chrringoftheprintingmachine:

Daenerys Appreciation Month: [Prompt: Queen]

Ser Jorah Mormont drew her aside as the sun was creeping toward its
zenith. “Princess …” he began.

“Why do you call me
that?” Dany challenged him. “My brother Viserys was your king, was he not?”

“He was, my lady.”

“Viserys is dead. I am his heir, the last blood of House
Targaryen. Whatever was his is mine now.”

“My… queen,” Ser Jorah said, going to one knee. “My
sword that was his is yours, Daenerys. And
my heart as well, that never belonged to your brother. I am only a knight,
and I have nothing to offer you but exile, but I beg you, hear me. Let Khal
Drogo go. You shall not be alone. I promise you, no man shall take you to Vaes
Dothrak unless you wish to go. You need not join the dosh khaleen. Come east with me. Yi Ti, Qarth, the Jade
Sea, Asshai by the Shadow. We will see all the wonders yet unseen, and drink
what wines the gods see fit to serve us. Please, Khaleesi. I know what you
intend. Do not. Do not.”

This is the very first time Dany is referred to as a queen,
and it is interesting for two reasons.  

Firstly, it shines light on the relationship between Dany
and Ser Jorah. Despite her wishes, Ser Jorah’s love for Dany is not a courtly
love, but rather a troubling romantic one.
Ser Jorah who is three times as old as Dany, is not only pursuing a
romantic relationship with her, but is also someone who called her “my
princess” freely but had to be coaxed
into calling her queen. Even after Viserys’s death, Ser Jorah didn’t
consider Dany to be his queen, until she challenged and demanded it of him. And
perhaps, not even afterwards:

He wants me, she realized.
He loves me as he loved her, not as a
knight loves his queen but as a man loves a
woman. 

 Secondly, it shows how Dany was never considered a viable
candidate for being a ruler, not even by her first knight. The title of a queen
was not something that fell into her lap; rather it was something she demanded. Despite her own notions that it was
Drogo who made a queen out of her, the
truth is Dany made a queen out of herself – even when no one else believed
it, nor gave the title to her freely. Even her first knight did not give her
her due. Dany had to demand to be called queen. It was an identity that she
crafted with her confidence, her intuition, and her resolve. Yet, her idea of
being a queen is not of ownership or grown out of pettiness.

---

However, Dany does not consider that anyone who has the
power to be a ruler deserves to rule. In her mind, the concept of being a ruler
is intricately tied to both protection and justice.

“[…] Why do the gods make kings
and queens, if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves?“

”Some kings make themselves. Robert did.“

“He was no true king,” Dany said scornfully. “He did no
justice. Justice … that’s what kings are for.”

While Dany does scorn at Robert being king, it is not because she subscribes to Viserys’s
idea of kings – of bloodlines and superiority of the blood of the dragon.
Rather Dany believes that an integral part of being a king (or queen) lies in
upholding their end of the social contract – namely protection for their people
and swift justice. She considers being a monarch as a duty that she needs to fulfill for her people.

She would rather have
drifted in the fragrant pool all day, eating iced fruit off silver trays and
dreaming of a house with a red door, but
a queen belongs to her people, not to herself.

It is also interesting that as a queen, she does not think
that her people belong to her (to do with as she pleases), but rather that she
belongs to her people. In some sense, she is viewing her position as a queen as a
service or a calling that she needs to realize.

---

And yet people think she is an entitled brat. I mean c’mon. Danereys is such an amazing woman.