But she didn't remain a victim for long. Daenerys asserted her equality to her new husband, and embraced her new culture, learning the Dothraki language and gamely participating in Dothraki rituals, like the eating of a horse's heart. Before long, she was actively inciting change in the hyper-masculine Dothraki culture—particularly when she appealed to her husband to stop the systematic rape of captured women.

Last night's finale saw the completion of Daenerys's transformation. Coming out of the fire naked, with her three young dragons, it was as if she'd been reborn. Though Daenerys loved Khal Drogo, she doesn't need him anymore; she can raise a khalasar on her own. If Daenerys is truly "the dragon," the hatched eggs are almost a surrogate for the son she lost in childbirth. And with her new allies, she's poised to take back the iron throne. Daenerys once said, "I do not have a gentle heart." If her treatment of the witch Mirri Maz Duur in last night's episode is any indication, Daenerys has no mercy left in her.

There is, of course, another powerful, golden-haired woman without a gentle heart in Game of Thrones. There are intriguing parallels between Daenerys and Queen Cersei; the forced marriages, the sheer strength of will, and the attitude of utter ruthlessness toward their enemies. Much like Daenerys in her marriage with Khal Drogo, Queen Cersei exercised her own greatest power in her marriage to Robert Baratheon: her ability to conceive children. Bloodline and succession is the quickest, surest way to assert strength in Westeros, and Cersei made the decision to have hers with Jaime, not Robert. The fact that Robert died without a true heir in place is Cersei's greatest power—and greatest revenge.

It's easy to hate the cold, manipulative Cersei. But there was a time, not so long ago, when she was a lot like Sansa Stark: young, hopeful, and betrothed to a man who, in the end, never offered her the life she wanted. Cersei knows how to use Sansa so skillfully because she herself was once used, in a similarly politically motivated marriage, benefitting both the Baratheons and the Lannisters at the expense of her own personal happiness. Cersei has overcome the limitations Westerosi society has imposed on her by strategy and treachery, and though she's far from sympathetic—this is, after all, a woman who had a boy pushed out of a window to protect her secret affair with her brother—it's not impossible to understand how she became the cold-hearted woman she is.

For all of Cersei's scheming, however, it's Lady Catelyn Stark who demonstrates both power and compassion. As the Stark family deals with the aftermath of Ned's execution, Catelyn proves to be the strongest Stark of all. Her son Robb is named "King in the North" by his loyal followers. It's a title he deserves; he's proven as honorable as his father, but less naive, and he's demonstrated his ability to lead well. But it's Lady Catelyn who comforts her son after they learn of Ned's death, not the other way around. And it's Lady Catelyn who coolly, pragmatically defines out the Starks' battle strategy for the "King in the North": "We have to get the girls back. And then we will kill them all."