see the thing about being one side or other of a character (pro/anti) is people just straight up ignore things that happen in the text because it doesn't fit their narrative
like i used to be in jonsa circles and i think a lot of the people there had well thought out arguments much of the time (or i wouldn't have followed them) but also just like....
you can't blame daenerys for what aerys did to rickard and brandon, she wasn't even born yet!
she had trade goods for the unsullied, and tricked kraznys at the last moment. are you really going to demonise her for tricking and killing a slaver?
her internal struggle between her perceived duty to her house and a longing for home is what makes her interesting. she wants peace, but can't have it if she embraces being the blood of the dragon. i think she is intended for a dark path, but she's not evil
her actions in the show are understandable even if they're indefensible. she lost jorah, she lost missandei, she discovered jon was her brother's trueborn son. she thought she was returning to a populace who loved her because she grew up with viserys telling her this. to lose people you love (because she did love them, fiercely) and then to have your worldview crumble like that, what else? she has a dragon's temper and enacts justice when furious a number of times, she was atop drogon who is essentially a bomb, she was clearly leading with an angry heart, not a clear head.
following from the above, other characters are afforded compassion where she isn't in some ways. every character on the show at least and likely in the books have done awful things for good reasons or bad reasons. i think for dany the consequences are bigger because she has the means for huge destruction (the dragons) where other characters are smaller scale in their terrible acts.
if show sansa can kill ramsay and we cheer her on, why is dany letting her abusive brother be killed for threatening her life any different? if that's proof of her character surely it's the same for sansa. and if it's not, it should extend to both of them.
she goes among the people when the pale mare hits and insists on caring for them herself. even if you hate her you can't say she's not compassionate. she has many instances of her 'gentle heart' and her inner thoughts are often a lot softer than some of her actions.
she's a young teenager in the books and learns her worldview from an abusive brother and a violent new culture in the dothraki. it's no wonder violence gets her results.
she is always making compromises, especially in meereen.
i would argue she and sansa are on opposing trajectories. sansa grew up bratty and kind of spoiled, dany was on the streets and begging. sansa loses everything as dany gains power. both are flawed and both are just young girls who don't have all the answers.
i see people saying dany isn't feminine, and i would argue she absolutely is, just not in a needlework and songs kind of way. she adapts to her environment and shows strength when it's most needed but she is at heart soft. she wants a flourishing land and happy people, she yearns for children, she yearns for home.
dany's the perfect example of someone who is trying to fill a void (her lost child and her ancestral home) and does so in an unhealthy way. i think we've all been there and it's easy to judge when you're not in that same headspace.
anyway protect daenerys
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whether you like dany or not, the denial that she is a hero, if not THE hero of asoiaf must stem from a lack of reading comprehension. Even if you ignore the fact she’s one of the titular characters of the story and has already completed the azor ahai prophecy. Her character is intrinsically linked to magical and natural equilibrium. We see her undoing centuries of man-manned damage, created with the use of dragons, with dragons. Martin has set her up to be a reckoning for years of injustice. The idea that she has to be some villain because of the words and perceptions of man is asinine. If you believe Asoiaf is some nihilistic, pessimistic story because it subverts classic fantasy tropes, that means you’ve been reading the books with your eyes closed.
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Comparing Two of My Favorite Characters :
Sasuke Uchiha
Daenerys Targaryen
PARALLELS
Questionable brother figures who became victims of their circumstances and eventually their abusers…
The loss of their family all together, with Daenerys never meeting most of hers, being the ‘last’ of their bloodline…
Being responsible for the restoration of honor to their family name,-Targaryen and Uchiha…
Secret family members, with questionable intentions…
Connecting with people who were/are in similar positions as them/they were…
Now as for where they diverge, the perception of their family, and how much it is bound to change.
Rhaegar Targaryen and Itachi Uchiha are one in the same to me. Both elder brothers with good intentions but terrible execution of their plans.
Sasuke spends the majority of the Naruto series believing that his brother was a power hungry, deranged and narcissistic man who committed genocide on his own family in pursuit of a stronger dojutsu.
He learns from Obito Uchiha later on, after he kills his be, that his brother was a victim of the adults around him,-that convinced a thirteen year old that the only way to retain peace was to wipe out his own people.
Sasuke then declares vengeance against the Hidden Leaf village, and abandons his brother’s intentions of restoring honor to the Uchiha.
Relating this to Daenerys, she hears of her family mostly through her elder brother, Viserys, and knights like Ser Jorah Mormont and Barristan Selma. The memories they share of Rhaegar, Aerys and Rhaella are often hear-say or second hand information. The stories usually paint Rhaegar and Aerys as noble, while in canon, a lot of their actions (especially Aerys’) are horrifying. Daenerys herself serves as the antithesis of House Targaryen, she’s everything but nothing like her ancestors. I reckon that after finding out the works of Aerys, Daenerys, unlike Sasuke, will continue to rewrite the wrongs of Old Valyria.
To touch on another similarity between the two,- they are both the narrative heirs of the two ancestors that came way before them, The Amethyst Princess, and Indra Otutsuki.
Amethyst Princess - Dany
Bloodstone Emperor - Viserys
Indra Otutsuki - Sasuke
Ashura Otutsuki - Naruto
Sasuke and Daenerys’ approach is very different when opposing these two characters.
Naruto is the protagonist and the hero of the story, whereas Sasuke is deuteragonist. Daenerys is the arguably the protagonist of a Song of Ice and Fire, and Viserys exists in her story.
After her marriage to Khal Drogo, Viserys’ rage towards Dany stems from jealousy of her status and the agency she now has as Khaleesi. She grieves his death, yes, but had he survived, her dragon eggs would’ve never hatched. She wouldn’t have become Azor Ahai, the Mother of Dragons, etc. Daenerys does what the Amethyst Princess and even Targaryens before her couldn’t do, by restoring the balance between ice and fire magic through the birth of dragons, thus creating a new era.
In Sasuke’s case, Naruto had good intentions for him. Naruto’s jealousy for Sasuke was merely boy-envy. His pursuit of Sasuke comes from a need to understand his grief and loss. Sasuke does what Indra Otutsuki and Madara Uchiha couldn’t,-he moved pass his need for vengeance, and ended the cycle of hatred for the Uchiha Clan.
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I find it interesting how many people think Sansa's going to end up as Queen in the North in ASOIAF.
Unless I'm thinking of this wrong, I just kind of assumed that if anyone ended up as Queen in the North it would be someone who's central to the plot. I don't see someone not central to the plot ending up as Queen. The only two women central to the plot of ASOIAF are Daenerys and Arya.
I think Dany ruling as Dragon Queen of the South and Arya ruling as Wolf Queen of the North would be a pretty awesome ending. Both are strong but gentle. Both stand up to lords and are loved by the people. Both are intelligent. Dany may command more armies at the moment, but Arya does have Nymeria and her wolfpack at the Trident.
Anywho, just my thoughts.
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