Taylor Swift Says She Related to Mad Queen Daenerys Targaryen in the Game of Thrones Finale
Game of Thrones‘ controversial finale may not have ended well for Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), but super-fan Taylor Swift identified with the Mad Queen’s brief and tragic rule.
In her new, wide-ranging interview with Rolling Stone the pop star said that Daenerys’ storyline — which ended in her death at the hands of lover Jon Snow (Kit Harington) after finally gaining the Iron Throne — illustrated “that it is a lot easier for a woman to attain power than to maintain it.”
After the interviewer pointed out that Daenerys murdered innocent people, Swift noted the comparison was “a total metaphor.”
“Like, obviously I didn’t want Daenerys to become that kind of character, but in taking away what I chose to take away from it, I thought maybe they’re trying to portray her climbing the ladder to the top was a lot easier than maintaining it, because for me, the times when I felt like I was going insane was when I was trying to maintain my career in the same way that I ascended,” said Swift, 29. “It’s easier to get power than to keep it. It’s easier to get acclaim than to keep it. It’s easier to get attention than to keep it.”
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Swift added that while watching the final season of the HBO series, she saw similarities to the treatment of powerful women, such as herself, in real life.
“Maybe this is a reflection on how we treat women in power, how we are totally going to conspire against them and tear at them until they feel this — this insane shift, where you wonder, like, ‘What changed?'” she said. “And I’ve had that happen, like, 60 times in my career where I’m like, ‘OK, you liked me last year, what changed? I guess I’ll change so I can keep entertaining you guys.'”
Asked how she felt about the show’s ending, which was panned by critics and viewers alike, Swift compared it to a breakup, a topic she is no stranger to when creating her music.
“So, clinically our brain responds to our favorite show ending the same way we feel when a breakup occurs,” she said. “I read that. There’s no good way for it to end. No matter what would have happened in that finale, people still would have been really upset because of the fact that it’s over.”
Swift has shared in the past how Game of Thrones, specifically Arya Stark (Maisie Williams), has inspired her music. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in May, the singer revealed that the show helped inspire some of her hit reputation songs.
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“‘Look What You Made Me Do’ is literally Arya Stark’s kill list,” she told EW. “‘King of My Heart’ was influenced by Khal Drogo and Daenerys. It’s even got this post-hook of drums — I wanted them to sound like Dothraki drums.”
She continued: “‘I Did Something Bad’ I wrote after Arya and Sansa conspire to kill Littlefinger. That and “Look What You Made Me Do” are very Cersei vibes, too. Daenerys as well.”
Swift added that she loved how the series allowed its characters to evolve over time.
“You find yourself identifying with different characters several times an episode,” she said. “You go from hating someone to loving someone. You see someone as cold, and then you see the reasons behind why they do what they do. I just feel so lucky to exist when Game of Thrones is coming out.”
