Originally Posted by
stillanerd
I couldn't agree more. And for all the complaints I've been seeing about Dany's heel turn especially after this episode (which was masterfully directed BTW), one only has to go back through the books and the series to see that, in hindsight, the signs that Dany becoming the "Mad Queen" were there. Nor is like she went crazy all of the sudden or was crazy all along. Instead, I think it's very clear that, with the deaths of Jorah, Missandei, her two dragons, along with feeling betrayed by everyone around her, especially Jon, bit by bit she was reaching a breaking point...and finally she broke. I think what both book readers and show watchers didn't realize until now was that, instead of watching a "hero's journey," we've been watching a "villain's journey" intentionally made to look like a "hero's journey" just to amp up the tragedy of a revolutionary leader who had the potential to become different than any monarch before her, only to become the very tyrant she never wanted to become. To quote Nietzsche, "He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster." One can debate whether it was rushed, but, as you point out, there were hints there all along. We, like Jorah, Jon, Tyrion, etc. didn't want to see them.