The Reason She Burned the Whole City…

Published May 16, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hi Guys,

Tracy from Virginia Beach. I know this email is late and I hope you read it, although I know it won’t be before the small council.

First–sorry you have had to spend so much time defending yourselves personally. This is about a TV show. Period! I appreciate the community of conversation you have created. Thank you, truly!

Ok. I both hated the episode (The Bells) and loved/appreciated its genius. I felt emotionally drained after watching. Much more so than usual. These characters and places have become so real to me after 8 seasons that there was no feeling but depression and sadness after watching Danaerys lay waste to everything and everyone in her path. But the intensity of emotion I felt is indeed the genius of the show. Until now, for 8 seasons, I have been 100% on team Danny. Her plotline has honestly never let me down. I have been rooting for her to take her just claim and rule the 7 Kingdoms, to break the wheel. She has been the ultimate protagonist for me. This is because no matter what she has done or whom she has done it too, the show made a point for us, the audience, to still sympathize with her. The show made a point to NEVER allow us to sympathize with Cercei. They let so many characters have a fall from grace and then a redemption–Jaime, Theon, the Hound, Melisandre, Sansa to some extent (who liked Sansa in seasons 1,2 after all??)…but never Cercei. Ok maybe a little bit on the ‘shame shame” naked walk through the streets as rotten food was slung at her …but only a little. I mean, she has been the ultimate antagonist.

And then…Danny does this. She does not accept surrender and goes on a bloodthirsty fit of rage “burning them all” when she easily could have just burned down the Red Keep and had a chance to win the hearts and minds of those citizens who remained. But she doesn’t. The show got us good. They made us want Cercei to win. This was all but an impossible task. Lena Headey was brilliant. She had minimal dialogue, but yet in her expressions she showed both remorse and sadness and awareness of her miscalculations. I think she actually showed sorrow for both herself and honestly, for her city. She showed guilt–she knew it was her fault that all this was happening. She showed true remorse. And at that moment, 8 seasons were gone and I was praying anything would stop Danny and the burning. Could Arya somehow take her out? Could Cercei somehow win this gruesome battle? Could anyone save innocent people? I mean, when the mom and the daughter were shown turned to ash still holding each other, it invoked images of Hiroshima. Brutal. I was horrified and wanted nothing else but for someone to stop the insanity and stop Danny, the person I had been cheering for 8 long seasons.

A show that can manipulate our emotional response like that is truly incredible. I applaud it, all of it. There were issues with the show of course, like how Jaime was almost dead and then 5 minutes later was pretty much just fine (note, gaping gut wounds don’t work like that). But the show was believable–Danny had lost everything: 2 children, Jorah, Masandei, Jon, and most of all…who/what she has always believed in–her claim to the iron throne. And she has no one left. No one. She lost it and she doesn’t give two fucks about anything anymore. She was acting out her rage and King’s Landing was the unlucky victim.

It was brutal, it made all my emotions change on the spot, and for that, it was genius.

Thanks, guys
Tracy, Virginia Beach

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