Why Did Critics Claim Dany Got Corrupted In The Finale?

2025-08-30 18:27:35 249

5 Answers

Wendy
Wendy
2025-08-31 10:19:29
Watching it felt like being jerked out of a long conversation. Critics argued Daenerys’ fall was abrupt because the season compressed years of psychological change into a couple of episodes. They pointed at missing beats: the moral debates with advisors were gone, moments of doubt were brief, and the show leaned on symbolic imagery more than interiority. Some saw seeds in earlier seasons — the Targaryen hints and her ruthless choices when cornered — but many thought those seeds weren’t cultivated enough onscreen. For them, it wasn’t just the act but the storytelling choice that turned complexity into caricature, which is why the criticism stung so much.
Molly
Molly
2025-08-31 11:24:48
Sometimes I find myself defending her in quiet conversations at conventions, because I see where critics came from but also why Dany’s moment felt sadly inevitable. Critics argued corruption because the scene skipped a believable descent — advisors gone, betrayals mounting, and a widening gulf between her ideals and reality. To me, that isolation can morph into absolutism: when every compromise is branded a betrayal, someone like her might conclude only total control prevents more suffering.

That said, the main gripe was craft, not morality. Critics wanted scenes that showed her debating, failing, and rationalizing over weeks, not a single cinematic eruption. I get why people felt cheated, but I also feel for the character’s tragedy; she became what she feared in trying to stop what scared her most — and that kind of sadness is why the finale still haunts me.
Mia
Mia
2025-09-03 08:32:58
I still bring this up when friends ask why the finale felt wrong: critics focused less on whether the act happened and more on how it was shown. From my perspective, it wasn't just that Daenerys burned King's Landing — it's that the show reduced a long-running, complex character to a single, violent beat without enough gradual erosion. The act needed a breadcrumb trail: more private doubts, more small cruelties escalating over several episodes, or at least a clearer depiction of how absolute power warped her worldview.

People also pointed to a writing problem where emotional shorthand replaced character work. Trauma + loss + isolation became a formula to justify a tyrannical turn, but critics felt this formula was lazy. Others raised the gendered angle: a woman shown as compassionate suddenly labeled a monster when she commits violence, and that double standard made some critiques more vocal. I personally think the scene could have landed if the run-up hadn’t been so compressed — nuance matters, and when a show abandons it for spectacle, critics will call foul.
Scarlett
Scarlett
2025-09-03 11:30:48
I've been chewing on this finale controversy for years, and what critics mostly pointed to was a problem of build versus payoff. In 'Game of Thrones' the show planted little seeds — Targaryen fire talk, visions, hints of instability — but many felt the writers skipped the slow, psychological erosion of her morals and jumped straight to spectacle. That makes her King's Landing rampage feel less like inevitable tragedy and more like a plot swerve designed to shock.

On top of pacing, people complained about missing connective tissue: the advisers who challenged or tempered her were gone, her loneliness and paranoia were heightened narratively but not explored deeply, and trauma was used as shorthand for an instantaneous moral collapse. Critics argued the show needed more scenes showing internal debate or crumbling restraint; instead, it gave us an iconic image — dragon and flames — that lacked emotional scaffolding.

I also think a lot of the heat came from expectations. Fans who’d been tracking 'A Song of Ice and Fire' and the show’s earlier slow-burn moral exercises wanted a nuanced fall. When the show gave a compressed, dramatic turn instead, it felt unearned to many. Whether you love the theatrical choice or hate it, it’s clear the storytelling mechanics rubbed a lot of viewers the wrong way, and that’s why critics labeled her corrupted rather than completed.
Isla
Isla
2025-09-05 04:36:38
My take is a bit of an analogy: it’s like watching a carefully plotted chess game where suddenly someone flips the board. For critics, the series had set up Daenerys as a player who weighed consequences and learned from loss, and then the finale treated her like a wildcard. That narrative discontinuity felt less like a tragic arc and more like a thematic pivot without justification.

Digging deeper, many critiques were structural. The showrunners compressed seasons, eliminated voices that would have contested her choices, and prioritized visual catharsis — dragon fury, burning city — over internal moral struggle. There’s also a cultural component: some critics read the meltdown as part of a trope about powerful women becoming dangerous, while others emphasized the Targaryen legacy and prophecy. Personally, I wish the series had let us live inside her doubts longer; a slower burn would have made the moral collapse devastating rather than merely shocking, and might have prevented so much backlash.
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