Be warned: We`re discussing Episode 5 of Game of Thrones Season 8, `The Bells,` and thus there will be a great many spoilers.As it approaches its conclusion, Game of Thrones feels like a different show than it has in the past. Blame it on any number of issues--two shortened final seasons resulting in rushed character development, a lack of source material to act as a roadmap, or the cause of the constant (if possibly unfair) refrain decrying `bad writing`--but a generalized reaction among many fans is that something feels wrong.It may be any or all of those things, but there´s something fundamentally underpinning them all that fans are reacting to, even if they´re not quite aware of it. Game of Thrones, it turns out, is not about what we all thought it was about.In Episode 5, `The Bells,` Game of Thrones finally takes Daenerys Targaryen from `worryingly willing to burn to death anyone who disagrees with her, but generally out for good` to full-on `child-murdering Mad Queen.` She accomplishes what her father never could: She `burns them all` in King`s Landing, regardless of whether they`re civilian or soldier, or whether it wins her the throne or not. Daenerys`s reactions to the loss of two of her dragons, the betrayals in her ranks, and the unwillingness of Westeros to bend to her will finally cause her to snap, and from the back of her last dragon, Drogon, she brings fire and blood to her former home.Ask many fans/viewers/etc. and they`ll say the show has been foreshadowing Daenerys bringing destruction to King`s Landing all along. Dany has always been a ruthless character when she has to be, often electing to execute people in a generally cruel and unusual way: by burning them alive with dragon fire. She`s particularly unforgiving to people who oppose her, especially when they don`t immediately bend the knee. There have been plenty of times when Dany has wanted to just ravage everyone in her path, only to be curbed from her most merciless instincts by her advi ...
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