Why Daenerys had to die

Game of Thrones is fundamentally a deconstruction of Lord of the Rings and other epic tales such as Ivanhoe, Beowulf, the Odyssey, most video games etc. What Martin does is add the nasty realistic details that these idealized epics leave out. The GOT world is not divided into good guys and bad guys, and the (somewhat) good guys rarely win. Even in a world inhabited by zombies and dragons, it is deeply informed by the seamy underside of real history. Consequently, we get the cynicism and obligatory unhappy endings of the “realist” writers of the mid20th century, combined with the epic sweep and grandeur of great ancient and medieval literature. Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Chekhov etc., gave us grubby little people living grubby little lives, as a realistic corrective to the heroic tales of the past. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis deliberately turned their back on this modern realism, and created epic fantasies of the old school. Martin combined both of these styles together. No one had ever done that before, and I think that is the main reason that Martin has struck such a responsive chord with so many of us.

In the books, however, he was trying something even more radical, which I believe he eventually concluded was unsuccessful. He wanted to attack the idea that our lives can be made sense of by telling stories about them. He did this by creating a variety of intriguing storylines that look like they would all come together, and then having them all peter out to no particular purpose. In the books, Tyrion does not become Daenerys’ hand. He flees the city after killing…