Daenerys Targaryen

Daenerys Targaryen, also called Daenerys Stormborn, is the last known member of House Targaryen, the former ruler of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. She is King Aerys II Targaryen’s last surviving child. At the end of Robert’s Rebellion, Queen Rhaella Targaryen conceived Daenerys and left King’s Landing with her young son, Viserys Targaryen. Nine months later, Rhaella birthed Dany during a great storm that destroyed most of the Targaryen fleet.

Daenerys Targaryen Details

• Name: Daenerys Targaryen.
• Year of Birth: 284 AC.
• Parents: King Aerys II Targaryen and Queen Rhaella Targaryen.
• Siblings: Rhaegar Targaryen and Viserys Targaryen.
• Allegiances: House Targaryen.
• Titles: Princess of Dragonstone, Daenerys Stormborn, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Queen of Meereen, Breaker of shackles, and Mother of Dragons.
• Aliases: Silver Lady, The Dragon’s Daughter, Bride of Fire, Daughter of Death, Dany, Slayer of Lies, Child of Three, The Whore of Westeros, The Prince That Was Promised, The Silver Queen, Mhysa, Aegon the Conqueror With Tits, Breaker of Chains, The Dragon Queen, The Queen Across the Waters, Azor Ahai returned.
• Husbands: Khal Drogo, Hizdahr zo Loraq.
• Children: Rhaego.
• Race: Valyrian.
• Cultures: Dothraki, Ghiscari.
• Eye Color: Purple.
• Hair Color: Silver-gold.
• Religion: Unknown.

Appearance and Personality

Daenerys Targaryen is a beautiful young woman in her early teens. She has typical Valyrian features of silver-gold hair, purple eyes, and pale skin, and her slender figure accentuates her small breasts. Praised for her incredible beauty, Daenerys is said to look like Queen Naerys Targaryen, King Aegon IV’s wife.

Daenerys grew up timid and scared of her brother Viserys because he abused her. Blaming her for the death of their mother, Viserys raged at her for the slightest things and would tell her not to awaken the dragon. However, the knights Ser Jorah Mormont and Ser Barristan Selmy have stated she is more like her older brother Rhaegar, who was loved throughout the Seven Kingdoms when he was alive.

Daenerys and her older brother Viserys lived in exile for most of their childhood. After being rescued by Ser Willem Darry, they traveled to Braavos, where they lived in a house with a red door. However, Darry’s death made them homeless, and they wandered the streets of the Free cities. It was during this time that Daenerys learned Bastard Valyrian and High Valyrian. She also learned the Dothraki language.

Daenerys also loves reading children’s stories about tall, handsome, and brave heroes from Westeros. She loves the sea and wanted to become a sailor as the thought of traveling across the ocean was freeing. However, her brother tortured her when she jokingly told him of her desire. 

Dany loves heat and prefers hot baths. She has many attires, including a Qarteen gown, which leaves one breast bare, and Ghiscari tokars. While in the Dothraki Sea, She wore Dothraki garbs, riding leathers, and painted vests. Her other attires include horsehair pants with woven sandals, a medallion belt, and silver bells signifying her victories.

Biography

Daenerys Targaryen is the youngest child of King Aerys II Targaryen and his sister-wife Rhaella. Her mother conceived her in the last days of Robert’s Rebellion. Birthed at Dragonstone during a storm, Rhaella died, leaving only a young Prince Viserys as Daenerys’s only relative. With Robert Baratheon as King, he tasked his brother, Stannis, to lead a fleet to Dragonstone and conquer the castle. However, before Stannis arrived, Ser Willem Dary and other Targaryen loyalists escaped to the Free City of Braavos.

While in Braavos, Ser Darry served As Daenerys and Viserys’s custodian. He met with Prince Oberyn Martell and signed a marriage pact between Viserys and Arianne Martell so the young Targaryen could reclaim the Iron throne. However, Ser Darry died, and the house’s servants robbed Dany and her brother of all they had. With no roof over their heads, the Targaryen siblings wandered throughout the Free Cities, reaching Qohor, Volantis, Lys, Myr, and Tyrosh. Though Viserys tried gaining support to return to Westeros, no one sided with him, and after selling all he had of his mother, he grew resentful of Dany.

Viserys mocked and insulted Daenerys, blaming her for their mother’s death. However, no matter what he did, Dany loved him as she only thought about the fond memories of him telling her stories about their family and the Seven Kingdoms. Eventually, Illyrio Mopatis, the Free City of Pentos’s Magister, took her and Viserys in.

Relevance in A Song of Ice and Fire

A Game of Thrones

Magister Illyrio Mopatis arranges for Daenerys to marry Khal Drogo, the leader of the strongest Dothraki Khalasar, to help Viserys get an army to march on the Seven Kingdoms. During the wedding feast, Illyrio gifts Daenerys three petrified dragon eggs, and Viserys gives her three handmaidens, Irri, Jhiqui, and Doreah, to teach her the Dothraki customs, language, and the ways of pleasing a man. Drogo gives his bride a silver filly. After the ceremony, he takes Dany to consummate the marriage. Daenerys gets terrified of her new husband, but to her surprise, he treats her gently, and only when she agrees do they have sex.

Drogo and his Khalasar leave Pentos the next day with Ser Jorah Mormont and Viserys. Daenerys feels incredibly lonely, and her body aches from horse riding. However, she dreams about a black dragon bathing her in fire and wakes up feeling refreshed. She grows more confident and develops a strong bond with her husband, Drogo.

Drogo’s Khalasar travels to Vaes Dothrak, the secret site of the Dothraki. While at the region, Daenerys learns she is pregnant and delivers the news to her husband. Her brother Viserys tries to hurt her again, but she hits him with a belt and orders him to leave.

When King Robert Baratheon learns that Daenerys is alive and pregnant with a child, he orders the small council to kill her. Lord Eddard Stark, the new Hand of the King, objects to the idea and leaves his post. However, Robert sends word into the wind, promising a lordship to whoever kills Daenerys. 

Meanwhile, Daenerys comes before the Dosh Khaleen in Vaes Dothrak. She eats a stallion’s heart in a ceremony celebrating her pregnancy, and the Dosh Khaleen predicts that her unborn child will be the stallion that mounts the world. During the feast, Viserys arrives drunk and pulls out his blade, an act punishable by death. He demands that Drogo give him an army, but instead of getting one, he gets killed.

While at the markets of Vaes Dothrak, Ser Jorah Mormont rescues Dany from being poisoned, and when Drogo learns the Seven Kingdoms is behind the act, he promises her and their unborn son Rhaego, the Iron Throne. 

To get ships for sailing across the Narrow Sea, Drogo fights rival Khalasaars and sells their prisoners as slaves. During one of the fights, Dany sees some men raping the captured women, and she orders them to stop. Among the women is Mirri Maz Duur. During a fight against Khal Ogo, Drogo gets injured.

Daenerys tells Mirri to treat his wound, but he peels the poultice off as it itches him, and his injury fester. Drogo eventually falls from his horse, and when Dany takes him in, Jorah tells her he is as good as dead. He advises her to escape while there is time, as Drogo’s death will start a brutal struggle for power among the Kos. 

In a last attempt to save her husband, Denerys begs Mirri Maz Duur to treat him with blood magic. She kills his horse for the sacrifice, but as Mirri begins the ritual, Dany feels Rhaego kicking in her bell and goes into labor before passing out. She wakes up days later and learns he was born deformed. However, after prying, Mirri tells Daenerys that her son was the price for Drogo’s blood magic. 

Daenerys also learns Drogo’s Khalasaar has split up and visits her husband, who is in a catatonic state. When Mirri reveals she caused Drogo and Rhaego’s death, Dany ends her husband’s pain and builds him a funeral pyre.

Dany frees all the slaves among the people left and names Jhogo, Rakharo, and Aggo as her Kos. She places her dragon eggs into her husband’s pyre and ties Mirri to it. Dany enters her husband’s flames and returns unscathed with three newly-hatched dragons.

A Clash of Kings

Daenerys names her three dragons, Viserion, Drogon, and Rhaegal, after her brothers and husband. She follows the Red Comet burning across the sky even though her people believe it is a bad omen. Unable to travel in any other direction for fear of encountering Khal Pono, she enters the Red Waste. Unfortunately, Doreah dies. Daenerys sends out riders to scout for nearby cities, and one returns with three citizens of Qarth, Pyat Pree, Xaro Xhoan Daxoz, and Quaithe.

Daenerys and her people follow the Qartheen citizens to their city, and while being guests, Xaro asks Daenerys to marry him. However, Jorah warns her that saying yes would mean Xaro can get one of her dragons. Daenerys later travels to the House of the Undying. Pyat Pree gives her shade of the evening before she enters. While inside the building, she has many hallucinations. The Undying attack Daenerys, but Drogon rescues her and burns the House of the Undying.

With the destruction of the House of the Undying, the people of Quart turn against Daenerys. She tries to flee the city and almost gets killed by a Sorrowful Man. However, two strangers, Arstan Whitebeard and Belwas, save her. They tell her that Illyrio Mopatis sent ships to bring her back to Pentos.

A Storm of Swords

As Daenerys travels to Pentos, Jorah advises her to get her army. He tells her to travel to Astapor, where she can get soldiers. Daenerys agrees to Jorah’s plan and travels to the city. However, she realizes the soldiers for sale are slaves called the Unsullied. Though unwilling to have slaves, Daenerys agrees to meet with Kraznys mo Nakloz, the owner of the soldiers.

Kraznys uses Missandei as his translator in his negotiation with Daenerys. He insults her as he shows her his army, but Missandei omits the insults. Daenerys agrees to buy the soldiers for her ships, and Drogon and Kraznys agree. In good faith, he gives Daenerys Missandei as a gift. Dany reveals to the slave girl that she can speak High Valyrian, and after the deal closes, she orders The Unsullied to sack Astapor.

Daenerys frees all the slaves in the city and marches on Yunkai. On learning of the incoming threat, the Yunkish leaders hire the Stormcrows and Second Sons. They lead an envoy to negotiate with Daenerys, and among them is Daario Naharis, a captain in the Storm Crows, who agrees to join her cause. She then attacks Yunkai and frees the slaves, who call her Mhysa, meaning Mother.

After defeating Yunkai, Daenerys travels towards Meereen. On learning of her coming, the Great Masters of the city kill and hang sixty-three slave children. While in her camp, an assassin named Mero attacks Daenerys. However, Arstan saves her and reveals he is Ser Barristan Selmy. The knight tells Daenerys that Jorah Mormont has been spying on her, and in anger, she sends him away into exile. Daenerys learns that the leader she instilled in Astapor is dead. She decides to stay in Meereen to prevent the city from meeting the same fate. Upon conquering it, she kills most of the Great Masters.

A Feast for Crows

Many rumors begin spreading around Westeros and Essos of a three-headed dragon. When Maester Aemon learns of Daenerys from Xhondo Dhoru, he tells Sam she is the Princess Promised.

A Dance with Dragons

After conquering Meereen, Daenerys takes residence in the Great Pyramid. A new resistance awakens in the form of a group calling themselves the Sons of the Harpy. They terrorize the streets of Meereen, killing Unsullied soldiers and freedmen. With the bloodshed, Daenerys tasks the creation of a city watch called the Brazen Beasts. She also takes the children of the city’s nobles as hostages. However, the violence continues.

Daenerys’s dragons, Drogon, Viserion, and Rhaegal, grow big and kill many animals. Farmers complain about them. However, after a man shows the dragons killed his daughter, Daenerys cages the dragons.

Yunkai resumes slavery after gathering enough soldiers. They attack and kill the King of Astapor, Cleon, and head for Meereen. The Green Grace, Galazza Galare, suggests Daenerys marry Hizdahr zo Loraq to end the violence. She agrees if Hizdahr ends the violence for ninety days. Many ships blocked the Meereenese harbor, stopping Daenerys from building ships or trading. Yunkai reaches out to Hizdahr with terms of peace. The agreements state that Astapor will resume being a slave city after its slave revolt. Both parties agree that Daenerys’s marriage to Hizdahr will seal the deal.

Daario Naharis returns from his given mission, and Daenerys sleeps with him. While at court, one of the alleged sellswords who defected to Meereen reveals himself as Quentyn Martell. Prince Quentyn tells Daenerys of the pact between Ser Willem Darry and Prince Oberyn Martell to wed her brother Viserys to Arianne. He asks that the agreement be honored with her marrying him as Viserys is dead. However, Daenerys refuses and tells Quentyn to go home as she will wed Hizdahr the next day.

Hizdahr invites the Yunkish forces to sign the peace treaty with Meereen, and the fighting pits reopen. During one event at Daznak’s Pit, Drogon lands in the arena and eats the body of a slain fighter. To prevent carnage, Daenerys climbs him and flies away. With her disappearance, everyone thinks she is dead. However, Drogon takes her to a hill in the Dothraki Sea. Unable to command him to take her back to Meereen, Daenerys travels on foot. She falls ill and meets Khal Jhaqo with his Khalasaar.

Relevance in Adaptation

In HBO’s Game of Thrones, Emilia Clarke portrayed Princess Daenerys Targaryen. Dany and her brother were the only known living Targaryen heirs. However, Viserys got killed by Drogo after he threatened his sister. Upon the death of her husband, Daenerys led her Khalasaar into triumph, and she gained respect throughout Essos as the breaker of chains. She traveled to Westeros and fought the Night King in the battle of Winterfell. Eventually, she destroyed King’s Landing and got killed by her lover and cousin, Jon Snow.

Daenerys Targaryen: The Mighty Queen

Though she had a rough childhood and got abused by the people who were supposed to love her, Daenerys rose above all enmity to become one of the most influential people in Essos. Coming from nothing after the fall of House Targaryen, she crawled to the top by building strong relationships of trust with her people. Though Daenerys has many flaws, she is a kind-hearted girl who does not want to see others suffer like she has.

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