ASOIAF: Why is Daenerys so arrogant?

Feel free to disagree, but Daenerys I think has become so stuck up and entitled and greedy and obsessed with herself. In season 1 she was meek but in season 2 after losing Drogo her arrogance and greediness shot through the roof. She is downright a popinjay. Period. In season 3 she was even worse.

I really feel her arrogance is overstated. And why should she have remained the ‘'meek fuck puppet” of the first book, anyway? On one level she is a woman — if you can call a fifteen year old a woman — who was dealt a deck and made the best of it.

I will never understand why people are so eager to stuff these major characters in the villain box in a series that prides itself on not taking sides. Is it so that, when Daenerys inevitably destroys a bunch of shit they can say “I told you so?” Is it that a half-century’s worth of ‘hero’ stories stuffed down our throats by Hollywood means that people can no longer differentiate tragedy from mere heroic drama? Or maybe it’s just overcompensation for the show and it’s watchers’ near - deification of Dany. Or perhaps it has something to do with Emilia Clarke’s performance.

Daenerys is flawed is what she is. As far as her ‘arrogance’ and ‘entitlement’ goes she is certainly no worse than the other kings and queens in this book. And she has been through worse than quite a lot of them.

Her feeling that she has a right to Westeros is no different, really, than Tyrion feeling he has the legal right to Casterly Rock; or that Ned feeling he had the legal right to Winterfell after Brandon died. It’s no different that Robert Baratheon feeling like he had the right to usurp the throne when, in his minds, the unwritten contract between King and subject was violated by Rhaegar and Aerys; and then taking the crown. No different from Stannis feeling that he has the right despite the fact that a bastard is sitting on the throne.

Dany at no time has ever felt that she had the right to sweep in and that the throne would be just given to her. That’s utter nonsense. It’s not at all supported by the text. That would be arrogant.

On the contrary, since as early as the first book, she’s known that she had to TAKE it by force. In fact, she spends the better part of TWO books trying to gather an army that would allow her to do just that.

And Dany, although, no, she doesn’t always display the best judgement and she is certainlyNOT a great political thinker (Was Robert? Is Stannis? Really? Joffrey? Renly? Cersei? really? They are all totally flawed), does have some qualities that do recommend her:

• she’s got otherworldly charisma
• she’s got exceptional courage
• she acts outside the box.

Now, she is backed up with dragons and that does separate her from the others: she is much, much more dangerous than Stannis, say, and she is NOT afraid to use her incredible powers of destruction(reliant on the dragons, mind) to, well, destroy.

Without the dragons she is little more than a young girl in over her head.This point is made continually.

And I’m like, “No shit.”

And also ‘'So what?”

As to when she metamorphosed from meek sex slave to “arrogant” Dragon Queen(would people really rather she’d just accepted her place as Drogo’s fuck-puppet?) it was a process that has actually gone back and forth.

1. The first step was on the way to the Dothraki sea, after having a dream about becoming a dragon. After that she took charge of Khal Drogo and became more than just his sex slave. She became his equal, almost.
   
   She callused up outside and inside.
2. When she gained the dragons she gained a purpose. Again after a weird, prophetic dragon dream. She emerged from a fire unscathed with dragons under a brand new red comet. I mean, come on. Who isn’t going to interpret that as some weird destiny? Seriously. You think you go through something like that and are just like: OK, now it’s time for me to be meek and go to Vaes Dothrak and live with the rest of the Dosh Khaleen. Poor, poor Drogo.
3. When her stint as the Beggar Queen in Qarth failed and she promised herself that she was no longer going to beg for help and was just going to take it(which she did at Jorah Mormont’s strong urgings.)
4. Then she backpedaled and seemed to try to sweep her power under the rug in Meereen, and become a ‘'good ruler” with less than stellar results, after realizing that she had made a huge mess in Astapor. (Which she did: so what was she supposed to do after th emess is already made? Give up and head for Vaes Dothrak to do needlepoint for the rest of her days? Like a ‘'’meek woman” should?
5. The end of A Dance with Dragons shows her committing once again to Fire and Blood philosophy that, really, has been the only thing that worked for her.

In short, she is no more entitled or arrogant than any other leader, with the exception of Jon Snow(who was elected and earned his position) and maybe Davos —and, from the end of A Storm of Swords on, I would say Stannis is increasingly trying to earn his crown, too.

But that doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. The idea that a king deserves a crown in the ridiculously disfunctional political system of Westeros is, to some extent, ludicrous.

Again, she’s no more entitled than anyone else: she is just more dangerous.

Now, that doesn’t mean that Daenerys is NOT going to fuck shit up when she gets to Westeros. Fucking shit up is what Dany does.

Written August 23rd