The ending of Game of Thrones was tragic for so many of the characters. And for many fans who were left unsatisfied by the show's conclusion. Yet, no character went through what Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) did. She was a rather heroic figure until near the end of the show. In Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 5, she shocked many fans when she burned the city of King's Landing. This move was made even more shocking by the fact that she won. She was so close to achieving her goal of gaining the Iron Throne. So for her to then turn around and destroy the city made no sense to some fans. The explanations given for her actions don't seem to make much sense either to these fans. It seems to be just the writers attempting to explain but not doing a good job of it.
Of course, Daenerys supposedly went mad, so maybe that's why she made no sense. But why? After all she had been through up to that point, why was it such a small thing that set her off? It seems unbelievable to some fans that Daenerys would ever do such a thing. Does she have a temper? Absolutely! Is she completely illogical? Not up to that point. Everything else she did had a reason and a rationale. Her burning King's Landing didn't.
At least to some fans, it seemed that Daenerys went from hero to villain in a second. And that's hard to believe. Game of Thrones is a fantasy story, so stranger things have happened. Yet there seemed, at least to some fans, to be no consistency when it came to Daenerys. How could the same woman who helped save the world from the threat of the White Walkers become a villain? How could Daenerys do such a horrible thing when she always fought against those who did wrong to others? It is far too much for some fans to take. Of course, madness is not logical. Yet was the Mother of Dragons always headed for tragedy? Or was she just a victim of lazy writing?
To figure this out, it's vital to first understand Daenerys's character. Yes, she has a temper. She can be quite hot-headed at times. Yet, she is not a bad person at her core. That makes her descent into madness for reasons that fans can't quite understand all the more tragic. Her main drive throughout the show is to help others. She frees the Unsullied and others from slavery solely because she knows how wrong it is. She goes to save Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and those with him when they're fighting the White Walkers and loses a dragon in the process. Daenerys also helps protect the entire world from the White Walkers. Without her dragons, the main characters wouldn't have survived.
Does she burn a few people with her dragons along the way? Yes, but never for no apparent reason. She saves her fire for enemies and anyone who harms others. Not innocent people. It's hard to believe that Daenerys would ever harm anyone innocent. After all, she does have a good heart. Her goal is to help, not hurt. She believes her destiny is to save the world from those who would harm it, not break it herself. Yes, Game of Thrones is a fantasy story. So perhaps Daenerys' downfall makes more sense than some fans think.
Yet it doesn't seem like Daenerys, the version of her that fans knew, to give in that easily. Game of Thrones may be fantasy, yet its characters should still make some kind of sense. And Daenerys going mad when she's so close to achieving her goal, after all she's already gone through, doesn't seem to make sense. At least Daenerys's fans can comfort themselves with the fact that her downfall also caused the show to fall down as well.
Yet, it's not much of a comfort. Game of Thrones fans would've rather had an ending that made sense. Of course, not every fan will agree that Daenerys' conclusion doesn't make sense. Some might find her descent into madness believable. Yet Daenerys' fans might argue that she didn't "descend" into madness at all; she was forced into it by the show's writers.
If they didn't need a way to write her out, she never would have done it in the first place. And all to make way for an ending that doesn't make sense either. Daenerys didn't necessarily have to win the throne or even keep it. But she certainly could've done so without going mad. Especially since she showed no signs of madness until she needed to. Therefore, she could have quickly realized that she didn't really want the throne. That all she wanted was a home. She could've found that home with Jon or another character or simply on her own. But the ending as it is doesn't seem to make much sense for her character. It seems to disrespect her and everything she stood for throughout eight seasons.
So could Daenerys have won the throne without going mad? Certainly! Yet she didn't in Game of Thrones. Hopefully, the books will give her a better fate, but if not she will still be loved by her many fans. And that's all that a well-written character like Daenerys needs.