A queen belongs to her people, not to herself
@rainhadaenerys reblogged your post “What do you think Daenerys' New path will be post ADWD?” and added:
#i want dany to be queen... why can't we have nice things? #i hate the idea that dany's only purpose is to serve as a plot device so that westerosi characters can live #as if nothing she learned in her journey meant anything #she's just a dragonrider whose only purpose is to die #i'm so sad right now
:( Although I speculate that Dany may sacrifice herself to save the world, and I don’t believe that being the queen of Westeros is her ultimate fate... I certainly don’t think her only purpose is to be a plot device? And I would definitely not say her journey means nothing???
Like, if Dany does choose to sacrifice herself, this will come as a consequence of everything she’s learned along the way. Everything she’s chosen, to fight for life, to fight for freedom, to put her people’s welfare above her own.
She lifted her head. “And I am Daenerys Stormborn, Daenerys of House Targaryen, of the blood of Aegon the Conqueror and Maegor the Cruel and old Valyria before them. I am the dragon’s daughter, and I swear to you, these men will die screaming.” –AGOT, Daenerys IX
“Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves?” –ASOS, Daenerys III
“Justice... that's what kings are for.” –ASOS, Daenerys III
She raised the harpy's fingers in the air... and then she flung the scourge aside. “Freedom!” she sang out. “Dracarys! Dracarys!” “Dracarys!" they shouted back, the sweetest word she'd ever heard. “Dracarys! Dracarys!” And all around them slavers ran and sobbed and begged and died, and the dusty air was filled with spears and fire. –ASOS, Daenerys III
“My people are bleeding. Dying. A queen belongs not to herself, but to the realm.” –ADWD, Daenerys IV
She would rather have drifted in the fragrant pool all day, eating icedfruit off silver trays and dreaming of a house with a red door, but a queen belongs to her people, not to herself. –ADWD, Daenerys IX
“This Mother of Dragons, this Breaker of Chains, is above all a rescuer.” –ADWD, Tyrion VI
And what are the Others, if not the ultimate slavers, mind-rapists, seeking to control the wills and bodies of all humanity? If Dany is the Stallion Who Mounts the World, then “all the people of the world will be [her] herd”; everybody threatened by the Long Night will be her khalasar, her kingdom, her people to protect, to rescue. It will be her choice to “ride [her dragon] to the ends of the earth”, to be the promised prince[ss] who brings justice to these eldritch slavers and makes them die screaming.
And if Dany’s sacrifice is the only way to resolve the War for the Dawn, I still believe it will come as a moment of triumph... tragic and sad, yes, emotionally overwhelming and painful, but ultimately triumphant, a choice decisively made, a life fulfilled. Her rage, rage, against the dying of the light.
Yes, maybe you could say it’s pointless, if death is the end, if we can’t have nice things, if there is no house with a red door for her, if Daenerys Targaryen can only dream of spring, if Frodo can’t stand to live in the world he saved. But I say, if nothing we do matters, all that matters is what we do. The point of ASOIAF, of Dany’s story and of all our heroes, is their choices in the face of the abyss. You have to try. Even if you die. “No chance, and no choice.” “Here and now, we are alive.”
