Daenerys Targaryen

Daenerys Targaryen, often called Dany by her closest friends, is a major character in Game of Thrones. She was played by Tamzin Merchant in the pilot episode, but the role was recast with Emilia Clarke for the series proper.

Daenerys is the only daughter and youngest child of King Aerys II Targaryen. Her father died during the Sack of King's Landing before she was even born. As a baby, she was taken into exile in the Free Cities with her brother, Viserys. After years spent fruitlessly trying to raise support to retake the Iron Throne, Viserys and Daenerys were given sanctuary by Magister Illyrio Mopatis in the Free City of Pentos.

Daenerys is polite and well-spoken, cowed by her brother's ambitions and occasional cruel rages. Her one ambition is to find a peaceful home and a place to belong. Daenerys enjoys scalding-hot baths that most people are unable to bear; this may be related to her Targaryen heritage. She is developing a fierce character under the protection of her husband and her new people.

Unlike many in her house, Dany never inherited the insane tendencies that plagued her father and brother. She shows compassion to her servants and allies, while her brother is cruel to them. While a little naive, she is quick of understanding, and soon comes to realize that her brother will never make a good king.

Winter is Coming
At the start of the series, Illyrio and Viserys hatch a plan to wed Daenerys to Khal Drogo, the leader of a Dothraki khalasar of forty thousand warriors. In return, Drogo will support Viserys's plan to invade Westeros and retake the Iron Throne. Daenerys is unsure about the plan, preferring to simply find a quiet place to live in peace, but to please her brother goes along with it. Prior to meeting her new husband she is shown to possess a tolerance for high temperatures. She enters a bath which her servant said was scalding hot. Daenerys doesn't react in pain and emerges later without a mark on her body.

The marriage takes place and Daenerys is given many gifts: three handmaidens (Irri, Jhiqui and Doreah), some books about Westeros by an exiled knight (Ser Jorah Mormont) and three dragon eggs, which the ages have turned to stone, though they retain their beauty. She is also presented with a beautiful white horse by Khal Drogo.

The Kingsroad
Daenerys, who does not speak Dothraki and cannot communicate with her husband at first, initially finds life amongst her new people difficult. She begins learning the language from Irri. Another one of her handmaidens, Doreah, instructs Daenerys on how use her sexuality to take command of Drogo and influence him, after which he respects her more as an equal rather than another prize of war. Daenerys also becomes increasingly intrigued by the petrified dragon eggs, asking her handmaidens if they know of any stories of living dragons in the east, to which they reply no; all of the dragons in the world are dead and gone. Nevertheless, Daenerys takes comfort in the eggs.

Lord Snow
After two months traveling with the khalasar, Daenerys begins exerting her authority as Drogo's khaleesi, and discovers that she now wields real power amongst the Dothraki. In addition, she has won the respect and support of Ser Jorah Mormont, who admires her steel and measured responses more than her brother's insane rages. However, Viserys is enraged when he is expected to follow Daenerys's commands as well, and becomes frustrated when, due to Daenerys's bodyguard Rakharo, he cannot take his rage out on her with violence as he once did.

Daenerys discovers that she is pregnant. Khal Drogo is overjoyed when he finds out, even more so when Daenerys confidently states that it will be a boy.

Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things
Daenerys and the khalasar reach the Dothraki city of Vaes Dothrak. Daenerys sends Doreah to invite Viserys to dinner, but Viserys becomes enraged again and strikes her. Daenerys hits him back in the face with a heavy gold belt and suggests that the next time he touches her, she will have his hands removed.

The Wolf and the Lion
In King's Landing, word of Daenerys's pregnancy has reached King Robert Baratheon. King Robert orders that Daenerys and her brother be assassinated, a decision supported by the other members of the small council, aside from his Hand, Eddard Stark who resigns over the matter. Nevertheless, the decision is made and the orders sent.

Arya Stark overhears Illyrio talking to the king's spymaster, Varys, about Khal Drogo's planned invasion. Drogo wants to wait until his son is born, which will take months, but Varys urges speed as civil war is about to erupt in Westeros between House Stark and House Lannister.

A Golden Crown
Following a ritual in which she consumes the raw heart of a stallion under the watchful eye of the Dosh khaleen, the wives of khals slain in battle, Daenerys names her unborn son Rhaego - in honor of her slain brother, Rhaegar. After making one claim too many and threatening Daenerys, Viserys is killed by Khal Drogo by having molten gold poured over his head. This leaves Daenerys the sole surviving Targaryen claimant to the Iron Throne of Westeros.

Daenerys also continues with her investigation into her dragon eggs. She tries to hatch one of the eggs in a fire pit, but nothing happens. She comes to believe that her tolerance for heat is a sign of a real Targaryen.

You Win or You Die
After being mortally wounded on a hunt, Robert Baratheon orders Ned to call off the assassination attempt on Daenerys, having come to the realization she is not the monster her father and brothers were and she should be left to live out her days in peace.

Unfortunately, the orders were already sent out. Daenerys is saved from a poisoning attempt by Ser Jorah Mormont, who despite the prospect of a pardon for spying on Daenerys, has grown to respect her and intervenes by exposing the assassin.

After this her husband makes a pledge to set sail on "wooden horses" and take back the "Iron Chair" for Daenerys in revenge for the attempt on the lives of his wife and child.

Baelor
The Dothraki, along with Daenerys, are being led along a dirt track by Khal Drogo. Daenerys worries after the health of her husband, and as he falls from his saddle, she dismount and rushes to his side. Fearing for his life, she commands the horde to halt and set up camp, an order that displeases Qotho who now believes Drogo unfit to be Khal. Daenerys watches over her fevered husband and call for Mirri Maz Duur. The witch arrives and Daenerys demands that she save the life of her husband, the witch agrees but reveals that the cost of such a spell would be the sacrifice of a life. Daenerys orders Drogo’s horse to be brought to the tent, she is then ask



ed to leave after the witch slays Drogo’s mount, splattering the Khaleesi with its blood.

Upon her exit from the tent, Jorah confronts her and questions her actions, she replies, her breathing labored, “I have to save him”. Qotho then breaks through the crowd and, in his attempt to disrupt the spell casting, throws Daenerys to the ground.She gasps in pain, and clutches her stomach as Irri helps her up. Jorah runs to her side after killing Qotho and, as she wheezes, “the baby is coming”, he picks her up and carries her towards the tent, the air is permeated with the sound of the witch’s malevolent chanting.

Fire and Blood
Daenerys awakens after the blood ceremony to learn that her son is dead, having been delivered stillborn and grotesquely deformed. She also learns that, while the ceremony Mirri Maz Duur performed saved her husband, Drogo is only a drooling husk of his former self. Mirri reveals that before being "saved" by Dany, she had already been raped several times. Now thanks to her spell, Drogo and his son can cause no more suffering. An enraged Daenerys has Mirri dragged off before smothering Drogo to end his misery.

That evening, Daenerys builds a funeral pyre for her husband. Despite Jorah's suggestion that she sell her three dragon eggs to fund a new life, she places them on the pyre with Drogo. She then has Mirri bound to the pyre as well. Worrying that Dany intends to enter the fire, Jorah pleads with her not to do it, saying they still have a chance to escape. Daenerys dismisses his fears for her life and slowly walks into the fire. The remaining bloodriders and former slaves watch in silence as she is apparently consumed. Early the following morning, Jorah and the waking bloodriders approach the remains of the fire to find Daenerys sitting unharmed and naked, something huddled in her lap. They watch in awe as three dragon hatchlings reveal themselves, clinging to their "mother" as she rises from the ground. Her remaining followers swear fealty as a dragon hatchling crawls to her shoulder, screaming and flapping its wings.

Personality
Having been raised away fro﻿m her homeland and the teachings of her family, Danny never inherited the dogmatic belief that it was her destiny to rule the seven kingdoms. Her brother's violent treatment of her at first left her very timid and easy for him to manipulate and coerce.

After being wed to Khal Drogo she quickly realizes she is now in a position of power and for the first time in her life is not under the total domination of her brother. Under the instruction of her handmaidens and with encouragement from Mormont she begins to gain confidence and even manages to stand up to her brother during his rages. When he tries to hit her in episode 4 she violently lashes back and informs him the next time he tries to strike her she will have his hands cut off.

In the books
In the Song of Ice and Fire novels, Daenerys was born on the Targaryan island refuge of Dragonstone eight months after her father's death. Her mother died giving birth to her, and a great storm raged at the moment of her birth, giving rise to the nickname 'Stormborn'. Daenerys is thirteen years old when the events of the novels begin. Dany is somewhat quiet and reticent, fearful of her brother's famous rages, but also curious about life in the Seven Kingdoms and eager to learn more of life there. She has a kind and generous spirit. This spirit slowly begins to harden after her brother's death and after surviving her first assassination attempt.