Hardly anyone expected that episode four of Game of Thrones’ final season, “The Last of the Starks,” would hold more twists and turns than…
Hardly anyone expected that episode four of Game of Thrones’ final season, “The Last of the Starks,” would hold more twists and turns than the dramatic episode that preceded it. But after the Battle of Winterfell, the series’ shift to King’s Landing proved to hold a number of shocking moments that no one saw coming.
One of the biggest was the gruesome death of a significant character, news of which leaked online before the episode aired. A short clip that circulated from the episode included the death without any context, sparking confusion and outrage from many Game of Thrones fans in the hours before the episode’s release. Then, after the episode aired, it became clear that the death was in service of a larger shift towards a plot development for a different beloved character — and it’s one that many fans aren’t too happy with.
There are very valid reasons for the fans’ outrage around this particular death — both because it’s a troubling example of a recurring thematic problem for Game of Thrones, and because of how it could affect the quest for the Iron Throne.
Naturally, there are spoilers ahead!
There were two stunning deaths in this episode. The first was the death of one of Daenerys’s two remaining dragons, Rhaegal, thanks to well-placed arrows fired by Euron Greyjoy as Dany’s entourage sailed toward King’s Landing.
But for as hard as Rhaegal’s death was for many Game of Thrones fans to take, the other one was much worse, and it carries dire implications for the direction the series might take in its final two episodes. During Euron’s ambush on Dany’s fleet, her best friend and longtime servant Missandei is captured. She becomes Cersei’s prisoner, and in the episode’s final scene, Cersei orders the Mountain to behead her while Dany and Grey Worm are forced to watch.
It’s not pretty. But even more significantly, right before she dies, Missandei shouts the word “dracarys” to Dany. Dracarys is the command that Dany uses when directing her dragons to lay down fire and torch everything in sight, and Missandei seemed to be advising Dany to burn Cersei’s palace to the ground — and very likely many thousands of innocent King’s Landing civilians along with it.
Missandei’s death is clearly meant to propel both Dany and Grey Worm into destructive grief spirals. It also seems to be setting the stage for a grim plot twist in which Dany essentially turns into her grandfather, the mad king Aerys II Targaryen, and reacts to her losses with a vengeful, unmitigated rage that threatens all of King’s Landing.
But this is an especially complicated turn of events, given that Dany has consistentlybeen lauded as a feminist icon — albeit one with a heavy emphasis on white feminism. Essentially, even though Missandei’s death should be about Missandei, it’s inevitably also about problems with Dany’s politics and Game of Thrones’ often contradictory presentation of Dany as a white savior queen who wants to be kind but who’s often ruthless and imperialistic.
Many Game of Thrones viewers have expressed anger and disgust over Missandei’s death because of what it means for Dany. Namely, after an entire episode devoted to heavily foreshadowing Dany’s turning into the “Mad Queen,” the death seemed like a calculated plot device to push Dany over the edge. But these same viewers aren’t buying such a shift in Dany’s character; after all, she’s been framed as a noble and just queen, if a flawed one, for several seasons now.
