GEORGE R. R. MARTIN ON WHAT MAKES A GOOD KING:
โA good king isย someone who regards being king as a duty rather than a privilege that they are entitled to.ย A duty to the realm to dispense justice and peace, and occasionally do boring things like building roads and sanitationย in Kings Landing and all that.โ (San Diego Comic-Con โHouse of the Dragonโ panel)
โSomeone who regards being king as a duty rather than a privilege that they are entitled toโ:
โA queen must listen to all,โ she reminded him. โThe highborn and the low, the strong and the weak, the noble and the venal. One voice may speak you false, but in many there is always truth to be found.โ (ASOS, Daenerys I)
โViserys should haveย protectedย me, but instead he hurt me and scared me worse. He shouldn't have done that. He wasn't just my brother, he was myย king.ย Why do the gods makeย kingsย andย queens, if not toย protectย the ones who can'tย protectย themselves?โ (ASOS, Daenerys III)
โNo one ever kept me safe when I was little. I want to protect you but โฆ it is so hard. To be strong. I donโt always know what I should do. I must, though. I am all they have. I am theย queen.โ (ADWD, Daenerys II)
A queen belongs not to herself but to her people. (ADWD, Daenerys V)
Yesterday a wagon had been overturned and two of her soldiers killed, so today the queen had determined that she would bring the food herself. Every one of her advisors had argued fervently against it,ย fromย Reznak and the Shavepate to Ser Barristan, but Daenerys would not be moved. โIย will notย turnย awayย fromย them,โ she said stubbornly. โA queen must know the sufferings of her people.โ (ADWD, Daenerys VI)
Aย queenย mustย listenย toย herย people, Dany reminded herself.ย (ADWD, Daenerys VI)
โAย queenย lovesย whereย sheย must, notย whereย sheย will.โ (ADWD, Daenerys VII)
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, butย a queen belongs to her people, not to herself. (ADWD, Daenerys IX)
โA duty to the realm to dispense justice and peaceโ:
โSomeย kingsย makeย themselves. Robert did.โ
โHeย was no trueย king,โ Dany said scornfully. โHeย did no justice. Justice ... that's whatย kingsย are for.โ (ASOS, Daenerys III)
Dany would gladly have sent the rest of the petitioners away โฆ but she was still their queen, so she heardย themย out and did her best toย giveย themย justice. (ADWD, Daenerys III)
I am still at war, Dany realized, only now I am fighting shadows. She had hoped for a respite from the killing, for someย timeย to build andย heal. (ADWD, Daenerys I)
โ...This match will save our city, you will see.โ
โSo we pray. I want to plant my olive trees and see them fruit.โ Does it matter that Hizdahr's kisses do notย pleaseย me?ย Peaceย willย pleaseย me. Am I a queen or just a woman? (ADWD, Daenerys VII)
On the ADWD cover for Brazil, I put Daenerys at the top of the stairs of the meereenese pyramid. I had undoubtedly been, unconsciously, influenced by the series. And George told me that Daenerys wants equality for everyone, she wants to be at the same level as her people, so I had her climb down to keep it consistent. โย Marc Simonetti
โand occasionally do boring things like building roads and sanitationโ:
Her Unsullied had finally restored order, but the sack left a plague of problems in its wake. And so theyย cameย toย seeย the queen. (ADWD, Daenerys I)
โThe freedmen work cheaply because they are hungryโ, Dany pointed out. โIf I forbid them to carve stone or lay bricks, the chandlers, the weavers, and the goldsmiths will soon be at my gates asking that they be excluded from those trades as well.โ She considered a moment. โLet it be written that henceforth only guild members shall be permitted to name themselves journeymen or masters โฆย providedย the guilds open their rolls to any freedman who can demonstrate the requisite skills.โ (ADWD, Daenerys II)
โAย ditch, to bring water from the river to the fields. We mean to plant beans. The beanfields must have water.โ (ADWD, Daenerys III)
โI would gladly take as many olives as you cared to sell me. Olive oil as well.โ
โI have none to offer. The slavers burned the trees.โ Olives had been grown along the shores of Slaver's Bay for centuries; but the Meereenese had put their ancient groves to the torch as Dany's host advanced on them, leaving her to cross a blackened wasteland. โWe areย replanting, but it takes seven years before an olive tree begins to bear, and thirty years before it can truly be called productive.โ (ADWD, Daenerys III)
โOur stores are ample for the moment,โ he reminded her, โand Your Grace hasย plantedย beans and grapes andย wheat. Your Dothraki have harried the slavers from the hills and struck the shackles from their slaves. They areย plantingย too, and will be bringing their crops to Meereen to market. And you will have the friendship of Lhazar.โ (ADWD, Daenerys V)
Learning is not inherently an interesting thing to write about. It's not an easy thing to write about. In the movies, they always handle it with a montage. Rocky can't run very fast. He can't catch the chicken. But then you do a montage, and you cut a lot of images together, and now only a minute later in the film, Rocky is really strong and he is catching the chicken. Itโs a lot harder [in real life]. Sometimes in my own life, I wish I could play a montage of my life. I want to get in shape now. So letโs do a montage, and boom โ I'll be fifty pounds lighter and in good shape, and it will only take me a minute with some montage of me lifting weights and running, shoving away the steak and having a salad. But of course in real life, you don't get to montage. You have to go through it day by day. And that has been interesting, you know. Jon Snow as Lord Commander. Dany as Queen, struggling with rule. So many books don't do that. There is a sense when you're writing something in high fantasy, you're in a dialogue with all the other high fantasy writers that have written. And there is always this presumption that if you are a good man, you will be a good king. [Like] Tolkien โ inย Return of the King,ย Aragorn comes back and becomes king, and then [we read that] "he ruled wisely for three hundred years. Okay, fine. It is easy to write that sentence, โHe ruled wiselyโ. What does that mean, he ruled wisely? What were his tax policies? What did he do when two lords were making war on each other? Or barbarians were coming in from the North? What was his immigration policy? What about equal rights for Orcs? I mean did he just pursue a genocidal policy, "Letโs kill all these fucking Orcs who are still left over"? Or did he try to redeem them? You never actually see the nitty-gritty of ruling. I guess there is an element of fantasy readers that don't want to see that. I find that fascinating. Seeing someone like Dany actually trying to deal with the vestments of being a queen and getting factions and guilds and [managing the] economy. They burnt all the fields [in Meereen]. They've got nothing to import any more. They're not getting any money. I find this stuff interesting. And fortunately, enough of my readers who love the books do as well. โย George R. R. Martin
