Game of Thrones - The Queen My Friends Wanted.

I was listening to one of many Game of Thrones podcasts (They are Legion: For They Are Many), and the argument of “subverting expectations” as a familiar Martin trope in terms of who lives and dies in Westeros rested on my mind as I was speaking to two women at work in regards to Dany’s turn to the darkside. Arguments made about how she was always heading towards this turn for the worse when she decided to eviscerate King’s Landing are such a constant no matter what podcast, article, or opinion you invite as a voice to consider. One of the pleasures for me personally is actually taking in all the opposing viewpoints, especially with those fans who have followed the show as I have, listening to the initial response. My co-workers, avid Dany supporters, had to come to grips with her execution of the near entirety of King’s Landing, and her vision of a future where she “frees” and awaits those “enslaved” to kneel in adulation to her all across the world. What she endured, the loss she has suffered, and clear victory over Cersei led her to a potential happier conclusion…a conclusion my friends so wanted, lamenting with some grief (well, as fans would) that it didn’t result as they so desired. That will always be of a definite notoriety. Dany, the force of nature that rose from the bottom to actually come in direct contact of the Iron Throne, never to actually sit as Westeros’ true Queen. I get the “subverting expectations” part of how this series often works, but I also recognize my friends, young women who truly responded to her strength and fierce climb from the depths to great prominence, really wanting to see her survive and truly serve the people often subjected to abject poverty and near starvation by other regimes prior to her. I don’t think my friends should be faulted for being disappointed. Yes, the world often in our history provide examples of tyrants who felt their own vision of how an ideology best serves the human race but I speak to my friends, see them sigh and accept their heroine’s fall, and wish that perhaps an alternate version gave them exactly what they wanted. I guess Jon’s petting his direwolf, Ghost, and Arya setting sail as an explorer looking into the undiscovered west for whatever lies ahead will have to be some concession. I’ll personally imagine Dany, before that fateful decision to rent King’s Landing into, sitting on the Iron Throne, Jorah on one side, Barriston Selmy on the other, Messendei and Grey Worm getting to vacation in Naath, while Jon forgoes his rightful claim to it in order to be free of its restraints. Of course, if I had all that, I might as well envision Jon with Ygritte as Tormund gushes about a potential date someday with Brienne, with the Wall officially collapsed by Drogon and Rhaegal. But Dany, so insistent that all must kneel to recognize her as Queen, couldn’t have so many free folk out there (much less Sansa) independent in their defiance that they prefer not to. And so the complications of Westeros and the series proposes that almost always someone will be upset or disappointed at outcomes.