Daenerys Targaryen's Nude Scene On 'Game Of Thrones' Was Important, & Here's Why

Sunday night's Game of Thrones was uncharacteristically rewarding, and I, for one, am extremely happy about it. While Game of Thrones usually likes to punish its audience, this week we got three (count 'em!) brother and sister reunions, including one that we've been waiting literally six years for, and Ramsay only murdered one person (R.I.P. Osha). We also got this season's very first "hell yeah" moment as Daenerys pulls a classic Dany move and singlehandedly fixes her Dothraki problem by setting a hut on fire, burning all the annoying Khals alive, and casually walking out, clothes burned off, in the very essence of chill. No one slays like Dany. Notably, this was Emilia Clarke's first nude scene in Game of Thrones since Season 3, and it was different for a number of reasons.

The first time we as an audience ever witnessed Emilia Clarke in a nude scene was Season 1, in which her brother Viserys (remember that awful guy?) undoes her dress and takes off her clothes for basically no reason at all. And there was Daenerys as she started: naked, vulnerable, and utterly powerless. But Daenerys's nakedness in Sunday's episode said something entirely different.

While everyone wondered how Dany was going to escape from the Dosh Khaleen, nobody expected that she would simply set everybody else on fire in a truly bad ass moment. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Clarke said,

Every season I get at least one spine-chilling moment. I just stand up and I go, ‘I’m hearing what you’re all saying, but funny thing, I’m going to kill you all. I forgot that I have an ace in my back pocket and now I win.’

So this time when she walked out of the flames, it was a powerful moment, presenting Dany as the Queen that she is, and recalled the first time she walked out of the flames at the end of Season 1. By the way, it looks like Dany is officially fire-proof, right? Clarke wants everyone to know that she feels really good about this scene. "This is all me, all proud, all strong. I’m just feeling genuinely happy I said ‘Yes.’ That ain’t no body double!” she said.

It's been noted that there has been a lot less gratuitous nudity this season of Game of Thrones than before. It looks as if the show has found a way to make nudity empowering and not exploitative.