Game Of Thrones: How Daenerys Became The Mad Queen (And Why The Hate Is Wrong)

7. The Slow Build

When it comes to Daenerys' turn in The Bells, there are two main criticisms: the first is that it's completely out of character and a betrayal of her arc, and the second is that, while it does fit to a certain degree, the execution has been both rushed and botched.

Neither are completely invalid: there are definitely enough moments where the show wants us to buy Dany as the ultimate hero, and likewise the truncated Seasons 7 & 8 have had a negative impact on the storytelling, leading them to rushing various things. But Daenerys' turn to villainy, madness, or however you want to term this isn't just the sudden snapping of The Bells, but a long-seeded character arc that goes all the way back to Season 1.

Consider, for example, Viserys asking her: "Who can rule without wealth or fear or love?" Daenerys has done a lot to ensure she didn't become like her brother - and in most ways, she isn't - but from early on, the idea of needing fear to rule is planted in her story, and becomes the driving force in The Bells. Likewise in Season 1, we hear lots of the prophecy about The Stallion Who Mounts The World, believed to be Dany and Khal Drogo's son, Rhaego. Mirri Maz Duur professes that "The Stallion Who Mounts The World will burn no cities now. His Khalasar shall trample no nations into dust.” And yet there's reason to believe the Stallion was instead Daenerys herself. The full text from the books reads:

"Fierce as a storm this prince will be. His enemies will tremble before him, and their wives will weep tears of blood and rend their flesh in grief. The bells in his hair will sing his coming, and the milk men in the stone tents will fear his name. The prince is riding, and he shall be the stallion who mounts the world."

There again we have a reference to fear and, what's more, bells. There are plenty of other quotes we can look at over subsequent years too.

In Season 2, she stands outside the city of Qarth and says: "When my dragons are grown, 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." Just a couple of episodes later, she promises to "take what is mine with fire and blood." In this same season, we're given the story of Harrenhal, which had its walls burned by a dragon, helping to establish their power to do so (even if The Bells took it much further in terms of sheer destruction).

In Season 4, Daenerys kills 163 slavers in Meereen, having them crucified. She shows no remorse over the act. It's true that most of them were terrible people, but to justify her actions because of that misses a broader point about the people in power and how they wield it. Murder, and mass murder especially, is not an inherently good thing. Later, her sentiments are clear about the people of Slaver's Bay who might move against her: "They can live in my new world or they can die in their old one."

In Season 6, she gives a rousing yet extremely bloodthirsty speech to the Dothraki, having killed the Khals not only for revenge but also power, saying: "Will you ride the wooden horses across the black salt sea? 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? Are you with me, now and always?"

In Season 7, with Daenerys in Westeros, her objectives become even more specific. Olenna Tyrell tells her "They won’t obey you unless they fear you... You’re a dragon. Be a dragon.” Again, it evokes the idea of fear as being a means of effective rule, and Daenerys herself later says "Enough with the clever plans. I have 3 large dragons. I’m going to fly them to the Red Keep," in the same episode she lays waste to the Lannister army with Drogon, and an episode later she executes Randyll and Dickon Tarly.

Of course, people who are against the turn will say that yes, of course you can simply cherry-pick quotes and moments from across the series and bend them to suit your point. And you can do it the other way too: for every bad act Dany has committed, there's a good one. For every word of taking what is hers with fire and blood, there's a message of liberation. But the point is that these things DO exist within her character. She is not purely good or heroic, but has the capacity to do terrible things and a well-displayed predilection for burning cities and people.

"Every time a Targaryen is born, the gods flip a coin."

It's a common saying, and even referenced again in Season 8. And that's what Daenerys represents. The Daenerys we've followed isn't the result of a coin flip; she IS the coin flip in motion. She is the personification of that flipping, and we've watched it spin for eight years. The dichotomy is crucial to her entire character. It's been spinning and spinning, and now it has finally landed. While that coin has been in motion, Daenerys has sought to find her way home. She's been driven by a thirst for power and a belief in destiny, but also a desperate need for belonging and love, two things she's never really known. She arrives 'home' but finds none of what she expected. She goes to fight in another person's war, losing a child in the process but helping save the world, and still the people do not love her. She loses all those closest to her: the ones who actually did love her, the ones she could trust, the ones who could keep her worst impulses in check. She's been betrayed, isolated, and rejected, all while having the corrupting influence of the Iron Throne play out too. She has nothing left but fear. It would've been stranger if she hadn't snapped.

[James]