Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is a Game of Thrones fan, and her favorite character is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Daenerys “Stormborn” Targaryen, who Warren says, “has been my favorite from the first moment she walked through fire.” We learned this in a column Warren wrote for The Cut published Sunday evening.
In the piece, Warren outlines her reasons for her fandom. Daenerys is fair, she fights for the people, and she wants to end slavery. But in talking about Daenerys, Warren can also, subtly, talk about herself. Like the paragraph below, in which she describes the Dragon Queen—or is she describing herself?
“This is a revolutionary idea, in Westeros or anywhere else. A queen who declares that she doesn’t serve the interests of the rich and powerful? A ruler who doesn’t want to control the political system but to break the system as it is known? It’s no wonder that the people she meets in Westeros are skeptical. Skeptical, because they’ve seen another kind of woman on the Iron Throne: the villain we love to hate, Queen Cersei of Casterly Rock.”
(Featured image: Samwell Tarly looks skeptically at Jon Snow. Screenshot from Game of Thrones.)
The Sunday evening in question is April 21st.Report
When I think of Daenerys, I think of the one from the book. Well-intentioned, but leaving destruction in her wake due to the unintended consequences of her actions.Report
Yeah, Warren doesn’t appear to have read the books. Is Daenerys a Mary-Sue in the show? [Skims recently unearthed extensive treatment . . . and Pillsy rules she is an absolute, complete, 100% Mary Sue. ]
Granted in the books, she is 13 years old in the beginning so her poor decisions, imperious attitude, and basic ignorance of things or people outside of herself can be tacked-up to youth.Report
This is going to go in weird directions… Daenerys the Mother of Dragons and Liberator of Mereen plays out an anti-slavery fantasy (a’la Tarantino); but Daenerys the Destroyer of King’s Landing just shows us that her adventures in Essos (which we all cheered, not *i* but *you* I should say) were really horrible and we all knew she was bad (well, I did, not sure about you all).Report
Well, that aged poorly.Report
Not as poorly as all those girls named “Khaleesi”Report
“I wonder if anyone will ask Elizabeth Warren about this…”, you may have been thinking.
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At first I thought hah, I can make a joke about joining “team divorce” then I realized that they are mad at Sansa for not being sufficiently expansionist/imperialist and I thought, “Now I know why Max Boot is on your team.”Report