In its final season, Game of Thrones saw a decline in many areas, one of the most obvious being the characters. More specifically, their characterization. It felt like in order to push the narrative along, the showrunners decided that, despite taking seasons to set up and develop this world and it’s residents, the characters were going to just do whatever was needed to get to the end. 

Maybe they thought fans wouldn’t notice. We did. We noticed. 

Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Seven Kingdoms, the Mother of Dragons, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, the Breaker of Chains. There was a time when many Game of Thrones fans could say her full title and not break a sweat. And though it does seem like a lot to say every time, it was a larger than life name for a larger than life character. She was the Mother of Dragons, and she did break chains, including the metaphorical ones she lived with for most of her life. She stood out from the other characters, because unlike them she was a dragon. The Last Dragon. Even when her head got too big, and her decisions a little murky, viewers knew that Daenerys was one of the few characters that was, at the very least, trying to be better. That alone made us want to root for her. It was clear from the moment we first saw her step out of that funeral pyre with her three baby dragons that she was going to be a big player in the game of thrones. And she was. I’ve mentioned in other Game of Thrones related posts that my issue is not with a tragic ending. I knew what I signed up for after I watched Ned Stark lose his head at the Sept of Baelor. But if any Game of Thrones character deserved better, it was Daenerys Targaryen. 

Today marks a year since “The Bells”, the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones. The episode that finally broke many of us and left us gaping at what they had done to what could have been the greatest show of all time. This 78-minute episode saw the death of many characters, both physically and in their characterization, but no one more than the Mother of Dragons. At this point in the season, Daenerys has lost almost everything. In a cheap and obviously rushed attempt to wrap up the show, its writers quickly murdered her closest confidante and her dragon. They also killed her oldest friend, Jorah the Andal, but in my opinion, his death is the only one that fits. He died exactly how many of us imagined: protecting his Khaleesi. Missandei deserves her own justice, but I can’t mention Dany without pointing out the fact that her capture and subsequent beheading was so rushed and poorly written that combined with the surprise murder of Rhaegal, I still believe that the showrunners must have just thought we were stupid.  The dragons didn’t sense the presence of Euron’s Iron Fleet? Daenerys didn’t send scouts ahead to check the safety of Dragonstone, before coming back with her full army? But I digress. For now. We watched as she fell in love with Jon Snow, and though their love was controversial, we saw that she had a glimmer of hope for happiness, and for love. The fact that Jon was secretly a. her nephew and b. the rightful heir to the Iron Throne was always going to throw a wrench into things but even the way that revelation was executed was so underwhelming. It felt like all of it was for nothing. Eight seasons of foreshadowing and for what? As maddening as it was watching their careless writing come to life, “The Bells” is where it was abundantly clear that the showrunners had given up on giving Daenerys the ending that she deserved. 

The Battle of King’s Landing was over. Cersei stood defeated in The Red Keep as the bells of surrender rang for all to hear. Daenerys had won. But apparently, that wasn’t enough. It is at this time that I would like to acknowledge Emilia Clarke. She, and the rest of the cast of Game of Thrones, treated fans to a masterclass in acting. I don’t know a better example of making the best out of what you’re given. Even so, watching Dany burn King’s Landing was devastating. Because it was pointless. She didn’t have to, and it completely went against everything she had shown herself to be. 

This was the same young woman we watched take control of The Unsullied, an army that she commanded not to hurt any child, but only the masters. Who looked into the faces of all the crucified slave children on the road to Meereen, and commanded that they be taken down and given a proper burial. The same person who acknowledged that “people learn to love their chains”. And somehow they expected us to believe that she would kill innocent men, women, and children. All whom had just surrendered. Daenerys has never been one to shy away from ruthlessness, but only towards her enemies. The people of King’s Landing were not her enemies, they were the people she wanted to rule. The people whose world she wanted to make better. What reason did she have to kill them? She didn’t even attack the Red Keep until she had burned half the city! It didn’t make any sense. Cersei was her enemy. In the past, she had even acknowledged that she understood that the people had no love for their current Queen. Daenerys had her moments of ruthlessness. But to her enemies, and only her enemies. Which is no different than any other ruler would be expected to be. In the end Daenerys’ downfall can be summarized by one word: madness. We all know the saying, “When a Targaryen is born, the gods flip a coin.” Still, watching the showrunners use her family’s history of madness as a crutch to explain what she did felt like a slap in the face, not only to her character but to us as fans.

Daenerys always knew her worst impulses, and spent the majority of the show trying to overcome them. And for many people who struggle with the stigma of mental illness, and people who survived abuse and other traumas she stood as an example of someone who would not be defined by what happened to her or her struggles. She overcame them. Like I said earlier, she was never perfect and her stubborn attitude often left us shaking our heads in frustration, but she checked herself. She kept people around her who were honest, and who let her know when she was doing too much. She was a survivor and a fighter. She built herself from nothing but a fallen name and a dead house. She was exiled and forced into marriage. Abused by the only family she had and the victim of sexual abuse. But she never stopped fighting for herself and she wanted to help others. To watch a character who had overcome so much fall so quickly was heartbreaking. They spent so much time building her up, just to so quickly tear her down. She deserved more than that. Her story could have been one of tragedy, but the showrunners didn’t earn that ending. It felt cheap, and the rest of her story was anything but that.