Thursday, December 19, 2013
I feel like we haven't had a legitimate conversation about the book in the while, so let's pick a new character to focus on: Daenerys Targaryen. Obviously, it seems she was thrown into this new life with Khal Drogo quite abruptly, and it seemed that Illyrio had some ulterior motive for wedding the two beyond Viserys's wishes. But she begins really timid and she's never had any moment in her life be as scary as being wed to a fierce Dothraki. Now, she's basically queen (excuse me, Khaleesi) of an entire horde of Dothraki men, women, children and slaves. Literally overnight they all now have to trust her, and being really young and naive, she's going to let this new found power go to her head. Her only loyalties now seem to lay with Viserys and one of her three women aids (I forget her name). I'm wondering what you guys think of her at this point in the book and what are your predictions for her path through the book. Noting that she is across the Narrow Sea, she isn't anywhere close to seizing the Iron Throne, but it still takes immense courage and leadership to transform into a Khaleesi and also to withstand Drogo, as he is intimidating, rowdy, and seems to make love in a furious and uncanny manner. Poor young Dany.
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I think she'll step up rather well. Personally, I don't think that she'll let the power go to her head because she seems like a rather timid person (maybe that'll change), and for now she still seems to be completely under Viserys' shadow.
ReplyDeleteI like how she is slowly becoming more confident and comfortable. At first, she's stiff as a board around everyone and terrified out of her wits (and with good reason!) Then, over time, she becomes more comfortable in her role. At first it's the small things, like having built up calluses against riding. Then she feels comfortable ordering around her servants, and eventually the entire hoard. She even feels able to speak of Viserys's incompetence, and order him around.
ReplyDeleteShe's lived her whole life without power; she's lived at the whim of her bother and the merchant, but now she's been given power and is taking to it like a duck to water, or even a dragon to fire. If she had a mean streak in her, I'd hate to see it, because her brother would be dead already, and all of Westeros would have reason to quake. She's ambitious and determined, once she was given the opportunity to control her own life to any extent.
Don't read to this comment If you havent gotten Further than this part of the book. I found that she was timid like everyone else has said and grows confident. However, i feel like she starts the see that hse has power in the tribe now and she is starting to change it. For instance, when she stops the men of tribe from taking women slaves for their own pleasures. She tells her husband to stop this kind of tradition and stood up. I feel like she is taking advantage of her position and change old custom. That is not always a good thing
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you could call it taking advantage of her position. Within the Khal there seems to be a small amount of respect for women. There is an immense amount of respect for the foreign Khaleesi who has tried so hard to conform to their customs. As a result, she really hasn't run into anything that would show her otherwise; besides her brother's actions. As I'm coming to realize, she's got a fairly strong personality and well formed opinions. I think that she will have no problem enforcing what she believes is right.
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