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ARYA STARK APPRECIATION MONTH 2022 ↳ Day 28: Parallels with other characters
In another place, his little sister lifted her head to sing to the moon, and a hundred small grey cousins broke off their hunt to sing with her.
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A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness… . mother of dragons, bride of fire …
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“I would like to see a dragon,” Mercy said wistfully.
I think a lot about how Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Realm, the Mother of Dragons, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, the Breaker of Chains, Mhysa, saw a system that oppressed and dehumanized and ground people to dust and she decided “I’m going to smash that system because I know what it’s like to be less than human and no one should ever have to feel that.”
It’s so refreshing and beautiful to read because it really hammers in that idea that any battle against the wrong in the world is a worthy battle, because there is always inherent worth in fighting back against the idea that any human being can ever be regarded as an object to be owned. The fact that Dany takes it upon herself to fight that fight? The fact that she does it out of compassion, out of understanding and empathy for those people who have been enslaved and have no power, no voice, no possible hope of defending themselves? Unmatched. “I would sooner perish fighting than return my children to bondage.” That line? UNMATCHED.
EMILIA CLARKE QUOTES THAT ALIGN WITH BOOK!DANY’S CHARACTERIZATION AND/OR GEORGE R. R. MARTIN’S INTERVIEWS
+ bonus:
— Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones: Seasons 1 & 2
starlight and seafoam
"dragons plant no trees" gets thrown around a lot as fact, but i think the veracity of that claim is still up for debate in the books. because dany (like bran and jon and many others) is a narrative symbol of hope and rebirth within the series because of her connection to dragons and fire, not in spite of it. this is because dragons in asoiaf have a much more expansive narrative function than simply 'nuke metaphor'. the 'exclusively weapons of war' image they have acquired breaks down immediately if you recall that the first thing dany does with them is begin dismantling an unjust status quo. she rallies the unsullied at the gates of astapor with cries of dracarys! dracarys! freedom! <- dragons as a symbol of hope and freedom for the persecuted. and obviously they've been built up as an oppositional force against the others. we're told when the last dragon died summers became shorter. in that respect the dragons, or more specifically, fire which is warmth which is passion—very much embodies life against the numbing, deadening threat of eternal winter that the others represent. but fire also consumes, which simultaneously makes dragons agents of destruction, or as adwd shows: the monsters who eat little girls and leave behind their bones. but when dany found herself chained to a false peace which effectively undid her cause in meereen, it was the dragon that rescued her and reignited her fire to fight back—which is to say that dragons represent a wealth of contradictions within the text and this is likely something grrm means to parallel with the others to some extent, by questioning their apparent narrative role as the one true evil. because i doubt the series is gearing up towards a spectacle-esque battle wherein our heroes get to practice righteous, easy violence on a monolithic army of monsters. that feels like it would undo a lot of asoiaf's preoccupation with investigating violence against socially acceptable targets, even if said target is ice sidhe. and this binary between a one true good and a one true evil, i.e. melisandre's philosophy ("if half an onion is black with rot, it is a rotten onion. a man is good or he is evil.") is not something the story takes as given.
instead there's this exchange between bran, jojen, and meera in asos: "but you just said you hated them." / "why can't it be both?" / because they're different. like night and day, or ice and fire." / "if ice can burn. then love and hate can mate."—and i think it's talking about reconciling two conflicting ideas. because the dream of an eternal summer is just as unsustainable as the threat of eternal winter. i think the battle for dawn is more about questions of seasonal harmony. the first line from agot's summary says, "long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance", so it's not totally out of question for the series to end with that seasonal balance restored once more. and that question of balance and how it can be achieved then works as a metaphor for a bunch of other things. because asoiaf at its core is very interested in exploring big contradictions, like love and duty? how do you keep all your oaths without betraying someone you love? how can one hope for a just, rightful ruler in a world where the systems in place can never allow such a thing? how do dragons plant trees?
you cannot frame dany's arc as a binary choice between planting trees or embracing (dragon)fire. because the fire is hers, it is a part of her, that's who she is. and her character has always existed outside of rigid dichotomies. at the end of agot she had two options, resign herself to a life of seclusion as a widow or die with the last of her family in that pyre, instead she performed a miracle. presently, i think grrm means to explore necessary, revolutionary violence with her arc because you cannot deal with institutional slavery by simply negotiating with slavers like she does in adwd. and the consequences thereof because she's also been set up to be more reckless with dragonfire in the future. but i think there will be an eventual reconciliation there, between her dreams "to plant trees and watch them grow." and her role as the mother of dragons, as a revolutionary figure. because if ice can burn, then maybe dragons can plant trees. they'll learn how to.
"I shall pray as well. On the morrow, come with me to Baelor's Sept, and we will light a hundred candles for our gallant Knight of Flowers." She turned to her handmaid. "Dorcas, bring my crown. The new one, if you please." It was lighter than the old, pale spun gold set with emeralds that sparkled when she turned her head. AffC - Cersei VIII
With Jhiqui's help, she wound the tokar about herself correctly on her third attempt. Irri fetched her crown, wrought in the shape of the three-headed dragon of her House. Its coils were gold, its wings silver, its three heads ivory, onyx, and jade. Dany's neck and shoulders would be stiff and sore from the weight of it before the day was done. A crown should not sit easy on the head. One of her royal forebears had said that, once. ADwD - Daenerys I
Targ stans (sadly, Fire & Blood opened the gates for Daenerys’ haters to claim an irrelevant and unremarkable character as their favorite from House Targaryen, and yes, I’m including Team Black) genuinely act like GRRM came up with the Targaryens BEFORE Daenerys and just coincidentally had Aegon the Conqueror, Aegon III, Queen Rhaenys, Alysanne, Rhaena the Black Bride saying or doing the same or similar things as Daenerys.
Like do they think GRRM wrote Daenerys saying “a queen must listen to all, the highborn and the low…” in ASOS (2000) and then wrote Alysanne saying “above all else, a queen must know how to listen” in Fire & Blood (2018) but came up with Alysanne first ?
What came first in the GRRM’s head, Daenerys visiting the sick, bathing them with her hands, burying them with her own hands, feeding them water from her own skin (ACOK 1999, ADWD 2011), her people thinking her touch is magic (ASOS, 2000), or Aegon III visiting those stricken by the Winter Fever, sitting beside them, holding their hands and cooling their fevers with damp cloths, those who survived speaking of Aegon’s “healing hands” (Fire & Blood, 2018).
It is incredible to me that they are so stupid and illiterate that they think an in universe historical volume that GRRM wrote just for fun is somehow more important than the events of ASOIAF proper. These are people calling themselves book readers. And again, these dweebs are the only idiots brave enough to spew this bs in the fandom. No Stark fan thinks Brandon the Builder came before Bran Stark in GRRM’s head. Every Stark stan knows that the historical Brandons were ALL built around Ned and Catelyn’s son.
House Targaryen is solely centered around Daenerys and definitely not the other way around, when will shippers and braindead bitches ever get this fact drilled into their heads ?
Exactly, like yes watsonianly/in-world Daenerys would have never existed without any of her ancestors....that's just logical and so obvious it's insulting how people feel the need to point that out to just shut down any discourse abt why Dany herself is special.
It's just plain fact that Dany herself was CONCIEVED AND CREATED before any of her ancestors were and they are written as they are in F&B, PatQ, AWoIaF because GRRM wanted to bring some form of heritage and background that provides more meaning & urgency to Dany's present plot. Yes those Targs have impressive feats or interesting stories of ther own, but they have those because those are meant to explain Dany and Westeros and the relationship there on both sides. Historically and personally.
Endgame Speculation For Daenerys Targaryen
Daenerys’ arc throughout the novels is heavily rooted in learning the ins and outs of governance and restructing a government to benefit the people. This training would make her the ideal leader to guide Westeros in recovering after the second long night.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BOOK!DANY AND SHOW!DANY— Dany and Hizdahr's conversation at Daznak's Pit
TL;DR: the show-only scene makes Dany seem misguided and potentially dangerous and tries to cast doubt on her moral compass, while the book-only scene written by George R. R. Martin showcases Dany's persistent effort to protect the ones who can't protect themselves.
On HBO: the writers created an entirely original scene in order to paint Dany as someone potentially willing to use indiscriminate violence to achieve her goals, while Hizdahr is portrayed as the more cautious figure who defends the tradition of the fighting pits for the sake of Meereen's cultural identity and continuity.
In the books: Dany is shown to be empathetic and protective of the marginalized. She imposes strict conditions to ensure that only willing participants fight in the pits and immediately steps in to stop the needless deaths of (unbeknownst to her) Tyrion and Penny. Meanwhile, Hizdahr shows no regard for the dwarfs' consent or well-being. His attempt to circumvent Dany's anti-slavery measures in order to force two vulnerable and unwilling slaves to fight against lions serves as a critique of the Ghiscari nobles, who readily perpetuate cruelty and oppression for the sake of their entertainment.
Daenerys Targaryen's tropes - The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask
A princess or a queen who is the supreme ruler of her country. She is usually beautiful but certainly clever, strong-willed and charismatic and she cares about her land and her people.
The problem is, her people — for all that they need a ruler — don’t want her. They don’t want a young woman, or they don’t want any woman, or they just don’t want this particular woman on the throne. But she is the one best equipped to see them through the current war or other disaster, and she sure as hell isn’t going to turn the country over to the treacherous aristocrats who would be next in line if she stepped down.
So she takes the reins with silken force and makes them follow her through brute cunning and charisma, overawing her detractors through her impeccable style, speech, imperturbability, wisdom, indomitable will, disdain for frivolity and — where necessary — utter ruthlessness. Even her love life is coolly calculated and orchestrated to best effect, often involving Arranged Marriage setups like Altar Diplomacy.
And if it wears her out, she’ll just have to drink more coffee and soldier on. Her personal happiness is a small price to pay…
An important part of this character is that she isn’t in a trusting and happy relationship (platonic or otherwise) as this would make her burden less heavy for her and thus remove much of the conflict inherent in this archetype. (It would also make her less alluringly lonely.) Naturally, this sad state can change over the course of the story.
This trope is being deconstructed and reconstructed with Dany.
1) They don’t want a young woman, or they don’t want any woman, or they just don’t want this particular woman on the throne.
Dany is hated by the slavers because she’s an abolitionist threatening their main source of income, but the vast majority of the freedmen love her.
2) But she is the one best equipped to see them through the current war or other disaster, and she sure as hell isn’t going to turn the country over to the treacherous aristocrats who would be next in line if she stepped down.
The deconstruction of this trope is most apparent here. On the one hand, yes, it was important that Dany stayed in Slaver’s Bay so that the noblemen wouldn’t undo her pro-freedmen reforms:
“…I will not let this city go the way of Astapor. I will not let the harpy of Yunkai chain up those I’ve freed all over again.” She turned back to look at their faces. “I will not march.”
“What will you do then, Khaleesi?” asked Rakharo.
“Stay,” she said. “Rule. And be a queen.” (ASOS Daenerys VI)
On the other hand, Dany also makes mistakes that cause massive problems. She left the Yunkish slavers’ wealth intact and refused to wage war against them because she assumed that they would leave her alone if she did so. This indirectly caused the Yunkish slavers’ siege (which left the Astapori starving and spread the bloody flux) and conquest of Astapor and their killing of its citizens, which then allowed them to march on to take Meereen as well. Dany also left the Meereenese slavers’ wealth mostly intact, which allowed them to retaliate against her anti-slavery stance by killing freedmen with the Harpy’s Sons. Basically, she ended up having to fight enemies inside and outside her city partly because of her shortcomings.
That being said, it’s important not to excessively blame Dany for all of this because the slavers have agency of their own and they deliberately caused all of these problems. Also, acknowledging Dany’s failures is not to say that Dany’s leadership style is bad (she is a good queen), only that this trope isn’t being played straight with her because, despite her presence being needed, she still has things to learn and her problems aren’t going to be solved overnight because they’re meant to be realistic (deconstruction). This, of course, makes Dany’s character and storyline that much more interesting. One of the main lessons of her journey is that she wasn’t ruthless enough against the slavers and will need to be in the future in order to protect her people (reconstruction).
3) So she takes the reins with silken force and makes them follow her through brute cunning and charisma, overawing her detractors through her impeccable style, speech, imperturbability, wisdom, indomitable will, disdain for frivolity and — where necessary — utter ruthlessness.
The trope isn’t played straight here either. Dany is cunning when she needs to be, as we saw in Astapor and Yunkai and Meereen. She is very charismatic, which we see from the way she naturally behaves to the fact that she has attracted and influenced thousands of people. She has an indomitable will, which is clear from her refusal to leave Slaver’s Bay without freeing all of its slaves to her desire to reform Meereen.
On the other hand, Dany isn’t stoic and imperturbable. She is Wise Beyond Her Years, but that doesn’t prevent her from making mistakes and failing to carry out her plans. She only maintains an impeccable style in ADWD because she wants to make peace with the slavers, but she resents doing so because she is Modest Royalty - she prefers simple clothing and wishes she could have banned the tokar. Finally, she doesn’t always know when she needs to be “utterly ruthless”, but she learns her lesson in ADWD.
4) Even her love life is coolly calculated and orchestrated to best effect, often involving Arranged Marriage setups like Altar Diplomacy.
And if it wears her out, she’ll just have to drink more coffee and soldier on. Her personal happiness is a small price to pay…
An important part of this character is that she isn’t in a trusting and happy relationship (platonic or otherwise) as this would make her burden less heavy for her and thus remove much of the conflict inherent in this archetype. (It would also make her less alluringly lonely.) Naturally, this sad state can change over the course of the story.
On the one hand, Dany’s personal happiness has been compromised by being queen. She agreed to an arranged marriage with Hizdahr in order to restore order to Meereen and end the war with the Yunkish slavers. She doesn’t love nor does she trust her husband, which heightens the conflict between her duty as queen and her desire for love, home and a normal life (all of which Daario represents).
On the other hand, the arranged marriage wasn’t “orchestrated to best effect” because Dany couldn’t have allowed the slavers to keep their privileges and abolished slavery simultaneously.
Her “sad state” might indeed change considering the many signs that she’ll start a romantic relationship with Jon in the future.
Conclusion
This trope is played with Dany in interesting ways. As it’s expected from the trope, she’s compassionate, smart and determined, her rulership was indeed necessary in Meereen (despite the opposition that she faced from the noblemen) and “wearing the queenly mask” was detrimental to her personal happiness.
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. (ADWD Daenerys IX)
On the other hand, the trope is largely deconstructed: the city’s problems aren’t instantaneously solved because of her; in fact, some of them are even heightened (indirectly) by her (understandable) mistakes. This is only to be expected considering a) her young age, lack of experience and tendency to be conciliatory and b) that GRRM threw her into the most complex political scenario of the series. By getting in touch with the different sides of her identity (mhysa and mother of dragons), Dany will be a better queen to her people (reconstruction).
A young girl she might be, but Daenerys Targaryen was the only thing that held them all together. (ADWD The Queen’s Hand)
The trope will most likely be revisited when Dany arrives in Westeros. She will face political opposition because many won’t accept her as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. Even so, her leadership will, nevertheless, be key to uniting the realm to fight in the upcoming War for the Dawn.
Daenerys: The Seven-Pointed Star
Daenerys Targaryen represents each facet of the Faith of the Seven, the god with seven different faces.
Daenerys as the Father:
“He was no true king,” Dany said scornfully. “He did no justice. Justice … that’s what kings are for.” (Daenerys III, ASoS)
“He knows. So do I.” Dany remembered the horror she had felt when she had seen the Plaza of Punishment in Astapor. I made a horror just as great, but surely they deserved it. Harsh justice is still justice. (Daenerys VI, ASoS)
“They dragged him out feet first, leaving several broken teeth and a trail of blood behind. Dany would gladly have sent the rest of the petitioners away … but she was still their queen, so she heard them out and did her best to give them justice.” (Daenerys III, ADwD)
As a She-King (Khal/Khaleesi/Queen Regnant), Daenerys executes judgement: recognizing that punishment against oppressors may be harsh but is still necessary, while also ensuring fairness and equality for her people. Daenerys displays this trait while she fights oppressors and while she runs Meereen as its Queen, hearing petitioners and holding Council.
Daenerys as The Mother:
Drogon was curled up beneath her arm, as hot as a stone that has soaked all day in the blazing sun. Rhaegal and Viserion were fighting over a scrap of meat, buffeting each other with their wings as smoke hissed from their nostrils. My furious children, she thought. They must not come to harm. (Daenerys III, ACoK)
They are my children, she told herself, and if the maegi spoke truly, they are the only children I am ever like to have. (Daenerys I, ASoS)
He will forgive me, she told herself. I am his liege. Dany found herself wondering whether he was right about Daario. She felt very lonely all of a sudden. Mirri Maz Duur had promised that she would never bear a living child. House Targaryen will end with me. That made her sad. “You must be my children,” she told the dragons, “my three fierce children. Arstan says dragons live longer than men, so you will go on after I am dead.” (Daenerys IV, ASoS)
Ser Jorah urged her to go, but Dany remembered a dream she had dreamed in the House of the Undying. “They will not hurt me,” she told him. “They are my children, Jorah.” She laughed, put her heels into her horse, and rode to them, the bells in her hair ringing sweet victory. She trotted, then cantered, then broke into a gallop, her braid streaming behind. The freed slaves parted before her. “Mother,” they called from a hundred throats, a thousand, ten thousand. “Mother,” they sang, their fingers brushing her legs as she flew by. “Mother, Mother, Mother!” (Daenerys IV, ASoS)
Dany had left a trail of corpses behind her when she crossed the red waste. It was a sight she never meant to see again. “No,” she said. “I will not march my people off to die.” My children. “There must be some way into this city.” (Daenerys V, ASoS)
Perhaps the most prominent of her identities, Daenerys is at her core a mother. She was Rhaego’s mother, and will always love and remember him. She is the Mother of Dragons, and is fierce and protective of her dragon children. Viserion, when is born, comes out suckling at Dany’s breast. Dany referred to the dragon eggs as Rhaego’s brothers. They are her fierce, unruly children. Daenerys is also Mhysa, mother to the thousands of freedmen who join her in Slaver’s Bay. She takes responsibility for each of their lives, and feels misery and pain when they are suffering. She stays in Meereen to feed them and protect them. She feels that she has betrayed her children (her dragon children and the freedmen) by trying to make peace with the slavers of Meereen. In short, Daenerys is a mother, and always will be.
Daenerys as The Warrior:
“She reached out with her other hand and grabbed the first thing she touched, the belt she’d hoped to give him, a heavy chain of ornate bronze medallions. She swung it with all her strength. It caught him full in the face. Viserys let go of her. Blood ran down his cheek where the edge of one of the medallions had sliced it open.
“You are the one who forgets himself,” Dany said to him. “Didn’t you learn anything that day in the grass? Leave me now, before I summon my khas to drag you out. And pray that Khal Drogo does not hear of this, or he will cut open your belly and feed you your own entrails.” (Daenerys IV, AGoT)
She lifted her head. “And I am Daenerys Stormborn, Daenerys of House Targaryen, of the blood of Aegon the Conqueror and Maegor the Cruel and old Valyria before them. I am the dragon’s daughter, and I swear to you, these men will die screaming. Now bring me to Khal Drogo.” (Daenerys IX, AGoT)
“Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade. “Faster,” they cried, “faster, faster.” She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. “Faster!” the ghosts cried as one, and she screamed and threw herself forward. A great knife of pain ripped down her back, and she felt her skin tear open and smelled the stench of burning blood and saw the shadow of wings. And Daenerys Targaryen flew. […] The door loomed before her, the red door, so close, so close, the hall was a blur around her, the cold receding behind. And now the stone was gone and she flew across the Dothraki sea, high and higher, the green rippling beneath, and all that lived and breathed fled in terror from the shadow of her wings. She could smell home, she could see it, there, just beyond that door […]” (Daenerys IX, AGoT) […] And saw her brother Rhaegar, mounted on a stallion as black as his armor. Fire glimmered red through the narrow eye slit of his helm. “The last dragon,” Ser Jorah’s voice whispered faintly. “The last, the last.” Dany lifted his polished black visor. The face within was her own. (Daenerys IX, AGoT)
“Some places even a khal must walk alone,” Dany said. “Take me, then,” Ser Jorah urged. “The risk—” “Queen Daenerys must enter alone, or not at all.” The warlock Pyat Pree stepped out from under the trees. Has he been there all along? Dany wondered. “Should she turn away now, “the doors of wisdom shall be closed to her forevermore.” (Dany IV, ACoK)
That night she dreamt that she was Rhaegar, riding to the Trident. But she was mounted on a dragon, not a horse. When she saw the Usurper’s rebel host across the river they were armored all in ice, but she bathed them in dragonfire and they melted away like dew and turned the Trident into a torrent. Some small part of her knew that she was dreaming, but another part exulted. This is how it was meant to be. The other was a nightmare, and I have only now awakened. (Daenerys III, ASoS)
If I look back I am lost, Dany told herself the next morning as she entered Astapor through the harbor gates. She dared not remind herself how small and insignificant her following truly was, or she would lose all courage. Today she rode her silver, clad in horsehair pants and painted leather vest, a bronze medallion belt about her waist and two more crossed between her breasts. Irri and Jhiqui had braided her hair and hung it with a tiny silver bell whose chime sang of the Undying of Qarth, burned in their Palace of Dust. (Daenerys III, ASoS)
“He will not come,” Kraznys said. “There is a reason. A dragon is no slave.” And Dany swept the lash down as hard as she could across the slaver’s face. (Daenerys III, ASoS) “Unsullied!” Dany galloped before them, her silver-gold braid flying behind her, her bell chiming with every stride. “Slay the Good Masters, slay the soldiers, slay every man who wears a tokar or holds a whip, but harm no child under twelve, and strike the chains off every slave you see.” She raised the harpy’s fingers in the air … and then she flung the scourge aside. “Freedom!” she sang out. “Dracarys! Dracarys! (Daenerys III, ASoS) In the smoldering red pits of Drogon’s eyes, Dany saw her own reflection. How small she looked, how weak and frail and scared. I cannot let him see my fear. She scrabbled in the sand, pushing against the pitmaster’s corpse, and her fingers brushed against the handle of his whip. Touching it made her feel braver. The leather was warm, alive. Drogon roared again, the sound so loud that she almost dropped the whip. His teeth snapped at her. Dany hit him. “No,” she screamed, swinging the lash with all the strength that she had in her. The dragon jerked his head back.
“No,” she screamed again. “NO!” The barbs raked along his snout. Drogon rose, his wings covering her in shadow. Dany swung the lash at his scaled belly, back and forth until her arm began to ache. His long serpentine neck bent like an archer’s bow. With a hisssssss, he spat black fire down at her. Dany darted underneath the flames, swinging the whip and shouting, “No, no, no. Get DOWN!” His answering roar was full of fear and fury, full of pain. His wings beat once, twice … (Daenerys IX, ADwD)
Non-traditional a warrior she may be, Daenerys is absolutely a warrior, and it is highlighted repeatedly in her arc, despite how little emphasis her identity as a warrior gets. She may not be able to fight using a sword or her hands, and she may not be physically strong, but Daenerys initiates a fiery slave revolt, she stands up to her abusive brother, and she is able to tame Drogon with nothing but a whip and her bravery. Additionally, Daenerys is shown to be a warrior like Rhaegar, and she will be a warrior of light in the War for the Dawn. Note too that Daenerys is the Stallion in the Dothraki prophecy, another dimension of her warrior identity.
Daenerys as The Smith:
Dany settled down with her small band of survivors in the place they named Vaes Tolorro, the city of bones. Day followed night followed day. Women harvested fruit from the gardens of the dead. Men groomed their mounts and mended saddles, stirrups, and shoes. Children wandered the twisty alleys and found old bronze coins and bits of purple glass and stone flagons with handles carved like snakes. One woman was stung by a red scorpion, but hers was the only death. The horses began to put on some flesh. Dany tended Ser Jorah’s wound herself, and it began to heal. Dany gave him charge of a dozen of her strongest men, and set them to pulling up the plaza to get to the earth beneath. If devilgrass could grow between the paving stones, other grasses would grow when the stones were gone. They had wells enough, no lack of water. Given seed, they could make the plaza bloom. (Daenerys I, ACoK)
Dany had no wish to reduce King’s Landing to a blackened ruin full of unquiet ghosts. She had supped enough on tears. I want to make my kingdom beautiful, to fill it with fat men and pretty maids and laughing children. I want my people to smile when they see me ride by, the way Viserys said they smiled for my father. (Daenerys II, ACoK)
But Dany had lost Khal Drogo to a similar wound, and she was not willing to let it go untreated. She sent Missandei to find a certain Yunkish freedman renowned for his skill in the healing arts. Belwas howled and complained, but Dany scolded him and called him a big bald baby until he let the healer stanch the wound with vinegar, sew it shut, and bind his chest with strips of linen soaked in fire wine. Only then did she lead her captains and commanders inside her pavilion for their council. (Daenerys V, ASoS)
“But how can I rule seven kingdoms if I cannot rule a single city?“ He had no answer to that. Dany turned away from them, to gaze out over the city once again. “My children need time to heal and learn. My dragons need time to grow and test their wings. And I need the same. I will not let this city go the way of Astapor. I will not let the harpy of Yunkai chain up those I’ve freed all over again.” She turned back to look at their faces. “I will not march.” (Daenerys VI, ASoS)
“Tell me, can this king puff his cheeks up and blow Xaro’s galleys back to Qarth? Can he clap his hands and break the siege of Astapor? Can he put food in the bellies of my children and bring peace back to my streets?” (Daenerys IV, ADwD)
“Sail west, not east. Leave the little queen to her olives and seat Prince Aegon upon the Iron Throne. The boy has stones, give him that.” (The Lost Lord, ADwD)
“It shall be done, Magnificence,” said Reznak mo Reznak. “What of these Astapori?" My children. "They are coming here for help. For succor and protection. We cannot turn our backs on them.” (Daenerys V, ADwD)
Though controversial and debated, the text emphatically indicates that Daenerys, as The Smith, is a healer and nation-builder. Whether in Vaes Tolorro, the temporary makeshift “city” her Khalasar finds, where she stops to let her Khalasar rest and heal after trudging through the Red Waste, or in Meereen, where she is negotiating new trade alliances, planting olive trees, looking after the ailing and sick, holding Council daily, hearing the petitions of the smallfolk daily, making deals and compromises, caring for refugees, trying to stem the tide of war, or installing protections for women and freedmen, Daenerys is unequivocally, decidedly, a nation-builder. Against the advice of her captains and councillors, she stays in Meereen so that she and her children can learn, heal, and grow, and so that she can protect her people. Franklyn Flowers uses the fact that she plants olive trees as an insult against her gender and femininity. Dany cares about the health and wellbeing of her team as well, her warriors, to the point that she will not move on until she ensures Strong Belwas is looked after. In short, Daenerys embodies the qualities of The Smith as well.
Daenerys as The Maiden:
“It was good to hear men speaking Valyrian once more, and even the Common Tongue, Dany thought as they approached the first ship. Sailors, dockworkers, and merchants alike gave way before her, not knowing what to make of this slim young girl with silver-gold hair who dressed in the Dothraki fashion and walked with a knight at her side. Despite the heat of the day, Ser Jorah wore his green wool surcoat over chainmail, the black bear of Mormont sewn on his chest.” (Daenerys V, ACoK)
“I’m cold,” Dany lied. “Bring me the book I was reading last night.” She wanted to lose herself in the words, in other times and other places. The fat leather-bound volume was full of songs and stories from the Seven Kingdoms. Children’s stories, if truth be told; too simple and fanciful to be true history. All the heroes were tall and handsome, and you could tell the traitors by their shifty eyes. Yet she loved them all the same. Last night she had been reading of the three princesses in the red tower, locked away by the king for the crime of being beautiful. (Daenerys VI, ASoS)
Soon Dany was as clean as she was ever going to be. She pushed herself to her feet, splashing softly. Water ran down her legs and beaded on her breasts. The sun was climbing up the sky, and her people would soon be gathering. 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. (Daenerys IX, ADWD)
“It is such a long way,” she complained. “I was tired, Jorah. I was weary of war. I wanted to rest, to laugh, to plant trees and see them grow. I am only a young girl.” (Daenerys X, ADwD)
Another prominent part of Dany’s identity is her youth, her girlhood. Though she has experienced far more than most girls her age do, she is still, in large part, looked at as “just a young girl”. Dany herself subverts the misogynistic expectations people have of her, when she sarcastically refers to herself as “just a young girl”. However, Dany is a young girl, and she displays this all the time as well, not just in the mistakes she sometimes makes: she enjoys reading tales about princesses and heroes, she wishes to rest and eat fruit, she is always dreaming about home, she wants a full life with a family and a husband and her own children, and she is a romantic and an idealist. However, the text emphasizes that just because Dany is a young girl, does not mean that her skills and acumen as a Queen should be discounted.
Daenerys as The Crone:
This is a wedding, too, she thought. Mirri Maz Duur had fallen silent. The godswife thought her a child, but children grow, and children learn. (Daenerys X, AGoT)
“You will be my khalasar,” she told them. “I see the faces of slaves. I free you. Take off your collars. Go if you wish, no one shall harm you. If you stay, it will be as brothers and sisters, husbands and wives.” The black eyes watched her, wary, expressionless. “I see the children, women, the wrinkled faces of the aged. I was a child yesterday. Today I am a woman. Tomorrow I will be old. To each of you I say, give me your hands and your hearts, and there will always be a place for you.” (Daenerys X, AGoT)
“I am not the frightened girl you met in Pentos. I have counted only fifteen name days, true … but I am as old as the crones in the dosh khaleen and as young as my dragons, Jorah. I have borne a child, burned a khal, and crossed the red waste and the Dothraki sea. Mine is the blood of the dragon.” (Daenerys II, ACoK)
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 Drogo’s queen. She felt older than her fourteen years. If ever she had truly been a girl, that time was done. […] Dany kissed him lightly on the cheek. It heartened her to see him smile. I must be strong for him as well, she thought grimly. A knight he may be, but I am the blood of the dragon. (Daenerys I, ACoK)
Viserys was Mad Aerys’s son, just so. Daenerys … Daenerys is quite different.“ He popped a roasted lark into his mouth and crunched it noisily, bones and all. ”The frightened child who sheltered in my manse died on the Dothraki sea, and was reborn in blood and fire. This dragon queen who wears her name is a true Targaryen.” (Tyrion II, ADwD)
“Daenerys Targaryen is no maid, however. She is the widow of a Dothraki khal, a mother of dragons and sacker of cities, Aegon the Conqueror with teats. She may not prove as willing as you wish.” (Tyrion VI, ADWD)
Though Dany is, of course, a young girl, she also gains wisdom and maturity beyond her years throughout the novels. In many respects, she feels much older than she is, because she is forced to be the strength for many people, and she cannot show weakness or vulnerability in many situations so that her people can rely on her. And though she will not relegate herself to living the life of the Dhosh Khaleen after Drogo’s death, she relates to the crones of her Khalasar and even says that she is as old as the Dosh Khaleen as a result of both her experiences and her duties as a Queen. Daenerys gains a maturity and wisdom that most girls her age do not precisely because of the position that she is in. She transcends the temporal bounds of time and space due to her magical position as well.
Daenerys as The Stranger:
“To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.” (Daenerys III, ACoK)
Then phantoms shivered through the murk, images in indigo. Viserys screamed as the molten gold ran down his cheeks and filled his mouth. A tall lord with copper skin and silver-gold hair stood beneath the banner of a fiery stallion, a burning city behind him. Rubies flew like drops of blood from the chest of a dying prince, and he sank to his knees in the water and with his last breath murmured a woman’s name… . mother of dragons, daughter of death … Glowing like sunset, a red sword was raised in the hand of a blue-eyed king who cast no shadow. A cloth dragon swayed on poles amidst a cheering crowd. From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire… . mother of dragons, slayer of lies … Her silver was trotting through the grass, to a darkling stream beneath a sea of stars. A corpse stood at the prow of a ship, eyes bright in his dead face, grey lips smiling sadly. A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness… . mother of dragons, bride of fire . . (Daenerys IV, ACoK)
She was fleeing again. Her whole life had been one long flight, it seemed. She had begun running in her mother’s womb, and never once stopped. How often had she and Viserys stolen away in the black of night, a bare step ahead of the Usurper’s hired knives? But it was run or die. (Daenerys V, ACoK)
Like the other key five, Daenerys is, in many ways, an outcast. She is exiled to Essos right after her birth, and orphaned shortly after. She is sold by her own brother to Khal Drogo, and left for dead by everyone around her. She grows up knowing hunger and poverty. She is seen as foreign by both Essos and Westeros, never truly fitting in to just one place for long. She moves from city to city, even after the events of ASOIAF begin. In some ways, this bestows upon her positive traits, like being able to speak three languages, knowing about a vast array of cultural practices, and praying to an amalgam of deities, like the Warrior from the aforementioned Faith or the Dothraki Horse God. In other ways, this makes Daenerys feel isolated, alienated, and alone. She is also geographically isolated from the rest of the viewpoint characters, right up until A Dance with Dragons. Daenerys is a character many people who have grown up as the outcast or The Other can easily relate too.
Daenerys is also unique and isolated because of her magic. As shown in The House of the Undying, she is the daughter of death because of how much death surrounds her life, the slayer of lies who will expose falsities, and the bride of fire, the future wife of Jon Snow. She is a future Warrior in the War for the Dawn and a messiah as a result, the first to bring dragons back after 100 years. Her dragons reawakened magic back into the world. For a young girl, this is indeed a heavy burden, and one that she struggles to understand. Daenerys does not do anything that is predictable, and she pivots at every moment, and subverts the expectations of everyone around her.
In short, Daenerys is a rich, multifaceted character, with layered dimensions, each corresponding to a face of the god from the Faith of the Seven.
DAENERYS APPRECIATION MONTH 2022 ↳ Day 4: House Targaryen The ghosts of Targaryen kings guiding Dany during her visions in the House of the Undying, making her embrace her heritage to later bring back the dragons which parallels Viserys passing Aegon’s prophecy to Rhaenyra. The prophecy is passed from king to heir, making Dany the heir of all the Targaryen kings.
“…want to wake the dragon…” Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade. “Faster,” they cried, “faster, faster.” She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. “Faster!” the ghosts cried as one, and she screamed and threw herself forward. A great knife of pain ripped down her back, and she felt her skin tear open and smelled the stench of burning blood and saw the shadow of wings. And Daenerys Targaryen flew. “… wake the dragon…”
DAENERYS APPRECIATION MONTH 2022 ↳ Day 2: Underrated relationships → JHOGO, Dany’s bloodrider
Jhogo rode back to her. “A firemage, Khaleesi.” “I want to see.” “Then you must.” The Dothraki offered a hand down. When she took it, he pulled her up onto his horse and sat her in front of him, where she could see over the heads of the crowd. The firemage had conjured a ladder in the air, a crackling orange ladder of swirling flame that rose unsupported from the floor of the bazaar, reaching toward the high latticed roof. Most of the spectators, she noticed, were not of the city: she saw sailors off trading ships, merchants come by caravan, dusty men out of the red waste, wandering soldiers, craftsmen, slavers. Jhogo slid one hand about her waist and leaned close. “The Milk Men shun him. Khaleesi, do you see the girl in the felt hat? There, behind the fat priest. She is a—” “—cutpurse,” finished Dany. She was no pampered lady, blind to such things. She had seen cutpurses aplenty in the streets of the Free Cities, during the years she’d spent with her brother, running from the Usurper’s hired knives.
I think a lot about how Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Realm, the Mother of Dragons, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, the Breaker of Chains, Mhysa, saw a system that oppressed and dehumanized and ground people to dust and she decided “I’m going to smash that system because I know what it’s like to be less than human and no one should ever have to feel that.”
It’s so refreshing and beautiful to read because it really hammers in that idea that any battle against the wrong in the world is a worthy battle, because there is always inherent worth in fighting back against the idea that any human being can ever be regarded as an object to be owned. The fact that Dany takes it upon herself to fight that fight? The fact that she does it out of compassion, out of understanding and empathy for those people who have been enslaved and have no power, no voice, no possible hope of defending themselves? Unmatched. “I would sooner perish fighting than return my children to bondage.” That line? UNMATCHED.
DAENERYS TARGARYEN’S OUTFITS IN A DANCE WITH DRAGONS
(AGOT, ACOK, ASOS, ADWD)
Last September, I commissioned the amazingly talented @ilrex to draw fanart of every single Dany outfit that’s described in the books. I can’t thank them enough for accepting my request, for making me so happy and excited whenever I received updates of their progress, for finishing such a huge project, for giving me such diverse options to use as my tumblr icon (lol), for greatly enriching my (re)reading experience of Dany’s chapters and for surpassing all my expectations with their gorgeous style and attention to detail. Ilrex deserves all the praise for their depiction of these outfits, which will be posted per book on different days.
So here are Dany’s outfits in A Dance with Dragons, along with the book descriptions (a few of them were skipped for being too repetitive and/or vague) that ilrex had in mind in order to draw her costumes:
Dany clutched her lion pelt to her chest. Underneath, a sheer white linen tunic covered her to midthigh. (ADWD, Daenerys I)
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Only then did Dany go back inside the pyramid, where Irri and Jhiqui were waiting to brush the tangles from her hair and garb her as befit the Queen of Meereen, in a Ghiscari tokar.
The garment was a clumsy thing, a long loose shapeless sheet that had to be wound around her hips and under an arm and over a shoulder, its dangling fringes carefully layered and displayed. Wound too loose, it was like to fall off; wound too tight, it would tangle, trip, and bind. Even wound properly, the tokar required its wearer to hold it in place with the left hand. Walking in a tokar demanded small, mincing steps and exquisite balance, lest one tread upon those heavy trailing fringes. It was not a garment meant for any man who had to work. The tokar was a master’s garment, a sign of wealth and power.
[…] The floppy ears she chose today were made of sheer white linen, with a fringe of golden tassels. With Jhiqui’s help, she wound the tokar about herself correctly on her third attempt. Irri fetched her crown, wrought in the shape of the three-headed dragon of her House. Its coils were gold, its wings silver, its three heads ivory, onyx, and jade. Dany’s neck and shoulders would be stiff and sore from the weight of it before the day was done. (ADWD, Daenerys I)
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As the sky lightened and the stars faded one by one, Irri and Jhiqui helped her don a tokar of violet silk fringed in gold. (ADWD, Daenerys II)
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In his honor Daenerys had donned a Qartheen gown, a sheer confection of violet samite cut so as to leave her left breast bare. Her silver-gold hair brushed lightly over her shoulder, falling almost to her nipple. (ADWD, Daenerys III)
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“What does Your Grace wish to wear?” asked Missandei.
Starlight and seafoam, Dany thought, a wisp of silk that leaves my left breast bare for Daario’s delight. Oh, and flowers for my hair. When first they met, the captain brought her flowers every day, all the way from Yunkai to Meereen. (ADWD, Daenerys IV)
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“Bring the grey linen gown with the pearls on the bodice. Oh, and my white lion’s pelt.” She always felt safer wrapped in Drogo’s lionskin. (ADWD, Daenerys IV)
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Dany’s riding clothes were stained and sooty as she stepped back from the pyres. (ADWD, Daenerys VI)
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“Irri, bring the green tokar, the silk one fringed with Myrish lace.”
“That one is being repaired, Khaleesi. The lace was torn. The blue tokar has been cleaned.”
“Blue, then. They will be just as pleased.” (ADWD, Daenerys VI)
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Dany hurried off, calling for her handmaids. She would not welcome her captain home in a tokar. In the end she tried a dozen gowns before she found one she liked, but she refused the crown that Jhiqui offered her. (ADWD, Daenerys VI)
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“Help me find my crown. Oh, and some clothes to wear, something light and cool.” (ADWD, Daenerys VII)
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“…The wedding garb is fraught with meaning too. The bride is dressed in dark red veils above a tokar of white silk, fringed with baby pearls.”
The queen of the rabbits must not be wed without her floppy ears. “All those pearls will make me rattle when I walk.” (ADWD, Daenerys VI)
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Afterward, as Jhiqui was patting Daenerys dry, Irri approached with her tokar. Dany envied the Dothraki maids their loose sandsilk trousers and painted vests. They would be much cooler than her in her tokar, with its heavy fringe of baby pearls. “Help me wind this round myself, please. I cannot manage all these pearls by myself.” (ADWD, Daenerys VII)
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So Daenerys sat silent through the meal, wrapped in a vermilion tokar and black thoughts, speaking only when spoken to, brooding on the men and women being bought and sold outside her walls, even as they feasted here within the city. (ADWD, Daenerys VIII)
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“I keep my promises,” he told her, as Irri and Jhiqui were robing them for bed.
[…] No sooner had her handmaids retired for the night than he tore the robe from her and tumbled her backwards into bed. (ADWD, Daenerys VIII)
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Jhiqui slipped Dany’s silk robe from her shoulders and Irri helped her into her bathing pool. (ADWD, Daenerys IX)
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Jhiqui brought a soft towel to pat her dry. “Khaleesi, which tokar will you want today?” asked Irri.
“The yellow silk.” The queen of the rabbits could not be seen without her floppy ears. The yellow silk was light and cool, and it would be blistering down in the pit. The red sands will burn the soles of those about to die. “And over it, the long red veils.” The veils would keep the wind from blowing sand into her mouth. And the red will hide any blood spatters.
As Jhiqui brushed Dany’s hair and Irri painted the queen’s nails, they chattered happily about the day’s matches. (ADWD, Daenerys IX)
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She lifted her veil and let it flutter away. She took her tokar off as well. The pearls rattled softly against one another as she unwound the silk.
“Khaleesi?” Irri asked. “What are you doing?”
“Taking off my floppy ears.”
[…] “Let me go!” Dany twisted from his grasp. The world seemed to slow as she cleared the parapet. When she landed in the pit she lost a sandal. Running, she could feel the sand between her toes, hot and rough.
[…] She scrabbled in the sand, pushing against the pitmaster’s corpse, and her fingers brushed against the handle of his whip. […] Dany hit him. “No,” she screamed, swinging the lash with all the strength that she had in her. The dragon jerked his head back. “No,” she screamed again. “NO!”
With a hisssssss, he spat black fire down at her. Dany darted underneath the flames, swinging the whip and shouting, “No, no, no. Get DOWN!” His answering roar was full of fear and fury, full of pain. His wings beat once, twice … (ADWD, Daenerys IX)
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And Daenerys … Her hair was aflame. She had the whip in her hand and she was shouting, then she was on the dragon’s back, flying. (ADWD, The Queensguard)
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The sun was hot this morning, the sky blue and cloudless. That was good. Dany’s clothes were hardly more than rags, and offered little in the way of warmth. One of her sandals had slipped off during her wild flight from Meereen and she had left the other up by Drogon’s cave, preferring to go barefoot rather than half-shod. Her tokar and veils she had abandoned in the pit, and her linen undertunic had never been made to withstand the hot days and cold nights of the Dothraki sea. Sweat and grass and dirt had stained it, and Dany had torn a strip off the hem to make a bandage for her shin. I must look a ragged thing, and starved, she thought, but if the days stay warm, I will not freeze.
[…] As she splashed her face, she saw fresh blood on her thighs. The ragged hem of her undertunic was stained with it. The sight of so much red frightened her.
[…] The day grew warmer, and the sun beat down upon her head and the burnt remnants of her hair.
[…] As the western sky turned the color of a blood bruise, she heard the sound of approaching horses. Dany rose, wiped her hands on her ragged undertunic, and went to stand beside her dragon. (ADWD, Daenerys X)
BOOK!DAENERYS in A Game of Thrones vs. SHOW!DAENERYS in the first season of Game of Thrones
Viktoriya Novikova was around 14 when The Little Mermaid (1976) was filmed, which makes her an age-accurate fancast for book!Daenerys (who is 13-14 in A Game of Thrones).
By comparison, Emilia Clarke was 23-24 during the filming of the first season of Game of Thrones.
DAENERYS APPRECIATION MONTH 2022 ↳ Day 3: The Dothraki → Irri and Jhiqui
“Khalakka dothrae mr'anha!” she proclaimed in her best Dothraki. A prince rides inside me! She had practiced the phrase for days with her handmaid Jhiqui. *** She kissed Irri’s hand where Drogon had bitten it. “I’m sorry he hurt you. Dragons are not meant to be locked up in a small ship’s cabin.” *** When Doreah looked longingly at a fertility charm at a magician’s booth, Dany took that too and gave it to the handmaid, thinking that now she should find something for Irri and Jhiqui as well. *** Distantly, as from far away, Dany heard her handmaid Jhiqui sobbing in fear, pleading that she dared not translate, that the khal would bind her and drag her behind his horse all the way up the Mother of Mountains. She put her arm around the girl. “Don’t be afraid,” she said. “I shall tell him.” *** As the world darkened, Dany settled in and closed her eyes, but sleep refused to come. The night was cold, the ground hard, her belly empty. She found herself thinking of Meereen, of Daario, her love, and Hizdahr, her husband, of Irri and Jhiqui and sweet Missandei, Ser Barristan and Reznak and Skahaz Shavepate. Do they fear me dead? I flew off on a dragon’s back. Will they think he ate me?