Game Of Thrones Finale: How Each Major Character Ending Was Setup (& Why They Work)

6. Daenerys' Tragic Death

Daenerys Targaryen's death was almost inevitable. It certainly felt that way after The Bells, with her mass murder of innocent people leaving very little room for her survival. But in truth it's been a lot longer: the show has long been about Jon and Daenerys, and it's been hard to see how it could have a true ending without one of them dying. Once Jon was killed and then brought back, it made him much likelier to survive out of the two.

In Season 7, we heard a lot of talk about Daenerys' death, with the risk being the arrows and crossbow bolts being aimed at her dragons, any one of which could find her heart. As Daenerys gave into her nature and became a dragon, a weapon did indeed find her heart. The House of the Undying, too, held some clues: a Throne Room in ruins, from which she goes through the Wall and then, seemingly, into the afterlife, could be read as being her death. Some of it slots in nicely, other parts need a bit of bending to fit.

What's clear, though, is that Daenerys has been on this path for a long time. It was in her character arc that she had to break bad, regardless of the pacing of it. She's been isolated and betrayed; corrupted by the power of the Iron Throne and her own sense of destiny entwined with it. Stannis serves as a good warning sign of her fate, so too do some Lord of the Rings counterparts, like Gollum or Boromir, or even a Shakespearean figure like Hamlet. Dany fits within these character types, albeit with her own personality traits and journey to the destination.

We heard a lot about how Daenerys wasn't her father. And it's true, in a lot of ways. Dany wasn't the Mad Queen in the same way Aerys was the Mad King. But she long seemed destined to repeat some of his worst mistakes, and ultimately she suffered the same fate too. There was no way for Daenerys to live. To die in the arms of the man she loved, having come so close to realising what she believed to be her destiny, was about as fitting an end as possible.