Warning: This article contains spoilers about the finale of the HBO series Game of Thrones.
Prominent liberal female politicians are expressing sharp disappointment with how Game of Thrones ended, due to what they consider the poor treatment of one of the show's main female characters.
2020 presidential candidates Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), both fans of Daenerys Targaryen—also known as "Khaleesi" and the "Mother of Dragons"—were bitter about her rapid descent in the show's final season, where she became a mass murderer of innocents and was eventually killed by her nephew-boyfriend Jon Snow. However, the foundation for the character's dark arc was laid for years in the books and preceding seasons of the HBO series.
"I'm so pissed off," Gillibrand said in a video taped for the left-wing viral news site NowThis. "I hated it. I hated the last three episodes. They destroyed Daenerys's character in three episodes, and they destroyed Jon Snow's character in three episodes."
"I was particularly upset about how the writers treated the character of Khaleesi," she added. "She came to power over many years and many struggles as the Breaker of Chains. She's somebody who made sure the lowest income, the least empowered, could have a voice, and that was who she was ... Why did the writers have to turn her into a Mad Queen? That was not part of who she was, and I get that she has a history ... I thought it was cheap."
.@SenGillibrand is NOT happy with the #GameOfThrones finale (Warning: Spoilers) pic.twitter.com/siwidbyYlK
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) May 20, 2019
Warren tweeted a video blasting the finale alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) on Tuesday.
"It was just, just really ... meh," Warren said.
"I feel like we were getting so close to having this ending with just women running the world and then the last two episodes, it's like, 'oh, they're too emotional,'" Ocasio-Cortez said. "The end. It's like, ugh, this was written by men!"
Warren, who wrote in April that Dany had been "my favorite" since Season 1 and "definitely doesn’t want to become her murderous father," said she was willing to do an "allegiance shift" to Sansa Stark, the Lady of Winterfell in the North, after "Dany went nuts." In the final episode, her younger brother Bran is crowned King and Lord of the Six Kingdoms, while the North splits off to become an independent kingdom with Sansa as its queen.
Warren incorrectly said Sansa was already "Queen of the North" and chided her character for not going for the Iron Throne.
"I was disappointed," Ocasio-Cortez said. "We need to get some feminist analysis up in HBO."
It’s been over 24 hours. No more spoiler alerts. Here’s why @AOC and I are officially on #TeamSansa now. pic.twitter.com/WKKHDbFz1M
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) May 21, 2019
It is unclear why Warren and Gillibrand supported Daenerys in earlier seasons in spite of her predilection for violence and nation-building.