Warning: This article contains spoilers for Game of Thrones – season eight, episode five. A lot of them.
People were not ready for season eight’s shocking penultimate episode.
After weeks of build-up, the battle of King’s Landing took a very dark turn as Daenerys Targaryen transformed into the Mad Queen.
The episode’s biggest talking point by far was her decision to ignore King’s Landing’s surrender by ringing the city’s bell and torch thousands of innocent people with the help of her trusty dragon.
And although the decision divided opinion, it produced a tonne of red-hot memes.
The character’s shift towards evil left some fans shocked and sent Daenerys supporters into a meltdown.
they are humanizing cersei. cersei. And dehumanizing dany. this is awful.— 𝒎𝒊𝒓𝒂 (@𝒎𝒊𝒓𝒂) 1557712735
Someone who deserved a more thought out story arc than this: #GameofThrones https://t.co/1iFTJGP1Us— Nora Dominick (@Nora Dominick) 1557712395
despite how upset most of us are with daenerys’ outcome this season. my heart goes out to emilia clarke. couldn’t… https://t.co/jQbcArkwjX— ♡ (@♡) 1557727331
If only there was some way they could have seen this coming…
Varys in heaven like #gameofthrones https://t.co/5R8SxTy50D— Dazinda Clark-Cole (@Dazinda Clark-Cole) 1557712341
The showrunners seem to have been planning it for a while as well.
Remember Daenerys’ vision from season two?
Most people thought it was snow that was covering King’s Landing, but now it looks like it could be ash…
In #GameofThrones S2 E10, #Daenerys had a vision of King's Landing in ashes https://t.co/qs15FmxI8x— GoT Facts & News (@GoT Facts & News) 1557716230
Maybe Bran should have used his all-seeing powers to warn people this was going to happen…
At least some people enjoyed the twist - like actress Mindy Kaling, who was unapologetically ready for the drama.
I liked what Dany did, I didn’t care about those randos, I would’ve done the same, should I be tweeting this— Mindy Kaling (@Mindy Kaling) 1557725293
Not everything about the episode was controversial though.
Fans were happy Tyrion and Jamie got to say a proper goodbye to each other.
One of the good things that came out of this episode was Tyrion and Jaime's moment can i just say that the Lannist… https://t.co/PyiQ15JYK9— reyla (@reyla) 1557724158
Kinda lost in the madness but the Tyrion/Jaime goodbye was great and by great I mean it ripped my heart into a thou… https://t.co/FHJDuUYM2g— Trent (@Trent) 1557718658
And people were satisfied that the Hound finally got to take out the Mountain.
The mountain and hound fight is one of the best I’ve seen on tv— Anthony Wheeler (@Anthony Wheeler) 1557717410
At least my boy the Hound's character has made sense all the way through. Hard to come by this season.— Tyler | Code WILDCAT (@Tyler | Code WILDCAT) 1557715336
Wow, that was a lot of stuff.
At the end of it all, we’re probably going to look back on this season and wonder if it made any sense.
Season eight has had the feel of a show that’s being made-up on the spot at times...
#GameOfThrones writers deciding how to end the show https://t.co/VABxZHyQKw— 📽 (@📽) 1557725971
The #GameOfThrones writers throwing all that character development out the window. https://t.co/W3AFBkOsRW— R Y▲N H▲Y (@R Y▲N H▲Y) 1557714789
And you shouldn’t expect things to calm down next week because there’s still a lot of plot to tie up in the final episode.
Somehow, it seems unlikely that they’re going to pull this off…
HT: Twitter Moments