Originally Posted by
alteran
No one is saying none of this happened.
But for every one of these, there’s a number of instances of her talking about Breaking the Wheel. And she freed slaves all over the place, even stalling her greatly desired trip to Westeros to do so.
The complaint is not that she had madness in her and it came from nowhere, the complaint is that they showed her going from completely coherent to raving lunatic in two episodes.
I was highly critical of the first 4 episodes but I liked episode 5 and have no problem with Dany’s turn toward madness. There seemed to be ample narrative justification for her increased paranoia and feeling of near total isolation:
She lost Jorah, a trusted advisor and someone who repeatedly proved his love for her.
She lost Missandei, another trusted advisor, in a way that made her feel particularly powerless.
Varys, another advisor, had to be executed for treason.
She has justifiable questions about the quality of Tyrion’s advice, if not his loyalty.
She has become increasingly jealous of the way Jon is loved by his men.
Who’s left for her to trust other than Grey Worm? Taken together with the seeds sown in earlier seasons, this seems like more enough to explain how she snapped.
Edit: I also liked how Jon professed his loyalty to Dany but rebuffed her desire for love. It felt like the right event to push her over the brink.