Daenerys Targaryen
When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. That’s what Cersei Lannister said to Ned Stark in the first season of the HBO fantasy drama series. Game Of Thrones. It’s a memorable line and one of the few times where a character saying the name of the show or movie they’re in actually works without feeling forced and silly.
The big melodrama in Hollywood right now is the competing lawsuits between Blake Lively and Jason Baldoni, the stars of the movie. It ends with us, which Baldoni also directed. There’s been a long and frankly weird drama playing out between Lively and Baldoni, each of whom has leveled numerous accusations and complaints against the other. Baldoni has also sued the New York Times over the newspaper’s coverage of the events. Lively has also filed a complaint with the California Department of Civil Rights accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment and conspiracy to destroy her reputation.
The latest lawsuit in the protracted legal battle is Baldoni’s $400 million lawsuit against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds (who recently starred in Deadpool & Wolverine). Baldoni also wants a jury trial.
Now, CNN reports that text messages between Lively and Baldoni have Gossip Girl star comparing herself to none other than Daenerys Targaryen. I was loathe to cover this story, but covering it Game Of Thrones and its spinoffs for so many years, I had to at least jump into the fray now that dragons are involved. The alleged text from Lively to Baldoni certainly has a bit of menace to it, albeit in an oddly friendly way.
“If you ever get to watch Game of Thrones, you’ll appreciate that I’m Khaleesi and like her, I happen to have a few dragons,” the suit, obtained by CNN, reads in the text. “For better or for worse, but usually for the better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really we all benefit from those wonderful monsters of mine. You will too, I can promise you.”
CNN notes that they have not “independently verified the text messages included in Baldoni’s and Lively’s lawsuits.”
Spoilers for Game Of Thrones follow.
This text is interesting because of the context. Daenerys goes by many titles, including “Mother of Dragons,” but Khaleesi is perhaps her most famous. She took the title when she married Khal Drogo, the powerful leader of a Dothraki kalasari. The Dothraki are a nomadic and warlike people who travel around the Dothraki Sea – a vast grassland on the continent of Essos, just east of Westeros – raiding and fighting from their prized steeds.
The Dothraki eventually become just one of Daenerys’ many armies. She also employs mercenaries and, of course, her three dragons: Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion. Lively’s lyrics aren’t specific about who her dragons are, but many are reading it as a reference to her husband Reynolds and friend Taylor Swift. This has upset many Swifties for quite obvious reasons. It’s odd, to say the least, to refer to your husband and friends as “my monsters” under any circumstances, let alone in a dispute over a script.
What makes this all so utterly strange, however, is the fact that Daenerys Targaryen eventually became the most infamous, murderous, and despised villain of all Game Of Thrones when she rather confusingly decided to burn countless innocents to death in King’s Landing when she conquered the city. The relationship face was a long time coming, but it still felt boring thanks to the rushed nature of the show in its last two seasons. In a way, her character gave the lie to Cersei’s words: She played the game of thrones, won, and still died — at the hands of her nephew and lover, Jon Snow. Anyone comparing themselves to Khaleesi at this point should know that the implication is pretty sinister. Summoning dragons—or monsters—certainly heightens that feeling.
I have no dog in this fight, of course. I have no idea where the truth begins and ends, who is lying to whom, whether any of what Baldoni or Lively says is accurate or distorted. The reality is, even if this goes to trial, we may never know the absolute truth. It’s all reminiscent of the Amber Heard / Johnny Depp costume, which honestly made both of these celebrities look worse in the end. Airing dirty laundry for the whole world rarely ends well. Let’s put one Game Of Thrones screw it up: When you play the reputation smear game, nobody wins.
