Seriously, How Did You Not See this Coming?

“I will lay waste to armies and burn cities to the ground,” said Daenerys Targaryen early in season 2, and late in season 8, she finally did just that. And people are surprised.

As a writer, I have a certain set of goals. One of them is twofold and involves the use of characters and their interaction with the plot.

The two major elements are 1) to write stories where characters drive the plot and not the other way around, and 2) to surprise the audience when characters take actions that are...