Before she was “ Queen Daenerys of the House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, The Unburnt, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Queen of Meereen, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Protector of the Realm, Lady Regent of the Seven Kingdoms, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons”, we’ve seen Daenerys pimped out by her own brother, Viserys, raped by her late husband, Khal Drogo before madly falling in love with him.
From there, we’ve seen Daenerys go on to conquer cities and free slaves only to have those she sacrificed for turn on her because she wanted to rid the city of its barbaric traditions.
Dany’s journey has been an essential part of the story in Game of Thrones and also teaches us some valuable lessons along the way. That lesson being that just because we feel worthy of honor, it doesn’t mean that said honor deems us worthy of being the recipient of it.
However, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t feel justified in our villainous tactics after nearly sacrificing everything for a cause and only getting the backside of others to kiss as the thanks for our servitude. Today, I am going to present to you the TUC 5 reasons why Daenerys Targaryen is justified in being dubbed the ‘Mad Queen’ right now.
5. Lack of A Reward for Her Trust in Her Hand (Also the Brother of her enemy)
Daenerys does not get enough credit for giving the past upbringings of others the benefit of the doubt. After all, she is the daughter of the ‘Mad King’ so who understands better than her that it is not good to be judged by the sins of your father or in Tyrion Lannister’s case, the sins of his sister, Cersei Lannister? Daenerys forgave Tyrion for his mishandling of the takeover of Casterly Rock when most of the Lannister forces retreated from the land and caused Daenerys’ army to get stranded on the island.
And although she gave Tyrion the side eye for mentioning a successor to the throne before Daenerys could even claim it for herself, the near breaking point was when Tyrion foolishly believed that Cersei would send her army to the north to help Daenerys and her forces fight the Army of the Dead. As we soon found out, that was not the case as Tyrion’s sister, Cersei remains as strong as ever, while the Queen, he is supposedly serving is getting weaker by the day, which is a sharp contrast to Daenerys’ story arc prior to the premiere of Season 7 when she lands on the shores of her home, Dragon Stone.
4. Her Judgment is Being Questioned More Than Ever
From the moment we are first introduced to Daenerys, she is immediately presented as a young naive woman in a world filled with savages who feels the need to protect her as well as make decisions for her because they have a lack of faith in her strength and tact solely due to the fact that she was a young woman outside of her element. It wasn’t until the closing scene of episode 10 of season 1 where Daenerys earns her title as the ‘unburnt’ after emerging from a fire with her hatched dragons that audiences come to realize the power that this woman possesses. However, what should have been the catalyst of Daenerys receiving the respect of all her comrades further turns into more deceit and more questioning of her character, because let’s be real, the woman was never fully taken seriously as a rightful ruler by those opposed to her.
The common groupthink amongst Daenerys’ enemies is that she is just a woman with dragons and if you take them out, she has nothing. Even at the present moment of the truth about Jon Snow’s origin, SHE is being presented as someone who should be cast aside in favor of a man that she feels did not put forth the groundwork necessary to claim the iron throne, although he in his own right, has made necessary sacrifices along the way as well. Daenerys’ own advisors are beginning to conspire against her and question her every move. Whether it is what punishment is honorable for TREASON or who she should trust when the said people that she trusts with her life are showing a lack of faith in her decision making. Daenerys was told that going into the fire was a mistake and she proved her doubters wrong. Now, she is being told that her plans to take over the seven kingdoms is a mistake as well and at this point, perhaps her advisors are right, but it is not without motives that are not in her best interest.
3. Where is The Gratitude ?
In Episode 2 of Season 8, Daenerys and Sansa have a much-needed conversation about the future of the North and the influence that Daenerys has on Jon or as Daenerys correctly puts it, the influence that Jon has on her due to her love for him. When Jon met Daenerys on Dragonstone, she reluctantly chose to fight with him against the Army of the Dead. After all, she had 8,000 Unsullied soldiers, a full Dothraki army, and 3 fully grown Dragons ready to conquer Westeros and sack Kings Landing to usurp Cersei prior to meeting the assumed “bastard brother’ of Sansa Stark. Not only does she live up to her promise of fighting alongside Jon, which is something that her hand’s sister failed to do, but she also would go on to lose nearly all of her armed forces as well as two of her dragons while fighting against the dead. And while Sansa and Tyrion were talking down in the crypts of Winterfell during the Battle of Winterfell against the Night King and his army about why Tyrion’s conflict of interest serving Daenerys and being her husband would be a problem, Missandei interjected and informed them both that without the Dragon Queen there would be no problem at all, because they would all be dead already without the services of Danerys. Again, WHERE IS THE GRATITUDE?
2. The Hurtful Truth
In the Season Finale of season 7 of Game of Thrones, the audience found out Jon Snow’s true identity courtesy of Bran “The Three-Eyed Raven” Stark and Samwell Tarly which is that Jon is the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark by marriage, therefore making Jon Snow the true heir of the Iron Throne as Aegon Targaryen VI. As one would expect, this was not a truth that Daenerys took to kind to as it soils everything that she has worked so hard for since Season 1.
What makes matters worse is whom the truth is coming from (the man she loves and now, her nephew) and the source of the truth (his perceived bastard brother and best friend who she admitted to killing his father and brother that he loved). It’s not a coincidence that we’ve seen Daenerys become unhinged reminiscent of her father, Aerys ‘The Mad King” Targaryen, as well as paranoid after receiving this news. Daenerys goes on to beg Jon not to tell anybody else about this bombshell news, which he would disobey and do anyhow, which ironically, may get his Queen killed in the process if Lord Varys’ intentions after receiving the news from Tyrion who would then receive the news from Sansa who sworn secrecy to Jon is any indication.
1. Her Love Has Got All Her Loved Ones Killed
Death has been synonymous in Game of Thrones and no character better exemplifies it than Daenerys. After all, the witch in season 1 informed Daenerys that “only death pays for life”. In season 1, Daenerys loss the life of Khal Drogo to gain the life of 3 dragons that will take in as her own children and hope to use in her conquering of Westeros. She lost her dragon, Viserion, in battle and then, would go on to gain the love and honor of Jon Snow. She would then go on to lose the life of the one man that who for sure loved her unconditionally, but who she admitted that she could never love back the way he wanted in Ser Jorah. In losing Ser Jorah, she along with the man she loves, Jon Snow lived on so that she could continue on with her pursuit of the Iron Throne. But now, this season we see more than ever what truly brings Daenerys life and that is her belief that she was destined to break the wheel and sit on the Iron Throne which Lord Varys points out to Tyrion is just words of every tyrant before Daenerys.
Missandei’s last words (Dracarys, which means burn them all) and death seem to serve as the breaking point for Queen Danerys. She has now experienced death from both sides of the coin. She loss loved ones fighting for a cause that was not her own and now has lost loved ones and the second of her three dragons fighting for a cause that she rightfully feels is her own. At the end of season 6 and prior to even meeting Jon Snow, Daenerys felt invincible. She had two full armies, the Greyjoy fleet, and three dragons backing her on her conquering attempt of Westeros. Last night’s episode presented a woman that surely knows that she is on her last legs and with everything that she ever loved and worked so hard for going down in flames. If Gangster movies and any other films of a triumphant protagonist on their last legs is any indication of what’s to come for Daenerys, it is safe to say that our Dragon Queen is not going to go gentle into that good night and she will go down “dragon blazing” until his and her own last breath. After all, when you go from having all of this
to just this in just 11 episodes while having your child and best friend murdered before your very eyes with all of your hopes and dreams going up in flames, wouldn’t we all go just a “little mad” as well?
