'Game of Thrones' showrunners explain Daenerys' downward spiral in final season
'Game of Thrones' fans' petition for final season do-over hits milestone
Following the penultimate episode of the massively popular HBO series 'Game of Thrones,' a Change.org petition has surfaced urging the network to 'remake 'Game of Thrones' Season 8 with competent writers.' The petition has already gained more than 350,000 signatures from disgruntled viewers who were upset with Daenerys Targaryen's big twist in the penultimate episode, where the mother of dragons burned Kings Landing to the ground.
Daenerys Targaryen’s siege on King’s Landing left "Game of Thrones" fans horrified as she burned innocent civilians alive.
The fierce leader, played by Emilia Clarke, took her quest for power to disturbing heights – literally in this case, from atop her dragon.
Many fans felt the descent into bloodlust was a bolt from the blue and claimed show bosses didn’t pave the way for a switch of such magnitude.
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As bells rang out for surrender, the silver-haired ruler paused for thought, only to continue her siege on the people of the capital, civilians and children included.
Now in a behind-the-scenes featurette named Duty Is The Death Of Love, available on the DVD and Blu-ray edition of the final series, show bosses David Benioff and Dan Weiss have spoken out about Daenerys’ final moments.
They claimed that she was able to inflict such atrocities because of her distance from her victims, in the most literal of senses.
Daenerys spent the entire attack in the sky, commanding Drogon to burn the city to the ground.
Emilia Clarke portrays Daenerys Targaryen in "Game of Thrones."The final episode of the popular series aired on Sunday, May 19, 2019. (AP)
This, they claimed, prevented her from engaging with the magnitude of her actions, unlike the soldiers on foot, who saw the true reality extent of the bloodshed.
“Dany has been above it all, literally, throughout this entire battle. She’s fought the whole thing from the air,” Weiss pointed out.
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He noted that when she touched down for her victory speech over the ruins of the city, she was still sheltered from the massacre by the thrill of the win.
“When she’s in the plaza, all she’s seeing is her own armies triumphant in the city she came to conquer for all the best reasons.
"And I think the idea of spreading her brand of revolution around the entire world is a very attractive idea to her at this moment,” he went on.
“In her mind, it’s a very ethical idea, because she’s not seeing the cost the way Jon and the way Tyrion have seen the cost.”
Benioff also pointed out that Daenerys was well-versed in this kind of crowd control, and while in the past viewers have been sympathetic to her plight, her final speech struck a much darker tone.
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“What’s interesting about it is that she’s been making similar kinds of speeches for a long time and we’ve always been rooting for her and this is kind of the natural outcome of that philosophy and that willingness to go forth and conquer all your enemies,” he added.
The comments come after the pair assured fans that Drogon did not eat Daenerys after flying off with the body in the wake of her murder, courtesy of Jon Snow (Kit Harington).
Instead, they revealed he took her to Volantis, the homeland of the Targaryens and the dragons they commanded.
This story originally appeared in The Sun.