Daenerys Targaryen is known by many titles, and on the latest episode of Game of Thrones,
she gained another one, a name she insisted she would never take on, as long as she could
help it.
Here's how the twist went down and what it all means.
Daenerys admits she has only known fear in Westeros, not the love that her nephew, boyfriend,
and potentially rival claimant to the Iron Throne Jon Snow has come to receive.
This realization, combined with her newfound knowledge that her Master of Whisperers Varys
committed treason against her in shifting his loyalty to Jon, plus the recent death
of her trusted adviser Missandei, pushes Daenerys past her breaking point.
The Mother of Dragons dives head-first into the madness that her father, the so-called
"Mad King," suffered when he sat on the Iron Throne amidst Robert's Rebellion.
In Episode 5, Dany became "The Mad Queen," destroying King's Landing and killing thousands
of innocent men, women, and children on her mission to unseat Cersei Lannister and take
the Iron Throne herself.
"The Iron Throne.
Perhaps you should try wanting something else."
Dany time and again has stated that she's not a carbon copy of her father, and she wouldn't
make the same mistakes he did.
"I am not here to be Queen of the Ashes."
But that's exactly what wound up happening during this latest episode, in a moment many
viewers felt was a wild twist.
However, in the eyes of Game of Thrones showrunners, Daenerys going mad wasn't exactly a big shock.
David Benioff and Dan Weiss explained during the show's "Inside the Episode" featurette
that Thrones had long foreshadowed Dany's spiraling into instability, and that there
are plenty of clues sprinkled throughout past seasons that signaled this dark turn would
happen eventually.
One such clue is the death of Daenerys' brother, Viserys, back in Season 1.
Dany didn't second-guess her decision to have Khal Drogo pour molten gold over Viserys'
head and refused to look away when the deed was carried out, wanting to watch him suffer
through the pain.
"He was no dragon.
Fire cannot kill a dragon."
Daenerys has a history of killing, or ordering others to kill on her behalf, and exhibiting
no signs of hesitancy or remorse.
She burnt a witch alive and almost relished in her cries; she sentenced people to die
in a vault and didn't think twice.
Daenerys also burnt a slave-owner alive and was thrilled to do it.
She gave a chilling speech about how she deserved to rule just before she burnt a horde of Dothraki
warlords to death.
And who could forget her ruthless flaming of Samwell Tarly's brother and father, plus
her execution of Varys that came at the top of this very episode?
The season has shown time and time again that Daenerys isn't afraid of doling out death
sentences, and she's been pretty clear about her intentions from the start.
"We will take back what was stolen from me and destroy those who have wronged me.
We will lay waste to armies and burn cities to the ground."
But that attitude contrasts harshly to the other side of her personality, the side that
frees wrongfully enslaved people, liberates cities, and promises to "break the wheel"
of oppression instead of simply taking her own turn as the person in charge.
Dany turning into the person she said she would never become, the woman who strikes
fear in the hearts of the Westerosi people, the Queen of the Ashes, the spitting image
of her father, was shocking to behold even if there were some breadcrumbs leading up
to the snapping point.
Dan Weiss has said he doesn't feel that Daenerys always intended to burn King's Landing and
its citizens to a crisp, though there was a lot of build-up that would show cause for
her doing so.
Rather, Weiss noted that Dany decided to take that course of action the moment she arrived
in the capital city.
"It's in that moment on the walls of King's Landing where she's looking at that symbol
of everything that was taken from her, when she makes the decision to make this personal."
Benioff added that Daenerys may never have become the Mad Queen if her journey to the
Iron Throne had played out differently.
"If circumstances had been different, I don't think this side of Dany ever would have come
out.
If Cersei hadn't betrayed her, if Cersei hadn't executed Missandei, if Jon hadn't told her
the truth..."
Unfortunately, this side of Daenerys Targaryen did come out, and it will probably be her
undoing.
It's tough to imagine the people of Westeros rallying behind Daenerys after she needlessly
murdered thousands of people via dragon fire and decimated the capital.
Now that she's gone full Mad Queen, Dany likely can't go back to the person she used to be.
Her dream to sit on the Iron Throne may never come true, despite her greatest enemy, Cersei,
dying in the chaos of the siege and Jon constantly saying he will always support Dany.
It will be an intense fight to the finish during the final episode of Game of Thrones.
As Daenerys actress Emilia Clarke told The Hollywood Reporter,
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