Game of Thrones - I finished it!

[Lethologica]

Spoiler: Daenerys s8

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Dany always styled herself champion of the weak and downtrodden. Just like she styled herself rightful ruler of Westeros. Just like she gave herself all those titles in Meereen. It was a nice fantasy, each time. But when it was challenged, what did she do? Burn, break, destroy. Rule by power, rule by violence, rule by dragons, abandon it all when she seized on her next goal. Burn Astapor, crucify the Masters, burn the khals, burn the Tarlys, on and on. Fire and blood. An attitude going back to the threats she made in Yunkai and before, and crystallized when her attempt to chain her dragons in Meereen turned out poorly and all she was left with were her dragons unrestrained (metaphor alert!). All very well as long as it was happening to people we didn't like (like the Masters - except that one guy, oops!) or didn't think about (like the luckless Astaporians and Meereenese left behind), and it was nice to think it only happened because of how awful those bad people were with their slaving and their threatening Dany and so on, but there was always more to it than that. When it came to people we did like, the main question wasn't why she snapped, it's what took her so long.

This still amounts to a criticism of D&D making Dany's finale heel turn sudden instead of building to it properly in the last few seasons, just not from the perspective that Dany before then was clearly righteous.