5 Worst Things Daenerys Did On Game Of Thrones, Ranked

Throughout the long reign of "Game of Thrones," the massively popular HBO series based on George R.R. Martin's fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire," Emilia Clarke's Daenerys Targaryen emerged as a fan-favorite character. She was, point in fact, so unbelievably popular that people named their daughters Daenerys or, as she's styled when she marries Dothraki horse lord Khal Drogo in Season 1, "Khaleesi," which means "queen" in that language. Unfortunately, those parents might have regretted that decision as the series continued, because throughout the eight seasons of "Game of Thrones," the character ... changes.

Some of those changes are, to be clear, good. After losing Drogo to an infection and a devastating bit of magic in Season 1, Daenerys steps into his funeral pyre clutching three dragon eggs and emerges with three baby dragons, gaining confidence and becoming a real contender for the Iron Throne of Westeros upon which her Targaryen ancestors sat. As the self-styled Mother of Dragons makes her way across foreign lands to get back to Westeros, though, she develops some decently troubling habits, which seem fine when she's flambéing bad guys and slave masters. As "Game of Thrones" makes its way to its bitter end, though, Daenerys changes for the worse.

This was, on some level, always to be expected; Daenerys' late father, King Aerys II Targaryen, didn't earn the nickname of "Mad King" because he was always grumpy. Still, it's time for us to admit that, during "Game of Thrones," Daenerys did things ranging from objectively stupid to straight-up evil ... and these are her first worst misdeeds, ranked. Also, spoilers follow for the entirety of "Game of Thrones!"

It's tough to ignore the fact that, when Season 7 of "Game of Thrones" begins, every major character inexplicably gets extremely stupid extremely quickly. While Daenerys was, honestly, never much known for her cunning mind, we do see this manifested in the man who's now her Hand of the Queen, Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), who concocts a plan alongside then King in the North Jon Snow (Kit Harington) to capture a single wight. Why? Well, Jon is desperately trying to convince anyone who will listen, including Tyrion's spiteful older sister and this group's sworn enemy Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), that while humans squabble over the Iron Throne in Westeros, a much larger threat is coming from the far north beyond the Wall. To be fair, Jon is right about this. What he and Tyrion are massively wrong about is this stupid plan to kidnap one singular wight — a zombified, simple version of the advanced and undead White Walkers who roam the far north — and bring it to Cersei to prove they're not lying.

Daenerys shouldn't even consider this plan, much less sign off on it. She does anyway, and a merry band of idiots, including Jon, traipse across the Wall to the north to find one wight. (This is, incidentally, the era of "Game of Thrones" where characters start fast-traveling like they're in a video game.) Daenerys gets a wight for her trouble, but she also has to swoop in on her three dragons to save the group of boys from a whole army of wights and White Walkers ... and in the process, the mysterious and powerful Night King (Vladimir Furdyk) kills one of her dragons, Viserion, and turns it into an ice dragon. Way to go, everyone!

To be completely fair to Daenerys, she doesn't know that Jon Snow is her blood relative when the two first land in bed together shortly after the ill-advised wight gambit. Unfortunately for both of them, though, this is true. Unbeknownst to essentially everyone, Jon — assumed to be a bastard of the northern noble Eddard "Ned" Stark (Sean Bean in Season 1) — isn't a bastard at all, but the legitimate product of a secret marriage between Daenerys' older brother Rhaegar and Ned's sister Lyanna. So why does anyone think Jon is a mere bastard? When Ned found out about his nephew, he promised a dying Lyanna that he would keep the baby safe ... which meant hiding the newborn's identity from Lyanna's vengeful husband-to-be Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy). Instead, Ned presents Jon as his illegitimate son, a move that saves his life.

All of this is to say that, again, Daenerys has no idea that Jon is also her nephew when they embark on a romantic relationship. When he tells her, though, she's ... more or less fine with it. Not cool, Daenerys! Incest might be all the rage in Westeros, but that does not make it right!

As "Game of Thrones" heads into its final seasons, Daenerys gets more erratic and impulsive on the battlefield — something that's illustrated perfectly in the Season 7 sequence where she attacks mostly unarmed Lannister forces. Though Tyrion is, again, her Hand of the Queen, Cersei and her twin brother Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) are enemies to Daenerys, so she devises a plan to intercept a whole bunch of Tyrell-gifted gold as it makes its way to the Iron Bank to pay off Cersei's many debts. 

While the caravans travel the Roseroad, Daenerys hops aboard her murder machine — Drogon, her largest dragon by far — torches most of it, killing men who may or may not even be fighting members of the Lannister army. Aside from ensuring that Cersei remains in debt, this particular battle is ... a little much. Frankly, any time Daenerys fights from atop a dragon, it feels sort of egregious, but this attack, fun as it might be to watch, is brutal for no particular reason and just feels like Daenerys' attempt to ensure that her enemies are terrified of her at all times. In fact, as she cultivates that abject terror, she starts threatening people who don't comply, which brings us right to the second item on this list.

Again, Daenerys does do a lot of genuinely good things on "Game of Thrones" as well; she frees slaves like Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel), who becomes her closest ally and confidante, and she makes heartfelt attempts to leave slave-owning cities freed and better than she found them. Unfortunately, as much as Daenerys extends olive branches and promises of better lives to people, she'll also turn on them almost immediately if she feels wronged. Missandei doesn't meet this fate — she's beheaded by Cersei while Daenerys watches, something that leads right into the number one pick on this list — but others do, and whether or not they really deserve it is a big question.

Even though Daenerys does a sort of clumsy job in "freeing" the slave cities — essentially, she kills the masters but doesn't introduce any sort of new system, paving the way for bad actors to take advantage of the messes she leaves behind — her truly evil side starts showing after the aforementioned Loot Train attack when she meets Randyll and Dickon Tarly (James Faulkner and Tom Hopper). The father and brother of main character Samwell Tarly (John Bradley) refuse to bend the knee to Daenerys and accept her as their queen; instead of sparing them like Tyrion suggests, Daenerys kills both men instantly using Drogon's fire.

The worst example of this, though, is Daenerys' ally Varys (Conleth Hill). After Varys grows wary of Daenerys' worst impulses, he attempts to supplant her ... and he, too, gets a face full of fire with little to no preamble. This is absolutely the worst kind of thing Daenerys does during "Game of Thrones," and the number one spot goes to her worst use of "trial by fire" by a long shot.

What else could possibly be number one on a list of Daenerys Targaryen's worst-ever misdeeds other than her most controversial move on all of "Game of Thrones?" In the series' penultimate episode "The Bells," Daenerys, furious and grief-stricken over the recent loss of Missandei — and, incidentally, the fact that her nephew-lover Jon Snow broke off their relationship after finding out that they're related — finally brings her forces to King's Landing, including a massive Dothraki army, her powerful Unsullied, and her remaining dragon Drogon. (Viserion, as you might remember, fell to the Night King and then perished during the Battle of Winterfell, and Rhaegal was shot out of the sky during a battle at sea, adding to Daenerys' many troubles.) When she hears the bells of surrender ring from the Red Keep, it's in Daenerys' best interest to land in the city atop her dragon and declared it conquered. What does she do instead? She torches the city, killing countless civilians without a care in the world.

The episode brings us into the heart of King's Landing to watch this massacre occur, as women and children run from the flames before being fully consumed and murdered. It's unsurprising that, in the aftermath, Tyrion quits his post as Hand of the Queen, is summarily arrested, and tells Jon Snow that he might want to consider putting Daenerys down like Old Yeller. Jon, after much muttering and many conflicted feelings, does just that, stabbing a power-hungry Daenerys to death ... after which Drogon flies away with her body. This isn't just a cruddy ending for a great "Game of Thrones" character; it's the most evil thing Daenerys ever does.

"Game of Thrones" is streaming on HBO Max now.