I’m still convinced if the last few seasons hadn’t pushed such a breakneck pace of getting through the rest of the story that this ending realistically could have worked. However, in the rush of time passing between episodes, we lost all the important character development needed to show Jon’s slow acceptance that she indeed has gone mad. We lost all the important character development to give her character time to go mad in a believable way. Everything was just too rushed and all the character development beats for Jon and Daenerys leading up to the end didn’t have enough time to show us how deeply these characters had changed. We didn’t have time to see Daenerys slowly change and become mad, and due to that, it feels like the ending is “wrong” because in our minds her character is still more of a savior, and her actions near the end of the series don’t make sense because we didn’t get like two seasons of her losing her mind slowly to build up to this.
We lost all the important character development to give her character time to go mad in a believable way.
When I argued this when it first came out all the die hard defenders told me I just wasn’t paying attention and it was sooooo obvious for such a long time that she was evil… Like… No man. That was absolutely rushed.
I mean, I didn’t think it was obvious she was evil as much as it was obvious that she would end up going mad because the show makes a huge deal of reminding us that Targaryens eventually go mad due to inbreeding. I think it was like Chekov’s Gun, they wouldn’t keep showing off this information if it wasn’t going to become important.
I think they planted the seeds for this ending early on, but absolutely fucked up and didn’t do anything to nurture the seeds after planting.
I don’t even think she is going to “go mad” like the Mad King or do something particularly wild like her ancestors, I just think she’ll lose her temper and everyone will blame madness.
For example a small change would be moving Rhaegal’s death from outside Dragonstone to King’s Landing. You can have him almost get hit or only mildly injured. Now when Dany and others attack King’s Landing you can have her be extra protective and try and keep Rhaegal under control. Dany can try and stay safe, almost getting hit, then Rhaegal gets hit and dies. Now, in that moment, she can lose her temper and burn King’s Landing.
When we see the people of King’s Landing talking in the aftermath we can hear hushed whispers of “Targaryen Madness”.
That’s a pretty solid take, where she doesn’t go mad, but the rumors are that she did, and it centers more than just the main cast, giving us insight into how the locals feel about her after all that. Maybe you should have written the ending ha.
Someday George will give us our ending. But more realistically after he passes a group of nerds will write a fanfic of all the best theories and that will be how we finally get our ending.
(And if no other nerds pick up the quill, I’ll lead the charge!)
The ground work was definitely there. She left her city undefended and basically crippled then sacrificed her horsemen. They didn’t really show the travel between the north and the south, it would have been a good place to slip in some crazy.
Oh absolutely, I thought it was pretty clear that she was always going to go mad, that seemed to be like Chekov’s Gun situation… why bring up how crazy they all went from inbreeding if it’s not going to play into the plot beyond a long-dead king who was never a direct part of the story since we start into the story when Baratheon is already king. Especially when her brother was clearly pretty mad already. Everyone in her family seems to lose their minds and become awful, it seemed pretty clear that’s where it was headed and that’s why it was actually important to have her character be played as a “white savior” because she actually isn’t.
They did a lot of good setup, but they didn’t do enough of actually giving that setup time to properly cook.
I suspect that could also be what’s apparently halted all progress on the novels - this may have been the general plan for the book endings, and GRRM saw how much people hated it and scrambled to change it. But yeah if he just did that ending and gave it space to unfold properly it’d probably be fine.
That’s my guess, too. I also agree that considering how long his books are, his would have given enough character development for the ending to work.
Full quote,
“That is the last thing I say before the cheeky little s— stabs me,” she said of her love interest Harington, who kills her in the final episode. “F—ing outrageous. I was so pissed. I was absolutely livid.”
And if you watch the interview she isn’t really angry, she (as Dany) is pissed that Jon stabbed her, which, yeah, no character likes getting stabbed.
That is what she is mad about…?
No, after that, she says how she herself really was “bummed”.
That’s a bit graphic for a casual interview isn’t it?
I could have forgiven it if they hadn’t butchered the White Walker/Winter is Coming apocalypse arc. For me, that was always the nucleus of the show (it is what they opened with, after all) and the reason I kept watching, whilst the political scheming and relationship drama was the sometimes entertaining, sometimes repetitive padding around it that I expected to be concluded before the final showdown. Ultimately they flipped that around, and it made a lot of the more interesting and mysterious elements of the show feel like they were completely wasted.
Political scheming was always the core of the show, but it was also always set against the backdrop of the White Walkers who were a force of nature. The game of thrones is just that, a game, and the game is inconsequential against the force of nature that are the White Walkers.
But you’re absolutely right that the White Walkers plot being resolved in one episode was a huge waste. Dany, who in many ways parallels the White Walker threat, had two seasons in Westeros proper before being defeated.
Realistically I think you need Dany to “give up” her aspirations for the throne (which we do see in the show when she makes a deal with Cersei) and spend a whole season fighting and ultimately defending Westeros (which again happens, but wayyyyyyyy too fast), and then feeling defeated/unappreciated takes King’s Landing because she feels she’s earned it.
Minor book spoilers/speculation
The book having fAegon will be an additional point of contention for Dany. Dany will make a deal with Cersei. fAegon will take King’s Landing, freeing it from Cersei’s rule. Dany saves the day, but now Cersei isn’t in charge so whatever deal was made is moot. Also fAegon has the better claim. So Dany did all the work, gets none of the credit, and doesn’t even have an evil ruler to overthrow.
But yes, skipping all the story that made the show interesting was a huge mistake.
Way to take a joke out of context for a clickbait headline.
Don’t blame her the show would have been better if she had saved the day and took the Throne.
Also Emilia is a lovely person both looks and personality, might be one of the nicest people in showbiz.
