FIrST Of ALl D&d!!! Dany never “forgot” her moral code – y’all had her coming to Winterfell’s rescue one episode – she lost one of her dragons coming North with Jon in the first place, when she could’ve just gone straight to the Red Keep and wrecked shop – and trying to be nice even when Sansa had NOTHING but attitude, then turning her into some neurotic “mad queen” an episode later cuz everyone was cheering Jon (as if he did anything of note during the battle, when Arya was WORKING).
IF the actual plan had been for us to see the moral decay of Dany’s character, it should’ve been established WELL in advance that she was starting to spiral out of control. We should have seen her being completely unjustified in her actions throughout the seasons – instead you had her destroying slavers and other degenerate horrible people we wouldn’t have sympathy for anyway. You gave us these long AF montages of King’s Landing being destroyed, but I was actually like “Oh well, they’re the enemy anyway – they wouldn’t have loved/followed Dany anyway.”
I think Dany’s ONLY misstep was in leaving Mereen. I think Dany was an inexperienced queen and bad politician, not a bad or immoral person. She felt compelled to leave & reclaim her birthright, but I think she would’ve fared so much better just staying put in Essos learning how to rule; leaving Westeros to rot from the inside out. The common people there loved her because Dany IS the Breaker of Chains, out to Break the Wheel of oppression, exploitation, injustice, hypocrisy, etc.
And y'all had the nerve to kill Missandei, with her dying IN CHAINS, lord have mercy. Cersei had her executed just because she could. Missandei’s final words were Dracarys – she was TELLING Dany to burn King’s Landing – because King’s Landing is the enemy force; we’ve known this since Season 1. Innocent civilians die when there’s a siege – no duh; it’s called collateral damage. But Missandei’s death was completely uncalled for – that was Cersei blatantly saying “I am totally fine with killing an innocent with zero battle training and no political sway, just to get one over on you and show that I’m holding all the cards here; do your worst to the city.” So don’t talk to me about Cersei’s 1 vs Dany’s thousand, cuz Cersei didn’t even want to ring the bells, even when her people were screaming all over the city to surrender!
Which brings me to that scene. Dany begrudgingly told Tyrion she’d (consider) accepting the city’s surrender and spare the civilians once the bells were rung. But I think Dany had made up her mind as soon as they killed Missandei that King’s Landing wasn’t WORTH sparing. She killed the civilians, and tore up the entire daggone city - mind you, this is the place that was to be her capital once she reclaimed the Iron Throne! Her ancestors built King’s Landing. That’s HER castle! Dany burning the whole thing to rubble was her rejoinder to Cersei, saying, “I don’t need this stupid city or its stupid people who hate me anyway in order to rule! Here’s my worst!” I was shocked at first, until I realized that that was what she was up to – and exactly how the show would spin it to make Dany look like someone worse than Cersei (AS IF).
Dany has always talked about Breaking The Wheel – if one bad apple spoils the bunch, then she must’ve seen King’s Landing as irredeemable, and a place she didn’t want. She’d rebuild it on top of the ashes and ruins, the way she wanted it to be. And then she’d break the wheel/chains in the other kingdoms as well, purging them of whatever corruption/etc. Dany was a champion of THE OPPRESSED – she had no care or concern for anyone else who wanted to keep the status quo. In her eyes, in order to build Paradise, the devils must be purged from the garden – starting with the most infested nest of all: King’s Landing.
This season kept showing how much people loved Jon and were willing to support him and risk everything for him, and how his “morals“ were so much better than Dany’s – even when he didn’t listen to Dany (who was RIGHT) and went blabbing like an idiot and got Varys killed FOR WHAT? – only to have the nerve to exile him to the Land Beyond the Wall and not even make him king!? Wtf? After all that, BRAN gets to RULE?! WTF?!?!!?!
