Blake Lively takes on Daenerys as Jason Baldoni’s trial takes a bizarre turn on ‘Game Of Thrones’

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 hit HBO fantasy drama series. Game of Thrones. It’s a memorable line and one of the rare instances 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 film’s stars. It ends with us, which Baldoni also directed. There has been a long and frankly bizarre drama between Lively and Baldoni, with each of them making numerous accusations and complaints against the other. Baldoni also sued the New York Times over the newspaper’s coverage of the events. Lively 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 this long-running legal battle is Baldoni’s $400 million lawsuit against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds (who most recently starred in Deadpool and Wolverine). Baldoni also requests a jury trial.

Now, CNN reports that text messages between Lively and Baldoni have the Gossip Girl star comparing herself to none other than Daenerys Targaryen. I was loath to even cover this story, but after covering Game of Thrones and its fallout for so many years, I had to at least jump into the fray now that dragons are involved. Lively’s alleged text to Baldoni certainly carries a bit of menace, albeit in a strangely friendly way.

“If you ever watch Game of Thrones, you will understand that I am Khaleesi and that, like her, I have a few dragons,” reads the text according to the lawsuit obtained by CNN. “For better or worse, but usually for the better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So, really, we all benefit from my magnificent monsters. You will too, I can promise you that.

CNN notes that they have not “independently verified the text messages included in Baldoni’s or Lively’s lawsuits.”

Spoilers for Game of Thrones follow.

This text is interesting because of its context. Daenerys is mentioned in many titles, including “Mother of Dragons,” but Khaleesi is perhaps her most famous. She received the title when she married Khal Drogo, the powerful leader of a Dothraki khalasar. The Dothraki are a nomadic, warlike people who travel around the Dothraki Sea, a vast grassland on the continent of Essos, just east of Westeros, leading raids and wars on the backs of their prized horses.

The Dothraki ultimately become just one of Daenerys’ many armies. She also employs mercenaries and, of course, her three dragons: Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion. Lively’s text doesn’t specify who her dragons are, but many read it as a reference to her husband Reynolds and friend Taylor Swift. This upset many “Swifties” for pretty obvious reasons. It’s strange, to say the least, to refer to your husband and friends as “my monsters” under any circumstances, let alone in an argument over a storyline.

What makes this all so completely bizarre, however, is the fact that Daenerys Targaryen ultimately became the most infamous, murderous, and despised villain of all time. Game of Thrones when she decided, rather perplexingly, to burn countless innocent people to death in King’s Landing when she conquered the city. The about-face was a long time coming, but it was still shocking due to the rushed nature of the show over its final two seasons. In a way, her character belied 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 villainous. Summoning your dragons – or monsters – certainly reinforces this feeling.

I don’t have a dog in this fight, of course. I have no idea where the truth begins and ends, who is lying about whom, whether what Baldoni or Lively says is accurate or distorted. The reality is that even if this case goes to trial, we may never know the absolute truth. This is all very reminiscent of the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp suit, which frankly made both of these celebrities worse in the end. Airing your dirty laundry for the world to see rarely ends well. Let’s put a Game of Thrones There is a difference: when you play the reputation smear game, no one wins.