Daenerys Targaryen (books): Though initially motivated solely by revenge and personal survival, she stops long enough to overturn several existing social orders in order to improve the average quality of life.
Nearly all of which turn out terribly if I recall correctly. Her freeing of the slaves for example on a utilitarian scale is somewhere between a particularly bad natural disaster and The 30 years war, especially since it seems unlikely to last.
Besides being basically at the head of a marauding horde that is a menace to settled civilization there are further reasons to doubt she has made a positive impact so far. My girlfriend recently had an interesting fired monologue on the subject, she hates the character and sees her as behaving like the worst possible stereotype of Western (in particular American) doogooderism and interventionism. And yes I did say stereotype so I’m not saying what follows is an accurate description of real world affairs.
Encounter stable working society
Deem noticeable features of it immoral
Not bothering to study the society use violence to enforce your morality
Notice things becoming complicated and incredibly messed up, like obvious great suffering and people dying in huge numbers because of your actions
Leave.
Encounter stable working society…
In ASoIaF I see Tywin Lannister being nearest to a paragon of good rulership that brings about utilitarian gains. Note how the Spider actually kills his similarly tempered brother because he finds it plausible he will do as good a job as Tywin and would get the kingdom’s act together enough to repulse the coming Targaryen invasion.
I suspect the TV show may end up reducing, if not the scope, at least the emotional empact of the harmful fallout of her anti-slavery actions. Pop culture tends not to play well with values dissonance. It is known.
Haha yeah, that analysis is pretty much correct. Of course, we could argue whether a “stable working society” based on (f.ex.) mass slavery is moral or not; i.e., whether military action against it (and thus the resulting deaths) would be justified.
Nearly all of which turn out terribly if I recall correctly. Her freeing of the slaves for example on a utilitarian scale is somewhere between a particularly bad natural disaster and The 30 years war, especially since it seems unlikely to last.
Besides being basically at the head of a marauding horde that is a menace to settled civilization there are further reasons to doubt she has made a positive impact so far. My girlfriend recently had an interesting fired monologue on the subject, she hates the character and sees her as behaving like the worst possible stereotype of Western (in particular American) doogooderism and interventionism. And yes I did say stereotype so I’m not saying what follows is an accurate description of real world affairs.
Encounter stable working society
Deem noticeable features of it immoral
Not bothering to study the society use violence to enforce your morality
Notice things becoming complicated and incredibly messed up, like obvious great suffering and people dying in huge numbers because of your actions
Leave.
Encounter stable working society…
In ASoIaF I see Tywin Lannister being nearest to a paragon of good rulership that brings about utilitarian gains. Note how the Spider actually kills his similarly tempered brother because he finds it plausible he will do as good a job as Tywin and would get the kingdom’s act together enough to repulse the coming Targaryen invasion.
I suspect the TV show may end up reducing, if not the scope, at least the emotional empact of the harmful fallout of her anti-slavery actions. Pop culture tends not to play well with values dissonance. It is known.
In terms of disliking her as a person, or as thinking she detracts from the story?
I more or less agree with her description, but while I dislike her in the former manner, I definitely don’t dislike her in the latter.
I’d be pretty disappointed if she comes out on top in the war though.
Haha yeah, that analysis is pretty much correct. Of course, we could argue whether a “stable working society” based on (f.ex.) mass slavery is moral or not; i.e., whether military action against it (and thus the resulting deaths) would be justified.