They are not strong, she told herself, so I must be their strength. I must show no fear, no weakness, no doubt. However frightened my heart, when they look upon my face they must see only Drogoâs queen. She felt older than her fourteen years. If ever she had truly been a girl, that time was done.
i donât think her driving motivation is conquering. i think her primary motivation(s) are helping and protecting people; reclaiming her familyâs seat; finding or making a home for herself.
to be honest, iâm kinda staring at this ask a little perplexed. are you a fan of Danyâs? because thinking sheâd grow âboredâ by ruling because she has a thirst for conquering is kind of strange, to me. thatâs just not how i interpret her character at all. she even says in the books: âI was tired, Jorah. I was weary of war. I wanted to rest, to laugh, to plant trees and see them grow.â
i also find it weird when people say Dany doesnât enjoy ruling and wouldnât enjoy being queen. iâm not sure if itâs ultimately something that will bring her joy, no. and should it? no, not if sheâs a person who cares deeply about people and their suffering. i imagine a good, sympathetic leader is often weighted down by their decisions and the challenges their people face. because if you have empathy, which she does, then youâll always be struggling to make things better for others. but regardless, how i interpret her arc in Meereen, her growing unhappiness, isnât because ruling is boring to her, itâs because she feels too much, and sheâs being broken down and forced to compromise by people who ultimately betray her because she so desperately wants peace for her people. the unhappiness is because she knows itâs not working. compromising with slavers is not working.
she might not be happy ruling the seven kingdoms, but it wonât be because sheâs bored. itâll be because she will have to rule over a continent ravaged by war. thatâs going to be a miserable time, bringing her people back from that. but if she has a home and a family, things that could truly bring her happiness, while she tries to restore her kingdom, then i think she would be fine staying where she is.
âitâs high time she got roughed up some.â – Thatâs a really fucked up thing to say about a character thatâs been raped and physically abused. Wtf is wrong with you? And why are you comparing her to Jon, this isnât a competition. Just because she hasnât been stabbed, doesnât make her pain any less. Screw you.
Also are people just ignoring how she was starving and almost half dead in Season 2 before they got to Qarth and then in Season 6 where she was being whipped and dragged by the Dothraki. Or even in Season 3 when she almost got stung by that bug thing. Like⊠are we watching the same show guys? Itâs not like Dany has been queen 24/7 For the last 7 seasons. Did you not listen to her speech from 7×03? Girl has been through some crazy shit.
I canât. People really think Dany is some pampered princess whoâs lived in the lap of luxury her whole life. What bullshit. Even Jonâs had a better childhood than her, yes even as a bastard. Heâs always had a home, always had a family even if Catelyn hated his guts. Dany has been through hell and Iâm tired of people disregarding her like this.
me when dany forces people to hear all of her titles which are essentially victories sheâs won in her very hard climb from the bottom to where she is now:Â
âQueen of Meereenâ: By right of conquest.
âQueen of the Andals, and the Rhoynar and the First Menâ: Although technically a claim, sheâs actually going to save that mother fucking country and the people, and she has a right as it is the legacy of her family, a legacy they created, so I wonât fight her on this.
âThe unburntâ: A freaking goddess, I tell you.
âKhaleesi of the Great Grass Seaâ : The first time all the dothraki unite behind one leader, a woman, and let me tell you, this title is an understatement because sheâs actually the Stallion Who Mounts The World.
âBreaker of chainsâ : She made her personal mission to help the slaves, free them, and maintain that freedom. Slavers Bay, no more.
âMother of Dragonsâ : She brought dragons to life, the last dragons in the world, after more than a century of being extinct.
How many people can say that they have done most of these thingsâŠ.on their own rightâŠ
You will listen, and you will respect.
^ THIS.
I know it is a fandom joke – âlol daenerys and her hundred titlesâ, but in a world where men get to hold titles for no reason other than their birth, and are immediately respected by people of westeros and real world fans alike for the smallest acts of goodness; I have no issues with Daenerysâs million titles which she earned through her hard work, intuition and wits.
Also it reminds me of this poem by Warsan Shire:
give your daughters difficult names. give your daughters names that command the full use of tongue. my name makes you want to tell me the truth. my name doesnât allow me to trust anyone that cannot pronounce it right.
White people who donât understand colonialism or imperialism talking shit about Daenerys Targaryen, meanwhile brown and black people with an intimate, experiential knowledge of both, loving our niña because she uses her power to help people and respects peoples cultures. She doesnât care what you look like or where you come from, only what actions you take.
Me whenever I hear the word âimperialistâ or âcolonialistâ about Dany:
i had to read a white person say âpoc donât like her because sheâs a colonizer.â me, a poc. I was dead.
Oh, I had to read how Dany was an âimperialistâ and âcruelâ because she destroyed the Slaverâs Bay economy. And she didnât take enough steps to save that economyâŠ
Oh, you are worried about the economy⊠Hmmm⊠Gee⊠I DONâT KNOW LUCINDA, MAYBE AN ECONOMY FUNCTIONING ON SLAVE LABOUR DESERVE TO BE DESTROYED!!
Jfc, the so called intellectuals exhaust me.
Another Black woman fan of Daenerys here. Her haters endlessly amuse me.
lol and Iâm another woman of color who adores Dany.
Iâve always found it interesting that Dany haters misuse the terms colonialism or imperialism when criticizing her. They act like they have some kind of moral high ground, yet theyâre the ones upset over a slave-based economy being crushed. Itâs almost like they have more sympathy for the slavers than they do the former slaves who gained freedom.
And donât get me started on how so many of them think they can speak for all POC as if we all only have one mind that theyâre an authority on.
They will not have my dragons, Dany vowed. They will not.
â she had it easy â yeah right. Wish she did. When all you people loved the other characters and think she didnât suffer enough, they had to sell her motherâs crown just to eat for a week.
One of the things that make me sympathize with her is that sheâs one of those who suffered the most.
She lost all her family, lived in poverty, always hungry, scared, and never safe, she had no childhood, never knew love and knew plenty of abuse. In a very sick relationship she found love and hope for a family, thatâs the main reason she started to accept her fate and circumstances, but then it was taken all away, again, before she could grasp it.
We see how other characters suffer, their pains, their tears, the injustice done to them and is so easy to say that the went through so much more and criticize Daenerys because apparently her life is too perfect.
All the other children can remember their families with love, pride, cherish the many moments of happiness they shared, and hope to grow up to be like them and make them proud.
Daenerys cannot do it, and all she has is a hole that has always been empty. Itâs so ironic, considering she has so much love to give, to her people, the slaves she freed and the dragons she brought to life.
Just because YOU donât seeit happening, it doesnât mean it doesnât affect her. Because it does.
I have always felt that the reason why people ignore Danyâs tragic backstory and/or hardships is because we donât get chapters/books establishing her character or setting. Her story in asoiaf starts in medias res.
In the very first chapter, she is getting engaged to Khal Drogo and things are happening to her (terrible things). There is NO establishing chapters where she is a naughty child or playing in the streets or laughing with her brother – so it is very easy to NOT sympathize with her and just see her as this tool for moving story forward (aka: dragons were needed, so she is dragon-lady).Â
This also makes all her trauma and her past to be seen through her memories – which antis find easy to discard (it is her memories, she is biased arguments).
However, she is also a teenagerlike the other main characters of asoiaf. She also longs for home. She had her family killed. She has starved. She was sold. She was raped. She was thrust in a hugely patriarchal society whose language she didnât speak at the time. She had to take some very difficult decisions as a child and as a teen.Â
But yeah, letâs take the fanon characterization of âspoiled ladyâ or âentitled queenâ and twist it to her canon characterization!