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[lissabonofskagos]

Daenerys is 16 in A Dance with Dragons, tho. She's still a teenager and not a grown-ass woman.

If we’re going to go with the idea that she’s not a grown woman, then she shouldn’t be queen of anything, regardless of dragons. She’s either a child or a queen, she cannot be both. She is either responsible for all of her fuck ups, or she should not be in charge of anything.

Jon Snow is roughly her age (possibly a year older, I’d have to look at the books again), and he was voted the LC of the NW. Robb was roughly her age (possibly a bit younger) when he was king. They are/were both expected to behave and think as grown adults, so should she. Otherwise, we are infantilizing her.

We cannot decide that she’s fit to be queen while at the same time saying she’s just a child and still learning. Westeros (and Essos, as it’s been shown) cannot survive her “learning” when she has three nuclear weapons and an army consisting of ruthless slavers/rapers and brainwashed slaves all while refusing to learn from her advisors.

[lissabonofskagos]

actually re:my post about valyrian blood supremacy and stuff. yes i know this discourse is annoying. it is probably the single thing that most pisses me off in this fandom. yes i know i should disengage.

but i swear i CANNOT help but feel annoyed at it. Someone brought up Nettles in the tags and it's like... G-d it infuriates me when someone talks about Nettles as an example of why Valyrian blood supremacy is bullshit and people reply with "she's Daemon's bastard" or "she could be a Valyrian, Valyrian features are recessive" or any variant of that.

It's just. Missing The Point so much? Why would she be written in, the way she is, in The Rogue Prince if not as a precise counterpoint to Rhaenyra and Valyrian traditions and incest? Why would Martin spend so much time focusing on how different and Othered she is in relation to the main Targaryens, and how she tamed Sheepstealer in a different way from everyone else, and how she showed the dragon kindness and fed it mutton (while the original Valyrians were sheepherders) and how she has no known parents if not. To precisely make the point that you don't need to be Valyrian to ride a dragon. That you don't need incest and special blood and whatever to do it.

That these are creatures that you should see and treat with respect, and kindness, and that's the way you tame them.

There's literally no point to Nettles' existence if not as a direct dichotomy to Rhaenyra and the Targaryens; she's strong, fierce, independent, small, brown, poor, dirty, with black hair and a dragon she tamed by making a bond with. She's written into the narrative precisely as a counter to the Targaryen narrative of stunning, brave princes riding their inherited birthright - that's why she fascinates Daemon.

I know it's a bit of a harsh way to say it, but characters in stories are by and large written to serve a narrative purpose; and Nettles is to be everything that proves the aristocracy and nobility of the Targaryens in the Dance wrong.

[lissabonofskagos]

Honestly, all I stole was Kit's theory about Jon having mommy issues and made it explicit.

[lissabonofskagos]

THE WOLF THAT SLEW THE DRAGON

The other day I made this little post:

Here is Jon Snow killing his aunt to protect Sansa… Oh I’m sorry, this is Saint George killing the dragon to protect a redhead princess. In some versions of the tale Saint George marries the princess… [x]

I did it as a little funny post really, after reading some very bad takes about Targaryen dragons… But after just a small research the last couple of days the things I found are really amazing. Let’s see:  

Weiterlesen

[lissabonofskagos]

Yunkai, Astapor, and Mereen were already in chaos because they were slave cities. I agree she was naive in thinking things would resolve themselves after merely overthrowing slavery, as reconstruction is notoriously fickle and tricky business. But it’s hardly just vanity, considering she herself had been a slave. And abolition IS a step forward, even if it’s not the final step like she thought

She was not a slave.

Her brother offered her to Khal Drogo as a wife. Or "gifted" her in exchange for an expected return, which is undeniably unjust and cruel abuse based entirely on the patriarchical power that men have over women in Westeros and Essos. It was a marriage contract in its starkest, least romanticized, objectifying, exploitative form.

But she was not an actual slave, with no rights, no status, no power. No more than any girl in Westeros who is married off for a political alliance. It is not the same as slavery, even if Dany likens her fate to being sold when talking about it with Xaro.

She owned her own slaves, her "handmaidens" Irri, Jhiqui and Doreah, gifted to her as wedding presents. Drogo enslaved a whole town and the suvivors of two khalasars, and she barely batted an eye, and only the rape of Eroeh inspired her to shift the ownership of the female slaves to herself, including Mirri whom she later murdered with fire.

Dany was a slaver herself. Not a slave.

And you are missing my point. Dany was not "abolishing" anything. She decided to have all the Astapori slavers (and tokar-wearing freeborn aged 12 and upward) killed, essentially on a whim, because it was cheaper than buying the Unsullied and felt like an easy win against some evil men. Afterwards, the Unsullied followed her in the exact same way they would have if she had simply bought them, no thought of making their own plans for their own lives with their sudden freedom. What a bargain! Oh, and those pesky civillians chose to follow her too, can't be helped.

She didn't go in with the intention to end slavery, it was a series of spontaneous decisions that each 100% benefitted her short-term conquest plans and felt satisfying because it meant violence or humiliation towards a cruel class of elite slavers who had treated her much more rudely than the elite class of slavers at Qarth that she had apparently no problem with at all.

She was taking a cut from slave sales in Meereen before she even decided to stay there to see through her "abolition" project. She forced random free people into unpaid labor. It was complete vanity, briefly joined by the awkward feeling of guilt and horror at her own violent impact. She hated that it wasn't a quick fix to make herself feel powerful and just, because it was vanity.

Also, chaos is not what was going on in Slaver's Bay before she arrived. Horrific exploitation, yes. Unbelievable cruelty, yes. Injustice that utterly needed ending, yes. Chaos, with mass starvation, rampant disease, civil war in the streets, war between states, and no functional authority to establish the rule of law? No. That's the thing that happened because Dany was being "naive" with the fate of thousands of people. "Naive" meaning "mass murder is the solution, yay, so simple!"

[lissabonofskagos]

"I will take any boy above the age of twelve who knows how to hold a spear or string a bow."- Jon(ADWD V).

"Slay the Good Masters, slay the soldiers, slay every man who wears a tokar or holds a whip, but harm no child under twelve, and strike the chains off every slave you see."- Dany(ASOS III).

Jon is asking for boys above 12 to defend the Wall and Dany ordering to kill children above 12.

True say, anon!

But there's a far more devastating parallel here.

I will take any boy above the age of twelve who knows how to hold a spear or string a bow. I will take your old men, your wounded, and your cripples, even those who can no longer fight. There are other tasks they may be able to perform. Fletching arrows, milking goats, gathering firewood, mucking out our stables … the work is endless. - Jon V, ADWD

x

Those too old or young to be of use had been cast into the streets, along with the infirm and the crippled. - Daenerys I, ADWD

[lissabonofskagos]

Thinking about Jon and Mormont's raven again because they give off the ultimate "i will fistfight god if I have to no questions asked but I will also positively die if mildly inconvenienced" vibes

Like sure Jon can face an army of Free Folk that hates him twice over after his spy era with a one-way ticket or take a poor banker from Braavos and make him regret being born until he gets a deal he deems fair or hear Ser Alliser be a general bitch and need like ten people to pull him from putting a fork through his jugular or go tell Stannis that yes he turned down his offer to rule Winterfell and no he's not giving him any of the Night's Watch castles and yes a ten-year-old is flipping His Majesty the bird from Bear Island but life is like that sometimes and by the way he's picking up Mance's son after daycare it's for a prank don't worry about it

BUT if this asshole of a bird demands corn ONE MORE TIME Jon is going to fling himself from the top of the Wall. He can face any kind of hardship winter throws his way magical mystical goth zombies included but all Mormont's raven has to do is go "King. Snow. Die" and Jon is like "I need a lobotomy actually". I feel like we don't talk about it enough the power this dirtbag of a pet has is unparalleled

[lissabonofskagos]

Daenerys believes Brown Ben Plumm is her treason for love, and you're going to tell me Cersei is an idiot?

At least Margaery is a good guess.

[lissabonofskagos]

Bad man don't exist No evil man exists Just flesh and blood exists

—Frank Ocean, Wiseman.

(for @ivarthebadbitch)

[lissabonofskagos]

thinking about the difference between “fire and blood” and “winter is coming.” between, essentially, “look how intimidating we are,” and “we’re not easily intimidated.” and, yeah, i just love that for house stark.

[lissabonofskagos]

hotd incorrect quotes 1/ ∞

[lissabonofskagos]

[lissabonofskagos]

Game of Thrones Travel Posters - Created by Dream Machine Prints

Available for sale on their Etsy Shop.

[lissabonofskagos]

The worse part about D@ny rejecting the idea to plant saffron and prefer to tax slavery taking the tenth part of the price, is that months before, when she wanted to buy slave soldiers, btw, she was told:

"...these ships carry more than your Dothraki and their horses. They took on trade goods at Qarth, I've been through the holds and seen for myself. Bolts of silk and bales of tiger skin, amber and jade carvings, saffron, myrrh... slaves are cheap, Your Grace."

D@ny I - ASOS

And you can't say that it was something that she didn't pay a lot of attention, because she then had this conversation (buying slaves, btw):

"Are you having gold and trading goods sufficient to be paying for all these eunuchs you are wanting?"

"You know the answer to that better than I, Good Master," D@ny replied. "Your men have gone through my ships and tallied every bead of amber and jar of saffron. How much do I have?"

"Sufficient to be buying one thousands," the Good Master said, with a contemptuous smile. "Yet you are paying double, you are saying. Five centuries, then, is all you buy."

And she decides to tax slavery to pay her war...

You know, I was curious to know about the real world saffron. Yup, it's pretty expensive, but easy and simple to cultivate. Grow in 3-4 months and it's better to grow in fertile soil and a dry, moist soil, and a lot of sun... like Mereen! Some real world plants that are mentioned in the farms of Mereen confirm that the soil is ideal for it...

I can't believe it...

(post referenced)

I hadn't even considered the idea of them actually trying to grow trade goods. 

Trade is at the center of Dany’s efforts in Meereen for a while, next to food. Meereen’s main trade was slavery, but they had some other products that were destroyed, like olives. She desperately wants to trade with Qarth. 

Meereen's trade had dwindled away to nothing since she had ended slavery, but Xaro had the power to restore it. (ADWD, Daenerys III)

The whole issues is at the center of her discussion with the visiting Xaro Xhoan Daxos. 

Without slaves, Meereen had little to offer traders. 

Salt, copper, wine, none of that is attractive enough. It sure wouldn’t hurt if some valuable alternative could be grown there. (Not that Xaro actually cares, he just wants her gone so the slave trade can resume.) Ironically, while they can’t forge a trade deal because she refuses to sell him slaves, the one thing they do agree on is that he can buy a slave. 

Dany tries to argue with him on a philosophical level before she gives up. 

That made him wince. “And what would they do with freedom? As well give a fish a suit of mail. They were made to dance.”

“Made by who? Their masters? Perhaps your dancers would sooner build or bake or farm. Have you asked them?”

It’s Dany at some of her most sympathetic, but even there you see her inability to be consistent. This quote from the text is really just so fitting to what you're saying:

He was too eloquent for her. Dany had no answer for him, only the raw feeling in her belly. “Slavery is not the same as rain,” she insisted. “I have been rained on and I have been sold. It is not the same. No man wants to be owned.”

Xaro gave a languid shrug. "As it happens, when I came ashore in your sweet city, I chanced to see upon the riverbank a man who had once been a guest in my manse, a merchant who dealt in rare spices and choice wines. He was naked from the waist up, red and peeling, and seemed to be digging a hole."

"Not a hole. A ditch, to bring water from the river to the fields. We mean to plant beans. The beanfields must have water."

"How kind of my old friend to help with the digging. And how very unlike him. Is it possible he was given no choice in the matter? No, surely not. You have no slaves in Meereen."

Dany flushed. “Your friend is being paid with food and shelter. I cannot give him back his wealth. Meereen needs beans more than it needs rare spices, and beans require water.”

“Would you set my dancers to digging ditches as well? Sweet queen, when he saw me, my old friend fell to his knees and begged me to buy him as a slave and take him back to Qarth.”

She felt as if he’d slapped her. “Buy him, then.” (ADWD, Daenerys III)

Ultimately, it’s as you say: slaves are cheap. They are so cheaply made, all you need is force. Or desperation. “Pay” with food and shelter. Let them resell themselves, it buys a 10% cut. In gold, of course, never saffron. Never valuable trade goods.

Dany desperately wants to trade. But where are her merchants and traders?

Digging ditches.

[lissabonofskagos]

Rhaenyra fucking off to dragonstone for a decade while Alicent and Otto pretty much rule the kingdom is such a horrid decision on her part. Like, nothing is stopping Rhaenyra from being an active part of the small council, from petitioning to be made hand of the king. She could be ruling and politically maneuvering and establishing her claim, showing herself to be a good choice for queen. But instead she lets the Hightower contingent rule for ten years and is surprised when things don’t line up for her well.

[lissabonofskagos]

Everybody's asking who is Sauron.

But nobody's asking how is Sauron.

I mean homeboy probably got betrayed by his own people and sliced open. Poor Guy give him a break.

[lissabonofskagos]

Episode 6 -  The Princess and the Queen | Episode 7 -  Driftmark