People Think Daenerys Targaryen Is Now the Mad Queen on Game of Thrones
This post contains spoilers for the final season of Game of Thrones. Consider yourself warned.
Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) has suffered many losses over the eight seasons of Game of Thrones. She began the series as a seemingly fragile young woman, under the control of her brother, Viserys, and then her husband, Khal Drogo. Over time, though, she has grown into a powerful leader, the mother of dragons.
As she built her army and continued in her quest to reclaim the Iron Throne for the Targaryens, there has always been a lingering cloud from her family's past: the Mad King, Aerys II. Dany's father's descent into madness led to the civil war that put Robert Baratheon on the throne and earned Jaime Lannister the nickname of Kingslayer when he killed Aerys. Fans have long wondered whether Dany would also face the same issues—and after last night's episode, many think it's finally happening.
The mother of dragons saw another one of her children killed last night as Euron Greyjoy's troops shot arrows at Rhaegal. Then she had to watch one of her closest friends and advisers, Missandei, beheaded at the hands of Cersei. This comes just after losing Jorah Mormont in the Battle of Winterfell. “In some ways, the most important thing that happens to Daenerys in four is the death of her second dragon,” showrunner D.B. Weiss explained in the Inside the Episode. “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.”
The look on Dany's face at the end of the episode definitely suggests that she is furious, but might she also be "mad"?
Fans on social media seem to think so.
Others would argue that Cersei is the actual Mad Queen.
We'll have to wait until next week to see how all of our queens decide to play their next moves. Either way, it's sure to be good.
Abby Gardner is a contributing writer at Glamour. You can follow her pop culture musings on Twitter @abbygardner or in her weekly newsletter, We Have Notes.
