I mean, the whole idea that Daenerys is a white savior rests on incredibly orientalizing notions about “eastern” cultures.
Where do I begin? Daenerys is not racially other to Essos. She’s Valyrian and she was raised in exile, she speaks Essosi languages and is part of Essosi culture and community. That she’ll be considered foreign in Westeros only speaks to the fact that she has a diasporic experience and cannot fit in neatly anywhere as a result. This speaks more to my own immigrant experience than anything the Westerosi characters go through, frankly. Anyway, using the racial lens of a modern era and haphazardly applying it to ASOIAF just generally doesn’t make sense but even if you do accept that reading, Daenerys is not racially dominant to Essos. Like, as it is just look to the fact that you people accuse her of being an imperialist in Essos but a foreign invader to Westeros. That she’s simultaneously considered both by the same “intellectuals” in this fandom only proves that she does not occupy a neat national identity and floats between national identities because of her status as a refugee and exile. Again, as an immigrant, struggling with bicultural heritage in that manner is very relatable to me.
Then there is the persistent idea in this fandom that Essosi cultures are inherently less developed and civilized, inherently incapable of evolving or changing, and inherently suspended in time, bogged down by tradition. It reminds me far too much of white people in real life who claim that sexual violence or homophobia are only issues in nonwestern cultures and that these are things intrinsic to “culture” rather than global manmade systems borne out of patriarchy. Ghiscari culture is incredibly complex. Essos is far wealthier and more advanced than Westeros. Old Ghis has been an empire for thousands upon thousands of years. The idea that it’s “just their culture” rests on the notion that Easterners are just naturally and genetically inclined to doing horrible and oppressive things and that, moreover, Eastern cultures are incapable of changing and growing, that they will always be “behind” and “regressive”. Horribly disgusting and orientalist ideas, and I hate that this is framed as progressive or anti-colonial rhetoric.
What’s worse is the overlying foundation of the former point, which is how the fandom continues to act like Essos is a monolithic culture of monolithic-looking brown people who must speak the same language and participate in the same traditions. Again, it reminds me far too much of how white people talk about Asia and Africa. Even if you want to unequivocally project our modern racial categories (”white” vs “not white”) onto asoiaf, both the main novels and the twoiaf explicitly showcase that there are “white” regions/cultures/cities and people and “not white” regions/cultures/cities and people. Like, Dany herself is an example of a “white” Essosi. Plenty of other “white” Essosi characters exist in canon, from Melisandre of Asshai to Thoros of Myr to Xaro Xhoan Daxos (who is white in the books!) to Salladhor Saan (also white in the books!) to Daario Naharis. Many of the Unsullied and other slaves of slaver’s bay are from diverse cultures - we know that they could be Dothraki or Qartheen or Lysene or Lhazareen or even Ghiscari. While yes, the slavers are Ghiscari, the slaves and slavers don’t inherently share the same culture just by virtue of being Essosi. Again, that’s an orientalist assumption based on the idea that “East = racially Other and monolithic”. We know that the slavers of Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen, as well as the Dothraki, all kidnap and enslave people from all over Essos. This has been told to us throughout Dany’s arc in ASOS and ADWD. How in the hell can you argue that Dany is a white savior if like half the slaves she freed are themselves white? “Dany = white therefore everything she does is white saviorism” only works if you accept that all Essosi hail from the same cultural and racial/ethnic background and that all of them believe in the same things and have the same “cultural” traditions, which is not only disproved by the canon text itself but also like I said relies on the orientalist idea that the East is monolithic, static, unchanging, regressive, suspended in time, and capable of being simplified and consumed through such dichotomies.
We get to the Ghiscari themselves. I don’t know why people decided that they’re ethnic in the way the Dothraki are. Old Ghis is reminiscent of the Ancient Roman empire. The harpy as a symbol is clearly drawn from that as well. The Ghiscari are described as amber-hued and of red hair. How did people conclude that they’re brown or black? The only way you people can continue to lord this grotesque and racialized misinterpretation is by overly relying on the show’s miscasting of the slaves and slavers. But GRRM himself has said that the slavery of Old Ghis is meant to be reminiscent of the slavery of the ancient Roman empire. And like Essos, the ancient Roman empire was racially diverse as well, but no one is going to argue that the Romans themselves were brown, right? You guys really just decided that a bunch of white dudes are spicy and ethnic and exotic because you lot are so blatantly orientalist that you think Essos = all brown people who look the same and speak the same languages and have the same “culture”.
On an anti-colonial front, slavery and white saviorism often accompanied colonialism or existed in conjunction with colonialism or propped up colonial exploitation. It’s incredibly demeaning to post-colonial peoples to argue that killing slavers, redistributing their wealth to the lowborn, and freeing slaves is like white saviorism when in fact white savior colonialists mostly did the exact opposite. White saviorism in real life has historically been used to justify slavery, to justify colonialism, and to justify eradicating indigenous cultures. To trivialize that because you’re upset at this fictional character’s existence is disgusting.
This argument also ignores crucial details about Dany herself. Like, she was sold as a sex slave to Drogo. This is canonically and textually acknowledged across the five novels. A white savior profits from white saviorism. Dany does not profit from freeing slaves and killing slavers, as it does not benefit her campaign to reclaim the Iron Throne and in fact she delays her campaign to rule Meereen. A white savior has no personal connection to racism and in fact benefits from racism. Dany does not benefit from slavery. In fact, she was herself sold as a slave to Drogo, which means she has a sincere and authentic reason for hating slavery. Why does everyone ignore her entire AGOT arc? Why does everyone ignore the at least seven different indications over the five books from different characters that Dany was bought and sold as a child bride? Moreover, Grazdan mo Eraz, the Wise Master of Yunkai, warns her that if they won the battle they’d enslave her as a sex slave. So she’d have been re-enslaved as a sex slave. You lot are out here crying about white saviorism as if Dany herself would be protected from being enslaved when in fact we know she was already bought and sold once and that it could easily happen to her again. The slavers do not make empty threats, as we well know by now. A white savior will never have to worry about suffering from racism; that is not true of Dany’s connection to slavery, as she already suffered through the indignity and trauma of being bought and sold and was threatened with re-enslavement as well.
Even on a “cultural” front, I find it intriguing that the same people who defend the Ghiscari using a “cultural” argument hold the Old Valyrian practice of slavery against Dany. So “culture” is a good excuse when defending the slavers that Dany goes against, but “culture” is also a good reason to hate Dany? Like, what? If you know and accept that the Ghiscari empire was older than the Valyrian empire and that in fact the Valyrians adopted slavery when they conquered Old Ghis and then introduced it everywhere else in Essos, why are you acting like slavery is some “cultural tradition” that is “unique” or “specific” to the Ghiscari? And even forgetting the Valyrians, we know for a fact that slavery is still practiced in the Free Cities (former Valyrian colonies with the exception of Braavos), even in Pentos, where it is supposed to be outlawed. We already know that the Dothraki and Qartheen enslave people and buy/sell slaves. We know that even Westerosi like Jorah Mormont are slavers, and Tyrion himself in ADWD compares the plight of Westerosi smallfolk to Essosi slaves and observes that the smallfolk are slaves in all but name. Arya Stark is proof of that, given what she went through under Gregor Clegane, Tywin Lannister, and then Roose Bolton, at Harrenhal. Why is slavery a “nonwhite/nonwestern cultural tradition” to defend but otherwise abhorrent? It’s because you lot are so orientalist that you think brown people are somehow incapable of thinking for themselves and that we’re inherently or naturally inclined to being oppressive and that we can’t abolish oppressive institutions like “progressive, enlightened” westerners can. Wrong. Clearly asoiaf shows how oppression exists in both the west and the east. And though GRRM is orientalist and there is plenty of his orientalism to criticize, he at least has not portrayed the orientalist idea that oppression is somehow a cultural “tradition” that’s “exclusive” to nonwesterners.
In short, this argument only holds true if you either a) accept the racist show which is funny because if you accept the show as canon then you should hate quite a few other characters as well or b) if you accept all of these disgusting orientalist & racist premises about nonwestern cultures. I have lots of critique about how GRRM has written the Dothraki characters, as well as how he’s written the Dornish, and certain other aspects of the white Westerosi characters’ storylines as well, but this is frankly ridiculous. I’m not going to go along with this lack of nuance and critical thinking and blatant hiveminded orientalism.
I’m not arguing with anyone on this, and I’m certainly not going to allow any white people to jump on this post to try and teach me what is or isn’t orientalist and racist. Try it and I’ll just block you.
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