Quote:
Originally Posted by PsYcNeT
*spend 4 seasons showing an apex of mental control, followed by a spiral decent towards madness*
"That came out of nowhere!"
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I think the Mad Queen thing is a bit overstated. We could see her mindset deteriorating over time but to me that was the result of circumstances not random madness. Her closest advisors were killed, except for the one that consistently gave her poor advice; two of her children are dead; the mission she sacrificed much of her army for resulted in a double cross by the same family that double-crossed her family years ago; she increasingly clearly has no support in Westeros; she lost her lover; and she lost her legitimate claim to the throne - everything she has been working towards is falling apart.
So what does she do? She does what conquerors have done since the beginning of time - respond with unforgiving brutality to exact revenge and to make an example of their power for the rest of the realm. Making examples through brutality has been her MO all along - crucifixion, execution by dragon, etc. She made a point of sparing the innocents in the past so that is definitely a turn, but is entirely consistent with real world historical norms, not necessarily indicative of madness.
If she doesn’t do this she leaves herself open to challenge by all the other houses based on Jon’s birthright. Instead she decided to assert her claim through fear - what house will challenge a monarch who is not beyond torching a city? Clearly what she did was overkill, having already shown she can defeat military defences with ease, I’m just not convinced that next step can be easily explained as madness.