The Only Thing Worse Than a ‘Mad’ Daenerys
The late-breaking plot shift in <em>Game of Thrones’ </em>penultimate episode was sudden and swift and senseless. That is precisely what made it so terrifying.
This post contains spoilers through Season 8, Episode 5 of Game of Thrones.
Daenerys Targaryen, first of her name, has spent more than seven seasons of Game of Thrones accumulating power aided by a quirk of biology and magic: Her children have doubled as . In “The Bells,” the penultimate episode of the series, the ruler who would be queen of the Seven Kingdoms brought that fact to a horrifically literal conclusion. She chose the nuclear option. Riding—wielding—Drogon, Daenerys thoroughly ed King’s Landing, burning noncombatants alive and ensuring that many others would be crushed under the toppled stones of buildings felled by dragon fire.
