the VERY LAST EPISODE but it still doesn't work. Does it matter whether she burned them alive or beheaded them like Ned Stark and Robb Stark? Or hung them like Jon Snow (who executed a CHILD)? Saying she killed people doesn't mean she was bad when every major character killed someone. Arya murdered a ton of people in horrible ways (she made Walder Frey eat his kin!). And in every single one of those instances it was excused because those were "bad people". Up until the penultimate episode of the entire show Dany's executions had been the same. It was people that "deserved it" at least in the same sense that the deserter of the Night's Watch deserved it in Season 1. Or Olly deserved it. Or all the Freys. Or the Karstarks.

If anything you could argue Dany's actions were more justified since she was either freeing slaves or fighting a war in almost every instance. Robb executed an ally. Ned Stark killed a guy who deserted his post b/c he was freaked out by the White Walkers. Jon hung a boy. Heck throw Tyrion and Arya in there too as people who murdered when they didn't have to. There was no reason that Tyrion had to kill Tywin. Arya was killing for vengeance as much as anything else but it was ok because A) they were bad people and B) Arya was portrayed as the protagonist. And these are all actions of characters that were portrayed as the protagonists throughout the entire series. So I don't see Dany's executions as disqualifying her from being a good guy or a protagonist when every other character behaved similarly.

I think you get the point. Were you arguing for a "justice system and courts" for any of those others? No because that's not what was established. Ned Stark didn't imprison the deserter and await a fair trial. He cut his head off. Why would Dany be any different? By your argument there were no characters to admire and no benevolent rulers. You want to argue that the "signs were there" but there were just as many signs to the contrary. How many times were we reminded that Dany was "not her father"? How many times did they drive home that she wanted to fight for the little people, the slaves, etc? She behaved the same as the other protagonists right up until the next to last episode where she suddenly decided to slaughter innocents for the first time.

That's what I mean when I say it wasn't earned. She became the "bad guy" simply because the writers wanted her to be. I feel like you could have done the same with Arya and tried to rationalize it after the fact by saying "Well she murdered a bunch of people previously so you should have seen that coming. She's obviously an unstable serial killer and not someone to admire". But that wouldn't work because just like Dany, Arya wasn't portrayed that way for almost the entire series.

It could have worked IF they'd invested more time in her decline or not made her out to be a good guy for all but 2 episodes. But they didn't. So I completely understand why people would be upset by the sudden change and I say that as someone who wasn't a big Dany fan. If anything I always found her to be a little too "white savior" for my tastes.