In Defense of The Mad Queen Narrative

Published May 14, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

Dear Gene, Dick, and Roger,

While I completely agree with Big D on the lacking military strategy, bullshit Hollywood plot holes, and all too convenient encounters (looking at you Euron); I was surprisingly ok with the Mad Queen narrative that developed (despite the questionable pacing) for the following two reasons:

1. G.R.R.M has always sought to convey a message about the horrors of war. Without this kind of unnecessary bloodbath, it would have been too easy to be swept up in the visual masterpiece of the filming in favor of the battle. Within the ash (especially the scene with the burnt girl holding the horse), I felt strong visual parallels to the aftermath of the Nuclear Bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For the first time in the season, I saw G.R.R.M in the plot, as this potential commentary on the morality of using extreme force even with good intentions to break the wheel seems exactly up his alley. He has criticized the simplicity of good and evil in LOTR, and in these scenes, we see how evil (and good) lies on all sides, and within humanity itself. From the Northerner John kills to save the woman, to the mother that saved Arya, there is no clear good and evil. Despite the numerous flaws, the pure destructive power of war was effectively conveyed.

1. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. We have now experienced with Danny that even the best intentions and one of the best characters can be corrupted by absolute power. A good ruler is one that continuously works for the betterment of the realm, not one that rests on previous laurels and demands love out of entitlement. At the beginning of this season, she basically holds quasi-religious loyalty from her following of Dothraki (Mother of Dragons) and the Unsullied (Breaker of Chains), and commands the greatest weapons the realm has known for a hundred years (dragons). She may not have earned the love that she craves, but she basically has unparalleled power. I no longer see Danny’s arc as one of the rises of a strong queen to break the wheel, but rather one of Icarus. The closer she flies to the sun and reaches for power, the more likely she is to fail. This play right into Varys saying that a good ruler is one that does not want it, and unfortunately Danny’s thirst for power will be her downfall. I would have loved to see a scene with her putting Tyrion in his place with the phrase “I am the queen”, as a callback to Tywin’s comments on anyone that needs to say they are the king.

Thanks for the great podcast, I love listening after each episode.

All the best from Germany,
Erika Trujillo

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