I think I’ve finally pinned one of my biggest disappointments with the show, in terms of Daenerys’s representation. This is more for the readers who have also watched the show, I guess, but if you haven’t read the series, don’t let that bother you.
What I was most excited for in Season 5 was Daenerys’s scene in the fighting pits of Mereen. I’ll also put in a little caveat here and say I’m not trying to go into Daenerys’s character per se (because that’d be its own essay hot damn) but I wanna focus on this scene from the books in particular. Lemme just set the scene here:
At this point in the books, you’ve seen Daenerys’s challenges in navigating being the ideal queen for her people, eg, her trying to find a balance between just and fair, kind and harsh etc. You also know that she hasn’t seen Drogon in a long time and that her other two dragons are (ironically) enslaved. Drogon shows up, huge and terrifying and he deals death with his return. Drogon is first attracted to Daznak’s pit due to the screaming and blood. When Drogon first enters the pit, it’s ‘oooh!’ and ‘aaaah’ all over the place, until he starts eating the fighters. Then the fighters are trying to kill him; everyone is screaming out to slay the dragon. So Daenerys runs in, her slippers are falling off, Baristan’s coming in behind her but begging her to keep clear of the dragon. Daenerys gets close to Drogon and she fears he doesn’t recognise her; he spits fire at her and she ducks under the flames. There’s a moment where he snaps at her and almost bites her head off; she looks into his mouth and realises she’s ‘looking into death’. She sees her reflection in his eyes and sees how afraid she looks, and basically tells herself to get her act together because Drogon will eat her alive if he senses her weakness. So she gets up, grabs a whip off the ground and literally whips her dragon into submission. He finally buckles and she’s all aboard now, mounting for a flight. She pulls a spear out of him and whips him again, they fly off together.
This scene was so damn liberating to read; it was frightening and drama-packed and what’s more, it was a first flight scene! It was incredible to see the power dynamics at play between Daenerys, mother of dragons, and her largest, fiercest and most independent dragon. This isn’t some flowery, damsel in distress scene where Drogon comes in and saves the day. Daenerys is trying to save the day from him, while simultaneously trying to save Drogon from everyone else.
Am I the only one who thinks they missed a seriously grand opportunity here? This scene had the potential to be on par (I think) with the emotional charge they achieved with Jon’s Battle of the Bastards episode. This was a huge, huge moment for Daenerys as a character and they reduced her to a position of needing to be saved against all odds because she couldn’t handle her enemies. And then we see the writers make all kinds of accomodations for the Hound, a character that had comparatively little material to begin with, and Tyrion and Bran, who were pretty much past their expiration date? But they couldn’t stick the landing with a hugely gratifying scene when it was handed to them on a silver platter?
I’m sorry and perhaps I sound bitter. I just remember reading that scene and being so excited to see it on screen, only to see it go from a 10 to a 1. Thanks for listening to me rant lol.
Submitted December 19, 2021 at 01:13AM by glitter-wine https://ift.tt/3sjy7Ie
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