Balancing Allegiances: An Analysis of Daenerys Targaryen's Character Arc in Game of Thrones
Author
Granhøj, Mikkel
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2023
Submitted on
2023-05-31
Pages
63
Abstract
This thesis examines how audience alignment and allegiance toward Daenerys Targaryen evolve across the eight seasons of Game of Thrones, with particular attention to the concluding episodes. Drawing on Murray Smith’s Structure of Sympathy and Jason Mittell’s insights into complex television and serial character arcs, it conducts a qualitative, text-based character and narrative analysis. The study traces how cinematic and storytelling strategies in a medievally inflected fantasy world invite recognition, alignment, and moral evaluation by highlighting moments of kindness, moral clarity, and ambiguity in Daenerys’s trajectory. The analysis argues that while her descent into tyranny was heavily foreshadowed, many perceived the final turn as abrupt and under-motivated, contributing to viewer disillusionment. It posits that, although long-form television enables richly evolving characters, maintaining consistent and plausible development is crucial for sustaining audience allegiance, and closes with an open-ended reflection on whether allegiance can be conclusively determined or ultimately remains a matter of individual interpretation.
Dette speciale undersøger, hvordan seernes alignment og loyalitet over for Daenerys Targaryen udvikles gennem de otte sæsoner af Game of Thrones, med særligt fokus på de afsluttende afsnit. Med Murray Smiths Structure of Sympathy og Jason Mittells begreber om komplekst tv og serielle karakterforløb som teoretisk ramme gennemfører studiet en kvalitativ, tekstnær karakter- og narrativ analyse. Det kortlægger, hvordan filmiske og fortællermæssige greb i en middelalderligt inspireret fantasyverden inviterer til genkendelse, alignment og moralsk vurdering, ved at fremhæve øjeblikke af venlighed, moralsk entydighed og ambivalens i Daenerys’ udvikling. Analysen argumenterer for, at hendes nedstigning mod tyranni var tungt foregrebet, men at den af mange blev oplevet som abrupt og utilstrækkeligt motiveret, hvilket bidrog til desillusion blandt seere. Specialet konkluderer, at selv om langformat-tv giver rige muligheder for dynamiske karakterer, er konsistent og plausibel udvikling afgørende for at fastholde seerloyalitet, og afslutter med en åben refleksion over, i hvilken grad loyalitet kan fastslås entydigt eller i sidste ende beror på den enkelte tilskuers fortolkning.
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