What do you think of show Dany in comparison to book Dany?
tbh they’re just two completely different characters to me (with the exception of s1 dany). this post does a really good job of highlighting some of their key differences, but I’d say from the moment that s2 dany threatened to burn qarth down if they didn’t let her khalsar in was the moment where GOT just completely diverged from her book character. the fact that d&d told emilia clarke to act “stoic” and “cold” while claiming to have decided on her mad queen ending during s3 (which is crazy since that’s the start of her slaver’s bay storyline!) is pretty telling. it seems like they were really invested in exploring how daenerys the conquerer ultimately “wins” out over dany the mother, rather than both sides of herself coexisting and how she makes peace with that.
to me, book dany is a symbol of hope and transformation. in theory she’s working her way west towards the throne and her “birthright”, but in practice she’s constantly being sidetracked in order to help the people who are right in front of her because she recognizes what the true duty of a ruler is (“why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can't protect themselves?”). unlike the other rulers in the series, dany’s entire sense of power actively centers the common people (rather than the interests of the ruling class). her childhood of exile and loneliness, being sold to drogo, all of these experiences have made abolition a deeply personal campaign for her. she doesn’t particularly enjoy power, she doesn’t revel in violence or vengeance, but she takes on the role of “breaker of chains” anyway because that’s the responsibility/duty that having dragons brings. but unlike her old valyrian ancestors, dany’s dragons are symbols of liberation, not slavery and colonization.
but more than anything, dany is deeply motivated by a sense of “home” (on a more subconscious level), where she seems to think that going back to westeros will finally give her that sense of belonging that she’s always craved. but dany has also always been smart enough to see through traps of power (rejecting civilians as “collateral damage”, rejecting the temptations of the house of the undying, rejecting an army of slave soldiers, rejecting an immediate journey to westeros in favor of rebuilding meereen first, rejecting “compromise” with slavers in adwd, etc.). all of this seems to be setup to dany confronting the realities of monarchal conquest/rule on the people of westeros and rejecting the iron throne (the ultimate trap of power). home is not a throne or a city or even a house with a red door, it’s the people she loves and the people who love her (now what will happen to these people…idk. it is a “bittersweet” ending after all).
now onto show dany…ofc she’s also an abolitionist, but she sees herself as this sort of ultimate bringer of justice and the ONLY person who can create a better world. she fully embraces the role of “savior” and genuinely seems to enjoy wielding monarchal power. and while dany certainly does lead a transformative abolitionist campaign, she’s mainly guided by the throne and her “real” goal in the west (she just doesn’t feel as present or dedicated to mereen as book dany does). and that’s ultimately where show diverges from the book: book dany wants the throne because it will take her home, while show dany wants the throne because she’s the “rightful” queen. the house of the undying scene pretty much sums it up. book dany is tempted by a house with a red door and willem darry, she watches the five kings tear westeros apart through their power struggle, and she sees rhaegar and learns about the song of ice and fire (a destiny far greater than the throne, a destiny that is guided by the people of westeros). what is show dany tempted by? the throne. bonus points for the foreshadowing that she’ll have to destroy the realm in the process, but she doesn’t seem to grasp that omen (even though the throne room is demolished and it’s snowing). she also sees drogo and rhaego, which is nice but also fails to explore the deeper symbolism of this hypothetical family (not that dany didn’t love drogo in her own way, but more than that, her role as his wife and as rhaego’s mother were the only guarantee of safety and belonging that dany ever had). so yeah…veryyy different motives.
and then there’s dany’s meereen storyline, which is probably the show change that pisses me off the most (again this post highlights some key differences). unlike book dany, show dany is reluctant to reflect on her actions or attempt to understand the culture that she’s ruling over. she repeatedly insists on further war and punishment while her counselors have to talk her down in favor of compromise/peace (the complete opposite of book dany). she needs to be told which military strategies to use and can’t seem to get out of her “idealistic” headspace. but hey, crazy women can’t handle power ig! another one of my favorite examples is how book dany wears tokars out of respect for her people despite her own discomfort with wearing them, while show dany wears white because (according to the costume designer) she sees herself as a godlike figure. well if that’s how the people working on GOT understood dany, then I guess those changes make sense. overall dany just seems a lot more removed from her people (which is why show fans often compare her to jon and claim that jon fights WITH his people unlike dany). where’s her whip when she frees the unsullied? or during the scene where she first rides drogon, why is she running around in a white dress and being led around helplessly by jorah while her people die around her, instead of going right up to drogon and brandishing her whip? why is her bench at the top of a bunch of steps when the whole point is that she’s supposed to be on the same level as her people?
basically show dany gets a lot of cool girlboss moments, but after a while they just start to feel like a conquerer trampling over other cultures, burning shit, and leaving the mess behind. like I hated how dany conquered vaes dothrak in s6. at the end of adwd she faces the dothraki head on with drogon by her side (instead of being captured), so it seems much more likely that she’ll work WITH the women of vaes dothrak to free them, rather than burning all of the khals, burning their sacred temple, and having them all bow to her like some sort of savior. also there’s just a lot of unnecessary cruelty that show dany seems to have no qualms about. like remember that time she locked doreah in a vault with xaro xhoan daxos to rot to death back in s2? yeah what doreah did was fucked up, but she’s also a formerly-enslaved woman who was trying to survive and probably didn’t have much of a say whether or not she slept with the most powerful man in qarth! and now they’re locked together until they both die, poor doreah.
anyway this is a lot and kind of all over the place, but basically: book dany is a revolutionary and a symbol of hope in the series who breaks cycles of violence/enslavement vs show dany is a cynical cautionary tale about people with savior complexes who can’t break their violent family legacies (mostly just women though because apparently jon can do all of those things 🙃).
