The Problem With Dracarys

From the start of season three, Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) and Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) had a compelling dynamic on Game of Thrones.

It seemed only yesterday that in Astapor Daenerys commanded Master Kraznys to give Missandei to her for "a bargain well struck." Moments after the "deal" was done (a dragon "exchanged" for eight thousand Unsullied and a translator), Daenerys tells Missandei that she belongs to her and that she must never lie.

Five seasons later, before a gruesome execution on the hit HBO fantasy drama Game of Thrones, Missandei's last word is "dracarys," the order Daenerys issues to her dragons to breathe fire. It is a false declaration of feminism, a false defining moment of female friendship from two characters who had abruptly stopped sharing intimate scenes altogether.

Daenerys brings Missandei to her camp.

On the path to the Iron Throne, sworn enemies Cersei Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen had no sisters and terrible fathers. Since becoming Queen Regent, Cersei surrounded herself with militant men like the barbaric The Mountain and eccentric Qyburn. For years, she has also orchestrated putting women characters like Lady the innocent direwolf, Margaery, Olenna, Ellaria, and Tyene to death. Meanwhile, on her journey, Daenerys has killed mostly powerful male figures and has the intelligent Unsullied commander Grey Worm, Jorah the Andal, her three dragons, and of course, Missandei, her longest running female confidante in her camp. Like predecessor Irri-- viciously murdered by Doreah, Daenerys' betrayer in Qarth during season two--Missandei was a monumental asset, offering a gentler voice of reason. Yet she also knows when fighting is absolutely necessary.

From season three to five, Missandei introduced Daenerys to the people throughout their travels and kept the queen's confidence. Daenerys returned the favor, braiding Missandei's hair, giving the young girl love advice on the whole complicated Grey Worm situation, and holding her hand during a grisly assassination attempt by the Sons of the Harpy. At one significant point, Daenerys even asks Missandei her honest opinion on important political matters:

 "You are as fit as anyone I know. You know why I'm here. And you know who will suffer the most if this all falls apart. So what do you think?" Daenerys asked.

 "I can only tell you what I have seen, Your Grace. I have seen you listen to your counselors. I have seen you lean on their experience when your own was lacking and weigh the choices they put before you. And I have seen you ignore your counselors, because there was a better choice. One that only you could see."- Missandei responded, Game of Thrones season five, episode five's Kill the Boy. 

Daenerys and Missandei talking about the Unsullied.

However, throughout seasons six, seven, and eight, Daenerys begins sharing major screen time with Tyrion Lannister (her future backstabbing hand) and Jon Snow (future betrayer/queenslayer) while Missandei is either relegated to background propping, standing or sitting quietly, or not present at all.

Missandei and Daenerys have a certain grace when posing despite the power imbalance between their characters. 

For a time, it appeared that Daenerys wasn’t necessarily threatened by the presence of other women until meeting Cersei and Sansa Stark, both seeing Daenerys as a usurper. In The Long Night, season eight, episode three, Sansa retorts to Tyrion about his loyalty to Daenerys and Missandei intervenes saying, "without the Dragon Queen, there would be no problem at all. We'd all be dead already." While that is true, the remark also thinly implies that Missandei will die because of her blind allegiance to Daenerys. Sansa and Tyrion's subtle looks to each other at Missandei's statement also reveal that these two are the primary reasons that Daenerys will fail. After all, Sansa told Tyrion about Jon's true lineage and Tyrion convinces Jon to kill Daenerys.

Before Drogon saves the day, Daenerys and Missandei are surrounded by Sons of the Harpy.

In season eight, episode four's Last of the Starks, Missandei wearing a completely different outfit from being kidnapped demonstrates the depth of storytelling flaws: continuity. Missandei's kept slave collar then ends the essence of her character. After six seasons of pure, staunch loyalty and a tender heart, she doesn't receive a fiery burial scene, a memorial ground for her displaced body like many beloved fallen individuals. Grey Worm tossing this meaningless plot into the flames is an allegory for the terrible writing that propels him and Daenerys to emerge into waging violence as a grief mechanism.

“When I saw that she gets captured and she dies in chains, I just felt the weight of that and what that really means,” Nathalie Emmanuel said in Vanity Fair. “I was heartbroken for her, really. . . . I think the fact that she died in chains when she was a slave her whole life, that for me was a pungent cut for that character, that felt so painful.”

Thus, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss purposely added Missandei's "dracarys" for something they believed would achieve a cheap sentimental attempt-- something for the female audience to grasp. They give no deep consideration to both women's feelings on being present in the coldness of judgmental Winterfell, the closeness to Daenerys achieving her ultimate goal of acquiring the Iron Throne, and Missandei's newfound desire to return home.

"I would’ve loved some more scenes with me and Missandei," said Emilia Clarke on if a season eight were reshot/redone in New York Times.

Missandei and Daenerys final one on one scene (if you don't count the Dothraki behind them or Jon Snow's interruption) was in season seven, episode four's The Spoils of War.

By having The Mountain execute Missandei, the only woman (and only female of color representation on the show overall) in Daenerys' circle, Cersei severs a notably strained link to Daenerys and intersectional feminism. For the Breaker of Chains to have her former slave friend die in chains remains an ugly, crushing blow. Supposedly, it is not a stretch that if Daenerys could take down the richest man in Qarth for the death of Irri (among other Dothraki and kidnapping her baby dragons), then burning down the entire King's Landing for Missandei pretty much keeps her in character? Absolutely horrible.

Dracarys indeed to this unbelievably ridiculous story line progression that stinks of male stupidity on what truly defines feminism and feminist friendships.

Burn it all.