ASOIAF: Could Daenerys have freed the slaves without wreaking havoc on Slaver's Bay?

I think so. But she would have to get over her squeamishness with breaking eggs.

Danerys was way too moderate. She wavered between wanting a bloody revolution and wanting peace. Look. IN a place like Slavers’ Bay you have one or the other. You cant have both. As a result she may have ruined her options, barring some nearly supernatural help, (you know, like, from dragons or a ahundred thoursand Dothraki scramers…)

Astapor:

She wiped out the ruling class of Astapor completely. You know what? People criticizize her for that, but the Astapori were really the vilest of the vile; think of all the deaths that go into making the Unsullied, for example. It’s a city whose blood-red bricks are founded on the death of thousands of innocents—for thousands of years.

That was not her mistake, though. Her mistake was that she created a power vacuum and did nothing to fill it. So here is what she should have done:

• She should have appointed one of her advisors(maybe Jorah) as a council member as governor, i.e., a defacto ruler and representative of the Queen. Who would make sure that the farms in the area were under control.
• Appointing a wise counsel to rule alongside the governor was not a bad idea; l but without any force to back them up, they were essentially doomed. And of course, it left Astapor a sitting duck for Yunkai.
• Control and secure the the food supplies coming into Astapor from the surrounding area.
• After leaving, she should have left a hefty portion of the Unsullied at Astapor to back up the counsel and governor she appointed.
  
  2000 might have been sufficient to establish order and protect the council. After that a police force can be trained, culled from the freed slaves. WE learned in Game of Thrones from Ned’s example that pulling off a coup without an army is a risky and dangerous enterprise. You simply need force at your back if you are to rule.
• The freed slaves are free to go or stay, but they are NOT free to follow Dany around. With a competent government in Astapor, perhaps they wouldn’t feel the need to do so.

Yunkai:

Yunkai got off the easiest of all of them. It had its slaves freed and some of its wealth taken, but it was essentially untouched. She conquered the city; she should have conquered more of it.

The freed slaves were allowed to take ‘all the wealth’ that they could carry; but the bulk of the wealth was untouched. And with the ruling class intact, that left them able to just hire more sell-swords, and also make alliances with Qarth and Volantis.

• It’s harsh. But wipe out the ruling class. Take those Wise Masters, stick a stake up their collective ass and have done with it.
• Again, she should have appointed a governor(Barristan) and a council with a sizable army (not the sellswords, though) to represent her interest and wishes.
• Seize control of the wealth.
• Makes sure that food and water supplies are accounted for,
• Again, do NOT let the freed slaves become a huge unsanitary mass of starving mouths wracked by dysentary. They don’t get to follow her.

Meereen:

Part of Dany’s big problems in the book, and, more opaquely, in the show is Yunkai’s enmity. If that threat is neutralized, at least it takes much longer before Meereen is put to siege by the Qartheen and the forces of Volantis, and these besiegers would, potentially, face opposition from Yunkai and Astapori both.

The crucifixion of 163 in retaliation for the 163 slave children was a mistake. What gets me is how senselessly unfair it is. Inevitably, some innocent Wise Masters are killed, while several guilty get off.

• She needs to crucify ALL OF THEM. Hizdarh. The Green Grace. The…perfumed seneschal guy. Kill them all and make a big fire and scatter the ashes. No ruling class=no insurgency.
  
  Otherwise, her revolution is not going to work. She needs to have her people in charge, surrounded by the best brains of the freedmen and the already-freed shavepates, who apparently, had some beef with the ruling class.
• Secure the farmlands! Take control of the farmlands up the Skahazadhan. Keep the line of supply going.
• Use the wealth to necessary buy food from her dominions of Astapor and Yunkai.

Doing all of these things eliminates the threat of Yunkai at her back; keeps Yunkai from allying with Volantis and Qarth; gives her time, perhaps several years, to consolidate Slaver’s Bay into a viable state, secure a strong alliance with the anti-slavery Braavos; time to deal with the inevitable threats from Qarth and Volantis and New Ghis; the Dothraki, and the other cities of Slavers’ Bay….

Written Oct 22