#then asos could be her dealing with yunkai and meereen

[aboveallarescuer]

[IMPORTANT] Dany’s tenure in Meereen - Her concessions & Why she is a true queen

I would say that this is the meta I'm the most proud of. I originally started to write it as part of the series of metas showing how Dany assesses the council she receives and makes her own choices (and it can still be considered as such), but I made it its own post because, modesty aside, I think this is a very important meta.

It dissects the recurring questions that Dany had to deal with (and that ultimately led to a false peace), how Dany is unfairly blamed for the slavers' actions and the many reasons why she is a true queen (in the sense of being one who "protects the ones who can't protect themselves"). It's probably the most comprehensive meta about not only her political situation in ADWD, but also about how and why she makes the decisions that she makes during her tenure in Meereen. I really recommend that you read it.

I didn't include, however, her decisions concerning the conflicts inside her city; I have already written a whole separate meta for them.

List of contents

0) Note on my classification of Dany's motivations

1) Recurring and/or major questions that Dany has to answer

2) Dany's ultimate choices

3) The consequences of Dany's choices and her reactions

4) Which problems are the masters' responsibility, not Dany's

5) Mhysa and mother of dragons: why both identities are fallible and how, like with her successes, Dany's failures are tied to her tendency to take responsibility

6) Why Dany is a good queen

Note on my classification of Dany's motivations

I'm putting this note in the beginning to avoid confusion from anyone who reads this meta. "Peace", "freedmen" and "empathy" can seem like interchangeable motivations, so let me explain what I mean with each of these words:

Peace: That's Dany's prime concern during her tenure and will concern decisions made to avoid further carnage or any sort of dissension. Examples include her decision to not aid the Butcher King and to marry Hizdahr.

Freedmen: This refers to moments where Dany made choices that wouldn't be convenient to her attempts to merge with the Meereenese slaves, but that were still in the freedmen's best interests. Examples include her staunch refusal to reopen the fighting pits.

Empathy: This refers solely to her decision to allow the freedmen who want to sell themselves back into slavery to do so. I made one category for that one action alone because a) even if it was a decision made to restore social harmony, its primary concern was the slaves' plight (hence why she imposed a tax on the slavers for the benefit of the city) rather than any attempt to merge with the Meereenese slavers and supress discord (so it doesn't fit "Peace") and b) despite her noble intentions, I would argue that it was ultimately not the right one for them (for reasons I detailed below), so it doesn't fit "Freedmen" either.

Herself: This refers to decisions that Dany makes thinking of her own needs and desires. One could argue that her attempts to restore order in Meereen are based on her desires, but they are not rooted in self-interest, but rather selflessness. This is for the choices that Dany made primarily based on her benefit. The only examples are her postponement of the choice of a husband and her refusal to allow Hizdahr's mother and sisters to inspect her womb.

This classification is not intended to imply that Dany's decisions have mutually exclusive purposes. It is true, for instance, that Dany's decisions to merge with the nobles are primarily motivated by her desire to "protect the ones who can't protect themselves"; even so, they will be classified as "peace" rather than "freedmen".

I think that categorizing them that way reinforces that many of Dany's choices unwittingly focused on a peace that benefitted the slavers rather than the freedmen. This, in turn, reinforces that the peace she tried to create was no true peace (which is the main lesson of her ADWD storyline).

Recurring and/or major questions that Dany has to answer

As I said above, not every decision that Dany made in her tenure will be examined in this section. The ones regarding the city's protection have been dissected in this meta. Others, such as her measures to revive the city's economy and her choice to confine and chain her dragons inside a pit, will be discussed in later sections of this meta.

I especially recommend reading questions 4, 9, 10, 11, 13 and 15.

ASOS Daenerys VI

Question 1: Do I end Meereen’s neutrality? (by helping Astapor against Yunkai)

Advice from: Ghael.

Dany’s answer: No.

Motivation: Peace.

“Two have presented themselves to bask in your radiance. [...] They arrived in the night on the Indigo Star, a trading galley out of Qarth.”

A slaver, you mean. Dany frowned. “Who are they?”


“The Star’s master and one who claims to speak for Astapor.”

“I will see the envoy first.” (ASOS Daenerys VI)

It's always nice to see Dany undermining the slavers for the sake of the freedmen (something she will do again in her first chapter of ADWD when she chooses to give the former slaves and the former masters equal attention). Here, even if that's not what ultimately happens (because Ghael is actually representing another slaver), Dany did have the intention to favor the former slaves - she assumes that the council of freedmen she had left was still in power, which is why she would rather listen to the Astapori envoy first instead of the trader captain (who she acknowledges as a slaver).

Dany questions why her council was deposed in favor of King Cleon, which his envoy Ghael claims to have been a result of the council members' supposed alliance with the Good Masters. Missandei tells Dany that Cleon was a butcher owned by Grazdan mo Ullhor. Dany feels disgusted for having given (as she sees it, though she wasn't directly responsible for it) Astapor "a butcher king", but she hides her discontent and asks Ghael what he wants. In the name of Great Cleon, he proposes an alliance between Meereen and Astapor against Yunkai to be sealed with a marriage. These are Dany's responses:

“I swore no harm would come to Yunkai if they released their slaves,” said Dany. (ASOS Daenerys VI)

~

Dany found herself bereft of words, but little Missandei came to her rescue. “Did his first wife give him sons?”

The envoy looked at her unhappily. “Great Cleon has three daughters by his first wife. Two of his newer wives are with child. But he means to put all of them aside if the Mother of Dragons will consent to wed him.”

“How noble of him,” said Dany. “I will consider all you’ve said, my lord.” (ASOS Daenerys VI)

As Dany will later learn, Ghael is not wrong to warn her against the threat that Yunkai represents. However, because Dany is feeling terribly guilty about what happened during the sack of Meereen, she chooses not to take part in any war for now (hoping against hope that the Yunkish will leave her alone if that's what she does).

Question 2: Do I let the Meereenese sell themselves back into slavery if they want to? 

Advice from: Missandei, Daario.

Dany’s answer: Yes, under some conditions.

Motivation: Empathy.

After Ghael leaves, Dany receives the trader captain. Like she once did with Kraznys and Missandei, she confirms if Ghael's information is accurate. Unfortunately, the situation in Astapor seems to be even worse than Ghael's report, which prompts this reaction from Dany:

The thing that surprised Dany most was how unsurprised she was. She found herself remembering Eroeh, the Lhazarene girl she had once tried to protect, and what had happened to her. It will be the same in Meereen once I march, she thought. The slaves from the fighting pits, bred and trained to slaughter, were already proving themselves unruly and quarrelsome. They seemed to think they owned the city now, and every man and woman in it. Two of them had been among the eight she’d hanged. There is no more I can do, she told herself. (ASOS Daenerys VI)

That Eroeh is being brought up here reinforces just how much Dany blames herself. Not only has Eroeh fueled both Dany's desire for vengeance and justice (which feed off each other rather than being mutually exclusive) before, she's perhaps the biggest example (in Dany's mind) of her failure to protect innocent lives. Now, even after her best efforts, it feels like the same has just happened (and will get even worse when/if she leaves).

I made this point before, however, and will make it again - yes, her actions indirectly caused these problems in Astapor, but the choices were ultimately made by Cleon. He was the one who enslaved highborn boys to become Unsullied and his actions were the ones that led to the chaos, the political unrest and the economy's collapse in the city. Dany did make a mistake for not leaving a garrison to guarantee that the council she chose wouldn't be overthrown, but she is not responsible for the atrocities that happened later.

The captain wants slaves to sell in Lys and Volantis, which Dany refuses at first, only to be informed by Daario that many Meereenese want to be sold in the Free Cities to be "tutors, scribes, bed slaves, even healers and priests" and potentially find a more comfortable lifestyle.

Disillusioned by the news of Astapor, Dany relents under certain conditions:

“I see.” Perhaps it was not so shocking, if these tales of Astapor were true. Dany thought a moment. “Any man who wishes to sell himself into slavery may do so. Or woman.” She raised a hand. “But they may not sell their children, nor a man his wife.” (ASOS Daenerys VI)

After listening to Missandei's advice, Dany also decides to impose a tax on the price of the slaves to help to fortify Meereen:

“In Astapor the city took a tenth part of the price, each time a slave changed hands,” Missandei told her.

“We’ll do the same,” Dany decided. Wars were won with gold as much as swords. “A tenth part. In gold or silver coin, or ivory. Meereen has no need of saffron, cloves, or zorse hides.” (ASOS Daenerys VI)

Daario offers to have the Stormcrows collect the tenth, but Dany is rightly wary of them and tasks freedmen to keep records of the gold (which highlights that she's not taking that money for her own self-gratification):

If the Stormcrows saw to the collections at least half the gold would somehow go astray, Dany knew. But the Second Sons were just as bad, and the Unsullied were as unlettered as they were incorruptible. “Records must be kept,” she said. “Seek among the freedmen for men who can read, write, and do sums.” (ASOS Daenerys VI)

This was not Dany's best decision; slavery ends not only with economic reforms, but also cultural ones in order to change the freedmen's outlook on their alternatives and their own dignity. Still, we need to have in mind that she is aiming to restore harmony in a short period of time (which is ultimately in vain, but still a sympathetic effort nonetheless). Even more so, we must take Dany's youth and inexperience into consideration, as well as the fact that trying to help the former slaves solely for their own sake already makes her a more commendable ruler than most of the others in this series by leaps and bounds. Finally, we should have in mind, as this meta by @yendany shows, that Dany's decision was aided by Missandei, a former slave herself. This highlights how it was made with the best interests of the marginalized group in mind; the tax will, after all, be used to revitalize the city and guarantee that slavery remains abolished.

ADWD Daenerys I

Question 3: Do I assimilate myself into the Meereenese nobility (by using the tokar)?

Advice from: the Green Grace, Brown Ben.

Dany’s answer: Yes.

Motivation: Peace.

Dany's dislike of the tokar was clear even back in ASOS:

His left hand held the tokar in place as he walked, while his right clasped a short leather whip. (ASOS Daenerys II)

~

All wrapped themselves in tokars, a garment permitted only to freeborn men of Astapor. (ASOS Daenerys III)

~

"You swore I should have safe conduct!" the Yunkish envoy wailed.

"Do all the Yunkai'i whine so over a singed tokar? (ASOS Daenerys IV)

Indeed, the tokar was so strongly associated with slavery in Dany's mind that she ordered the Unsullied to kill those holding a whip and wearing a tokar:

“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.” (ASOS Daenerys III)

That's the emotional baggage she is carrying when her first impulse is to ban the tokar. She backpedals on her decision, though this quote makes it clear that she does it for conciliation rather than her own wishes:

Walking in a tokar demanded small, mincing steps and exquisite balance, lest one tread upon those heavy trailing fringes. It was not a garment meant for any man who had to work. The tokar was a master’s garment, a sign of wealth and power.

Dany had wanted to ban the tokar when she took Meereen, but her advisors had convinced her otherwise. “The Mother of Dragons must don the tokar or be forever hated,” warned the Green Grace, Galazza Galare. “In the wools of Westeros or a gown of Myrish lace, Your Radiance shall forever remain a stranger amongst us, a grotesque outlander, a barbarian conqueror. Meereen’s queen must be a lady of Old Ghis.” Brown Ben Plumm, the captain of the Second Sons, had put it more succinctly. “Man wants to be the king o’ the rabbits, he best wear a pair o’ floppy ears.” (ADWD Daenerys I)

But then, it's a relatively small price to pay if she can achieve peace quickly that way.

Question 4: Do I assimilate myself into the Meereenese nobility (by reopening the fighting pits)?

Advice from: Hizdahr.

Dany’s answer: No.

Motivation: Freedmen.

Like the tokar, the fighting pits were also a major emblem of slavery for Dany in ASOS:

“A bull is strong as well, but bulls die every day in the fighting pits. A girl of nine killed one not three days past in Jothiel's Pit.[”] (ASOS Daenerys II)

~

“Ask her if she wishes to view our fighting pits,” Kraznys added. “Douquor's Pit has a fine folly scheduled for the evening. A bear and three small boys. One boy will be rolled in honey, one in blood, and one in rotting fish, and she may wager on which the bear will eat first.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

~

She stood by the rail and looked out over Astapor. From here it looks almost beautiful, she thought. The stars were coming out above, and the silk lanterns below, just as Kraznys's translator had promised. The brick pyramids were all glimmery with light. But it is dark below, in the streets and plazas and fighting pits. And it is darkest of all in the barracks, where some little boy is feeding scraps to the puppy they gave him when they took away his manhood. (ASOS Daenerys II)

~

All the grey bricks became red and yellow and blue and green and orange. The scarlet sands of the fighting pits transformed them into bleeding sores before her eyes. (ASOS Daenerys VI)

As we can see from these quotes, the systematic killing of children for the nobility's entertainment informed Dany's decision to rebel against the masters and free the slaves and certainly informs her decision to keep the fighting pits closed for now. That she sees them as "bleeding sores" at the end of ASOS signals her ongoing discomfort.

Related to her moral outrage, Dany is unwilling to reopen the fighting pits because she is aware that the nobility will profit off the "bleeding sores" of the freedmen:

When Dany had closed the city’s fighting pits, the value of pit shares had plummeted. Hizdahr zo Loraq had grabbed them up with both hands, and now owned most of the fighting pits in Meereen. (ADWD Daenerys I)

At this point in the story, Dany thinks that ruling Meereen means allying herself with the Meereenese. In this sense, she had everything to gain by satisfying the needs of Hizdahr and Grazdan zo Galare (the Green Grace's cousin), as she admits to herself:

I need this man, Dany reminded herself. Hizdahr was a wealthy merchant with many friends in Meereen, and more across the seas. He had visited Volantis, Lys, and Qarth, had kin in Tolos and Elyria, and was even said to wield some influence in New Ghis, where the Yunkai’i were trying to stir up enmity against Dany and her rule.

And he was rich. Famously and fabulously rich …

And like to grow richer, if I grant his petition. (ADWD Daenerys I)

~

Grazdan, she had been forewarned, was a cousin of the Green Grace, whose support she had found invaluable. The priestess was a voice for peace, acceptance, and obedience to lawful authority. I can give her cousin a respectful hearing, whatever he desires. (ADWD Daenerys I)

However, in the beginning of ADWD, Dany is not as desperate to find short-term peace as she will be later on - at least not to the point of compromising her moral principles. Her natural impulse is to make pro-freedmen decisions that ultimately hurt the privileged. She is not as concerned to deny these potential allies their petitions:

“...Hizdahr, if you could marshal armies as you marshal arguments, you could conquer the world … but my answer is still no. For the sixth time.” (ADWD Daenerys I)

~

“Let us say Elza. Here is our ruling. From the girls, you shall have nothing. It was Elza who taught them weaving, not you. From you, the girls shall have a new loom, the finest coin can buy. That is for forgetting the name of the old woman.” (ADWD Daenerys I)

Which is certainly an overall attitude that informs her determination to keep the pits closed. Related to that point, it is also noteworthy that, while she felt some regret in ASOS for cruficifying the masters, her thoughts are a bit different now that she sees that sparing them caused negative consequences for the freedmen:

After Meereen had fallen, Dany had nailed up a like number of Great Masters. Swarms of flies had attended their slow dying, and the stench had lingered long in the plaza. Yet some days she feared that she had not gone far enough. These Meereenese were a sly and stubborn people who resisted her at every turn. They had freed their slaves, yes … only to hire them back as servants at wages so meagre that most could scarce afford to eat. Those too old or young to be of use had been cast into the streets, along with the infirm and the crippled. And still the Great Masters gathered atop their lofty pyramids to complain of how the dragon queen had filled their noble city with hordes of unwashed beggars, thieves, and whores.

To rule Meereen I must win the Meereenese, however much I may despise them. (ADWD Daenerys I)

Another interesting note that is that, by the time the events of ADWD Daenerys I take place, Dany is already quite familiar with Hizdahr's reasons in favor of reopening the pits, so much so that the author has Dany herself recite them onpage (instead of Hizdahr) to show off her intelligence:

“It is your cause I find wanting, not your courtesies. I have heard your arguments so often I could plead your case myself. Shall I?” Dany leaned forward. “The fighting pits have been a part of Meereen since the city was founded. The combats are profoundly religious in nature, a blood sacrifice to the gods of Ghis. The mortal art of Ghis is not mere butchery but a display of courage, skill, and strength most pleasing to your gods. Victorious fighters are pampered and acclaimed, and the slain are honored and remembered. By reopening the pits I would show the people of Meereen that I respect their ways and customs. The pits are far-famed across the world. They draw trade to Meereen, and fill the city’s coffers with coin from the ends of the earth. All men share a taste for blood, a taste the pits help slake. In that way they make Meereen more tranquil. For criminals condemned to die upon the sands, the pits represent a judgment by battle, a last chance for a man to prove his innocence.” She leaned back again, with a toss of her head. “There. How have I done?” (ADWD Daenerys I)

Not only does she manage to remember all seven of Hizdahr's arguments, Dany is also well-mannered enough to leave out the one argument that only benefits Hizdahr (i.e. the profit he'll make out of the pits) and that Hizdahr wouldn't bring up because it wouldn't help him to convince her to change her mind (even though she is aware of it).

Then, Dany astutely notes that, if the fighting pits were reopened, she would tax them before they make a profit of them in order to undermine Hizdahr and help the city:

“Your Magnificence,” whispered Reznak mo Reznak in her ear, “it is customary for the city to claim one-tenth of all the profits from the fighting pits, after expenses, as a tax. That coin might be put to many noble uses.”

“It might … though if we were to reopen the pits, we should take our tenth before expenses. I am only a young girl and know little of such matters, but I dwelt with Xaro Xhoan Daxos long enough to learn that much.[”] (ADWD Daenerys I)

Relatively speaking, wearing a tokar wasn't a hard concession for Dany. Despite her aforementioned problems with its symbolic meaning, we know that she is good at assimilating herself into a different culture. Accepting traditions that will directly harm the freedmen, on the other hand, is a different matter. Dany firmly says no for now because she feels that she has multiple alternatives.

Question 5: Do I end Meereen’s neutrality? (by helping Astapor against Yunkai)

Advice from: Ghael.

Dany’s answer: No.

Motivation: Peace.

Ghael shows up again. Instead of proposing a marriage between Dany and Cleon, he gives her a pair of slippers and simply asks for Dany to support Astapor in the fight against Yunkai. Even though both Ghael and Cleon are former slaves, Dany has no sympathy for them after the latter reinstalled slavery and still denies his request:

His new Unsullied are an obscene jape. “King Cleon would be wise to tend his own gardens and let the Yunkai’i tend theirs.” It was not that Dany harbored any love for Yunkai. She was coming to regret leaving the Yellow City untaken after defeating its army in the field. The Wise Masters had returned to slaving as soon as she moved on, and were busy raising levies, hiring sellswords, and making alliances against her.

Cleon the self-styled Great was no better, however. The Butcher King had restored slavery to Astapor, the only change being that the former slaves were now the masters and the former masters were now the slaves.

“I am only a young girl and know little of the ways of war,” she told Lord Ghael, “but we have heard that Astapor is starving. Let King Cleon feed his people before he leads them out to battle.” She made a gesture of dismissal. Ghael withdrew. (ADWD Daenerys I)

As we can see from this quote, Dany is realizing, like she did with the Meereenese nobles, that she should've been more ruthless in her punishment of the Yunkish nobles; Ghael's warning about the Yunkai'i preparing to fight against her (made back in ASOS Daenerys VI) is now coming to fruition. That being said, because Dany is focusing on Meereen's reform and believes that the slavers will leave her alone if she remains neutral, she asks for Cleon to do the same. It's easy to see where she's coming from and her reform attempts (as I will show later) will not be in vain, but underestimating the Yunkish threat is still, ultimately, a mistake of hers.

Question 6: Do I assimilate myself into the Meereenese nobility (by marrying a noble)?

Advice from: the Green Grace and Reznak.

Dany’s answer: No.

Motivation: Herself.

At this point in time, Dany isn't as desperate to find peace as she'll be later. While she still listens to her advisors' encouragement to take a husband and even weighs on her available options, she doesn't take any real measures for now:

“Cleon the Great sends these slippers as a token of his love for Daenerys Stormborn, the Mother of Dragons.”

[...] Does the butcher king believe a pair of pretty slippers will win my hand? [...] “His Magnificence bids me say that he stands ready to defend the Mother of Dragons from all her foes.”

If he proposes again that I wed King Cleon, I’ll throw a slipper at his head, Dany thought, but for once the Astapori envoy made no mention of a royal marriage. (ADWD Daenerys I)

~

I need this man, Dany reminded herself. Hizdahr was a wealthy merchant with many friends in Meereen, and more across the seas. He had visited Volantis, Lys, and Qarth, had kin in Tolos and Elyria, and was even said to wield some influence in New Ghis, where the Yunkai’i were trying to stir up enmity against Dany and her rule. (ADWD Daenerys I)

~

He might be handsome, but for that silly hair. Reznak and the Green Grace had been urging Dany to take a Meereenese noble for her husband, to reconcile the city to her rule. Hizdahr zo Loraq might be worth a careful look. Sooner him than Skahaz. The Shavepate had offered to set aside his wife for her, but the notion made her shudder. Hizdahr at least knew how to smile. (ADWD Daenerys I)

That's, of course, understandable, since choosing a husband would mean risking her personal happiness and giving up her sexual autonomy.

ADWD Daenerys II

Question 7: Do I assimilate myself into the Meereenese nobility (by reopening the fighting pits)?

Advice from: Hizdahr, Reznak, the Green Grace, the Shavepate, Belwas, Barristan, Missandei.

Dany’s answer: No.

Motivation: Freedmen.

Dany is still (rightfully) adamant that she won't reopen the fighting pits, even if her counsellors (aside from Missandei) suggest otherwise. But Hizdahr's seventh attempt to convince her leaves her feeling more conflicted than before. He brings seven former pit fighters (because he recognizes the significance of the number in Westeros) and has each of them speak in favor of the return of the pits:

Dany knew his seven, by name if not by sight. All had been amongst the most famed of Meereen’s fighting slaves … and it had been the fighting slaves, freed from their shackles by her sewer rats, who led the uprising that won the city for her. She owed them a blood debt. “I will hear you,” she allowed.

One by one, each of them asked her to let the fighting pits reopen. “Why?” she demanded, when Ithoke had finished. “You are no longer slaves, doomed to die at a master’s whim. I freed you. Why should you wish to end your lives upon the scarlet sands?” (ADWD Daenerys II)

Goghor the Giant says that he was trained to fight since the age of three and should have the option to fight, to which Dany answers:

“If it is fighting you want, fight for me. Swear your sword to the Mother’s Men or the Free Brothers or the Stalwart Shields. Teach my other freedmen how to fight.” (ADWD Daenerys II)

None of them is persuaded by her reply, however. Goghor compares her suggestion to a master's orders and says that he should fight for himself, the Spotted Cat explains that his life was better as a slave and Khrazz brings up the potential rewards for the winners. Even so, Dany is still not convinced and does not think that Hizdahr is "honorable" like the fighters do:

No, a cunning man. Daenerys felt trapped. “And the losers? What shall they receive?” (ADWD Daenerys II)

Barsena answers Dany's question by saying that their names will be inscribed on the Gates of Fate, but that they will not be remembered.

Now more uncertain than before, that's Dany's decision for the moment:

Dany had no answer for that. If this is truly what my people wish, do I have the right to deny it to them? It was their city before it was mine, and it is their own lives they wish to squander. “I will consider all you’ve said. Thank you for your counsel.” (ADWD Daenerys II)

As I explained in this post, Dany is looking at the issue from a moral standpoint. This is clear when she asks what the losers will receive; dying in these duels is an injustice on its own sake - it would mean dying primarily to make the noblemen entertained and rich (as she recognizes) and, consequently, perpetuating the very social oppression that she is trying to end (because the existence of the pits is tied to the existence of slavery and inequality in general).

At the same time, though, she is still 15-16 at this point and is in an unprecedented situation for her world, so she can't articulate her stance as eloquently as she might in the future nor does she entirely realize that the freedmen's consent is dubious in this particular case (since they weren't educated and socialized to believe that they should fight for their basic rights).

Nevertheless, even with those complications, Dany doesn't relent for now.

ADWD Daenerys III

Question 8: Do I end Meereen’s neutrality? (by waging war against Yunkai and helping Astapor against Yunkai)

Advice from: Xaro and Ghael.

Dany’s answer: No (for the most part).

Motivation: Peace.

In this chapter, Dany receives bad news from Xaro about Yunkai. He makes it clear that they will not spare her city, as much as she would want them to do so for remaining neutral in their war. Unbeknownst to him, she has been taking measures to prepare Meereen for war. The first measure was a failed one:

Daenerys had sent missions to Tolos and Mantarys, hoping to find new friends to the west to balance the enmity of Yunkai to the south. Her envoys had not returned. (ADWD Daenerys III)

As Dany finds out from Xaro, Tolos and Mantarys have made an alliance with Yunkai instead. In the next chapter, she will learn that the former called her a whore and asked for the city to be returned to the Great Masters and that the latter killed her three envoys.

The second measure, on the other hand, is more successful and will influence the outcome of the Battle of Fire; she organized the freedmen into three companies:

“My freedman—” Dany started.

“Bedslaves, barbers, and brickmakers win no battles.”

He was wrong in that, she hoped. The freedmen had been a rabble once, but she had organized the men of fighting age into companies and commanded Grey Worm to make them into soldiers. (ADWD Daenerys III)

~

Her freedmen were represented by the captains of the three companies she had formed—Mollono Yos Dob of the Stalwart Shields, Symon Stripeback of the Free Brothers, Marselen of the Mother’s Men. (ADWD Daenerys III)

However, even if she's now taking actions to fortify Meereen, it doesn't mean that Dany will now help Cleon:

“I warned your king that this war of his was folly,” Dany reminded him. “He would not listen.” (ADWD Daenerys III)

~

“Great Cleon is a slaver himself.” (ADWD Daenerys III)

Those were her former reasons to not help them. The actual one, at this point, is this:

And if I do, who will defend my walls? “Many of my freedmen were slaves in Astapor. Perhaps some will wish to help defend your king. That is their choice, as free men. I gave Astapor its freedom. It is up to you to defend it.” (ADWD Daenerys III)

As it's been argued before, not leaving part of the Unsullied in Astapor to ensure that her council would remain in power was one of Dany's crucial mistakes. It would be a specially bad time to do that now because she has too many enemies both inside and outside the city. She still says no, which leads a desperate Ghael to spit on her face. Belwas slams him down onto the marble, which prompts Dany to ask him to stop. Despite his lack of respect, she won't give him a disproportionate punishment because "no one has ever died from spittle". 

ADWD Daenerys IV

Question 9: Do I assimilate myself into the Meereenese nobility (by marrying a noble)?

Advice from: the Green Grace.

Dany’s answer: Yes, under some conditions.

Motivation: Peace.

Dany is more apprehensive and less hopeful at this point - as she explains to the Green Grace, Qarth, Tolos and Mantarys have all sided with Yunkai and openly declared war to her, freedmen are still being killed at night (note that the Green Grace may have played a part on their deaths) and the Butcher King of Astapor was killed by his own soldiers when he commanded them to fight the Yunkish, starting off a civil war inside the city while Yunkai besieges it. Dany feels like she is failing to deal with both wars (outside and inside the city), even more so because her primary desire is to be the ruler who will make Meereen more prosperous and "plant trees".

This complicated situation leads the Green Grace to counsel Dany to marry Hizdahr (again), which she finds predictable. Dany recognizes the self-interest behind the Green Grace's counsel and makes several objections to it:

“Tell me, can this king puff his cheeks up and blow Xaro’s galleys back to Qarth? Can he clap his hands and break the siege of Astapor? Can he put food in the bellies of my children and bring peace back to my streets?” (ADWD Daenerys IV)

~

“And who would the gods of Ghis have me take as my king and consort?”

“Hizdahr zo Loraq,” Galazza Galare said firmly.

Dany did not trouble to feign surprise. “Why Hizdahr? Skahaz is noble born as well.” (ADWD Daenerys IV)

~

“His forebears are as dead as mine. Will Hizdahr raise their shades to defend Meereen against its enemies? I need a man with ships and swords. You offer me ancestors.” (ADWD Daenerys IV)

However, Dany also begins to think that this may be the best course of action if she wants to help her people:

Daenerys Targaryen had other children, tens of thousands who had hailed her as their mother when she broke their chains. She thought of Stalwart Shield, of Missandei’s brother, of the woman Rylona Rhee, who had played the harp so beautifully. No marriage would ever bring them back to life, but if a husband could help end the slaughter, then she owed it to her dead to marry. (ADWD Daenerys IV)

At the same time, Dany ponders what marrying Hizdahr might mean for the Shavepate (whose support she values a lot) and why she would rather marry Hizdahr rather than the Shavepate (even if she trusts the latter more):

If I wed Hizdahr, will that turn Skahaz against me? She trusted Skahaz more than she trusted Hizdahr, but the Shavepate would be a disaster as a king. He was too quick to anger, too slow to forgive. She saw no gain in wedding a man as hated as herself. Hizdahr was well respected, so far as she could see. (ADWD Daenerys IV)

This is not a decision that Dany makes lightly because she's aware of its setbacks. Still, Hizdahr has public support and, as the Green Grace pointed out, the right bloodline, which makes him the better husband if Dany wants to find conciliation with the slavers (which, for now, is what she wants in the name of a false peace).

In keeping with Dany's tendency to be kind and courteous, she restrains her irritation concerning the Green Grace's condescendence:

“What does my prospective husband think of this?” she asked the Green Grace. What does he think of me?

“Your Grace need only ask him. The noble Hizdahr awaits below. Send down to him if that is your pleasure.”

You presume too much, priestess, the queen thought, but she swallowed her anger and made herself smile. “Why not?” (ADWD Daenerys IV)

From the passage above, one can infer that the Green Grace already expected Dany to follow her advice, so much so that she already had Hizdahr wait below the pyramid. Dany is aware of that condescending attitude; she still follows the Green Grace's advice for the reasons stated above, but it can't be simply said that she's being "dumb" for doing so.

I will talk more about Dany's interactions with Hizdahr in the next question. For now, let's only consider her request if she is to marry him:

“Peace is my desire. You say that you can help me end the nightly slaughter in my streets. I say do it. Put an end to this shadow war, my lord. That is your quest. Give me ninety days and ninety nights without a murder, and I will know that you are worthy of a throne. Can you do that?” (ADWD Daenerys IV)

Marrying Hizdahr is not a "stupid" thing for Dany to do (as I've seen some claim). Again, she knows it's not an unequivocally good choice:

If Meereen knew that a wedding was in the offing, that alone might buy her a few nights’ respite, even if Hizdahr’s efforts came to naught. The Shavepate will not be happy with me, but Reznak mo Reznak will dance for joy. Dany did not know which of those concerned her more. She needed Skahaz and the Brazen Beasts, and she had come to mistrust all of Reznak’s counsel. Beware the perfumed seneschal. Has Reznak made common cause with Hizdahr and the Green Grace and set some trap to snare me? (ADWD Daenerys IV)

As the quote shows, Dany acknowledges the Shavepate's importance (even if she is still ultimately not doing what he advises her to do) and has a healthy dose of distrust of Hizdahr, the Green Grace and Reznak (even if she is still ultimately doing what they advise her to do). Her problem is not that her judgment of them is poor, but rather that her solution doesn't address her ultimate goal, namely to end slavery and protect the freedmen on a long-term basis. That's because, unlike what many think, she feels reluctant about relying too heavily on violence; it's not her "comfort zone" and she has witnessed its costs before.

I would be remiss if I didn't note that Dany perceives marriage as a personal sacrifice, which is why she also wants to know if she can be attracted to and maybe even fall in love with Hizdahr:

“I always grow solemn in the presence of such beauty.”

It was a good start. (ADWD Daenerys IV)

~

He is not hard to look at, Dany told herself, and he has a king’s tongue. “Kiss me,” she commanded.

He took her hand again, and kissed her fingers.

“Not that way. Kiss me as if I were your wife.”

Hizdahr took her by the shoulders as tenderly as if she were a baby bird. Leaning forward, he pressed his lips to hers. His kiss was light and dry and quick. Dany felt no stirrings.

“Shall I … kiss you again?” he asked when it was over.

“No.” On her terrace, in her bathing pool, the little fish would nibble at her legs as she soaked. Even they kissed with more fervor than Hizdahr zo Loraq. “I do not love you.”

“I do not love you.”

Hizdahr shrugged. “That may come, in time. It has been known to happen that way.”

Not with us, she thought. Not whilst Daario is so close. It’s him I want, not you. (ADWD Daenerys IV)

Is Dany being unreasonable and distracted for having these considerations? No.

First, Dany is willing to marry Hizdahr if he ends the shadow war in Meereen regardless of his physical appearance. She puts her people first (to her own detriment, for she knows that she won't ever love him), as she makes it clear to Barristan:

“Lingering here will never bring it any closer. The sooner we take our leave of this place—”

“I know. I do.” Dany did not know how to make him see. She wanted Westeros as much as he did, but first she must heal Meereen. (ADWD Daenerys IV)

Second, as we already saw, Dany doesn't fully trust Hizdahr because he's still a slaver wanting to profit off the fighting pits. Whether she's sexually attracted to him or not is only one of the many factors that she is considering (and not even one of the most important ones).

Third, it's good that Dany, for being queen regnant, can reflect on whether she desires her suitors or not; any woman should be able to consider that. Even so, her position doesn't prevent her from losing her political and sexual autonomy once she marries Hizdahr. We as readers should not criticize Dany herself, but rather the inherently misogynistic power structures with which she needs to deal.

Question 10: Do I end Meereen’s neutrality? (by making peace with Yunkai)

Advice from: Hizdahr.

Dany’s answer: Maybe.

Motivation: Peace.

Dany is predisposed to think ill of Hizdahr because of both the fighting pits and her belief that a marriage won't solve all her problems:

When she was gone, Dany let Qezza fill her cup again, dismissed the children, and commanded that Hizdahr zo Loraq be admitted to her presence. And if he dares say one word about his precious fighting pits, I may have him thrown off the terrace.

~

“You know why you are here. The Green Grace seems to feel that if I take you for my husband, all my woes will vanish.”

Hizdahr himself seems quite aware of that. For starters, he wears a "plain green robe beneath a quilted vest" (which is in keeping with his "simple robe of grey and blue" used to integrate himself with the seven freedmen he brought in ADWD Daenerys II and also a departure from his "purple tokar" "with amethysts and pearls" from ADWD Daenerys I) to pretend that he is frugal and he praises Dany's beauty. He'll also give the exact answers that Dany would want to hear (which I've talked about before here).

Dany makes reasonable questions pertaining to Hizdahr's desire to marry her (and a not-so-veiled threat as well):

Dany studied his eyes. “Why should the Sons of the Harpy lay down their knives for you? Are you one of them?”

[...] “Would you tell me if you were?” (ADWD Daenerys IV)

~

“The Shavepate has ways of finding the truth.” (ADWD Daenerys IV)

~

“Why would you want to help me? For the crown?” (ADWD Daenerys IV)

To these questions, Hizdahr presents answers of a modest nature that make them seem honest as well. No, he's not part of the Sons, but he wouldn't tell her if he was either. No, he admits that he isn't the solution to all her problems, but that he might still help Dany to bring order to the city. And no, he doesn't deny that he wants to be king, but he also wants to protect his own people. The latter response is the one that ultimately leads Dany to open herself up:

That was a good answer, and an honest one. “I have never wanted war. I defeated the Yunkai’i once and spared their city when I might have sacked it. I refused to join King Cleon when he marched against them. Even now, with Astapor besieged, I stay my hand. And Qarth … I have never done the Qartheen any harm …” (ADWD Daenerys IV)

At this point, Dany already understands how social injustice is an issue that goes beyond slavery and continues to affect the freedmen. What she hasn't realized is that her position of neutrality in Yunkai's war is not enough for them to leave her alone. Her existence as the Breaker of Chains and the main symbol of a successful abolitionist movement are reason enough for the privileged (who, all over the continent, had been relying on slave labor) to seek to actively oppose her. It doesn't matter if she is avoiding to use force or not; they will still attack, which is what Hizdahr points out. Her selflessness shines through in her response to him:

“Let them come. In me they shall find a sterner foe than Cleon. I would sooner perish fighting than return my children to bondage.” (ADWD Daenerys IV)

Then, Hizdahr remarks that Yunkai might allow the freedmen inside Meereen to remain freedmen if Dany allows slavery to be reinstalled in the Yellow City. This is how she reacts:

“...No more blood need flow.”

“Save for the blood of those slaves that the Yunkai’i will trade and train,” Dany said, but she recognized the truth in his words even so. It may be that is the best end we can hope for. (ADWD Daenerys IV)

Why does Dany still express discomfort? That's a result of Dany's development of a "universal sense of social justice", as @khaleesirin puts it. Dany cares about all of her freedmen in a way that goes beyond national identities. Seeing them (even those outside of Meereen) continue to suffer makes her feel like a failure.

That being said, Dany still believes that conciliation is the best option because she wants (and thinks this will help) to prevent more deaths at any cost, so she considers, for now, that making peace with the Yunkish may be "the best end we can hope for". She doesn't make a firm decision here, but she's more willing to end Meereen's neutrality now than she was before.

What I also find interesting is that this moment shows that her development is not linear and clear-cut. I've defended before that war is the only righteous option in the political arena Dany is currently in and that it's good that she's coming to that realization. Here, however, despite learning how her very existence is enough for the slavers to attempt to attack and undermine her, she still chooses the more lenient path for now.

ADWD Daenerys V

Question 11: Do I end Meereen’s neutrality? (by waging war against Yunkai)

Advice from: Barristan, Brown Ben, Reznak, the Shavepate.

Dany’s answer: No (with some consideration).

Motivation: Peace and freedmen.

Before this chapter, Dany already had many problems to deal with - the Sons wreaking havoc in Meereen, Astapor about to fall into Yunkai's hands, the city's economic crisis and multiple cities turning against her to reinstall slavery in Slaver's Bay.

In this chapter, not only she finds out that Astapor has fallen, but a new complication is also introduced: the bloody flux. Dany's first impulse is to be optimistic when she listens to the news of the rider on a pale mare with signs of the bloody flux ... until she realizes that his arrival fulfills Quaithe's prophecy. Dany knows what "she is burning" means next:

The Green Grace kissed Dany’s fingers before she took her leave. “We shall pray for Astapor.”

And for me. Oh, pray for me, my lady. If Astapor had fallen, nothing remained to prevent Yunkai from turning north. (ADWD Daenerys V)

She asks for Barristan to recall her bloodriders, the Stormcrows and the Second Sons. Her sense of dread grows, as well as her need for companionship. Eight days later, Brown Ben returns with the first three Astapori refugees who managed to find their way to Meereen. Basically, they disclose that:

Cleon the Great's fall led to more political chaos with King Cutthroat and Queen Whore's dissension.

The Yunkish devoured Astapor's crops and slaughtered their herds as the Red City's habitants remained stuck inside the gates eating "cats and rats and leather".

Due to the Astapori's malnutrition, the bloody flux eventually came and killed three in every four men inside the city.

Either dying men or healthy men trying to escape the flux killed the guards on the main gate to open it.

New Ghis, the Yunkai'i and their sellswords finally enter the city; they kill Queen Whore and King Cutthroat, set fire to the Temple of the Graces, close Astapor's gates to prevent anyone from leaving it and hunt down the Astapori who try to flee from the flames.

It's important to lay out all of these events because, along with the weaver's guilt trip (sympathetic as it is), they contextualize Dany's guilt (and all of her next decisions):

He sent for me, thought Dany. That much is true, at least. (ADWD Daenerys V)

~

I can scarce feed my own folk. If I had marched to Astapor, I would have lost Meereen. (ADWD Daenerys V)

~

I could not come, the queen thought. I dare not. (ADWD Daenerys V)

~

She knows I lie, the queen thought. She knows I cannot keep them safe. Astapor is burning, and Meereen is next. (ADWD Daenerys V)

After the Astapori leave, Ben warns Dany and her counsellors that more refugees are coming. Both Reznak and Ben advise her not to allow them to enter the city. After Ben compares them to bad apples for being sick, Dany passionately replies:

“These are not apples, Ben,” said Dany. “These are men and women, sick and hungry and afraid.” My children. (ADWD Daenerys V)

It's a similar response to the one she gave Xaro two chapters ago; unlike the people around her, Dany refuses to trivialize the former slaves' suffering.

Also, unlike how she replied questions 1, 5 and 8, Dany has now come to regret not having helped Astapor:

“I should have gone to Astapor.” (ADWD Daenerys V)

~

“Cleon was the enemy of our enemy. If I had joined him at the Horns of Hazzat, we might have crushed the Yunkai’i between us.” (ADWD Daenerys V)

Both Barristan and the Shavepate point out that Dany's military strength wasn't enough to help them and control the shadow war in Meereen at the same time, so she only had bad choices here. Even so, Dany can't not hold herself accountable:

“I know. I know. It is Eroeh all over again.”

Brown Ben Plumm was puzzled. “Who is Eroeh?”

“A girl I thought I’d saved from rape and torment. All I did was make it worse for her in the end. And all I did in Astapor was make ten thousand Eroehs.”

“Your Grace could not have known—”

“I am the queen. It was my place to know.” (ADWD Daenerys V)

Does that mean we the readers should blame Dany as well? No.

On the one hand, yes, her mistake in not leaving a garrison to support her council did make it easier for Cleon to depose it and create political instability in the city that would later benefit the Yunkai'i.

On the other hand, as I said in this post, Dany is not responsible for the Yunkish's choice to commit disproportional acts of violence against the Astapori.

Reznak suggests a marriage with Hizdahr to make peace with the Yunkai'i, but Dany is understandably wary of him due to Quaithe's prophecy. She distrusts him and she distrusts Yunkai (who broke its previous truce with Dany, even though she left their wealth intact) even more:

“I may be a young girl innocent of war, but I am not a lamb to walk bleating into the harpy’s den. I still have my Unsullied. I have the Stormcrows and the Second Sons. I have three companies of freedmen.” (ADWD Daenerys V)

Ben advises Dany to unleash her dragons, to which Reznak reacts with (veeeery hypocritical) indignation. Dany silences Reznak with "fury in her tone" and tells Ben that she won't use her dragons against her enemies. Nor will she follow his advice to sell Meereen and leave. In this particular moment, Dany is seriously considering to engage in armed conflict against Yunkai:

“...Grey Worm, are my freedmen ready for battle?” (ADWD Daenerys V)

~

“I defeated the Yunkai’i before. I will defeat them again. Where, though? How?” (ADWD Daenerys V)

Barristan thinks that attacking right away and taking advantage of the element of surprise would be the best course of action. The Shavepate disagrees because, according to him, the Yunkai'i have too many friends inside the city and Meereen's walls and protectors are stronger than Astapor's. This leads Dany to ask how large an army she can assemble and Ben doesn't give her a hopeful answer.

With all of this advice in mind, Dany orders Ben and his Second Sons to scout the Yunkish forces (and Ben requests more gold because he knows that he's going to turn on Dany) and asks Reznak to close the gates and double the number of soldiers keeping watch upon the walls. 

Her ultimate decision on whether to bring war to the Yunkai'i or not is made with Barristan. He thinks it's unfeasible to maintain a siege, so he reinforces his advice to attack them. But Dany thinks critically about his counsel and finds problems in it:

“Meet the foe,” she echoed, “with the freedmen you’ve called half-trained and unblooded.” (ADWD Daenerys V)

~

“Or five. And if I give you the Unsullied, I will have no one but the Brazen Beasts to hold Meereen.”

Ultimately, it's the same reason why she couldn't help Astapor: if she had done it, she would have left Meereen itself vulnerable. So she concludes:

“I cannot fight two enemies, one within and one without. If I am to hold Meereen, I must have the city behind me.[”] (ADWD Daenerys V)

My thoughts on how she dealt with this situation:

It's common to think that Dany is "made for war", not peace (or, alternatively, that she's a good heroine and a bad ruler). This assessment does a disservice to her character for putting her in a very limiting box that the text itself does not. As we see above (and as we saw in question 8), she can decide to lock her dragons and consider the option of bringing war to the Yunkai'i at the same time. She's more flexible than a single stance (either war or peace) even when she's primarily focused on one over the other.

Related to that point, she doesn't depend on a single advisor's viewpoint to make her decisions. She may trust Barristan more than she does either Reznak (who she suspects to be prophecied to betray her) or the Shavepate, but she still chooses their counsels (marrying Hizdahr and not taking up arms) because of their merit.

Question 12: Do I assimilate myself into the Meereenese nobility (by marrying a noble)?

Advice from: Reznak.

Dany’s answer: Yes.

Motivation: Peace.

As I said above, Dany is not making this decision based on Reznak's opinions, but on her own. Her goals are not as the same as his, after all; unlike Reznak or any other noble, she cares about the former slaves' plight and holds herself accountable for whatever ill happened to them once she freed them. That's why she has this thought while she considers what to do and ultimately decides:

“I cannot fight two enemies, one within and one without. If I am to hold Meereen, I must have the city behind me. The whole city. I need … I need …” She could not say it.

“Your Grace?” Ser Barristan prompted, gently.

A queen belongs not to herself but to her people.

“I need Hizdahr zo Loraq.” (ADWD Daenerys V)

The sack of Meereen, Stalwart Shield's and Rylona Rhee's and dozens of other deaths in Meereen, the fall of Astapor, the Astapori refugees coming infected by the pale mare ... These things are all looming large over Dany's head when she makes her choice. Again, it's ultimately not the right one since her goal is to end slavery, but one can understand why she would want to prevent more carnage from happening and why she would think that that would be the best course of action.

ADWD Daenerys VI

Question 13: Do I assimilate myself into the Meereenese nobility (by accepting even more concessions for the marriage)?

Advice from: the Green Grace and Reznak.

Dany’s answer: Yes, under some conditions.

Motivation: Peace and herself.

Dany's answer to this question is significant because it's the only one in which she explictly defends her own needs and desires:

The priestess and the seneschal were happy to see her garbed in a tokar, a proper Meereenese lady for once, but what they really wanted was to strip her bare. Daenerys heard them out, incredulous. When they were done, she said, “I have no wish to give offense, but I will not present myself naked to Hizdahr’s mother and sisters.” (ADWD Daenerys VI)

To contextualize the passage above, Reznak and the Green Grace want Dany to have her womb examined by her soon-to-be husband's mother and sisters. They also want her to wash Hizdahr's feet to become her "handmaid". These are Dany's ultimate decisions on the matter:

And if my womb is withered and my female parts accursed, is there a special cake for that as well? “Hizdahr zo Loraq may inspect my women’s parts after we are wed.” Khal Drogo found no fault with them, why should he? “Let his mother and his sisters examine one another and share the special cake. I shall not be eating it. [...] If my husband wishes me to wash his feet, he must first wash mine. I will tell him so this evening.” She wondered how her betrothed would take that.  (ADWD Daenerys VI)

This is a great moment for a number of reasons:

Dany's shrewdness shines through here. By requesting Hizdahr to wash her feet before she washes his, she makes a statement that she is still the queen regnant and he is just king consort. This prevents her authority from being undermined.

It's also interesting to ponder why Dany is questioning these customs. Is it because of her own values or because of her belief that she's infertile (or both)? Would she still question them if she didn't think she was infertile? These questions show how her character development is, as I noted above, not clear-cut and linear. They also show how her identity as a she-king and a barren woman (and a former sex slave) is propelling her to become keenly aware of systemic injustices. I wonder how she'll react to the Westerosi marriage customs that treat women like brood mare based on the decisions she is now making - consciously or not, but slowly and surely gaining more conscience - against them.

Dany concedes other requests from her advisors, however. She gives up on the idea to marry by Westerosi rites and agrees to use a "white tokar fringed with baby pearls" (which represent fertility) during her wedding.

When the Green Grace brings up that Dany should marry in the Temple of the Graces, this is what she thinks:

Get the heads of all the noble houses out of their pyramids on some pretext, Daario had said. The dragon’s words are fire and blood. Dany pushed the thought aside. It was not worthy of her. (ADWD Daenerys VI)

I've already shared my thoughts on why Dany remembers Daario's advice two chapters after he gave it on this post. To summarize them, it has a similar purpose that of Jorah, which she remembered in ADWD Daenerys V; both men are asking her to compromise her moral values for the sake of her goals (Jorah wanted her to buy the Unsullied and be complicit in the slave trade, Daario wants her to kill all the masters inside the city). I've defended before that war is the only righteous option in Dany's particular case; having her think back to these advices, in my opinion, is the author seeding her eventual transformation into the Daenerys of ASOS, whose draconic force was associated with freedom when she decided to break the rules (like Jorah suggested), but not by compromising her moral principles, but because of her moral principles. Like ASOS!Dany, TWOW!Dany will be more forceful and find a way that integrates both dragonfire and her morality in whatever she does next. We will see that embracing her identity as the mother of dragons will be what Dany needed to be a better mhysa.

Question 14: Do I assimilate myself into the Meereenese nobility (by reopening the fighting pits)?

Advice from: the Green Grace and Reznak.

Dany’s answer: Yes, under some conditions.

Motivation: Peace.

This is another concession that Dany makes while she interacts with Reznak and the Green Grace:

A bride price paid in blood. Daenerys was weary of fighting this battle. Even Ser Barristan did not think she could win. “No ruler can make a people good,” Selmy had told her. “Baelor the Blessed prayed and fasted and built the Seven as splendid a temple as any gods could wish for, yet he could not put an end to war and want.” A queen must listen to her people, Dany reminded herself. “After the wedding Hizdahr will be king. Let him reopen the fighting pits if he wishes. I want no part of it.” Let the blood be on his hands, not mine. (ADWD Daenerys VI)

I've already explained in questions 4 and 7 and especially in this meta why Dany is against the fighting pits and why she is right to be, so I won't belabor that point.

What I will say is that it's fitting that the fighting pits, a symbol of the slavers' oppression of the slaves since ASOS and the one custom that Dany was seen continuously opposing throughout this book, is the last concession that she needs to make in the name of the false peace.

Later, I will comment on the restrictions that Dany imposed to make the duels in the pits less harmful to the freedmen.

Question 15: Do I end Meereen’s neutrality? (by making peace with Yunkai)

Advice from: Hizdahr.

Dany’s answer: Yes.

Motivation: Peace.

In the same day that she discussed the wedding preparations with the Green Grace and Reznak, Dany also has a meeting with Hizdahr. He brings her Yunkai's terms of peace; first, they require an indemnity in "gold and gemstones".

Gold and gems were easy. “What else?” (ADWD Daenerys VI)

Dany's reaction here is notable. First, it shows that she is not out to profit off the former slaves, as I've already pointed out in this meta. If she were, she wouldn't be okay with that requirement (in fact, she wouldn't have even stayed and tried to bring order to the city). Second, it seems easy to her because it mirrors her wish to "pay the boy Joffrey a chest of gold" instead of having to fight against him when she returns to Westeros. Both before and now, we see that Dany isn't someone who naturally gravitates towards violent methods, but who is rather thrown into situations where using them is necessary (whether to end slavery or to restore her family's rights). Even so, she wishes she could have as "easy" and "pleasant" a choice like that one. Here, it speaks volumes for her selflessness since her fight is for the greater good rather than her own benefit.

But she had been forewarned by Hizdahr that they would ask for more, and that "more" will always be intolerable to her - they will reinstall slavery and ask her not to interfere. This incites a bigger reaction from her:

“The Yunkai’i resumed their slaving before I was two leagues from their city. Did I turn back? King Cleon begged me to join with him against them, and I turned a deaf ear to his pleas. I want no war with Yunkai. How many times must I say it? What promises do they require?” (ADWD Daenerys VI)

Hizdahr replies that, to secure this peace agreement, the Yunkai'i want to see her married to him. That leads to Dany perfectly summing up her dilemma (as she had already done two chapters before):

“Marriage or carnage. A wedding or a war. Are those my choices?” (ADWD Daenerys VI)

As Xaro (in question 8) and Hizdahr himself (question 10) had both said before, Dany's actions had an impact in the continent's entire economic order. They won't rest until they know that her power is neutralized by a man and that her influence is restricted to a single city (or not; they could have just as easily betrayed the terms of the deal, for all we know). But Dany can't let that sink in yet because doing so would mean realizing that she can't try to "plant trees and see them grow" at this moment. Doing so would mean realizing that "carnage" can be the better option if she wants to protect her children, but she desperately doesn't want it to be. For now, then, she chooses "marriage".

And then, as we know, another complication outside of her control is added: Brown Ben and the Second Sons betrayed her. This stings for a variety of reasons:

As I briefly noted in question 11, GRRM intertwines the personal and political issues of Dany's storyline - her need for companionship grew as her political situation deteriorated. We saw this in the previous chapter when she was "so pleased" to see Ben again that she hugged her and they laughed together. We saw it too when she looked at the men around her and wished everyone who she holds dear was there too - Daario and her bloodriders and Jorah. That this happened now hurts that much more.

Also back in question 11, Barristan had warned Dany that it would be unfeasible to withstand a siege against Yunkai because the city is "overcrowded and full of hungry mouths" and she has "too many enemies within". Now that she lost the support of five hundred men, her ability to hold the city against the Yunkai'i is severely compromised; she lacks both the military strength and the food to do so. With all of these issues in mind, she can't do anything else but to gather food to sustain the Meereenese citizens, keep all of her forces inside and close the gates with the Astapori refugees starving outside of the city. It's an excrutiatingly painful decision for Dany - if it weren't, she wouldn't want "to scream, to gnash her teeth and tear her clothes and beat upon the floor". We already know that she wants, more than anything, to protect the ones who can't protect themselves. We already know that she holds herself accountable for the "ten thousand Eroehs" from Astapor's fall (even though this was the slavers' fault and only theirs). We already know that she cares so much about these refugees that she went to bring the food herself, wished she could share the food equally, bathed an old man and shamed all her men into helping her. Still, as she acknowledges, "[t]hey were her children, but she could not help them now". Her hand is being forced here.

Dany’s ultimate choices

These fifteen questions can be ultimately boiled down to three main issues that Dany wrestled with from ASOS Daenerys VI to ADWD Daenerys VI (when she made her ultimate choices on all of them):

Adherence to Ghiscari cultural norms: Wearing the tokar was relatively easy (question 3) for Dany. So was wearing a white tokar with baby pearls, though she thankfully did not give in to having her womb inspected or to washing her husband's feet first (question 13). The matter of the fighting pits was the one that Dany was most often seen being (rightfully) opposed to (questions 4, 7, 14), but even that had to be conceded in the end.

Meereen's relationship with the other city-states: From the end of ASOS until ADWD Daenerys III (questions 1, 5, 8), Dany tried to remain neutral and not intervene in what Yunkai, Astapor and the other cities were doing in the vain hope that they would leave her alone. However, as Yunkai found more allies, the Sons continued to murder citizens, Astapor fell and more refugees kept coming, Dany was backed into a corner from ADWD Daenerys IV to VI (questions 10, 11, 15). She struggled with remaining neutral more and more until she finally agreed to a truce that would allow them to resume slaving in Yunkai and Astapor and that would require her to marry a slaver.

Marriage: This one is, of course, tied to the first two issues. It was one that Dany chose not to think about too much (question 6) until her situation in ADWD Daenerys IV became too dire for her not to consider it more seriously (question 9). Then, in ADWD Daenerys V, she firmly decides to marry Hizdahr (question 12). This was no easy choice, for it meant marrying a man she doesn't love, abandoning one she loves and giving up on potential husbands who would better serve her political interests in Westeros.

It's also interesting to note which motivations primarily drove her decisions up until this point:

Peace: questions 1, 3, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

Freedmen: questions 4, 7, 11

Herself: questions 6, 13

Empathy: question 2

The consequences of Dany's choices and her reactions

As I showed above, Dany's last chapter of ASOS and her first six of ADWD had Dany pondering on the three main issues above. She made her choices concerning all of them by the end of ADWD Daenerys VI.

ADWD Daenerys VII to IX are about the consequences of these decisions and how Dany reacts to them.

The first consequence is that she doesn't get to make her own choices anymore. The Yunkish arrived in the city and are now ready to attack her if need be:

Her foes were all about her. There were never less than a dozen ships drawn up on the shore. Some days there were as many as a hundred, when the soldiers were disembarking. The Yunkai’i were even bringing in wood by sea. Behind their ditches, they were building catapults, scorpions, tall trebuchets. On still nights she could hear the hammers ringing through the warm, dry air. No siege towers, though. No battering rams. They would not try to take Meereen by storm. They would wait behind their siege lines, flinging stones at her until famine and disease had brought her people to their knees. (ADWD Daenerys VII)

~

Dany turned to gaze out over her city. Beyond her walls the yellow tents of the Yunkai’i stood in orderly rows beside the sea, protected by the ditches their slaves had dug for them. Two iron legions out of New Ghis, trained and armed in the same fashion as Unsullied, were encamped across the river to the north. Two more Ghiscari legions had made camp to the east, choking off the road to the Khyzai Pass. The horse lines and cookfires of the free companies lay to the south. By day thin plumes of smoke hung against the sky like ragged grey ribbons. By night distant fires could be seen. (ADWD Daenerys VIII)

The second consequence is that the working conditions of many freedmen haven't improved, despite the fact that they are no longer slaves. One scene is noticeable because Dany is forced to be complicit in their mistreatment because she's wearing the tokar, which is "a master's garment, a sign of wealth and power":

Meereenese seldom rode within their city walls. They preferred palanquins, litters, and sedan chairs, borne upon the shoulders of their slaves. “Horses befoul the streets,” one man of Zakh had told her, “slaves do not.” Dany had freed the slaves, yet palanquins, litters, and sedan chairs still choked the streets as before, and none of them floated magically through the air.

“The day is too hot to be shut up in a palanquin,” said Dany. “Have my silver saddled. I would not go to my lord husband upon the backs of bearers.”

“Your Grace,” said Missandei, “this one is so sorry, but you cannot ride in a tokar.”

The little scribe was right, as she so often was. The tokar was not a garment meant for horseback. Dany made a face. “As you say. Not the palanquin, though. I would suffocate behind those drapes. Have them ready a sedan chair.” If she must wear her floppy ears, let all the rabbits see her. (ADWD Daenerys VII)

~

The Brazen Beasts did as they were bid. Dany watched them at their work. “Those bearers were slaves before I came. I made them free. Yet that palanquin is no lighter.” (ADWD Daenerys IX)

The third consequence is that Dany is forced to accept the presence of the Yunkish masters' slaves and their slave markets:

The Yunkish Supreme Commander, Yurkhaz zo Yunzak, might have been alive during Aegon’s Conquest, to judge by his appearance. Bent-backed, wrinkled, and toothless, he was carried to the table by two strapping slaves. The other Yunkish lords were hardly more impressive. One was small and stunted, though the slave soldiers who attended him were grotesquely tall and thin. The third was young, fit, and dashing, but so drunk that Dany could scarce understand a word he said. How could I have been brought to this pass by creatures such as these? (ADWD Daenerys VIII)

~

“Have you ever heard such singing, my love?” Hizdahr asked her. “They have the voices of gods, do they not?”

“Yes,” she said, “though I wonder if they might not have preferred to have the fruits of men.”

All of the entertainers were slaves. That had been part of the peace, that slaveowners be allowed the right to bring their chattels into Meereen without fear of having them freed. In return the Yunkai’i had promised to respect the rights and liberties of the former slaves that Dany had freed. A fair bargain, Hizdahr said, but the taste it left in the queen’s mouth was foul. She drank another cup of wine to wash it out.

“If it please you, Yurkhaz will be pleased to give us the singers, I do not doubt,” her noble husband said. “A gift to seal our peace, an ornament to our court.”

He will give us these castrati, Dany thought, and then he will march home and make some more. The world is full of boys.  (ADWD Daenerys VIII)

~

“The Yunkai’i will soon be gone, and their allies and hirelings with them. We shall have all we desired. Peace, food, trade. Our port is open once again, and ships are being permitted to come and go.”

“They are permitting that, yes,” she had replied, “but their warships remain. They can close their fingers around our throat again whenever they wish. They have opened a slave market within sight of my walls!”

“Outside our walls, sweet queen. That was a condition of the peace, that Yunkai would be free to trade in slaves as before, unmolested.”

“In their own city. Not where I have to see it.” The Wise Masters had established their slave pens and auction block just south of the Skahazadhan, where the wide brown river flowed into Slaver’s Bay. “They are mocking me to my face, making a show of how powerless I am to stop them.”

“Posing and posturing,” said her noble husband. “A show, as you have said. Let them have their mummery. When they are gone, we will make a fruit market of what they leave behind.”

“When they are gone,” Dany repeated. “And when will they be gone? Riders have been seen beyond the Skahazadhan. Dothraki scouts, Rakharo says, with a khalasar behind them. They will have captives. Men, women, and children, gifts for the slavers.” Dothraki did not buy or sell, but they gave gifts and received them. “That is why the Yunkai’i have thrown up this market. They will leave here with thousands of new slaves.”

Hizdahr zo Loraq shrugged. “But they will leave. That is the important part, my love. Yunkai will trade in slaves, Meereen will not, this is what we have agreed. Endure this for a little while longer, and it shall pass.” (ADWD Daenerys VIII)

And no, the slave market is not just "posing and posturing", as some might argue. We see in Tyrion's chapters how horribly the Yunkish slavers treat the people being sold in that slave market and how what's happening is taken for granted:

"Four", called a monstrously fat Yunkishman from the litter where he sprawled like a leviathan. Covered all in yellow silk fringed with gold, he looked as large as four Illyrios. Tyrion pitied the slaves who had to carry him. At least he will be spared that duty. What a joy to be a dwarf. (ADWD Tyrion X)

~

At sixteen hundred the pace began to flag again, so the slave trader invited some of the buyers to come up for a closer look at the dwarfs.

"The female's young", he promised. "You could breed the two of them, get good coin for the whelps." (ADWD Tyrion X)

~

One of the guards yanked him back to his feet. Another prodded Penny down off the platform with the butt of his spear. The next piece of chattel was already being led to take their place. A girl, fifteen or sixteen, not off the Selaesori Qhoran this time. Tyrion did not know her. The same age as Daenerys Targaryen, or near enough. The slaver soon had her naked. At least we were spared that humiliation. (ADWD Tyrion X)

~

Tyrion saw a slave being whipped, blow after blow, until his back was nothing but blood and raw meat. A file of men marched past in irons, clanking with every step; they carried spears and wore short swords, but chains linked them wrist to wrist and ankle to ankle. The air smelled of roasting meat, and he saw one man skinning a dog for his stewpot. (ADWD Tyrion X)

~

The captives had been tied to a row of crossbeams, and a pair of slingers were using them to test their skills. "Tolosi", one of the guards told them. "The best slingers in the world. They throw soft lead balls in place of stones." (ADWD Tyrion X)

~

Most of the guests paid them no more mind than they did the other slaves ... but one Yunkishman declared drunkenly that Yezzan should make the two dwarfs fuck, and another demanded to know how Tyrion had lost his nose. I shoved it up your wife's cunt and she bit it off, he almost replied ... but the storm had persuaded him that he did not want to die as yet, so instead he said, "It was cut to punish me for insolence, lord."

The fourth consequence is that the anti-slavery member of Dany's council loses control of the Brazen Beasts:

The Shavepate was absent as well. The first thing Hizdahr had done upon being crowned was to remove him from command of the Brazen Beasts, replacing him with his own cousin, the plump and pasty Marghaz zo Loraq. (ADWD Daenerys VIII)

The fifth consequence is that, with the fighting pits reopened, freedmen are being slaughtered to amuse the noblemen:

“This one shows much promise, my sweet,” Hizdahr said of a Lysene youth with long blond hair that fluttered in the wind … but his foe grabbed a handful of that hair, pulled the boy offbalance, and gutted him. In death he looked even younger than he had with blade in hand. “A boy,” said Dany. “He was only a boy.” (ADWD Daenerys IX)

~

This time her leap came an instant too late, and a tusk ripped her left leg open from knee to crotch.

A moan went up from thirty thousand throats. Clutching at her torn leg, Barsena dropped her knife and tried to hobble off, but before she had gone two feet the boar was on her once again. Dany turned her face away. “Was that brave enough?” she asked Strong Belwas, as a scream rang out across the sand. (ADWD Daenerys IX)

I've already talked here about why the duels in the fighting pits perpetuate social inequality. To sum up my points, the deaths of the Lysene youth and Barsena are injustices because they never had opportunities to question the harmful conditions they were subjected to and fight for their dignity. To make things worse, the reopening of the pits would have certainly allowed more cases like this to happen:

He had even kept the truth of Daznak's Pit from her.

Lions. They were going to set lions on us. It would have been exquisitely ironic, that. Perhaps he would have had time for a short, bitter chortle before being torn apart.

No one ever told him the end that had been planned for them, not in so many words, but it had not been hard to puzzle out, down beneath the bricks of Daznak's Pit, in the hidden world below the seats, the dark domain of the pit fighters and the serving men who tended to them, quick and dead—the cooks who fed them, the ironmongers who armed them, the barber-surgeons who bled them and shaved them and bound up their wounds, the whores who serviced them before and after fights, the corpse handlers who dragged the losers off the sands with chains and iron hooks.

Nurse's face had given Tyrion his first inkling. After their show, he and Penny had returned to the torchlit vault where the fighters gathered before and after their matches. Some sat sharpening their weapons; others sacrificed to queer gods, or dulled their nerves with milk of the poppy before going out to die. Those who'd fought and won were dicing in a corner, laughing as only men who have just faced death and lived can laugh.

Nurse was paying out some silver to a pit man on a lost wager when he spied Penny leading Crunch. The confusion in his eyes was gone in half a heartbeat, but not before Tyrion grasped what it meant. Nurse did not expect us back. He had looked around at other faces. None of them expected us back. We were meant to die out there. The final piece fell into place when he overheard an animal trainer complaining loudly to the pitmaster. "The lions are hungry. Two days since they ate. I was told not to feed them, and I haven't. The queen should pay for meat." (ADWD Tyrion XI)

As we can see, Tyrion's (and Quentyn's and Barristan's and even Victarion's) chapters are partly meant to display how false this peace is. The passage above is the firsthand account of a man who was almost sent to "fight" lions without having ever agreed to do so. Again, this sort of occurence would become more frequent with time, which is only fitting since these duels are customs inextricably tied to slavery.

Now, how does Dany react to these developments?

First, she stopped holding court:

“As my queen commands. Will you hold court today?”

“No. On the morrow I will be a woman wed, and Hizdahr will be king. Let him hold court. These are his people.”

“Some are his, some are yours. The ones you freed.”

“Are you chiding me?”

“The ones you call your children. They want their mother.”

“You are. You are chiding me.”

“Only a little, bright heart. Will you come hold court?”

“After my wedding, perhaps. After the peace.” (ADWD Daenerys VII)

This is Dany's lowest point in ADWD - here, she gave up on being both mhysa and mother of dragons in the vain attempt to make peace with the slavers. She is too disillusioned by the negative repercussions of her actions and would rather leave the ruling to her husband out of spite.

What's interesting is that Daario (who represents war, among other things) advises her to hold court again. This is one of the signs that Dany needs to re-embrace her identity as the Mother of Dragons to be a better mhysa to her people. These are balancing identities in many ways, not just opposing ones.

Second, Dany attempts to turn mercenaries to her cause because she doesn't trust neither the slavers nor Hizdahr:

“I am only a young girl and know little of such things, but it seems to me that we want them to be treacherous. Once, you’ll recall, I convinced the Second Sons and Stormcrows to join us.”

“If Your Grace wishes a privy word with Gylo Rhegan or the Tattered Prince, I could bring them up to your apartments.”

“This is not the time. Too many eyes, too many ears. Their absence would be noted even if you could separate them discreetly from the Yunkai’i. We must find some quieter way of reaching out to them … not tonight, but soon.”

[…] “Our prisoners,” suggested Dany. “The Westerosi who came over from the Windblown with the three Dornishmen. We still have them in cells, do we not? Use them.”

[…] “We can still use them. One was a woman. Meris. Send her back, as a … a gesture of my regard. If their captain is a clever man, he will understand.”

“The woman is the worst of all.”

“All the better.” Dany considered a moment. “We should sound out the Long Lances too. And the Company of the Cat.”

“Bloodbeard.” Ser Barristan’s frown deepened. “If it please Your Grace, we want no part of him. Your Grace is too young to remember the Ninepenny Kings, but this Bloodbeard is cut from the same savage cloth. There is no honor in him, only hunger … for gold, for glory, for blood.”

“You know more of such men than me, ser.” If Bloodbeard might be truly the most dishonorable and greedy of the sellswords, he might be the easiest to sway, but she was loath to go against Ser Barristan’s counsel in such matters. “Do as you think best. But do it soon. If Hizdahr’s peace should break, I want to be ready. I do not trust the slavers.” I do not trust my husband. “They will turn on us at the first sign of weakness.”

“The Yunkai’i grow weaker as well. The bloody flux has taken hold amongst the Tolosi, it is said, and spread across the river to the third Ghiscari legion.”

[…] “I cannot rely on plague to save me from my enemies. Set Pretty Meris free. At once.” (ADWD Daenerys VIII)

I mentioned in question 13 that Dany is turning back into the Daenerys of ASOS (and argued that that's a good thing). Here, we see another sign of that gradual transformation, as she frees Pretty Meris to try to convince the sellsword companies to switch allegiances like she did in ASOS (Dany herself even alludes to it).

Third, Dany makes restrictions to the duels to lessen the harshness towards the participants:

“...No children die today in Daznak’s, as my gentle queen in her wisdom has decreed.”

Another small victory. Perhaps I cannot make my people good, she told herself, but I should at least try to make them a little less bad. Daenerys would have prohibited contests between women as well, but Barsena Blackhair protested that she had as much right to risk her life as any man. The queen had also wished to forbid the follies, comic combats where cripples, dwarfs, and crones had at one another with cleavers, torches, and hammers (the more inept the fighters, the funnier the folly, it was thought), but Hizdahr said his people would love her more if she laughed with them, and argued that without such frolics, the cripples, dwarfs, and crones would starve. So Dany had relented.

It had been the custom to sentence criminals to the pits; that practice she agreed might resume, but only for certain crimes. “Murderers and rapers may be forced to fight, and all those who persist in slaving, but not thieves or debtors.”

Beasts were still allowed, though. (ADWD Daenerys IX)

Fourth, she takes off her tokar:

“Khaleesi?” Irri asked. “What are you doing?”

“Taking off my floppy ears.” (ADWD Daenerys IX)

It's very fitting that she takes off the tokar, "a master's garment" and "a sign of wealth and power", while she witnesses the injustices occurring inside the pit. This, along with Drogon's arrival and Dany turning him away from the city, signals her rejection of a peace that prioritizes the nobles over the former slaves.

Fifth, Dany explicitly rejects the peace:

Meereen was not her home, and never would be. It was a city of strange men with strange gods and stranger hair, of slavers wrapped in fringed tokars, where grace was earned through whoring, butchery was art, and dog was a delicacy. Meereen would always be the Harpy’s city, and Daenerys could not be a harpy. (ADWD Daenerys X)

~

“It is such a long way,” she complained. “I was tired, Jorah. I was weary of war. I wanted to rest, to laugh, to plant trees and see them grow. I am only a young girl.”

No. You are the blood of the dragon. The whispering was growing fainter, as if Ser Jorah were falling farther behind. Dragons plant no trees. Remember that. Remember who you are, what you were made to be. Remember your words.

“Fire and Blood,” Daenerys told the swaying grass. (ADWD Daenerys X)

Do these realizations mark the beginning of a dark turn for Dany? Maybe (though it would carry negative implications depending on its execution), but that's not all there is to it. Trying to find common ground with the slavers was the first root of all her problems and she has now addressed it. Avoiding to use violence was the second root of all her problems and she has now addressed it.

I've already speculated that Dany embracing her house's words is (mostly) a good thing. There's a lot of discussion regarding the purpose of this scene, which goes beyond the scope of this meta. For more on this topic, see here, here, here and here.

Which problems are the masters' responsibility, not Dany's

A recurring argument to support the opinion that Dany is a bad ruler is that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" or "good intentions, disastrous outcomes". It simply does not hold water for two major reasons.

It puts the blame on Dany for the slavers' actions (which is particularly wrong because she is actively trying to make things better for the very people that they oppressed).

Carnage would have always occurred one way or another, even if Dany had been less lenient towards them from the get-go. It's likely that there would have been less collateral damage if she had killed and/or neutralized the slavers' power right away, yes, but this circles back to my first argument - that she is not responsible for their disproportionate reactions.

Let's take a look at some of the tragedies that occurred during Dany's tenure and see who was at fault.

The Great Masters of Meereen had withdrawn before Dany’s advance, harvesting all they could and burning what they could not harvest. Scorched fields and poisoned wells had greeted her at every hand. Worst of all, they had nailed a slave child up on every milepost along the coast road from Yunkai, nailed them up still living with their entrails hanging out and one arm always outstretched to point the way to Meereen. Leading her van, Daario had given orders for the children to be taken down before Dany had to see them, but she had countermanded him as soon as she was told. “I will see them,” she said. “I will see every one, and count them, and look upon their faces. And I will remember.”

By the time they came to Meereen sitting on the salt coast beside her river, the count stood at one hundred and sixty-three. I will have this city, Dany pledged to herself once more. (ASOS Daenerys VI)

It's not Dany's fault that the city's economy collapsed during her tenure, it's the masters'; Meereen's main exports were slaves and olives. The latter became unavailable because the slavers burned the fields, while the former became unavailable because Dany decided to show the entire continent that the lives of the former slaves matter and that they can't be sold.

It's not Dany's fault that one hundred and sixty-three children were crucified, it's the masters'. To hold her accountable for these deeds makes no sense (and veers into slavery apologia) because the slave masters have agency of their own and she was actively trying to undo the damage they caused for thinking that selling human lives and treating them as it pleased them was okay.

“Yunkai’s sellswords roam the hills north of Astapor, hunting down those who flee the flames.”

“Has the city fallen, then? Its walls were thick.”

“This is so,” said the bricklayer, a stoop-backed man with rheumy eyes, “but they were old and crumbling as well.”

[…] “Outside our walls, the Yunkai’i devoured our crops and slaughtered our herds,” the cobbler went on. “Inside we starved. We ate cats and rats and leather. A horsehide was a feast. King Cutthroat and Queen Whore accused each other of feasting on the flesh of the slain. Men and women gathered in secret to draw lots and gorge upon the flesh of him who drew the black stone. […] Soon after came the sickness, a bloody flux that killed three men of every four, until a mob of dying men went mad and slew the guards on the main gate.”

The old brickmaker broke in to say, “No. That was the work of healthy men, running to escape the flux.”

“Does it matter?” asked the cobbler. “The guards were torn apart and the gates thrown open. The legions of New Ghis came pouring into Astapor, followed by the Yunkai’i and the sellswords on their horses. Queen Whore died fighting them with a curse upon her lips. King Cutthroat yielded and was thrown into a fighting pit, to be torn apart by a pack of starving dogs.”

[…] “And when the city fell?” demanded Skahaz. “What then?”

“The butchery began. The Temple of the Graces was full of the sick who had come to ask the gods to heal them. The legions sealed the doors and set the temple ablaze with torches. Within the hour fires were burning in every corner of the city. As they spread they joined with one another. The streets were full of mobs, running this way and that to escape the flames, but there was no way out. The Yunkai’i held the gates.” (ADWD Daenerys V)

I've said it in a previous post and will say again - it's not Dany's fault that Astapor fell, it's the masters'. Yes, she made mistakes when she didn't leave a garrison to the council she installed in the Red City and let the Yunkai'i retain their wealth and influence; her lenience made Astapor's fall possible. It still doesn't make her responsible for the fact that they chose to hunt down the citizens and burn the entire city to serve as a lesson for the abolitionists. 

What's more, letting the slaves starve inside the city and eat "cats and rats and leather" was probably what caused the bloody flux, so it's not Dany's fault that the pale mare spread throughout the city and the region either, it's the masters'. To hold her accountable for these deeds makes no sense (and veers into slavery apologia) because the slave masters have agency of their own and she was actively trying to undo the damage they caused for thinking that selling human lives and treating them as it pleased them was okay.

It had taken the rest of the day and most of the night for the Brazen Beasts to gather up the corpses. The final count was two hundred fourteen slain, three times as many burned or wounded. (ADWD The Queensguard)

It's not Dany's fault that Drogon arrived. She couldn't control him anymore and casualties were probably inevitable the moment he showed up. What actually set his attacks in motion was the spearman's attack on him, but again, Dany couldn't have prevented these things from happening. She did the only thing she could've done, which was to throw herself between him and the people in the arena and attempt to control him (which she ultimately does by flying away with him and saving more lives in the process). Related to that point, it's not Dany's fault that the peace agreement with Yunkai was compromised because of Drogon's arrival.

"Thus does Yunkai make reply to your offers, ser. I warned you that you would not like their answer."

They choose war, then. So be it. Ser Barristan felt oddly relieved. War he understood. "If they think they will break Meereen by throwing stones—"

"Not stones." The old woman's voice was full of grief, of fear. "Corpses." (ADWD The Queen's Hand)

It's not Dany's fault (nor Barristan's) that the slavers decided to throw corpses afflicted by the pale mare to spread the disease in Meereen and end the siege more quickly. That was the slavers' choice and only theirs. To hold her accountable for these deeds makes no sense (and veers into slavery apologia) because the slave masters have agency of their own and she was actively trying to undo the damage they caused for thinking that selling human lives and treating them as it pleased them was okay.

Which brings me back to the second major reason I'd mentioned above concerning why the accusation that Dany's good intentions led to horrible outcomes is weak at best and slavery apologia at worse: violence and casualties would have always been inevitable because the slavers would have always tried to fight to restore the slave trade. This is in the best interests of not just Yunkai, but of multiple city-states, most notable of all Volantis:

"The best calumnies are spiced with truth," suggested Qavo, "but the girl's true sin cannot be denied. This arrogant child has taken it upon herself to smash the slave trade, but that traffic was never confined to Slaver's Bay. It was part of the sea of trade that spanned the world, and the dragon queen has clouded the water. Behind the Black Wall, lords of ancient blood sleep poorly, listening as their kitchen slaves sharpen their long knives. Slaves grow our food, clean our streets, teach our young. They guard our walls, row our galleys, fight our battles. And now when they look east, they see this young queen shining from afar, this breaker of chains. The Old Blood cannot suffer that. Poor men hate her too. Even the vilest beggar stands higher than a slave. This dragon queen would rob him of that consolation." (ADWD Tyrion XI)

This is also one of the two reasons why the argument that Dany was "stupid" for having trusted the Meereenese nobles is very weak; not only I've said before that we don't have concrete (though it's convincing enough) evidence that they acted in bad faith, but even if they hadn't, the peace couldn't have been kept.

Poor old Yezzan. The lord of suet was not so bad as masters went. Sweets had been right about that. Serving at his nightly banquets, Tyrion had soon learned that Yezzan stood foremost amongst those Yunkish lords who favored honoring the peace with Meereen. Most of the others were only biding their time, waiting for the armies of Volantis to arrive. A few wanted to assault the city immediately, lest the Volantenes rob them of their glory and the best part of the plunder. Yezzan would have no part of that. Nor would he consent to returning Meereen’s hostages by way of trebuchet, as the sellsword Bloodbeard had proposed. (ADWD Tyrion XI)

~

“How long do you think the Yunkishmen will want to continue paying wages to four free companies?”

The Tattered Prince took a sip of wine and said, “A vexing question. But this is the way of life for we men of the free companies. One war ends, another begins. Fortunately there is always someone fighting someone somewhere. Perhaps here. Even as we sit here drinking Bloodbeard is urging our Yunkish friends to present King Hizdahr with another head. Freedmen and slavers eye each other’s necks and sharpen their knives, the Sons of the Harpy plot in their pyramids, the pale mare rides down slave and lord alike, our friends from the Yellow City gaze out to sea, and somewhere in the grasslands a dragon nibbles the tender flesh of Daenerys Targaryen. Who rules Meereen tonight? Who will rule it on the morrow?”

The Pentoshi gave a shrug. “One thing I am certain of. Someone will have need of our swords.” (ADWD The Spurned Suitor)

With the death of Yezzan (one of the few Yunkish lords in favor of the peace), "most" of the Yunkish lords are "only biding their time" "waiting for the armies of Volantis". The mercenaries also want to fight. These instances display that not only the peace favored the slavers over the former slaves and undermined the anti-slavery queen (which I've addressed the section about the consequences of Dany's choices), they also show that the peace was fragile and nothing prevented either Yunkai or Volantis from breaking it.

The second reason why it doesn't make sense to argue that Dany was "stupid" for having trusted the Meereenese slavers (and I admit that I was a little guilty of that too, though I changed my stance) is that it ignores Dany's decision-making process. I've already showed above how she doesn't rely on anyone's viewpoint but her own and will reiterate that once again in a future section, which will be about why Dany is a good queen.

Mhysa and mother of dragons: why both identities are fallible and how, like with her successes, Dany's failures are tied to her tendency to take responsibility

To clarify things here: mhysa refers to Dany's desire to protect the oppressed. Mother of dragons refers to Dany's assertiveness and willingness to use violent methods to accomplish her goals (whatever they might be). They are not a dichotomy in the sense that BryndenBFish and Adam Feldman tried to create in their metas, namely by characterizing mhysa as her peaceful and compassionate side and mother of dragons as her violent and selfish side. Both can be ineffective and harmful.

In AGOT, as @yendany wrote about, watching the carnage in Lhazareen initially makes Dany rationalize it by saying that "this is the price of war" (mother of dragons). Not long afterwards, however, she is unable to continue to watch these injustices occur without doing anything, so she orders her men to stop the rapes (mhysa). She asserts her position to make sure that they follow her orders (mother of dragons and mhysa combined).

In ASOS, Dany was also both mhysa and mother of dragons when she rebelled against the masters and freed the Unsullied.

This makes for complex characterization, which is only fitting since her storyline's thematic message (that war is the only righteous path) is complex as well. In order to achieve justice, Dany must be in touch with both of these sides.

What's also important to note is what these aspects of Dany's identity have in common: they are tied to Dany's sense of accountability.

When the mhysa tries to find common ground and not use violence at any cost, she's taking responsibility for the dead by seeking to prevent more deaths from occurring (and unwittingly privileging the nobles).

When the mother of dragons punishes the wineseller and his daughters, she's seeking for information about the Sons to better protect her children.

Ultimately, both of those actions were mistakes, but they are examples of Dany taking responsibility nonetheless. My intent is to show that a) Dany's mistakes are not terrible ones, but rather reasonable ones that can be amended with time and learning and that b) they are understandable ones because they are tied to Dany's sense of accountability (which is also why she is such a good queen, as I will show below). In this section, the focus is on her misses. The next one will focus on her hits.

First, let's consider the mistakes (or controversial decisions) that didn't impact the whole region.

Many people like to bring up Dany's order to torture the wineseller and his daughters as a reason why she wouldn't rule well. I am not going to have a long discussion of this issue here because I've done it elsewhere; to be concise, they tend to overlook how torture is normalized in her time (the Vale, the Night's Watch and the North have all used it) and mistakenly attribute the idea to her when it was actually the Shavepate's (yes, she is still responsible for authorizing it, but it matters in terms of characterization that she wasn't the one who first came up with it). They never take this moment into consideration as well:

“They are afraid for their children,” Reznak said.

Yes, Daenerys thought, and so am I. (ADWD Daenerys II)

This shows that, despite how morally questionable this action might be, it is ultimately being done in the name of her people - in the name of people who aren't even tied to her by heritage or feudal alliances (which is more than other feudal lords can say).

They never take these moments into consideration as well:

"We are all dead, then. You gave us death, not freedom." Ghael leapt to his feet and spat into her face.

Strong Belwas seized him by the shoulder and slammed him down onto the marble so hard that Dany heard Ghael's teeth crack. The Shavepate would have done worse, but she stopped him.

"Enough," she said, dabbing at her cheek with the end of her tokar. "No one has ever died from spittle. Take him away." (ADWD Daenerys III)

~

Hazzea was enough. What good is peace if it must be purchased with the blood of little children? “These murders are not their doing,” Dany told the Green Grace, feebly. “I am no butcher queen.” (ADWD Daenerys IV)

~

“Kill them all and take their treasures, I say. Whisper the command, and your Daario will make you a pile of their heads taller than this pyramid.”

“If I knew who they were—”

“Zhak and Pahl and Merreq. Them, and all the rest. The Great Masters. Who else would it be?”

He is as bold as he is bloody. “We have no proof this is their work. Would you have me slaughter my own subjects?” (ADWD Daenerys IV)

~

“If he is not the Harpy, he knows him. I can find the truth of that easy enough. Give me your leave to put Hizdahr to the question, and I will bring you a confession.”

“No,” she said. “I do not trust these confessions. You’ve brought me too many of them, all of them worthless.”

“Your Radiance—”

“No, I said.” (ADWD Daenerys V)

The last quote is noticeable for marking the only instance in this book series in which a ruler learned that torture doesn't bring feasible results and stops it.

Still, the most important takeaway here is that Dany is seen refusing to order indiscriminate and disproportionate punishments with four different people. That's the pattern for her. She won't kill innocent children or risk murdering subjects who weren't responsible for the crimes that she's punishing nor will she use torture if it doesn't help her to protect her people.

Does that mean she will never misuse her power? No, she is fallible. But it can't be forgotten that the world she lives in normalizes violence and arbitrariness in her punishments and that, despite her qualities, GRRM will not let her not be a product of her time as well. It can't be forgotten that her characterization is that of someone who strives to make just decisions, hence why she eventually stops the tortures and why her tendency is to avoid indiscriminate punishment. That makes for nuanced characterization and does not detract from her being a good ruler; King Jaehaerys I is another example of that.

That being said, the key detail that her detractors don't realize that her overuse of her mhysa side was much more harmful than her overuse of her mother of dragons side in ADWD. As I already said above, while she's not to blame for the slavers' atrocities (and not to be judged as a bad queen because of their actions), it's true that they wouldn't have had the chance to do what they did if she had been more ruthless against them from the get-go. In that sense, the mhysa side caused a lot more damage than the mother of dragons one.

We can also see some of the damage of overrelying on her mhysa side's perspective in some of her decisions at court.

This is Dany's decision when a freedman asks for a noble to be gelded for raping his wife back when she was his bed slave and to receive a purse of gold for having to take care of the noble's child:

Dany granted him the gold, but not the gelding.

“When he lay with her, your wife was his property, to do with as he would. By law, there was no rape.” Her decision did not please him, she could see, but if she gelded every man who ever forced a bedslave, she would soon rule a city of eunuchs. (ADWD Daenerys I)

Am I saying that it would have been justice if Dany had gelded the master for raping the bed slave? No (though I don't begrudge anyone who might think it is). Still, he did deserve some sort of punishment, be it gelding (remember that we're in a pseudomedieval world) or something else.

Does that mean that this was a terrible mistake from Dany's part? No. As she cleverly notes, doing otherwise would have established a precedent that would punish too many nobles. At this point, she believes that she must have peace with the masters to bring order to the city, so she can't punish him. 

This is Dany's decision when a nobleborn boy asks for her to kill the slaves who revolted against his family by killing his father and elder brother and raping his mother before killing her and are now living in his house:

I am queen over a city built on dust and death. Dany had no choice but to deny him. She had declared a blanket pardon for all crimes committed during the sack. Nor would she punish slaves for rising up against their masters. (ADWD Daenerys I)

This situation is even more complex than the previous one. It must be noted that we don't know how these masters treated their slaves in order for the latter to have reacted so radically when they could. Even so, the boy's mother certainly did not deserve to be raped, ever. As we can see, even if the use of force was necessary to depose the oppressors and end slavery, it doesn't come without negative consequences (and I'm sure we'll see more of those in TWOW).

Was it a mistake from Dany's part to let these slaves go unpunished? On the one hand, any rapist deserves to be punished (and Dany is intensely aware of that fact). On the other hand, like with the masters in the other case, it would establish a precedent that would punish too many slaves and she doesn't want to act arbitrarily by going against her blanket. At this moment, for Dany, finding peace means that the former masters and the former slaves must stand as equals, so she won't punish the latter harshly either. It's a nuanced situation that can't be distorted to mean that she doesn't care about these crimes; it's the opposite, as she notes that she's queen "over a city built on dust and death". She feels terrible guilt for having to do this, but it goes in line with her current attempt to be conciliatory.

This is Dany's decision when a rich woman (who lost her husband and sons during the sack) asks for her house (which she left in fear for her safety), clothes and jewels back, for they are now all in possession of former bed slaves who turned the house into a brothel:

“They can keep the clothes,” she allowed. Dany granted her the jewels but ruled the house was lost when she abandoned it. (ADWD Daenerys I)

Was this decision a mistake from Dany's part? I don't think so. In the same chapter, we saw Dany feeling empathy for the Yunkish refugees' plight:

A brothel. Half of her freedmen were from Yunkai, where the Wise Masters had been famed for training bedslaves. The way of the seven sighs. Brothels had sprouted up like mushrooms all over Meereen. It is all they know. They need to survive. Food was more costly every day, whilst the price of flesh grew cheaper. In the poorer districts between the stepped pyramids of Meereen’s slaver nobility, there were brothels catering to every conceivable erotic taste, she knew. (ADWD Daenerys I)

It's quite possible that these are the same former bedslaves who are trying to survive in these difficult times in Meereen. The woman is rich, had relatives to run to and, let's not forget, profited off slavery. The prostitutes simply don't have the same resources and never had the same opportunities that the woman had.

I'm only including this decision here because I know that it is a controversial one in parts of the fandom, who berate Dany for being "arbitrary". I wouldn't describe it as such because there were never any laws that treated masters and slaves as equals and that appointed who should receive what (because slaves weren't entitled to receive anything until Dany arrives). I would say that Dany ultimately did the right thing; she was even conciliatory by at least granting the woman her jewels. Just because the woman isn't depicted as a one-note villain doesn't mean that she wasn't part of the oppressors' side.

Dany's overuse of her mhysa identity over her mother of dragons one is also apparent in this moment:

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)

This moment has been exhaustively discussed here and here. What is necessary to say here is that this man was a merchant like Xaro is; this means that he most likely owned slaves (which Xaro conveniently left out for his own benefit), like the merchant Xaro does. Both the ones who sell and the ones who possess slaves have to be undermined in order to abolish slavery. In this former merchant's case, he probably lost his slaves, had no opportunity to sell his spices and wines, couldn't leave and then had to find whatever work was available in the city. The available work was to dig ditches to plant beans and reform the city's economy. That type of work can't be prohibited, it's necessary to guarantee that the city remains without slavery.

Another false accusation against Dany is that she didn't care about this man. That's not true, she cares too much - see how "[s]he felt as if he'd slapped her". That's how she feels, in the same chapter, when she realizes what leaving for Westeros would mean for the city at this point:

“The Yunkai’i will restore the Great Masters the instant you are gone, and we who have so faithfully served your cause will be put to the sword, our sweet wives and maiden daughters raped and enslaved.”

“Not mine,” grumbled Skahaz Shavepate. “I will kill them first, with mine own hand.” He slapped his sword hilt.

Dany felt as if he had slapped her face instead. (ADWD Daenerys III)

The mhysa in her is being too lenient for not realizing that the slavers have to be undermined and that she must prioritize the lives of the freedmen. The mother of dragons should have intervened by being more pragmatic in that sense. This displays how difficult (and dramatically compelling) her situation is.

But why is Dany so insistent on finding peace and conciliation with the slavers? To contextualize why, it's crucial to remember the deaths that she believes herself to be responsible for:

Rakharo and Quaro stood beside the tent flap. Quaro took a step forward, reaching for the handle of his whip, but Qotho spun graceful as a dancer, the curved arakh rising. It caught Quaro low under the arm, the bright sharp steel biting up through leather and skin, through muscle and rib bone. Blood fountained as the young rider reeled backward, gasping.

[...] The Dothraki were shouting, Mirri Maz Duur wailing inside the tent like nothing human, Quaro pleading for water as he died. (AGOT Daenerys VIII)

~

“Eroeh?” asked Dany, remembering the frightened child she had saved outside the city of the Lamb Men.

“Mago seized her, who is Khal Jhaqo’s bloodrider now,” said Jhogo. “He mounted her high and low and gave her to his khal, and Jhaqo gave her to his other bloodriders. They were six. When they were done with her, they cut her throat.”

“It was her fate, Khaleesi,” said Aggo.


If I look back I am lost. (AGOT Daenerys IX)

~

They left a trail of dead and dying horses behind them as they went[.]

[...] Three days into the march, the first man died.

[...] Two nights later, it was an infant girl who perished.

[...] Death followed death. Weak children, wrinkled old women, the sick and the stupid and the heedless, the cruel land claimed them all. Doreah grew gaunt and hollow-eyed, and her soft golden hair turned brittle as straw.

[...] Doreah took a fever and grew worse with every league they crossed. Her lips and hands broke with blood blisters, her hair came out in clumps, and one evenfall she lacked the strength to mount her horse. Jhogo said they must leave her or bind her to her saddle, but Dany remembered a night on the Dothraki sea, when the Lysene girl had taught her secrets so that Drogo might love her more. She gave Doreah water from her own skin, cooled her brow with a damp cloth, and held her hand until she died, shivering. Only then would she permit the khalasar to press on. (ACOK Daenerys I)

~

All my victories turn to dross in my hands, she thought. Whatever I do, all I make is death and horror. When word of what had befallen Astapor reached the streets, as it surely would, tens of thousands of newly freed Meereenese slaves would doubtless decide to follow her when she went west, for fear of what awaited them if they stayed ... yet it might well be that worse would await them on the march. Even if she emptied every granary in the city and left Meereen to starve, how could she feed so many? The way before her was fraught with hardship, bloodshed, and danger. (ASOS Daenerys VI)

~

“Your Grace,” said Ser Barristan Selmy, the lord commander of her Queensguard, “there is no need for you to see this.”

“He died for me.”

[...] “This one has been told that your servant Stalwart Shield sometimes gave coin to the women of the brothels to lie with him and hold him.”

The blood of the dragon does not weep. (ADWD Daenerys I)

~

“I would give Hazzea back to you if I could,” she told the father, “but some things are beyond the power of even a queen. Her bones shall be laid to rest in the Temple of the Graces, and a hundred candles shall burn day and night in her memory. Come back to me each year upon her nameday, and your other children shall not want … but this tale must never pass your lips again.” (ADWD Daenerys II)

~

Your servants Mossador and Duran were crushed by falling stones beneath the river wall. Your servants Eladon Goldenhair and Loyal Spear were poisoned at a wineshop where they were accustomed to stop each night upon their rounds.”

Mossador. Dany made a fist. (ADWD Daenerys II)

~

The queen flinched. Rylona Rhee had played the harp as sweetly as the Maiden. When she had been a slave in Yunkai, she had played for every highborn family in the city. In Meereen she had become a leader amongst the Yunkish freedmen, their voice in Dany’s councils. (ADWD Daenerys II)

~

“A girl I thought I’d saved from rape and torment. All I did was make it worse for her in the end. And all I did in Astapor was make ten thousand Eroehs.” (ADWD Daenerys V)

Dany's trauma from all of her losses doesn't mean that she was doing the right political choices, but it does make them understandable and sympathetic. What's more, her mistakes stemmed from a genuine desire to do good for these people and to prevent more from dying, which is a major reason why Dany is a good queen (I'll elaborate more on why in a later section):

Daenerys Targaryen had other children, tens of thousands who had hailed her as their mother when she broke their chains. She thought of Stalwart Shield, of Missandei’s brother, of the woman Rylona Rhee, who had played the harp so beautifully. No marriage would ever bring them back to life, but if a husband could help end the slaughter, then she owed it to her dead to marry. (ADWD Daenerys IV)

Now, which of Dany's mistakes had international repercussions? This post lays them out well, so check it out. They boil down to three:

Not leaving a garrison in Astapor to protect the council she installed (which indirectly caused atrocities like the political chaos that arose with Cleon's ascent and, later, Astapor's fall).

Leaving the wealth of the Yunkish slavers intact (which indirectly caused atrocities like Astapor's fall and the upcoming Battle of Fire).

Leaving the wealth of the Meereenese slavers intact (which indirectly caused the Sons of the Harpy's attacks; I've talked about how Dany handled them here).

Are these mistakes understandable? Yes. First, she is a 15-year-old with no experience or formal education to properly understand how these solutions were insubstantial. In fact, her situation seems pretty much unprecedented in scale in this universe.

Second, as @rainhadaenerys pointed out before here, Dany may be fighting for the freedmen, but she is still part of the nobility and would not consider depriving them of their resources right away. Indeed, she and her family had their resources taken away and she lived in poverty and fear because of it. Both her background and the previous losses I noted above must be taken into consideration to make sense of her mistakes. 

If these were pretty much the only errors that had international repercussions and that Dany should be held 100% accountable for, why does she receive so much criticism from the fandom? I'll say it again: because many people are holding Dany accountable for the slavers' actions.

Here's the thing: Dany's actual mistakes (which were caused by her tendency to conciliate, not to be forceful) were not massive in nature; the consequences of her mistakes (caused by the slavers) were massive. But that's because her crusade was so unacceptable and detrimental for their way of living that they felt that they had to retaliate with a ridiculously high amount of brutality to exert their control. Therefore, her understandable mistakes initiate a large chain of events that might make her seem ineffective, but they were never her fault in the first place, they were the slavers'. She is not responsible for the choices that they ultimately made, even if she still had an indirect part (at best) in making them possible.

Why Dany is a good queen

Daenerys Targaryen is a good queen not just because her shortcomings are understandable, but because she also has skills and achievements of her own that deserve praise. To quickly sum them up before I lay them out:

She applies her critical thinking skills when she makes her decisions and doesn't rely on any single advisor's opinion, but on her own. We saw this before in her previous actions and we see this happen here as well.

She took measures that will influence the outcome of the Battle of Fire.

She took the first steps to improve the city's economy.

Her genuine compassion for the unprivileged informs every single decision that she makes, from her mistakes (already discussed) to her successes (which will be addressed here). I will discuss highlights such as her pro-freedmen decisions at court, her choice to lock the dragons and her efforts to help the Astapori refugees.

Most of the freedmen love Dany. She is not tied to them because of her heritage, but because she fought for their basic human rights and they chose her as their leader.

1) Critical thinking in her assessment of her counsellors' advice

If you made it until this part of the post, you already know that Dany analyzes the facts and considers the pros and cons in each advice before reaching a decision. This is something I've showed in other posts of this series as well.

Since Dany receives a lot of advice in her ADWD arc and since I've already talked about how she reacts to almost all of them, here I'm only going to reiterate that she dealt with the issue of marriage using her critical thinking skills and add more observations (to the ones already made from questions 9 to 11) explaining why. Not only this proves my overall point, it also helps to dispel the belief that Dany will be shown to be as out of control of the situation as Cersei was if it is revealed that the Green Grace is the Harpy and/or that the slavers were deliberately acting in bad faith. I don't think this argument holds up when you consider how she came to decide to marry Hizdahr.

Dany starts to consider taking a noble husband in ADWD Daenerys IV. That's because the Sons' killings continue and Yunkai has found several allies, so she feels that she can't fight enemies both inside and outside Meereen. The Green Grace suggests taking Hizdahr as a husband; these are Dany's responses:

“Ah.” Dany had been expecting this. (ADWD Daenerys IV)

~

“Tell me, can this king puff his cheeks up and blow Xaro’s galleys back to Qarth? Can he clap his hands and break the siege of Astapor? Can he put food in the bellies of my children and bring peace back to my streets?” (ADWD Daenerys IV)

~

“Why Hizdahr? Skahaz is noble born as well.” (ADWD Daenerys IV)

~

If I wed Hizdahr, will that turn Skahaz against me? She trusted Skahaz more than she trusted Hizdahr, but the Shavepate would be a disaster as a king. He was too quick to anger, too slow to forgive. She saw no gain in wedding a man as hated as herself. Hizdahr was well respected, so far as she could see. (ADWD Daenerys IV)

These passages display that:

Dany is aware that a marriage between her and Hizdahr would be advantageous to the Green Grace, so she questions in which ways she would benefit from it herself.

Dany is aware that the marriage would not solve all of the freedmen's problems.

Dany is aware that she would potentially lose the Shavepate's support, but that marrying Hizdahr would still bring her more rewards.  

Later, she interacts with her suitor about their potential marriage. These are her questions:

“Why should the Sons of the Harpy lay down their knives for you? Are you one of them?”

[...] “Would you tell me if you were?”

~

“Why would you want to help me? For the crown?”

These passages display that:

Dany doesn't fully trust Hizdahr.

Dany recognizes that, like with the Green Grace, Hizdahr has a lot to gain with the marriage.

Then, as we know, she agrees to a marriage if he manages to stop the killings in the city for ninety days.

But then, one might argue, the Shavepate did warn Dany that Hizdahr was only able to end the Sons' activities because he's working with them. That she still chooses to continue her alliance with him makes her seem dumb, doesn't it? Well, not really if you take her actual line of reasoning into consideration:

Skahaz was convinced that somewhere in Meereen the Sons of the Harpy had a highborn overlord, a secret general commanding an army of shadows. Dany did not share his belief. The Brazen Beasts had taken dozens of the Harpy’s Sons, and those who had survived their capture had yielded names when questioned sharply … too many names, it seemed to her. It would have been pleasant to think that all the deaths were the work of a single enemy who might be caught and killed, but Dany suspected that the truth was otherwise. My enemies are legion. “Hizdahr zo Loraq is a persuasive man with many friends. And he is wealthy. Perhaps he has bought this peace for us with gold, or convinced the other highborn that our marriage is in their best interests.” (ADWD Daenerys V)

Dany's conclusion makes sense with the information that she has at this point. If dozens of the Harpy's Sons who were captured are blaming different people, it stands to reason that too many nobles are working concurrently against her, that there isn't a single overlord commanding everyone and that Hizdahr may have convinced them to stop their activities through bribery. In fact, even if she had found their leader (who might or might not be the Green Grace), would that have necessarily stopped the killings? It's highly questionable.

Even if Dany might be ultimately proven wrong, she made a reasonable guess based on what she knew. That's far from being dumb or ineffective and, again, it's not as if knowing that the Green Grace was the Harpy would solve everything.

Astapor's fall and the arrival of the pale mare are the events that ultimately seal Dany's decision to marry Hizdahr. That means that she followed Reznak's suggestion, but it can't be said that he convinced her since she distrusts him. What actually happened is that neither a siege nor battle were viable options to her. A siege would require more food and less enemies. A battle would require a larger military strength, as Dany reflects here:

“Meet the foe,” she echoed, “with the freedmen you’ve called half-trained and unblooded.” (ADWD Daenerys V)

~

“Or five. And if I give you the Unsullied, I will have no one but the Brazen Beasts to hold Meereen.” (ADWD Daenerys V)

~

“I cannot fight two enemies, one within and one without. If I am to hold Meereen, I must have the city behind me. The whole city. I need … I need …” She could not say it.

“Your Grace?” Ser Barristan prompted, gently.

A queen belongs not to herself but to her people.

“I need Hizdahr zo Loraq.” (ADWD Daenerys V)

In Dany's view, marrying Hizdahr and accepting a peace agreement with the Yunkai'i was the only decision that would guarantee the control of Meereen. It is ultimately a mistake for privileging the nobility over the freedmen, as I talked about above. Still, GRRM allows us to see that Dany ultimately failed (for now) and, at the same time, that she is capable of critically evaluating the advice that she receives. Indeed, even if she is following their advice, Dany does not trust Hizdahr or any of the nobles:

She needed Skahaz and the Brazen Beasts, and she had come to mistrust all of Reznak’s counsel. Beware the perfumed seneschal. Has Reznak made common cause with Hizdahr and the Green Grace and set some trap to snare me? (ADWD Daenerys IV)

~

“Do as you think best. But do it soon. If Hizdahr’s peace should break, I want to be ready. I do not trust the slavers.” I do not trust my husband. (ADWD Daenerys VIII)

Meanwhile, as we know, she trusts Barristan most of all and Skahaz more than the nobles (see the first passage above and here). It doesn't mean that she'll always follow their suggestions.

None of this is to say that Dany handled things perfectly. Again, she's very young and inexperienced and, because she just arrived in the city, ignorant in many ways. Aside from maybe not guessing who the Harpy was, she couldn't grasp the difference between marrying Hizdahr and marrying the Shavepate (which the Green Grace claims to be an obvious one if one knows their families and Ghiscari history in general), for instance. On the other hand, she grasps the cultural importance of the Temple of the Graces right away when she asks for the petitioners who bring her burned bones to swear a holy oath before the gods of Ghis (i.e., if they lie to her, they'll be lying to the gods as well). GRRM is a really great writer in that sense - he could have Dany be passive and overreliant on her advisors all the time (which is often how the show writers portrayed her), but he gives Dany many nuances that allow us to appreciate both her strengths and weaknesses. 

So, to sum this up, Dany was shown considering lots of factors before she decided to marry Hizdahr. She recognized the advantages to the nobles, she pondered how she would benefit from it, she compared its upsides to the ones she would get (or rather wouldn't get) from a marriage with Shavepate, she maintains a healthy dose of distrust for the slavers, she considers the possibility of a single person leading the Harpy's Sons and concludes that there might be too many (which might be wrong, but isn't unreasonable) and she chooses marriage over both siege and battle for reasons already mentioned above. This case is representative of how Dany doesn't make decisions carelessly, but rather using her critical thinking skills. You can find more examples in this very meta and in the others from this series.

2) Her influence in the upcoming Battle of Fire

There's already a post about this, but, for the sake of comprehensiveness, I'll bring up what was said.

Dany was the one who created three companies of freedmen, who will all be useful in the upcoming Battle of Fire:

“My freedman—” Dany started.

“Bedslaves, barbers, and brickmakers win no battles.”

He was wrong in that, she hoped. The freedmen had been a rabble once, but she had organized the men of fighting age into companies and commanded Grey Worm to make them into soldiers. (ADWD Daenerys III)

~

Her freedmen were represented by the captains of the three companies she had formed—Mollono Yos Dob of the Stalwart Shields, Symon Stripeback of the Free Brothers, Marselen of the Mother’s Men. (ADWD Daenerys III)

She freed Pretty Meris to negotiate with the Tattered Prince and other sellsword companies to switch allegiances to Dany’s side (and they will do so, as we know from the TWOW chapters). I've already commented on this instance above in the section "The consequences of Dany's choices and her reactions".

And she fostered the cooperation and unity of purpose that will help the freedmen to be stronger against the Yunkai'i. I will explain below how she accomplished this feat.

One should also go back to ASOS, since the Unsullied are only there because of Dany's intelligence and compassion, as I explained in this meta. No wonder they will only fight for her and not for a nobleman.

3) Reviving the city's economy

Meereen is certainly not in its best economic conditions in the beginning of Dany's ADWD arc. As we already knew from ASOS, the slavers "harvest[ed] all they could and burn[ed] all they could not harvest", so there were "scorched fields and poisoned wells" everywhere. And that's not even considering that the city "had been sacked savagely" during Dany's conquest (despite her attempts to restore order).

The reasons why Dany can't resolve these issues overnight in a clear-cut manner are laid out concisely in this exchange between Dany and Xaro:

“You spoke of help. Trade with me, then. Meereen has salt to sell, and wine …”

“Ghiscari wine?” Xaro made a sour face. “The sea provides all the salt that Qarth requires, but I would gladly take as many olives as you cared to sell me. Olive oil as well.”

“I have none to offer. The slavers burned the trees. [...] What of copper?”

“A pretty metal, but fickle as a woman. Gold, now … gold is sincere. Qarth will gladly give you gold … for slaves.”

“Meereen is a free city of free men.”

“A poor city that once was rich. A hungry city that once was fat. A bloody city that once was peaceful.” (ADWD Daenerys III)

As we see in this passage, the slaves and the olives were the main sources of income for the city. With Dany's abolition of slavery and the slavers' burning of the fields, however, both of them are gone, which makes it that much harder for Dany to restore order in the city. Of course, this is not to say that Dany shouldn't have done anything - not only the former slaves would have continued to be exploited and killed if she hadn't, but it's also important to remember that the slaves in Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen were willing to fight for their freedom and grateful that Dany chose to make that her cause. The problem is that abolishing slavery is not enough to help the freedmen because slavery was the basis of the society they lived in, and reforms from the economic to the cultural level will be necessary. It's impossible not to fail on some level in this situation, which makes it all the more admirable, especially for her time and place, that Dany decides to stay.

And so we see Dany taking several actions to overcome some of these economic difficulties in her first five chapters:

Thousands of slaves still toiled on vast estates in the hills, growing wheat and olives, herding sheep and goats, and mining salt and copper. [...] Dany had dispatched her tiny khalasar to subdue the hinterlands, under the command of her three bloodriders[.] (ADWD Daenerys I)

~

Beyond the eastern hills was a range of rounded sandstone mountains, the Khyzai Pass, and Lhazar. If Daario could convince the Lhazarene to reopen the overland trade routes, grains could be brought down the river or over the hills at need … but the Lamb Men had no reason to love Meereen. (ADWD Daenerys I)

~

“I am only a young girl and know little of such things, but older, wiser men tell me that to hold Meereen I must control its hinterlands, all the land west of Lhazar as far south as the Yunkish hills.” (ADWD Daenerys III)

~

“[…] [He was digging a] ditch, to bring water from the river to the fields. We mean to plant beans. The beanfields must have water. […] Meereen needs beans more than it needs rare spices, and beans require water.” (ADWD Daenerys III)

~

“We are replanting, but it takes seven years before an olive tree begins to bear, and thirty years before it can truly be called productive.” (ADWD Daenerys III)

~

“Our stores are ample for the moment,” he reminded her, “and Your Grace has planted beans and grapes and wheat. Your Dothraki have harried the slavers from the hills and struck the shackles from their slaves. They are planting too, and will be bringing their crops to Meereen to market. And you will have the friendship of Lhazar.” (ADWD Daenerys V)

Again, it must be emphasized that the city's economic situation only became as dire as it did because of the Meereenese slavers (and, later, the actions of Qarth, New Ghis and Tolos). Still, Dany is putting a lot of effort to revive the city's economy and guarantee that the freedmen retain their freedom. As we can see from these passages, she:

Successfully freed the slaves from the hinterlands (something she didn't do earlier because of her need to conciliate and make peace quickly), which is now "bringing their crops" to sell in Meereen.

Made an alliance with the Lhazarene, which allows her to reestablish the overland trade route through the Khyzai Pass and bring grains down the river or over the hills.

Ordered that irrigation canals were build to plant beans (which started to be planted two chapters later).

Is replanting olive trees.

Planted grapes and wheat.

Additionally, she also tries to sell what little the city has to offer (even if Xaro was ultimately not interested):

“You spoke of help. Trade with me, then. Meereen has salt to sell, and wine [...] What of copper?” (ADWD Daenerys III)

Dany wasn't responsible for the reasons that led to Meereen's lack of trade during her tenure.

Dany is responsible, on the other hand, for multiple efforts to improve a scenario that will take a very long time to be properly tackled. This can't be understated.

4) How her genuine compassion for the oppressed inform all of her decisions

Dany's genuine concern for the former slaves should never be understated; it informs both her use of force:

“Let them come. In me they shall find a sterner foe than Cleon. I would sooner perish fighting than return my children to bondage.” (ADWD Daenerys IV)

And her attempts to reform the city:

Dany did not know how to make him see. She wanted Westeros as much as he did, but first she must heal Meereen. (ADWD Daenerys IV)

At the same time, when this aspect is remembered, it tends to only be seen as a reason why she's a sympathetic character and nothing else. This is not entirely surprising, considering that many fans tend to mock those who have moral principles as ineffective in the game of thrones (see also Cat and Ned).

Still, this quality can and must be contextualized as part of why Dany is a good (but imperfect) ruler, which is what I intend to do here.

At court, Dany decides to give the freedmen and the nobles equal attention. This is unprecedented, which is clear from the fact that it departs from Reznak's advice (and is obviously a huge deal considering that the former were slaves not long ago):

Reznak would have summoned another tokar next, but Dany insisted that he call upon a freedman. Thereafter she alternated between the former masters and the former slaves. (ADWD Daenerys I)

In fact, she could leave the task of holding court to her advisors, but she chooses to listen to them herself:

“Ser Barristan,” she called, “I know what quality a king needs most.”

“Courage, Your Grace?”

“Cheeks like iron,” she teased. “All I do is sit.”

“Your Grace takes too much on herself. You should allow your councillors to shoulder more of your burdens.”

“I have too many councillors and too few cushions.” (ADWD Daenerys I)

She has many freedmen as advisors in her council:

Rylona Rhee had played the harp as sweetly as the Maiden. When she had been a slave in Yunkai, she had played for every highborn family in the city. In Meereen she had become a leader amongst the Yunkish freedmen, their voice in Dany’s councils. (ADWD Daenerys II)

~

Dany assembled her council to hear them. Grey Worm was there for the Unsullied, Skahaz mo Kandaq for the Brazen Beasts. In the absence of her bloodriders, a wizened jaqqa rhan called Rommo, squint-eyed and bowlegged, came to speak for her Dothraki. Her freedmen were represented by the captains of the three companies she had formed—Mollono Yos Dob of the Stalwart Shields, Symon Stripeback of the Free Brothers, Marselen of the Mother’s Men. Reznak mo Reznak hovered at the queen’s elbow, and Strong Belwas stood behind her with his huge arms crossed. Dany would not lack for counsel. (ADWD Daenerys III)

She frequently empathizes with the freedmen and makes decisions favoring them over their former masters.

This is Dany's decision after former slaver Grazdan (who is a relative of the Green Grace, so Dany would've benefitted from granting him his will) says that six young girls owed them gold because they learned their craft from an old weaver who was previously his slave:

“What was the name of the old weaver?”

“The slave?” Grazdan shifted his weight, frowning. “She was … Elza, it might have been. Or Ella. It was six years ago she died. I have owned so many slaves, Your Grace.”

“Let us say Elza. Here is our ruling. From the girls, you shall have nothing. It was Elza who taught them weaving, not you. From you, the girls shall have a new loom, the finest coin can buy. That is for forgetting the name of the old woman.” (ADWD Daenerys I)

I love how Dany punished him for forgetting the old weaver's name. I love that she recognizes the significance of remembering the names of the marginalized people who died. Any activist who deals with losses in the social movements that they are part of can relate to this. In Dany's case, she won't forget Eroeh or Stalwart Shield or Rylona and she certainly won't let the master forget the old weaver's name without suffering the consequences.

This is Dany's decision after Reznak says that the freedmen were disrespecting the traditions of the guilds for "carving stone and laying bricks" for a cheap price and calling themselves "journeymen" or "masters" and that the guilds ask for her to "uphold their ancient rights and customs":

“The freedmen work cheaply because they are hungry,” Dany pointed out. “If I forbid them to carve stone or lay bricks, the chandlers, the weavers, and the goldsmiths will soon be at my gates asking that they be excluded from those trades as well.” She considered a moment. “Let it be written that henceforth only guild members shall be permitted to name themselves journeymen or masters … provided the guilds open their rolls to any freedman who can demonstrate the requisite skills.” (ADWD Daenerys I)

Both Dany's empathy and critical thinking skills are at work here. She understands the freedmen's current hardships and she's aware of how prohibiting them from keeping this job could establish an unfortunate precedent in other occupations. However, because she also knows that there's inherent value in the skills of the guild members, she agrees that they are the only ones who should be called "journeymen" or "masters" ... as long as the freedmen are allowed the chance to obtain that honor as well. This scene showcases both Dany's intelligence and desire for equality.

When it comes to the casualties that happened during her tenure, Dany always holds herself accountable. One major example occurs right in the beginning of her arc with Stalwart Shield's murder. I've already talked about her reaction to it here and will reiterate: she refuses to forget his name, makes sure that he's properly buried and honored, increases the amount to gold to find his killer, forbids her soldiers to walk at night to prevent them from being killed, names a company of freedmen after him and thinks about him when she considers marrying again to maintain order in the city.

Other highlights concern her dragons. More and more people show up with charred bones, which leads her to make this decision:

“Three-and-twenty.” Dany sighed. “My dragons have developed a prodigious taste for mutton since we began to pay the shepherds for their kills. Have these claims been proven?”

“Some men have brought burnt bones.”

“Men make fires. Men cook mutton. Burnt bones prove nothing. Brown Ben says there are red wolves in the hills outside the city, and jackals and wild dogs. Must we pay good silver for every lamb that goes astray between Yunkai and the Skahazadhan?”

“No, Magnificence.” Reznak bowed. “Shall I send these rascals away, or will you want them scourged?”

Daenerys shifted on the bench. “No man should ever fear to come to me.” Some claims were false, she did not doubt, but more were genuine. Her dragons had grown too large to be content with rats and cats and dogs. The more they eat, the larger they will grow, Ser Barristan had warned her, and the larger they grow, the more they’ll eat. Drogon especially ranged far afield and could easily devour a sheep a day. “Pay them for the value of their animals,” she told Reznak, “but henceforth claimants must present themselves at the Temple of the Graces and swear a holy oath before the gods of Ghis.” (ADWD Daenerys I)

Many details can be gleamed from this passage:

With the increase of people claiming that their lambs were burned by her dragons, Dany is becoming understandably suspicious that they are taking advantage of the situation.

At the same time, however, her sympathy for them makes her prioritize the claims that were genuine (which she thinks are the majority) rather than the few ones that were false, so she still chooses to pay for their animals.

It's also notable is that GRRM contrasts Reznak's advice with Dany's ultimate decision. Because Reznak is a nobleman, he's used to mistreating the lowborn, so having them scourged wouldn't be a big deal. Dany, on the other hand, wants to be both just and approachable as a leader, so not only she won't punish them, she'll compensate them all, even if it includes paying people who were lying.

Dany's decision also showcases her shrewdness (already mentioned above): she doesn't just pay them, she also requests that they swear an oath before the gods of Ghis, making it clear that she's aware of the importance of religion in the city. If they lie to her, they'll be lying to the gods too.

But the most notable actions that Dany takes in order to answer for the dragons' casualties are taken after after she finds out that Drogon killed a child named Hazzea:

Her name had been Hazzea. She was four years old. Unless her father lied. He might have lied. No one had seen the dragon but him. His proof was burned bones, but burned bones proved nothing. He might have killed the little girl himself, and burned her afterward. He would not have been the first father to dispose of an unwanted girl child, the Shavepate claimed. The Sons of the Harpy might have done it, and made it look like dragon’s work to make the city hate me. Dany wanted to believe that … but if that was so, why had Hazzea’s father waited until the audience hall was almost empty to come forward? If his purpose had been to inflame the Meereenese against her, he would have told his tale when the hall was full of ears to hear.

The Shavepate had urged her to put the man to death. “At least rip out his tongue. This man’s lie could destroy us all, Magnificence.” Instead Dany chose to pay the blood price. No one could tell her the worth of a daughter, so she set it at one hundred times the worth of a lamb. “I would give Hazzea back to you if I could,” she told the father, “but some things are beyond the power of even a queen. Her bones shall be laid to rest in the Temple of the Graces, and a hundred candles shall burn day and night in her memory. Come back to me each year upon her nameday, and your other children shall not want … but this tale must never pass your lips again.” (ADWD Daenerys II)

This passage is similar, in many ways, to the one about the burned bones of sheep; both of them display Dany's compassion and intelligence:

Like in the previous moment, she is shown using her critical thinking skills: on the one hand, she is also suspicious of the man's only evidence being burned bones. At the same time, though, she recognizes that he would have told the tale while the whole audience was inside the hall if his desire was to tarnish her reputation.

Like in the previous moment, a nobleman urges her to punish the man harshly (because that's how the relationship between master and slave went). Instead, Dany would rather pay him the blood price, bury Hazzea's bones in the Temple of the Graces, have a hundred candles for her in her memory and compensate him for his other children as well. This speaks volumes about how Dany, as a queen, feels that she is answerable for all of her subjects' problems. This is remarkable for her time and place, in which people were bound by feudal alliegiances and places of origin. Dany's sympathy transcends both.

Her only request is that the man does not tell anyone about what happened. One could interpret this as her having political concerns in regards to her reputation, which is possible, but I think the main reason why she made that request was because she doesn't want any person to ever "fear to come to [her]". She genuinely wants to protect them, not harm them. She wants to be their mhysa, not the mother of monsters (as she sees it).

After Hazzea's death, she makes a remarkable sacrifice in her name and other potential victims: chain her own (dragon) children. It's not an easy decision to make due to the parts in bold below:

The Great Masters had used the pit as a prison. It was large enough to hold five hundred men … and more than ample for two dragons. For how long, though? What will happen when they grow too large for the pit? Will they turn on one another with flame and claw? Will they grow wan and weak, with withered flanks and shrunken wings? Will their fires go out before the end?

What sort of mother lets her children rot in darkness?

If I look back, I am doomed, Dany told herself … but how could she not look back? I should have seen it coming. Was I so blind, or did I close my eyes willfully, so I would not have to see the price of power? (ADWD Daenerys II)

But she makes it for the sake of her people. Was this the right choice? We don't know if she could have tamed them and effectively used them against her enemies, so maybe it was.

However, it must be reiterated that Dany is doing more than she ever needed to do. She didn't have to stay and try to bring order to the city in the first place. She didn't have to make so many compensations for Hazzea's father. That she does all of these things highlight her selflessness, but we shouldn't hold her in higher moral standards like she does.

All of this is to say that she shouldn't be criticized harshly if she eventually decides to let her dragons remain free. As I've already touched upon above, using her dragons won't necessarily result in negative consequences. Her main lesson in ADWD was that she had to have been more forceful, after all. Also, she was already doing far more than she had to and had no real moral obligation towards anyone (though she feels that she does). She didn't have to chain her dragons. And she certainly didn't have to delay her departure for Westeros:

“...I say, let this city be. You cannot free every slave in the world, Khaleesi. Your war is in Westeros.”

“I have not forgotten Westeros.” Dany dreamt of it some nights, this fabled land that she had never seen. [...] Dany set great store by Ser Jorah’s counsel, but to leave Meereen untouched was more than she could stomach. She could not forget the children on their posts, the birds tearing at their entrails, their skinny arms pointing up the coast road. (ASOS Daenerys V)

~

“My children need time to heal and learn. My dragons need time to grow and test their wings. And I need the same. I will not let this city go the way of Astapor. I will not let the harpy of Yunkai chain up those I’ve freed all over again.” She turned back to look at their faces. “I will not march.”

“What will you do then, Khaleesi?” asked Rakharo.

“Stay,” she said. “Rule. And be a queen.”

~

“No one will be left to die. You are all my people.” Her dreams of home and love had blinded her. “I will not abandon Meereen to the fate of Astapor. It grieves me to say so, but Westeros must wait.” (ADWD Daenerys III)

~

“What are you saying? Are you telling me you will not go?”

“I cannot go.” (ADWD Daenerys III)

~

“Lingering here will never bring it any closer. The sooner we take our leave of this place—”

“I know. I do.” Dany did not know how to make him see. She wanted Westeros as much as he did, but first she must heal Meereen. (ADWD Daenerys IV)

~

“Dorne is too far away. To please this prince, I would need to abandon all my people. You should send him home.” (ADWD Daenerys VIII)

Even if she decides to go back to Westeros, one must always remember that Daenerys was already doing more than she had to do by staying in Meereen; she was already doing a lot more than any of her contemporaries would do. Turning her eyes back to Westeros, at least by itself, does not mean that she is getting "darker", it just means that she is thinking of her own desires for once.

Dany's use of her own resources to revitalize Meereen is another one of the multiple sacrifices she makes for her people. The decisions made using her gold are both great political decisions and proof of her compassion, which shows that these aspects can (and should) go hand in hand in a great ruler. I've listed and talked about the moments where she's explicitly shown spending her own gold solely to help her people in this post. I'll sum them up here:

She promises to pay "good gold" for the short sword of Stalwart Shield and "one thousand honors" for information about the Sons of the Harpy.

She pays people affected by the actions of her dragons.

She sets up a camp and sends food to the Astapori refugees.

She is not bothered at all for having to compensate the Yunkish masters with "gold and gems".

She orders the food that would normally be thrown away to be given for the poor.

She seeks to strengthen her military forces to defend the city from the Yunkish masters and does not care about the price to do so.

@rainhadaenerys added that she also sent "gems and gold" to guarantee the alliance with the Lhazarene solely to improve the city's economy.

I still haven't properly explored the third moment of the list, which is one of the most notable examples of Dany's selflessness, so let's get to it.

After finding out about the pale mare's spread and the Astapori refugees' plight, this is Dany's first impulse:

My children. “They are coming here for help. For succor and protection. We cannot turn our backs on them.” (ADWD Daenerys V)

However, as both Barristan and the Shavepate note, the bloody flux is very contagious and could easily turn Meereen into a epidemic disaster like it did Astapor. So, Dany comes up with these ideas:

“As you say, then. We will keep them outside the walls until this … this curse has run its course. Set up a camp for them beside the river, west of the city. We will send them what food we can. Perhaps we can separate the healthy from the sick.” (ADWD Daenerys V)

Not only these are clever ideas (which she had without anyone's help), it's noteworthy that she's hopeful that she can allow them inside once "this curse has run its course".

However, as she finds out in the next chapter, these solutions weren't as successful as she hoped they would be:

The Astapori had no place to go. Thousands remained outside Meereen’s thick walls—men and women and children, old men and little girls and newborn babes. Many were sick, most were starved, and all were doomed to die. Daenerys dare not open her gates to let them in. She had tried to do what she could for them. She had sent them healers, Blue Graces and spell-singers and barbersurgeons, but some of those had sickened as well, and none of their arts had slowed the galloping progression of the flux that had come on the pale mare. Separating the healthy from the sick had proved impractical as well. Her Stalwart Shields had tried, pulling husbands away from wives and children from their mothers, even as the Astapori wept and kicked and pelted them with stones. A few days later, the sick were dead and the healthy ones were sick. Dividing the one from the other had accomplished nothing.

Even feeding them had grown difficult. Every day she sent them what she could, but every day there were more of them and less food to give them. It was growing harder to find drivers willing to deliver the food as well. Too many of the men they had sent into the camp had been stricken by the flux themselves. Others had been attacked on the way back to the city. Yesterday a wagon had been overturned and two of her soldiers killed, so today the queen had determined that she would bring the food herself. Every one of her advisors had argued fervently against it, from Reznak and the Shavepate to Ser Barristan, but Daenerys would not be moved. “I will not turn away from them,” she said stubbornly. “A queen must know the sufferings of her people.”

[...] Many shat where they slept now, too feeble to crawl to the ditches she’d commanded them to dig. (ADWD Daenerys VI)

So, let's recap:

Dany sets up a camp for them "beside the river, west of the city".

Dany tries to separate the healthy from the sick, but that meant separating family members. That was ultimately for naught, since the ones who were only sick at first died and the ones who were healthy got sick.

Dany sends "healers, Blue Graces and spell-singers and barbersurgeons", but they got sick as well.

Dany commanded them to dig ditches to defecate, but they started to do it where they slept because they were too weak to stand up and defecate there.

Dany sent the food that she could, but "every day there were more of them and less food to give them". Even sending the food was becoming hard, since some soldiers were becoming sick and others were attacked on the way back to the city.

This leads Dany to decide to bring the food herself, even while knowing all of the risks that doing so would entail. See what she also does:

There was an old man on the ground a few feet away, moaning and staring up at the grey belly of the clouds. She knelt beside him, wrinkling her nose at the smell, and pushed back his dirty grey hair to feel his brow. “His flesh is on fire. I need water to bathe him. Seawater will serve. Marselen, will you fetch some for me? I need oil as well, for the pyre. Who will help me burn the dead?”

By the time Aggo returned with Grey Worm and fifty of the Unsullied loping behind his horse, Dany had shamed all of them into helping her. Symon Stripeback and his men were pulling the living from the dead and stacking up the corpses, while Jhogo and Rakharo and their Dothraki helped those who could still walk toward the shore to bathe and wash their clothes. Aggo stared at them as if they had all gone mad, but Grey Worm knelt beside the queen and said, “This one would be of help.”

Before midday a dozen fires were burning. Columns of greasy black smoke rose up to stain a merciless blue sky. Dany’s riding clothes were stained and sooty as she stepped back from the pyres. (ADWD Daenerys VI)

So, let's recap:

Dany went to distribute the food even while knowing all of the risks. She also considered sharing the food equally twice.

Dany decided to bath an old man herself even while knowing all of the risks.

Dany burned the dead corpses (which could have transmitted the disease) herself even while knowing all of the risks.

Dany "shamed all of them into helping her". She had her fighting men help her to take care of people who she had no allegiance to and would receive no benefit from helping.

And look at her thoughts while she does all of the above:

I have no more help to give, Dany thought, despairing. (ADWD Daenerys VI)

~

“I will not turn away from them,” she said stubbornly. “A queen must know the sufferings of her people.” (ADWD Daenerys VI)

~

Bless me, Dany thought bitterly. Your city is gone to ash and bone, your people are dying all around you. I have no shelter for you, no medicine, no hope. Only stale bread and wormy meat, hard cheese, a little milk. Bless me, bless me.

What kind of mother has no milk to feed her children? (ADWD Daenerys VI)

~

“Go if you wish, ser. I will not detain you. I will not detain any of you.” Dany vaulted down from the horse. “I cannot heal them, but I can show them that their Mother cares.” (ADWD Daenerys VI)

We would be remiss if we were to think she had any obligation to help the Astapori refugees. Every single advisor, from the Shavepate to Reznak to Barristan to Symon (note that three of the four are anti-slavery) advised her to stop caring, but she simply can't do it. If Daenerys Targaryen is not a true queen, I don't know what she is. Which brings me to the next section.

5) She chose the freedmen and the freedmen chose her

Dany's love for the freedmen is returned with their love for her.

"Mhysa!" they called. "Mhysa! MHYSA!" They were all smiling at her, reaching for her, kneeling before her. "Maela," some called her, while others cried "Aelalla" or "Qathei" or "Tato," but whatever the tongue it all meant the same thing. Mother. They are calling me Mother.

The chant grew, spread, swelled. It swelled so loud that it frightened her horse, and the mare backed and shook her head and lashed her silver-grey tail. It swelled until it seemed to shake the yellow walls of Yunkai. More slaves were streaming from the gates every moment, and as they came they took up the call. They were running toward her now, pushing, stumbling, wanting to touch her hand, to stroke her horse's mane, to kiss her feet. Her poor bloodriders could not keep them all away, and even Strong Belwas grunted and growled in dismay. (ASOS Daenerys IV)

~

“Say the word, my sweet, and I will send you from this awful place. I will find a ship somehow and send you home. To Naath.”

“I would sooner stay with you. On Naath I’d be afraid. What if the slavers came again? I feel safe when I’m with you.”

Safe. The word made Dany’s eyes fill up with tears. “I want to keep you safe.” Missandei was only a child. With her, she felt as if she could be a child too. “No one ever kept me safe when I was little. Well, Ser Willem did, but then he died, and Viserys … I want to protect you but … it is so hard. To be strong. I don’t always know what I should do. I must know, though. I am all they have. I am the queen … the … the …”

“… mother,” whispered Missandei.

“Mother to dragons.” Dany shivered.

“No. Mother to us all.” (ADWD Daenerys II)

~

“Wherever the Mother of Dragons goes, the Mother’s Men will go as well,” announced Marselen, Missandei’s remaining brother. (ADWD Daenerys III)

~

"...Should you reach your queen, give her a message from the slaves of Old Volantis." She touched the faded scar upon her wrinkled cheek, where her tears had been cut away. "Tell her we are waiting. Tell her to come soon." (ADWD Tyrion VII)

~

Their eyes followed her. Those who had the strength called out. “Mother … please, Mother … bless you, Mother …” (ADWD Daenerys VI)

~

Daenerys Targaryen was wed, the guards on the pens had told them, laughing. She had taken a Meereenese slaver as her king, as wealthy as he was noble, and when the peace was signed and sealed the fighting pits of Meereen would open once again. Other slaves insisted that the guards were lying, that Daenerys Targaryen would never make peace with slavers. Mhysa, they called her. Someone told him that meant Mother. Soon the silver queen would come forth from her city, smash the Yunkai'i, and break their chains, they whispered to one another. (ADWD Tyrion X)

~

"Is it true?" a freedwoman shouted. "Is our mother dead?"

"No, no, no," Reznak screeched. "Queen Daenerys will return to Meereen in her own time in all her might and majesty. Until such time, His Worship King Hizdahr shall—"

"He is no king of mine," a freedman yelled. (ADWD The Discarded Knight)

~

Hizdahr's blunder with Grey Worm had cost him the Unsullied. When His Grace had tried to put them under the command of a cousin, as he had the Brazen Beasts, Grey Worm had informed the king that they were free men who took commands only from their mother. (ADWD The Queensguard)

This may be a show line, but it's accurate - she is the queen that the freedmen chose. What's more important, they chose her because she chose them. Because she chose to be held accountable for their protection:

"I was alone for a long time, Jorah. All alone but for my brother. I was such a small scared thing. Viserys should have protected me, but instead he hurt me and scared me worse. He shouldn't have done that. He wasn't just my brother, he was my king. Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can't protect themselves?"

"He was no true king," Dany said scornfully. "He did no justice. Justice ... that's what kings are for." (ASOS Daenerys III)

Dany didn't have to delay her arrival to Westeros, but she did. She didn't have to fight for the freedom of the slaves in Slaver's Bay, but she did. She didn't have to stay and try to bring order to the city, but she did. She didn't have to give the freedmen voice in her council, but she did. She didn't have to question these institutions and fight for these people; her contemporaries are only focused in their own regional squabbles and wouldn't lift a finger for the slaves ... But she did. I won't mention all of her sacrifices again because, if you've reached this far into the meta, you already know how the list goes on and on.

Dany did not just make what seemed impossible to come true in the birth of the dragons.

She made what seemed impossible to come true by choosing to do what's right and challenge half of the world and fail and try again and again.

She made what seemed impossible to come true by becoming the queen that this world needs.

[bendthekneejon]

Daenerys and Odysseus (and a bit of Jon, too)

Epic poems have strongly inspired ASOIAF. But The Odyssey, The Aeneid, and The Divine Comedy, in particular, caught my eye. Now, I’ll talk about Odysseus and Dany. Comparing them has helped me understand GRRM’s view of Dany: is she really taking the path of a villain for him?

Odysseus is the main hero of the Homeric poems. These poems were so inspiring that they helped Greece get out of four centuries of dark ages and into a renaissance in the 8th century BC. So let’s explore this hero, whose example and teachings remain present to this day.

In short, Odysseus is a war hero who, after winning the war against Troy in The Illiad, has to come back home to Ithaca to his family and rule as king. However, he finds plenty of obstacles in his journey and spends a decade sailing from one island to another. Meanwhile, several men are trying to steal his throne and marry his wife Penelope in his absence. The character goes through a process of anagnorisis—taking back what is his and returning to his home and family. 

Likewise, Dany’s journey is characterized by the search of a home and a family. She is the exiled daughter of a king whose throne was taken. Just like Odysseus, she has a strong sense of duty and wants the throne back. Both she (and Jon) and Odysseus, though, want above everything their family and home (Ithaca, Westeros) back: Odysseus wants the family he already has in Ithaca, and Dany has no family but longs to have one. 

However, the problem that they both face is that they cannot go home nor have a family. They have a will and a duty, but no capacity to fulfill them: she is exiled and can’t get to Westeros, and he is held captive in an island by the nymph Calypso.

Now, let’s compare the characters. The opening of the Odyssey describes Odysseus' character. Take a look: 

“Tell me, Muse, of that man, so ready at need, who wandered far and wide,”

They both sailed for years, from one city/island to another. 

“and many were the men whose towns he saw and whose mind he learnt,”

Dany met different cultures and learned from all of them--the Dothraki, the Astapori, the Meereenese. So did Odysseus. This was, in the end, one of the characteristics that made him a great leader and king once he was back in Ithaca. This journey taught them a great deal. They both took advantage of the negative situations to watch and learn from them. Jon Snow has this in common too: the wildling’s, the Night’s Watch…he learned from all of them and these learnings are what make him a capable ruler. (It’s no news for any of us that Jon and Dany have parallel stories. So the parallels with epic heroes apply to Jon too in many cases.)

“and many the woes he suffered in his heart upon the deep, striving to win his own life and the return of his company. Nay, but even so he saved not his company, though he desired it sore. For through the blindness of their own hearts they perished...”

Odysseus tried to save his company, his friends and fellow sailors, but couldn’t save everyone. Some of them perished, for example, being eaten by the cyclops Polyphemus or eating the lotus in Circe’s island and wanting to stay there. Likewise, Dany tried to save all her people from their hardships, like the Dothraki in the Red Waste, but some of them perished.

This is what The Odyssey is about. Taking advantage of suffering. Learning from it. Becoming a stronger person, and a better ruler in the end because of it. 

What about their weaknesses? They are similar, too. For example, when he arrived at Ithaca, he murdered the men who were trying to steal his wife and throne. He had a vengeful side. Dany has had vengeful moments too, crucifying the masters of Meereen, for example. They both, however, regret using violence. Dany despises violence. This was evident when she was so insistent about not reopening the fighting pits in Meereen, when she chained her dragons, or when she left Daario, a violent man. These are all constant proofs of her aversion to violence.

Odysseus also had an arrogant side. His wish to be remembered, to stand out, pushed him to shout his name to Polyphemus-- a mistake that almost got him killed as Poseidon, the god of the seas, made Odysseus’ journey at sea a living hell after that. Dany’s been proud a bunch of times, saying her name and titles too. But in the end, did these wrongs make Odysseus a crazy, unsuccessful ruler? No. All heroes have weaknesses. What matters is what they do about them. They can be willing to change, they can redeem themselves, they can learn to control them.

I could go on for a while. They are both brave. They are both patient: they go through a long journey but they don’t rush to get home and leave it all behind the way it is. Dany made sure she left Meereen with an army and a strong council, for example, learning from her mistakes in Yunkai and Astapor. They both seek to experience different cultures and experiences willingly to learn more. They know how to listen to advice from others. 

“A queen must listen to all. The highborn and the low, the strong and the weak, the noble and the venal. One voice may speak you false, but in many there is always truth to be found.” (ASOS, pg. 92)

Now, Penelope’s suitors are strongly criticized by the author (and greek gods) in this story because they are trying to get to power with no merit whatsoever. Odysseus is the one who has merit, clearly. Just like Dany and Jon are the ones who have merit, not those assholes who are in the council at the end of GOT. Jon and Dany have ruled, traveled, known different people and most importantly, put people first. 

Dany fought for the throne to give freedom to people and a just life, while others only fought for the throne in a succession war. She literally freed and saved people. She learns to rule, she helps people, she puts them first in her decisions. She even puts them before her lover (a parallel with the epic poem ‘The Aeneid’ by Virgil). And D&D give the power to people who aren’t intelligent at all, who haven’t even fought for the people, just like Penelope’s suitors in the palace of Ithaca. Bran has never fought for the people nor has had any experience in power. How can he bring “peace for the kingdoms”? How can he and the others in the council have more merit than Dany and Jon? To me, they are as worthy of ruling as Penelope’s suitors.

And at the end of The Odyssey, there’s a new world order. The law of vengeance is replaced by a law of peace, harmony, and love. Odysseus is back with his family. He goes back to his throne and rules Ithaca. Not only it was his duty (by bloodline), but he was also the fittest for the job, given everything he had learned on his journey. 

When I noticed all his similarities with Dany I wondered: why would GRRM write such a downfall for her, if she’s a modern, female version of one of the biggest heroes in the history of literature? It would be like saying that Odysseus shouldn’t have had a happy ending.

So, either GRRM hates Odysseus (unlikely) or he didn’t get his story (unlikely). I mean, imagine finishing the Odyssey with Odysseus turning mad.

The Illiad and the Odyssey might be the greatest epics of all time, and GRRM seemed to be writing his own epic. And what’s the historical role of epics? To teach. Storytelling has always been a powerful teacher (if you read the Bible, you know Jesus shared his teachings by telling stories, called ‘parables’), and epics were a way to teach values to society. I think this is what GRRM is trying to do too with ASOIAF. Not to show the world the absurdity of life, or anything of the sort. It’s a story to teach values, like any other epic. It seems most fitting, then, that his heroes will teach with their example, just like the heroes in the great epics did. 

Dany and Jon, on their own, have learned to rule. They empathize with people, with the less privileged ones, a characteristic that makes them better rulers. The other rulers just know the life of the aristocrat. GRRM has hinted often that their fates are tied. He molded them as people and leaders. Plus, they are the saviors of the world and would rule better than others given their odysseys. They would make a freer and juster world. I still have hope. I don’t know if I’m naive. I still have hope that this isn’t GRRM’s view, because Dany and Jon’s ending (in GOT) is condemning Odysseus, Aeneas, Dante, and many other epic heroes in which they are based on. 

What about GRRM’s ‘message about power’? There will be always someone in power. What matters is that the right people are in power. Heroes can be teachers, examples to actual or future rulers. I think Jon and Dany were meant to be the ones to teach with their example.

PS. There are some clear hints that ASOIAF is inspired by The Odyssey. When the cyclops Polyphemus asked Odysseus, “what’s your name?”, he replied: “My name is ‘no one’.” Sounds familiar? ;)

More on epic poems and Daenerys here

[sayruq]

I agree w/ you that Dany won't fight the Others in the books b/c 1. if she was supposed to redeem herself there, they would have put that in the show; in fact I'm pretty sure GRRM didn't even know exactly what was gonna happen to the Others at the time of his meeting w/ D&D, so that's all them, 2. why would the Threat of Fire help kill the Threat of Ice? Imo the Others will wreck the North and Dany will wreck the South, and the aftermath will kickstart the end of feudalism a la the Black Death.

Plus Dragons have been described as unhappy in the North during the normal winter and the Others are bringing the worst winter with them. Not only that Alysanne’s dragon could not cross the Wall which was made using the Children’s magic. You know what else was made using the Children’s magic? The Others. Dany might help burn wights (which was maybe foreshadowed in her visions of her melting an army at the Trident) but ADWD ended with ‘dragons plant no trees,’ after Dany spent 2 books trying to ‘help’ people which ended up making her very unhappy. I don’t see her embracing the Stallion Who Mounts prophecy and becoming Azor Ahai only to abandon her war with Aegon to go North with an army that would probably suffer during a normal winter and will die during an apocalyptic one.

Still Jon has to meet her and he is connected to the fight against the Others and there’s a line in ACoK (or was it ASoS) about Jon dying a turncloak and a killer so there’s a possibility that she does try to help and she loses her army like she did on the show and she ends up learning that she isn’t the saviour which would be a huge blow to her self image because Dany is all about being a part of a grand destiny and it would seem like she wasted her time and resources. Plus there has to be payoff for all the foreshadowing for the Starks vs Daenerys when it comes to the North’s independence. It would be such a GRRM thing to do if in the middle of a fight against a world ending evil, the human characters bicker about politics. 

Still the timing is wrong. Dany has to sack Yunkai (because 3 city states and one has been left untouched, the Yunkai are some of her biggest enemies and GRRM loves doing things in 3s) after becoming Khaleesi and transporting tens of thousands of men to Meereen. She has to meet Tyrion, the Red Priests, deal with the fallout of whatever Victarion does. Then she has to find enough ships for her army and sail for weeks to get to Westeros. She won’t arrive just as Aegon is being crowned because Aegon needs to become popular with the smallfolk. Then when she arrives, she meets Loras Tyrell and she goes to war. Meanwhile if the horn of Joramun is with Sam in Oldtown then Euron is going to get to it pretty soon meaning the Others will attack midway in TWoW unless Euron decides not to blow the horn for some reason. Either way Dany is arriving towards the end of TWoW imo after the Others have started attacking the North.

[winelover1989]

Why do people say Dany was a bad ruler in Meereen? I just read ADWD, and thought she was pretty good. She plants new crops, builds an irrigation ditch, makes a commercial deal with Lhazar, trains new soldiers, holds court and listens to everyone, tries to make alliances with different cities, is very diplomatic and respects Meereen's traditions. Yes, there was hunger and violence, but it was because of the slavers, and she did everything she could, considering she was trying to avoid a war.

I’m with you, when I was done reading ADWD, I was really impressed by the complexity of the Slaver’s Bay plot and Dany’s leadership skills and while reading the book, I had a few good laughs remembering some of the things book readers told me about Dany in ADWD before I read the books. I think there are a few reasons why people whine about it so much:

1. Most people are used to, “And the King or Queen ruled wisely and nobly and everyone lived happily ever after,” at the end of a liberation story like Slaver’s Bay in ASOS. That never happens, leadership is hard even when there’s no conflict but no matter how aware someone is about this not being one of those stories, it messes with most people’s reading comprehension.

2. Dany’s storyline in ADWD has a lot of conflict on all fronts. First of all, there’a threeway political conflict with the three cities of Slaver’s Bay

Astapor went into mutiny after she left, one dictator rising after another. They started a war with Yunkai despite Dany advising them against it. Later it’s hit by a plague.

Yunkai, which she left untouched and left only with slaves, started collecting sellsword armies from all over Essos and threatened Meereen with a war which Dany refused to fight because her numbers were low and it was not a fight they could win.  

Meereen’s rich families started a gorilla warfare within Meereen, the sons of the Harpy. There are shavepates, a group of ambitious people who would benefit if Dany kills all the existing powerful families for them.

Then there’s conflict from outside as well :

There are people from Westeros approaching her with their own agendas and problems to solve - Victorian Greyjoy, Tyrion Lannister and Quentyn Martell, who actually manages to reach. Barristan is a a character who constantly speaks for this side.

Dany disrupted the human trafficking trade in all of Essos (Dothraki/Pirates capture innocent people, slavers’s bay trains them and they are sold all over Essos and beyond). The Slave trade is not limited to Slaver’s Bay and it’s causing a lot of problems to rich people all over the continent. Her problems are at a very large scale and most of the cities in Essos begin to back Yunkai, wanting her out and their human trafficking to continue as usual.

Qarth even offers her ships to leave for Westeros, a huge temptation she resisted.

There are a lot of comparisons made with characters dealing with little to no real conflict in comparison to Dany. Like no shit Sherlock, it’s almost like people with fewer problems to deal with appear more competent at leading. Or there’s a childish denial of the human condition and the need to pin the blame on a single person. Asoiaf has a lot of social commentary on how we are a greater danger to ourselves than made up monsters we fear. Dany is not the only person with a functional brain, ambitions and conflict… Slaver’s Bay is a cruel region full of people with their own personal agendas. But there’s a general lack of understanding of the political conflict in the region outside of “she started it!”

3. The ethical and moral dilemma this story explores is Slavery vs War, two of the most horrifying aspects of our history and most people love to live in denial about it because people in real world are raised on white washed narratives of history. This is nothing as simple as defeating a psychopath Ramey or a pure evil army of zombies, it’s much more complex. War is wrong, but Dany doesn’t work so hard, losing her own agency simply because slavery is price to pay for peace. That, is in fact, a statement which can only be uttered by an extremely privileged person. She goes that far to establish peace with Yunkai because Dany’s battle plans have always involved least amount of bloodshed and her army had no chance against Yunkai. Believing that slavery could be removed peacefully is a very naive and childish belief. It has literally never happened in history. Rich and powerful people just dont give up their hold over powerless people out of the goodness of their heart. It’s said that Lincoln “freed slaves” in US, but he was publicly pro-slavery even after the “freeing” and it was only done as a political compromise after the civil war.

4. The story is incomplete : We were introduced to Slaver’s Bay in ASOS and ADWD explored the political conflict in the region in depth but the story ends at with disaster - Astapor wiped by by plague, Yunakai & Meereen at war and Dany stranded in the Dothraki sea. But that’s how stories work, they flip the narrative charge at the end of the arc. If TWOW starts with Dany’s story in shambles then it’s going to move in a triumphant direction. Since season 6, I’ve heard so many book readers constantly claim that Dany did not liberate Slaver’s Bay or end slavery, but here’s the thing…they don’t know the full story!

Like they read ADWD and know the political crisis in the region in depth? Cool story bro! But they also don’t know the entire story. The books are just at the beginning & middle stage of this plot, but TWOW is where it’s going to end. I heard some idiot say that the whole point of the plot was that Dany had good intentions but this whole plot was pointless…Like that’s not how writing works! You don’t start plots and build such complex dilemmas just to drop them unresolved and say “Well some fictional problems just cant be solved! Thanks for wasting your time.” A plot that well fleshed out is going to get satisfying closure.

5. Lack of understanding of Economics : I kept hearing crap like Dany “destroyed” the economy of Slaver’s Bay and it’s stated in the books but the only thing explored in the books was :

Xaro from Qarth visting Dany and asking her to get out of the way of the human trafficking economy of Essos

Meereen literally didn’t have any resource to sell or export except for humans, even their wine tasted like piss

They were buying everything they consumed with money they made by selling people which Dany tried to change by atleast making them agriculturally independent

Medieval economic systems are highly dependent of agriculture and much like today, trade:

North & Iron Islands are poor because they dont have very fertile lands. The South is prosperous because their lands are much more fertile.

The Reach is the richest not only because it’s the most fertile but also because they are world famous for the wine they produce.

Dorne is not fertile, much like the North but they are richer because they too produce some of the finest wine in the world.

The free cities are rich because they trade luxury goods - silk, lace, spices, etc, .

Slaver’s Bay has conditions like North or Dorne, shitty wine and no precious metals. It shouldn’t be rich, they should be similar to the North but they are rich because they have a system where they turn people into expensive commodities - soldier, prostitute and people with other useful skills. Potential owners dont just need soldiers for war or need pleasure slaves for personal use but they also need skilled labour to run their businesses without paying good salary, They in turn get even richer to buy even more slaves. And the Masters in Slaver’s Bay use all that money to import literally everything a society needs to function! This is the economy your average book reader cares about so much!

As for the regular economic conditions, sure the region suffered due to war but it was still prosperous and moving in an agriculturally independent direction.

I can go on but I’ll wrap this up, one of the most crucial aspect we need to consider is :

She’s a teenage girl whose femininity was on full display in ADWD. We really get to see Dany’s gentler. more vulnerable side in ADWD which has a lot of intimate moments for the reader to get to know her character.

We watch her fall in love on her own terms and for the first time in her life with a guy most of the fandom hates and considers a distraction.

She locks up her dragons, rejects the badass dragon within her (something I wasn’t too happy about) and tries to keep a political ticking time bomb from exploding with diplomacy.

For everything Dany does to improve the situation, ten horrible things surface, slowly backing her character into a corner. The proactive nature of the character is slowly stripped away as she entirely loses her agency and forced into the mould of a reactive character. But it’s interesting that Drogon returns the moment she decides to break free.

I absolutely love Show!Dany, she’s the one fell in love with first and Book!Dany is a lot softer than her but I personally loved every moment of it. But I guess I don’t have to explain why people get high on their prejudice when a woman seems “soft” and “weak”.

In short, I would say that Dany in ADWD is in the midst of a a tonne of morally, politically and economically complex crisis which most readers aren’t really invested in because it has a whole bunch of new characters with funny names and a location people don’t necessarily care about as much as they care about Westeros. So the tragedy of this fascinating plot is that, only people who are interested in Dany’s character would pay the amount of attention it deserves.

[aboveallarescuer]

Daenerys Targaryen in A Storm of Swords vs Game of Thrones - Episode 4.1: Two Swords

In this series of posts, I intend to analyze precisely how the show writers downplayed or erased several key aspects of Daenerys Targaryen’s characterization, even when they had the books to help them write her as the compelling, intelligent, compassionate, frugal, open-minded and self-critical character that GRRM created.

I want to make it clear that these posts are not primarily meant to offer a better alternative to what the show writers gave us. I understand that they had many constraints (e.g. other storylines to handle, a limited amount of time to write the scripts, budget, actors who may have asked for a certain number of lines, etc) working against them. However, considering how disrespectful the show’s ending was to Daenerys Targaryen and how the book material that they left out makes it even more ludicrous to think that she will also become a villain in A Song of Ice and Fire, I believe that these reviews are more than warranted. They are meant to dissect everything about Dany’s characterization that was lost in translation, with a lot of book evidence to corroborate my statements.

Since these reviews will dissect scene by scene, I recommend taking a look at this post because I will use its sequence to order Dany’s scenes.

This post is relevant in case you want to know which chapters were adapted in which GoT episodes (however, I didn’t make the list myself, all the information comes from the GoT Wiki, so I can’t guarantee that it’s 100% reliable).

In general, I will call the Dany from the books “Dany” and the Dany from the TV series “show!Dany”.

Scene 1

While seeing show!Dany with her dragons is always enjoyable on its own, I have some problems with this moment. The first is that we'll begin season four with show!Dany worrying about her dragons' behavior here and, later, end it with her locking two of her dragons away. These scenes don't focus as much on show!Dany herself as they focus on her relationship with her dragons, which I think is quite a problem in comparison to how ASOS and ADWD (which will be the book that the writers will adapt starting from episode 4.6) begin and end:

Dany begins ASOS hopeful and happy that she's finally going to Westeros. She ends the book disillusioned because her efforts to help the former slaves didn't pay off like she expected, so she calls off her dreams of home in order to stay and fulfill (what she thinks is) her moral duty as queen. 

Dany begins ADWD distraught because she's still dealing with the nobility's backlash and retaliation against her authority even now that she has tried to be conciliatory and rule in peace. She ends the book a) disabused of the notion that peace is possible and b) directing her eyes to Westeros again.

As we can see, these two books begin and end displaying Dany's multiple dilemmas: home vs duty, other people vs herself, peace vs war, conciliation vs use of force and so on.

In the show, while her last scene in the season four finale at least highlights her compassion towards her people, I'd argue it still mainly focuses on her relationship with her dragons (which is only one of many issues that Dany deals with in the books) rather than on grappling with the questions above in a way that centers primarily on show!Dany herself, like the books do with Dany.

My second problem is that having show!Dany be concerned about her dragons' behavior that much earlier than in the books poses another problem:

In ADWD, Dany ultimately failed in protecting her human children during her tenure because she chose peace with the slavers and was, therefore, detached from her dragon children, from her Targaryen heritage and from her identity as the Mother of Dragons. By meeting Drogon again, getting in touch with who she was and choosing fire and blood (war), she will be able to protect her people again and be a better mhysa. Ultimately, mother of dragons and mhysa are complementary parts of who Dany is.

In the show, however, the dragons begin to seem troublesome before we get to Meereen, before show!Dany begins to rule and before the issue of peace vs war becomes a major dilemma for her. This happened for two reasons: a) D&D are bad writers who dismiss themes as only being necessary for eighth-grade book reports (here, I imagine they probably just wanted to add more shock value to show!Dany's plotline) and b)  D&D think that peace = good (even if it privileges a status quo that normalizes slavery) and war = bad, so killing slavers = bad, dragons = bad and continuing on with an anti-slavery revolution = bad (failure to understand reason 1 of why Dany's storyline matters).

My third problem is that, in the books, it's clear that what really upsets Dany is not that the dragons are eating goats, but rather that, as they grow and become more independent, the chances of her dragons a) hurting other people or b) running away increase:

“They have been wild while you were gone, Khaleesi,” Irri told her. “Viserion clawed splinters from the door, do you see? And Drogon made to escape when the slaver men came to see them. When I grabbed his tail to hold him back, he turned and bit me.” She showed Dany the marks of his teeth on her hand.

“Did any of them try to burn their way free?” That was the thing that frightened Dany the most.

“No, Khaleesi. Drogon breathed his fire, but in the empty air. The slaver men feared to come near him.”

She kissed Irri’s hand where Drogon had bitten it. “I’m sorry he hurt you. Dragons are not meant to be locked up in a small ship’s cabin.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

~

There was no sign of Viserion, but when she went to the parapet and scanned the horizon she saw pale wings in the far distance, sweeping above the river. He is hunting. They grow bolder every day. Yet it still made her anxious when they flew too far away. One day one of them may not return, she thought. (ASOS Daenerys VI)

~

Her dragons were growing wild of late. Rhaegal had snapped at Irri, and Viserion had set Reznak’s tokar ablaze the last time the seneschal had called. I have left them too much to themselves, but where am I to find the time for them? (ADWD Daenerys I)

~

If I look back, I am doomed, Dany told herself … but how could she not look back? I should have seen it coming. Was I so blind, or did I close my eyes willfully, so I would not have to see the price of power?

[...] At Astapor the slaver's eyes had melted. On the road to Yunkai, when Daario tossed the heads of Sallor the Bald and Prendahl na Ghezn at her feet, her children made a feast of them. Dragons had no fear of men. And a dragon large enough to gorge on sheep could take a child just as easily. (ADWD Daenerys II)

Before what happened to Hazzea, she was okay with the fact that they were hunting and devouring sheep:

Viserion sensed her disquiet. [...] “You should be hunting with your brothers. Have you and Drogon been fighting again?” (ADWD Daenerys I)

~

Her dragons had grown too large to be content with rats and cats and dogs. The more they eat, the larger they will grow, Ser Barristan had warned her, and the larger they grow, the more they’ll eat. Drogon especially ranged far afield and could easily devour a sheep a day. (ADWD Daenerys I)

Basically, this is my way of saying that, if they needed to have a scene where show!Dany is uneasy about what the dragons were doing, they should've shown them almost harming one of the people in her retinue or something along those lines (rather than being shocked at seeing them hunt and eat), for that would showcase her empathy like in the books.

My fourth problem with this scene is that we see part of it from show!Jorah's point of view:

JORAH: They’re dragons, Khaleesi. They can never be tamed. Not even by their mother.

In the show, he gets the first line of show!Dany's season four storyline, he gets to be anxious about the dragons before show!Dany is (which undermines how reflective she is in the books) and he is the one who warns her of their wildness when, in the books, she is aware of it without anyone having to tell her. It's another subtle way of undermining show!Dany's agency in comparison to her book counterpart, unfortunately.

My fifth and final problem is that, well, this scene was written by the same people who thought that it was necessary to have show!Dany's dragons taken from her in season two (which never happened in ACOK) and show her going "back to being a really frightened little girl" because she is "so defined" by them. It's the opposite in the books: the dragons only turned into weapons to fight against slavery because of her choices. So, with that in mind, I don't like how they made them so important in her first and last scenes of the season when they never were in the books. And all of this conflict feels superfluous in retrospect, when one remembers that show!Dany doesn't struggle to control them in the last three seasons at all.

*

DAENERYS: Ser Barristan.

BARRISTAN: Your Grace.

DAENERYS: Where’s Daario Naharis? Where’s Grey Worm?

BARRISTAN: Gambling, Your Grace.

DAENERYS: Gambling?

I have problems with how show!Barristan and show!Dany are being portrayed here because it feels like the show writers switched their characterizations when we consider what we know of them in the books.

First, why is show!Barristan holding his laughter about this situation? In the books, Barristan clearly dislikes Daario and his influence on Dany:

On the day that he returned from his latest sortie, he had tossed the head of a Yunkish lord at her feet and kissed her in the hall for all the world to see, until Barristan Selmy pulled the two of them apart. Ser Grandfather had been so wroth that Dany feared blood might be shed. (ADWD Daenerys VII)

~

“This is your gift? A scrap of writing?” Daario snatched the parchment out of the Dornishman’s hands and unrolled it, squinting at the seals and signatures. “Very pretty, all the gold and ribbons, but I do not read your Westerosi scratchings.”

“Bring it to the queen,” Ser Barristan commanded. “Now.” (ADWD Daenerys VII)

~

“...Poor Daario, her brave captain … she will never forget him, no … but better for all of us if he is dead, yes? Better for Daenerys too.”

Better for Daenerys, and for Westeros. Daenerys Targaryen loved her captain, but that was the girl in her, not the queen. [...]

Her love for Daario is poison. A slower poison than the locusts, but in the end as deadly. (ADWD The Kingbreaker)

Now, Barristan is a product of his misogynistic society and I do think he's wrong for thinking (in the last quote above) that Dany's love for Daario is a sign of immaturity, but my point here is that he wouldn't be laughing about something that Daario was doing behind Dany's back; in fact, he would've most likely informed her as soon as he learned about it because he respects her authority.

Additionally, he's known for lacking a sense of humor and not being relaxed, which makes this scene even more OOC for him:

The old knight was a good man, but sometimes very literal. It was only a jape, ser, she thought, but she sat on one of the pillows just the same. (ADWD Daenerys II)

~

“She needs a spear,” Ser Barristan said, as Barsena vaulted over the beast’s second charge. “That is no way to fight a boar.” He sounded like someone’s fussy old grandsire, just as Daario was always saying. (ADWD Daenerys IX)

Second, why is show!Dany being portrayed as the uptight one here? In the chapter that they are drawing from, there are several moments displaying her carefree side:

“Five, were there? Well, that’s a confusion. I could not give you a number, my queen. This old Plumm was a lord, though, must have been a famous fellow in his day, the talk of all the land. The thing was, begging your royal pardon, he had himself a cock six foot long.”

The three bells in Dany’s braid tinkled when she laughed. “You mean inches, I think.”

“Feet,” Brown Ben said firmly. “If it was inches, who’d want to talk about it, now? Your Grace.”

Dany giggled like a little girl. (ASOS Daenerys V)

~

He tried to spare me the sight of the dead children too. He should not have done that, but he meant it kindly. And Daario Naharis made her laugh, which Ser Jorah never did. (ASOS Daenerys V)

Besides admiring Daario's sense of humor and swagger, Dany also appreciates that she can let go of the burdens of queenship (and luxury) and be more spontaneous and frugal when she's with him:

In Meereen I was a queen in silk, nibbling on stuffed dates and honeyed lamb, she remembered. What would my noble husband think if he could see me now? Hizdahr would be horrified, no doubt. But Daario ...

Daario would laugh, carve off a hunk of horsemeat with his arakh, and squat down to eat beside her. (ADWD Daenerys X)

Unfortunately, the show never allows any of those aspects of Dany's characterization to come across onscreen because the writers wanted show!Dany to appear very stoic, which we know because Emilia's said in an interview that they wanted her to "sit up straight and don't smile, you're not funny", which is quite a shame; not only the writers would've been more faithful to the books by allowing her to smile and laugh and enjoy herself, it would've made show!Dany more endearing.

Ultimately, I think the change in these characters comes down to a) D&D not really understanding any of the characters of the books and b) their sexist assumptions that men are funnier than women and that powerful women are all ice queens.

*

I also need to talk about how show!Dany's connection to the Dothraki, the Unsullied and the freedmen is being undermined onscreen in comparison to what we get solely from ASOS Daenerys V.

In the show, the Dothraki only appear briefly in the background of this episode to never be seen again through the rest of season four and the entirety of season five.

In ASOS Daenerys V, we see how Dany's time with the Dothraki influenced her when she judges the slavers' reaction to her army or assesses the way that Oznak fights:

They are pissing on slaves, to show how little they fear us, she thought. They would never dare such a thing if it were a Dothraki khalasar outside their gates. (ASOS Daenerys V)

~

Oznak zo Pahl charged a third time, and now Dany could see plainly that he was riding past Belwas, the way a Westerosi knight might ride at an opponent in a tilt, rather than at him, like a Dothraki riding down a foe. (ASOS Daenerys V)

We also see her interacting with her khalasar and considering that her bloodriders a) are too important to send to fight against Oznak and b) aren't the most adequate men to send to Meereen's sewers:

Her bloodriders were in such a fever to go meet him that they almost came to blows. “Blood of my blood,” Dany told them, “your place is here by me. This man is a buzzing fly, no more. Ignore him, he will soon be gone.” Aggo, Jhogo, and Rakharo were brave warriors, but they were young, and too valuable to risk. They kept her khalasar together, and were her best scouts too. (ASOS Daenerys V)

~

“When cowards hide behind great walls, it is they who are defeated, Khaleesi,” Ko Jhogo said.

Her other bloodriders concurred. “Blood of my blood,” said Rakharo, “when cowards hide and burn the food and fodder, great khals must seek for braver foes. This is known.”

“It is known,” Jhiqui agreed, as she poured.

“Not to me.” (ASOS Daenerys V)

~

“These sewers do not sound promising.” Grey Worm would lead his Unsullied down the sewers if she commanded it, she knew; her bloodriders would do no less. But none of them was suited to the task. The Dothraki were horsemen, and the strength of the Unsullied was their discipline on the battlefield. Can I send men to die in the dark on such a slender hope? (ASOS Daenerys V)

So, despite not getting enough characterization to be set apart as their own individuals because of GRRM's racism, the Dothraki people's influence on Dany's decision-making is still clear. Unfortunately, this is completely absent from the show.

On HBO, when show!Dany passes by the Unsullied, they are shown standing still in silent ranks for no reason while their commander show!Grey Worm is on a contest against show!Daario because the writers wanted it to happen, even though it doesn't gel with his characterization (more on that later).

In ASOS Daenerys V, when Dany passes by the Unsullied, a) they are shown separated in groups that are either training (along with Grey Worm) or bathing and b) we get information on their hygiene practices:

As they rode past the stakes and pits that surrounded the eunuch encampment, Dany could hear Grey Worm and his sergeants running one company through a series of drills with shield, shortsword, and heavy spear. Another company was bathing in the sea, clad only in white linen breechclouts. The eunuchs were very clean, she had noticed. Some of her sellswords smelled as if they had not washed or changed their clothes since her father lost the Iron Throne, but the Unsullied bathed each evening, even if they’d marched all day. When no water was available they cleansed themselves with sand, the Dothraki way. (ASOS Daenerys V)

It's lovely to see Dany returning the Unsullied's greeting, which is another example of how she (relatively speaking) sees lowborn people as equals to her: 

The eunuchs knelt as she passed, raising clenched fists to their breasts. Dany returned the salute. (ASOS Daenerys V)

We also get to see the Unsullied cheer for Belwas after he won his duel:

The besiegers gave him a raucous welcome as soon as he reached the camp. Her Dothraki hooted and screamed, and the Unsullied sent up a great clangor by banging their spears against their shields. (ASOS Daenerys V)

We get to see Grey Worm openly objecting to Daario's suggestion that the Unsullied are immune to the boiling oil that the slavers would probably throw at them if they tried to storm the gates. While he and the Unsullied would still do this if Dany had given them the command, this is a subtle sign of his character development because it displays that, unlike with the slave masters, he's at least now able to speak out about the risks that he and his men would face:

 “...We can storm the gates with axes, to be sure, but ...”

“Did you see them bronze heads above the gates?” asked Brown Ben Plumm. “Rows of harpy heads with open mouths? The Meereenese can squirt boiling oil out them mouths, and cook your axemen where they stand.”

Daario Naharis gave Grey Worm a smile. “Perhaps the Unsullied should wield the axes. Boiling oil feels like no more than a warm bath to you, I have heard.”

“This is false.” Grey Worm did not return the smile. “These ones do not feel burns as men do, yet such oil blinds and kills. The Unsullied do not fear to die, though. Give these ones rams, and we will batter down these gates or die in the attempt.” (ASOS Daenerys V)

And then, we see Dany deciding not to endanger the Unsullied's lives (similar to how she sought to prevent too many former slaves of Astapor from dying in the battle of Yunkai), which highlights both her compassion and her intelligence (since she shows knowledge of the Unsullied's particular strengths to conclude that they shouldn't be sent to the sewers):

Dany sighed. “I will not throw away Unsullied lives, Grey Worm. (ASOS Daenerys V)

~

“These sewers do not sound promising.” Grey Worm would lead his Unsullied down the sewers if she commanded it, she knew; her bloodriders would do no less. But none of them was suited to the task. The Dothraki were horsemen, and the strength of the Unsullied was their discipline on the battlefield. Can I send men to die in the dark on such a slender hope? (ASOS Daenerys V)

Sadly, the show ignores all of this.

On HBO, show!Dany walked past the freedmen on her way to meet show!Daario.

In ASOS Daenerys V, Dany chose to go meet the freedmen because she didn't want to spend time distracted by her feelings for Daario:

“Missandei,” she called, “have my silver saddled. Your own mount as well.”

The little scribe bowed. “As Your Grace commands. Shall I summon your bloodriders to guard you?”

“We’ll take Arstan. I do not mean to leave the camps.” She had no enemies among her children. (ASOS Daenerys V)

We learn that the fighting men were provided with weapons from the other two cities and were now being trained (though not at the particular moment that she chose to meet them):

South of the ordered realm of stakes, pits, drills, and bathing eunuchs lay the encampments of her freedmen, a far noisier and more chaotic place. Dany had armed the former slaves as best she could with weapons from Astapor and Yunkai, and Ser Jorah had organized the fighting men into four strong companies, yet she saw no one drilling here. (ASOS Daenerys V)

Besides the fighting men, we also get information on children and women:

They passed a driftwood fire where a hundred people had gathered to roast the carcass of a horse. She could smell the meat and hear the fat sizzling as the spit boys turned, but the sight only made her frown.

Children ran behind their horses, skipping and laughing. [...]

Dany had stopped to speak to a pregnant woman who wanted the Mother of Dragons to name her baby[.] (ASOS Daenerys V)

Then, there's also how the freedmen perceive and act around Dany:

Some of the freedmen greeted her as “Mother,” while others begged for boons or favors. Some prayed for strange gods to bless her, and some asked her to bless them instead. She smiled at them, turning right and left, touching their hands when they raised them, letting those who knelt reach up to touch her stirrup or her leg. Many of the freedmen believed there was good fortune in her touch. If it helps give them courage, let them touch me, she thought. There are hard trials yet ahead ... (ASOS Daenerys V)

Instead of believing that she has a "glorious destiny" (like the show writers put it), Dany's actual thoughts display that she only allows the freedmen to revere her because it helps them to feel safe; this is another sign of her empathy, not of her self-gratification or entitlement as many often think.

Finally, the chapter shows the freedmen killing a man for Dany:

Mero went sprawling, blood bubbling from his mouth as the waves washed over him. A moment later the freedmen washed over him too, knives and stones and angry fists rising and falling in a frenzy. (ASOS Daenerys V)

In the books, the former captain of the Second Sons, Mero, hid among the freedmen and bided his time to kill Dany out of revenge for having been deceived by her in Yunkai. Barristan defended her and defeated Mero with a stick, which then led to the freedmen ultimately killing him for their mhysa (and to Barristan's identity and Jorah's treason being revealed).

On HBO, because a) show!Barristan's identity was revealed right away and b) show!Mero was killed by show!Daario (who is part of the Second Sons onscreen rather than the Stormcrows onpage), this scene never happened, making this another example of Dany's connection with the freedmen being undermined from books to show.

If the writers really cared about "the people who may be suffering the repercussions of the decisions made by those heroic people" (which was their justification for leaving show!Dany out of the picture in the second half of the episode where they had her decide to kill thousands of innocents out of nowhere), they would've shown the (already limited) interactions between Dany and her khalasar, the Unsullied and the freedmen at the very least. In fact, if the writers really cared about them, they could've gone further and explored characters that GRRM himself didn't:

“Nine, the noble Reznak said. Who else?”

“Three freedmen, murdered in their homes,” the Shavepate said. “A moneylender, a cobbler, and the harpist Rylona Rhee. They cut her fingers off before they killed her.” The queen flinched. Rylona Rhee had played the harp as sweetly as the Maiden. When she had been a slave in Yunkai, she had played for every highborn family in the city. In Meereen she had become a leader amongst the Yunkish freedmen, their voice in Dany’s councils. (ADWD Daenerys II)

Rylona Rhee was a character whose existence we only learned about in ADWD, after she was already killed by the Harpy's Sons. As the quote shows, though, she represented the Yunkish freedmen's interests in Dany's court and had a lot of potential as a character that GRRM didn't tap into. The show could've easily improved this... Think about it: if Rylona was among the Yunkish freedmen, this means that she met Dany at the end of ASOS Daenerys IV (which, in the show, was episode 3.10). From that point until ADWD Daenerys II, the entirety of season four and the beginning of season five went by (this happened because the show writers reaaaallly stretched out the events of ASOS Daenerys V and VI and parts of ADWD Daenerys I and II). This span of time would've been the perfect opportunity to introduce Rylona's character, flesh her out and give us more information about the freedmen.

Now, the show writers would've never done something like this, of course; they only cared about the lowborn people's deaths and the shock value that would come with them, not about their motivations and lives in general.

*

DAENERYS: How long have they been at it?

MISSANDEI: Since midnight, Your Grace.

DAARIO: Ser Worm is stronger than he looks. But I can see his arms beginning to shake.

DAENERYS: What’s the prize to winning this stupid contest?

DAARIO: The honour of riding by your side on the road to Meereen.

DAENERYS: That honour goes to Ser Jorah and Ser Barristan, as neither of them kept me waiting this morning. You two will ride in the rear guard and protect the livestock. The last man holding his sword can find a new queen to fight for.

I already talked about my first issue with the scene, which is that it portrays show!Dany as rigid and strict while it ignores that her book counterpart is allowed to be playful and not take herself seriously in several moments in the books, including in this chapter (see above).

My second problem with it is that ... why would either show!Grey Worm or show!Daario think that this contest would give one of them "the honour of riding by [show!Dany's] side on the road to Meereen"? Did they forget that this choice is show!Dany's to make? Did they forget that she is their leader? By comparison, this is what Grey Worm says when Hizdahr tries to give him orders after Dany departs Meereen:

Hizdahr’s blunder with Grey Worm had cost him the Unsullied. When His Grace had tried to put them under the command of a cousin, as he had the Brazen Beasts, Grey Worm had informed the king that they were free men who took commands only from their mother. (ADWD The Queensguard)

Considering that Grey Worm only respects his queen's authority in the books, I doubt that he would've accepted to join this contest because he would know that its "prize" is worthless to begin with. Same goes for Daario. Unfortunately, this goes in line with how the (sexist) writers of this show have show!Dany's men make decisions among themselves and forget that show!Dany is their liege (another example: show!Barristan asking show!Jorah (rather than show!Dany) to take part in the battle of Yunkai), which is something that would've been fixed by simply paying more attention to the books. Unfortunately, this will only get worse as time goes on.

*

DAARIO: You like this girl? Must be frustrating.

GREY WORM: You are not a smart man, Daario Naharis.

DAARIO: I’d rather have no brains and two balls.

I'm fine with the show introducing a romantic relationship between show!Grey Worm and show!Missandei (which doesn't happen in the books because Missandei is 10-11), but it bothers me that the writers thought that the very first scene suggesting that show!Grey Worm has feelings for show!Missandei should feature show!Daario making an eunuch joke. Not that this would've been better if it weren't the first scene hinting at MissWorm, of course, it's needlessly offensive regardless and, while GRRM isn't immune to stuff like this either, it's true that this doesn't even happen in the books to begin with.

Scene 2

DAENERYS: Have you ever been to Meereen?

MISSANDEI: Several times, Your Grace, with Master Kraznys.

DAENERYS: And?

MISSANDEI: They say a thousand slaves died building the Great Pyramid of Meereen.

DAENERYS: And now an army of former slaves is marching to her gates. You think the Great Masters are worried?

MISSANDEI: If they’re smart, Your Grace.

This detail about a thousand slaves having died while they built the Great Pyramid of Meereen is a show only invention.

Show!Missandei telling show!Dany that the Great Masters should be worried about the latter's army if they are smart is also a show only invention (which leaves a really bad taste in my mouth in retrospect, since this original bit of dialogue most likely stems from their impression that show!Dany is "becoming more and more viable as a threat" based on her campaign in Slaver's Bay, which will also inform why, six years later, they'll think that it's okay to say that show!Dany's actions in King's Landing were foreshadowed by her "willingness to go forth and conquer all [her] enemies"; failure to understand reasons 1 and 2 of why Dany's storyline matters).

It makes no sense that the writers felt the need to add original lines when we could've had what ASOS Daenerys V actually gave us:

When she looked over one shoulder, there it stood, the afternoon sun blazing off the bronze harpy atop the Great Pyramid. Inside Meereen the slavers would soon be reclining in their fringed tokars to feast on lamb and olives, unborn puppies, honeyed dormice and other such delicacies, whilst outside her children went hungry. A sudden wild anger filled her. I will bring you down, she swore. (ASOS Daenerys V)

As the quote above shows, Dany's discomfort with the Meereenese slavers' privileges and traditions stems from the fact that they only have these things to begin with because they've maintained and benefitted from the slave trade for centuries. That's why she no longer enjoys eating puppies:

“...We give each boy a puppy on the day that he is cut. At the end of the first year, he is required to strangle it. Any who cannot are killed, and fed to the surviving dogs.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

~

“Good dog in Astapor, little queen. Eat?” He offered it with a greasy grin.

“That is kind of you, Belwas, but no.” Dany had eaten dog in other places, at other times, but just now all she could think of was the Unsullied and their stupid puppies. (ASOS Daenerys II)

Or why she asked Jhogo not to use the whip inside Astapor:

He stopped before a thickset man who had the look of Lhazar about him and brought his whip up sharply, laying a line of blood across one copper cheek. The eunuch blinked, and stood there, bleeding. “Would you like another?” asked Kraznys.

“If it please your worship.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

~

“Make way for the Mother of Dragons!” But when he uncoiled the great silverhandled whip that Dany had given him, and made to crack it in the air, she leaned out and told him nay. “Not in this place, blood of my blood,” she said, in his own tongue. “These bricks have heard too much of the sound of whips.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

Or why she considered banning the tokar, though she ultimately kept it in an attempt to help to make peace with the slavers:

Walking in a tokar demanded small, mincing steps and exquisite balance, lest one tread upon those heavy trailing fringes. It was not a garment meant for any man who had to work. The tokar was a master’s garment, a sign of wealth and power.

Dany had wanted to ban the tokar when she took Meereen, but her advisors had convinced her otherwise. “The Mother of Dragons must don the tokar or be forever hated,” warned the Green Grace, Galazza Galare. “In the wools of Westeros or a gown of Myrish lace, Your Radiance shall forever remain a stranger amongst us, a grotesque outlander, a barbarian conqueror. Meereen’s queen must be a lady of Old Ghis.” Brown Ben Plumm, the captain of the Second Sons, had put it more succinctly. “Man wants to be the king o’ the rabbits, he best wear a pair o’ floppy ears.” (ADWD Daenerys I)

Or why she was intent on keeping the fighting pits closed:

“Ask her if she wishes to view our fighting pits,” Kraznys added. “Douquor’s Pit has a fine folly scheduled for the evening. A bear and three small boys. One boy will be rolled in honey, one in blood, and one in rotting fish, and she may wager on which the bear will eat first.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

~

“Why?” she demanded, when Ithoke had finished. “You are no longer slaves, doomed to die at a master’s whim. I freed you. Why should you wish to end your lives upon the scarlet sands?” (ADWD Daenerys II)

Or, finally, why she chose to replace the previous throne for an ebony bench:

Her audience chamber was on the level below, an echoing high-ceilinged room with walls of purple marble. It was a chilly place for all its grandeur. There had been a throne there, a fantastic thing of carved and gilded wood in the shape of a savage harpy. She had taken one long look and commanded it be broken up for firewood. “I will not sit in the harpy’s lap,” she told them. Instead she sat upon a simple ebony bench. It served, though she had heard the Meereenese muttering that it did not befit a queen. (ASOS Daenerys VI)

All of these examples highlight that Dany struggles to accept the Meereenese slavers' culture because of her desire to end slavery and achieve equality. The quote from ASOS Daenerys V above could've easily been added in the show during a conversation between show!Dany and show!Missandei like this one.

Now, one could argue that this couldn't have happened in this episode because show!Dany hadn't yet a) seen the one hundred and sixty-three dead children, b) arrived in Meereen, c) seen the Great Pyramid and/or d) faced the risk of her people starve during the siege, all of which increase her righteous anger and determination to move forward with her crusade and do justice. That's true, but it leads to another question: why didn't they let this episode begin with show!Dany in Meereen like how ASOS Daenerys V begins, that is, with her having to face Meereen's champion?

Meereen was as large as Astapor and Yunkai combined. Like her sister cities she was built of brick, but where Astapor had been red and Yunkai yellow, Meereen was made with bricks of many colors. Her walls were higher than Yunkai’s and in better repair, studded with bastions and anchored by great defensive towers at every angle. Behind them, huge against the sky, could be seen the top of the Great Pyramid, a monstrous thing eight hundred feet tall with a towering bronze harpy at its top.

“The harpy is a craven thing,” Daario Naharis said when he saw it. “She has a woman’s heart and a chicken’s legs. Small wonder her sons hide behind their walls.”

But the hero did not hide. He rode out the city gates, armored in scales of copper and jet and mounted upon a white charger whose striped pink-and-white barding matched the silk cloak flowing from the hero’s shoulders. The lance he bore was fourteen feet long, swirled in pink and white, and his hair was shaped and teased and lacquered into two great curling ram’s horns. Back and forth he rode beneath the walls of multicolored bricks, challenging the besiegers to send a champion forth to meet him in single combat. (ASOS Daenerys V)

That's a problem that I have with how they adapted ASOS Daenerys V. The chapter can be divided in a list of four parts, which goes like this:

How Dany deals with Meereen's champion (this happens in episode 4.3)

Discussions on how to take Meereen (this never happens in the show)

Dany's thoughts on/flashbacks with Daario and Jorah (this more or less happens in episode 4.1; some are show only inventions)

Dany a) meeting her children and Mero and b) finding out the truth about her knights (a never happens; b happens in episodes 3.1 for show!Barristan and 4.8 for show!Jorah)

Despite being a chapter jam-packed with action and drama, the show adaptation diluted its impact by 1) fragmenting it, 2) overfocusing on certain parts over others, 3) creating new (and often unnecessary) scenes and 4) displaying its events out of the intended sequence. Problems 1-3 were already present in the adaptation of Dany's first four ASOS chapters, but I'd argue problem 4 is more serious in ASOS Daenerys V.

In the case of this particular scene, again, because it takes place before show!Dany reaches Meereen (and because the show writers never understood reasons 1 and 2 of why Dany's storyline matters), we don't get to see how her problems with the Meereenese slavers' culture are tied to their practice of slavery. This, unfortunately, is another case of the show undermining Dany's characterization from page to screen.

*

DAENERYS: You were told to ride at the back of the train.

DAARIO: Yes, My Queen. But I need to speak to you about something important. A matter of strategy.

MISSANDEI: Your Grace.

DAENERYS: All right, what is this matter of strategy?

DAARIO: A dusk rose.

DAENERYS: Would you like to walk at the back of the train instead of riding?

DAARIO: And this one’s called lady’s lace.

DAENERYS: Would you like to walk without shoes?

DAARIO: You have to know a land to rule it. Its plants, its rivers, its roads, its people. Dusk rose tea eases fever. Everyone in Meereen knows that. Especially the slaves who have to make the tea. If you want them to follow you, you have to become a part of their world.

DAARIO: Strategy. Harpy’s Gold. No tea from this one. Beautiful but poisonous.

DAENERYS: You are a gambler, aren’t you?

DAARIO: Your Grace.

This exchange is adapted from this part of ASOS Daenerys V:

On the road from Yunkai, Daario had brought her a flower or a sprig of some plant every evening when he made his report ... to help her learn the land, he said. Waspwillow, dusky roses, wild mint, lady’s lace, daggerleaf, broom, prickly ben, harpy’s gold ... (ASOS Daenerys V)

I have some problems with it, though. The first is that they have show!Daario tell show!Dany that she has "to know a land to rule it". In the books, at this point in time, Dany does not have any intention to stay and rule Meereen because she thinks that abolishing slavery was enough on its own; she only changes her mind after seeing the aftermath of the sack of Meereen, hearing news of Astapor (where her council was deposed and slavery is being reinstalled by a former slave named Cleon) and Yunkai (which was rumored to be making alliances with sellswords to defeat her) and understanding that her anti-slavery measures can be easily undone if she leaves so soon. Additionally, I dislike that they chose to only adapt a (veeery brief) scene from the chapter where she's shown to lack knowledge. Why not also adapt, for example, the scene in which she chooses Belwas to fight for her against Meereen's champion and we get to see her whole line of reasoning for doing so? That they even added the detail (that isn't in the books) about how a ruler should have knowledge of the region (which show!Dany doesn't yet) only adds salt to the wound, since it subtly indicates that the show writers themselves find her ineffective as a ruler when she certainly isn't.

The second problem is that show!Dany's feelings for show!Daario are not that clear onscreen in comparison to what we get in the books:

Dany found herself stealing looks at the Tyroshi when her captains came to council, and sometimes at night she remembered the way his gold tooth glittered when he smiled. That, and his eyes. His bright blue eyes. On the road from Yunkai, Daario had brought her a flower or a sprig of some plant every evening when he made his report ... to help her learn the land, he said. Waspwillow, dusky roses, wild mint, lady’s lace, daggerleaf, broom, prickly ben, harpy’s gold ... He tried to spare me the sight of the dead children too. He should not have done that, but he meant it kindly. And Daario Naharis made her laugh, which Ser Jorah never did.

Dany tried to imagine what it would be like if she allowed Daario to kiss her, the way Jorah had kissed her on the ship. The thought was exciting and disturbing, both at once. It is too great a risk. The Tyroshi sellsword was not a good man, no one needed to tell her that. Under the smiles and the jests he was dangerous, even cruel. Sallor and Prendahl had woken one morning as his partners; that very night he’d given her their heads. Khal Drogo could be cruel as well, and there was never a man more dangerous. She had come to love him all the same. Could I love Daario? What would it mean, if I took him into my bed? Would that make him one of the heads of the dragon? Ser Jorah would be angry, she knew, but he was the one who’d said she had to take two husbands. Perhaps I should marry them both and be done with it. (ASOS Daenerys V)

As one can see, Dany's crush on Daario is significant for highlighting a) how Dany is a romantic person who associates sexual attraction with love and marriage (hence why she compares Daario with her first husband) and b) how her feelings for Daario are tied to her desire to find a home or, in this case, someone who she can rely on (hence why she remembers the prophecy of the three heads of the dragon when she thinks of him). 

It was particularly important to display her crush onscreen because of what happens later in ADWD. Unlike what certain people think, Dany's dilemma between Daario and Hizdahr doesn't just represent the choices that she needs to make as a ruler (war or peace), it also illustrates the clash between her main motivations, home and duty: Daario is the former (what Dany wants for herself) and Hizdahr is the latter (what Dany thinks she must do for her people).

Unfortunately, this doesn't come across in the show. To be fair, at least we get to see show!Dany shyly smiling here, but this will be undermined later. In episode 4.7, show!Daario will say:

DAARIO: Never met a woman who didn’t like wildflowers.

In episode 5.7, this is how show!Dany will answer to show!Daario's marriage proposal:

DAENERYS: Even if I wanted to do such an inadvisable thing, I couldn’t.

Then, in episode 6.10, this is what she tells show!Tyrion after rejecting show!Daario:

DAENERYS: Do you know what frightens me? I said farewell to a man who loves me. A man I thought I cared for. And I felt nothing.

I wouldn't be surprised if the show writers made these changes because they a) are among the readers who think that Dany is unlikable/irresponsible when she expresses her romantic feelings for Daario in the books (whereas I happen to think that that makes her more relatable) and b) wanted her to appear more regal (based on their ideas of what that means, of course) in the show because she's older, but, regardless of why they did so, this is quite a problem: if show!Dany isn't in love with show!Daario, her conflict becomes much less pronounced in comparison to her book counterpart's (which, as we'll see later as the show progresses, it did).

*

JORAH: There’s one on every mile marker between here and Meereen.

DAENERYS: How many miles are there between here and Meereen?

JORAH: One-hundred and sixty three, Your Grace.

BARRISTAN: I’ll tell our men to ride ahead and bury them. You don’t need to see this.

DAENERYS: You will do no such thing. I will see each and every one of their faces. Remove her collar before you bury her.

This is my favorite moment of the episode because it's a major example of how Dany's leadership style is defined by her desire to protect the ones who can't protect themselves (which applies to both book and show versions). Now that she wields power, she won't remain passive when she sees injustices occur, in fact, she'll want to confront them in order to remember why is it that she's fighting:

“I will see them,” she said. “I will see every one, and count them, and look upon their faces. And I will remember.”

By the time they came to Meereen sitting on the salt coast beside her river, the count stood at one hundred and sixty-three. I will have this city, Dany pledged to herself once more. (ASOS Daenerys VI)

Being a queen is not about self-gratification for Dany, it's about her responsibility and duty towards others, which is what this scene ultimately reinforces.

That being said, there are still some problems with the scene.

One, while the scene on its own does illustrate the kind of ruler (and person) that show!Dany is regardless of what the show writers were intending, I think that their primary intention was to provide shock value with the sight of the dead children (which is also the most likely reason as to why they succeeded in depicting how horrific the Unsullied's training was). If they had intended the scene to showcase show!Dany's selfless motivations like in the books, they wouldn't have later stated that her war in Slaver's Bay was defined by "that willingness to go forth and conquer all your enemies" or by how "she's not seeing the cost" (failure to understand reasons 1, 2 and 5 of why Dany's storyline matters). Unlike them, Dany knows that some wars are morally righteous because there are cases in which the status quo is not worthy of being uphold, especially not one that allows children to be murdered without their killers being punished (which also informs her views on Robert, his supporters and the Baratheon regime in general).

Two, the show leaves out the fact that, in the books, the Meereenese slavers burned their own city's lands in order to prepare for Dany's arrival:

The Great Masters of Meereen had withdrawn before Dany’s advance, harvesting all they could and burning what they could not harvest. Scorched fields and poisoned wells had greeted her at every hand. (ASOS Daenerys V)

This is important for two major reasons.

One, it raises the stakes of the conflict in the moment. If Dany continues to besiege the city for too long, her people will starve. If she gives up on conquering Meereen, on the other hand, not only slavery will remain, but her people will die of starvation on the way back to Westeros. If she wants to protect the freedmen that followed her, then, her only choice is to take Meereen.

Dany set great store by Ser Jorah’s counsel, but to leave Meereen untouched was more than she could stomach. She could not forget the children on their posts, the birds tearing at their entrails, their skinny arms pointing up the coast road. “Ser Jorah, you say we have no food left. If I march west, how can I feed my freedmen?”

“You can’t. I am sorry, Khaleesi. They must feed themselves or starve. Many and more will die along the march, yes. That will be hard, but there is no way to save them. We need to put this scorched earth well behind us.”

Dany had left a trail of corpses behind her when she crossed the red waste. It was a sight she never meant to see again. “No,” she said. “I will not march my people off to die.” My children. (ASOS Daenerys V)

~

When she looked over one shoulder, there it stood, the afternoon sun blazing off the bronze harpy atop the Great Pyramid. Inside Meereen the slavers would soon be reclining in their fringed tokars to feast on lamb and olives, unborn puppies, honeyed dormice and other such delicacies, whilst outside her children went hungry. A sudden wild anger filled her. I will bring you down, she swore. (ASOS Daenerys V)

Two, it raises the stakes of the conflict in ADWD. By scorching the fields, the slavers deprived Meereen of one of its main sources of income: olives. Now the city's economy is stagnant because it has neither olives nor slaves (because, as we know, Dany abolished slavery) to sell:

For centuries Meereen and her sister cities Yunkai and Astapor had been the linchpins of the slave trade, the place where Dothraki khals and the corsairs of the Basilisk Isles sold their captives and the rest of the world came to buy. Without slaves, Meereen had little to offer traders. Copper was plentiful in the Ghiscari hills, but the metal was not as valuable as it had been when bronze ruled the world. The cedars that had once grown tall along the coast grew no more, felled by the axes of the Old Empire or consumed by dragonfire when Ghis made war against Valyria. Once the trees had gone, the soil baked beneath the hot sun and blew away in thick red clouds. (ADWD Daenerys III)

~

“The sea provides all the salt that Qarth requires, but I would gladly take as many olives as you cared to sell me. Olive oil as well.”

“I have none to offer. The slavers burned the trees.” Olives had been grown along the shores of Slaver’s Bay for centuries; but the Meereenese had put their ancient groves to the torch as Dany’s host advanced on them, leaving her to cross a blackened wasteland. “We are replanting, but it takes seven years before an olive tree begins to bear, and thirty years before it can truly be called productive.” (ADWD Daenerys III)

However, because the show didn't bother to depict how the slavers destroyed their own city's fields, we don't get to see neither a) how it becomes harder for Dany to sustain a siege (and how conquering Meereen became her only choice if she wanted not only to free the slaves, but also to protect the freedmen that came with her) nor b) how, later, she struggles with reforming the city's economy (which is one of the many ways that the show adaptation undermined her political arc in ADWD).  

*

For this review, there’s no comment of mine on any Inside the Episode because D&D’s Inside the Episode 4.1 doesn’t talk about show!Dany’s storyline. I’m not commenting on show!Dany’s clothes either because she’s wearing the same clothes from season three and I’ve talked about them before in past reviews.