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[Mephansteras]

Sure, all of this may be part of the ending shared with them by Martin. But it's executed so poorly that it comes off as her acting out of character rather than as the culmination of her character development.

[McTraveller]

Eh I dunno - it was a "fast" slide, but it had lots of triggers:  her protector dies, she lost 2 of her "children", one of her close friends gets mechanically separated, her love interest betrays her (trust) and is seen as a political threat.  That's really a lot of stress to be honest - even without familial disposition.

Now, do we have to like it?  No - but isn't there a part of all of us that would love to just be like "Ya know what? I have a dragon  - who's gonna stop me?"

After all - we are on the DF forums

[MorleyDev]

Thing is, it needed better done foreshadowing. It needed showing. Show her her having difficulty stopping herself when the blood and fire starts flowing. Show that whilst she has righteous ideals she has difficulty with reconciling them with her violent impulses *even* when it comes to civilians, as opposed to only against the rulers and soldiers. Show her human heart in conflict with itself.

Have a few scenes in earlier seasons where Jeor and Missandei have to remind her that these are innocent civilians and not their masters, and to bring her back to sanity. Because every time they show her going burny, it's always been against soldiers or rulers. Just something to give an idea that they are grounding her against civilians and things could easily spiral out of control without anybody around to ground Dany. Then it'd make her going 'f-it burn them all' feel more earned from the creators.

As it is, I feel like we got told "Oh dear she could become like the mad king", but never really *shown* that she was close to that edge. She always directed her hatred at those who she felt deserved it: at rulers who abused her and innocents, at soldiers who won't take the knee when given the chance, at criminals. Not just wildly lashing out. Aside from the choice of weapon, that's no different from any other GoT ruler and not enough to qualify as foreshadowing.

Though in my case, the Star Wars comparison would be for Anakin doing the 'I joined the Dark Side, time to kill all the little kids!' nonsense. I get "Dany's a Targaryen and they can go crazy"  but this really seemed to skip all the signs of a slide into madness and looked more like someone tripping on a pebble and falling off a cliff rather than even a rapid slide towards madness.

At least with Anakin, it's something he'd done before. The Sand People killed his mother, so he killed them. And not just the men, but the women. And the children too! And the chickens, oh yes even the chickens. The Jedi were (in his mind) killing his Wife, so it makes sense and is decently foreshadowed that when he gives into the Dark Side suddenly children become acceptable targets. Not amazingly well executed, but looking back they are least tried to show instead of just telling you "something Dark side something dead children".

Yes, I am saying the Star Wars prequels did the slide to darkness and foreshadowing better than GoT just did. But I'd also take the Prequels over Episode 7 and 8 so...

[Digital Hellhound]

I thought it was a pretty natural conclusion for Dany's character arc in the last few seasons. It could've used more build-up and a more believable trigger in this episode, sure, but it's been foreshadowed very heavily for ages. I was very happy to see something finally come out of all that.

[Mephansteras]

My issue was that she'd won. It wasn't that she decided to burn everything as an overreaction to the battle going a little poorly, or some fear that Cersi would get away. It was just showing her looking over this victory and going 'Nope, not good enough, I'm going to murder a million people'.

It could have been done so much better. It needed a trigger in the battle to show why she tipped over the edge to killing off defenseless civilians.

[Xantalos]

I guess Dany just really hates bells.

That did come completely out of left field for me, though it was spectacular in the visual department.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Of course one dragon causes more destruction than the entirety of the Night King's army, dragon included, did lol

I honestly thought Dany was gonna go burn the Red Keep when the city surrendered, not the whole city. Y'know, kill Cersei because she doesn't deserve to surrender, and if a few civilians die when the Keep comes down, so be it. Having her just torch the whole city doesn't really make any sense. Ah well, good thing I'm not invested!

Golden Company Guy dying in 10 seconds flat was amusing. Should've brought them elephants boi

Arya somehow regresses the regression of her character development, now is a Warrior of Justice (and also death symbolism, riding a pale horse and whatnot). Maybe they'll have her kill Dany? That'd be something I actually wouldn't find overly out of place. Still should be Jon to do it, Azor Ahai and whatnot.

Wonder what exactly those things Varys left behind are going to mean.

'We only need one good shot with our scorpions!' 'My queen all the scorpions are gone.' '...we only need one good shot with the Iron Fleet!' 'Sorry Iron Fleet broke' '......I have the Golden -' 'nope'

Cleganebowl would've been so damn cool were it happening in any other context. But as it is, it's like the rest of the episode - cool as fuck on the surface, dramatic and fun with one hell of an ending, but without any underlying reason to really care about it. I do like how the Queensguard became such mooks they didn't even get like 2 seconds before Sandor ate them. *echoes of barristan cake references ripple in from the past*

Uh. Can't immediately think of anything else to really comment on. Oh wait right, Jaime not strangling Cersei. They couldn't have figured out a way to finagle that? They included Cersei's prophecy in the show, so her dying like that kinda invalidates it.

[Ultimuh]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

About the whole Dany going berserk despite her having won..

To me.. It seem like she had so much anger built up over time.
And when the enemy army surrendered, it was as if her built up anger was still flowing had no where to go.
Of course, the writers could have handled it a little bit better, but I didn't see it as too far fetched for her to just snap.

[zombat]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Eh I dunno - it was a "fast" slide, but it had lots of triggers:  her protector dies, she lost 2 of her "children", one of her close friends gets mechanically separated, her love interest betrays her (trust) and is seen as a political threat.  That's really a lot of stress to be honest - even without familial disposition.

Now, do we have to like it?  No - but isn't there a part of all of us that would love to just be like "Ya know what? I have a dragon  - who's gonna stop me?"

After all - we are on the DF forums

This would've made more sense if the order of events was different.

Like if Jorra hadn't died at the Lone Night (could've been Greyworm instead) and instead it was him that got captured and executed instead of Missandei
The dragon could've died during the assault on kings landing, and it could've been this mother's grief, combined with losing her closest friend, that sent her on a Burn Them All rage

And really, this battle should've been before the Night King's invasion

'We only need one good shot with our scorpions!' 'My queen all the scorpions are gone.' '...we only need one good shot with the Iron Fleet!' 'Sorry Iron Fleet broke' '......I have the Golden -' 'nope'

Did anyone else immediately think of Downfall meme?

[Trekkin]

I don't know why everyone's complaining about finally getting the show they've memed about for years. The present tomfoolery is just every "when u yeet ur whatever YAAS KWEEN [picture of Dany/Cersei/Arya]" meme strung together with better special effects.

[NRDL]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

About the whole Dany going berserk despite her having won..

To me.. It seem like she had so much anger built up over time.
And when the enemy army surrendered, it was as if her built up anger was still flowing had no where to go.
Of course, the writers could have handled it a little bit better, but I didn't see it as too far fetched for her to just snap.

I agree with this.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Daenerys has lost all of her real friends ( Jorah and Missandei ), everyone else around her has betrayed her in some shape or form. She knows the people of this country won't love her, and she has a gut feeling that they will all happily support Jon over her.

She knows that if she just accepts this surrender, kills only Cersei and shows as much mercy as the people around her want to, people will still inevitably challenge her and defy her. Hence her "Fear it is, then" line to Jon Snow.

[TD1]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[ChairmanPoo]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I have the evidence that the Night King was a Stark

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We even know which one!

[Arx]

Most of my GoT-watching friends are also serious WoW fans. I dunno if there are any people fitting that profile here, but I made this after a certain comparison came up:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Ulfarr]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

About the whole Dany going berserk despite her having won..

To me.. It seem like she had so much anger built up over time.
And when the enemy army surrendered, it was as if her built up anger was still flowing had no where to go.
Of course, the writers could have handled it a little bit better, but I didn't see it as too far fetched for her to just snap.

I agree with this.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Daenerys has lost all of her real friends ( Jorah and Missandei ), everyone else around her has betrayed her in some shape or form. She knows the people of this country won't love her, and she has a gut feeling that they will all happily support Jon over her.

She knows that if she just accepts this surrender, kills only Cersei and shows as much mercy as the people around her want to, people will still inevitably challenge her and defy her. Hence her "Fear it is, then" line to Jon Snow.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Not that it matters much with only one episode left but I would like to think it wasn't so much a descent into madness but a calculated display of power instead.  She has no meaningful or loyal ally in westeros, her court* was made up from dodgy ex slaves (Missandei, Greyworm) or discredited (Varys, Jorah, Tyrion) lords and her most powerful vassals (Northmen and Vale) would only serve her because of Jon/Sansa. Now as much as a marriage between Daenerys and Jon would solve pretty much everything, Jon has already been shown to be reluctant to that and somewhat immune to both her emotional and sexual manipulation. Something that none of her other love interests was.

From a political POV it seems to me she didn't have much choice if she wants to achieve total domination without having to rely on Jon's whims. She also had to reestablish to her "allies" the power that her dragons represent, they had already seen two of them die like flies depraving them of their fear factor.

Heyy I just made a sensible narrative out of that horrible mess of an episode

[Loud Whispers]

tbh I expected the Danaerys ending to occur and thought it was a natural culmination of her character's internal conflict which she has been dealing with since s1; she is the progeny of the Mad King and throughout the show she teetotters between her compassion and her desire to burninate the countryside with their thatched roof cottages.

As it is, I feel like we got told "Oh dear she could become like the mad king", but never really *shown* that she was close to that edge. She always directed her hatred at those who she felt deserved it: at rulers who abused her and innocents, at soldiers who won't take the knee when given the chance, at criminals. Not just wildly lashing out. Aside from the choice of weapon, that's no different from any other GoT ruler and not enough to qualify as foreshadowing.

Nah she crucified hundreds of innocent men, incinerated POWs and regularly burninated anyone who wouldn't submit. Not exactly a Robert Baratheon, much more of an Aegon

Danaerys has always had a bit of Mad King in her. Not to say I disagree with the rest of your post, I just think the problem was the pacing, not the idea - they switch the tone from happy Dany music to mad Dany music very abruptly so to say, but the melody was alluding to that crescendo

Danaerys's character development was a good note for me, even if the note was played off-key. Everything else was surprisingly blunt and unemotional, and I felt as much satisfaction watching the conclusion of several years of character and plot development as I would when eating air. Godspeed are lads, we have one more episode left, then it's bid adieu