These days, Star World is airing older seasons of Game of Thrones (GOT) as a precursor to the final season 8 of GOT which is going to be released in April'19. I watched a few episodes of Season 4 recently on Star World. One curious thing I observed was that how out of place this whole "Khaleesi" business looks like in the overall scheme of GOT!
The initial part of the story where Daenerys Targaryen goes on to become Khaleesi was really captivating. But post that, this whole bringing up of "dragons" in the GOT world and also the way she is shown ruling her kingdom with a compassion and care (which is so much lacking in all characters of GOT); makes her fall out of the GOT scheme of things and it just appears "weird" watching her.
First, Daenerys Targaryen's character played by Emilia Clarke looks too childish and she does not age at all as we go along. She was from a royal household and had to undergo a lot of atrocities before and after becoming Khaleesi. But if you look at her face even when she is Khaleesi, it still shows same innocence and child like cuteness which came natural to her. Where is any sternness or ruthlessness reflecting anywhere on her face? She looks pure as ever. I don't think this is by design; it appears to be rather Emilia's inability to portray this character properly. I know Khaleesi is supposed to be a good queen and hence she must not look evil. But some grey appearing on her face would make it more natural.
And not to forget, Khaleesi's white hair looks too artificial. I know that all of Targaryens' hair is silver-white. But only Daenerys Targaryen (aka Khaleesi)'s hair looks like a "wig". This could have been improved upon.
Picture: Fake Hair Alert
Then I wonder what was the necessity to bring in the "dragons". Come on, GOT is not a child fiction or a fairy tale! Is it that GOT makers wanted to attract some juvenile audiences and hence brought in Khaleesi and her dragons to appeal to the younger age audiences? Or is it that dragons were supposed to be an out of the box power she was expected to have in order to come out strongly? We know there were several other options including magic or some supernatural powers which could have been attributed to her; instead of this compulsion of bringing in the dragons!
Picture: Childish Dragons of GOT
Because of the dragons, GOT looks like a cheap commercial Chinese movie. It was not worth it.
Now, in the Season 4 episodes I watched, Khaleesi can be seen attending to her citizens in her court and granting them their wishes. She also bothers to speak out "Send the next one in" herself every time; tirelessly. She is always compassionate, noble, tired and agreeable. She is pained some times at people's demands, appears to be swallowing her own disagreements, but always ending up granting them their wishes, no matter what wrong they did in the past. This looks like a kind of cheap "popularity" that she is aiming at. But it is not. It appears that GOT makers were confused and did not work much on how to make her character "humane" while still keeping her as a "GOT character". And while all other threads of stories appear to be gripping and intense, whenever Khaleesi appears on the screen, the pace of the story comes down immediately and GOT turns real "boring". I never thought GOT could be boring; so thanks Khaleesi for doing this.
Picture: Khaleesi: the good and boring queen
Even Khaleesi's servants are so boring. She has a maid called Missandei (portrayed by Nathalie Emmanuel) who looks like a college student. She stands tall as if she were a queen herself. And she would never have got that kind of hair without a modern saloon. Then there is Grey Worm (role played by Jacob Anderson) with his expressionless and Barack Obama like face. Both servants are as boring as their Khaleesi.
Picture: Missandei and Grey Worm: Two avoidable characters
Apart from Khaleesi's story thread, all other threads are very gripping. I am also liking the Star World's Game of Thrones series, since it does not show too much of violence and objectionable scenes. Still, the intensity of the story is well maintained in these episodes. From Season 4, just imagine the fight between the Mountain and Oberyn Martell and how tragically Oberyn gets killed.
- Rahul Tiwary
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