Daenerys Targaryen, played by Emilia Clarke, quickly became one of the most popular characters
in "Game of Thrones." Audiences hopped on board her hell-bent mission to bring her
rage to Westeros and oust the LanniSsters from the seat of power, the Iron Throne,
which Daenerys believes is her birthright. The show spends plenty of time developing her
character in a way that made audiences feel incredibly sympathetic towards her cause.
She’s undoubtedly one of the show's most beloved heroes.
“I need to be more than that.”
Once she fully came into her own, commanding armies and fighting for justice, Daenerys was,
indisputably, a brilliant and compelling character. Not to mention the addition of her
dragons, which only made fans invest in her quest even further. While it was obvious what producers
D.B. Weiss and David Benioff were trying to say about the allure that true power holds,
and how it easily corrupts people, one particular scene took things too far. This is, of course,
when Daenerys burned King's Landing. It’s a moment that, unfortunately,
turned fans against Daenerys in the final season of "Game of Thrones."
Okay, sure - Daenerys burned people alive using her dragons a number of times,
but it's the intention behind the destruction of King's Landing that just took things too far.
Now, we can admit that Daenerys was in a bad place. Jon Snow,
played by Kit Harrington, rejected her because he discovers they're related.
Yikes.
She loses both her closest confidante Missandei, played by Nathalie Emmanuel,
and one of her two remaining dragons to Cersei's forces. Daenerys has nothing left to lose,
which leads to the complete destruction of King's Landing in Season 8, Episode 5, "The Bells."
It's completely Daenerys' choice to willingly burn probably thousands of innocent
people - including innocents, women, and children - alive in the streets. The civilians' collective
terror is truly felt throughout the episode, with a war happening on the ground and a fire-breathing
dragon hovering in the sky. At this point, Daenerys is no longer a liberator. It's a complete
departure from and betrayal of the woman who was so dedicated to freeing slaves for the past 7 seasons.
When faced with King's Landing, Daenerys kills thousands of people simply because she can.
As the battle rages, Jon is horrified by her actions when he sees the burnt bodies of men,
women, and children litter the ground. It's only further hammered home that Dany is truly
off the deep end when she announces in the Season Finale, "The Iron Throne," that she
was planning to extend her wrath across the rest of the world. Jon ultimately faces an impossible
choice and kills his queen, aunt, and lover right in front of the throne she wants so badly.
There's no question that Daenerys, a hot-blooded Targaryen with a
family history of mental instability and massive dragons willing to do her bidding,
made some troubling decisions throughout "Thrones." Still, viewers could always
be comforted that she was on the right side of justice. That is, until the show's final season.
The creative minds behind "Game of Thrones" maintain that the Daenerys twist was planned all
along, and it makes sense with her character. However, the Daenerys that audiences fell for
would never have killed innocents. Though Clarke initially defended the finale back in May of 2019,
saying Daenerys' destruction was a logical route for the character to take,
she has since reversed course. During a June 2021 chat with MTV News correspondent
Josh Horowitz on his podcast, Clarke said,
"I get why people were pissed. I totally get it.”
Though Clarke said she did have some, quote, "autonomy" over Daenerys' character arc, when all
was said and done, she just had to play what was given to her as truthfully as possible. She added,
"The editor decides what it looks like, and the writer decides what I'm saying. So you just
gotta go in and try and give it as much truth and honesty [...] and yourself as you possibly can."
Whether you want to relive Daenerys' best moments or yell through "The Bells" all over again,
all of "Game of Thrones" is available to stream on HBO Max.
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