People Are Theorizing That Daenerys Is Now Officially the Mad Queen

Alyssa Bailey
Photo credit: HBO
Photo credit: HBO

From ELLE

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Game of Thrones.

As Game of Thrones's final season comes closer to its end, fans are starting to believe that Daenerys Targaryan (Emilia Clarke) may be becoming the Mad Queen after all. In last night's episode, the Queen of Dragons suffered two incredible losses: She lost her right-hand woman, Missandei (Cersei took her prisoner and ordered her to be executed), and her dragon, Rhaegal. She only has one dragon left now of her initial three.

She also continued to struggle with the fact that her lover Jon Snow has a more claim legitimate to the Iron Throne than she does. (As Emilia Clarke told Entertainment Weekly earlier, Dany is not weirded out by the fact he's her nephew. “The related thing, to her, is so normal,” Clarke said. “She could have easily married her brother. It’s not a thing. It’s a thing for Jon, but let’s just forget about that. The main thing is we’re up for the same promotion and I’ve been working for it for my entire existence.”)

Some people on Twitter, at this point, are into the idea of Daenerys becoming the mad queen (her father was the Mad King, and she had been actively trying to avoid his fate) because of all she has suffered:

But as Variety reports, the show's creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff detailed Dany's headspace throughout episode four in their Inside the Episode special. They aren't calling her mad yet. They will call this the most significant episode for Dany emotionally this season, though.

The death of Rhaegal is a key moment, Weiss said. “In some ways, the most important thing that happens to Daenerys in four is the death of her second dragon,” he explained. “Now she’s got one dragon and that dragon presumably is just as vulnerable as Rhaegal was. So there’s this mourning of a child, which is very real to her, and then her best friend is taken. Dany knows that once Cersei has Missandei, she’s not going to see Missandei alive again.”

“She’s really back where she was at the very beginning,” Weiss said. “Emotionally, she’s alone in the world and she can’t really trust anybody. Unlike then, she’s extremely powerful and unlike then she’s filled with a rage that’s aimed at one person specifically [Cersei].”

“I think what’s echoing in Daenerys’ head in those final moments would be Missandei’s final words,” Benioff said. (Missandei's last word was "dracarys," which is the word Dany cue to her dragons to unleash their fiery breath) “Dracarys is clearly meant for Dany. Missandei knows that her life is over and she’s saying, you know, light them up.”

You can watch the entire segment here:

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