'Game Of Thrones' Fans Are Terrfied Daenerys Is About To Become The Mad Queen - And Here's All The Evidence

*Game of Thrones season 8 spoilers ahead*

Daenerys Targaryen has always been one of the 'good guys' in Game of Thrones: she's freed entire populations from persecution, shown mercy with people that have betrayed her (like Jorah), and saved the likes of Jon Snow and his men from certain death. We know she's always had big ambitions to sit on the Iron Throne, but none abormally so for a woman of her calibre and birth right, plus, compared to Cersei Lannister she comes off positively cuddly. But this all changed in a big way in Sunday night's episode of GoT where we got evidence of something that's been brewing for a while: Dany is about to turn bad.

Episode four of season eight was rough for the Dragon Queen - not only did she lose her second dragon, Rhaegal, but she watched as Cersei had her best friend and translator, Missandei, executed. It would be enough to turn anyone wild with rage, but the look in Dany's eye's in her final scene has people guessing there was more.

People on Twitter have their suspicions that Dany is about to turn into the Mad Queen, echoing her father Aerys II Targaryen, commonly remembered as the Mad King due to his love of murdering innocent people. Well it is in her blood. Let us look at the evidence...

What are the qualities of a mad ruler? The perfect mix of anger and cunning, we guess. We've seen Dany exhibit some rather vengeful tendencies in the past, such as when she had Randyll and Dickon Tarly burnt alive, something that Tyrion said was a result of losing her temper (foreshadowing maybe?), and episode four saw her pull some quite manipulative moves.

There was a scene where Dany appeared to be using her man crush Jon Snow to secure her position, manically begging him not to tell his sisters his true identity as the son of Rhaegar Targaryen (side note: lol kept that a secret for long didn't you, Jon). When he didn't promise not to tell them, Dany appeared to be extremely p*ssed.

Later, Sansa and Arya Stark pulled Jon aside for a quick family DMC, telling him, "We don't trust your Queen." And hey, we're inclined to think the shrewd sisters are on to something, considering one of them is "always right" (foreshadowing again, perhaps?) and other killed the damn Night King so, by default, anything she says is gospel.

Dany also made Gendry Baratheon the Lord of Storm's End, and no, it wasn't out of the kindness of her heart. As the last living son of Robert Baratheon, Gendry has a claim to the Iron Throne, but as he's not legitimised he cannot make good on this claim.

By making him Lord, Dany legitimises him - a weird move considering he could, in theory, challenge her. But of course she knows he won't. Instead, she's just earned his loyalty for life thanks to her kind gesture. As she puts to Tyrion in private, "See? You're not the only one who's clever."

Now, we see Dany weigh up an important decision: if she goes after Cersei she'll likely have to kill thousands of innocent people in the Red Keep. Is Dany really going to go there?

Let's remember that Dany said to Jon Snow: "I spent my life in foreign lands. So many men have tried to kill me, I don't remember all their names. I have been sold like a broodmare. I've been chained and betrayed, raped and defiled. Do you know what kept me standing through all those years in exile? Faith. Not in any gods. Not in myths and legends. In myself. In Daenerys Targaryen. The world hadn't seen a dragon in centuries until my children were born. The Dothraki hadn't crossed the sea. Any sea. They did for me. I was born to rule the Seven Kingdoms, and I will."

Yup, we've got a feeling nothing's getting in her way.

Topics: TV Entertainment

Ciara Sheppard

Ciara is a freelance journalist working for Tyla. After graduating from the University of Sussex, Ciara worked as a writer at GLAMOUR Magazine and later as the Assistant Editor of Yahoo Style UK.

@ciarasheppard