TV Review: GAME OF THRONES: Season 8, Episode 6: The Iron Throne & Series Post Mortem Analysis [HBO]

Daenerys’ Telegraphed Death

Daenerys’ death is telegraphed from a mile away during her fiery revenge in The Bells and in The Iron Throne. When it occurs in The Iron Throne, it is plain, emotionally-flat (no matter the facial acting on-screen), and lacks the pulchritude, staging, pain, dread, and inevitability of Khal Drogo and Daenerys’ wedding-night coitus in Winter Is Coming.

Daenerys’ death scene should be pivotal. It should be emotional and gut-wrenching. “Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Seven Kingdoms, the Mother of Dragons, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, the Breaker of Chains” should fight back against her attacker, should scream in rage and betrayal, with her guards and dragon rushing in. None of that happens. There is no betrayal in Daenerys’ eyes, no anger, no nothing as she expires. Daenerys dies in silence, without even a whimper. It is an ignominious end to the second-most-fascinating character in Game of Thrones behind Cersei. It is the death scene of a failure, a street urchin, a pick-pocket, someone that has never achieved greatness. This is not Queen Daenerys Targaryen‘s death. This is not how Dany will meet her end in the A Song of Ice and Fire book series, if she meets her end in the book series at all. This is a throw-away death, like that of Rickon, Osha, and Shaggydog before The Battle of the Bastards, done simply to get rid of Daenerys and end her storyline so people would stop wondering about her and what became of her, her army, and her faux vision for the world. So fans and people the world over would not be clamoring, petitioning, then demanding Season Nine of Game of Thrones. By killing Daenerys, Benioff and Weiss killed that thirst before it ever began.

The setup for Daenerys’ death made no sense from the outset. She is in an enemy city and ‘Red Keep’ filled with secret alcoves, passageways, and tunnels. How does she know that a Lannister soldier or Gold Cloak isn’t hiding in one of these hidden nooks, ready to spring out and kill her? The battle for King’s Landing has only been over for a few hours which makes being alone in the Throne Room beyond foolhardy. Drogon stationed at the Throne Room door as a makeshift guard dog is theatrical but not practical. Drogon is a wild animal. How can it tell a Lannister soldier from a Winterfell soldier from a Gold Cloak from a peasant?

Why aren’t The Unsullied or the Dothraki guarding the exterior of the Throne Room? Why aren’t they flanking Daenerys in the Throne Room, keeping her safe, just in case? Why doesn’t Daenerys have a least four of them around her like Cersei had Lannister guards around her in the Red Keep during times of peace in seasons past?

Because the writers want to kill Daenerys thus they strip her of her ‘armor.’ It’s transparent. Imagine the opposite scenario: Jon Snow (Kit Harington) somehow manages to kill Daenerys in front of The Unsullied and the Dothraki. They would have killed Jon Snow on the spot, instantly. Jon Snow would have died fighting in the very Throne Room his foster dad was captured in by the crown in Season One. It would have been circular. It would have been poetic. It would have been tragic. And it was never going to happen. The writers want Jon to live (for some undisclosed reason) so Queen Daenerys, an insurgent behind enemy lines, is completely alone in the enemy’s newly captured stronghold when an assassin enters the room.