It's Time For Daenerys Targaryen To Burn It All Down On Game Of Thrones

By Valerie Tejeda


Warning: this blog post contains major spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 4 ("The Last of Starks").


in case you thought we were going to get a break immediately following the heart-pounding, terror-filled battle that was “The Long Night,” think again. Alternatively, the fourth episode of Game of Thrones Season 8 took two more beloved characters from us (R.I.P. Missandei and Rhaegal), and reminded us how truly evil Queen Cersei can be. So maybe it’s time the Mother of Dragons embraces her furious Queen" tweak ego to even the score?


When we first watched Daenerys Targaryen submerge herself into scalding-hot water in the very first episode of Game of Thrones we were immediately intrigued by this silver-haired protagonist. And by the end of Season 1, immediately after that iconic moment Dany emerged unburnt from the smoldering ashes with her newly hatched dragons, she cemented herself as a fan-favorite for the Iron Throne. Although she’s been plagued by her lineage since before she was place on Earth, and while in the seasons has had to constantly prove to others — especially her male advisors — she’s not like her father, the upset King" Aerys II that came before her. Tyrion Lannister, right now the Hand of the queen, and Varys have for the most part “tempered her worst impulses” and worked hard to keep her from following in her father’s footsteps. “The goal here's to remove Cersei without destroying King’s Landing,” Tyrion advises Daenerys in the most recent episode. And Varys later tells her, “Do not become what you have habitually struggled to defeat.” While Dany has made a couple of missteps while doing so (she burned the Tarlys alive with dragon fire for not bending the knee, as an example) she has for the most part shown she doesn’t immediately act in violence. The same, yet, cannot be mentioned for Cersei Lannister.


Cersei is the one true villain on Game of Thrones, a greater threat than even the army of the dead that our heroes once so greatly feared. She’s routinely one step ahead of each person (which apparently only Sansa’s aware of) and routinely has her own best interest in mind, using violence to protect that, at any cost. She's the queen of manipulation; she plotted the death of her first hubby King Robert Baratheon, murdered multiple Westerosis any time as soon as she blown up the Sept of Baelor, lied about sending help to conquer the Night King, and most recently shot down one of Dany’s dragons and beheaded her loyal advisor and dear friend Missandei — whose last words to Daenerys, by the way, were "dracarys" (the High Valyrian word for dragonfire).


Dany has officially reached her breaking point, also it appears she is about to go all “Mad Queen” on King’s Landing. Although is that such a bad thing if it means getting rid of Cersei?


While there really is merit to several of Tyrion and Varys's concerns, Olenna Tyrell gave the Mother of Dragons some sound opinions in Season 7 in regards to listening to her male advisers who were attempting to tame her: "The Lords of Westeros are sheep. Are you a sheep? No. You’re a dragon. Be a dragon." Although being a "dragon" means embracing a segment of herself that she’s been told to lock away.


Dany isn't a tyrant, or a monster.  She doesn’t wish to be the Irritated Queen. She isn’t here to "burn them all" like her father — she’s here for vengeance on Cersei and peace in the realm. She's claimed she’s wanted the Iron Throne so she can break the wheel, not become another cruel monarch that keeps it up and continues to oppress the innocent. Daenerys mentioned it herself while in Sunday night’s episode: "I’m here to free the world from tyrants. That is my destiny and I'll serve it, no matter the cost."


That cost has real potential to be the death of several innocent people, should Daenerys make it rain dragonfire over King's Landing. If the Angry Queen is to be let loose, then she’ll at least have to be tactical about it. Yet Dany has a higher end head on her shoulders than people give her credit for. Tarlys aside, she doesn’t have a pattern of killing innocent people like Cersei. At this point, it doesn’t appear that there’s another way to conquer Cersei besides a direct attack, however hopefully Daenerys can find a way to "rip her out, root and stem" without harming the human shield of innocents Cersei has placed indoors in the walls of the Red Keep.


Without consideration of how next week’s episode goes, we're getting the feeling that Daenerys might not be around by the end of the series. It seems they are setting her up for her Irritated Queen undoing (a self-fulfilling prophecy from her advisors, perhaps?) And with far less and much less people rallying around her (since the majority are gone at this point), she could might not directly even have the ability to take the throne if she gets Cersei off it.


Let’s just hope that if the show does kill Daenerys off, they wait up until she is has the chance to create some excellent progress for the Seven Kingdoms. It's the destiny she was meant to fulfill from the very beginning.