I’m a big fan of Game of Thrones. Most people are. If you’re not a fan of Game of Thrones, there’s a strong chance you actively revel in the fact you’ve never watched it. And you scoff at the mention of its name as if that somehow makes you cool. And you say things like, “Nnnnyeaaaa, it can’t be better than Breaking Bad.” Well, it is. And you’re a bellend.

Anyway.

Following the latest episode, and Daenerys Targaryen laying waste to King’s Landing with her dragon and reducing innocent civilians and buildings to ashes so that there’s basically no capital left to rule, I’ve been reading a lot of the same criticisms on Twitter of the writing of this episode, and the writing of Daenarys as a character in general.

The criticisms claim that the show’s writers have butchered Dany as a character. That she would never descend into such madness. That she was supposed to be a liberator, a breaker of chains, a born Queen.

To that I say: Get the fucking boat.

With regards to the criticisms of season seven and eight in particular – that they’ve been too rushed and often poorly plotted and at times just downright ridiculous – I tend to agree. For the most part. Case in point: Tyrion’s plan to capture a wight. What the fuck was that shit? Pure stupidity and something somebody as intelligent as Tyrion would never suggest given the enormous risks involved. And then again to trust Cersei? Come off it. And also the lack of character development for Euron was shite. He just showed up, infallible and almighty. Crap. To be honest I could go on and on.

So yes, there has been a lot of lazy, poor writing in the recent seasons. But one thing I can’t agree with is the ridiculous takes on Daenerys going mad being a stupid decision by the writers. As if loyal fans and lovers of Daenerys have been betrayed by her descent into villain. There’s a number of reasons why I can’t get on board with this sort of moany shite.

Firstly, George RR Martin has confirmed that the show will end similar to how his books will end. He said he advised the producers and chief writers David Benioff and D.B Weiss on his intended ending from the get go, so they’ve known for a very long time how the show will end. I trust they haven’t just randomly decided to ignore Martin.

Secondly, the clues and outlines for Daenarys’ madness have been there from the beginning. Yes, her actual descent was rushed – and I’ve already agreed the pacing of the show has been far too rushed as of late – but there have been fan theories surrounding her madness for years. Go watch any Daenerys mad queen prediction video on YouTube. There are so many, going back years.

Now, just look of some of these tweets following the latest episode. (And check out my battery percentage. Nice.)

Did these people forget they are watching Game of Thrones and not The Lion King? Since when did Game of Thrones offer happy Disney endings for our favorite characters? Never. That’s why we love the show. It builds up our hopes only to fucking shit on them from glorious heights. Ned Stark, anyone? Robb Stark? Oberyn Martell? Game of Thrones subverts your expectations and forces you to rethink your opinions of characters like no other show. Just think of Jaime and how much we all hated him before loving him. (Yeah his ending was a bit shite though, I’ll agree with that.)

But let’s just have a quick rewind on Daenerys as a character, and why her madness was always a huge possibility.

She was born a Targaryen to an infamously insane father “The Mad King.”

Targaryens initially came into power, not through a democratic vote, but because Aegon the Conqueror arrived in Westeros with three dragons and burned the country to the ground until everyone agreed to bend the knee to him. So, Targaryens are ruthless mad bastards who don’t give a shite.

The Targaryen family motto is “Fire and Blood.”

Daenerys, from day one, spent her entire life at the side of her malicious brother Viserys. He would have told her all about the injustice their family endured as a result of Robert’s Rebellion. Thus, Dany would have been brought up on hate and a lust for blood and vengeance. And this hate soon manifested itself. Daenerys, a supposedly innocent childlike figure in the beginning, very quickly vowed to take back the iron throne, the ruling seat of a country she had never been to and whose people never knew her.

She swore to burn cities to the ground in order to do this. Her words were full of venom. She literally swore she would reclaim what was taken from her family through “fire and blood.” She said her dragons would kill anyone who stood in her way. The only thing that kept her possible madness in check though was the wise council of her closest allies – intelligent people like Jorah and Missandei. Both are dead now though. Including two of her dragons. A lot of those deaths were brutal too. Think of the emotional toll that takes on a person’s mental state of mind.

And with regards to her potential madness being kept in check by strong council, not even the likes of Tyrion and Varys could get through to Dany in the end. Jon Snow gave it a shot, and had a momentary breakthrough when he told her that burning down cities would just make her “more of the same.” But ultimately she just went nuts.

Before all that though, she was good, right? Nah.

This is where I can’t believe all the “No! Not Dany! She’d never be that evil!” shit the Twitter critics are spewing following Dany’s destruction of King’s Landing. She has a long history of cruelty.

At Mireen Danaerys crucified hundreds of slave owners. Pretty fucking gruesome.

“But what about the slaves she freed?” Yeah, what about them? She abandoned them, causing their country to descend into a civil war that has surely cost most of their lives and the lives of countless innocents.

And remember Randyl and Dickon Tarly? Samwell does. Dany burned them alive for refusing to bend the knee. Mental harsh. And did she show any remorse? Not a chance.

Is any of this painting a picture? Daenerys is violently ruthless. She always has been. She’ll do anything to be in power. Why is that? To break the wheel? Bollocks. She’s the epitome of what she swears to destroy. Any sane person can see that. Just look at her ridiculous “bend the knee” charade she played with Jon. And then look at how desperate she was for Jon’s silence when she learned he had a better claim to the throne. She fucking killed Varys for telling people this information.

She is a ruthless power hungry maniac. If breaking the wheel is all Dany wanted then she wouldn’t give a shite about the iron throne. She’d be happy to let Jon claim it and then let him break the wheel, because he doesn’t even want it.

OK, so she’s done some shit things, but why the madness? Well, Targaryens are famously mental, as already established. But also, nobody wants Dany and they’ve made that perfectly obvious. Her entire adult life, she has been preparing herself to return home and reclaim the iron throne. Yet when she finally arrives home she finds that everyone (in the north anyway) would rather Jon Snow as their ruler.

The people of Westeros don’t give a fuck about her. She expected them to all love her, like in Mireen (short-lived though it was), but nobody loves her. And on top of that, anyone Dany really cared about is gone now; Taken from her; Her closest friends and two of her dragons. Even Jon doesn’t want her anymore. And then when the people of King’s Landing didn’t revolt against Cersei and declare their love for Dany, like she assumed would happen, she just fucking snapped. Watching Missandei be brutally executed was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.

A lot of Daenerys’ initial appeal was hardly genuine either. Remember, she bought the unsullied. They never chose to follow her. In Mireen, where she experienced all that “Meesa” god worship from the freed slaves, don’t forget that she showed up in Mireen and had three scary fucking dragons. Yes she freed the slaves, so they loved her for that (again, short-lived), but who says no to three dragons?

Moving on. The Dothraki? She burnt down the Dothraki’s temple and killed their leaders, surviving the flames herself, so the Dothraki probably only follow her out of fear. If you saw someone walk out of a fire unscathed you’d think they’re some sort of sorcerer or god, so of course you’d do whatever they said.

Jon Snow then? Jon Snow only wanted Dany for her army. He never wanted her as a person in the beginning. He needed her soldiers and her dragons and her dragon glass. Recruiting her army for the battle with the night king was his primary goal. Falling in love with her wasn’t in the plans.

And what about Dorne, The Tyrells and The Greyjoys? They only followed Dany because they hated Cersei and wanted revenge or because they weighed up their options and (intelligently) decided to be on the side that had three fucking dragons.

So spare me the “this is terrible writing” bullshit with regards to Dany’s character arc. I’d love to see some of these keyboard warriors attempt to write something better. But some people are just pigeons. They shit on everything and enjoy it.

The same people who overly criticise these sort of things are the sort of people who sit on their fat ass eating chocolate and drinking coke while watching sports and critiquing the minutiae of an athlete’s performance.

Seriously, did anyone ever actually see Dany as a beacon of virtue from season two onwards? She’s been ruthless ever since Khal Drogo died. Yes, you may have liked her or rooted for her, but that doesn’t mean she never had the potential to not live up to your expectations. She was always a conqueror, not a ruler.

The show could have done a much better job with letting Dany’s madness play out over a longer period of time though. Amidst the rushed atmosphere of Season 8, Dany’s madness feels reactionary, like she’s lashing out. That’s poor writing. I’ll agree with that point.

I would rather have seen Emilia Clarke be given the time and material to portray such a vital character become what she swore she never was – a mad tyrant. That sadly wasn’t the case. However I still enjoyed the shock of seeing her kill everyone in King’s Landing. Great television.