Today I wanted to take an ever-so-slight break from being overtly political (I can’t seem to find the results of the CCCC Exec vote anyway, and after working all day I’m a little on the tired side). I have been thinking a great deal during this season of Game of Thrones about The Dragon Queen and how anyone who sees her as a feminist hero might have their eyes clouded to what the showrunners have done now that they are out of the George RR Martin runway.
I’m not sure Dany ever was the feminist hero she was painted to be by some. Her story had some great beats early on, to be sure:
- She overcame being a kept woman
- She rose above being sold as a bride
- She was, for a time, quite charismatic
- She seemed, again for a time, to have a strong moral compass
But there have been warning signs to note about Khaleesi from the start of her story.
- She contributed greatly to the indigenous-as-savage stereotypes that emerged from the early parts of her story with Drogo, before he pulled the mother of all face turns and became a darling
- She’s never been all that loyal, if you look at her friends, the company she chose to keep, and the way she treats people. She’s not even good to her beloved dragons, her “children.”
- She let someone trick her into killing her own infant
- She believes in an-eye-for-an-eye even when it’s clearly a revenge fantasy or the wrong choice
but this is what scares me the most about her character: she’s very Trump-like
- She exploits the labor of unprotected groups
- She uses her dragons and the insistence that people “owe” her for being the breaker of chains, the fucker-up of various people, etc. to Stockholm (Hardholm?) Syndrome them.
- She makes rash decisions quickly and basically ignores wise counsel
- She doesn’t value her own people in the way a person with her supposed profile should
- She’s white, but she claims the honors, titles and rights of other cultures
- She tries to play birthrights and grudges both ways
- She squanders goodwill and is one of the only people scary enough to use a WMD in Westeros (I know, Circe did, too, but is anyone going to vote Circe for hero of the story?)
So let’s look at her “friends.” Her closest confidants and advisers are:
- Tyrion Lannister, who is wise and is going to finish his redemptive arc, but who she really won’t listen to
- Jorah Mormont, who sold her down the river and obviously has converted her to a fetish
- Varys, who she doesn’t trust because he once wronged her, though his logic for why he did it surpasses any logic she has used since season 3
- Dario? Is he still around? You remember, the mercenary who beheaded his two partners to be Dany’s side lover
- Theon, who is the biggest piece-of-shit in Westeros
- There was Lady Olenna, but she’s dead now. She’s the one who killed the young king, a bad bitch to be sure but hardly a heroic figure. She was trying to use her daughter to manipulate the second young Lann–Baratheon with her sex appeal
- There was Team Dorne, who were so noble as to kill an innocent girl (another Barathelannister) with kiss poison
- There’s Grey Worm and the Unsullied, who she deploys the same way I spray water from my hose at clods of dirt, with no regard for their return
- Missande, who she basically says “I freed you, be my bestie” to
- The Dothraki, who are totally awesome, but she, again, treats them like they’re an expendable asset, something you just lose like the sheets of paper towel on the roll. There’s another roll. Let’s let some Dothraki die.
Maybe we can add my man Jon Snow to that list. He knows nothing, though.
And Dany asked him point blank how to handle the situation with the Lannisters, then she promptly ignored it.
This led to the awesome fight where the dragon burned a bunch of stuff to a crisp.
And in that moment, almost ruined, so-far-from-redemption-it-hurts Jaime became the hero of the fight, when he went on a suicide run to add “Queenslayer” to his title. I hope he still does, with the other queen, as that might be the only way Insesty-mcWindowShove ever realizes the comeback story he started in that pit with Brianne.
There’s another figure from that battle and the aftermath who should make us seriously question Dany’s nobility and value as a feminist hero. And that’s my boy, the man with the funniest name on the show, Dickon Tarly.
Killing the elder Tarly with dragon fire– reducing him to ash– was already a heel deluxe move by Dany. There was no real value (sure, it added the few remaining soldiers to kneel to her, but only out of fear, and not at all in the way a legendary Breaker of Chains who with love and charisma led the Unsullied and the Dothraki across the continent should do it. She did this one mob hit style). But Dickon illustrated the sort of nobility you want to see in the surviving lord of a house, refusing to give up his honor in the eyes of absolute destruction at the hands of a dragon that, I might add, Dany respected so much she flew it recklessly into danger.
Dickon died for Dany’s ego.
So did all the soldiers she’s lost. No one in that battle had to die. That was entirely an exercise in showing us that to the nobles, the average work-a-day soldier is worthless. A real Dickon among men.
Dany is, as best I can tell, an egomaniac who sells a propaganda pitch about the great things she’s done but in reality is exploiting labor, exploiting her WMDragons, and can’t seem to lock in on anything resembling a moral imperative. I hope that the story beats lead her back to what it seemed she was supposed to be, but deep inside I think I knew when the blonde girl became the queen of the tribal horde we had a big story problem. Now I expect in a week or two she’ll have “Make Westeros Great Again” hats made to pass around with the KoolAid cups.
But Phill isn’t just here to take a dump on strong female characters. If you love GoT for empowering women, good on you! It has. And you have three remaining heroes that are well worth celebrating.
- Arya Stark: if you want to justify revenge and have revenge fantasies on a TV show, you need look no further. Arya has a vindictive streak a Dornish mile long, and as we saw as she started her battle-of-wits with Littlefinger, she still has a lot to learn, but talk about a consistent moral compass and a hero that shows women can do whatever they want… Arya is second only to Jaqen H’ghar in terms of skill as an assassin and spy, and for all we know, she might eclipse him in the end. She went from powerless child to empowered force of justice.
- Sansa Stark: For other reasons, Sansa likewise serves as a better strong female character than Dany. Sansa started as the stereotypical plastic girl (no Milk of the Poppy for Gretchen Weiners!), but she’s illustrated the ability to play the actual game of thrones the show is named after and has bounced back from horrors no character should suffer. The scene where she feeds Ramsey to his own dogs is a perfect balance for her embrace of her younger sister upon her return. Sansa, ironically, became the son Ned Stark needed, the leader Winterfell has deserved all along.
- Brianne of Tarth: She’s the one, really, if you ask me. She’s presented as a no-nonsense woman with an overwhelming sense of right and an overpowering-to-the-point-of-potential weakness sense of duty and loyalty. And moreover she’s played by a beautiful woman who the show deliberately makes up to look less stunning, because Brianne wouldn’t care if she looked pretty. That’s not her deal. The most noble knight on a show full of knights, Brianne is the hero the audience deserves.
There was also Ygritte, may she rest in peace, and depending on how it all plays out Melisandre might end up in play. Lady Stark the first was also pretty dope, though I think she had a few pride-driven mistakes that led to her demise. We want Lady Stoneheart!
I would suggest that if Dany is the person to be viewed as the hero, it’s entirely possible that Circe is a hero, too– that they’re the justified and unjustified reaction to the same sort of life (the well written Lex Luthor/Superman pair). Circe wasn’t literally sold into a marriage, but she sort of was. She had her incestuous relationship and is a garbage human being (resulting in her good son killing himself). But if we accept what the social order of Westeros did to Dany as justification for her becoming a monster, it’s not that much of a stretch to extend that to Circe. Which is not to say I see redemption for Circe at all; far from it. But I think the same standard we apply to Circe had to be applied to Dany, otherwise we’re playing favorites and not being true to the story. If we look at Circe’s sins:
- Incest (which many are sort of hoping to see with Dany and Jon)
- Causing the inadvertent death of her own son (Dany did that, too)
- Using her people as pawns in war (Dany did that)
- Burning a large gathering of people practicing their faith (Dany did that, too)
- Putting her sense of entitlement to the throne before the good of everyone (Dany did that, too)
- Raining fire down on her enemies (Blackwater vs. Dragon-attacks)
So really the difference in hero and villain here is the set-up and the fan’s attachment to the characters. Based on actions, neither of them looks all that noble. And both of them can claim, through their rhetoric, to be bringers of freedom, protectors, entitled leaders. Doesn’t make either one of them right. They are both governed by vanity and greed. It’s a perfect metaphor for something I’ve seen, if I could only remember. I keep seeing this big orange in my head…
The showrunners at HBO either changed the arc of Khaleesi’s return to the mainland or this story was even darker than we all thought when it started.
Any way you slice it, I’m still team Jon Snow for life. Literally.