***This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones up through Season Eight, Episode Five. You’ve been warned.***
As anyone who has a Facebook account knows, there’s a lot wrong with the eighth season of Game of Thrones. Inconsistent travel times, character arcs eight seasons in the making being totally disregarded, the fact that Tyrion, one of the most intelligent men in Westeros, now has the IQ of a rutabaga…
I could go on, but today I want to settle one point: No, Dany’s descent into psychopathic mass-genocide WAS NOT properly foreshadowed.
Apologists for the show’s dark turn tend to point out a few of Dany’s more ruthless moments. She crucified slavemasters in the East, and she executes anyone who refuses to bend the knee to her—most notably Sam Tarly’s father and brother. Heck, even the showrunners point out that she wasn’t upset at all when Khal Drogo burned her brother, Viserys, to death with molten gold in the first season of the show.
Um, no. While these things reveal an inner darkness and violent tendencies, none foreshadow Daenerys needlessly incinerating millions of innocent civilians with dragon fire.
Those slavemasters she crucified? They were despicable people who had recently crucified hundreds of innocent slave children as a warning to the slave population about what would happen if they rebelled. Crucifying them was a strategic show of power to the masters of Slavers Bay, as well as a signal to the slaves that she was on their side.
Yes, she sentenced The Tarlys to death by dragon fire, but only after they fought against her. She even offered them a chance to live if they bent the knee to her, which they refused. Watching the scene, it’s obvious that Daenerys does not take pleasure in carrying out the sentence—but she has to. If she doesn’t, it will send the message to her enemies that she is weak and unwilling to do what is necessary.
Don’t forget that other GoT characters doled out similar death sentences to enemies and trainers. One of the first scenes in the entire show is Ned Stark—one of GoT’s few indisputably “good” characters—beheading a deserter of the Night’s Watch. Robert Baratheon, Cersei Lannister, and anyone else who had power and wanted to keep it would need to dole out death sentences regularly. That doesn’t mean they are crazy, or would massacre innocents. Heck, Joffrey was literally crazy, as was Ramsay Bolton, and neither of them ever massacred anyone.
And as far as her lack of emotion—or even pleasure—at her brother’s death, don’t forget that he was physically, emotionally, and verbally abusive towards her. Another character, Sansa Stark, actually smiled as her abusive husband (Ramsey) was killed. Is she all set to go on a killing spree, too? Of course not. If she did it would be just as unbelievable.
These things DO foreshadow something: Daenerys’ willingness to do anything to get the iron throne. She’s ruthless, and has a bit of a violent streak, as all Targaryens do—and as all rulers do. There’s always been a question about whether Daenerys would follow in the footsteps of her father, the Mad King, but so far we’ve seen no indication of that. In fact, there is far more to indicate she’s a good person, and would never needlessly hurt innocents. The reason she crucified the slavemasters, for example, is because they had slaughtered innocent children themselves. Why would she in turn do something she so obviously condemns?
Don’t get me wrong—I’m not opposed to Daenerys having a dark turn—but it still needs to be properly motivated. Here are some “dark” things I could have seen happening, based on her character:
-Daenerys learns that Sansa knows about Jon Snow’s true identity and claim to the throne, and has her assassinated before she can spread the information, despite the fact that it will hurt Jon Snow.
-Cersei uses civilians as a “human shield” around the Red Keep and Daenerys makes the strategic decision to attack the Keep despite the loss of innocent life.
-Daenerys grows paranoid that her most trusted advisors are plotting against her and begins executing them without real proof.
Each of these events would indicate a certain amount of paranoia and ruthlessness. Why are they more believable and in character than what the show actually did? It’s true that the seeds for Daenery’s “Mad Queen” arc were planted long ago—but you don’t get to reap that harvest without first going through a lot of different stages of growth. The three alternative scenarios I listed above are lower down on the spectrum of ruthless insanity. They’re saplings, if you will, while burning an entire city full of civilians—when you’ve already won the battle, mind—is the equivalent of a full-grown Oak tree.
If given enough time, Daenerys’ fall to this level of darkness could have been an awesome spectacle. The fact is, though, that the show runners chose not to give the story the time it deserves, for selfish reasons (namely, they need time to work on the next Star Wars trilogy.) That’s the true reason that season six is the worst yet.
If you want more great reasons of why Daenerys’ fall wasn’t properly foreshadowed, check out Jeremy Jahns’ video of why foreshadowing does not equal character development.
What are your thoughts on “The Bells”, and Season Eight of Game of Thrones in general? Let me know in the comments!
