Game of Thrones is a show that is filled with fantastic characters and fascinating stories. Most of the characters that were featured in the beginning episodes of the show were dead by the end, including Daenerys Targaryen, who remains one of the faces of the show, and the most controversial figure for the way her story twisted and turned in the final seasons.

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The journey of Daenerys was a long one, and her role moved vastly from a ruined noble to a Queen, Mother of Dragons, and leader of armies. Unfortunately, many of the final stories told in Game of Thrones were of her downfall, but before that, Daenerys had many great moments and episodes that she made her own throughout the series.

8 A Golden Crown

Her First Show Of Strength Was In Standing Up To Her Brother

• Season 1, Episode 6
• Took Place In Vaes Dothrak

Daenerys begins the series in a weak position and as a much weaker person than she would become. The younger sister of Viserys, she was sold off by him to Khal Drogo so that he could get an army to help him take back Westeros. After realizing that Viserys would not make a good leader though, Dany decided to stop protecting him.

Though it was Drogo himself who killed Viserys with molten gold on this occasion, Daenerys realizing the necessity of it and welcoming the brutality was the first example of what would become her forte in later seasons following the death of her husband. Protecting her dragon eggs and ridding the world of terrible people became major elements of her character.

7 Fire And Blood

Showing The Targaryen's Strength By Becoming The Mother Of Dragons

• Season 1, Episode 10
• Took Place In Lhazar

By the end of the first season, Dany’s husband was dead, and she was at a loss. Fortunately, she still had her dragon eggs. In one of the most memorable moments of the entire series, Daenerys chose to enter the funeral pyre of her husband with her dragon eggs, allowing them to hatch while she remained unharmed by the flames.

This moment was a turning point. The Dothraki had never seemed like a real plan to take back Westeros, other families had armies and the Dothraki weren’t the type to scale walls and lay siege to cities. But a Targaryen that had dragons returned to them is something that could easily lead to utter victory for Daenerys in the future.

6 And Now His Watch is Ended

First Time Saying Dracarys & Gaining The Unsullied

• Season 3, Episode 4
• Took Place In Astapor

Daenerys struggled for a time after the death of Drogo. Despite having dragons, the creatures were small and therefore Daenerys could use them for little at first. She was lost in the desert, her adventures in Astapor generally ended unsuccessfully, and then she seemed to have lost the plot entirely when she promised a slave trader one of her dragons in exchange for an army of the Unsullied.

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However, after taking control of and freeing the Unsullied, Dany showed the slave master that one does not simply trade a dragon, that control of them is for her and her alone. Burning him was the first major step along Dany’s way to ridding Slaver’s Bay of slavery, something which would take up most of her time on Game of Thrones.

5 Mhysa

Proclaimed Mhysa And Freed Yunkai

• Season 3, Episode 10
• Took Place In Yunkai

Another major moment for Daenerys came in the aftermath of her freeing Yunkai from the Slavers with the use of the Unsullied army. Her role was one of liberator across the sea, making it easy for her to believe that she was in the right when she came to “liberate” Westeros similarly, even though she was coming as a conqueror.

The people of Yunkai, presented with their newfound freedom, lift Daenerys and parade her through the crowd, shouting Mhysa, their word for mother. This proclamation and adoration from them were part of the dangerous path that led Daenerys to become the Mad Queen, leaving Slaver's Bay to fend for itself once more.

4 Book Of The Stranger

Gaining The Dothraki Back & Surviving The Flames

• Season 6, Episode 4
• Took Place In Vaes Dothrak

Daenerys grew a lot, and suffered a lot, over the years she ruled in Meereen. It was there that she discovered winning battles and freeing people is a lot more gratifying and simple than ruling people, and she was consistently frustrated by her enemies like the Sons of the Harpy.

Later, she fell once more into the grip of the Dothraki Arakhs. She was never going to take such imprisonment or treatment very well and refused to simply escape with Jorah and Daario when they came to rescue her. Instead, she faced the Khals, declared them unworthy, and burned them all to death while emerging from the fire unscathed. This was another moment Daenerys gains an army through force and brutality, showing her later potential for madness.

3 Battle Of The Bastards

Finished A Long & Frustrating War & Saved Meereen

• Season 6, Episode 9
• Took Place In Meereen

The final step Daenerys took to ensure that her time in Slaver’s Bay was not wasted was to use her dragons to stop the Slave Masters from retaking Meereen with their siege. Though Daenerys wanted to burn them all, Tyrion was there to convince her to show some degree of leniency in the way she dealt with the situation.

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After using Drogon to destroy much of the fleet and save Meereen, Daenerys has two of the masters executed to remind the others not to return. She then finds Theon and Yara Greyjoy on her doorstep, offering a fleet, giving Dany the chance, after six seasons, to finally return to Westeros with her armies.

2 The Queen's Justice

Meeting Jon Snow, Her Love, And Her End

• Season 7, Episode 3
• Took Place On Dragonstone

After arriving in Westeros, Daenerys seemingly has no path but one of destruction. But then she meets Jon Snow, an episode filled with importance and meaning as the duo instantly show their chemistry. As Daenerys begins to see the real threat to Westeros, one that must be stopped, she makes an important decision that has great ramifications for her.

Daenerys weakens herself, loses a dragon, and falls for Jon, all due to the instantaneous romantic air that springs between the two when they meet up for the first time. It was a historic meeting, a mixing of different worlds as far as Game of Thrones fans were concerned, and it signaled the beginning of the end as these major forces joined together to defeat first the Night King, and then Cersei.

1 The Bells

Became The Conqueror By Taking The Iron Throne And Destroying King's Landing

• Season 8, Episode 5
• Took Place In King's Landing

By the time the Long Night had ended, Daenerys had experienced even more loss. With two of her dragons dead, her closest friends Jorah and Missandei gone, and other advisors like Tyrion and Varys betraying her, she was pushed beyond the verge of madness and finally became something that everyone in Westeros could unite in fear of.

Her ruthless destruction of King’s Landing, and her lack of care for the civilians and innocents caught in the battle, showed the Mad Queen in all her glory. Though she wouldn’t be killed until the next episode, this sealed her fate not as a savior, but as a conqueror to be feared, someone who needed to die for any sort of peace to come to Westeros at long last.

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