I haven't seen anyone saying that the Dany turn came "out of nowhere".
I did, however, clearly illustrate how it was handled terribly. Almost as if GRRM told the show writers that was how it needed to end, and they lacked any ability to bring it from point A to point B in a coherent fashion.
There was no prior event from Daenerys that precipitated changing the targets of her ire from her enemies to innocents AND there was no trauma she experienced in the moment that properly sets up the "she just snapped" defense. Furthermore, the setup was so easy to make that trauma happen (as I illustrated in my long post on this page), a conscientious fan could have a lot of trouble not looking on this episode as a disappointment, regardless of the eye candy or the end result.
In other words, everyone who has read a fan forum already knew that the fans were expecting Dany to go blood-mad. The end plot point is fine. The way they got there was amateurish and sad.
When a unstable person goes into war on a flaming dragon you're telling me a person can't just snap in the heat of battle especially when staring at the place that holds one of your biggest enemies that chopped the head off one of your best friends? Yeah sure man, ok. She had tons of trauma in her before the battle even started leading up to it.
First, you ignore that at the point she "snapped" was the exact point she won when the bells rang. You don't snap when you win, you snap when you see your friend's head chopped off. Yet she held off attacking the citizens until the point she won, meaning she did this deliberately and with clear thought.
I mean, honestly, in the last episode, do you think it'll start off with her crazy mad, incoherent and trying to kill everyone else, like her father? Or will it start off with her trying to rationalize what she did (likely the stupid "they need to fear me" argument)? It goes without saying that it is number 2 (the writers aren't *that* bad). It'll be a dumb episode of testing Jon's resolve and beliefs, watching him mope around and we wonder will she accept her as queen, which ultimately he won't, and he or someone else will likely kill her.
Regardless, if she was in clear mind when she did this (she was), then she, you know, should at least be in character. Yet this is the character who all throughout her life has been fighting for the people she killed, and said she would not be a tyrant or harm the innocent. Remember, "I will not be the queen of ashes" in f'ing season 7. She didn't snap, it was deliberate and planned. Except Dany would never do this, and was done for the sake of the plot and to be "shocking".
I guarantee you, watch the last episode, she'll be back to being Dany and trying to justify what she did for her rule. And just to be clear, I never really liked Dany, and seeing her go into a downward spiral to her demise would have been an interesting character downfall and cool way to end the story.... you know... if it hadn't been done over the course of 3 scenes in 2 episodes.
You're missing some key elements here. Dany didn't give a shit about the bells. She's been holding back or getting held back pretty much her whole life, the bells was just the latest example. The bells once again were just denying her justice, progress and sacrifice to herself. Most times she has listened to her advisors (holding back) it has been at great cost to her. And all the while her power is slipping, no one respects her even tho she saved all there asses prior, she needed to do something dramatic to regain any sort of power before it was to late. Fear was her only option left, not only that but delivering a clear message to Cersei and everyone else that had underestimated her and turned their back on her.
There was no prior event from Daenerys that precipitated changing the targets of her ire from her enemies to innocents AND there was no trauma she experienced in the moment that properly sets up the "she just snapped" defense. Furthermore, the setup was so easy to make that trauma happen (as I illustrated in my long post on this page), a conscientious fan could have a lot of trouble not looking on this episode as a disappointment, regardless of the eye candy or the end result.
I think you missed my post and the vary blunt explanation given in the show itself, which is that she didn't snap. She made a calculated judgment. Before (in easteros) she did not need to slaughter the innocents because they welcomed and loved her. As she expressly stated several times in this episode and before, she had no love in westeros. Her only option was to rule by fear, so that's what she was trying to accomplish by razing the city. She's not mad. She's always been narcissistic, only before she could do it while making herself feel good about freeing slaves, and now she can't
I mean, certainly that's the other way they could take this.
They could commit to the bit in the last episode and have people say she's mad, and have her throw it back at them that she's fully in control and what not. I just don't think that's how they're going to play it. I think she's going to play the unhinged despot for the last episode and it will all be hackneyed and predictable.
We'll see, though.
@DarkArchon
As I said, the fact that she went crazy (whether she deliberately slaughtered innocents or lost control, it's pretty crazy either way), is not really my complaint. The fact that they missed out on some very compelling story opportunities is my issue.
Honestly, wtf did Rhaegal's death in ep.4 accomplish? It would have been a much more "useful" death if they had done as I described last page. I just don't find myself believing that this character would do what she did at that time, and even though that's a subjective statement, what isn't subjective is how many other ways they could have chosen to up the believable factor . . . and the interesting factor as well, for that matter.
On another note, anyone realize that we completely lost the Quaithe plot line? The chick with the glass face mask back in season 2??? Guess that's just something we'll brush under the rug along with Victarion Greyjoy and the Dhampfir (however you spell the drowned god priest).
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You're missing some key elements here. Dany didn't give a shit about the bells. She's been holding back or getting held back pretty much her whole life, the bells was just the latest example. The bells once again were just denying her justice, progress and sacrifice to herself. Most times she has listened to her advisors (holding back) it has been at great cost to her. And all the while her power is slipping, no one respects her even tho she saved all there asses prior, she needed to do something dramatic to regain any sort of power before it was to late. Fear was her only option left, not only that but delivering a clear message to Cersei and everyone else that had underestimated her and turned their back on her.
Dude, the only reason for Dany's snap was to make a COOOL episode so that we can watch dragonfire. Dont put sense into it, there is none. There was no sense in Jaimie going back and forth, there was no point in Arya going to the capital. There is nothing deep and clever about Varys's 'betrayal' other then a setup for mad queen. The only way for an arch/character to stay true and real is for the writers to forget about them and never show again.
After some time I can say that I could forget about all the silliness HAD DANY ATACKED THE RED KEEP DIRECTLY. Then it can spiral out to burning the rest of the city. Imagine people shoooting arrows and stones at her while the keep is being destroyed. Suddenly she gets hit, her eyes meet the shooter's eyes. He screams FUCK THE BELLS! JON IS THE TRUE KING! (becouse apparentaly every1 loves Jon, including 50ppl left in the North). Drogon consumes him becouse its awesome and the shit continues, add more wildfire into it or /w/e
On another note, anyone realize that we completely lost the Quaithe plot line? The chick with the glass face mask back in season 2??? Guess that's just something we'll brush under the rug along with Victarion Greyjoy and the Dhampfir (however you spell the drowned god priest).
Had to look her up to see who you meant (having never read the books). Seems like she was another adaptation casualty - understandable, given the sheer insanity that is the number of characters and plot threads in the books. At least she got to show up, however briefly.
I can't fault the show for trimming plot threads - given how rushed they've made the story in these last seasons, with them clearly just wanting to end it instead of fleshing everything they did use out properly first, I can't imagine the disaster it would have been if they'd tried juggling Lady Stoneheart and various other fairly major characters too.
They'd probably just have half of them get slaughtered in the Battle of Winterfell and the other half show up dramatically in King's Landing in time to catch a fireball to the face. It'd be a better ending for them than some of the existing cast have gotten.
Except Dany would never do this, and was done for the sake of the plot and to be "shocking".
Let's take a look at what Dany has done throughout the show, shall we?
Dany threatens to cut off her brother's hands if he hits her again
Dany watches without emotion as her older brother (heir to the throne over her) is melted to death by her husband
Knowing that the death of her Kahl husband will mean the end of her and her army, Dany sacrifices her unborn child to a witch in a misguided attempt to save him
Thinking all is lost, Dany burns the witch, her semi-dead husband and herself alive, only to survive and get dragons, because magic
Dany threatens to raze Qarth when they don't let her in
Dany has her Dragons incinerate the Warlock Pyat Pree
Dany locks Xaro in his vault to die of starvation
Dany burns the slavemasters of Astapor and steals their army of unsullied
Dany orders the unsullied to sack astapor and leaves the city ungoverned and in shambles to march to Yunkai
Dany sacks the city of Yunkai and leaves the city ungoverned and in shambles to march to Mareen
Dany instigates a slave revolt to take Mareen, then crucifies 163 nobles from that city
Dany has a great master burned alive and eaten by her dragons as reprisal for Ser Barriston's death
Dany gathers all the Dothraki leaders together and burns them alive
Dany declares her intent to "return their [slaver's bay] cities to the dirt," but is persuaded to by Tyrion not to do it
Dany burns the entire slavemaster's armada (what about the innocents?!)
Dany burns the Tarlys for not bending the knee
Yes. Dany is was a totally kind a delightful ruler up until season 8 episode 5. If anything is clear, its that the only thing holding her back the entire time from not doing this earlier were here trusted advisers, who are now all dead or untrusted
On another note, anyone realize that we completely lost the Quaithe plot line? The chick with the glass face mask back in season 2??? Guess that's just something we'll brush under the rug along with Victarion Greyjoy and the Dhampfir (however you spell the drowned god priest).
Had to look her up to see who you meant (having never read the books). Seems like she was another adaptation casualty - understandable, given the sheer insanity that is the number of characters and plot threads in the books. At least she got to show up, however briefly.
I can't fault the show for trimming plot threads - given how rushed they've made the story in these last seasons, with them clearly just wanting to end it instead of fleshing everything they did use out properly first, I can't imagine the disaster it would have been if they'd tried juggling Lady Stoneheart and various other fairly major characters too.
They'd probably just have half of them get slaughtered in the Battle of Winterfell and the other half show up dramatically in King's Landing in time to catch a fireball to the face. It'd be a better ending for them than some of the existing cast have gotten.
The sheer number of characters still alive in the books is part of the reason why I don't think GRRM has finished the books. It's gotten out of hand for him, and the show at least did the smart thing and killed off some of the characters that /should/ have been killed off in the books. Stoneheart and Mance are the first the come to mind, but I'm sure there are others (it's been so long since I read the books).
Honestly, while the writing is good in the books and each individual plot line is interesting (to varying degrees), the sheer volume of characters and plot lines makes the entire series as a whole too cumbersome. The books are out of hand and the plot lines are going in a mess of directions. Don't forget all of Dorne and the Iron Island storylines that the TV series (thankfully) mainly glossed over. Jeez, I just remembered the other, other Targaryen heir that the books decided to introduce on us, because of course that's what we needed.
This is what undid The Wheel of Time around books 8-10 (if you read them), but thankfully Jordan/Sanderson team was able to get through the slog of too-many-characters/plot lines and bring us to the end. GRRM is deeper in that mess, because not only does he have sooo many plot lines, they aren't even converging, and he feels the need to create two more plot lines when one finally finishes. I honestly don't think he'll ever finish the books, although after how the TV series is ending, maybe he will finish it off to set the record straight on his life's work.
I put most of the blame on GRRM for the bulk of the fail of the past two seasons. The quality of his writing markedly declined in his last two books and I get the strong impression he was overambitious with the plot and just ran out of ideas. Giving D&D an outline of the plot is pointless if he isn't even sure about it himself. What he is good at is writing about politics and building interesting characters. When the story becomes high fantasy and epic battles then he doesn't seem able to pull it off. You could remove the entire white walker supernatural threat from ASOIAF and probably have a more coherent story. He should leave the epic fantasy to Steven Erikson, who at least knows how to tie up a complex plot with a satisfying ending (and in half the time).
Except Dany would never do this, and was done for the sake of the plot and to be "shocking".
Let's take a look at what Dany has done throughout the show, shall we?
Dany threatens to cut off her brother's hands if he hits her again
Dany watches without emotion as her older brother (heir to the throne over her) is melted to death by her husband
Knowing that the death of her Kahl husband will mean the end of her and her army, Dany sacrifices her unborn child to a witch in a misguided attempt to save him
Thinking all is lost, Dany burns the witch, her semi-dead husband and herself alive, only to survive and get dragons, because magic
Dany threatens to raze Qarth when they don't let her in
Dany has her Dragons incinerate the Warlock Pyat Pree
Dany locks Xaro in his vault to die of starvation
Dany burns the slavemasters of Astapor and steals their army of unsullied
Dany orders the unsullied to sack astapor and leaves the city ungoverned and in shambles to march to Yunkai
Dany sacks the city of Yunkai and leaves the city ungoverned and in shambles to march to Mareen
Dany instigates a slave revolt to take Mareen, then crucifies 163 nobles from that city
Dany has a great master burned alive and eaten by her dragons as reprisal for Ser Barriston's death
Dany gathers all the Dothraki leaders together and burns them alive
Dany declares her intent to "return their [slaver's bay] cities to the dirt," but is persuaded to by Tyrion not to do it
Dany burns the entire slavemaster's armada (what about the innocents?!)
Dany burns the Tarlys for not bending the knee
Yes. Dany is was a totally kind a delightful ruler up until season 8 episode 5. If anything is clear, its that the only thing holding her back the entire time from not doing this earlier were here trusted advisers, who are now all dead or untrusted
First of all, she absolutely did not sacrifice her child willingly. And I'm not counting threats; that can be posturing.
100% of actual actions you listed involve people directly threatening her or the slaves.
Meanwhile, she stops Dothraki from raping, limits the Astapor casualties to "soldiers and any man with a whip", takes Yunkai peacefully, limits the retribution against the Mureen masters to one for each crucified slave . . . I have no idea which of these are supposed to come remotely close to the stunt she pulled this time around.
There is no direct link to be drawn from any past act to the actions of this episode, which is the very definition of poor character development. As I said in the long post, they could have bypassed a lot of this by adding some specific "in the moment" trauma for her to experience, but they did not. Everything was going well, and the city surrendered.
Three years ago, it was stated that GRRM had told the writers the ending of the story, but had not sketched out the specifics of how to get from the end of season 4 (around the end of current book material) to the end of the entire story. These writers had an end goal, but no imagination as to how to get there.
By the way, it is now confirmed that HBO had offered the writers a 10-episode run to finish this season. They chose to have a truncated final season. This fact does not lend me any sympathy to the "we had to hurry up and finish" argument.
And for the record, I am not defending the books. I am skeptical GRRM is going to live to finish his series, in which case I'm done reading fantasy epics. Already went through this shit once with Robert Jordan. But, at least the books still have the potential to pay off this series in a way that can satisfy fans. Time will tell.
Thanks Jaina. I shouldn't have posted that huge diatribe early in the morning. It will be buried by the time most people see it.
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First of all, she absolutely did not sacrifice her child willingly. And I'm not counting threats; that can be posturing.
Oh really?
“You warned me that only death could pay for life. I thought you meant the horse.”
“No,” Mirri Maz Duur said. “That was a lie you told yourself. You knew the price.”
Had she? Had she? If I look back I am lost. “The price was paid,” Dany said. “The horse, my child, Quaro and Qotho, Haggo and Cohollo. The price was paid and paid and paid.” She rose from her cushions. “Where is Khal Drogo? Show him to me, godswife, maegi, bloodmage, whatever you are. Show me Khal Drogo. Show me what I bought with my son’s life.”
First of all, she absolutely did not sacrifice her child willingly. And I'm not counting threats; that can be posturing.
Oh really?
“You warned me that only death could pay for life. I thought you meant the horse.”
“No,” Mirri Maz Duur said. “That was a lie you told yourself. You knew the price.”
Had she? Had she? If I look back I am lost. “The price was paid,” Dany said. “The horse, my child, Quaro and Qotho, Haggo and Cohollo. The price was paid and paid and paid.” She rose from her cushions. “Where is Khal Drogo? Show him to me, godswife, maegi, bloodmage, whatever you are. Show me Khal Drogo. Show me what I bought with my son’s life.”
From the TV Show:
"Only death pays for life"
"My death?"
"No, not your death, Khaleesi" unsubtle plotting look "Bring me his horse"
She does then say "Show me what I bought with my son's life" upon waking, but it is clearly in anger, and doesn't have the build-up it does in the books. In the show, it is clear she is tricked by the Witch - there is no nuance of pretending that she knew what price she was paying, and she is simply asking to see what she got out of the deal she was tricked into taking.
(Watching episodes 9/10 to find those lines was weird. Seeing Jorah again, and getting glimpses of Catelynn and Robb as I skimmed through to find the rights spots).
Anyway, apart from that, the rest of your points are poorly thought out. Was she a weak-willed, benevolent ruler? No, she was tough and made hard decisions for what she believed was right. And her core belief before she set foot in Westoros was that she was doing this to save innocent lives.
She threatened her incredibly abusive brother and did not feel remorse when his sorry ass died. Tyrion has done worse. Sansa has done worse. Stannis has done way worse.
The vast majority of your next points can be countered with "She was freeing slaves, and killing people who had owned them". Like, it sounds like you think she should have just let these despicable people she killed go with no punishment or something.
The burning of the Dothraki leaders again falls under "killing abhorrent rapists/raiders who were set on keeping her locked up forever". I've yet to see the issue. Is it a violent approach? Yes. Is it unwarranted? No.
The first questionable thing she's done is burning the Tarly's (and even then, again we've seen worse from supposed good guys like Stannis), which in no way warrants the dramatic shift from "caring about saving innocent lives to the point of being distraught at the death of one innocent child and locking up her dragons for it" to "fuck all y'all, nobody has been nice to me since I got here and my one girl friend died so I guess you can all burn".
Mad Dany is fine, and I have no doubt that the books will set it up loads better (especially since they can offer far more insight into her psyche as she falls) but the abrupt shift of "Oh she's not having fun at this party, guess the Targaryen curse has kicked in" from both her advisers to try and start setting it up in time was jarring, no two ways about it.
Let's take a look at what Dany has done throughout the show, shall we?
Dany threatens to cut off her brother's hands if he hits her again
Dany watches without emotion as her older brother (heir to the throne over her) is melted to death by her husband
Knowing that the death of her Kahl husband will mean the end of her and her army, Dany sacrifices her unborn child to a witch in a misguided attempt to save him
Thinking all is lost, Dany burns the witch, her semi-dead husband and herself alive, only to survive and get dragons, because magic
Dany threatens to raze Qarth when they don't let her in
Dany has her Dragons incinerate the Warlock Pyat Pree
Dany locks Xaro in his vault to die of starvation
Dany burns the slavemasters of Astapor and steals their army of unsullied
Dany orders the unsullied to sack astapor and leaves the city ungoverned and in shambles to march to Yunkai
Dany sacks the city of Yunkai and leaves the city ungoverned and in shambles to march to Mareen
Dany instigates a slave revolt to take Mareen, then crucifies 163 nobles from that city
Dany has a great master burned alive and eaten by her dragons as reprisal for Ser Barriston's death
Dany gathers all the Dothraki leaders together and burns them alive
Dany declares her intent to "return their [slaver's bay] cities to the dirt," but is persuaded to by Tyrion not to do it
Dany burns the entire slavemaster's armada (what about the innocents?!)
Dany burns the Tarlys for not bending the knee
Yes. Dany is was a totally kind a delightful ruler up until season 8 episode 5. If anything is clear, its that the only thing holding her back the entire time from not doing this earlier were here trusted advisers, who are now all dead or untrusted
Imagine what a terrible person one must be for threatening and/or killing her enemies? The very same enemies who'd do nothing less for her? World of GoT is not the modern USA or Europe, rather a harsh and merciless place where the only law that's commonly respected is law of the jungle - The weak are slaughtered, the strong prevail. Eddard Stark, a powerful and respected character, was at one point merciful towards Cersei and her children and boy did he felt the consequences of his kindness (or in GoT's terms: weakness).
You're comparing oranges to apples. Events that took place in S08E05 after bells started ringin' have nothing in common with all those things you mentioned here. But, if you have had watched the show through all eight seasons, you'd already know that. Apart from last (two) season(s), it's a pretty good show you know, I totally recommend it.
i apologize for this off-topic post, but why are my replies automatically marked as spam?
edit: nvm, i can see my post now
I don't know why it's doing that to you, but your post appeared because I removed the Spam marker.
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I am a finalist in this Class Creation Competition, so if you could give it a look I would be greatly appreciative <3
Let's take a look at what Dany has done throughout the show, shall we?
Dany threatens to cut off her brother's hands if he hits her again
*snip*
Yes. Dany is was a totally kind a delightful ruler up until season 8 episode 5. If anything is clear, its that the only thing holding her back the entire time from not doing this earlier were here trusted advisers, who are now all dead or untrusted
There's a difference between *could* and *did*. Yes, all of those things *could* have been building up in her, pushing her to the breaking point. However, just because something *could* happen, doesn't mean it did. And if this is what the writers were going for, you would think, you know, it would be a major plot point over the last couple seasons, the slow unravel of Dany to madness.
The point is that it was a terrible writing job, regardless of what why she did what she did. Either you are right and she did totally snap, in which case it's terrible writing because at no point did the show present any of this inner turmoil until the last two episodes. Or she did this consciously and deliberately to secure her place as queen and rule by fear, which is terrible writing because the entire previous 8 seasons she's drawn a very noticeable and strong line about hurting innocents, and that she wants to be a queen to end tyranny.
It will be the latter, of course. She'll be quite able-minded and un-remorseful in the last episode, and it'll all be about Jon and how he handles the threat of what her being queen means. It's the only viable plot line left; her going mad on us would be a boring final episode without drama.
Oh, and by the way, Dany realized leaving Astapor and Yunkai in shambles was a mistake, which is why she stayed in Mareen for years to stabilize the city and learn how to rule as a good ruler. Her advisors wanted her to sail to Westeros and take the crown, but she put off grabbing the crown to save the people of the city. Sure doesn't sound like Dany in the last episode, does it?
Character being different in later seasons than in earlier seasons = character progression, as long as we like the outcome
Character being different in later seasons than in earlier seasons = inconsistent writing, as long as we hate the outcome
come on guys
Let me correct you:
Character being different in later seasons than in earlier seasons as a logical result of his experiences and actions = character progression
Character being different in later seasons than in earlier seasons just for the sake of subverting expectations or plot requirements = inconsistent writing
But this wasn't out of nowhere just for shock value. In Jaime's case this wasn't the first time we've seen him be weak to his feelings for Cercei. In Dany's case, slowly being pushed the edge doesn't HAVE to be visually apparent or visible in one's actions (in other words, "she didn't do exactly what the Mad King did!" and "she wasn't written exactly like Heisenberg!" is a poor reason for criticizing the writing). Have you never seen someone just snap and do something completely out of character, IRL?
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Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.
Yes people can snap, But that scene could have been a lot better.Instead of bells they could have easily have a hidden scorpion fire at her dragon almost killing it after the surrender or show some hidden soldiers in civilian clothes attach her soldiers in view, both would have been more believable that just the bells. Up until that point she tried to spare the innocent so her action is kinda out of character. And If she wanted to kill her enemies why start with the civilians it better to start with the red keep, she is just giving her enemies in it time to run away.
Yes people can snap, But that scene could have been a lot better.Instead of bells they could have easily have a hidden scorpion fire at her dragon almost killing it after the surrender or show some hidden soldiers in civilian clothes attach her soldiers in view, both would have been more believable that just the bells. Up until that point she tried to spare the innocent so her action is kinda out of character. And If she wanted to kill her enemies why start with the civilians it better to start with the red keep, she is just giving her enemies in it time to run away.
how many times do i have to say it.
snapping like that results in irrational decisions. you are in fight or flight mode at that point.
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Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.
Great video laying waste to defenders of the episode/ the writing in general. Perhaps skip past the intro.
You can hate Dany, you can think the Mad Queen was absolutely the right choice(I don't, but w/e), and still think this episode and last season or two has been garbage.
Except Dany would never do this, and was done for the sake of the plot and to be "shocking".
Let's take a look at what Dany has done throughout the show, shall we?
Dany threatens to cut off her brother's hands if he hits her again
Dany watches without emotion as her older brother (heir to the throne over her) is melted to death by her husband
Knowing that the death of her Kahl husband will mean the end of her and her army, Dany sacrifices her unborn child to a witch in a misguided attempt to save him
Thinking all is lost, Dany burns the witch, her semi-dead husband and herself alive, only to survive and get dragons, because magic
Dany threatens to raze Qarth when they don't let her in
Dany has her Dragons incinerate the Warlock Pyat Pree
Dany locks Xaro in his vault to die of starvation
Dany burns the slavemasters of Astapor and steals their army of unsullied
Dany orders the unsullied to sack astapor and leaves the city ungoverned and in shambles to march to Yunkai
Dany sacks the city of Yunkai and leaves the city ungoverned and in shambles to march to Mareen
Dany instigates a slave revolt to take Mareen, then crucifies 163 nobles from that city
Dany has a great master burned alive and eaten by her dragons as reprisal for Ser Barriston's death
Dany gathers all the Dothraki leaders together and burns them alive
Dany declares her intent to "return their [slaver's bay] cities to the dirt," but is persuaded to by Tyrion not to do it
Dany burns the entire slavemaster's armada (what about the innocents?!)
Dany burns the Tarlys for not bending the knee
Yes. Dany is was a totally kind a delightful ruler up until season 8 episode 5. If anything is clear, its that the only thing holding her back the entire time from not doing this earlier were here trusted advisers, who are now all dead or untrusted
I stopped reading after the first two bullets. Viserys was basically Ramsay with platinum blond hair. If you take Dany threatening him or not being sad when he dies as forshadowing that she would commit mass murder, you are deranged.
You're missing some key elements here. Dany didn't give a shit about the bells. She's been holding back or getting held back pretty much her whole life, the bells was just the latest example. The bells once again were just denying her justice, progress and sacrifice to herself. Most times she has listened to her advisors (holding back) it has been at great cost to her. And all the while her power is slipping, no one respects her even tho she saved all there asses prior, she needed to do something dramatic to regain any sort of power before it was to late. Fear was her only option left, not only that but delivering a clear message to Cersei and everyone else that had underestimated her and turned their back on her.
I mean, certainly that's the other way they could take this.
They could commit to the bit in the last episode and have people say she's mad, and have her throw it back at them that she's fully in control and what not. I just don't think that's how they're going to play it. I think she's going to play the unhinged despot for the last episode and it will all be hackneyed and predictable.
We'll see, though.
@DarkArchon
As I said, the fact that she went crazy (whether she deliberately slaughtered innocents or lost control, it's pretty crazy either way), is not really my complaint. The fact that they missed out on some very compelling story opportunities is my issue.
Honestly, wtf did Rhaegal's death in ep.4 accomplish? It would have been a much more "useful" death if they had done as I described last page. I just don't find myself believing that this character would do what she did at that time, and even though that's a subjective statement, what isn't subjective is how many other ways they could have chosen to up the believable factor . . . and the interesting factor as well, for that matter.
On another note, anyone realize that we completely lost the Quaithe plot line? The chick with the glass face mask back in season 2??? Guess that's just something we'll brush under the rug along with Victarion Greyjoy and the Dhampfir (however you spell the drowned god priest).
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Dude, the only reason for Dany's snap was to make a COOOL episode so that we can watch dragonfire. Dont put sense into it, there is none. There was no sense in Jaimie going back and forth, there was no point in Arya going to the capital. There is nothing deep and clever about Varys's 'betrayal' other then a setup for mad queen. The only way for an arch/character to stay true and real is for the writers to forget about them and never show again.
After some time I can say that I could forget about all the silliness HAD DANY ATACKED THE RED KEEP DIRECTLY. Then it can spiral out to burning the rest of the city. Imagine people shoooting arrows and stones at her while the keep is being destroyed. Suddenly she gets hit, her eyes meet the shooter's eyes. He screams FUCK THE BELLS! JON IS THE TRUE KING! (becouse apparentaly every1 loves Jon, including 50ppl left in the North). Drogon consumes him becouse its awesome and the shit continues, add more wildfire into it or /w/e
Had to look her up to see who you meant (having never read the books). Seems like she was another adaptation casualty - understandable, given the sheer insanity that is the number of characters and plot threads in the books. At least she got to show up, however briefly.
I can't fault the show for trimming plot threads - given how rushed they've made the story in these last seasons, with them clearly just wanting to end it instead of fleshing everything they did use out properly first, I can't imagine the disaster it would have been if they'd tried juggling Lady Stoneheart and various other fairly major characters too.
They'd probably just have half of them get slaughtered in the Battle of Winterfell and the other half show up dramatically in King's Landing in time to catch a fireball to the face. It'd be a better ending for them than some of the existing cast have gotten.
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Let's take a look at what Dany has done throughout the show, shall we?
Yes. Dany is was a totally kind a delightful ruler up until season 8 episode 5. If anything is clear, its that the only thing holding her back the entire time from not doing this earlier were here trusted advisers, who are now all dead or untrusted
The sheer number of characters still alive in the books is part of the reason why I don't think GRRM has finished the books. It's gotten out of hand for him, and the show at least did the smart thing and killed off some of the characters that /should/ have been killed off in the books. Stoneheart and Mance are the first the come to mind, but I'm sure there are others (it's been so long since I read the books).
Honestly, while the writing is good in the books and each individual plot line is interesting (to varying degrees), the sheer volume of characters and plot lines makes the entire series as a whole too cumbersome. The books are out of hand and the plot lines are going in a mess of directions. Don't forget all of Dorne and the Iron Island storylines that the TV series (thankfully) mainly glossed over. Jeez, I just remembered the other, other Targaryen heir that the books decided to introduce on us, because of course that's what we needed.
This is what undid The Wheel of Time around books 8-10 (if you read them), but thankfully Jordan/Sanderson team was able to get through the slog of too-many-characters/plot lines and bring us to the end. GRRM is deeper in that mess, because not only does he have sooo many plot lines, they aren't even converging, and he feels the need to create two more plot lines when one finally finishes. I honestly don't think he'll ever finish the books, although after how the TV series is ending, maybe he will finish it off to set the record straight on his life's work.
I put most of the blame on GRRM for the bulk of the fail of the past two seasons. The quality of his writing markedly declined in his last two books and I get the strong impression he was overambitious with the plot and just ran out of ideas. Giving D&D an outline of the plot is pointless if he isn't even sure about it himself. What he is good at is writing about politics and building interesting characters. When the story becomes high fantasy and epic battles then he doesn't seem able to pull it off. You could remove the entire white walker supernatural threat from ASOIAF and probably have a more coherent story. He should leave the epic fantasy to Steven Erikson, who at least knows how to tie up a complex plot with a satisfying ending (and in half the time).
First of all, she absolutely did not sacrifice her child willingly. And I'm not counting threats; that can be posturing.
100% of actual actions you listed involve people directly threatening her or the slaves.
Meanwhile, she stops Dothraki from raping, limits the Astapor casualties to "soldiers and any man with a whip", takes Yunkai peacefully, limits the retribution against the Mureen masters to one for each crucified slave . . . I have no idea which of these are supposed to come remotely close to the stunt she pulled this time around.
There is no direct link to be drawn from any past act to the actions of this episode, which is the very definition of poor character development. As I said in the long post, they could have bypassed a lot of this by adding some specific "in the moment" trauma for her to experience, but they did not. Everything was going well, and the city surrendered.
Three years ago, it was stated that GRRM had told the writers the ending of the story, but had not sketched out the specifics of how to get from the end of season 4 (around the end of current book material) to the end of the entire story. These writers had an end goal, but no imagination as to how to get there.
By the way, it is now confirmed that HBO had offered the writers a 10-episode run to finish this season. They chose to have a truncated final season. This fact does not lend me any sympathy to the "we had to hurry up and finish" argument.
And for the record, I am not defending the books. I am skeptical GRRM is going to live to finish his series, in which case I'm done reading fantasy epics. Already went through this shit once with Robert Jordan. But, at least the books still have the potential to pay off this series in a way that can satisfy fans. Time will tell.
Thanks Jaina. I shouldn't have posted that huge diatribe early in the morning. It will be buried by the time most people see it.
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Oh really?
From the TV Show:
"Only death pays for life"
"My death?"
"No, not your death, Khaleesi" unsubtle plotting look "Bring me his horse"
She does then say "Show me what I bought with my son's life" upon waking, but it is clearly in anger, and doesn't have the build-up it does in the books. In the show, it is clear she is tricked by the Witch - there is no nuance of pretending that she knew what price she was paying, and she is simply asking to see what she got out of the deal she was tricked into taking.
(Watching episodes 9/10 to find those lines was weird. Seeing Jorah again, and getting glimpses of Catelynn and Robb as I skimmed through to find the rights spots).
Anyway, apart from that, the rest of your points are poorly thought out. Was she a weak-willed, benevolent ruler? No, she was tough and made hard decisions for what she believed was right. And her core belief before she set foot in Westoros was that she was doing this to save innocent lives.
She threatened her incredibly abusive brother and did not feel remorse when his sorry ass died. Tyrion has done worse. Sansa has done worse. Stannis has done way worse.
The vast majority of your next points can be countered with "She was freeing slaves, and killing people who had owned them". Like, it sounds like you think she should have just let these despicable people she killed go with no punishment or something.
The burning of the Dothraki leaders again falls under "killing abhorrent rapists/raiders who were set on keeping her locked up forever". I've yet to see the issue. Is it a violent approach? Yes. Is it unwarranted? No.
The first questionable thing she's done is burning the Tarly's (and even then, again we've seen worse from supposed good guys like Stannis), which in no way warrants the dramatic shift from "caring about saving innocent lives to the point of being distraught at the death of one innocent child and locking up her dragons for it" to "fuck all y'all, nobody has been nice to me since I got here and my one girl friend died so I guess you can all burn".
Mad Dany is fine, and I have no doubt that the books will set it up loads better (especially since they can offer far more insight into her psyche as she falls) but the abrupt shift of "Oh she's not having fun at this party, guess the Targaryen curse has kicked in" from both her advisers to try and start setting it up in time was jarring, no two ways about it.
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Imagine what a terrible person one must be for threatening and/or killing her enemies? The very same enemies who'd do nothing less for her? World of GoT is not the modern USA or Europe, rather a harsh and merciless place where the only law that's commonly respected is law of the jungle - The weak are slaughtered, the strong prevail. Eddard Stark, a powerful and respected character, was at one point merciful towards Cersei and her children and boy did he felt the consequences of his kindness (or in GoT's terms: weakness).
You're comparing oranges to apples. Events that took place in S08E05 after bells started ringin' have nothing in common with all those things you mentioned here. But, if you have had watched the show through all eight seasons, you'd already know that. Apart from last (two) season(s), it's a pretty good show you know, I totally recommend it.
In death, I exact my revenge!
i apologize for this off-topic post, but why are my replies automatically marked as spam?
edit: nvm, i can see my post now
In death, I exact my revenge!
I don't know why it's doing that to you, but your post appeared because I removed the Spam marker.
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There's a difference between *could* and *did*. Yes, all of those things *could* have been building up in her, pushing her to the breaking point. However, just because something *could* happen, doesn't mean it did. And if this is what the writers were going for, you would think, you know, it would be a major plot point over the last couple seasons, the slow unravel of Dany to madness.
The point is that it was a terrible writing job, regardless of what why she did what she did. Either you are right and she did totally snap, in which case it's terrible writing because at no point did the show present any of this inner turmoil until the last two episodes. Or she did this consciously and deliberately to secure her place as queen and rule by fear, which is terrible writing because the entire previous 8 seasons she's drawn a very noticeable and strong line about hurting innocents, and that she wants to be a queen to end tyranny.
It will be the latter, of course. She'll be quite able-minded and un-remorseful in the last episode, and it'll all be about Jon and how he handles the threat of what her being queen means. It's the only viable plot line left; her going mad on us would be a boring final episode without drama.
Oh, and by the way, Dany realized leaving Astapor and Yunkai in shambles was a mistake, which is why she stayed in Mareen for years to stabilize the city and learn how to rule as a good ruler. Her advisors wanted her to sail to Westeros and take the crown, but she put off grabbing the crown to save the people of the city. Sure doesn't sound like Dany in the last episode, does it?
But this wasn't out of nowhere just for shock value. In Jaime's case this wasn't the first time we've seen him be weak to his feelings for Cercei. In Dany's case, slowly being pushed the edge doesn't HAVE to be visually apparent or visible in one's actions (in other words, "she didn't do exactly what the Mad King did!" and "she wasn't written exactly like Heisenberg!" is a poor reason for criticizing the writing). Have you never seen someone just snap and do something completely out of character, IRL?
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Yes people can snap, But that scene could have been a lot better.Instead of bells they could have easily have a hidden scorpion fire at her dragon almost killing it after the surrender or show some hidden soldiers in civilian clothes attach her soldiers in view, both would have been more believable that just the bells. Up until that point she tried to spare the innocent so her action is kinda out of character. And If she wanted to kill her enemies why start with the civilians it better to start with the red keep, she is just giving her enemies in it time to run away.
Fuck D&D. Fuck the show
But what about the books? What about GRRM?
Fuck the books, Fuck GRRM
PS: Cleganebowl was actually insanely good from start to finish. at least that was good
how many times do i have to say it.
snapping like that results in irrational decisions. you are in fight or flight mode at that point.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONrUvj0-bjI
Great video laying waste to defenders of the episode/ the writing in general. Perhaps skip past the intro.
You can hate Dany, you can think the Mad Queen was absolutely the right choice(I don't, but w/e), and still think this episode and last season or two has been garbage.
I stopped reading after the first two bullets. Viserys was basically Ramsay with platinum blond hair. If you take Dany threatening him or not being sad when he dies as forshadowing that she would commit mass murder, you are deranged.