Daenerys Targaryen as Cleopatra AU - “I am not a politician. I am a Queen.”
Those of you who have seen my other edits know I am drawn to finding similarities and parallels between GoT characters and historical/fictional characters. I had the idea for this piece when I realized that Daenerys shared several traits with the famous Queen of Egypt besides beauty and a royal title.
Consider the facts:
Both women were female rulers in a male-dominated society.
Both ruled (or expect to rule) a nation their families were not originally from (apparently 200 years in a country still makes you a foreigner…?), Cleopatra’s Ptolemy line is Macedonian in origin, and Daenerys is of Valyrian heritage.
Both women’s families practiced sibling marriages. In fact, Cleopatra married not one, but two of her brothers, whereas Dany would have wed Viserys had there not been a need to marry her off for the Dothraki alliance.
Both women spent time in exile, only to return to reconquer the lands from which they were exiled.
Both women had affairs with powerful men who were rulers in their own right. Oh, and said men had a hand - directly or indirectly - in killing the women’s brothers.
Part of my GoT in Art series.
*Original painting is Cleopatra Testing out Poison on Condemned Prisoners by Alexandre Cabanel
Click on the pic to see it in higher-res.