[georgescitadel]

In the village of Lhazarene, Dany is appalled by the rape and slaughter that she's seeing. Khal Drogo is moving, he’s taking his khalasar towards the sea to begin the conquest of Westeros, but it's quite a way to the sea and, of course, they have to be fed and find a way to get ships to take them across. Slaving is one of the ways the Dothraki earn money, although they don't look at it as earning, they look at it as an exchange of gifts. The Dothraki do not actually believe in buying and selling in the same way as the more mercantile civilizations of the West… Dany can't enact the idea of “don't take slaves”, but what she does there is saying “I'll take the slaves. I'm the queen, all the slaves belong to me.” and in that way she can extend some protection over the women who were being raped.

- George R.R. Martin, Game Of Thrones DVD

[georgescitadel]

Interviewer: One could argue that more can be learned about everyday politics from your novels than from the newspaper.

George: I did indeed intend to make politics one of the main themes of these novels. I hope to make my readers reflect on political issues. For example, when Daenerys Targaryen conquers a city of slave traders and tries to rule it, she realizes that good intentions alone do not make a government program. There is a series of very difficult decisions to make and, no matter what you do, people will hate you.

Interviewer: Even if one has three dragons.

George: Exactly. The dragons are metaphors.

Interviewer: Virtually the nuclear weapons of your world.

George: The most terrible weapon! However, they don't put you in a position to abolish poverty, make everyone love you, or lead a happy life. You can very well use them to burn things down, to destroy your enemies, cities, and entire cultures, but that doesn't solve the problem of good governance.

- George R.R. Martin, The Father Of Fire And Ice

[georgescitadel]

Interviewer: We have watched Daenerys struggle with leadership and how fierce she should be with the people she has vanquished… You know, “Should she kill all the slave masters? How many should live?” and she is stumbling.

George: This is a huge part of A Dance With Dragons. Dany’s attempts to rule in Meereen and the struggles she is having are a major theme of that book. How do you do this? It is not easy. If we all knew the right decision, we wouldn't have the kind of two-party politics that we have. In any society, there are people who think “this is the right way to go,” “no, this is the right way to go,” “we have to be harder,” “we have to be softer,” “we have to go to war,” “we have to make peace.” People look at real history from the benefit of hindsight, but you have to take hindsight off the table and try to think about these issues as of the time. I am trying to give my characters, especially the ruling characters, some difficult problems to solve, and then their own beliefs and their own personality and their own views on what the obligation of a king or lord is to their people comes through.

- George R.R. Martin, New Mexico In Focus

[georgescitadel]

Fan: Which of your characters would you say is the most suitable to be a leader nowadays, and why?

George: Probably Tyrion. Tyrion is very smart. He's also very ruthless, sadly, which you need. I don't know necessarily that he'd be a beloved leader, but he has the intellectual ability to do it. He has a certain understanding of politics and a lot of experience in the dark side of humanity, so he wouldn't be too naive for the job. He might be a good choice. Dany would also be an interesting choice if we could bring her dragons along. The recent American election might have turned out very differently if Hillary Clinton had dragons.

- George R.R. Martin, Penguin Random House México

[ai-manre]

Unpopular opinion: but the extreme deification of Ned Stark in the asoiaf fandom has truly lowered the quality of all discourse. Every character is measured on their heroism based on how closely they reflect Ned’s values or how close they are to Ned themselves, and this is really impacting the discourse.

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)

Ned is amazing and a great guy, but if the morals of asoiaf had begun and ended with him, whats the point of the struggles every other character went through to forge their own morality?

[daenerys-lemons]

A character can only be as moral as the system they uphold. The system in Westeros is extremely corrupt, so yes Ned is moral in the sense that he follows the law and system to a rigid degree, but the laws in Westeros are not moral themselves and very much favor the nobility/wealthy.

Ned being the pinnacle of morality in the fandom has done so much damage, because although Ned is a good character in comparison to characters like Tywin or Robert, he’s not an entirely Good Guy who’s morality should be the standard for every other character.

I also think of the whole “the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword” thing. What about Ladies or Queens who might not be able to lift a sword as large as Ice? What about Tyrion or Bran? So, just because someone isn’t capable of swinging a sword and killing someone personally means their sentence is inherently unjust? Having a headsman is immoral and wrong?

Robb for example tried to follow his father’s extremely rigid moral code and look where that got him. Ned’s own moral code itself indirectly led to the WOTFK.

And I like Ned, don’t think I’m dissing on him, but he is put on this weird pedestal that I don’t think we’re actually meant to.

[torridturncoat]

ultimately it doesnt really matter since got as a show got its indecent end, but rereading acok it really is insidious how the showrunners decided to not include any sign of the lannisters ravaging the riverlands (indiscriminate pillage, rape, torture, murder) in favour of positively framed tywin scenes where he insulates arya from the aforementioned & appreciates her for what are ultimately signs of higher class breeding (literacy) & also in general how a lot of tywin scenes had that level of 'go diva, cool clapback!'. it does contextualise a lot of d&d disgust with dany & her forced turn towards the authoritarian as primarily resting in her existing as othered & orientalised vs our homegrown western feudal war atrocities

[danytheestallion]

every time you guys use “the dragon has three heads” quote without including Dany I place a curse on sansa stark

[mercurialmilk]

New reaction image for ‘posting something on the internet and having it be wildly misinterpreted’

[daenerys-lemons]

““Daenerys killing slave masters is obviously foreshadowing that she’s going to go mad and ultimately burn down kings landing with millions of innocent men, women, and children!!!””

[witchqueenvisenya]

"It's just my opinion" and you just want to justify a female character's sexist ending. And you want to pretend at objectivity while at it, too.

[queenslayeroflies]

God pls take away dany's pain 10000× it and give it to moron show fans who use her shitty misogynistic show ending to argue that she is crazy and post there delusional copium in her tag.

[james-summer]

Do you ever think GRRM wakes up and has a generational crash out daily as he realizes half of the readers of his books are slavery apologists

[james-summer]

George loves Daenerys so much no wonder the crazies in the psych wards are always so pressed about her

[daenerys-lemons]

Dany is George’s sweetheart and people genuinely think he’s gonna make her go crazy and kill a bunch of innocent people.

Like pleaseeeeeeeeeee enough 😭

[petti-labelle]

"I am the realms greatest warrior” Sir you are the worlds first incel and you are going to get skewered by them rivermen and graybeards

[daenerys-lemons]

And a bastard, nonetheless.

[shesalittlelost]

daemon kneeling in the sept was a nice reminder that his affection for rhaenyra is genuine coz no power on earth could make him do that lmao

[9everwhere]

Overall, it's great that Aemond himself voiced who exactly was bullying him. And Aegon himself showed/said how he truly treated his brother from childhood. Although it was always obvious to me.

We had a graphic scene in the brothel, but many always return to the pig scene, ignoring Aegon and focusing on Jace and Luke. Of course, they participated, but they were significantly younger and were Aegon's pawns. And they certainly weren't the instigators. Although I don't think this will fully help some fans lol

[lesbians4daenerys]

Jace watching his mother trust the woman who helped usurp her, made his uncles hate him and his brothers, and pulled a knife to her in attempt to take his brothers eye.

RIP Jace, someone should've gave you a cigarette

[ludentista]

Artwork by Tyler Jacobson for 2027 ‘A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE’ Calendar.