Why Daenerys Targaryen Isn’t All That
It is quite amazing that for several books and seasons, George R.R. Martin and the showrunners had us rooting for someone so morally compromised.
Time to fess up. Who among you are rooting for Daenerys Targaryen to sit on the Iron Throne? After The Spoils of War, I’m betting a lot of you jumped ship if you weren’t on Team Dany already.
Now, each to his own but for me, the mother of dragons is more of a problematic fave rather than the saviour Westeros needs.
Ever since that fateful day I binged the first season of Game of Thrones, whenever someone would ask me who I wanted on Westeros’ most uncomfortable chair, I would always respond with Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen. For me, she represented female empowerment in a story dominated by men. She started as a pawn in her brother’s scheme to get the throne, but she took control of a horrible situation and emerged the queen of a khalasar, several cities, and an Unsullied army. Unlike some of the more treacherous characters her moral compass seemed intact, seeing as she liberated the slaves in Slaver’s Bay. The dragons are also a plus, I’m not going to lie.
Several seasons and a closer look later, Dany is not all that. Yes, she ‘freed’ Missandei and the Unsullied, but only to have them follow her every whim. It’s as if she replaced the masters she got rid of. One can argue that these people are acting out of their own volition and genuinely believe in their queen, but can that really be said for every soldier? The spur-of-the-moment gratitude they felt towards their liberator and a dash of groupthink weighed in on that decision. This foreigner swooping in and supposedly rescuing them only to compel them with rousing rhetoric towards her cause did not really give them a genuine choice. Not to mention the squirmy “white saviour” perspective with which the story is told.
Daenerys is charismatic and ambitious, but she is far from a strategic leader. When she toppled slavery in Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen, chaos soon ensued. While she still deserves a lot of credit for ending the slave trade, she had no established plan to replace the system she vanquished. She managed to make enemies of the freedmen, not just the masters. Ultimately it falls down to bad leadership. She was basically a nonnative invader who did not understand the territories she governed.
This silver-haired heroine also has a vengeful and violent streak. She once proclaimed to Jorah Mormont that she would only spill the blood of her enemies and not of innocents, but that hasn’t always held true. She has a proclivity for burning those she thinks have wronged her. Think back to Mirri Maz Duur, the very woman she saved from the Dothraki raping her and who effectively killed Khal Drogo and Rhaego, Dany’s unborn child. Khaleesi murdered her in flames. Some would say this is justified, but Duur’s actions were only in response to the abuse and murder the khalasar committed.
A more recent example of Dany’s brutality is the battle in The Spoils of War where she and Drogon spew lethal fire indiscriminately on the lines of Lannister soldiers, who can be counted as innocent people forced to fight a war for their own queen, Cersei.
Let’s set aside for a moment that the dragon queen’s claim to the seven kingdoms is that her father was once the ruler, because frankly the others vying for it have similar or even worse reasons. However, let’s talk about how she feels that entitles her to wage this war. There was a need for her to free the cities of what is now the Bay of Dragons for she rid them of slavery, but what good reason does she have for taking over Westeros aside from this privileged birthright? What drives her now is not compassion for the people, but ambition and pride.
In her quest to win the crown, Dany has sacrificed a good number of the Unsullied, and burned people and places to the ground. Jon Snow advised her against using her dragons to raze King’s Landing because it will make her no different from the leaders the country has already seen and suffered. While she didn’t necessarily ignore this bit of counsel, she had no qualms about burning an army to a crisp. Imagine the death and destruction that would follow if she continues in this path. The natives of the continent she wishes to rule might not see her as a returning hero, but as a brutal tyrant invading from overseas. Couple that with her family’s history with despotism and you don’t exactly have a smooth ride to the throne.
What worries me the most about the Targaryen heir is that she always has to get what she wants no matter the cost (fire and blood, anyone?) and she believes so firmly that she is the only one who can save Westeros. This attitude plus the power imbalance tipped in her favor what with her wielding dragons as weapons of war lead to a scary prospect that she might follow in the Mad King’s path.
It is quite amazing though that for several books and seasons, George R.R. Martin and the showrunners had us rooting for someone so morally compromised. Now, I don’t believe that Daenerys is evil. On the contrary, I think her intentions are well placed. She usually listens to counsel, as a good leader should, and to an extent she cares for the welfare of her people. The most likely explanation is that she has simply been consumed by her struggle to sit on the Iron Throne. She is still a better option than Cersei, but in her current state she isn’t what the people of a war ravaged country need. Perhaps after a redemption arc where she realizes the fault in her actions and goes back to her compassionate roots, she would be more than capable to rule. In the meantime, Dany stays a problematic fave. ■
