Glongpre said:
She is a child. Read that again. A child. She is not supergirl, she cannot save everyone.
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Perspectives do not come into it.
You have to look into her thoughts and actions (which we get a POV on), and use them to determine the kind of person that she is.
(...)
And at no point would I conclude that wanting to save people is villainous.
I read that well and I don't think that is an acceptable excuse. Was Jeoffrey any less villainous because of his age?
Is age and "naivete" really acceptable excuses when you're jockeying for power and affect the fates of many with countless decisions?
Perspectives DO come into it, if anything I'd say it matters most of all. One person's villain is another's hero and vice versa. People of Westeros don't get to read the books and see what characters think, they can only judge by their actions, otherwise characters like Jaime would be worshipped as heroes rather then hated as traitorous scum, Jaime had perfectly good reasons to do what he did, but it didn't matter because of how others perceived his actions.
Of course people like Daenarys and her advisors are gonna think of themselves as good people doing the right thing, as I said, most good villains are like that, doing horrible things in the name of what they believe is right... And from the perspective of those on the outside or on the receiving end of her wrath, Dany appears far less noble.
Do I have to repeat the part about her crucifying and burning innocents alive? Fucked up shit like that can't just be excused with "well at least she has good intentions!".
I don't use that excuse to defend characters I like, see Stannis, who has far better intentions then Daenarys (he doesn't believe he deserves the Throne, but that it's his duty and that it's necessary for the good of the realm), certainly aint gonna give Dany a free pass.
Just sticking to someone's POV isn't a reliable indicator, it gives insight sure, but you'd be a fool to believe one's own press. Very few characters outside Ramsey or Jeoffrey (who are fun villains to hate, but are less interesting due to being cartoonishly evil) honestly think "yeah im evil and I LOVE it". Even Cersei doesn't think like that, and her own POV is rather deluded when compared to what others think of her.
Daenarys might believe she is entitled to the throne, but she doesn't have a magical right to rule over Westeros any more then her ancestors did, but she has dragons so she can burn alive people who disagree, "good" people and "bad" people alike. What, are you saying all those people her ancestors and herself killed in the pursuit of personal power deserved it? Were they all "evil" people? Maybe they too wanted to save people and develop their country/nation but never got a chance to because some Targaryen on a dragon came flying by and extinguished their entire family with a gush of flame.
Wanting to save people is not villainous in itself. It's how you go about it that matters. Good intentions don't magically justify anything, that is a very dangerous and slippery road where so long as the person BELIEVES they are in the right and trying to do the "right" thing (which might not always be the "right" thing in others view, hence why perspective matters), they can get away with Ramsey Bolton levels of cruelty and still perfectly justify it in their own minds as a "necessary" deed or w/e.
And I didn't meant to imply she was one of your own favorite characters, but referring to show Daenarys getting way too much leeway due to being a fan favorite, and thus especially media articles tend to lionize her in every possible way whilst glossing over some of the most fucked up aspects of her character, leading to this weird bias that Daenarys is some whiter then white pure snow ruler who can't do any wrong even when she actually is doing wrong and showing flashes of Targaryen madness.
As for calling Daenarys a flat villain..AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGH.
Sorry, but I really hate this need to neatly divide characters into "goodie" and "baddie" categories. Why can't you be both? One of the reasons I got drew to GoT is because of the complex nuances of characters and how their own personal morality can clash with how their actions are perceived... I roll with it because it seems a lot of people can't handle nuanced characters and thus whitewash characters like Daenarys which forces me to take the opposite stance and use a similarly simplistic language to balance it out but if you're asking MY honest opinion then she is neither hero nor villain, more of a self interested conqueror (there is nothing virtuous about wanting to rule over a land you have no personal experience of just because you feel you deserve it) with shades of virtue and the Targaryen madness looming behind her. She also has some nasty character flaws such as thinking she knows best at things she barely understands "I'm not going to change the wheel...I'm going to BREAK IT!!!!.
Finally...Are you REALLY sure show Dany is a child? She doesn't look like it, played by a 30 yr old, never acts that age at any point (unlike the books) and the show has aged up most of the characters...
Looking it up I don't find anything to support this view either, it seems accepted that show Daenarys was around 17 when introduced, and would actually be 22-23 at this current stage of the show. So yeh, methinks you might be confusing Book and Show Dany a little bit here....
Actually you are, big time, no wonder you bought up PoV from the books as an argument for the show characters.... Damn Im kicking myself as I could have saved a lot of time and tldr, but I just woke up so wasn't thinking straight it seems.
Show and Book Dany are NOT the same thing. For starters I actually like Book Dany lol.
But whilst the show might use the book as a source, it's long ago branched into its own thing and characters aren't even the same (especially for ones like Tyrion who might aswell be different characters now). So yeah, not gonna go back and edit my post but consider this a final nail in the coffin for "only pov chapters from the books matters".