Does anyone know why they are rushing so hard to finish the series? When I first saw the episode 3 of season 8 I didn't mind it much because of the epic mormonth girl death but after thinking about it man winter wasn't so bad after all, didn't kids used to die at the breast of their moms? The night king wasn't so bad it only took one night to kill him? Where does all those soliders respawn from?

Forgive me if I haven't 'fact-checked' it, seeing as I don't plan to intentionally seek out leaks myself. But I didn't think too much of it until I saw the updated betting odds (Odds Shark) on Twitter and saw people correlating it to reddit leaks, and I found it hard to believe you just blurted this out coincidentally.

My guess is the fear of losing part of the core cast.

I literally just explained how I simply came across it while scrolling through twitter, where I go to see reactions and memes about the latest episodes. I haven't seen anyone there spreading leaks, just the betting odds I mentioned, and then a couple people on that post mentioning "reddit leaks", and I recalled seeing your post before and being confused if you were just dicking around with a dumb theory or if you were actually leaking a spoiler based on your sulky mood.

I've been pretty careful with my language to not conclusively accuse you of anything, so if I'm wrong, sorry, but I found it hard to believe it was a simple coincidence. Especially when people were already discussing leaks in here by that point.

(Anyone not bothered/perplexed by Daenerys's sudden character direction, feel free to ignore all this please. Sorry it's so long)

So while watching a GoT video completely unrelated to Daenerys, this scene decided to pop up in the compilation. As I'm pretty sure I mentioned before, there's several examples all throughout the series of Dany showing slips in her mental stability, but this scene (from season 2) felt like a very powerful one.

Her themes are very consistent with what's been shown lately:

• Obssession with regaining her 'birthright' of the Iron Throne, being the 'rightful' queen, her "take what's mine" attitude
• Her general sense of entitlement
• Fascination and total belief in her own destiny and it's story, as quoted by Varys and further talked about between him and Tyrion in the last episode
• Impatient and demanding attitude, thinking everyone should be serving her when she deems necessary as their Queen. Just like not allowing the Northern troops any time to rest, and the impatience that she can't wait any longer to reclaim her 'birthright' (even knowing by this point that it's not hers), even mentioning how Cersei can "still call herself Queen" (enraged by someone else having "what's mine")
• The (not so) subtle threat at the end of this scene, that she'll do whatever, and spill however much blood necessary to get "what's mine"

Let's not try and pretend they haven't thought this out from the very beginning. Those points don't even mention:

• Character acting --erratic changes in facial expression
• Camera shots --her speaking from a lower position both metaphorically and literally, then later trying to rise up the steps to intimidate and speak down to him, even though she's still in a lower position (metaphorically and physically)
• Soundtrack --once her demeanor changes and she walks up to The Spice King, a heavy tune suddnely starts filling the background, giving an uneasy feeling that something dark is starting to rise beneath the surface

What's great about this, is that it's easy to believe when you're first watching that she's just a young girl who we sympathise with, and after what she's been through still trying to learn the ways of the world and mature into a good leader. People innevitably get behind her as she manages to keep creating miracles, meanwhile also freeing a lot of people along the way and being seen as their saviour, vindicating her self-righteous personality and making us see her as a force for good.
Yet when you actually go back knowing all that we do now and having seen her character evolve, her true nature comes into stark contrast. Even though she may genuinely want to be a force of good, those thoughts quickly become irrelevant when it comes to what her heart truly desires.

I came here to say something similar. GoT/ASOIAF has always had morally grey characters and Dany is no exception.

In hindsight, Dany has always been this way, it's just we're now seeing her wrath being aimed at people we have also been conditioned to care about and without her adoring entourage reinforcing her own perspective.

@bolded

I don't think that option is out. Dany's ships were heading to Dragonstone when they were attacked which is on the East coast of Westeros. Yara retook the Iron Islands which are on the West coast so technically they should still have a separate Navy sailing round to King's Landing for a potential blockade.

And Dany's arc is very in keeping with her character development since she birthed her dragons at the end of Season 1.

Erratic changes in facial expression and soundtrack giving an uneasy feeling, are you guys fucking serious?

Look, I get how it might happen in the books. There we had four full chapters dealing with the fallout of her abandoning Mereen. A whole arc of the series was supposed to be about the Dothraki invasion of Westeros and its fallout. We'll have fake Aegon probably sitting on the throne instead of Cersei, and an insight into Daenerys mind about another contender to the throne that wasn't conveyed in television. This is even a problem in the books already, where the main characters conflicts and motivations are rarely internalized, making them sort of pathetic compared to the Shakesperean tragic heroes Martin evidently inspires himself on. It was just blown to large proportions in the show and rushed headalong with the idiot plot.

Besides, there's nothing so far that has been shown to be particularly unusual and/or cruel from any of the main characters in the series. In the books, Jon threatens to have babies thrown into the fire, and Tyrion dreams about raping her sister's corpse. Daenerys, on the other hand, is fairly tame compared to most medieval rulers during warfare. Even more so in the context of the ASOIAF setting and specially Essos, where every European cliché of how Asia was violent and sensual and exotic was thrown together. Just look at what the civilized Venetians or Turks did to Constantinople. Or what happened to a lot of German towns during the Wars of Apostasy later on.

Suddenly, though, we are to believe that rapist wannabe Tyrion, Varys (the man who thought Aerys and Joffrey were OK to merit his services), Arya (who baked her enemies into pies) etc. think maybe their ruler going Gengis Khan once in the one city they all hated is mad and going too far. All of that, again, in a sudden bout of 21st century morality and conscience of war crimes that were inaccessible to the brightest medieval thinkers.

People who talk about stuff that was "planned since season 2, showed and evolved all along" about Dany or other characters...

Now that the incompetence of the writers is obvious to everyone, do you really think they're able to foreshadow and build stuff  and characters slowly for several years? Don't overestimate them, they have no idea what they're doing, and it's been like this for quite a long time.

@haxxiy : Who is the other contender to the throne you're talking about? I read the books, but don't remember that. And I might be wrong, but are we sure that the other Aegon is fake? I would say that the writers of the show just took his name for Jon to be easier, but that both Targaryen kids exist in the books, but maybe I remember wrong.

EDIT: Oh, now that I read your comment again, I guess the "other contender" is fake Aegon. Don't bother with this question if that's it!

EDIT2: And about Dany ready to do anything and kill everyone for her birthright... It's not shown as much in the show, but everyone forgot that she put her ambition aside to stay a long time in Meereen and try to help the city? She put her entire invasion (and own life) at risk for others, even though she could just have sailed to Westeros to invade. But now she's going to kill innocents without flinching for that. Sure... 

But Young Griff is Aegon though. So who is "fake Aegon" in haxxiy's comment? Young Griff? 

So far, "fake Aegon" is the show's Jon, because they decided that it was too complex to add another important character and just gave his name to Jon...