This is a post I have been thinking about for months now and an idea I have thought since I basically viewed this show. But I am not the first to post about it so I suggest you check out @aegonbeingfakeisracist’s post because they bring up a lot of my own opinions and generally have a good blog when you’re angry about the treatment of House Martell and Dorne. So onto the post:
For a long time, one of my biggest problems with Daenerys Targaryen and her narrative in the story has always been her role as a white savior. Another part is that her story of being the Last Targaryen has always lack tragedy to me because she lost something that was never hers. When she was born, her family had already lost their throne and power. She didn’t know her parents or Rhaegar and she doesn’t care about Viserys when he dies. To me this has always made her a boring character and one of my least favorite POV characters among many other reasons. So an idea that I and other people have thought about was if another character could be in Daenerys’ role who would solve some of these issues.
And there is. Her name Rhaenys Targaryen.
Imagine a little girl who is immediately underestimated and under valued from birth because she is a girl and because she is Dornish.
Imagine a little girl where first three years of her life are perfect. She lives happily on the island of Dragonstone with her mother and father, and her kitty. The castle is gloom but her is happy. One day she even gets a little brother, she’s upset to find out she’s not heir, but happy to be a big sister.
Imagine a little girl when suddenly her father disappears one day. Her loving mother shelters her from the whispers about his disappearance, and during the days she lays in his bed waiting for him to come home to her again.
Imagine a little girl being separated from her mother and brother as they go to King’s Landing as she stays on Dragonstone because she matters so little that the Mad King doesn’t even care enough to use her as a hostage.
Imagine a little girl having to evacuate her island, her last memories her grandmother asking her to be strong as she bleeds to death after a stillbirth.
Imagine a little girl growing up on the run with her uncle and knows what it is like to be hungry, to be hunted, to be afraid from the age of four. A girl who just wants to go home. A girl abused by her only family who hasn’t abandoned her (as the Martells, primarily Oberyn, fight to bring her home) telling her that her mother was a weak, pathetic woman who failed to please her father and that was why he had to take the she-wolf, and that she was just as useless.
Imagine a little girl crying herself to sleep thinking about her mother and little brother who died so that she may live, who she would never see again, as the memories begin to fade as she grows.
Imagine a girl now grown, being sold off like cattle for an army to a warlord. Being told that she’s worthless because she’s not a real dragon, just a snake.
Imagine a Khalessi who lives by her mother’s words “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” to gain the respect of not only her husband but also the Khalasar. Who commands the respect and love of her people by virtue of her strength, resilience, and stubbornness. Imagine a brown woman standing up to her white abuser who always made her feel worthless because of her race and gender, proving she is a true dragon. Imagine her fear and excitement at her pregnancy as she thinks of her mother and her troubling pregnancies and her grandmother’s many miscarriages and stillbirths. Imagine her heartbreak as she loses her child and husband. Imagine her not giving up, and despite everyone doubting her heritage, she is the first person to hatch dragon eggs in over a hundred years. She is the mother of dragons.
Imagine this Khalessi in the House of The Undying seeing her father, mother, and younger brother but she is unable to reach them, reminding her that this is her past. And then seeing a winter rose on the Wall.
Imagine a Queen who frees slaves because she sees people who hundreds of years ago were her ancestors people. And hundreds of years before that her other ancestors concurred. Imagine her liberating them because she thinks they deserve a chance that she had been lucky to be born with. Imagine these people flocking to a queen who looks like them, who is one of them, who is the Mother Rhoyne to them, who is Queen Nymeria, who is their savior (without any of the horrible racial implications of Daenerys) Imagine a brown Queen leading other people of color to developing their own agency and leading independence movements and them choosing her because of that.
Imagine how powerful of a scene it would be for Ser Barristan who failed to protect his prince on the battle field, saw the bloodied bodies of his princess and young prince, reunite with their daughter and swear his fealty to her, pledging to right the many wrongs he did by surviving the family that benefitted from the deaths of an innocent princess and her son.
Imagine a Queen meeting her remaining family for the first time in seventeen years when the Red Viper of Dorne, his paramour, and the sand snakes, arrive in Meereen and all she can do is hug her uncle and cry. Imagine him telling her about all the ways in which is is like her mother, telling her stories about her and Dorne, and for the first time she is surrounded by people so much like her that she yearns for home even more than before, simply wanting to give up her crown to live in the Water Gardens with her family, but ultimately decides she has to continue with her campaign with the support of her family.
Imagine a Queen motivated to go to Westeros to answer the injustice of Robert’s Rebellion, against a regime that was earned through the blood of baby having his head smashed open in an act of utter brutality, or a princess being raped with the blood of her son on his hands before being cut in half, and rewarding this man with a knighthood rather than execution, and rewarding the man who gave the orders by making his daughter a queen. A Queen who wants to give the women of Westeros agency, preaches acceptance for birth status, gender, and sexual liberation like that of Dorne. A Queen who speaks for the people because she knows what it is like to be at the bottom of the wheel.
Imagine this girl who has been alone all her life, believing she was the last Targaryen, meeting her half-brother. The winter rose on the Wall.
Imagine Rhaenys Targaryen living.
