Posts Tagged ‘Daenerys Targaryen’

The final season of Game of Thrones has come and gone, closing the chapter on the conflict between Starks, Lannisters, and Targaryens with battles, betrayals, and the unexpected choice of a boy-king to rule over (most) of the kingdoms of Westeros. The conclusion of the story was tied in with the tragic fall of Daenerys Targaryen, who ambitiously considered herself The Last Dragon and had long sought to reclaim the seat of power that had been literally forged by her ancestors.

There’s solid analysis talking about Daenerys as a tragic hero in the Shakespearean mold. I’ll be happy to recommend articles from ShakespeareOfThrones discussing the Shakespearean ending to the series, as well as /r/asoiaf subreddit moderator glass_table_girl and her epic opus on Daenerys which predicted a literary-inspired tragic fall. But I’m not here to talk about Shakespeare. Instead, I’d like to talk about Daenerys and her association with the other prominent Targaryen in the story, Jon Snow, from an Arthurian perspective.

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Game of Thrones does not always give you what you want. Anyone who has seen the latest and penultimate episode “The Bells” knows what I’m talking about.

The wonderful people over on the Watchers on the Wall fansite have kindly given me the opportunity to discuss the decisions and actions of one of the main characters, Daenerys Targaryen. And what exactly she might have wanted as part of the Stark/Targaryen coalition fight against the Lannister faction holding King’s Landing, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms.

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Season Eight of Game of Thrones has finally started, and now our watch begins. The fine folks at the Watchers on the Wall are agreeably continuing to publish features written by yours truly, and my latest essay is on the site, talking about the events of the first episode of this final season.

The Night King is on his way, and it looks like our favorite Starks, Targaryens, and Lannisters might be too busy squabbling to resist him. And that’s okay.

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Season Eight of Game of Thrones is right around the corner. But it’s not here yet. To occupy my time, I’ve been writing feature essays (if I can dignify what I write as “essays”) for the Watchers on the Wall Game of Thrones news site.

My most recent feature is now up on their website, a (long) post defending an event that is not only one of the most derided situations in Season Seven, but the most critical. The decision to go beyond the Wall and capture one of the Night King’s wight foot soldiers.

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We are just under three months away from the final season of Game of Thrones!

Mercifully, April 14th is just around the corner. (I’m kidding – it feels like an eternity.) Our favorite (surviving) characters will be returning, as well as new characters among the famed Golden Company sellswords that Cersei hopes will preserve her hold on Westeros.

Good luck with that, your Grace.

Over on the Watchers on the Wall website, my go-to site for Game of Thrones news, I recently published a feature speculatively talking about the Golden Company and the likely story elements that they will bring with them from Essos.

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Up on the Watchers on the Wall website, I recently posted a feature discussing Daenerys Targaryen, and how her invasion of Westeros might not be the best thing for the defense of the Seven Kingdoms in the looming war against the White Walkers.

No, I’m not currently being paid by the Cersei Lannister administration to build a case against the Mother of Dragons.

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Game of Thrones is back on the air, which is when I usually take a break from blogging about the show and just settle in to watch it. But it’s really hard to not write about all of the thoughts I’m having.

Instead of breaking my no-blogging rule (I’m clearly bending that rule now), I wrote a short article about Daenerys Targaryen for the Watchers on the Wall website, where I reflect on Daenerys as she contemplates her next moves from the island fortress of Dragonstone.

Will she follow in the footsteps of the first Targaryen king, her ancestor Aegon the Conqueror? Or is she destined to track along the same path as the previous wannabe-monarch who lived at Dragonstone, Stannis Baratheon?

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This post will be talking about magic, but not really Harry Potter magic. I’ll be addressing some supernatural underpinnings in HBO’s Game of Thrones. If you’re not up on the show, I wanted to state up front that I’ll definitely be discussing plot points.

The blogger would make an awful maegi. One is supposed to make vague statements  and trick the reader into stumbling onto curses and naked spoilers.

No one disputes that there is magic on display in Game of Thrones.

Daenerys Targaryen was given a brief lecture about magic and dragons by the Warlocks of Qarth, while in their House of the Undying.

When your dragons were born, our magic was born again. It is strongest in their presence, and they are strongest in yours.

This post will be about magic and specifically how Daenerys represents a magic that had gone away from the world, and which is now returning in force. I’ll also discuss that there’s a magic that never went away, a passive but persistent kind of magic. As a counterpoint to Daenerys, there’s a character who is the central focus for that type of supernatural element. (Narratively or symbolically speaking. Yes, it’s going to be one of those posts.)

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If you don’t know who Bran Stark is, then you’re not familiar with HBO’s Game of Thrones, or the book series A Song of Ice and Fire that it’s based on. I won’t forbid you from reading my article (because it’s great, yo) but it’ll end up spoiling details of the plot. I recommend you binge-watch the show and come right back.

The most recent season of Game of Thrones marked the return of Bran Stark, the little lad who climbed too high, saw things he shouldn’t have seen, yet lived to tell the tale. Well, he would have told the tale, if he didn’t have traumatic amnesia.

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This post will be talking about Game of Thrones. In particular, I’ll be discussing king-in-exile Viserys Targaryen. This has been your spoiler warning.

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Spoiler warnings? Spoiler warnings are for babies! When I am seated upon my throne, there will be no “warnings”

There’s precious little that can be said positively in regards to Viserys Targaryen.

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