Bad Writing and Character Planning Have Ruined The Mad Queen Ending

Published May 14, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

Dear Gene and Big D,

Long time listener since Westworld podcase, really appreciates your hard work!

I had to write in after hearing the instacast, because to my surprise Gene – the voice of reason and logic of this show, though it was a good one… Big D, don’t worry. I am on your side. I am so disappointed in this episode.

Yes, it was a visually pleasing episode, just like the rest of the season. And I don’t have a problem with the twist where Danny went insane. I am pretty sure that it is in line of GRRM’s book ending, and the style of GoT.

The problem I have is how we got to this point. This twist completely mismatches the character they have built for Danny in the show in the past 7 seasons. If they knew about this ending earlier, they should have started planting seeds for this. The lack of build up to this point made this sudden change of behavior from Danny totally out of place. None of my friends watching in the room thought it was a “pleasant surprise”, the reaction is more of a confused “what?”.

Throughout 7 seasons, even including the first 4 episodes of season 8, there are simply not enough justifiable evidence to build up that Danny was indeed going mad. The only thing the showrunner did this season to pave the road for this twist was to have everybody around Danny say that she was going nuts, that she would be like her Father.

If we just look at season 7, after the amount of failure Danny had suffered from listening to her advisor to take things slow, ANYBODY would want to just go in and take the city directly. And that is what she does, the first 15 mins of episode 5. She burnt the iron fleet, and the gate and everything was going so well. And then she goes and burns everything aimlessly. Why?

D&D said in behind the scene its because she remembered her pain growing up. Ok, then that was not shown much to us. Especially she never had any real deep-rooted issue with the PEOPLE of Westeros. Her character was built up in the way to show that she wanted the Iron throne so much (Given her first reaction to Jon telling her his identity was to think about the throne.), there should be no reason why when the bell ring and the enemy surrendered, she would then go and do the amount of damage that could potentially create more enemy for her destabilize her rule.

Sure, she was isolated and felt abandoned and unloved right before the battle, but she was never characterized as caring all too much about the “love” part, at least not more than her desire to rule.

I know some would say that “Oh! but its a surprise, GoT is good because of the surprises.” That is bullshit. Is the red- wedding a surprise? Absolutely! Was it reasonable to happen, definitely! There were signed paved in to show that House Frey was shady. The same could not be said about the Danny twist.

With the twist of Danny going mad unchanged, there are a few ways the showrunner could have paved the way for this:

– Show more how much Danny cared about Jon’s romantic relationship to her, then she has a reason to be triggered after Jon’s rejection before the battle

– Show this battle at Kings Landing being more balance, so Danny wasn’t sure if she could get the city without killing everyone. That would make more sense that she goes nuts after they have obviously won.

– Show she was struggling more about the violence side in previous seasons, because from what it feels like now, she had to be more violent because she was a woman alone. Plus is this whole burning people to execute them really much worse than decapitation (the way of the north)? If that’s the real issue then some should have told her that.

Anyway, so many problems here, makes it feel that the showrunner only knew the ending after season 7 was shot….that they had no time to pave for it now. I almost rather not watch the last episode, because all it will be doing is to spoil the book ending. I think now everyone would want to read how GRRM masterfully pave the way to the twist subtly.

P.S. Is it interesting that in my 6-7 years of viewing of GoT, I was never as obsessed about the show when it was a good show! Now that this season is filled with rushed bad writing, I found myself thinking about it way more. :,D

Best Lolo from Denmark

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