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.

Despite her apparent lacking of the Targaryen ruthless personality traits the shows producers have hinted she is set to develop in to a stronger character under the protection of her husband and her new people.

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 khalasarof 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 dragoneggs, 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 travelling 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 moreso when Daenerys confidently states that it will be a boy.

Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things
Daenerys and the khalasarreach 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 Dhoshkhaleen, the wives of khals slain in battle, Daenerys names her unborn son Rhaego - in honour 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 bit only for the egg to remain frozen. She also comes to believe that her tolerence for heat is a sign of a real Targaryen.

Personality
Being raised away fro﻿m her home land and the teachings of her family Dany 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 realises 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 (spoilers)
In the Song of Ice and Firenovels, Daenerys was born on the Targaryan island refuge of Dragonstoneeight 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 Kingdomsand 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. After her husband, Drogo is wounded in battle, she attempts to heal him by performing a blood-ritual. However, the blood-ritual goes wrong, killing her child inside her womb, and leaving Khal Drogo in a zombie-like state. She personally puts him out of his misery, and at his firery funeral, she places the dragon eggs next to his burning body. She then walks into the inferno, and to everyone's surprise, emerges untouched, with three baby dragons clinging to her. She then works on unifying Westors by war, which she does very easily, given her three Dragons and having been appointed Khal.