During its lengthy run, HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” adapted from George R.R. Martin’s celebrated fantasy novels “A Song of Ice and Fire,” captivated audiences around the world. Among the show’s myriad characters, Daenerys Targaryen, portrayed by Emilia Clarke, stood out as a fan favorite. Her influence was so profound that many parents named their daughters after her, drawing inspiration from her title “Khaleesi,” which means “queen” in Dothraki, the language of her husband’s people. However, as the series unfolded, some of those parents might have reconsidered their choice, given the twists and turns that Daenerys’ character underwent.
Initially, Daenerys’ transformation was inspiring. After the tragic loss of her husband, Khal Drogo, and the subsequent magical incident in Season 1, she emerged from his funeral pyre with three dragon hatchlings, symbolizing her newfound strength and determination. This pivotal moment marked her rise as a formidable contender for the Iron Throne, once occupied by her Targaryen ancestors. As she journeyed through various lands, her actions, though sometimes extreme, seemed justifiable when targeting tyrants and slaveholders. Yet, as “Game of Thrones” approached its final chapters, her character took a darker turn.
Such a shift might have been anticipated, given her lineage; her father, King Aerys II Targaryen, was notoriously dubbed the “Mad King” for his erratic behavior. Nevertheless, it’s important to acknowledge that Daenerys committed acts ranging from unwise decisions to outright malevolence throughout the series. Here, we delve into some of her most notorious missteps, complete with spoilers for the entire show.
As the seventh season of “Game of Thrones” kicks off, the intelligence of key characters seems to take a nosedive. While Daenerys was never particularly known for her strategic brilliance, this is evident in the actions of her advisor, Tyrion Lannister, portrayed by Peter Dinklage. Alongside Jon Snow, played by Kit Harington, Tyrion devises a plan to capture a wight, a zombified minion of the formidable White Walkers, in an effort to prove their existence to Cersei Lannister, played by Lena Headey. Although Jon rightly perceives the looming threat from beyond the Wall, the plan to present a single wight as evidence is flawed from the start.
Daenerys should have dismissed this ill-conceived strategy outright, yet she agrees to it. Consequently, Jon and his band of allies venture into the northern wilderness to capture a wight. In this phase of “Game of Thrones,” characters seem to traverse vast distances with the ease of video game avatars. Despite their success in capturing a wight, the mission turns disastrous. Daenerys is forced to intervene with her dragons to rescue the group, resulting in the Night King, portrayed by Vladimir Furdik, killing one of her dragons, Viserion, and transforming it into an ice dragon. The consequences of this reckless endeavor reverberate throughout the series. Way to go, team!
5. Agreeing to a doomed mission to capture a stray wight
It’s tough to ignore the fact that, when Season 7 of “Game of Thrones” begins, every major character inexplicably gets extremely stupid extremely quickly. While Daenerys was, honestly, never much known for her cunning mind, we do see this manifested in the man who’s now her Hand of the Queen, Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), who concocts a plan alongside then King in the North Jon Snow (Kit Harington) to capture a single wight. Why? Well, Jon is desperately trying to convince anyone who will listen, including Tyrion’s spiteful older sister and this group’s sworn enemy Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), that while humans squabble over the Iron Throne in Westeros, a much larger threat is coming from the far north beyond the Wall. To be fair, Jon is right about this. What he and Tyrion are massively wrong about is this stupid plan to kidnap one singular wight — a zombified, simple version of the advanced and undead White Walkers who roam the far north — and bring it to Cersei to prove they’re not lying.
Daenerys shouldn’t even consider this plan, much less sign off on it. She does anyway, and a merry band of idiots, including Jon, traipse across the Wall to the north to find one wight. (This is, incidentally, the era of “Game of Thrones” where characters start fast-traveling like they’re in a video game.) Daenerys gets a wight for her trouble, but she also has to swoop in on her three dragons to save the group of boys from a whole army of wights and White Walkers … and in the process, the mysterious and powerful Night King (Vladimir Furdyk) kills one of her dragons, Viserion, and turns it into an ice dragon. Way to go, everyone!
4. Daenerys’ entire relationship with Jon Snow
To be completely fair to Daenerys, she doesn’t know that Jon Snow is her blood relative when the two first land in bed together shortly after the ill-advised wight gambit. Unfortunately for both of them, though, this is true. Unbeknownst to essentially everyone, Jon — assumed to be a bastard of the northern noble Eddard “Ned” Stark (Sean Bean in Season 1) — isn’t a bastard at all, but the legitimate product of a secret marriage between Daenerys’ older brother Rhaegar and Ned’s sister Lyanna. So why does anyone think Jon is a mere bastard? When Ned found out about his nephew, he promised a dying Lyanna that he would keep the baby safe … which meant hiding the newborn’s identity from Lyanna’s vengeful husband-to-be Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy). Instead, Ned presents Jon as his illegitimate son, a move that saves his life.
All of this is to say that, again, Daenerys has no idea that Jon is also her nephew when they embark on a romantic relationship. When he tells her, though, she’s … more or less fine with it. Not cool, Daenerys! Incest might be all the rage in Westeros, but that does not make it right!
3. The Loot Train attack was just overkill (literally)
As “Game of Thrones” heads into its final seasons, Daenerys gets more erratic and impulsive on the battlefield — something that’s illustrated perfectly in the Season 7 sequence where she attacks mostly unarmed Lannister forces. Though Tyrion is, again, her Hand of the Queen, Cersei and her twin brother Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) are enemies to Daenerys, so she devises a plan to intercept a whole bunch of Tyrell-gifted gold as it makes its way to the Iron Bank to pay off Cersei’s many debts.Â
While the caravans travel the Roseroad, Daenerys hops aboard her murder machine — Drogon, her largest dragon by far — torches most of it, killing men who may or may not even be fighting members of the Lannister army. Aside from ensuring that Cersei remains in debt, this particular battle is … a little much. Frankly, any time Daenerys fights from atop a dragon, it feels sort of egregious, but this attack, fun as it might be to watch, is brutal for no particular reason and just feels like Daenerys’ attempt to ensure that her enemies are terrified of her at all times. In fact, as she cultivates that abject terror, she starts threatening people who don’t comply, which brings us right to the second item on this list.
2. Murdered multiple men — even allies — when they refused to bend the knee
Again, Daenerys does do a lot of genuinely good things on “Game of Thrones” as well; she frees slaves like Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel), who becomes her closest ally and confidante, and she makes heartfelt attempts to leave slave-owning cities freed and better than she found them. Unfortunately, as much as Daenerys extends olive branches and promises of better lives to people, she’ll also turn on them almost immediately if she feels wronged. Missandei doesn’t meet this fate — she’s beheaded by Cersei while Daenerys watches, something that leads right into the number one pick on this list — but others do, and whether or not they really deserve it is a big question.
Even though Daenerys does a sort of clumsy job in “freeing” the slave cities — essentially, she kills the masters but doesn’t introduce any sort of new system, paving the way for bad actors to take advantage of the messes she leaves behind — her truly evil side starts showing after the aforementioned Loot Train attack when she meets Randyll and Dickon Tarly (James Faulkner and Tom Hopper). The father and brother of main character Samwell Tarly (John Bradley) refuse to bend the knee to Daenerys and accept her as their queen; instead of sparing them like Tyrion suggests, Daenerys kills both men instantly using Drogon’s fire.
The worst example of this, though, is Daenerys’ ally Varys (Conleth Hill). After Varys grows wary of Daenerys’ worst impulses, he attempts to supplant her … and he, too, gets a face full of fire with little to no preamble. This is absolutely the worst kind of thing Daenerys does during “Game of Thrones,” and the number one spot goes to her worst use of “trial by fire” by a long shot.
1. Killed most of the population of King’s Landing and leveled the city
HBO
What else could possibly be number one on a list of Daenerys Targaryen’s worst-ever misdeeds other than her most controversial move on all of “Game of Thrones?” In the series’ penultimate episode “The Bells,” Daenerys, furious and grief-stricken over the recent loss of Missandei — and, incidentally, the fact that her nephew-lover Jon Snow broke off their relationship after finding out that they’re related — finally brings her forces to King’s Landing, including a massive Dothraki army, her powerful Unsullied, and her remaining dragon Drogon. (Viserion, as you might remember, fell to the Night King and then perished during the Battle of Winterfell, and Rhaegal was shot out of the sky during a battle at sea, adding to Daenerys’ many troubles.) When she hears the bells of surrender ring from the Red Keep, it’s in Daenerys’ best interest to land in the city atop her dragon and declared it conquered. What does she do instead? She torches the city, killing countless civilians without a care in the world.
The episode brings us into the heart of King’s Landing to watch this massacre occur, as women and children run from the flames before being fully consumed and murdered. It’s unsurprising that, in the aftermath, Tyrion quits his post as Hand of the Queen, is summarily arrested, and tells Jon Snow that he might want to consider putting Daenerys down like Old Yeller. Jon, after much muttering and many conflicted feelings, does just that, stabbing a power-hungry Daenerys to death … after which Drogon flies away with her body. This isn’t just a cruddy ending for a great “Game of Thrones” character; it’s the most evil thing Daenerys ever does.
“Game of Thrones” is streaming on HBO Max now.