In This Post, I Talked A Bit About How The Removal Of Magic In GOT Destroyed The Character Of Euron Greyjoy.

In this post, I talked a bit about how the removal of magic in GOT destroyed the character of Euron Greyjoy. Now I'm going to talk about how it negatively impacted Daenerys' character.

Magic is fundamental to Dany's storyline, which is why her story is one of the only ones that still has magic in it on the show. However, that magic is drastically reduced, there's now simply hatching the dragons, the calling she feels to do so, and like two visions in the House of the Undying. Meaning, aside from dragon riding, Dany's magic is only in the first two seasons.

I want to talk first about how they reduced her dreams. In AGOT, we have almost a dream per chapter for Dany, each of them pointing to her future as the Mother of Dragons, a dragon rider, and her later story points. In ACOK, her visions in the House of the Undying point to not only her future, but those of other characters (i.e. the Red Wedding, Tyrion, Jon, the Others, etc). ASOS sees the first appearance of Quaithe in Dany's dreams, and in ADWD, Dany dreams in the Dothraki Sea and sees Quaithe a few more times. That's a pretty big difference from the show's portrayal.

The removal of these dreams serve to make Dany seem much more similar to the rest of her family than she really is. It's a way for them to make her seem less remarkable and force their "parallels" with Aerys. In the books, while other Targaryens have dragon dreams, none of them are quite to the same level as Dany, with the exception of maybe Daenys (we don't actually know). She's meant to be set apart, just like the other main five. She, Jon, Bran, Arya, and even Tyrion are meant to have stronger connections to magic than any other main characters.

Jumping back to Quaithe, removing her really shows how little they cared about George's plans for Dany's character. Her connection to the resurgence of magic is touched on in the show, but not to the same extent as it is in the books. Quaithe is constantly telling Dany to go to Assai, one of the magical centers of the world. Obviously there is something important in Asshai that has to do with magic and the dragons. But apparently, D&D decided to fuck around and drop that whole idea, leaving Dany with an easy and pretty boring storyline after Meereen.

Finally, the show removed most of the prophecies. I did cover this partially in the dreams section, but there's more to be said about erasing the prophecies. Mainly the Prince that was Promised/Azor Ahai prophecy. Obviously, in the show, it was decided that the prophecy should be completely thrown aside and Arya should kill the Night King and the War for the Dawn be over in a few hours. This is a gross mishandling of the themes, which makes sense given who the head writers were. Prophecies are a key part of ASOIAF, and the Prince that was Promised/Azor Ahai is definitely the most important. Targaryens throughout history made unwise decisions in the name of the prophecy: Viserys II forced Aegon IV and Naerys to marry, Jaegaerys II forced Aerys and Rhaella to marry, (according to HoTD) Viserys I killed Aemma for a son, and Aegon conquered Westeros. Clearly this is important, writing it out in the name of "subverting expectations" is the dumbest fucking idea ever, right after mad queen Dany.

D&D also wrote out many magical objects that clearly are meant to have importance to the story. The glass candles and the dragon binder are magical objects that will change the course of Dany's life as she knows it. Whether the dragon binder Victarion has will work or not is irrelevant, its very existence could drive Dany off course from Westeros to Asshai. Maester Marwyn is bringing a glass candles to Dany and Quaithe warned her that they are burning again. The magic the glass candles have would have a massive impact on how Dany will proceed. After all, they could allow her to communicate with people in Westeros or Asshai or enhance her dragon dreams. They will also put her in direct conflict with the Citadel, as the Maesters use the glass candles as examples for magic's nonexistence.

Magic is integral to the ASOIAF universe. Removing it makes the story so much more boring and damages or destroys character arcs. Daenerys suffered so much in the adaptation, and one of the greatest blows was the removal of magic in her story. It shows how lazy D&D were, since they couldn't be bothered to figure out the magic system of the world they are adapting. It removes the interesting ideas George came up with, making it into someone's historical fiction smut fic when mixed with the other ideas D&D put in.

A very common argument Dany antis love to use is that Dany is a hypocrite and a villain because she "raped Irri". This just a blatantly false assertion, Dany never raped anyone, let alone Irri. @rainhadaenerys has a fantastic post dissecting the sex scenes here. Instead of doing that in this post, I'm going to talk about what this perception seems to stem from.

First, the obvious, hatred of Daenerys in general. I saw an anti say at the end of their long list of contrived and false reasons for hating her was that they found her annoying. I think this is probably the most honest answer a non-stansa/jonsa could give. While stansas/jonsas hate Dany because of the perceived threat she poses to their fav, anyone not in that boat has a different reason: they found her character annoying for some reason (most likely sexism).

And being faced with the fact that she not only is one of the favorites of the fandom but also of George himself, these antis decided to come up with these completely braindead takes to support their unfounded dislike of her. It's ok to simply dislike a character because they annoy you, that happens a lot with writing, but it's a completely different matter when you start coming up with ideas and interpretations to try to make your personal preference (and/or internalized misogyny) seem less outlandish.

Now, the reason why people can take sections like the Dany/Irri section out of context is simply because of George's writing decisions. I think it's common knowledge in the fandom that George gave ridiculously little thought to the Dothraki characters. Irri and Jhiqui are never given povs or even much personality. This is a serious flaw in George's writing and world building. Unfortunately, this flaw allows people (ie antis) to just imprint whatever they want onto these characters.

However, the antis do also tend to ignore any passive character development given to Irri (little that it is). Irri has been by Dany's side since they were both slaves (Irri a bed slave and Dany a bridal) in Drogo's Khalasar. She was present throughout all of Dany's anti-slavery campaign, if anyone knows and understands that they have their freedom, it'd be Irri. Even before the events in Astapor, Dany makes it clear she has her freedom. Irri knows she isn't slave anymore, let alone Dany's, the antis refuse to acknowledge this or Irri's personal agency even less than George does.

Basically, the idea of Dany as a "rapist" is driven purely by spite and a refusal to try to understand a character, underdeveloped as she is. George has majorly contributed to the misconceptions surrounding the Dothraki characters by not fleshing them out the way he did with other side characters.

I can't wait to see the reactions of all the Dany antis when Jon Con and Faegon burn KL or at least cause the destruction. Dany will still be in Essos raining fire and blood down on slavers while the antis their little hearts out.

People asking for books/movies about Finnick and Haymitch’s games are kinda missing the point. Suzanne gave us the information that she felt was necessary about their games. Especially with Haymitch, we got quite a detailed look into his games in the Catching Fire book. Anything more would be using the death of children purely for entertainment, which would be against a core message in The Hunger Games series. I think there’s a lot of space for other books within Panem that could communicate really important messages, but I highly doubt we’ll see the games of anyone we already know.

“Dany runs around saying ‘I must end slavery like my ancestors.’” Um?

Dany has only ever used her own experience as a girl sold and then the horror she felt when she learned the reality of the slave trade as motivation to end slavery.

and when Xaro tries to explain the practice of slavery with nice eloquent words but daenerys sees right through them and feels a rawness in her belly.

I am furious at how the show writers practically sidelined all the Team Black kids:

1. Jacaerys’ presence on screen revolves around him being a “bastard”

2. Lucerys - ditto

3. Joffrey - appears like 3 times on screen and has no lines (even though he is supposed to be like 11 years old by the time the Dance starts). And let’s not forget that in the book, the reason the fight on Driftmark started is because Aemond bullied and physically attacked little Joffrey. His role was supposed to be bigger.

4. Baela is just a pretty face in episodes 8 and 10

5. Rhaena - ditto

6. Aegon the Younger - has one scene in which he doesn’t even talk (he is supposed to be 10 by the time the Dance starts)

7. Viserys - ditto (he was supposed to be 8 by now, not a baby)

8. Visenya - she is never mentioned

They focused all their time on whitewashing the greens and giving them the screentime that the Team Black kids were supposed to have. Making up stories of how Aemond was somehow “bullied” even though he is supposed to be the bully, and Helaena somehow ending up as a pointless “dreamer” with her head constantly in the clouds.

Need I remind everyone that the Targaryen survivors who continue the dynasty are Daemon’s children: Aegon, Viserys, Baela and Rhaena?

These four characters need to be fleshed out and given the development they deserve.