“Mykhaleesi is sad?” “Yes,” Dany admitted. Sad and lost. “Should I pleasure the khaleesi?” Dany stepped away from her. “No. Irri, you do not need to do that. What happened that night, when you woke… you’re no bed slave, I freed you, remember? You…” “I am handmaid to the Mother of Dragons,” the girl said. “It is great honor to please my khaleesi.” “I don’t want that,” she insisted. “I don’t.” She turned away sharply. “Leave me now. I want to be alone. To think.” -George R. R. Martin, A Storm of Swords
I will always be thankful that Daenerys becomes the Mother of Dragons in large part because birthing the dragons helps protect Daenerys from continued vulnerability to sexual violence and political/economic deprivation.
Daenerys is already a victim of sexual violence and physical abuse, the predominant manifestations of patriarchal horrors, at the hands of her brother Viserys and her first husband, Drogo, not to mention getting sexually assaulted by a supposed protector, Jorah Mormont, who poorly attempted to groom and isiolate her. She’s also been on the receiving end of multiple assassination threats from men, a threat of re-enslavement, and threats of sexual violence upon her person. The latter examples occur after birthing the dragons, because even with having dragons and being a Khal, conqueror, and Queen, a 15-year-old girl will be vulnerable to facing misogyny in feudal society.
Still, it’s her second prophetic dragon dream, that she has in Dany III AGOT, that helps her cope with the daily rapes Drogo makes her endure. Prior to that dragon dream, she was contemplating killing herself because of the nightly rapes. After that dragon dream, she felt strong enough to keep going and to adapt to Dothraki culture. Her dragon dream helped her survive, prevented her from killing herself, and allowed her to integrate with her husband’s people.
The dragon eggs comforted Dany when Viserys raged at her and tried to rape her, before she took back control and physically fought him back for the first time in her life, in Dany IV AGOT. They continued to be a source of comfort and companionship for her throughout AGOT, especially after Viserys’ death and the wineseller’s aborted assassination attempt.
The reason she does not have to stay with the Dosh Khaleen and the reason her khas agree to becoming her bloodriders is because she births the dragons, thus convincing them of her strength and persuading them to break from patriarchal Dothraki tradition.
The Undying attempt to devour Dany in the House of the Undying in Qarth, and Drogon burns their House down and attacks Pyat Pree when he tries to kill her. The language invoked in Dany IV ACOK, when the Undying try to devour her, depicts a vulnerable, sexualized Daenerys, as the author is wont to putting her in discomforting, eroticized positions, especially positions of eroticized violence, and it’s her dragon that protects her in the end.
Throughout her anti-slavery campaign, the same men who make threats toward her person fear her because she has dragons. The mere threat of the dragons protects her in as much as having dragons endangers her. A paradox, to be sure, but one that is part of the overall paradox of the dragons.
In short, I’m never going to see the dragons as just a nuclear deterrent or a threat or a representation of destruction. A young girl who was abused throughout her childhood, treated as sexual property, and sold as a bridal slave, can gain political power, sexual autonomy, and freedom because she births the dragons. Her dragons protect her from the constant, unrepentant threat of continued sexual violence against her person in ways nothing and no one had ever protected her before. I’m so fucking thankful that Dany births her dragons. Going from having nothing and no one protecting her from rape and physical abuse and sexual slavery to having her draconic children being her protectors is beautiful and poetic. Dany should not have to endure repeated threats of sexual violence simply because people think the dragons are scary or boring or deus ex machinas or whatever fancy buzzword you pull out of the handbook. In fact, that a young girl can create protectors out of such magnificent magical beasts is gorgeous subversion in fantasy literature and a trope that should be explored more often.
it’s underrated that dany formed deep bonds with rhaegal and viserion, despite being drogon’s rider. especially because of the rule of no targaryen being able to have more than one dragon, but also that no one else throughout targaryen history had even the slightest connection to another dragon other than their own, while dany has one with rhaegal and viserion. the time dany spent with her fierce children, helped create this unique bond between them. even before they hatch on the dothraki sea, she finds strength and comfort in these petrified eggs in some of her most difficult times. for example, after she’s attacked by viserys in her tent, she seeks out the eggs and holds rhaegal’s and even calls him rhaego’s brother when she begins to feel him stir inside her.
then, from the moment she kept them alive while crossing the red waste, feeding them her own breast milk and by hand, the dragons feeling calmer near her, vowing that no one will take them from her after losing so much, learning their behaviour and mannerism, trying to teach them, carrying them on her shoulder, the dragons being able to sense dany’s emotions, sensing her presence and wanting to be near her. she created a deep bond with rhaegal and viserion, dany is truly the MOTHER of dragons.
