#do none of you find it remotely odd that dany speaks about burning cities to the ground and cersei is obsessed with wildfire
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lemonhemlock · 3 months ago
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Teenager daenerys sold as a child bride “owned” the slaves that her husband gave her… ok…
She made mistakes in her breaking of the slave trade, but her “profit” from the tax on those selling themselves back into slavery is not used for her own gain, so it’s not really a profit… she is not perfect
Daenerys’s hate of slavery is not just sometjing to make the audience like her, it is an intrinsic part of her storyline and the plot of asoiaf as a whole
when will dany stans acknowledge the intersection of gender, race and class, as well as the intersection of oppression? yes, daenerys was sold as a child bride. yes, daenerys owned slaves. did she have a choice in either matter? no. did she benefit nonetheless from the slaves she did not want to own? yes. is the entire blame for the system of slavery and abusive practices that upheld her khalasar to be placed on the shoulders of a 13-year-old girl? no. should she be criticised for taking power forcefully in slavers' bay and then not bothering to learn how to govern properly and ensure a peaceful transition to a slavery-free society? yes.
is this an important puzzle piece that could help us understand how daenerys will soon react to opposition in westeros, aka when the going gets tough instead of relying on negotiations & compromises & power-sharing i shall fall back on my fire-breathing monsters, squash my enemies violently and 'burn cities to the ground'? also yes.
it's like..... you're almost there.
can you for real stop for one minute and ask yourself why you are so willing to shill for someone whose solution (to the political problems she creates for herself) is violence? i don't understand this aversion to any kind of democratic element being introduced in westeros that might curtail the sovereign's power (or the power other feudal lords have over people). have you ever considered that westeros doesn't even have a parliamentary body? do you imagine daenerys will pull a john lackland when she arrives? does she really strike you as the power-sharing type?
think for a moment of the logistics of dany even getting to westeros in the first place with only two more books to go. homegirl has to sail soon for any of that to happen. there will be no time for her to grow into this wise political theorist you imagine her to be, she has to be gone NOW. which means she has or will have to have the personality of someone who doesn't REALLY care all that much about solving the political unrest she created. there will have to be a moment in the winds of winter when she goes "fuck it!" and decides to claim her "birthright".
and this is not to say that slavery never mattered to her as a concept or that she doesn't truly, deep down, think it's wrong, only that she will rationalize her selfish desires into convincing herself she has done all she can and thus wash her hands of this business. why? from a doylist perspective, because the plot requires it to happen NOW. from a watsonian perspective, because politicking is too difficult, it's too boring and she doesn't like it. "dragons plant no trees". dany is good at conquering, not at governing.
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