She Was Once Smitten With A Young Knight From The Stormlands Who Wore Her Favor At A Tourney And Named

“… She was once smitten with a young knight from the stormlands who wore her favor at a tourney and named her queen of love and beauty. A brief thing. […] He put away his lance the day your lady mother wed your father. Afterward he became most pious, and was heard to say that only the Maiden could replace Queen Rhaella in his heart. His passion was impossible, of course. A landed knight is no fit consort for a princess of royal blood.” - A Dance with Dragons, Daenerys VII // naomi watts as rhaella targaryen   

Daenerys is NOT an anti hero

Many people call Daenerys an “anti-hero” or say that while she started her journey as a hero she turned to an anti hero on  the latest books/seasons. I completely disagree with them. In my opinion, Daenerys is as close to the ideal hero as it can get in Martin’s story.

In order to debunk why she isn’t an anti hero, I think a definition of that term is needed. According to the American Heritage dictionary an anti hero is “a main character in a dramatic or narrative work who is characterized by a lack of traditional heroic qualities, such as idealism or courage. ”.

Obviously, this term can not apply to Daenerys because not only she is idealistic and brave but  she is shown also to have other noble traits such as: compassion, resilience, mercy,  determination, ingenuity to name just a few. Daenerys has all the traits a hero should have and lacks the anti hero characteristics. 

There are many passages within the story that support calling Dany a hero, and even whole chapters are dedicated to show the admirable heroic traits of hers (ex: when she freed the slaves). I decided to include Illyrio’s opinion on her in which he demonstrates why Daenerys would make the best leader because his speech can also be used to show why Daenerys make an ideal hero:

“Not Stannis. Nor Myrcella.” The yellow smile widened. “Another. Stronger than Tommen, gentler than Stannis, with a better claim than the girl Myrcella. A savior come from across the sea to bind up the wounds of bleeding Westeros.”

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…”

This is gonna be pretty much a joint meta with @sunny12th. We have been discussing how Feast and Dance are in obvious conversation with each other, and how Dance explores many of the thematic concepts and questions that Feast proposes. One of the key thematic statements of Feast that we believe Dany’s story is in conversation with is:

Above him, all the windows had gone black, and he could see the faint light of distant stars. The sun had set for good and all. The stench of death was growing stronger, despite the scented candles. The smell reminded Jaime Lannister of the pass below the Golden Tooth, where he had won a glorious victory in the first days of the war. On the morning after the battle, the crows had feasted on victors and vanquished alike, as once they had feasted on Rhaegar Targaryen after the Trident. How much can a crown be worth, when a crow can dine upon a king? There were crows circling the seven towers and great dome of Baelor's Sept even now, Jaime suspected, their black wings beating against the night air as they searched for a way inside. Every crow in the Seven Kingdoms should pay homage to you, Father. From Castamere to the Blackwater, you fed them well. That notion pleased Lord Tywin; his smile widened further. Bloody hell, he's grinning like a bridegroom at his bedding.

We know that Dany already had a very significant dream that parallels this exact event. She was in Rhaegar’s shoes. Her trauma and fears are packaged in TLN imagery. She came out victorious against death. She succeeded where Rhaegar had failed. What did she have? A Dragon. I’ll come back to this.

A main thing that AFfC quote is referring to is an equality that is inherent to life. With or without crowns, despite all man-constructed hierarchies and systems, all people are equal in death. So why shouldn’t we thrive to make them equal in life? A fight for equality is obviously a very integral theme in Dany’s story. George believes that a leader should be viscerally aware of this kind of egalitarianism. Power is a responsibility, not something that gives you privilege and allows you to feast on others. This is also why Dany’s approaches are juxtaposed so overtly with Cersei’s. A Feast for Crows is primarily exploring the devastation that the Westerosi regimes have brought on. Rulers do not recognize equality, and even if they do, it is done in a way that is selfish (Robert complaining about the responsibility the crown gives him, despite acknowledging that it did not make him different). Yet, all are a feast for the crows right now. A crown made no difference. Aerys, Robert, and Joffrey’s crown’s did nothing to prevent their deaths, and the same goes for Tywin’s invisible crown. A crown also becomes a death sentence to many children. It distances Robb from his real self, Greywind, and brings his doom. Jaime & Cersei’s children are destined to die due to their crowns. All that Westeros brought on with their crowns is a great feast for crows.

We also know that Dany already came to a conclusion about what a “crown”, on a more metaphorical level, means:

“He shouldn't have done that. He wasn't just my brother, he was my king. Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can't protect themselves?"

"Some kings make themselves. Robert did."

"He was no true king," Dany said scornfully. "He did no justice. Justice. That's what kings are for."

Later, Dany is made to believe that her physical crown is symbol of this very responsibility. But that supposed symbol is what destroyed and will destroy the lives of the children forced to wear it in Westeros. The crown weighs her down, oppresses her, it is a symbol of the burden of the false peace that she is sacrificing her very ideology for.

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.

Her children had need of her. Drogon had bent before the whip, and so must she. She had to don her crown again and return to her ebon bench and the arms of her noble husband.

By midday Daenerys was feeling the weight of the crown upon her head, and the hardness of the bench beneath her. With so many still waiting on her pleasure, she did not stop to eat.

While her sense of responsibility is being exploited and skewed, the nobles are feasting on the lives of slaves, on Dany’s ideology, and on her as a person:

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.

Here is Sunny’s part getting into more depth about just how Dany’s crown functions and gets deconstructed as a symbol with some of my added thoughts: Dany's crown is a visual representation of her three dragons, but it doesn't empower her at all. It actually feels wrong because Dany's dragons came from stone, and they're being captured in stone again as her crown. Likewise, Dany is slowly being entrapped by the crown. Symbolically, the crown is meant to represent Dany as a Queen. That's why she doesn't sell it. She does not want to be a Beggar Queen like Viserys but, really, her dragons (alive, made of fire and blood) are all she needs. The crown is her dragons made stone again. It's heavy, and physically hurts Dany, but she continues to wear it. Dany would've been killed regardless of her crown (floppy ears). She acknowledges this when she remembers that one of her forbears had said "the crown should not sit easy." Rhaegar was killed regardless of his status, Rhaegar's son was killed, and Dany knows she will be killed too if her Usurpers have the chance. Similarly, Aegon the Conqueror had the Iron Throne made because a king should not sit comfortably. Dany with her ebony bench is also aware of this despite not apparently knowing Aegon I said that. Dany is Aegon I's heir in a lot of ways, like how she is Rhaegar's heir. Cersei doesn't see the Iron Throne for how uncomfortable it is (in a literal practical sense) or how uncomfortable it should make her. She only sees the power (and freedom she never had) it represents, not the responsibility. Dany knows there's power in being a queen, but it's the responsibility that draws her to stay in Meereen. But her sense of responsibility gets used against her. Dany wears a veil and a tokar to the fighting pits, when drogon reappears, and both of these are cast off. She's not wearing the floppy ears anymore and it's just her and the dragon again, like in her old dragon dreams. Her crown is her dragons made stone again, just how they are locked away in caves. It represents responsibility, but a warped kind that pushes her into a false peace. Her dragons, brought to life from stone, are the responsibility and power to burn down the subjugating institutions. The dragons are Dany’s real self. Right after Dany thinks about Rhaegar being killed and how the crown should not sit comfortably, she thinks about how the Masters of Meereen freed their slaves only to "hire" them as servants and pay them unlivable wages. Slavery is technically abolished, but inequality and servitude still thrive in Meereen. Her crown, stone dragons (cold and unalive), can't bring her ideology to life. What is a crown worth if the person under it lacks the strength or will to use it to protect their people? Dany's crown is a mockery of her real power (living dragons) and she wears it to build a false peace for the masterclass, and they are not her people, they are not the weak that must be protected at all costs. They, and the institutions they represent, are the ones preying on the weak.

So what is a crown’s worth? If she wants to attempt to achieve the things that she was meant for: to protect the weak, to fight death, it will not be with dragons made of cold stone, but dragons made of fire & blood.

Fire is not just destruction. Blood is not just about bloodshed. Fire burns bright and gives light. Blood flows through your veins. The Others “hate every creature with hot blood in its veins.”

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. 

The lack of reading comprehension in the ASOIAF fandom really is astonishing. I’m yet again seeing posts saying that Dany blamed Elia for Rhaegar’s treatment of her, saying that Dany called Elia an unsatisfactory wife, and ffs, you people need to learn how to read:

“But that was the tourney when he crowned Lyanna Stark as queen of love and beauty!” said Dany. “Princess Elia was there, his wife, and yet my brother gave the crown to the Stark girl, and later stole her away from her betrothed. How could he do that? Did the Dornish woman treat him so ill?”

“It is not for such as me to say what might have been in your brother’s heart, Your Grace. The Princess Elia was a good and gracious lady, though her health was ever delicate.”

Dany pulled the lion pelt tighter about her shoulders. “Viserys said once that it was my fault, for being born too late.” She had denied it hotly, she remembered, going so far as to tell Viserys that it was his fault for not being born a girl. He beat her cruelly for that insolence. “If I had been born more timely, he said, Rhaegar would have married me instead of Elia, and it would all have come out different. If Rhaegar had been happy in his wife, he would not have needed the Stark girl.” - Daenerys IV ASOS

Dany asks if Elia treated Rhaegar badly, for him to have crowned another woman in her place. This is only natural, you know? Dany has only ever heard good things about Rhaegar, so of course she can’t understand why would Rhaegar treat Elia like that. She even asks “how could he do that?”. She clearly doesn’t agree. And as soon as Barristan explains things to Dany, Dany does not dispute him. She DOES NOT try to blame Elia. She says nothing against what Barristan says. And no, her answer is not calling Elia an unsatisfactory wife. Let’s quote her answer again:

Dany pulled the lion pelt tighter about her shoulders. “Viserys said once that it was my fault, for being born too late.” She had denied it hotly, she remembered, going so far as to tell Viserys that it was his fault for not being born a girl. He beat her cruelly for that insolence. “If I had been born more timely, he said, Rhaegar would have married me instead of Elia, and it would all have come out different. If Rhaegar had been happy in his wife, he would not have needed the Stark girl.” - Daenerys IV ASOS

He said.

H-e s-a-i-d.

He said.

He said.

HE SAID.

HE SAID.

HE SAID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Was that clear enough? Dany is not saying “I think if Rhaegar married me instead of Elia he would have been happy because I am better than Elia and Elia was a bad wife”. She is telling Barristan what VISERYS used to say to her. I don’t know how that is a difficult thing to understand.