Thread by @RhiannonLotze

#GameofThrones *SPOILERS AHEAD*

My GoT unpopular opinion: Dany's descent into Mad Queendom was foreshadowed from the beginning and fits her character perfectly (a thread).

I'd love some calm, respectful discussion but will block anyone who responds to this with hate/disrespect.

#GameofThrones *SPOILERS*

Way back in season 2, Dany made a promise to "lay waste to armies and burn cities to the ground,” as a way to punish those she believes have wronged her. While you may be able to justify killing soldiers who are actively trying to kill you in return...

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...those cities she is promising to burn are full of innocent people, and she just threatened to kill them too. We dismissed these words as bluster. Jump to season 6, when Mereen is under attack. This time, Dany threatens to “crucify the masters."

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She promises, "I will set their fleets afire. I will kill every last one of their soldiers and return their cities to the dirt.” Again, the masters are actively attacking her and want to continue practicing slavery. It’s reasonable to want to kill them.

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But her promise of destroying their cities, disregarding the innocent people who live in them, again gives us a glimpse of the madness living within her. Also in season 6, Dany comes up against some Dothraki whom she forces to pledge to...

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...“kill [her] enemies in their iron suits and tear down their stone houses.” This is the third time she has promised to kill the innocent people living in cities, not just the soldiers fighting against her. Oh, and she did this just after brutally...

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...burning several Dothraki Khals. Again, she was probably justified in doing so as they posed a threat to her safety, but it just shows that she has no actual qualms about killing.

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Finally, remember when Dany crucified 163 people because she believed they all had a hand in killing slaves? She was then confronted about her actions by Hizdahr zo Loraq, whose father was crucified despite arguing against the killings of slaves.

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For a character long touted to be fair and just, she has never had a problem judging the many by the actions of a few (which doesn’t seem all that fair to me). Despite all this, Dany had a redeeming quality: she listened.

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She was able to be talked down from acting on her worst impulses and she accepted that she made mistakes. So what’s changed? The answer to that question is comfort. Before Dany sailed for Westeros, she was safe in her rule, utterly uncontested...

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...and loved by the masses. She was /comfortable/ which meant she didn’t feel the need to flex her muscles by destroying anyone who MIGHT contest her rule. Take her to Westeros and all of a sudden, the people don’t love her and there’s another heir.

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She already had some insecurities about her rule (no one confident in their rule would spend as much time telling people “I am your queen” as Dany does). Now, her insecurities are proven true, which she didn't expect. All her life, Dany was told the...

#GameofThrones *SPOILERS*

throne was rightfully hers. They told her yes, her father did terrible things, but he was betrayed and she was rightfully the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. Not once did anyone say “hey, you know what, the people simply don’t WANT a Targaryen on the...

#GameofThrones *SPOILERS*

Iron Throne.” If they did, Rhaegal would have been made king in place of his father. She was always treated like a spoiled child who has never once been told "no." Now, her core belief has been shaken. Like a child, she is throwing a tantrum over it.

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By having her beliefs tested, there become only two choices in her mind: either she rules, or everyone dies. She's now in fight or flight mode. Like a caged animal (dragon), she is going to fight. Her fight means destroying any inkling of a threat.

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But you may then say that once the bells in King’s Landing were rung, Dany should have accepted their surrender. The fight was over. Losing her mind and killing innocents is outside of her character.

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Well, no. Again, she’s been promising to burn cities and kill citizens since season 2 now. We all just willfully disbelieved her. More than that, even though the fight for King’s Landing was over, the fight to secure Dany’s rule was absolutely not.

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The people not loving her is a threat. Jon being alive is a threat. So she’s still in fight mode and taking it out on those physically closest to her: the people of King’s Landing.

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Add fight mode to the fact that Dany is solidly in the second stage of grief, which is anger (or, in her case, absolute and consuming rage). Before now, Dany has never, ever lost anything she loved.

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Viserys (the only family she actually knew) was killed but to him, she was cattle to be sold off to a brutal warlord as a means to end. Sure, she loved Drogo but his death resulted in her children, the dragons, being born AND offered Dany her first...

#GameofThrones *SPOILERS*

...taste of the thing she actually loves most, which is power (back to the “I am your queen” thing: that’s Dany flexing her power every time).But now, all of a sudden, Dany has lost Jorah, two dragons, and Missandei, plus Jon's love. She's never had...

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to cope with loss before and she is not coping well at all. In her mind Cersei is (rightfully) to blame for the deaths BUT, like mentioned before, Dany (wrongly) punishes the many for the actions of the few. That is exactly what she’s doing here.

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By not actively turning on Cersei, Dany believes the citizens support her which is unacceptable.

Finally, many people are criticizing her descent into madness as happening too quickly. While I agree to an extent (I would have loved watching this...

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...play out subtly over time), it simply wasn’t possible. The writers were given the monumental task of wrapping up the most ambitious TV series in history in only 6 episodes with two major conflicts (& countless plot lines/character arcs) to wrap up.

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I would have LOVED to see an entire season each for the war w/ the Night King and the Iron Throne. But that wasn't given and the writers are working with what they have. I personally think they’ve done a great job and can’t wait to see what's in store.

@JamesHibberd also wrote a great article on @EW detailing some more foreshadowing moments I didn't have tweet space to discuss: bit.ly/2JkecTL