The Game of Thrones series finale aired with 19.3 million viewers. Immediately following the show, people flooded social media to protest the climax of the epic saga. Some fans even went so far as to make a petition for the eighth season to be remade, referring to writers David Benioff and D.B Weiss as “woefully incompetent when they have no source material to fall back on.” I consider this a bit unfair, since they had no source material save for one script a season written by George R.R. Martin since Jon Snow’s death at the end of season five and season six is still highly regarded. However, George R.R. Martin himself has said that he doesn’t plan on letting the end of the show influence how his books will conclude. While I agree that most of the writing in seasons seven and eight was rushed, and while I wholeheartedly agree with most criticisms of the finale (if you can go an entire season without adding a character in, he probably shouldn’t end up as king), I think that Daenerys’s ending, despite the criticisms, is an ending with a lot of redeeming qualities. 

So, I’ll say it: I didn’t totally hate how Game of Thrones ended and I’m here to defend myself.

Since the introduction of her character in episode one, Daenerys’s story has always sat somewhere in the uncanny valley of tropes. She nearly had a happy life until her husband, Drogo, died and she accidentally sacrificed her child in an attempt to save him. She was almost a just leader until she publicly, and without a trial, crucified the Masters of Meereen. She was a good leader in terms of surrounding herself with smart people until they said something she disagreed with and she turned on them. Varys was one of the most strategic men in Westeros and a valuable asset to her team, but when he spoke out against her she had him killed. So, really, it makes sense that the ending of her story would be a short-lived and violent triumph.

“Lannister, Targaryen, Baratheon, Stark, Tyrell they’re all just spokes on a wheel. This ones on top, then that ones on top and on and on it spins crushing those on the ground.”

Season 5, episode 8

Instead of “breaking the wheel,” Dany’s expression for destroying the ever-shifting power dynamic in Westeros, she did what most leaders of Westeros have done: she became another spoke. Daenerys became a victim of power and revenge despite claiming to be the person able to stop that cycle. Again, she fell right in between getting what she wanted and becoming what she loathed.

Another common criticism of Daenerys’s ending is that the writers tore down a strong woman in order to make her evil. I think that argument undermines all of the other strong women on the show.

Daenerys shares the screen with incredibly strong women, like Brienne of Tarth, the first female knight and a woman stronger than most men she fights, and someone who stuck to her promise to keep the Stark daughters safe long after Catelyn had been killed; Arya Stark, a little girl who ended up alone and running from the Lannisters who trained, with the wishes of revenge, to become an assassin who eventually killed the Night King; Sansa Stark, who watched her father executed, handled abuse from the Lannisters, her Aunt Lysa, and Ramsay Bolton and who eventually rose to become King in the goddamn North. 

I also think this argument implies that just because a character is evil they can’t be strong. Cersei Lannister, one of the most delightfully hated characters on the show, is also the woman who enacted the most overall change in Westeros. She became queen and used her power, albeit viciously, to its full extent. Cersei’s intentions were rarely moral, but she was one of the most crafty and three-dimensional characters on the show. Being a woman doesn’t mean you can’t have the same, planned-out demise that would be given to a man in the same role. That argument demeans the depth that can be given to a female character. 

I don’t think the writers pulled off as well-crafted of a character arc as they had intended, but I think that, at the end of the day, the foundation for Daenerys’s demise was there. I think it’s possible that, if they had utilized the thirteen seasons the show was recommended to run for, they could have succeeded without as much audience defiance. Despite the heightened speed of the last season, I still think that the writers succeeded in telling the story they’d been planning for Daenerys from the beginning. The clues, albeit lacking, point to Daenerys’s turn for the worst, and I think that the ending has more redeeming qualities than it has failures. 

Source

Petition- Remake Game of Thrones Season 8 with Competent Writers

Featured Image screenshot from Opening Credits | Game of Thrones | Season 8

Author