After much speculation, Game of Thrones confirmed Daenerys Targaryen’s fate, seeing her transform into the ‘Mad Queen’ during the episode ‘The Bells’. After much fury was raised by fans on Twitter, the series showrunners have spoken out about the reasoning behind the Mother of Dragon’s rage-fuelled twist.
In a dragon-filled rage, Dany ignored the bells of King’s Landing, which signalled the city’s surrender, and went straight for the Red Keep, burning everything along the way. The destruction brought about the deaths of Jaime, Cersei, the Hound, the Mountain and Qyburn and while some viewers considered Dany’s actions out of character, Game of Thrones creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff are standing by the choice.
“Even when you look back to season one, when Kahl Drogo gives the golden crown to Viserys and her reaction to watching her brother’s head melted off, he was a terrible brother, so I don’t think anyone out there was crying when Viserys died, but there is something chilling about the way Dany has responded to the death of her enemies,” Benioff told GoT’s ‘Inside The Episode’.
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He added, “And if circumstances had been different, I don’t think this side of Dany ever would have come out. If Cersei hadn’t betrayed her, if Cersei hadn’t executed Missandei, if Jon hadn’t told her the truth, if all these things had happened in any different way, then I don’t think we’d be seeing this side of Daenerys Targaryen.”
“Dany’s an incredibly strong person. She’s also someone who has had really close friendships and close advisors for her entire run of this show. You look at those people who have been closest to her for such a long time, and almost all of them have either turned on her or died, and she’s very much alone,” Benioff recapped. “And that’s a dangerous thing for someone who’s got so much power, to feel that isolated. So at the very time when she needs guidance and those kind of close friendships the most, everyone’s gone.”
Weiss added, “I think that when she says, ‘Let it be fear,’ she’s resigning herself to the fact that she may have to get things done in a way that isn’t pleasant, and she may have to get things done in a way that is horrible to lots of people.”
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According to Weiss, however, Dany didn’t decide upon total and utter destruction until those bells were rung. “I don’t think she decided ahead of time that she was going to do what she did. And then she sees the Red Keep, which is, to her, the home that her family built when they first came over to this country 300 years ago,” he said. “It’s in that moment on the walls of King’s Landing when she’s looking at that symbol of everything that was taken from her when she makes the decision to make this personal.”
See Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner on marie claire Australia’s June 2019 cover below:
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This article originally appeared on InStyle Australia.
