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But I do not choose now to do what I came to do.

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I will not do this deed.

The Ring is mine!

Frodo Baggins broke bad.

Only dumb luck and Frodos own prior kindness saved him in the end.

In the parlance of our era, you simply hate to see it.

But the bottom line is that Daenerys faced a Machiavellian dilemma.

Is it better for a ruler to be feared than loved?

She chose the path of House Targaryens words: Fire and Blood.

So a terrible crime was committed but not by showrunners D.B.

Weiss and David Benioff against the character or the viewers.

Even on this very website, theyre justa fewshort clicksaway.

Refutations of these claims are nearly as easy to find, too.

Robert Baratheon was an abusive, obsessively vindictive drunk.

His son Joffrey was a butcher of children and a budding sexual sadist.

King-Beyond-the-Wall Mance Rayder and his lieutenant, good ol Tormund Giantsbane, oversaw the slaughter of entire Northern villages.

Balon and Euron Greyjoy … well, they were Greyjoys.

Littlefinger and Ramsay Bolton existed.

Jon freaking Snow hanged a child for treason.

Tenderhearted Grey Worm, leader of the Unsullied super-soldiers, started the slaughter of the surrendering Lannister troops.

Dothraki horsemen cut down civilians.

Northmen and knights of the Vale sexually assaulted women in the streets.

Dany was unique only in that she fired the first shot from the biggest gun.

For all her tough talk against tyranny, she opted to become a tyrant.

Given similar circumstances, would they have behaved differently?

To take things back to the text that most directly influencedGame of Thronesgodhead George R.R.

Thats why the corrupted ones Saruman, Boromir, Denethor wanted to take it.

Because of all this, I wasnt outraged by what she did in The Bells.

I hoped Good Queen Daenerys and Good King Jon would reign happily ever after.

I hate that I was wrong.

But I dont hateGame of Thronesfor it.

Im glad, and grateful, for the chance to feel something that deeply.

Its a tragedy that she didnt.

Now the Ring, for better or worse, is hers.

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