People also forget that while she is a Targaryen (which have been more allowing for female rulers), that she was the third child of Aerys II and Rhaella. In other words, she wasn't ever expected to rule and no one bothered to train her as such. Moreover, up-until the events of the first book, it was likely that she would have been Viserys' sister-wife in the Targaryen tradition. Also, the fact that she was essentially raised by Viserys as well since her mother died in childbirth, doesn't bode well for her education, especially given how horrid of a ruler Viserys would have been had he lived. Oh, and she was 14 in the beginning of the novels (I think 16/17 for the TV series). Basically, she was never considered to be a ruler and wasn't trained to be one. Essentially, she had nothing to go on to knowing how to rule, except for the advice of an exiled knight. All she learned as a leader was through trial and error. Let's also factor in the fact that people were half-expecting her to be insane like daddy-dearest as well.
All these facts taken together shows that as a leader, the stacks were not in her favour. Yet, she grows and learns from her mistakes. Hell, if you want to compare her to someone look at Joffrey. He was raised (albeit Cersei played her hand in there as well) since childhood to be king and he's wretched one at that. I'd take Dany over Joffrey anyday. At least Dany tries and resembles a human being in the process.
Yeah, compared to almost every other contender for the throne, Dany is by far the least of many evils. The only possible exception is Robb, major season 3 spoiler seriously don't click if you haven't read A Storm of Swords I smurfing well mean itI'm serious you'll regret itwho's dead, and shared a lot of the same Honour Before Reason flaws his father did anyway. Then again, after the events of A Dance with Dragons, it is not entirely implausible that (SPOILER)Theon might be able to be moulded into a good ruler, but he is so thoroughly broken right now that there is little chance of that happening. And I suppose (SPOILER)Sansa has a reasonable chance at becoming an effective ruler too now that (SPOILER)Littlefinger is trying to mould her in his image.
Last edited by The Man; 03-28-2013 at 08:37 AM.
I WANT TO READ YOUR SPOILERS BECAUSE THEY'RE LIKE HALF YOUR POST, BUT I HAVEN'T READ ADWD YET.![]()
The last two spoilers are AFfC spoilers, actually, so if you've read that you can read those. And actually if you're more than halfway through ADwD then my other spoiler is probably not going to cause you any surprises at this point; it's not like I'm spoiling some shocking event at the end of the book.
This twenty-year-old boy was distinguished from childhood by strange qualities, a dreamer and an eccentric. A girl fell in love with him, and he went and sold her to a brothel...
If ADwDJon Snow is not dead he was making to be a decent leader as well.
Don't quit your day job.
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Fyi, definitely don't click on TSoL's spoiler if you haven't finished ADwD. That one is definitely something people might not predict.
ADwD spoiler, don't click if you haven't finishedKevan could have been a good ruler too. As Varys himself pointed out, he was cleaning up Cersei's messes too effectively.
end of ADWD spoilerI thought so, too. I was pretty impressed and glad to see something good come out of the Iron Throne, but well... Varys happened.
I was sad when Kevan died. :<