Daenerys Stormborn

Daenerys Stormborn

WIP until I can figure out how I want to paint her children

why do you have a bad feeling about the maiden/mother/crone thing? I think people just look too much into things, the seven are not even related to Dany beliefs, she doesn't have a plot related to the religion of the seven and is neither a believer.

I wasn’t talking about The Faith of the Seven. As you said, there is no connection between Dany and Faith of the Seven. Dany herself is agnostic and if at all any religion ought to be associated with her it should be the religion of R’hllor.

I was talking about Maiden/Mother/Crone as archetypes (in mythology and literature). These are three stages of womanhood.

Generally, the maiden represents rebirth, youth, new beginnings and spring. The Mother represents fertility, abundance, growth/maturity and summer. The Crone represents wisdom, aging, death, dying of the earth and winter.

In modern pop culture (to be fair in most folklore and mythology) the maiden is idolized, the mother tolerated and the crone vilified. Hence, why we have virginal maiden princesses escaping the clutches of evil/old step-mother/witch/crone. ASOIAF isn’t kind to crones either. Neither is GRRM. The older women are dead/evil/ mad or hags in most cases. And compared to older men, the older women generally suffer worse fates.  

So, what does it all have to do with Dany?

There are three central women characters vying for power in ASOIAF – Arya, Dany and Cersei. They are three women/girls who chafe against societal restrictions placed upon them and want to carve their own path in the world. I am not listing them, but if you’ve read the books that certain motifs and quotes repeat for these three characters.

Narratively, there are a large number of anti-parallels between Dany and Cersei. (I know antiparallel isn’t the proper word, but if I use “parallels” a certain crowd dying to misunderstand would descend upon this post, and I’d like to avoid that). Both Dany & Cersei are queens (& mothers) struggling with power and GRRM himself has remarked that he is trying to show different approaches women can take in patriarchal society. Hence, though Dany and Cersei go through similar situations – they take wildly different approaches to it based on their morality and sense of compassion. Also, there are a large number of parallels between Arya & Dany in terms of characterisation. [They are so similar that it is a joke between my sister (an Arya fan) and me (a Dany fan) that the sole reason we like different characters is because my sister like wolf aesthetics and I like dragon aesthetics better – otherwise, they are essentially the same character.] Both Arya and Dany have strong sense of justice, maternal instincts, longing for home, and are natural leaders. If there is a chief difference, it is that Dany has a more messianic arc than Arya.

In ASOIAF, Arya fulfils the role of maiden archetype, Dany the mother archetype, and Cersei the crone archetype. Cersei is a character who is transitioning from mother to crone archetype, but is unable to cope with it. And by ADWD, we can see that she is someone who is fearing the loss of her beauty and isn’t able to reconcile with the fact that she is aging (because it is a loss of soft power in her eyes). It is very similar to how GRRM wrote Rhaenyra – being a beauty during her youth, a darling, “the realm’s delight”, and losing her figure, her charm and slowly becoming paranoid.

When Merryweather seized him by the arm, he screamed, “Mother have mercy, no.”

“I am not your mother,” Cersei told him.

I am beautiful, the most beautiful woman in all Westeros, Jaime says so, Jaime would never lie to me. Even Robert, Robert never loved me, but he saw that I was beautiful, he wanted me.

She did not feel beautiful, though. She felt old, used, filthy, ugly. There were stretch marks on her belly from the children she had borne, and her breasts were not as firm as they had been when she was younger. Without a gown to hold them up, they sagged against her chest. I should not have done this. I was their queen, but now they’ve seen, they’ve seen, they’ve seen. I should never have let them see. Gowned and crowned, she was a queen. Naked, bloody, limping, she was only a woman, not so very different from their wives, more like their mothers than their pretty little maiden daughters. What have I done?

In fiction, older woman who do not accept the role of crone and their reduced influence in narrative tend to be the evil stepmothers, evil witches and evil queen – who makes the natural cycles go awry. They are generally slain and the maiden is crowned for restoration of order and new beginnings. [Just to be clear: this is horribly sexist trope. I am not supporting it. I am just pointing out that asoiaf is also horribly sexist, like most fiction.]

Daenerys was a maiden in the beginning of AGOT. But, her arc itself begins following her marriage and pregnancy. (It is during her pregnancy that she starts standing up for herself and she seems to get more & more connected to dragon eggs). She is morphing into the mother archetype in AGOT itself and is continuing that role throughout the series. Also, it is interesting to note that full moon is generally representative of mother archetype and moon is connected to Dany in multiple ways (“moon of my life”/ “the moon has kissed you an etched your shadow upon the ice”). Two of Dany’s epithets are literally connected to Mother archetype (“Mhysa”/ “Mother of dragons”); and her main conflict is trying to protect both of her children – her dragons and her people. In AGOT, before she resurrects the dragons, Dany has already crossed the threshold of maiden to mother identity:

“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.”

As for Arya, she is a child throughout the series, and by she is slowly growing into her identity of the maiden. By the end of the series, she will be a young woman by fictional standards (especially if there is a timeskip of 5 years).

“Might be, but this one is a child.”

“I am not,” lied Mercy. “I’m a maiden now.”

So, the question arises – by the end of the series, the metaphorical crone who cannot accept her role is vanquished and dying of the earth is prevented. Now, who is the harbinger of spring? The young maiden who represents spring or the mother who represents fertility? I was discussing this with @lordofthesevenkingdoms some months ago, about figuring out Dany’s role in the narrative, whether GRRM knows what he has in Dany, or whether she is a transitional figure designed to be a placeholder for a character with similar personality, morality, heroism, courage, and values but one who is younger and ‘purer’ (Arya).

To be frank, I don’t know. There are times when GRRM falls into extremely misogynistic tropes (esp. wrt: Rhaenyra/Cersei) yet there are times when GRRM does resist the lure of virginal maiden heroine when Targaryen women are concerned.

Hence, while Dany being assoicated with the mother archetype portrays her giving nature and compassion, it does not really give me a good feeling about her future.

PS: I am not tagging this post with any of the fandom tags because I do not want certain people reblogging it. (You know who you are, so please don’t reblog or interact.)

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.

Dany antis' "metas" about how Dany is totally naive about Westeros really shows they just haven't read the books, or at least not her chapters. They'll rant about how she expects the people to just bow down to her, when in reality that was how Viserys (and later Young Griff) thought due to Illyrio's words. Meanwhile Dany, "mistrusted Illyrio's sweet words as she mistrusted everything about Illyrio." (AGOT Daenerys I) Dany knows that it takes more than a name or even dragons to be worthy to rule. That's a major piece of what sets her apart from other rulers in ASOIAF.

Robert took the throne because he was the foremost head of the rebellion and had some Targaryen blood. Joffrey and Tommen rule(d) because of their perceived relation to Robert. Stannis laid his claim based on being Robert's brother. Renly laid his not only because of blood, but also popularity with the lords and sheer number of troops. Robb was crowned because he was his father's son.

Dany knows she how fickle allegiance owed to a name is, she knows how the lords turned on her family and saw the hospitality in Essos fade when she and Viserys had nothing. She also knows simply scaring them into following her with dragons and armies won't work, she scared the shit out of the masters in Astapor and Yunkai, yet as soon as she turned her back they went back to slaving. In Meereen, she had her armies and her titles, yet the Sons of the Harpy constantly defied her.

Dany knows the Westerosi people won't just bow to her when she arrives (though stories of her are causing quite a stir lmao), she knows she will have to fight for her throne and make alliances. She understands that she will have to prove herself to the people and lords, after all, why else would they follow her? Her Khalasar only followed her after she proved herself strong, the Unsullied followed her when she proved just (after she freed them), Barristan Selmy swore himself to her only after observing her for a long period, and the rest of the Dothraki will follow her only after she proves herself once again.

Every time Dany has lead, it's because she proved herself to be worthy following, not because she's a Targaryen or the Mother of Dragons. Why would she suddenly forget this when she gets to Westeros? Well bad writing is the answer in the show, which is why in the books, she won't just become entitled.

There's different character who already has that characteristic: Young Griff. He expects the lords of Westeros to follow him against the Lannisters and Baratheons without question and for Dany to swear herself and her dragons to him and even marry him simply because he is (supposedly) the son of Rhaegar. Young Griff is a subversion of the lost prince trope, he is not only a fake but also exhibits qualities reminiscent of Joffrey (according to Tyrion), so not exactly a great candidate for king. Yet Dany antis insist on putting the sense of entitlement on Dany while portraying "Aegon" as a true heir and worthy king that evil Dany will kill in her lust for power.

Dany antis will formulate arguments against her purely out of thin air and shitty writing. They will ignore any and all actions she has done when ruling and when talking about it, rather choosing to force their fanon ideas on her and give her true qualities to their favs instead.

Daenerys Targaryen by Jalen Vasquez

One accusation that is constantly leveled against Dany is about how she tells Mirri Maz Duur that she saved her. Dany antis accuse her of being “entitled” for supposedly thinking that Mirri owes something to her for having saved her. Many Dany fans have already discussed this at length. One important thing to remember is that Dany did everything she could to save Mirri, that Dany had no real power (Drogo was the one with power), that Dany’s power to save Mirri only went so far, that Dany at this point still didn’t understand systemic oppression well, and that Mirri was wrong to direct her anger at Daenerys and her child, instead of only directing it against Drogo. It’s certainly a grey situation, but one thing I don’t see discussed very much is how GRRM describes what Dany says:

“I spoke for you,” she said, anguished. “I saved you.” - Daenerys IX AGOT

In the show, Dany’s tone is accusatory when she says “I saved you”. So in the show, it does make it look like Dany thinks Mirri owes her. However, this is not how it’s described in the books: Dany doesn’t say this in an accusatory tone, as if she were saying “I saved you, how dare you betray me?”. She is saying this in an anguished tone, as if she were saying “I saved you, why would you do something like that to me?”. And that to me makes a huge difference. It shows that Dany is not accusing Mirri, she is simply feeling hurt for being betrayed after everything she did to save Mirri.