It has been an interesting week filled with enthralling conversations about the choices the writers of "Game of Thrones" seem to have made with their characters.
When the show started taking longer than usual to shoot episodes, fans assumed they were adding more attention to detail, more nuance to the story, getting George R.R Martin to share details on the characters and their journey.
I hoped they were finding an end that would make sense and be true to the story they have been telling on our TV screens since 2011. However, the writers were clearly making sure they unnecessarily spent huge amounts of money on shooting their many battles and taking CGI shots of dragons and dire wolves. They seem to have spent more time on the spectacle and clearly forgot the story and the characters whom we know so well and have come to love.
I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a major Daenerys Targaryen fan. However, for the past two seasons the writers have been doing a major disservice to her and it has betrayed many of us. They've been crafting her as a person who is becoming the type of ruler she hates – a tyrant. They've been steadily undoing so much of her character and for so many fans, we know the choices the writers made for Daenerys, are not what she is.
This past episode left me with mixed emotions. I appreciated that we were back to the scheming and poli-tricks that made me love "Game of Thrones" in the first place, but there was something off and it was the writers' urgency to make Dany a villain.
This image released by HBO shows Emilia Clarke in a scene from "Game of Thrones," that aired Sunday, May 5, 2019. In the third to last episode of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” Mother of Dragons Daenerys Targaryen is suffering from a crisis of confidence. She is short on troops and dragons, short on strategies and short on friends. And her claim to the Iron Throne has weakened upon learning that Jon Snow, in fact, shares her royal Targaryen blood. (Helen Sloan/HBO via AP)
They killed her closest confidants, Jorah and Missandei, and her dragon, Rhaegal (which wasn't believable because how can you fail to spot people hiding behind a mountain when you're flying around, which gives you a vantage point? Come on!). She’s now within her rights to go mad and burn them all, which is how the writers want us to react when that eventually happens. They have planted the seed.
But they forget we know Dany the breaker of chains, the Khaleesi, the Meesa, who saved so many people over the Narrow Sea. Is that person now a villain? And sure, she’s power hungry and entitled, but who isn’t on the show?
Creators David Benioff and DB Weiss messed up a character they had built so well over the years. It’s sad that with all that time away, they didn’t craft what should have been the perfect final season. What a missed opportunity.
Where to watch "Game of Thrones"
Watch it on Mondays at 3am on (repeat at 10pm) on M-Net, or straight after with the DStv Now app .
You can also binge-watch all previous seasons of "Game of Thrones" on Showmax. Sign up for a 14-day free trial at Showmax.com