AVRORA

For example, the sansa vs arya discourse of who resembles Ned more, Dany’s executions being judged by the yardstick of Ned Stark’s execution philosophy (keep in mind that Dany asks herself questions Ned never did about the responsibilities of a king, and Dany is killing slavers while Ned since start of the series only killed an innocent guy running from Others and an innocent direwolf). The insistence that Jon’s identity crisis would only end with Jon resolving to be Ned’s son and that it would require him discarding his actual parents who had loved and wanted him)

‘He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany’s, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door.’

- A Clash of Kings (George R. R. Martin)

The largest of her three was shiny black, his scales slashed with streaks of vivid scarlet to match his wings and horns. “Khaleesi,” Aggo murmured, “there sits Balerion, come again.” “It may be as you say, blood of my blood,” Dany replied gravely, “but he shall have a new name for this new life. I would name them all for those the gods have taken. The green one shall be Rhaegal, for my valiant brother who died on the green banks of the Trident. The cream-and-gold I call Viserion. Viserys was cruel and weak and frightened, yet he was my brother still. His dragon will do what he could not.” “And the black beast?” asked Ser Jorah Mormont. “The black,” she said, “is Drogon.” -- Daenerys I, A Clash of Kings

It is often said in the fandom Daenerys must achieve redemption through sacrificing herself during the War for the Dawn, by people who believe the show switched the order of the events and she burns King's Landing first.

Well, how about we take a look at what GRRM actually thinks of how redemption is achieved?

Finally I hit on the way. Outside my house, I attached two great iron chains to the wall. By night I donned the manacles, and threw the key as far as I was able. A very long way. I waited for the dawn. The sun was worse than I remembered. It burned and blinded me. Everything blurred. My skin was on fire. I think I began to scream. I know I closed my eyes. I was out there for hours, closer and closer to death. There was nothing in me except guilt. And then, somehow, in the fever of my death, I decided to live. How, why, I cannot tell you. But it seemed to me that I had always loved life, in myself and in others. That was why health and beauty and youth drew me so. I loathed myself because I gave death to the world, and yet here I was, killing once more, though this time the victim was myself. I could not wash out my sins with more blood, more death, I thought. To atone, I must live, bring life and beauty and hope back into the world to take the place of all that I had taken. I remembered my father’s vanished servants then. There were others of my race in the world. Vampires, werewolves, warlocks, whatever they might be, they were out there in the night. How did they deal with the red thirst, I wondered. If only I could find them. I could trust my own kind where I could not trust humans. We could help each other conquer the evil that consumed us. I could learn from them. I decided I would not die.

“High in the halls of the kings who are gone Jenny would dance with her ghosts The ones she had lost and the ones she had found And the ones who had loved her the most” 🩵

“When the last resistance had been crushed by the Unsullied and the sack had run its course, Dany entered her city. The dead were heaped so high before the broken gate that it took her freedmen near an hour to make a path for her silver. Joso’s Cock and the great wooden turtle that had protected it, covered with horsehides, lay abandoned within.” - Dany VI, ASOS

“What say you? Can we defeat this army?”

“Easily,” Ser Jorah said.

“But not bloodlessly.” Blood aplenty had soaked into the bricks of Astapor the day that city fell, though little of it belonged to her or hers. “We might win a battle here, but at such cost we cannot take the city.”

(…)

“I have a gift for you as well.” She slammed the chest shut. “Three days. On the morning of the third day, send out your slaves. All of them. Every man, woman, and child shall be given a weapon, and as much food, clothing, coin, and goods as he or she can carry. These they shall be allowed to choose freely from among their masters’ possessions, as payment for their years of servitude. When all the slaves have departed, you will open your gates and allow my Unsullied to enter and search your city, to make certain none remain in bondage.” - Dany IV, ASOS

“Why don’t you, then?” Jon could have drawn Longclaw then, but he wanted to hear what the wildling had to say.“

Blood,” said Mance Rayder. “I’d win in the end, yes, but you’d bleed me, and my people have bled enough.”

(…)

Mance gave her a fond smile. “It’s a wise woman I’ve found. A true queen.” He turned back to Jon. “Go back and tell them to open their gate and let us pass. If they do, I will give them the horn, and the Wall will stand until the end of days.”

(…)

-Mance could also be called the “Unburnt”, as Rattleshirt was burned in his place

-Mance’s coat is black and red, the Targaryen colors. 

-The parallels between the tent where MMD performs blood magic, and the tent where Mance and Jon discuss “terms”. Both involve a pregnant woman, an element of magic, the matter of magic as a double edged sword, and both chapters end on a similar phrase:

Ser Jorah carried her inside the tent. - Dany, VIII, AGOT

Jon turned away, and went inside the tent. - Jon X, ASOS

-Parallels between Mance’s people and Dany’s people: many of them are children or old people, sick, weak, etc. Mance’s people call themselves the “free folk”. Dany’s people call themselves “freedmen”. 

-The conversation between Jon and Ygritte about Queen Alysanne:

"Queen Alysanne, you say?”

“Good Queen Alysanne, they called her later. One of the castles on the Wall was named for her as well. Queensgate. Before her visit they called it Snowgate.”

“If she was so good, she should have torn that Wall down.” - Jon V, ASOS

And Dany says this to Drogon:

DAY SEVEN (Sunday, August 2nd) Leadership  |  Free Choice  |  DoS: Royal Retirement / Passing the Torch

This is less meta-ish and borders more on the speculative side, but I’d like to discuss a Jon and Dany (potential) ending I’ve never seen anyone talk about before: them ending both beyond the Wall, living with the free folks/as free folks. So, basically, the ending Jon got on the show, but with Dany by his side. I would even go as far as to say that the showrunners might have considered it.

This is not by any means “my ideal” Jonerys ending. That would be Jon and Dany settling on Dragonstone with a bunch of targlings and wild dragons. I do not, alas, think this is where the story is going. I do not expect either (or both) of them on the IT either. On the other hand, an ending with them both beyond the Wall seems to me like it could work with the overall story. There is already some book evidence/foreshadowing pointing to Jon’s endgame there, notably in ASOS when he (forgive my French) “finds himself” beyond the Wall:

“On the edge of the haunted forest, where the tents had been, Jon found an oakwood stump and sat.

Ygritte wanted me to be a wildling. Stannis wants me to be the Lord of Winterfell. But what do I want? The sun crept down the sky to dip behind the Wall where it curved through the western hills. Jon watched as that towering expanse of ice took on the reds and pinks of sunset.

[…]

He wanted it, Jon knew then. He wanted it as much as he had ever wanted anything. I have always wanted it, he thought, guiltily. May the gods forgive me. It was a hunger inside him, sharp as a dragonglass blade. A hunger … he could feel it. It was food he needed, prey, a red deer that stank of fear or a great elk proud and defiant. He needed to kill and fill his belly with fresh meat and hot dark blood. His mouth began to water with the thought.

It was a long moment before he understood what was happening. When he did, he bolted to his feet. “Ghost?” He turned toward the wood, and there he came, padding silently out of the green dusk, the breath coming warm and white from his open jaws. “Ghost!” he shouted, and the direwolf broke into a run.

[…]

He had his answer then.” Jon XII, ASOS

Dany is more of a wild card, but even the show gave us SOME reasons to believe that D&D played with the idea at some point: the pregnancy bait, Dany’s comment in 7x07 about King’s Landing and how “constrictive” the Dragonpit felt, Dany’s “we could stay here a thousand years. No one would find us” line in 8x01. Most importantly, back when I was watching season 7, this is the impression I was getting (from the showrunners):

Dany is a good person at heart, but she would not make a good queen nor would she like being queen.

I do not wholly agree with this, especially if we are talking about bookDany, who would make – and is – a much better queen than she is given credit for, but it looked to me like this is where the show was going with her. Or, at least, this is the message they were trying to communicate. They were not trying to “hide” Dany’s dark turn from the audience by making her or trying to make her bad-good-bad-good-bad-good, they simply had another endgame in mind for the character. I do not want to make this about the show but had to get this out of the way.

Now onto bookDany:

A while ago, I posted a meta where I discussed a pattern in Daenerys’s story: twice she succeeded at something magical, highly dangerous and related to dragons, and twice after she ended up in a desertic environment, thirsting, starving and nearly dying from exposition. Following the rule of 3 (which is especially predominant in her arc), it will probably happen again and – since there is no Great Grass Sea in Westeros – the “desertic environment” swallowing her afterward will be the frozen lands beyond the Wall. It could mean that she will die there, but it could also mean that she will simply disappear there. Her fate could also be revealed to the reader while remaining unknown to most characters. This would fit with Dany’s current representation in the story so far: she is an enigma, a rumor; nobody really knows her whereabouts, who she is, what she is, what she wants, what she has, if she is even real.

There are numerous parallels to be drawn between Daenerys and Mance Rayder, which I covered here. I would love the irony of Dany coming to Westeros thinking she is reclaiming her family’s lands, only to settle in the only part that was never conquered by the Targaryen. There is the (disputable, ok, but) fact that the only region in all of the continent where dragons could turn up useful for tree planting would be beyond the Wall (so frozen soil can be thawed and warmed up for plants to grow there again). Martin hung a pretty riffle on the metaphorical Wall when Silverwing refused to fly across in Fire and Blood. There is this pattern of wildling women making up Jon’s romantic prospects; first a wildling “commoner” (Ygritte), then a wildling “princess” (Val), then a wildling “queen” (Dany, eventually, if this theory proves to be correct). So of course, you will ask –

If this is Martin’s intended ending, why couldn’t the d’s just go with it?

Well, because the d’s never gave Dany any incentive to go beyond the Wall, apart from a brief rescue mission back in season 7. If Dany must end up there, something has got to bring her there and the show scrapped or discarded all of it : no Lands of Always Winter, no curtain of light, no this, no that, no nothing. And once she gets there in the books, because I am quite sure she will, she will not come back. The North is Dany’s ultimate destination. No yoyoing back and forth North and South like what the show did. That was just dumb. Travel time and distances should mean something, even if you have dragons (plus, Dany’s armies would have to travel on foot, horseback or by boat, like everybody else). The closest of yoyoing we have ever gotten in asoiaf was probably with Catelyn, it spanned three books, and she never made it back North anyway.

Did the d’s consider going with that ending? They might just. The clues were certainly there (see above…) but at some point, they must have realized that it would not work with the hole they had dug themselves in.

Now about the elephant in the room

I know some people will think that Dany ending beyond the Wall does not make much sense for her story, which technically (so far) does not have much to do with the lands beyond the Wall. In a way, I agree. Some people would also find such an ending anticlimactic to her arc and a waste after everything she has learned about leadership and politics in Meereen. I also agree. On a watsonian level, an ending with, say, Dany as a queen in Westeros – I think it works. Of course, I do. Where it does not work is on a doyalist level. Dany already had her arc of becoming queen. She achieved that by the end of book 3. Then she had to learn all the nit and gritty and dirty work of ruling over the rubble of a corrupt system while trying to make the lives better for everyone. If Dany becomes queen in Westeros, the same thing will happen again. Different setting, different people, same story. Some people have criticized the underlying message of Dany’s fight against slavery as “only a preparation” for what comes next in Westeros, saying it would undermine the real value of Dany’s work in Essos. I agree. However, the same problem applies if Dany becomes queen in Westeros: then her time in Essos is reduced to a prop up, a preparation, as if ruling Essos were somewhat less important than ruling Westeros. Furthermore, I cannot imagine an ending where Dany, still in possession of significant military forces – significant enough to secure her a crown, anyway – could choose to settle in Westeros without being plagued with guilt over leaving Essos’s slaves behind. I am sorry, I just cannot.

This is also, I think, where part of the “Dany is not a peace time queen” mentality comes from. Dany will never be a peace time queen, not because she prefers war, or because she does not want peace, but because what she is trying to achieve, in these times and places, means a lifetime of war. You cannot undo and rebuild an entire system that is rotten at its core in a single lifetime (heck, even show!Tyrion said this to her, for what the show is worth now…), much less in a few years. Dany is not a peace time queen because she is not a queen that is interested in maintaining the statue quo. At least that is how her time in Meereen revealed her. Arya would not be a peace time queen either. Jon would not be a peace time king. They could never be, less they abandoned their ideals and their ethics for a more comfortable life.

Then you might say that an ending where Dany goes back to Essos works too. It does – once again, on a watsonian level. What is the problem with this on a doyalist level? It turns Dany into a deus ex machina, coming to Westeros just in time to save it, then leaving it right after, as if neither the Others, nor her had ever been there.

The two remaining options are: either she dies a queen in Westeros, most likely during the Great War, or… the queen, Daenerys Targaryen, dies, while Dany lives.

That means that all reasonable possibilities, or choices, to keep on fighting as a queen are taken from her. Maybe her forces were severely depleted during the Great War. Maybe her dragons died. Maybe both. Maybe her function, not as an individual, but as a character in a specific story called A song of ice and fire, was to destroy an old system (AND to inspire others to follow in her footsteps, ensure that her efforts were not in vain, that the first steps will not go wasted, that the work she started will be taken up by other peoples, and others after them, and others after), not to rebuild the new one. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. Frodo Baggins’ role in The Lord of the Rings was to destroy something evil. His gardener Sam was the one who planted the trees and went on to become a mayor afterward. One was a destroyer and the other was a builder, but in the end, they were both heroes.

He doesn’t want nor decides to be a wildling. It specifically says it was what Ygritte wanted. Not him. And the other just foreshadows Jon’s deeper connection with Ghost, which is paralleled to the old Gods, but the Old Gods do not only live beyond the wall, in fact the biggest connection to the old Gods is in the Riverlands, so it doesn’t really says anything to me.

I don’t see how Dany ruling Westeros precludes her from having an influence in Essos, even though, yes, George does use Essos as a training field, as a secondary space. This is not the problem the books would have on a given ending. It is a problem the books already have, and they do not have a perfect solution for this, because this is a structural problem within the story. Dany has to come to Westeros because the narrative forces her. Period. It’s going to feel a bit Deus ex-machina whatever direction it takes after that, unless she rules, then we would know at least the training had a purpose.

A rule in peace=/=no conflict. There’s always conflict. Ruling is not gonna bring Dany happiness. That’s the bittersweet part.

Ruling Westeros is gonna be similar to the Essos experience. That’s the point of giving a character experience on a field. Learning for previous mistakes makes you better at a new similar journey.

Some people may think her inspiring and disappearing beautiful and fulfilling. Many others won’t. I would find Meereen a total waste of time then. More so, It’s important in Meeren’s story that she STAYS and RULES, otherwise former slaves have no guaranteed freedom and chaos would reign. This is a point the text makes. So I don’t see how inspiring martyr that disappears is coherent with that statement.

Dany won’t be able to rule from Westeros while also ensuring that slavery in Essos has stopped. She can barely manage it from Essos, and not anywhere in Essos either - from Slaver’s Bay. Unless she manages something extraordinary in TWOW to really eliminate, or at least seriously damage the root of slavery while also ensuring that every slave city doesn’t turn into another Astapor…? It’s possible, I guess. I’m not saying it isn’t. It’s just that, to me, an ending where Dany would still have the means (military or otherwise) to pursue her work in Essos, but would choose not to, or would rather choose to stay in Westeros, is not a satisfying ending. Unless she somehow came to the conclusion that Westeros had more need of her help than Essos? Which, again, is a possibility. It’s hard to tell at that point. I mean, the crux of her dilemma in ADWD is “if I leave, what will happen to Meereen? What will happen to my children?” That’s what she tells herself everytime an occasion for her to leave pops up. That dilemma isn’t going to disappear once she reaches Westeros, less Dany isn’t Dany anymore. And as you said herself:

More so, It’s important in Meeren’s story that she STAYS and RULES, otherwise former slaves have no guaranteed freedom and chaos would reign. This is a point the text makes.

Which is absolutely true, and also why I feel that, if Dany doesn’t return to Essos by the end of ADOS, it can’t be by choice. It has to be either because 1) she’s dead, or 2) her resources have been so severely depleted that she couldn’t enforce her rule regardless, whether in Essos OR Westeros. And again, it’s possible that the state of Westeros will be so terrible by the end that she’ll think that she’s more needed there, but honestly? I doubt it. Westeros has Arya, Edmure, perhaps Edric Storm, Davos, the Reeds, maybe Jon… who does Essos have, besides Dany? No one that the narrative has bothered presenting so far anyway.

I do think this is a better speculation than most I have seen, as it addresses the pattern of threes in Dany’s story, as well as subverts the idea that “dragons plant no trees” (which is something I very much think will be subverted, because I don’t think Dany will be forever defined by the hopeless state that she was at the middle of her story). However, I still have many problems with this.

Where it does not work is on a doyalist level. Dany already had her arc of becoming queen. She achieved that by the end of book 3. Then she had to learn all the nit and gritty and dirty work of ruling over the rubble of a corrupt system while trying to make the lives better for everyone. If Dany becomes queen in Westeros, the same thing will happen again. Different setting, different people, same story.

I disagree. Dany’s queenship arc ending with Slaver’s Bay makes it pointless, because Slaver’s Bay was never part of the main story. The main story is in Westeros. If Dany spends all that time learning politics and ruling in Essos, only for it to never be applied in Westeros, it just means that Dany’s entire story was a pointless side quest that doesn’t mean anything for the main story. Yeah, sure, Dany ruling in Slaver’s Bay was significant and important to the people of Slaver’s Bay, but that’s on a Watsonian level. On a Doylist level, it makes no sense for a character to spend their entire storyline learning a skill in a place completely separated from the main story (because whether we like it or not, Essos is not part of the main story), only for that skill to have no impact whatsoever in the main story. Sure, Dany will apply some of her political skills in the fight against the Others, skills like commanding armies and uniting people, but the skills Dany has been learning in Essos go way beyond that. And they would go completely to waste if Dany doesn’t end in a leadership/ruling position. It would be the same if you sent a character of your story to a distant land to learn martial arts and save his land, only for this character only use those martial art skills to save other lands and never return home to save his own land. Dany learning how to rule in Essos only for that to have no bearing in the main story is equally nonsensical.

Some people have criticized the underlying message of Dany’s fight against slavery as “only a preparation” for what comes next in Westeros, saying it would undermine the real value of Dany’s work in Essos. I agree. However, the same problem applies if Dany becomes queen in Westeros: then her time in Essos is reduced to a prop up, a preparation, as if ruling Essos were somewhat less important than ruling Westeros.

As @eyes-painted-with-kohl said, this is already a structural problem in Dany’s story. Also, the criticism of Dany’s story against slavery being “only a preparation” for Westeros goes beyond simply putting Westeros over Essos (though that’s also part of the criticism). The criticism is also because by making Dany’s fight against slavery less important than the Others, the message it sends is that human, political, systemic problems are less important. It trades a real, realistic story that tackles actual oppression, for a sanitized fantasy metaphor for oppression.

Furthermore, I cannot imagine an ending where Dany, still in possession of significant military forces – significant enough to secure her a crown, anyway – could choose to settle in Westeros without being plagued with guilt over leaving Essos’s slaves behind. I am sorry, I just cannot.

Well, then why would Dany leave Essos behind in the first place? She’ll certainly feel some guilt, but she’ll still leave Essos behind the go to Westeros. And well, if she does feel this guilty, why not solve this problem by having her go to Essos? And if she does lose her military power, then it goes back to the initial problem: Dany’s political storyline is pointless.

Then you might say that an ending where Dany goes back to Essos works too. It does – once again, on a watsonian level. What is the problem with this on a doyalist level? It turns Dany into a deus ex machina, coming to Westeros just in time to save it, then leaving it right after, as if neither the Others, nor her had ever been there.

The two remaining options are: either she dies a queen in Westeros, most likely during the Great War, or… the queen, Daenerys Targaryen, dies, while Dany lives.

All of these ending leave Dany as a Deus Ex Machina. Dany going back to Essos is a Deus Ex Machina because she comes to Westeros, solves everyone’s problems that they couldn’t solve by themselves, and conveniently disappears and gets out of the way. Dany dying in the War for the Dawn is a Deus Ex Machina because she comes to Westeros, solves everyone’s problems that they couldn’t solve by themselves, and conveniently disappears and gets out of the way. Dany disappearing beyond the Wall is a Deus Ex Machina because she comes to Westeros, solves everyone’s problems that they couldn’t solve by themselves, and conveniently disappears and gets out of the way. Any ending in which Dany has no other impact in Westeros beyond solving everyone’s problems and disappearing, and that doesn’t take into account her character development as a ruler, is a Deus Ex Machina.

About Dany being a peacetime queen or not, yeah, Dany would not be someone content with the status quo, which could mean having more conflict. But that’s the thing: why should the ending of ASOIAF have peacetime kings and queens? Don’t we NEED someone changing the status quo, with all the focus ASOIAF has on how the feudal system is rotten and corrupt? We don’t need peacetime rulers.

Maybe her function, not as an individual, but as a character in a specific story called A song of ice and fire, was to destroy an old system (AND to inspire others to follow in her footsteps, ensure that her efforts were not in vain, that the first steps will not go wasted, that the work she started will be taken up by other peoples, and others after them, and others after), not to rebuild the new one.

That’s still a waste of her political storyline, and worst, it’s having the other characters usurping Dany’s storyline. Dany is the character that has been learning how to change the status quo. To have other characters (like Sansa, Bran and Arya) take her place in doing that, even though they didn’t have the same character development, is an usurpation of Dany’s storyline and an unearned ending, similar to Young Griff usurping Dany’s storyline without having to go through the character development and experiences Dany has. Not to mention you’re contradicting yourself: if Dany is not a “peacetime queen” because she wants to change the status quo, if other characters are “inspired” by her and follow in her footsteps, they won’t be “peacetime rulers” either. So if they can survive and rule and change the status quo, why can’t Dany? It’s a contradiction and a double standard (and a waste of Dany’s political storyline).

Frodo Baggins’ role in The Lord of the Rings was to destroy something evil. His gardener Sam was the one who planted the trees and went on to become a mayor afterward. One was a destroyer and the other was a builder, but in the end, they were both heroes.

Not to mention that Frodo did not die at the end. You could say that he went on to live beyond the Wall too.

Daenerys isn’t Frodo. Frodo didn’t have the character development as a ruler and a revolutionary that Dany had. Frodo didn’t spend his storyline learning how to change the status quo and rebuild for the future. Frodo’s main goal was to bring the ring to be destroyed, and he fulfilled that goal. Dany’s character development is not comparable to Frodo. In fact, her character development is way more comparable to Aragorn (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) than Frodo.

Westeros has Arya, Edmure, perhaps Edric Storm, Davos, the Reeds, maybe Jon… who does Essos have, besides Dany? No one that the narrative has bothered presenting so far anyway.

Well, if Jon disappears beyond the Wall with Dany, then Westeros doesn’t have Jon. And none of the other characters you mentioned have a ruling arc that provided them with the experience that Jon, Dany and Tyrion have. Bran and Sansa also don’t have that experience or arc, sorry (no, Bran wasn’t really the one making the decisions at Winterfell in ACOK, and he only learned basic things like how to receive guests). And again, this doesn’t address the problem that Dany’s political arc would be rendered pointless. Not to mention that Essos does have people to lead it. Just because we don’t see them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Like, no matter which way I look at it, Dany as the final queen of Westeros just… doesn’t work for me. I wish it did, but it doesn’t. 

The only reason it doesn’t work is because the ending of show made it impossible, and because we were told that King Bran is GRRM’s ending (which doesn’t really make sense, but whatever, I’ll have to accept that I will probably hate GRRM’s ending). Dany ending as Queen of Westeros is actually one of the most logical endings we could have (which we won’t get because GRRM has to sUbVeRt eXpEcTatiOnS).

Also, Dany disappearing beyond the Wall would be a bad ending because it would prioritize Jon’s character and his connection with the Wildlings over Dany’s character and her connection to the Essosi freedmen. For Jon and Dany to be truly equals, it would make more sense for Jon to go live with the Wildlings and Dany go back to Essos (and the bittersweet part would be that they would be separated, but doing what they believe is right).

Another problem with this is: what happens to Dany’s people? Do the Unsullied and Dothraki all die? What happens to Missandei? And if they don’t die, does Dany just abandon them to settle down beyond the Wall?

Dany had stopped to speak to a pregnant woman who wanted the Mother of Dragons to name her baby when someone reached up and grabbed her left wrist. - Daenerys V ASOS

Hi, anon! Well, I love watching fanvids, so there’s a lot for me to recommend. This is going to be a long list.

JONERYS

Jon xDaenerys | Journey by Regina Mikaelson

Daenerys& Jon – The Last of the Real Ones by Felicity Queen

Game ofThrones || A Song of Ice and Fire (Jon & Daenerys) by Art&Video

Jon &Daenerys | Battlefield {S7 – Jonerys} by Jessica Johnson

Game ofThrones || House Targaryen Tribute + Restoration by Art&Video

Jon +daenerys | ready or not by pxtronus

Jon &daenerys | so far by Hanniet

Jon Snow& Daenerys Targaryen | He loved her (GOT) by lindxx

Jon Snow& Daenerys Targaryen | Kings and Queens of Promise by AerisVideos

Jon&Daenerys| THROWING MY SOUL (7X06) by XeniteDeAmphipoles

Jon andDany // Undisclosed Desires {HD} by QuebecQueen

Jon + Daenerys| Bloodstream (7x07) by Kirwani90

Jon andDaenerys Thank you, my Queen. [+7x06] by LadyMagicc

Jon &Daenerys | more than friends. [+7x07] by Barbalas9296

Jon snow& daenerys Targaryen –you are loved (7x07) by the dark light

Jon and Daenerys| Dust to Dust [7x07] by MoMonator

Jonerys |Live Like Legends (Game of Thrones | Jon Snow & Daenerys Targaryen) by KJESIN étoile

Jon xDaenerys || WE ARE HEROES by aegon.

Jon &Daenerys | Right Here SUB español by Caballero errante

Jon+daenerys | battleships (young studios secret santa) by delikizinoykusu

(GOT) Jon& Daenerys || Safe by lacobus

The Less IKnow The Better || Jon/Dany/Jorah by AvatarAfrica (this one is funny)

Jon &Daenerys [Broken Dreams] by elikafv

Jon anddaenerys | crossfire [s07] by interlude.

JON /YGRITTE / DAENERYS – You know nothing, Jon Snow – Game of Thrones Love Triangleby atito098

(GoT) | Jon& Daenerys | Whatever it takes by Yigit Sari

Black sea(jon snow x daenerys Targaryen) [+7x07] by ForsakenWitchery

(GoT) Jon& Daenerys || We’re the last of our kinds by Art&Video

Jon +Daenerys || Follow you down (+7x07) by Aphrodite.

Jon & Daenerys– And Breathe Me… [7x07] by ShinyFantasy

Shameless ||Jon Snow & Daenerys Targaryen {+7x07} by sevenan

Jon +Daenerys | Never Let Me Go (7x07) by Kirwani90

jon &daenerys | running up that hill [s07] by interlude.

Jon Snow& Daenerys Targaryen-Small doses by # RadaBerzenia

Dusk TillDawn – Jon & Daenerys [+7x07] by demonicrunes

YOUNG GODS| Jon Snow & Daenerys Targaryen {S7 – Jonerys} by XeniteDeAmphipolis

Jon &Daenerys | Give my all for you by fyeahlemoncakes

Jon Snow& Daenerys Targaryen | Be with you. [7x07] by sweetie2566

Jon &Daenerys | WEAK [+7X07] by Miller

Jon &Daenerys – it’s a slow cinnamon summer [+7x06] by Catarina Almeida

Jon &Daenerys – “If your world falls apart, I’d start a riot..” by reallyjam

Jon &Daenerys – DEATHBEDS by holywater;

Jon +daenerys || where’s my love [+7x07] by SweetDee85

Jon Snow& Daenerys | Bring us a dream by sweet

Jon &Daenerys (7x07) || Somebody to die for by Miss JADOUU

Adore ||Jon & Daenerys by AvatarAfrica

Jon andDaenerys || You found me || Game of Thrones by Ms Kirona de Pablo

Jon & Daenerys | Hurricane by 2words12letters

Daenerys & Jon || Date with destiny (1x01-7x07) by Pau Bass

I’m under your spell || Jon x Daenerys by Nymeria

Jon & Daenerys | Sweater Weather by AussyAngelx

jon & daenerys |shattered| by JanuaryDreamr

beautiful crime | jon & daenerys by Kaiirel

jon & daenerys | the song playing in the background by InêsPB

Jon & Daenerys | Transatlanticism by hurleybird

(GoT) Jon & Daenerys || Ice and Fire by Zurik 23M

jon & daenerys | take on the world by stayXsound

Jon & Daenerys | Silhouettes by ImaniProdz

Jon Snow & Daenerys Targaryen - Tomorrow We Fight by Ovik6280

House Targaryen - build a better life (GoT) by Phoebelle

You’re my home. by jemwhisper

Jon & Daenerys [Come as you are] +7x07 by Sere ia

DAENERYS

DaenerysTargaryen | Dragonland by Cilyra

DaenerysStormborn || “The Stallion who shall unite the people into a single khaleesar”by Eaten Doll

(GOT) DaenerysTargaryen || The Princess That Was Promised by Art&Video (this link isn’t from the original video but apparently the original creator deleted the channel so I put this link anyway)

daenerystargayen || straight for the castle by stormborn

You made mea Believer – Daenerys by Camo

DaenerysTargaryen – Bi Bi Bi by Felicity Queen

DaenerysTargaryen | Her mind is like a Diamond by OKAYLYDIA

(GoT)Daenerys Targaryen || Afraid by MatiZ815

Daenerys Targaryen| hero by trydelusion

DaenerysTargaryen // I’d love to change the world by Cantrous

Daenerys Targaryenx G O L D by crazyhitii

Fear is howI fall; dany & dragons by luthientinuviel

(GOT)Daenerys Targaryen | Seven Nation Army by SamiStible

daenerys Targaryen[leave me to dream] by KimFerProd

Silence |daenerys Targaryen by Xperiencefull

Glitter andGold // Daenerys by breakercfchains

DaenerysTargaryen- Revolution by Black Coyote

DaenerysTargaryen | Emperor’s New Clothes by Kennah Gray

DaenerysTargaryen – This legend will never die by queen of thorns

Jorah &Daenerys | Just friends by DeadofLife

daenerys |legendary by CagedBird

Daenerys Targaryen| stronger than ever by seraph edits

Kneel beforethe queen || daenerys Targaryen tribute by dragonxqueen

daenerys targaryen[I will never die] by KimFerProd

DaenerysTargaryen | Make myself a queen by Scodders

DaenerysTargaryen | Centuries by angxlblade

Daenerys Targaryen[alone in the world] by KimFerProd

T H R O N E– Daenerys Targaryen by Anna Bluelueluep

You standin the presence of …. Daenerys Stormborn by Anna Bluelueluep

Daenerys |Born Ready by Jane H.

DaenerysTargaryen – Dangerous (+7x05) [ft. Drogon] by flygurl2zim

Daenerys Targaryen || Revelations by LadyOfAldeeran

Game of Thrones || Blood of my blood (for 60k) by Zurik 23M

I’ve been working my way–ever so slowly–through A Dance with Dragons and have made it up to Daenerys IV.  I’ve been meaning to post about it for a while but it seems especially relevant now, after Episode 8.04.  Always assuming that D&D follow GRRM’s vision, of course.  

Dany is beset on all sides in Meereen.  She is repeatedly tempted to stray from her moral course, to choose the easy, expedient way.  In the process we learn more about her vision of what a ruler should be and do.  

Very early on I wrote about why I think Viserys and Illyrio were Dany’s first two alchemists:  https://argentvive.tumblr.com/post/167134718575/daenerys-mentors-who-is-the-alchemist

With her increasing experience of what it is to rule, Dany has started to develop her own ideas.  Viserys’ mission was to return to Westeros and reconquer the Iron Throne.  For four books, Dany took that mission as her own.  But in ADWD she CHOOSES to put herself in a different crucible, alchemically speaking.  She decides to delay returning to Westeros and to remain in Meereen until she can put things right.  Temporarily at least, she has become her own alchemist.

In Daenerys IV of ADWD, she has two conversations that show the development of Dany’s vision of rule.  The first is with the Green Grace priestess, Galazza Galare. First they speak about the nightly murders of the Sons of the Harpy.

“And yet Your Radiance has found the courage to answer butchery with mercy. You have not harmed any of the noble children you hold as hostage….The Shavepate would feed them to your dragons, it is said. A life for a life. For every Brazen Beast cut down, he would have a child die.”

Dany doesn’t respond but we are privy to her thoughts.

The Shavepate has a harder heart than mine….What good is peace if it must be purchased with the blood of little children?

So we have a little reminder that Dany is the Heart character. She tells Galazza:

“These murders are not their doing….I am no butcher queen.”

The priestess then suggests that Dany marry a local notable.  This is her reasoning:

“When my people look at you, they see a conqueror from across the seas, come to murder us and make slaves of our children.  A king could change that. A highborn king of pure Ghiscari blood could reconcile the city to your rule.”

Marrying  Hizdahr zo Loraq is not something Dany wants to do, but it doesn’t involve violence.  Daenerys is willing to sacrifice her happiness–and her body–if it might bring peace.  She briefly considers her other suitor, Skahaz, the Shavepate, whom she trusts more than Hizdahr.

…but the Shavepate would be a disaster as a king.  He was too quick to anger, too slow to forgive.  

So Daenerys proposes to Hizdahr and wants to know why he would accept:

“…Is it so strange that I would want to protect my own people, as you protect your freedmen? Meereen cannot endure another war, Your Radiance.”

Dany finds that “a good answer, and a honest one,” and in response, lays out her own governing principles:

“I have never wanted war. I defeated the Yunkai’i once and spared their city when I might have sacked it. I refused to join King Cleon when he marched against them. Even now, with Astapor besieged, I stay my hand. And Qarth … I have never done the Qartheen any harm …”

She is adamant about the abolition of slavery: “I would sooner perish fighting than return my children to bondage.”

She sets Hizdahr a quest: if he can secure 90 days of peace, without a murder, they will marry on the 91st.  

After Hizdahr leaves, Ser Barristan emerges from the shadows and she explains her reasoning to him.

“…My people are bleeding. Dying. A queen belongs not to herself, but to the realm. Marriage or carnage, those are my choices.”

Ser Barristan suggests a third option: go to Westeros.  That was Viserys’ goal–will Dany revert to that?  No.  She is making her own decisions now. She is beginning to become her own alchemist.  

She wanted Westeros as much as he did, but first she must heal Meereen.  

Before he leaves Selmy tells her that Daario is waiting below.  She is excited for their reunion and decides to get changed “to make myself beautiful.”

GRRM spends a lot of time describing clothing.  I’ve written up some examples where I believe the colors of clothing and jewellery have alchemical significance, e.g. “Sansa Is White.”  I suspect Dany’s choices here are meaningful too.

“Bring the grey linen gown with the pearls on the bodice. Oh, and my white lion’s pelt.”

Dany is Sulphur and Red.  Her House colors are Red and Black.  Those are her true colors.  In her marriage to Drogo she was forced into a false role–she was forced to be White.  Drogo called her “Moon of my life” and gave her a horse called “Silver.”  Here again she is trying to fit into a false role, this time with Daario.  That doesn’t bode well for their upcoming reunion.  

We get a pretty direct statement of how Daenerys has grown and matured into her role as queen:

The girl in her wanted to kiss him so much it hurt. His kisses would be hard and cruel, she told herself, and he would not care if I cried out or commanded him to stop. But the queen in her knew that would be folly.

That sounds like a pretty dysfunctional relationship to me, right off the bat.  And Daenerys finally realizes it:

He made her want to be his wanton. I should never seen him alone. He is too dangerous to have near me.  

Daario suggests she marry him instead of Hizdahr.  He suggests indiscriminate mass murder–all the Great Masters– as a solution to her problems.

“Kill them all and take their treasures, I say. Whisper the command, and your Daario will make you a pile of their heads taller than this pyramid.”

Dany protests that they don’t know who exactly is to blame. “We have no proof this is their work.  Would you have me slaughter my own subjects?”

Daario suggests inviting all the Great Masters to her wedding and slaughtering them then and there.  Then comes this pivotal exchange:

Dany was appalled. He is a monster. A gallant monster, but a monster still. “Do you take me for the Butcher King?”

“Better the butcher than the meat. All kings are butchers. Are queens so different?”

“This queen is.”

Dany rebukes him for his insolence, and when she stands up, the lion pelt slips from her shoulders and tumbles to the ground.  She has shed the false identity she had assumed for her meeting  with Daario.

After she dismisses him, she recalls Ser Barristan and tells him she wants Daario and his forces away, back into the field.  Daario represents lust and the temptations of the Body to Dany; in alchemy terms, she is leaving the Body behind, as in the upper right of this gorgeous illustration.  (The Body is in the coffin; the Soul and Spirit are rising from it.)

That night, as she tries to sleep, she wrestles with her decision to send him away.  

“He would make a monster of me,” she whispered, “a butcher queen.” But then she thought of Drogon far away, and the dragons in the pit.  There is blood on my hands too, and on my heart. We are not so different, Daario and I. We are both monsters.

Dany is being a little hard on herself here.  The “blood on her hands” is because of Drogon, not her own deeds.  But she does recognize the threat of violence that the dragons pose.  They represent Mercurius, the base matter, and, as I’ve said before, I believe all three will perish before her final transformation to the Red Stone.  

Being your own alchemist is rare but not unprecedented.  In The Tempest, Prospero is the magician who sets the play in motion by creating the massive storm that shipwrecks his enemies on the island.  But in the end, it is Prospero who is transformed, as he forgives his enemies and frees Ariel.  The reconciliation is sealed with the marriage of Miranda to Ferdinand.  

 (2/2) Oh and by the way, Sansa being “mean” to Daenerys is only because she knew right away exactly what kind of a person she was. She knew she was a tyrant from the first moment she met her. She had every right not to trust her. And her attitude toward Sansa made it clear to her. You just weren’t paying attention to Daenerys’s arc.

• “She has shown time and again to be a power hungry tyrant who only cares about gaining the Iron Throne”

A power hungry tyrant you say.

Interesting.

And which part of her arc did you deduce that from, anon, other than her comical framing as a Disney villain in the last two episodes? Since, unlike me apparently, you’ve paid so much attention to Daenerys’ story?

Is it because she had the audacity (!) to make use of her claim to the Iron Throne, like so many before her (Renly, Stannis, Margaery, Cersei, Robb when it comes to Northern Throne) in a show that’s.. literally all about people trying to get the bloody throne?

But I guess only those born with a silver spoon in their mouths, that do actually only care about power should pursue such ambitions. The impoverished girl that was sold into sexual slavery marriage at 13 and actively used her power for a noble cause the moment she got access to it, is just… too damn annoying. Too bossy. Too ambitious.

And those poor slave masters and rapists she killed, with their whole lives ahead of them! What a bitch, truly.

The thing is, Daenerys committed the ultimate crime of putting her personal pursuit aside and chose to use the power she obtained through her dragons in order to help and protect those in need of protection, while the rest of the gang was too busy killing each other for the throne. She defied the powerful slave masters, singlehandedly abolished a system of slavery and empowered formerly enslaved people by raising them to positions of power and giving them access to it.

But please, do tell me how Daenerys is the power hungry tyrant among the virtuous feudal lords of Westeros that have been doing nothing but fight wars for their Houses’ personal vendettas without giving two fucks about the commonfolk suffering and dying in them

What is it that differentiates Daenerys’ quest and makes her “power hungry” when compared to Renly, Stannis, Margaery or Robb?

And what is your definition of a tyrant, in a world where democracy doesn’t exist, unless for the privileged lords to laugh and sneer at when the concept is introduced to them?

• “Daenerys has taken pleasure in burning people alive for disagreeing with her”

Let’s tackle the “kill people for disagreeing with her” part first.

Do you consider someone murdering her unborn child and husband a mere disagreement? What about slave owners that crucify hundreds of enslaved children to make a point? Were the khals that were talking about gang raping her just people that “disagreed” with her too in your view? And the Tarlys, bannermen to Daenerys’ allies, that committed high treason against their liege lords and leaded the goddamn massacre of their entire House, and were even granted an opportunity to live as free men but turned it down? Is that just a disagreement too?

Or (since the case of the Tarlys in particular is a favourite one among antis rushing to “prove” Daenerys’ cruelty/madness) do you think any leader in Daenerys’ place wouldn’t have straight up executed them or taken them as POWs (as they fucking should) instead of giving their traitorous asses a second chance after what they did?

If your answer is “yes”, I sure hope you judge other characters by the same standards, at the very least. Was Ned Stark a tyrant when he chopped the head off a terrified teenage boy that fled to save his life from the white walkers? What about Robb when he executed his bannerman against everyone’s council, for a crime of a much, much lesser extent than decimating the House of his liege Lord? Cause I don’t remember Lord Karstark having much of a choice in the matter like the Tarlys did. What about Jon Snow when he hanged a literal 10 year old? Sansa feeding her rapist to its dogs? Arya killing a room full of people and baking men into pies?

Or is it the whole using-dragonfire-for-executions gig you find too, ahem, inhumane for your taste? Would it have been okay for you had she used an enormous fucking sword to chop off her enemies’ heads or handed them over to starving animals to devour or baked them into pies and given them to their fathers to eat?

As for the “taking pleasure in burning” part of your claim… it makes me physically fucking sick. You know who actually took pleasure in burning people? Literally took pleasure in it, getting aroused and proceeding to rape his wife after listening to his victims’ pleas and cries? The Mad King. That’s what a pyromaniac looks like. You know who else took pleasure in killing? Joffrey and Ramsay, that were both fucking sadists.

You’re entitled to dislike/hate a character, but if you are to claim that they take pleasure out of killing, at the very least base it on something. I dislike many characters in GoT but I don’t claim they were sadists off the top of my head. Using violence against your enemies and actually relishing in it, including when it’s directed towards innocents and regardless of it, are two entirely different things.

Otherwise the same thing can easily be said for… literally any character in the show that has killed at some point. Ned and Robb Stark’s “noble” executions? Jon Snow’s killings and executions? Sansa smiling as Ramsay’s dogs ate him? Arya slaughtering a room full of people?

Sadists, the whole bunch of them.

• “and has talked about wanting to lay waste to cities”

And how convenient it is to leave out the context of these scenes, huh? How convenient it is that Dany antis always recite that s02 scene and talk about “foreshadowing!” thinking they’re oh-so-smart, unlike the rest of us fools that didn’t see it coming when “there were so many signs!”. Because an empty threat of a dehydrated, barely-still-standing woman to a bunch of rich, powerful men that were about to close their doors to Daenerys’ people and leave them to die in the Red Waste, deeming them “savages” unfit for their civilized city (and that only after she courteously asked them for help) certainly overpowers her actual…actions for seven and a half seasons. Same with Daenerys coming back to Meeren only to find it in the midst of a civil war, thanks to Tyrion’s genius negotiations, the masters about to take control of the city once again and the people she had freed about to slide back in chains.

It’s not like this is a show where main characters, including “noble” ones, make homicidal threats all the time anyway…

But why pay mind to details like that when you can have the cray cray infertile Dragon Queen to scapegoat? After she provides the resources to solve everyone’s problems and eliminate the imminent threats that is!

• But you don’t like Sansa who actually cares about her family, her home and her people and does everything in her power to protect them?

Actually, I never claimed I don’t like Sansa. I supported Sansa for the entirety of seven seasons– well, the seventh one is a special case, since my opinion changed after it aired and a deleted scene of her and Bran came to my attention, where it is revealed she was about to execute Arya before Bran told her the truth about Littlefinger.

I admired her character development and the way she navigated political life while captive in King’s Landing. I was outraged when she was shoved into some torture porn storyline meant to provide a male character with a redemption arc, instead of following the books’ narrative in the Vale. I was pissed as fuck when Jon Snow took precedent over her as King in the North in s06. And I was repulsed by the misogynistic “I’m so thankful I was raped because it made me strong and e m p o w e r e d!” lines fed to her character in s08. Hell, I even shipped her with Daenerys for a good period of time, and positively love her in the books.

I’m not gonna stan a character that’s written like a soap opera villain though, and that’s exactly how the Starks came off in season 8. A cheap version of the Lannisters willing to do anything to gain power.

But fine. I’ll bite.

You claim Sansa “did everything in her power to help her family and her people”. When exactly did she do that in seasons 7 and 8, anon? When she was about to execute her own blood? When she was being a bitch to a woman the North needed as an ally, who (let’s be honest here) would’ve rightfully told the Starks to fuck off and left them to fend for themselves upon such treatment, if she was acting strictly as a political leader instead of Jon Snow’s lover? When she spent the battle of Winterfell trashing the “Dragon Queen” as said Queen was out saving her people’s asses? When she betrayed her brother and almost started a civil war that would cost thousands of lives, including those of ‘her people’?

•  Oh and by the way, Sansa being “mean” to Daenerys is only because she knew right away exactly what kind of a person she was.

So Sansa was being…“mean” to Daenerys because she oh-so-conveniently knew she would become a tyrant? Based on what? Did she even bother to learn anything about Daenerys’ past as a leader which she deemed to be some Sign that revealed the “kind of person she was”? Was it the whole liberating slaves bit that made her suspicious? Or does she possess some magical ability and can just…sniff out the potential bad guys?

Yeah, sorry but that… doesn’t work for me. If you claim to be a serious storyteller, which this show used to be for the first four seasons at least, you need to show why your characters form such opinions, and act based on actual events and interactions. Not some… elusive sixth sense.

Did Sansa spend more than 5 seconds with Dany or listen to her plans as a future ruler before giving her the stink eye? And if she did have suspicions about her abilities as a leader, why didn’t she interact with Daenerys’ people, in an attempt to extract information on the Dragon Queen and her leadership? Because as far as I recall her interactions with them were limited to holier-than-thou xenophobia and a “you’re pretty, plus you’re not willing to give away the North just because I say so, ergo I hate you” attitude towards their Queen.

At the end of the day, it’s not even a matter of liking or disliking someone; it’s hardly important to the story whether Sansa liked Daenerys or not. This is supposed to be Game of Thrones not freaking Mean Girls.

Daenerys was an ally the North needed and was there to save their asses. Sansa should have behaved accordingly. Personal affinities are simply irrelevant when it comes to politics. Instead, for some unfathomable reason, the girl who at 13/14 was clever enough to skillfully pretend in front of the people that murdered her family and constantly taunted and abused her, just…. couldn’t hide her dislike for the woman whose resources and help were pivotal for the North’s survival.

•  She had every right not to trust her.

She had every right not to trust her right away, sure, as well as not to trust her brother’s (lack of) competence when it comes to politics. Jon Snow might as well have brought a Cersei Lannister to Winterfell just because he was thinking with his cock; I can follow that line of thinking and find reason in it to an extent.

That doesn’t excuse her openly hostile stance towards a vital ally (that was stupid at best from a political perspective) or the fact that her distrust of the Dragon Queen didn’t change even when she found out that Dany offered to save the North without asking for anything in return and proceeded to personally fight against the army of the dead and save Sansa’s homeland and people. 

There’s a difference between not being naive enough to blindly trust someone on sight and stubbornly insisting on distrusting someone in spite of their actions.

It is absolutely plausible for two female characters to have conflicting interests and be at odds with one another, like any two complex and well written characters. That is decidedly not how Sansa and Daenerys’ relationship was handled in season 8.

• And her attitude toward Sansa made it clear to her.

Oh, you mean being fucking indignant upon such a blatant display of ingratitude as to make demands to the woman that had sacrificed one of her children and was putting her people and her life on the line to save the bloody North?

Like, I know Stark stans think that the entire fucking world owes the Starks, and the show frames it that way too, but the reality is pretty fucking different.

At the end of season 6 the North was a region in open rebellion against the Crown. Meaning they could either win their independence via war (like Robb tried to do) or negotiation. Given that the ruling monarch at the time was Cersei it goes without saying that negotiation was out of the question, meaning a war against the forces of King’s Landing was due. Which is pretty damn unfortunate, since this is a region that isn’t even capable of defending itself from an outside threat (the army of the dead), let alone marching against the Crown.

Enter Daenerys, who is, logically, their best chance at a nonviolent independence.

(Unless something completely craaaaazy happens out of the blue, a Stark  magically ends up on the throne and nepotism solves everything at the last minute!)

Yara, for one, was smart enough to strike a deal with Daenerys by providing her ships and forces in exchange for the Iron Islands’ independence; Catelyn Stark followed a similar route when negotiating with Renly Baratheon in s02.

Quid pro quo. You give me something, I give you something in return. We join forces against a common enemy to achieve our respective goals.

The Starks didn’t even try diplomacy. They were facing an impending fucking apocalypse and instead of reaching out to potential allies and trying to strike a deal by any means necessary, offering whatever they could to save their people, they had the King they chose stroll into Dragonstone, stomp his foor on the floor, tell a bunch of ice zombie fairytales and expect Daenerys to give all her resources to the North..in exchange for what exactly? His cock?

And yet the evil Dragon Queen fucking agreed. She, the one with the huge army, the dragons and the upper fucking hand, pledged herself to the North, a region that expected to have their independence gifted to them, but not before having a foreign leader sacrifice her people and resources for their sake.

And Sansa had the nerve to shamelessly make passive aggressive demands to Dany’s face after she made such a stupidly selfless offer that went against her own interests in order to save the North?

When Cersei was giving her pitch to whats-his-face from Sherlock, and he told her that the Lannisters were in quite a lot of debt, she points out to him that Lannisters always pay their debts and asks him how debts get paid by former slaves.

The Iron Bank backed Cersei because they knew with Daenerys out of the way, the Slave Trade would return to Essos, therefore earning back the Iron Bank one of it’s main sources of profit. 

And yet, we’re still supposed to see Dany’s war for the Iron Throne as a bad thing….?

That scene in Season 7 essentially told us, slavery would return to the regions Dany had worked hard for nearly her entire show arc to eradicate, if she did not win the throne. We saw yet another thing at stake if Dany were to lose.

But Dany’s the bad guy for wanting to eliminate Cersei?

D&D are truly fools. They paid 0 attention to the drivel they wrote themselves and expected us to not pay attention too. 

I’m sorry, but no. 

While one may make sense of the Iron Bank backing Cersei as being due to them wanting to either entangle Daenerys permanently in Westeros or destroy her (and hence allow the resumption of the very profitable slave trade), what doesn’t make sense is why the Bank would make such a bad move (financially speaking)?

At the point the transaction was suggested, Daenerys’ military advantage was so substantial as to be virtually insurmountable. Three dragons, and the two most powerful military forces that Essos had ever seen. The Dothraki were only ever successfully resisted by the Unsullied. The Unsullied were modelled after the near invincible legions of the Old Ghiscari Empire, who in turn were only ever defeated by Valyria’s dragons. Daenerys had all three mighty forces. She had mastery over the land (massive expert cavalry who are also the best archers, and a standing and highly disciplined infantry), a respectable naval presence, and uniquely, an air force. This bet against her was surely a losing bet. One in which they would lose all their money. And the bank doesn’t make such bad bets. They didn’t become so powerful like that.

Braavos historically knows Valyria well. The Iron Bank is conists of the wealthy elite of Braavos. Historically Braavos held Jaehaerys I to a stalemate by essentially telling him that if he used dragons against Braavos then they would retaliate by using Faceless Men against the Targaryen family. The relevant passages in Fire and Blood seem to indicate that whatever the Faceless Men may be, they are somehow available as instruments of Braavosi power when needed (which makes sense of why the city continues to host such a  notorious guild of world famous murderers). We have earlier speculation too that what forced Aegon the Conqueror to stop his campaign against Dorne was a threat against his children by the Faceless Men. If Daenerys was causing such a problem, why would the Bank not use the standard Braavosi solution for her? In fact this very thing was one of the reasons I speculated that Cersei would sooner or later try to put a Faceless Man hit on Dany (and the Iron Bank may finance this, or the guild would be okay with this anyhow) and that Arya will save her etc. Something that would have made better sense with the long time Arya spent over there.

Moreover, seeing the conditions of Westeros, and the likelihood of Daenerys’ victory, the wiser bet seems to be to wait for her to mop the floor with Cersei. At that point she will have massive financial needs to fix and rebuild Westeros (with a coming Winter). And thus will have little choice but to turn to the most powerful financiers in the world. Why antagonize what seems like an excellent future client? One would at least expect them to try to approach her to see if she was open to starting a relationship with them instead of trying to help Cersei, who had hardly any chance of winning this even with he Golden Company. Hell, the GC didn’t even have Scorpions here. Why they made noise over them having elephants is unclear. Elephants (quite intelligently) fear fire and Dany has dragons. Surely having the Crown of Westeros in major debt to them while the slave trade could still gain momentum in other areas (remember that while Braavos does not tolerate slavery in its borders, other major cities like Volantis have no such problem). 

And finally, what sense does it make to openly embrace Daenerys Targaryen as an enemy? Cersei has no real choice if she has to maintain her Crown, but the Bank has no such need. By financing the Golden Company they openly take a position against her (and thereby also make life much harder for Braavos internationally, since Daenerys can now see them as part of her enemies). One would expect them to act with more subtlety and in a manner that allowed for plausible deniability. They want to entangle her in Westeros? Then they need assassination attempts, local unrest, rebellions of the sort that nearly immobilized her in Meereen, i.e. guerilla insurgencies against which her regular military advantage is hard to use effectively. A Daenerys entangled in Westeros would not be able to take much action half a world away (just as she couldn’t do much for Astapor when Meeren itself was in crisis). And in the middle of this, one would expect them to show up as a neutral party and try to fund both sides while keeping their distance and also trying to ensure that neither side was completely wiped out as the continuing state of tension made more profits for them. Instead they take the way of supporting a regular military force against her, i.e. exactly the method by which defeating her is impossible.