A lot of us have been complaining about how Daenerys’ Mad Queen storyline seems to have been rushed. But according to Redditor Juligen, that is not the case and the show has been foreshadowing the events of the last episode for a long time.
She starts by talking about the finale of season 1 where the sorceress Mirri Maz Dull tells Daenerys that she had killed her son because ‘he would be the stallion who mounts the world, who would burn cities to the ground.’
That same episode also sees Grand Maester Pycelle and Rose talking about the Mad King, Aerys Targaryen.
Of all the thousands and thousands of maladies, the Gods visit us, madness is the worst. He was a good man, such a charmer. To watch him melt away before my eyes, consumed with dreams of Fire and Blood.
-Grand Maester Pycelle
In Season 2 Episode 4, Daenerys arrives at Qarth but isn’t allowed inside. So she threatens that once her dragons were grown, she would come back and burn the city to the ground.
When my dragons are grown, we will take back what was stolen from me, and destroy those who wronged me, we will lay waste to armies, and burn cities to the ground. Turn us way, and I will burn you first!
-Daenerys Targaryen
In the 5th episode of season 2, Tyrion finds out about the wildfire cache stored under King’s Landing and says that the contents are enough to lay King’s Landing to waste.
The very next sequence shows Daenerys teaching Drogon to obey her command of ‘Dracarys’.
Then in episode 4 of season 3, Lord Varys warns Lady Olenna about Littlefinger.
Littlefinger was born with no lands, no wealth, no armies. He acquired the first two, how long before he has the army?… Littlefinger is one of the most dangerous men in Westeros…. he would see this country burn if he could be King of the Ashes.
-Lord Varys
This episode ends with Daenerys acquiring her first army and sacking Astapor with the Unsullied.
In episode 7 of season 4, she orders Daario Naharis to execute every master in Yunkai.
The masters tear babies from their mothers’ arms. They mutilate little boys by the numbers. They train little girls in the art of pleasuring old men. They treat men like beasts.
-Daenerys Targaryen
Ser Jorah Mormont then stops her from doing that by saying that taking the masters to the pen and slaughtering them by the numbers would be treating men like beasts.
The Redditor is of the opinion that Dany’s first instinct has always been violence and death but she’s always had someone to put her in check. She claims that Dany was never truly fit to rule the 7 kingdoms.
To prove this statement, she takes us to episode 2 of season 5 when Dany plans on crucifying hundreds of masters for the deaths of slave children. But Ser Barristan stops her by asking her to put them on trial as the law states.
A couple of episodes later she feeds one of the masters to Rhaegal and Viserion. She doesn’t wait to see if they are innocent of Ser Barristan’s murder.
She lets the dragons decide.
Juligen is of the opinion that Dany had always been impulsive and reacted with violence. We simply didn’t see it because she was punishing people we didn’t like.
During the finale of season 5, she talks about cities burning to the ground if the reasons were good enough.
This dialogue between Hizdhar and her is very important as it shows her rationalising her thoughts to burn entire cities to the grounds if the reasons were good enough for her.
This was the second time Daenerys had threatened to burn a city to the ground.
In the final episode of season 6, where Jon Snow is named King in the North, he says that that true enemy won’t wait out the storm, he would bring the storm.
Mind you, Daenerys’ nickname is Stormborn. She has always been a threat to the 7 kingdoms but we were so occupied by the Night King that we had forgotten about her.
According to the Redditor, George RR Martin has always used the White Walkers as a red herring for the dragons. The very first scene from the first book and the TV show showed white walkers, while the last scene of the book and the first season showed us the birth of dragons.
George RR Martin had once also somewhat compared the White Walkers with Daenerys and said that while the people of the 7 kingdoms were busy fighting amongst themselves, there was an army of the dead up North and a Targaryen with 3 dragons on another continent, who are much greater threats to the kingdom.
Now, this puts in a dilemma, doesn’t it? The thing is, while we can still complain about the writing for the last season, we can’t say that they didn’t foreshadow it.
You can check the original post here.
