DAENERYS TARGARYEN + strengths and weaknesses
Clever: The fire is mine. I am Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons, don’t you see? Don’t you SEE? […] Unafraid, Dany stepped forward into the firestorm, calling to her children. | “I think we should attack from three sides. Grey Worm, your Unsullied shall strike at them from right and left, while my kos lead my horse in wedge for a thrust through their center. Slave soldiers will never stand before mounted Dothraki.” | “Your Grace has planted beans and grapes and wheat. Your Dothraki have harried the slavers from the hills and struck the shackles from their slaves. They are planting too, and will be bringing their crops to Meereen to market. And you will have the friendship of Lhazar.”
Inexperienced: Dany is still very young. She has lessons to learn. That [slavery was brought back right after she left] was one of them. It is not as easy to do good as it might seem, no matter how noble your intentions. — GRRM
Flexible: “They are my people now,” Dany said. “You should not call them savages, brother.” | Her freedmen stood well apart from their former masters. Until they stand together, Meereen will know no peace.
Lenient: “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 …” | No queen has clean hands, Dany told herself. She thought of Doreah, of Quaro, of Eroeh … of a little girl she had never met, whose name had been Hazzea. Better a few should die in the pit than thousands at the gates. This is the price of peace, I pay it willingly. If I look back, I am lost.
Self-aware: “It is true that I am only a young girl, and do not know the ways of war. Explain to me how you propose to defeat ten thousand Unsullied with your five hundred. Innocent as I am, these odds seem poor to me.” | “You know more of such men than me, ser.” If Bloodbeard might be truly the most dishonorable and greedy of the sellswords, he might be the easiest to sway, but she was loath to go against Ser Barristan’s counsel in such matters.
Self-deprecating: All my victories turn to dross in my hands, she thought. Whatever I do, all I make is death and horror. | Mother of dragons, Daenerys thought. Mother of monsters. What have I unleashed upon the world? A queen I am, but my throne is made of burned bones, and it rests on quicksand.
Empathetic: “Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves?” | “I would sooner perish fighting than return my children to bondage.” | “I will not turn away from them. […] A queen must know the sufferings of her people.” | A queen belongs not to herself but to her people.
Has a temper: She had them nailed to wooden posts around the plaza, each man pointing at the next. The anger was fierce and hot inside her when she gave the command; it made her feel like an avenging dragon. | Mercy, thought Dany. They will have the dragon’s mercy.
Humble: “I will not sit in the harpy’s lap,” she told them. Instead she sat upon a simple ebony bench. It served, though she had heard the Meereenese muttering that it did not befit a queen. | George told me that Daenerys wants equality for everyone, she wants to be at the same level as her people.
Idealizes Westeros and wants to think the best of her family: She tried to imagine what it would feel like, when she first caught sight of the land she was born to rule. It will be as fair a shore as I have ever seen, I know it. How could it be otherwise? | “One day. One day you must tell me all. The good and the bad. There is some good to be said of my father, surely?”
