Daenerys: Analysis of psychology and foreshadowing

[Kajjo]

16 minutes ago, Nightwish said:

Ah that eventually on your way to get power you are destroyed by it. 

Hm, yes, I would re-phrase that greed for power is destructive. That is true for Cersei, Stannis and Daenerys as well.

Not every kind of power destroys you, though.

[tallTale]

Just now, fairwarging said:

Then what could the Dothraki possibly gain? Are they going to settle down and become farmers? It makes no sense. 

They follow strength and see Daeny as a sorta-goddess (I still believe this).

They chose this path willingly. Where they end up, we don't know. But I doubt Daeny would let them harm anyone in her kingdom.

[weirwoodface]

6 minutes ago, Nightwish said:

Not unbreakable as a Dany fan I would say different. What was her point of her arc ending up like Viserion or her father? 

I'm going to argue that she hasn't ended up like her father--yet. She came as a conqueror and she conquered, in a particularly nasty way.

However, it's incontrovertible that her character is forever not the girl we started with. 

[Hippocras]

41 minutes ago, fairwarging said:

I was a little confused by Greyworm's choice. He looked up and saw Dany burning recklessly and went for it. There definitely seemed to be something personal in it, but how much of it is that the Unsullied, free or not, are trained from birth to follow their leader without question? In the books they murder babies to prove their ruthlessness. Greyworm seems very compassionate and kind in other circumstances, but how much is he a reflection of his leader? 

Well I agree, but I also think that if he felt any affection or identification at all with the people of Westeros, he would have behaved differently. As it was, the only one he cared about was Dany, so he followed her lead. He would have thought more of it if he were killing "his" people.

[Rose of Red Lake]

The comet had a ton of foreshadowing for this. The books even had a prophet saying everyone in KL will burn, with the comet in the background.

[Nightwish]

3 minutes ago, weirwoodface said:

That is an excellent sub-theme, yes. I think that in the case of Dany it's a little simplistic because we can argue that the old adage speaks mainly of purely personal power and how people who are greedy and evil to start with will be consumed by their own malice. That's not Dany, obviously.

I don’t want to concentrate so much in detail to tell you the truth, yes Danys arc was promising to make a difference, but it didn’t and she ended up following the fate of the ones seeking power one way or another. So this for me it’s enough. Her character, arc and achievements all ruined so we could add another name in that pile of kings or wanna be kings who either lost it on the way or even started as the evil ones. It’s so repetitive as a theme. 

[Nightwish]

1 minute ago, weirwoodface said:

I'm going to argue that she hasn't ended up like her father--yet. She came as a conqueror and she conquered, in a particularly nasty way.

However, it's incontrovertible that her character is forever not the girl we started with. 

She is not? Wasn’t aeries the one who wanted to burn the city? She burned the city. There you have it. 

[weirwoodface]

4 minutes ago, Nightwish said:

She is not? Wasn’t aeries the one who wanted to burn the city? She burned the city. There you have it. 

I was going to try to make the distinction that Aerys was the sitting king while Dany was not, but then I remembered that she burned the city after the surrender. So you're right. The city was hers. She did what Jaime stopped her father from achieving.

[Nightwish]

4 minutes ago, weirwoodface said:

I was going to try to make the distinction that Aerys was the sitting king while Dany was not, but then I remembered that she burned the city after the surrender. So you're right. The city was hers. She did what Jaime stopped her grandfather from achieving.

Yes. We are going back where it started. Targs are mad. Thank you (I mean as a story). 

[a girl knows nothing]

5 hours ago, Kajjo said:

Daenerys was portrayed as being on the verge throughout the whole show. No surprise here if you watched carefully. She was always emotional, sometimes warmhearted and supportive to the common people, sometimes exhibiting anger, fury and rage. Daenerys turning in to Mad Queen is not that unexpected after all the foreshadowing. I would like member here to collect references to foreshadowing in all seasons. Let us create a fine list of all quotes with season/episode/scene that showed us the "possible mad side" of Daenerys.

Secondly, what led Daenerys to snap? Let's discuss what made her freak out and decide to destroy King's Landing? In my opinion firstly she realised that the people do not love her and never will. Secondly, Jon cannot kiss her back, probably because of the aunt-nephew-issue and she realised that she will have no future with him. Jon loves her and she loves Jon, but they are unable to enjoy intimacy. She is utterly lonesome. She has no goal in life anymore. The people won't love and respect her, Jon will not be intimate with her, her advisers are worthless, she is not only on hew own, she is alone and lonely. There is nothing to gain anymore, not even by conquering King's Landing. She realises she won't be the Queen that free the people and is loved by her people. She understands no one will love her no matter how it turns out. She has no allies and Sansa is against her, all the Northerners are prone to hail Sansa. 

I think you provide a very compelling analysis of Dany’s actions and thought processes in this episode, but I would like to offer an alternative perspective to Dany snapping and becoming the mad queen.

Rather than snapping, I think Dany made a conscious decision to start her rule with a healthy dose of fear. She does not have the love or acceptance of the people, her advisors are disloyal, and Jons parentage (and the people’s preference for him) threatens her claim. She does not think she is likely to solidify her position by demonstrating her goodness, so she decides to use fear to establish her rule instead. Her words to Jon sum this up nicely: Let it be fear.

She and Drogon had arguably already terrified the people and soldiers in KL simply by taking out the Golden Company, defenses, and Iron fleet. At the point when the bells start to ring, Dany had to make a choice: stop her attack and demonstrate her goodness and caring for the people, or burn the city and its inhabitants and demonstrate how ruthless and dangerous she can be (to discourage future dissent). She chose the latter I believe because in her experience she has found fear (and using fire/her dragon) to be highly effective in achieving her goals and gaining respect and recognition as a powerful leader. Although her previous acts that have been deemed harsh, cruel, or ruthless (burning the Tarlys, burning the Khals, feeding one of the Masters of Mereen to her dragons) served other explicit purposes, they also had an underlying purpose of inspiring fear and demonstrating her power.

Throughout the show Dany has struggled not between sanity and madness, but with her conflicting desires (desire to be loved and desire for power) and the type of ruler she would be. When she first started out on her quest for the throne, she thought ruling would be much simpler than it turned out to be - if you are good to your people they will be good to you in return. She had lofty ideals of making the world a better place and breaking the wheel. In Mereen she first started to realize that it would not be so simple - some people are going to oppose your rule because they disagree with you. She learned that she would have to make hard decisions and punish dissenters if she wanted to maintain her rule. She still wanted so badly to be a good leader whose people loved her for her goodness, but once she got to Westeros this dream really started to fall apart. Despite her efforts to protect the realm from the white walkers, she is not seen as a benevolent savior. She does not have the love of the people, and she is viewed as a mistrusted outsider. And now there is Jon, with the better claim to the throne, and better support from the people.

When the bells started to ring, she said goodbye to her old self (the one who would never harm innocent people) and her old ideals and decided to embrace her ruthless side instead. By doing so she demonstrates the extent of her power and the lengths she is willing to go to solidify her rule. She is not to be messed with, so bend the knee.

[Melifeather]

D&D turned Dany into a crazy ex-girlfriend with a high-powered dragon. 

[tallTale]

2 minutes ago, a girl knows nothing said:

I think you provide a very compelling analysis of Dany’s actions and thought processes in this episode, but I would like to offer an alternative perspective to Dany snapping and becoming the mad queen.

Rather than snapping, I think Dany made a conscious decision to start her rule with a healthy dose of fear. She does not have the love or acceptance of the people, her advisors are disloyal, and Jons parentage (and the people’s preference for him) threatens her claim. She does not think she is likely to solidify her position by demonstrating her goodness, so she decides to use fear to establish her rule instead. Her words to Jon sum this up nicely: Let it be fear.

She and Drogon had arguably already terrified the people and soldiers in KL simply by taking out the Golden Company, defenses, and Iron fleet. At the point when the bells start to ring, Dany had to make a choice: stop her attack and demonstrate her goodness and caring for the people, or burn the city and its inhabitants and demonstrate how ruthless and dangerous she can be (to discourage future dissent). She chose the latter I believe because in her experience she has found fear (and using fire/her dragon) to be highly effective in achieving her goals and gaining respect and recognition as a powerful leader. Although her previous acts that have been deemed harsh, cruel, or ruthless (burning the Tarlys, burning the Khals, feeding one of the Masters of Mereen to her dragons) served other explicit purposes, they also had an underlying purpose of inspiring fear and demonstrating her power.

Throughout the show Dany has struggled not between sanity and madness, but with her conflicting desires (desire to be loved and desire for power) and the type of ruler she would be. When she first started out on her quest for the throne, she thought ruling would be much simpler than it turned out to be - if you are good to your people they will be good to you in return. She had lofty ideals of making the world a better place and breaking the wheel. In Mereen she first started to realize that it would not be so simple - some people are going to oppose your rule because they disagree with you. She learned that she would have to make hard decisions and punish dissenters if she wanted to maintain her rule. She still wanted so badly to be a good leader whose people loved her for her goodness, but once she got to Westeros this dream really started to fall apart. Despite her efforts to protect the realm from the white walkers, she is not seen as a benevolent savior. She does not have the love of the people, and she is viewed as a mistrusted outsider. And now there is Jon, with the better claim to the throne, and better support from the people.

When the bells started to ring, she said goodbye to her old self (the one who would never harm innocent people) and her old ideals and decided to embrace her ruthless side instead. By doing so she demonstrates the extent of her power and the lengths she is willing to go to solidify her rule. She is not to be messed with, so bend the knee.

The fear aspect could have been accomplished without the murdering of innocent civilians.

[madhikun]

47 minutes ago, Kajjo said:

I agree. She was.

She snapped when sitting with Drogon on the wall and listens to the bell ringing. Having achieved it, even more frustrated then about it all.

I read somewhere that she was frustrated by how easy it all was. She had let her advisors convince her when she had a full army and 3 dragons to go help Jon Snow with his wight capturing and white walker war BEFORE going for kings landing. She lost two dragons, Jorah, half her army, and Missandei because of it. 

 

Even after rude af Sansa told her that her troops needed more rest (try to tell me Sansa wasn't stalling to play more politics TRY ME!!) Dany still EASILY took KL. She wanted this to be the fight of her life and she just took it. &&&&& Jon Snow was any day going to come in and take her throne (because let's be honest he lets his sisters rule him way too much and already "for the people" Varys had tried to poison her) so why give mercy? Why not rule in absolute fear? 

 

Dany has come in and conquered. She tried to peacefully in Mereen and that taught her fire and blood.

 

Is she a Ned Stark? No. But she's certainly not mad. Throughout the show they proved how she wasn't mad, Targaryens don't flip a switch. They are born mad or not. Dany developed into this. Which I think is a little deserved lol. 

 

Also I think this is himym 2.0. Did GRRM/DD know how this was going to end all along? Yes, they did. But as the story has evolved and what it has become, was it the best route? Probably not. There are going to be a lot of angry fans because the writers didn't realize how liked Dany was going to be. How especially in this political day and age, a strong, confident woman (since day 1 I might add, none of this "my rapers are the reason I'm strong" Sansa bullshit) is what the people want. && now because of predetermined storyline, her reputation is going to be decimated. Well I for one as a Dany fan say FIRE AND BLOOD BITCHES!!! 

[a girl knows nothing]

Just now, tallTale said:

The fear aspect could have been accomplished without the murdering of innocent civilians.

As I said, 

She and Drogon had arguably already terrified the people and soldiers in KL simply by taking out the Golden Company, defenses, and Iron fleet. 

I agree that that they were already afraid. But I think she decided to up the ante and the fear-factor to fully demonstrate her powers and willingness to be completely ruthless to the rest of the realm. She has nothing left except the throne and wants to make sure she doesn't lose that either. Killing innocents shows how far she is willing to go to keep it, and sends a very powerful message that she is not to be messed with. I think in her mind, she thought that showing mercy would have been less effective in achieving her ends, and could have sent the message to the rest of the realm that there are ways to manipulate her (by playing on her empathy and compassion) and potentially remove her from power. This way, she starts her rule as a cold-hearted queen with no emotional weaknesses or soft spots for dissenters to target.

[tallTale]

Just now, a girl knows nothing said:

As I said, 

She and Drogon had arguably already terrified the people and soldiers in KL simply by taking out the Golden Company, defenses, and Iron fleet. 

I agree that that they were already afraid. But I think she decided to up the ante and the fear-factor to fully demonstrate her powers and willingness to be completely ruthless to the rest of the realm. She has nothing left except the throne and wants to make sure she doesn't lose that either. Killing innocents shows how far she is willing to go to keep it, and sends a very powerful message that she is not to be messed with. I think in her mind, she thought that showing mercy would have been less effective in achieving her ends, and could have sent the message to the rest of the realm that there are ways to manipulate her (by playing on her empathy and compassion) and potentially remove her from power. This way, she starts her rule as a cold-hearted queen with no emotional weaknesses or soft spots for dissenters to target.

Yeah she doesn’t show mercy to the ruling dissenters. That’s always been her mindset. 

 

If the civilians were to hate her and go against her, maybe. But they were always pawns and Daeny knew that. 

[sweetsunray]

The signs were her responses that coincided with Viserys' responses a lot from the start of the season. It is the first time she actually meets smallfolk, whereas on Dragonstone it was just her, with her advizors and armies. Rationally she knew that Viserys' tales of the smallfolk wishing for the return of Targs and secretly toasting was a fantasy of Viserys, but in her mind she felt she deserves to expect this of the "people" because she did all she could to be a benevolent rightful ruler: be strong, hatch dragons, get an army that won't pillage or rape, free all slaves as Westerosi are anti-slavery, attempt peace in Mereen, etc. She wanted to be welcomed as their savior with open arms and be toasted. Desires aren't rational.

The first smallfolk she encounters are those of Wintertown and they only look at her with fear and mistrust, despite the fact she brought her dragons and armies to defend them against an army of the dead. Well, at least she might expect a heartfelt welcome by Jon's own sister? But she doesn't. And during that welcome she is reminded of the loss of Viserion and how he was turned into an enemy. She "named" him after Viserys. Now a part of her had come to despise Viserys, but he was also her sole caretaker for many of her formative years. Chronic abuse of a parent-figure on who you are dependent might make you fear them, maybe even hate them, but also love them in a twisted way. For years, she needed to try and empathize with Viserys, think and feel like him, to anticipate his moods, to anticipate how to please him so he wouldn't hurt her. It creates a twisted bond. And Viserion represented the ideal Viserys in a way - finally a dragon, white and pure, she can love and who loves her back. Viserion is her way to round up that strange love for an abusive parent figure and project it onto something else, so she doesn't need to confront her conflicting feelings for Viserys himself. When she loses Viserion, she now must deal with the complete bag of feelings for Viserys, including the inexpicable feelings that she loved him, even though he abused her. How is this externalized? She expects Jon to make his sister behave better to her, just by word of command alone. This is what Viserys did to Dany, and in fact, when amongst people who had no respect for him, Viserys demanded her to make the Dothraki and Khal Drogo respect him. So, she expects Jon and Sansa to have a similar boss-servant relation. Meanhile, the less instant love she gets from everyone else, the more she seeks and desires it from Jon, and so she takes him on the dragon flight.

By the start of epi 2 we learn that now Dany starts to identify with Viserys. At the trial she mentions him - how he and her would fantasise together what they would do to Jaime Lannister if they ever caught him. Viserys isn't her abuser anymore, but the brother who had been shortchanged by the rebellion and Jaime, her caretaker, the one who put her to bed, and told her bedtime stories, albeit very twisted ones. Does she have reasons to identify with him? Yes, she is experiencing culture shock, the way Viserys experienced it amongst the Dothraki. This seems strange, when she adapted to the Dothraki and so many other cities. But as long as a world is exotic, being different feels "logical". There might be a cultural difference, but you expect it. Dany does NOT expect to experience culture shock in Westeros, which she mentally considers her home and wants to make her home. The differences from the outside may not seem that big, but on the inside she is. She flourished amongst Dothraki, where a Khal and a Khaleesi's word is a command to follow, and the khalasar love and respect their khal and khaleesi for it. The only thing they respond to is being powerful and never show weakness. She may not look Dothraki, may not have been born amongst them, but their view and response to power is more like her own. In the North, lesser lords speak up, disagree, protest, etc to their liege lord, and make up their own mind. The trial brings that to the forefront. Here is Jaime Lannister, not just an enemy of hers, but also of Jon and Sansa, who tried to kill their own father too, and yet they want to let him live.

Jorah steps in and she tries to create a bridge between Sansa and herself directly, and despite a moment of connection, it fails, and then she witnesses a vassal of hers who had sought her in Mereen. In Mereen Theon came to her, not because he believer her to be his rightful queen, but tit-for-that ally, whereas Theon comes to fight in Winterfell for the love he bears the Starks. The sole person that Dany has who does this for her is Jorah, and she would hope and expect Jon to do the same, but he's avoiding her. She seeks Jon out and learns he's a) family (so was Viserys) b) has a bigger claim to the throne than her (so did Viserys) c) he calls her Dany (so did Viserys). And in epi 3, Jorah dies.

By the start of epi 4 she starts to feel as isolated as Viserys was amongst the Dothraki. Nobody toasts her, despite actually fighting with them, the same way Jon did, and sacrificing so much. She did the same thing Jon did, ride a dragon, and nobody rallies around her like they do to Jon. And clearly it's not just because she's a woman, since everybody cheers Arya. And it's not just Viserys' isolation she experiences. She now also experiences his envy and distrust towards a close relative. Viserys started to distrust Dany, began to believe she might decide to use the Dothraki to steal the crown for herself instead. And she feels this distrust towards Jon as well. Nor can she believe Jon's assertions that she is his queen and he would remain loyal to her, for she swore the same things to Viserys, and still sort of allowed Viserys to be crowned with a pot of molten gold, and afterwards felt that he deserved his self-sought demise and that it was all for the best, for she would make a better queen than he would be a king. Jon has everything she desires: sisters who love him, a home, Westerosi who look up to him, who chose him as their king, would love him as their king. She had people too once who wanted to make her queen, but half of the Dothraki are gone, Jorah is dead, Selmy also long gone, and then she loses her last friend - Missandei, and a dragon that Jon rode, the dragon named after Rhaegar and Jon was his son. Rhaegal's death crystallizes the expectation that Jon will turn against her, that she will lose his love.

So, by the start of epi 5, we have circumstantial depression, complete isolation, certainty (and not just fear anymore) of betrayal coming from Jon, culture shock. And she looked almost like Viserys during the first part on Dragonstone: unkept hair, no eating. If only Jon would love her like a lover, like Drogo loved her once, and he can't. And her paranoia becomes more and more justified with Varys betraying her for Jon, with Sansa having tell Tyrion, with Jaime trying to get back to Cersei. And she is angry, raging against fate stealing what she believed to be her destiny, Westeros and the people denying her what she believes she has a right to (their love, their cheers, their toasts). Instead they feel to seek shelter behind the walls of the city that her forebear Aegon the Conquerer built, of the keep that he built. It was all stolen of her and Viserys around the time she was born, and stolen by Rhaegar by begetting a son on Lyanna Stark. And she is raging over all that she tried in Essos to earn that love upon her arrival and all that she lost to earn it on Westerosi soil. She has blood lust and she has fire. And the people don't get to just surrender. They have to pay for not loving her. And no other conspiritor gets to have the spoils of her family's legacy. It's even in part a rage to Jon as well, whose real name is Aegon, like the ancestor who built the keep and the city. The only way to make it hers and hers alone is by destroying everything and then build her own city and keep in its stead. 

It's not madness. It aren't the bells. She doesn't even snap. She makes a very deliberate and conscious choice that everything and everyone in it needs to be destroyed, and that her rage deserves to be sated.

 

 

[Wsc48]

21 minutes ago, tallTale said:

The fear aspect could have been accomplished without the murdering of innocent civilians.

The nuking of civilians (and an already defeated surrendered city) makes her worse than Cersei by kill count alone.

No honor. No kindness. No compassion. No wisdom. Just another ambition driven tyrant. 

Evil Dany the antagonist. That's what we were given in the end. Heroic Cersei, died trying to protect King's Landing from the genocidal foreigner. 

Ridiculous. 

[Brendan Hughes]

"A targaryen alone is a terrible thing"

 

The Targaryn's had a family history of mental illness, seemingly along the psychotic spectrum.  

So the Targaryn bloodline is susceptible to extreme mental distortion when under prolonged distress.

It is well established that early life trauma can increase a person's susceptibility to mental illness, including psychotic spectrum disorders.

Dany was plenty impulsive, and did things on occasion without really thinking of the potential outcomes (for good or bad) when she gets emotional, she can get a bit .. mentally lax.

 

Dany's early life wasn't exactly short on traumatic experiences. Her family destroyed, people suddenly changing from devoted loving, to happily betraying. Remember this is through a child's eye, a child who no longer has any close relationships with anyone, except her brother. A brother who treats her with dismissal of her feelings, with contempt, makes her out to be a thing to be traded more than a person. She loved her brother, indeed he was the only person who she believed loved her and cared for her. For quite some time, that is the only thing she had resembling something like a caring, loving relationship.

Then he sold her to a barbarian king for an army and a nice hat. A very scary looking barbarian king .. who's language she couldn't even speak.. and she was essentially dumped. Again she saw the person she was closest too, that she fully believed loved her and cared for he .. just suddenly turn and abandon her. Poof, just like that.  

And then she was likely raped by the scary barbarian.

What was her response? Essentially to play the part, to put on the mask.

Remember, during all that stuff, she was still essentially a child.

 

And then stuff happened, she started to learn that when things got emotionally difficult and hard, when people seemed like they would yet again pretend to love her and be devoted to her .. only to turn on her or abandon her .... well .. what did she learn was best?  

It was often either destroy those who abandon her, or destroy the reason why they would abandon her, or finally, put a fear in them so great that, that they will not dare abandon her.

 

Other than the Iron Throne, what was a big driving force for Dany? It seemed she really, REALLY wanted people to love her, always, to be there for her, always, to never dismiss her, to never betray her, to never cause her any bad feelings really. It seemed almost black and white in that regard. 

However, there was and still is one thing that she really, really doesn't deal well with. Being Abandoned by those she loved. When she feels abandoned by them .. she turns on them pretty quick most times.

 

Leading up to her flipping out, she was abandoned by a few, those she loved closest either betrayed her or died by others. She was feeling extremely alone, as she couldn't find that devoted love by the people she needed to feed off to fill the massive hole in her soul, the fear of abandonment.  

 

And then the man she loved, who she fully believes(d?), rejects her most intimate of advances. She was again betrayed in that moment. Jon betrayed her by telling his secret .. this would have sparked her fear of being abandoned by Jon, a Jon who would be King, A King who would have no need for an unloved Queen.

Then she discovered, for a second time, that Jon doesn't even need her in lust. Jon rejected her plea to remain silent on his linage and then rejected her plea to be intimate.. 

"A targaryen alone is a terrible thing"

Her anxieties of abandonment would have been absolutely raging. All her advisers are looking at her askew, she's super suspicious.  She had such a huge negative cognitive bias that she immediately understood the news from Tyrion about Varys  with little more than a word.. however true to Black and White thinking, she jumped straight to the worst possible outcome, that it was Jon who betrayed her and was plotting against her .. plotting to abandon her .. 

When she was informed it was Varys .. her mind being so deep in that anxious ridden negative bias, wouldn't accept the factual truth and instead allowed the distortions to continue, she continued to believe that it was Jon's, she twisted the events to justify her belief of being abandoned, that everyone will abandon her at some point, they always do (through death or betrayal).  

 

Her ultimate belief was this:

"I can take King's Landing and Westeros, and everyone will love me for it (IT MUST BE ME THAT SAVES THEM, ME!, I MUST BE LOVED!)"

 

In all of Dany's perception when sitting on the wall with her Dragon, her only Dragon .. her only love that surely .. maybe .. won't abandon her. The dragons have been the only loyal creatures to her.. and they die too and leave her alone! .. So it's only a matter of time before Drogan dies and abandons her too .. right .. and .. she knows in that moment that the bells are ringing, and her rage is peaking, and her abandonment fears are triggered pretty much as far as they will go .. and her mind is fractured from trauma and her genetic family lineage's mental coping factors are broke..And her final dream, of taking King's Landing and Westeros and having everyone love her ... was so utterly unachievable for her that her brain couldn't distort it enough to make her believe it could be true still..  

 

Well .. screw it all.

If I can't have it ... NO ONE CAN!

If you want a psychological answer that kind of works:

In my opinion, Dany had at the very least high levels of Trait Borderline Personality Disorder.

She had a deep soul destroying fear of abandonment and a fear of never being truly loved, she needed entire nations to love her in order to try fill that void .. and it didn't seem to be enough (it never is).

 

"A targaryen alone is a terrible thing"

[a girl knows nothing]

5 minutes ago, tallTale said:

If the civilians were to hate her and go against her, maybe. But they were always pawns and Daeny knew that. 

Agreed. Dany knew they were Cersei's pawns, but by killing them they became Dany's pawns. Cersei was using them as a human shield, and then Dany used them to show how dangerous she is. 

 

[tallTale]

3 minutes ago, a girl knows nothing said:

Agreed. Dany knew they were Cersei's pawns, but by killing them they became Dany's pawns. Cersei was using them as a human shield, and then Dany used them to show how dangerous she is. 

 

Cersei sees them as pawns But deep down Daeny doesn’t see the general population as simply pawns. We have hours of visual proof that she has compassion for the innocent civilians.