I Am Khaleesi: Nothing In A Name

Daenerys Targaryen is loved by most of the fanbase but among the fanbase we are fighting our own Civil War. Stark vs Rogers is a petty feud in comparison to the battle that is fought day in and day out by the followers of Daenerys Targaryen and Stannis Baratheon, The One True King. Stannis has more redeemable qualities as I highlighted in my post about Stannis The Mannis.

Now shall we begin. First off, she believes that the Iron Throne is hers because her father was the king and her family had ruled The Seven Kingdoms for generations. She is playing the ‘Game Of Thrones’ for the wrong reasons. She plays it for personal gain and to prove a point rather than to save the realm from those who do it harm. Dany as she is known to fans, not Khaleesi (that’s her title not her name) is the last Targaryen and the lost dragon or so she thinks. Many fans beg to differ with the argument of R+L=J which leads into the theories of Azor Ahai, The Prince That Was Promised. You know who you are. Everyone of us has that friend that we have met in Facebook discussion groups who comes up with the most crackpot theories, always wearing their tinfoil hats.

Go home love! You’re drunk!

Her family’s sigil is the three heads of the dragon on a black field with “Fire & Blood” as their motto. A motto and sigil referring back to Aegon and his sisters conquering Westeros. They were the true dragons, worthy of their tall tales. They were true rulers. They ruled Westeros and so did their descendants for the most part. Robert Baratheon was the last descendant of Aegon to rule Westeros. The Baratheons are bastard branch of Targaryens due to Aegon’s bastard brother, Orys Baratheon. The Targaryens are a house defined by “having the taint” as Ser Barristan so boldly says to Dany.


Barristan To Daenerys On Madness

Ser Barristan Selmy spies on Dany in disguise  to see if she displays any inclinations of being mad as many of her line were before her. He calls it a “taint”. His alter ego being Arstan Whitebeard and explains plainly what he did to her in simple terms.  Until now, Daenerys knew that her father was called The Mad King but she thought people were spreading lies. She had no clue about the extent of her father’s insanity and the trait that defines her bloodline.

In my opinion, Dany hasn’t really shown signs of madness, just a lot of stupidity that hurts a lot of people because of teenage angst. Well, the definition that is associated with madness in Westeros. Madness there and madness in our own world are quite different. She’s in constant conflict with her mind. She proclaims to be a Targaryen but she doesn’t know what it means to be a true dragon. Her only counsel came from her brother who didn’t know much about anything and Illyrio Mopatis. She has led a life as a fugitive for the ‘crimes’ of her father. Her father was really the only mad one of her line. The rest, that were said to be mad have been cruel and brutal killers, very much in control of their actions. Saying that, I don’t believe she is a capable ruler, hiding behind paid executioners; literally hiding behind and bedding sellswords, sorry Daario. Madness in Westeros is mostly killing cruelly and remorselessly without a care in the world.


Barristan telling Dany some hard truths about her father, The Mad King

I find that she is overly emotional. If she was having an emotional day, she’d let her feelings cloud her judgement rather than doing what needs to be done. I haven’t like Dany since she emerged from the flames in first the book/season. She’s playing at ruling. She wants to take back her father’s throne yet she can’t even hold one city? She doesn’t listen. She thinks she’s always right. She doesn’t let lead. She gives out orders. She won’t play politics even though it’s necessary. She won’t compromise. She’s supremely arrogant due to having dragons that she can’t control.

Just because you have dragons doesn’t mean you’re untouchable. Look at The Sons Of The Harpy. If it wasn’t for Drogon suddenly turning up, she would have been a sheep in a slaughter house. If she listened more, I wouldn’t be so harsh and she also thinks she’s morally superior to everyone else. She has an overly zealous ideology of her own importance due to all her pointless titles. She’s not mad, she’s just stupid and isolates herself from everyone around her. She has many people who want to help her become better but she cuts herself off like a spoilt teenager. That’s what she is. A teenager who knows nothing of the world.

The Sons Of The Harpy

The Sons Of The Harpy

She’s just very irritating, proclaiming everything should be hers because she says so. All too often, she throws her toys out of the pram yet throughout the whole series she has had three moments when I admired her. The first being when she rose out of the flames with Jorah and the Dothraki bowing to her naming her their queen (Khaleesi). The second was when she took Unsullied and killed the masters through trickery and deception. Thirdly was when she was in the Draznak Pit in A Dance With Dragons surrounded by enemies and Drogon comes to party. To be honest, she is very boring staying idle in Meereen for the best of three books doing fuck all.

I don’t believe the majority of the Targaryen line were actually mad. The only truly insane one was Aerys II Targaryen. Dany is showing traits of her father but nothing really substantial. The paranoia, the burning of his friends and allies, plus the irrational thinking too. They all constitute madness. The ones proclaimed mad in her family line weren’t crazy. They were just bloodthirsty and depressed.  They conducted acts of madness but these were one offs. It was oft great acts of arrogance or tragedy rather than outright acts of madness.There is magical power in Valyrian blood and its ilk. Due to this, a certain volatility in a Targaryen’s personality could occur but it could also be that this is due to dragons disappearing. When the dragons were active, the Targaryens were most stable. If Dany, learns to control her dragons, her abilities as ruler may improve but not before that.

Hopefully, Tyrion will knock some sense into her in Season 6.

NB: It would help if Emilia Clarke did some acting once in a while. It would do her character wonders.