In the final episode of Game of Thrones, Daenerys Targaryen gives a speech to her assembled Dothraki and Unsullied forces, promising to “liberate” the great cities of the world like she just “liberated” King’s Landing. She’d just massacred a good chunk of the civilians in the city, so it’s understandable if people like Jon and Tyrion and Arya are concerned.
With the final season of Game of Thrones now out on home video, we’re seeing the cast and crew talk about key moments like this in behind-the-scenes featurettes. Entertainment Tonight has a clip from the featurette “Duty Is The Death Of Love,” which is all about the ending. “I knew that speech was going to be really important, and I spent a huge amount of time learning it,” says Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys. “And for the first time in my whole Game of Thrones career, I got that word perfect.”
Since the speech was delivered in Dothraki, getting it word perfect was no easy task. “I’m being so brutally honest here — I was in hell learning that speech. This pretend language was literally eating me up. I couldn’t do it,” Clarke said. “And then, magic happened. I woke up in the morning, went on, and it all came out. I was probably fighting not what I was saying, but it was what Dany was doing.”
Clarke’s comments are interesting, although we’ve heard her say much the same thing before. What drew my attention were comments from showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, who we haven’t really heard weigh on the final arc of the series. Given how controversial it proved, I’m curious to hear what they have to say. Quoth Weiss:
Dany has been above it all, literally, throughout this entire battle. She’s fought the whole thing from the air. So when she’s in the plaza, all she’s seeing is her own armies triumphant in the city she came to conquer for all the best reasons. And I think the idea of spreading her brand of revolution around the entire world is a very attractive idea to her at this moment. In her mind, it’s a very ethical idea, because she’s not seeing the cost the way Jon and the way Tyrion have seen the cost.
Benioff also gave his thoughts:
What’s interesting about it is that she’s been making similar kinds of speeches for a long time and we’ve always been rooting for her and this is kind of the natural outcome of that philosophy and that willingness to go forth and conquer all your enemies.
Okay, prepare for some commentary.
I feel like a lot of what they’re saying works for me on paper. Benioff is right: we have heard Daenerys make these kinds of bellicose speeches before, and we have cheered her on. That kind of conqueror mentality, taken too far, can easily result in massive, unintended consequences, even if the intentions are good.
I love the idea of Daenerys’ own view of her crusade being out of step with reality and it leading to conflict within her own ranks. But I don’t think they sold that to us onscreen. In this moment, how can Daenerys be under any illusions about what she just did? Yes, she killed all those civilians from the air, but she was strafing the streets of King’s Landing after Cersei’s army had already surrendered. Who did she think she was killing? And even if she wasn’t up close and personal with the people she burned, she can still see the aftereffects of her devastation on the city itself. How does slaughtering the population of a city translate to liberating them?
Like, maybe Daenerys could have eventually gotten to the point where she was compartmentalizing things hardcore — historically, people with her level of power are not known for being chill and reasonable — but I never got the impression that it was that bad. Basically, I really like the concepts Benioff and Weiss are outlining here, but the execution lagged. But of course, that’s just me.
You can see more of featurettes like this on the Game of Thrones season 8 home video release, or on Game of Thrones: The Complete Series.
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