'Game of Thrones': Daenerys has always been the 'Mad Queen', and her madness has only grown over the years
*Spoilers for season 8, episode 5*
'Game of Thrones' fans were outraged by the absolutely sudden — and widely believed to be unnecessary — change in Daenerys Targaryen's (Emilia Clarke) character arc in the penultimate episode of season 8.
However, Daenerys' madness isn't a major twist or something out of the blue; her madness has accumulated and saturated over the years. She has been nurturing the insanity and thriving in her anger as her hunger for power is really a manifestation of the rights she has been denied.
While everything that has happened in the show's recent past might be reason enough why our Khaleesi has finally snapped after years of keeping it together, let's not forget, she is — deep inside — still a Targaryen.
The only thing that differentiates her from the Mad King is probably the fact that she deserves to be recognized for her virtues more than the havoc she wreaked upon King's Landing.
Her madness manifested after she was denied something she had worked towards all her life. She had then decided there was no fairness to the world.
For someone as unflinchingly just and fair on her subjects as Danerys, this realization was bound to come out in the cruelest form one day or the other.
And who better than the vilest character in all of Westeros — Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) — to trigger this insane rage within Khaleesi.
However, before we analyze how poetic it was for Daenerys to go back to the ways of her father, the Mad King Aegon Targaryen, or how it was a karmic ending for the other Mad Queen, Cersei, since she had blown up Sept Baelor with wildfire in season 6 — the one thing we need to consider is that Daenerys' madness — even though poorly introduced to the plot — had always been in the making.
First, it took the form of her blind faith in the witch who promised to bring back her husband Khal Drogo from the dead. Then her decision to set every master from Mereen on fire for treating their slaves barbarically. Daenerys' madness has always existed deep within her.
Her intent has been pure, but that doesn't necessitate her being a good ruler.
Her journey on the show began with her getting sold off to the Dothraki tribe by her own brother and last remaining family member, Viserion.
She has every reason to be livid; just because she managed to hide it so well doesn't mean she is incapable of letting that pure spite and rage loose. And Cersei went beyond just the extra mile, as we saw in the previous episode.
Speaking of the previous episode, when Tormund Giantsbane brags about his noble friend Jon Snow being an absolute 'madman' for riding the dragons, Daenerys just sits there — probably boiling with rage — because these people seem to glorify a man for doing something she has been doing for the last six seasons, just because he is a man.
Her face was an expanse of calmness, but deep within she was raging with the same partly amused and partly terrified expression that she wore at King's Landing after she set the whole city ablaze with dragon fire.
She probably felt the same way when she was raped on her wedding night, and when Euron Greyjoy killed her second dragon.
Let's face it: Daenerys has always been the mad queen, we are just seeing it a little more clearly now.
'Game of Thrones' returns with the last episode of the series — season 8, episode 6 — on Sunday, May 19, at 9 pm, only on HBO.
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