage shows the surrounding neighborhood being torched as well. Who knows how many civilians Cersei killed in total that day.
8. DANY CARED FOR PEOPLE.
When Cersei burned the Sept, those people were just “sheep” to her. However, while in Essos, Dany never harmed the
civilians of any city in order to get power. Dany had some care for people, and had a line she wouldn’t cross.
Writers often say that at some point a character can take on a life of its own. Your initial plans for a character may change as the writing progresses. Even if George R. R. Martin planned for Dany to go bad and communicated that to showrunners Benioff and Weiss, all the previous seasons and episodes don’t logically lead up to her sudden turn, in my opinion. What Dany did to King’s Landing is basically what the writers did to Dany’s character (and the show as a whole for many fans): blow it to smithereens for no reason.
So, for fun, here is an alternative ending for season 8, which you can see here. I also don’t like Dany’s turn because it betrays the most appealing motif of the show, as described here. And, to see others’ reactions to how GoT ended, go here.