In the final season of Game of Thrones, Daenerys Targaryen flipped from savior to executioner, becoming the Mad Queen. In the finale last night, it cost her her life: Jon Snow saw her for what she was—a threat to the people of Westeros who might stand in her way; a tyrant—and plunged a dagger into her chest. It was an ending many fans saw coming, especially when Jon's Targaryen bloodline was revealed. But what didn't sit right was just how quickly Dany went from hero to villain. Like many plotlines this season, it felt rushed and ungraceful. Emilia Clarke, who plays Dany, didn't go so far as to criticize the pacing, but in two interviews about the series finale, Clarke did talk about the rapid transition Daenerys went through, her dislike of the word "madness," and her wish for more screen time with Cersei.

When Clarke first read the script for Season Eight back in October 2017, she recalled saying, “What, what, what, WHAT!?” she told Entertainment Weekly. “Because it comes out of fucking nowhere. I’m flabbergasted. Absolutely never saw that coming.”

Clarke saw Dany's unraveling begin when the Stark sisters refused to accept her as their queen and culminate when Jon rejected her love. She told EW:

There’s so much she’s taken on in her duty in life to rectify, so much she’s seen and witnessed and been through and lost and suffered and hurt. Suddenly these people are turning around and saying, "We don’t accept you." But she’s too far down the line. She’s killed so many people already. I can’t turn this ship around. It’s too much. One by one, you see all these strings being cut. And there’s just this last thread she’s holding onto: There’s this boy. And she thinks, "He loves me, and I think that’s enough." But is it enough? Is it? And it’s just that hope and wishing that finally there is someone who accepts her for everything she is and … he f—king doesn’t.

She believed Dany's conquest would end with death. Her character was a Targaryen who had freed thousands while simultaneously murdering thousands more. She had won the throne in a foreign country, despite those she loved abandoning her or dying. As Clarke says, "It’s not like she’s suddenly going to go, ‘Okay, I’m gonna put a kettle on and put cookies in the oven and we’ll just sit down and have a lovely time and pop a few kids out.’ That was never going to happen. She’s a Targaryen.”

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Clarke put deep care into understanding Dany's death, too. She didn't want to play it like an evil queen, but like a hopeful, childlike woman in love. She told the New Yorker:

I wanted to play a game with what the scene was about. It’s not that I wanted to show her as “mad,” because I really don’t like that word. I don’t enjoy fans calling me “the Mad Queen.” But she’s is so far gone in grief, in trauma, and in pain. And yet our brains are fascinating in the way that they find a fast route to feel O.K., whether you’re relying on a substance or you’re mildly deluded.

If you see abuse in someone young, they often are able to mentally leave the room. I wanted Daenerys to be there. I wanted to show her as we saw her in the beginning: young, naïve, childlike, open, and full of love and hope. I wanted so much for that to be the last memory of her.

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As for her wishes about the final season, she told the New Yorker she would've liked more dialogue scenes between Dany and Missandei, between Missandei and Grey Worm, and most significantly, between Dany and Cersei.



I would’ve loved to see a bit more between Cersei . . . I feel like there was . . . The genocide was there. That was always going to happen. And I just think more dissection and those beautifully written scenes that the boys have between characters—that we are more than happy to contently sit there and watch ten minutes of two people talking, because it’s beautiful. I just wanted to see a bit more of that. But I’m in no position to critique the geniuses that have written eight seasons’ worth of wonderful stuff.

Clarke didn't comment directly on criticism that Game of Thrones' treatment of Cersei, Dany, and many of its other main characters was sexist.

In the end Clarke stands by her girl. “But having said all of the things I’ve just said…” she told EW. “I stand by Daenerys. I stand by her! I can’t not.” She's played her for 10 years, after all.

Sarah Rense Sarah Rense is the Associate Lifestyle Editor at Esquire, where she covers tech, food, drink, home, and more.

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