#pro-dany

They wanted a big, badass female character on something akin to a hero’s journey, an underdog with a touch of destiny about her facing down evil groups who wanted to use her and others for their personal gain. And you’re drawn towards seeing her in these scenarios and considering her a refreshing change of pace. Hearing “I’m not a politician, I’m a queen” is framed as something triumphant, something to be celebrated after years of watching Margaery and Cersei and Sansa and Olenna. 

But then the consequences of those things happen. Essos dissolves into chaos. Mereen falls to rebellion and anarchy. And there’s no opportunity for her to learn from her mistakes, so she never gets better. But things are still framed very heroically. Mistakes are tragic, not terrifying. The destruction of Vaes Dothrak is a triumph, not something on par with the destruction of the Great Sept. 

Based on what they’ve said, I think it’s clear that the writers intended for there to be foreshadowing. Plenty of people picked up on most of it; the fact that there’s such a strong contingent of anti-dany fans is proof of that. I personally have never considered Dany a viable option for the throne. But they never framed it that way. Her failures were never framed as dangerous or even really her fault until recently, and even then there was plenty of character assassination to go around so the issues other characters had with her came off as petty, sexist, and contrived. 

Varys’ insistence that Jon would be better for the throne because he’s a man who doesn’t want the throne is absolutely idiotic because he’s SEEN a man who didn’t want to be on the throne forced onto the throne. The king’s name was ROBERT BARATHEON. It went poorly for everyone involved. Sansa’s inability to even feign courteousness when her Survival Mantra was literally “Courtesy is a lady’s armor” turned her perfectly valid concerns about the North’s hard fought and hard won independence into something childish and stupid. 

And now, Dany has gone completely off the rails and we’re all supposed to look at it and think it’s good writing. That it’s a fantastic twist that was foreshadowed by her disassociating while her abusive brother was killed after he literally threatened to kill her and her unborn child. 

It’s bad writing. It’s nonsense. It’s insulting. This whole season has been insulting, not just to the audience but to the actors as well. Can you imagine having this show be a part of your life for this long, in some cases over half your life, in some cases being the reason you’re recognized, and having your hard work just. drop kicked in the second-to-last episode? 

Hum... I noticed antis like to take that statement from Emilia and translate it into “she’ll turn dark/mad”. 

See, thing is, Emilia then add something along the lines of “you’ll know what I mean when you see it”, which suggest - at least to meself - that that’s no ordinary weird shit she’ll be doing. It’ll be... weird. 

Of course, I don’t really buy the whole Dark!Dany/Mad Queen theory, which I wouldn’t qualify as “weird” to begin with. So... what’s the weird shit D could be doing????

1) Tricking the crown?

Officially, the crown still belongs to the Baratheon. Gendry’s around. D’s royalty. D, I bet, would much rather see Gendry than Cersei on the throne, at least during the hiatus when they’re fighting North and need someone trustworthy to hold the fort down south. if a legitimized Baratheon shows up to take Cersei’s place, technically, it’s not treason for the king/queensguards to chose him over Cersei, right?

(Ok, it might not be as simple as that...  but D trying to pull off  such a weird coup would be real weird shit)

2) Messing with magic again

End of season one, we saw D ordering the sacrifice of a horse to save the life of her dying husband. That was real weird shit. 

Some weird magic might be necessary to eliminate the Night King. Blood magic might be involved (or so D might think). Blood magic is weird shit. And creepy. 

3) Using Jon’s secret parentage to trick someone, probably Cersei 

A variation of scenario 1), though I’m not sure how that would work. Alternatively, see scenario 5)

4) Plotting some weird shit with Arya (to take down Cersei, perhaps?)

5) Seducing Euron to secure the GC’s for the North, marry him, then do some weird shit to him (or just having him killed by his own fault, perhaps by... say... for instance, if Euron “accidentally” saw Jon having a close interaction with a dragon... he might concludes that you don’t need to have Targaryen blood to deal successfully with dragons (lol), and hence, that he doesn’t need D after all and could just get rid of her, then get her dragons for himself... he approaches one, gets a bit too close, gets fried or roasted, and that’s Euron’s out)

If the north didn't want him to ride and meet fiery white tampon at dragonstone then why on earth would they be OK fighting that dumbasses war when the great War is over? After being war torn for years? To put a crazy entitled bratty incest targ on the iron throne? Sorry but anyone who got that out of the tv show was watching something different from me.

What a lovely description of Dany. Written by an anon, of course. If you’re gonna talk shit about a character, at least do it with class. 

So season eight has been terrible, right?

So I’ve fallen back on my old coping mechanism when it comes to bad writing.

AUs and OCs.

So if anyone wants to talk to me about my OC, Argella Baratheon, the only trueborn child of Robert and Cersei Baratheon (born before their marriage well and truly fell apart), I have THOUGHTS.

I have SCENES with her and Sansa, her and Dany, her and Missandei.

Missandei doesn’t DIE.

She and Dany have actual DISCUSSIONS about POLITICS and why Argella feels that Dany isn’t a viable queen of Westeros.

I got a whole THING

I don’t know how reasonable it is within the current context of the show.

But by god it works in my head.

NOTHING makes me cringes more than reading stuff that goes like “there’s really no difference between Cersei and Daenerys”, and “in season 7, while C and D were squabbling over the IT, Sansa was the responsible one, ruling the North like a worthy queen should, hence she’s the one who truly deserves to rule.” Uurgh. Stop right there for a min. What was Sansa doing in season 7? She concerned herself with food rations, preparation for cold weathers and listened patiently at the lords’s concerns and complains. That’s great. That’s indeed what a good queen should do. 

But wait, what was Daenerys doing in Meereen all this time? She fed refugees and provided them with the medical care she could provide. She concerned herself with food stock and provisions to feed the meereeneses in case of a siege, planted bean crops, send emissaries to restock their food supplies, gave days long audiences to the highborn and lowborn alike and tried to accommodate them the best she could wile remaining fair to everyone, took care of sick people and managed to strike a peace deal with people she despised and who despised her alike. 

But that was in Essos, I suppose. It’s in the past, so it doesn’t count? Yet I do believe that Daenerys had to actually conquer Meereen before she could start doing all these good things we just named? Or do I have my facts wrongs? Besides, was Sansa dealing with provisions, food ration, warm clothes and lords’s complains in season 6 when she was raising an army against the Bolton? You know, I... I don’t think so, actually! 

Let’s move on. So apparently, Dany’s fundamentally no different than Cersei. Let’s try to think of the worse, cringing stuff Cersei has done, and see if it compares to what Dany’s done. 

I cringed when Cersei ripped Robert’s will and laughed at Ned’s face

I cringed everytime Cersei reminded Sansa that her father was a traitor (sure Cersei, sure)

I cringed everytime Cersei psychologically tortured Sansa

I cringed when Ros was beaten and paraded in front of Tyrion

I cringed when Cersei made sure that Tyrion (and Sansa) would be found guilty of Joffrey’s murder. 

I cringed everytime Cersei blamed someone else for her own crimes and mistakes, in the most cruel, childish and immature way

I cringed when Cersei watched the Sept blow up, killing thousands of innocents with it, smiled and sipped her wine

I cringe everytime someone matter-of-factly drop “we know there’s fundamentally no difference between Cersei and Daenerys”. Really?

Because apparently, many of Dany’s “crimes” are perpetuated/more apparent in the books, so I went ahead and skipped directly from book 2 to book 5 to see what the hell these accusations were all about. 

1) The Grazdan zo Galare case 

Crime: Dany inventing rules as she please, self-righteousness 

If you have no idea what this is all about:

The noble Grazdan had once owned a slave woman who was a very fine weaver, it seemed; the fruits of her loom were greatly valued, not only in Meereen, but in New Ghis and Astapor and Qarth. When this woman had grown old, Grazdan had purchased half a dozen young girls and commanded the crone to instruct them in the secrets of her craft. The old woman was dead now. The young ones, freed, had opened a shop by the harbor wall to sell their weavings. Grazdan zo Galare asked that he be granted a portion of their earnings. "They owe their skill to me," he insisted. "I plucked them from the auction bloc and gave them to the loom."

Dany listened quietly, her face still. When he was done, she said, "What was the name of the old weaver?"

"The slave?" Grazdan shifted his weight, frowning. "She was … Elza, it might have been. Or Ella. It was six years ago she died. I have owned so many slaves, Your Grace."

"Let us say Elza. Here is our ruling. From the girls, you shall have nothing. It was Elza who taught them weaving, not you. From you, the girls shall have a new loom, the finest coin can buy. That is for forgetting the name of the old woman."

The verdict: honestly? Grazdan came to Dany expecting a wage for buying half a dozen slaves. We can safely assume that he already made a few bucks from the girls’s work before they were freed. Instead of granting him the wage he asks for, Dany orders him to to pay the girls for their previous work, which, I’m sure, earned Grazdan zo Galare a fair fortune already. One he was allowed to keep, too. Sounds fair to me.  

2) The rich woman whose home was turned into a brothel 

Crime: Dany is a hypocrite. She considers that a home is lost when you abandon it, while still considering the IT as hers. 

if you have no idea what this is about:

A rich woman came, whose husband and sons had died defending the city walls. During the sack she had fled to her brother in fear. When she returned, she found her house had been turned into a brothel. The whores had bedecked themselves in her jewels and clothes. She wanted her house back, and her jewels. "They can keep the clothes," she allowed. Dany granted her the jewels but ruled the house was lost when she abandoned it.

The verdict: those girls turning the house into a brothel likely came from the  “starving horde” that followed Dany from Astapor and Yunkaï. You can work out the rest. (In case you don’t, I’ll spell it out: these were homeless and penniless girls. If Dany orders them out, they end up in the streets.) It doesn’t grant them legal ownership of the house, of course, but since this is supposed to mirror Dany’s claim that Westeros is her home, let’s just say that Dany won’t get her “home” back by politely asking the 7 gods (or Robert, or Cersei) for it. She’ll have to earn it back. Why should it be different for the old woman? If she wants her house, she’ll have to earn it back as well. (She could, for instance, sell her jewels and re-buy the house.)

3) The young noble boy who wants revenge for the rape and murder of his parents

Crime: Dany is a hypocrite. She declared general immunity for the crimes committed during the sack of Meereen, while holding the Lannister responsible for the rape and murder of Elia and her children. 

If you have no idea what this is about:

Can’t find the quote, but the general situation is: Dany’s armies marches on Meereen. Meereenese slaves rebels against their masters. In this particular case: 2 slaves raped the boy’s mother and killed her and her husband. The boy want the two ex-slaves hanged. 

The verdict: this is a delicate situation. Dany claims that she doesn’t want to punish slaves for rebelling against their masters, which - theoretically - sounds legit. Then she’s faced with what it means (for some) to “rebel” against their masters, but by then she’s already declared amnesty for any crimes committed during the sack, and she can’t really go back on her words. The book made it pretty clear that most of these “crimes” were indeed committed by ex-slaves against their masters (again, sounds alright and well deserved for the masters when you don’t think about it too much), not by Dany’s soldiers. In fact, much of the unsullieds’s job was to put and end to these crimes after the city was taken. 

In comparison, the murder of Elia, Aegon and Rhaenys was ordered by the Lannisters. Elia’s only “fault” was to be married to Rhaegar and her death was neither necessary (unlike the death of slavers from Astapor, who, had they lived, would have just gone back to the slave trade) nor deserved (she was innocent in every possible ways, and so were her children.) 

4) The torture of the wine seller's daughter(s) 

Crime: Dany authorized the torture of the wine seller’s daughters in front of their father’s eyes after 2 of her unsullieds died of drinking poisoned wine bought from said wine seller.  

The verdict: currently, in Meereen, every freed slave is a target for the Sons of the Harpy. The SotH don’t only attack unsullieds/soldiers. Dany liberated thousands of slaves, and now those ex-slaves are being slaughtered (and raped before, sometime) for no other reason than being ex-slaves. Dany feels responsible for them. She considers them her children. She thinks it’s her fault that they’re being assaulted and killed right under her nose, because she’s the one who freed them. So she authorizes what she authorizes once (because the wine seller is the only suspect she manages to get her hands on), then forbid Skahaz from doing it again because it doesn’t work anyway. 

5) The hole digger 

Crime: Dany perpetuates forced labor; allow people to sell themselves back into slavery (and keep the money)

If you have no idea what this is about:

Xaro gave a languid shrug. “As it happens, when I came ashore in your sweet city, I chanced to see upon the riverbank a man who had once been a guest in my manse, a merchant who dealt in rare spices and choice wines. He was naked from the waist up, red and peeling, and seemed to be digging a hole.” 

“Not a hole. A ditch, to bring water from the river to the fields. We mean to plant beans. The beanfields must have water.” 

“How kind of my old friend to help with the digging. And how very unlike him. Is it possible he was given no choice in the matter? No, surely not. You have no slaves in Meereen.” 

Dany flushed. “Your friend is being paid with food and shelter. I cannot give him back his wealth. Meereen needs beans more than it needs rare spices, and beans require water.”

“Would you set my dancers to digging ditches as well? Sweet queen, when he saw me, my old friend fell to his knees and begged me to buy him as a slave and take him back to Qarth.” 

She felt as if he’d slapped her. “Buy him, then.” 

“If it please you. I know it will please him.”

The verdict: There’s many points to cover here. Xaro implicitly accuses Daenerys of resorting to forced labor (slavery). Daenerys’s answer, however, implies something else: many ex-slavers tried (or are still trying) to exhort monetary compensation from Daenerys for their lost source of income (slavery). Daenerys refuses to compensate them. It’s likely that the spices merchant came to ask for a compensation as well (presumably, Meereen, Yunkaï and Astapor were big buyers of fine spice and wines before Dany arrived and crashed their economy), and after all, why not? Spices and wines aren’t slaves. There’s nothing wrong with selling spices and wines. Doesn’t mean that Dany can afford to restore the merchant’s wealth, though. The best she can do is offer the man an alternative source of income, which she does. Food and shelter? Even slaves get that much! Yeah, I’ve heard that one. The difference is, a slave who refuses to work gets crucified. A free man who refuses to work goes hungry. Food and shelter aren’t a big income, by any means, but in itself it’s still an income. Could Dany have afforded to pay him more? Meereen isn’t exactly rich at the moment, and Dany have to: 1) compensate every days dozens of shepherds who claims (not always truthfully, but Dany gives them the benefit of the doubt regardless) that a dragon killed their sheep, 2) pay her unsullieds (or else, how would they buy wine and brothel services?), 3) compensate a man for raising the child of her wife (an ex bed slave) and her previous master, 4) feed the refugees from Astapor, 5) feed the meereenese, 6) God knows what else. Even in Meereen, money doesn’t grow on trees. Yet, if Dany was so desperate for hole diggers that she’d threaten them to get to work or else (what Xaro is implying), it really wouldn’t have been in her interest to allow Xaro to buy the man. So, forced labor? To be taken with a grain of salt. 

There’s also the paradox of the free man freely choosing to sell himself into slavery. Something doesn’t sounds right? If he sell himself, who gets the money but him? If he gets money, isn’t that a form of payment? 

Oh right, some people are claiming that Dany keeps the money.

Actually, she keeps a tenth of if, not the full amount. It’s called income tax, folks. And she doesn’t claim a penny from Xaro. 

6) Quentyn Martell

The crime: Daenerys laughed at him 

If you have no idea what this is about: 

Can’t find the quote, but anyway: Quentyn traveled to Meereen to make a marriage offer to Dany. He calls himself “frog” and Dany laugh because upon learning that he’s a prince, she can’t help but think of the “Princess and the Frog” tale. 

The verdict: come on people. (Btw, after she’s done laughing, Dany orders that Quentyn be treated as a noble guest)

7) Quentyn Martell again

The crime: Dany led him on... somehow... then she fled Daznak’s pit on Drogon’s back, nobody knew where she had gone, and Quentyn decided to be her hero. He decided to get a dragon for himself first. It didn’t end well. 

The Verdict: Dany clearly told Quentyn that she couldn’t marry him (because she had to marry Hizdahr) and pressed him to return to Dorne because it was dangerous in Meereen anyway. Quentyn wouldn’t have any of it, so Daenerys changed her tactic: she brought him in the catacombs where Viserion and Rhaegal were chained, all the while slightly flirting with him, calling him “Quentyn”, holding his hand, kissing him on the cheek, etc. Quentyn was quite smitten with Dany, and ready to shit himself because of the dragons beneath them. What was that all about? Leading him on? I doubt it. Dany was trying to scare him off. She told him straight up that her dragons sometime frightened even her. She told him that she couldn’t protect him from them. She told him that she was a dragon too. She told him that he’d be getting fire and blood by marrying her. She told him of her excessively jealous (and deadly) lover Daario. She was trying to show him exactly what he’d be earning by marrying her. She was telling him that it wasn’t worth it, that he should give up on her already and get the fuck out of Meereen while he still could. 

General verdict : made mistakes, but not guilty. Was stuck in no-wins situations for the most of it. No-wins situations means that no matter what you do, some people will criticize you, and if you do nothing, they’ll criticize you even more. No Dany, you’re not an evil psycho bitch.