So I wasn’t going to write about Thrones until it was over but oh boy the Dany stuff and in a lot of ways the reaction that’s spun up around it. I feel like I have to work some things out and write through it.
WARNING: Spoilers through episode four! FYI there are spoilers about the end that seem to be leaning toward true. I’m not going to talk about them here but just be careful if you’re out there on the Internet.
Disclaimer: If you are enjoying the show and don’t want to hear anything bad about it that’s wonderful! Enjoy it. I get it. No one’s stopping you. Don’t read this. There’s a lot of good things and hard work on this show but for what its worth my biggest problem with the show is and has always been the writing.
And what it might mean for the books but for now this is just about the show.
Dany should have stopped listening to Tyrion long ago.
I found in the last season especially this idea that Dany could be controlled if she listened to Tyrion bloody patronizing at best. The fact that it seems to be coming up again in a different manner is driving me to distraction.
Because she did listen to him. She took his advise first and foremost on her whole invasion and it was an utter disaster an absolute loss (which seemed to consistently benefit his brother and sister and kill and destroy Dany allies that he had personal reason to dislike.)
I assumed when she found out Cersei had screwed them over and the wight hunt and loss of one dragon had happened Tyrion would at least be out of a job but now Jorah vouched for him. Another dragon is killed and he gets her still to agree to try to negotiate with Cersei, again, so she and Grey Worm can watch the horrible execution of the completely innocent Missandei one of the few characters in this show that isn’t even gray!
I was spoiled for this death but I found the most upsetting part seeing her body fall to the ground from the gates. If not for having to look at an up close view of Tyrion’s, “Oh no what is Dany going to do now face.”
How many people is Cersei going to have to kill? Why does everyone consider her going mad? Because Tyrion and Varys say so and Sansa doesn’t like her?
She’s been driven into the ground by the actions of the people around her and yeah I can’t help but feel if this was Arya for instance, if we didn’t have the Mad Queen label being thrown around the reaction would be, “Yes Queen burn it down! Burn it all down!” Is it a thin line between vengeance and madness or is it mostly based on popularity?
Arrest the Lot of Hypocrites
Tyrion and Varys don’t work as the conscious part and definitely not moral men. No matter how golden the show has painted Tyrion and he’s way worse in the book- he knew what a monster Joffrey was and he fought hard and also employed the wildfire in order to keep him on the throne. He also strangled Shae to death. Oh wait she went for the knife on the show… :/
All fair. And people can change of course. But maybe a little navel gazing about the things he had done for power would make this a bit easier to swallow. Maybe if Dany’s losses last season hadn’t benefitted him in any way… At this point Tyrion’s morality has never extended to his family- which maybe shouldn’t be a surprise since the show runners think Tywin was justified at the Red Wedding.
Meanwhile Varys is a mess. Remove Aegon and he’s been pointless the last couple of seasons. He’s jumping ship to Jon but you’re talking about a man who supported Robert, Joffrey, and the Mad King. On the show he says he’s ‘for the realm’ and again without Aegon I think we’re supposed to take him at face value. But who appointed this guy the judge of what’s best for the realm? Any why should we buy it?
There is a part of me that can’t help but think he wants Jon because he knows he’d be a weak King. He pretty much shots down them getting married (ridiculous) because she’d be able to control him. Surely it would be better in Varys mind if Varys was controlling him.
I think that’s what annoys me most. I hate hypocrites and there’s nothing worse than those claiming the moral high ground.
The Claim and the Crazy
Dump his Ass
Without going to far into Mr. I Fail Up as far as I can tell at this point the truth about his paternity, one of the biggest points of the series, and its only purpose has been to be used against Dany.
I see a lot of people who aren’t liking this Mad Queen stuff still saying that her not wanting to give up her claim and be his consort makes her selfish, ambition, unreasonable, etc.
But in show-verse why the hell should she automatically give up her claim? Cersei’s butt is sitting on the throne because she blew up the Sept and took it basically. The incest was fairly well known, Robert’s heirs are dead, she was there and she’s willing to kill for it and no one talks about her “claim.”
Claim has seemed to be based on who has the power to take it. Dany has that power but for some reason, probably because it’s Mr. Perfection where talking about here she’s supposed to lose everything and give it up to him so she can be generous and reasonable?
Also the thing about the Mad Queen “just like her father,” the thing about the Targs was you basically flip a coin with their sanity so why is Jon getting a pass? No one’s worried about his sanity? Aerys was actually apparently fine when he was young. I mean Jon would be his grandson and Rhaeger’s his father with his paternity meaning nothing in the larger war with the White Walkers (so far) dad was pretty much a selfish shit head. Ugh. Yeah but at least it can further isolate and push Dany’s buttons.
So there’s a lot of interesting things to debate in this storyline including why starvation is a better or kinder tactic than a fast strike in one area though she lost the chance for that last season. How many people is Cersei allowed to kill before enough is enough? Is Dany being held to a higher standard than other characters and why?
Will the show actually surprise me even though it never has before? I’m waiting too see how it plays out. I mean what is the Internet for if not over-reacting? 🙂
Don’t get me wrong I knew the Mad Queen could possibly be coming but the way its being done I actually feel sympathy for Dany for the first time since season 2ish! And since I actively wish the Night King had killed pretty much everyone else on the show (besides Ghost and the dragons and poor dumb Gendry) maybe that’s actually a good thing?
And don’t even get me started on the Hound’s comment to Sansa.
Head canon: Dany saves Missandei on Drogon grabs Grey Worm and says, “Fuck these losers let them kill each other,” and has a happy retirement on some tropical island somewhere.