“Daenerys was Wrong” & Other Lies We Tell Ourselves About Violence

In focusing on how the show failed her, however, we ignore what making her into a villain says about the state of entertainment. Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) wanted to change the world, and the quickest way she saw to do that was to kill countless people. That framing says something about how the privileged view progress: you either bend to the worldview of your oppressor in favor of incrementalism, or you light the match that causes it all to burn down.