Who do you think would be the better ruler, Jon or Dany?

[James Fenimore Cooper XXII]

They both have good skills in leadership but a ruler is many steps above that.  A good commander is not necessarily good at ruling.  But in choosing between Dany and Jon, I would choose Dany.  Dany is just better at seeing the big picture.  Jon is good enough to lead a small ranging party of men who are loyal to him personally and whom he personally likes.  But that is his limit.  Dany just has a higher potential.  We saw her use verbal judo on the titan's bastard and hold her temper while suffering insults from Kraznys.  She has the right aptitude to rule. 

[Moiraine Sedai]

On 10/23/2020 at 2:09 AM, Shierak Qiya said:

The better ruler for the future is Dany.  She can speak a lot of languages and will have learned a lot about ruling by the time she comes to Westeros.  Humanity will have to join forces to combat the existential threat of winter and white walkers.  She will be prepared to do just that. 

Winter and the constant wars going on in Westeros will kill most of the population.  They need a strong leader to rebuild at the end of the Long Night.  That ruler should be Dany.  Prosperity is not going to be possible because civilization will collapse but Dany will build the beginnings of a new empire of the dawn.  An empire is made up of many groups of people, cultures, and languages. 

 

Agreed. Daenerys Targaryen has the necessary qualities to lead the people out of the darkness and into the light.  She will put together a good team to help preserve civilization.  

[BlackLightning]

On 10/23/2020 at 2:10 AM, Rose of Red Lake said:

Until they decided not to. "Do whatever I say while I do whatever I want" doesn't last long in the North. The lords make it clear that the king serves them and they are the ones who give him power.

That's what I love about the Northmen.

They have much more in common with the wildlings and the Dothraki than people are willing to acknowledge.

In the name of answering the question of the thread...meh, I don't know this is a hard question to address. Their goals are similar for the two of them similar outcomes but their backgrounds and styles are wildly different. Their temperaments are also different. But of the end of A Dance with Dragons, I would much prefer Daenerys. Not to say that Jon is a bad ruler but he made some decisions in the second half of Dance that made you go "Mmmm, I don't know about that bro..." or "Oh no, what are you doing?!"

But I think that the two of them would make an excellent team. If there is ever a political marriage that would work on multiple levels, it'd be one between Dany and Jon.

[BRANDON GREYSTARK]

Jon , Dany seems to be more idealistic .

[El Guapo]

18 hours ago, BRANDON GREYSTARK said:

Jon , Dany seems to be more idealistic .

Dany's idealism died in the Dothraki Sea in her last chapter of Dance.

 

 

[Quoth the raven,]

On 10/24/2020 at 10:35 AM, James Fenimore Cooper XXII said:

They both have good skills in leadership but a ruler is many steps above that.  A good commander is not necessarily good at ruling.  But in choosing between Dany and Jon, I would choose Dany.  Dany is just better at seeing the big picture.  Jon is good enough to lead a small ranging party of men who are loyal to him personally and whom he personally likes.  But that is his limit.  Dany just has a higher potential.  We saw her use verbal judo on the titan's bastard and hold her temper while suffering insults from Kraznys.  She has the right aptitude to rule. 

[Rose of Red Lake]

4 hours ago, El Guapo said:

Dany's idealism died in the Dothraki Sea in her last chapter of Dance.

Absolutely.

But I'd argue that her motives for attacking the slave cities in the first place wasn't idealism. Her motive was because she didn't like losing in the field.

Just because she likes conquest/winning doesn't mean she necessarily gives fuck all about that place.

The slavers were just something for her to fight. Bobby B would have fought slavers too if they were his "opponent." But did he really care about social betterment, service, and commitment to progress and change? No.

Dany is basically the same.

[Bhain Shadowien]

Man I disagree with a lot of the characterization of Jon and Dany in this thread.

Dany was basically a child slave who was sold off and raped. She lived the majority of her life in fear. Her main motivation is making sure others don't have to live like that. We see that with the women she protects from Drogo's men, from the way she made sure to free all of the Unsullied, from her freeing all the slaves from the Slavers. She is constantly trying to give people freedom.

We see her tactics in combat where, multiple times, she devises a plan that enables her to win quickly with minimal casualties.

Her biggest flaw is her idealism and her complete lack of Authoritarianism. She is too concerned with pleasing everyone. Sure sometimes her anger gets the better of her, like when she crucified all those slavers. But righteous indignation isn't a bad trait. Her lack of control during those moments is. The more assertive she is, the better things work out for her.

We also see her questioning her motives CONSTANTLY. She's always concerned about whether or not she made the right choice. Whether or not she's becoming a monster. This is the single most important trait you want in someone who can wield absolute power. Dany doesn't want to fight for the sake of fighting. She wants to liberate people who are being oppressed (and in a feudal society, it's very easy for the common people to be oppressed) or enslaved. She is very clear about this. And we know it's true because we can see into her head. 

Man I haven't even touched on Jon yet....but I'll leave it at this for the moment.   

[Likely Luke Strong]

Well if somehow the dragons just vanished off the face of the earth once she had developed to about where she was during dance, I'd say Dany by a landslide, if only because she actually surrounds herself with advisors and gets multiple opinions about the decisions she makes. Jon on the other hand isolates himself and rarely explains his decisions, both of which are kind of huge problems. Of course, embracing fire and blood's going to make Dany a very different ruler and coming back all wolf-like will affect Jon somehow, so I have a harder time declaring a post-Dance winner. Either of them might be good as wartime rulers/conquerors as winds begins, but I doubt either of their future incarnations would work well in peacetime without a lot of development.

[Alyn Oakenfist]

2 hours ago, Likely Luke Strong said:

Well if somehow the dragons just vanished off the face of the earth once she had developed to about where she was during dance, I'd say Dany by a landslide, if only because she actually surrounds herself with advisors and gets multiple opinions about the decisions she makes. Jon on the other hand isolates himself and rarely explains his decisions, both of which are kind of huge problems. Of course, embracing fire and blood's going to make Dany a very different ruler and coming back all wolf-like will affect Jon somehow, so I have a harder time declaring a post-Dance winner. Either of them might be good as wartime rulers/conquerors as winds begins, but I doubt either of their future incarnations would work well in peacetime without a lot of development.

I think the assassination is going to shake Jon in one crucial regard. It's going to make him see that people do bad things believing them to be good all the time, and as such be far more communicative and open to hearing different points of view

[Rose of Red Lake]

On 11/16/2020 at 11:56 PM, Bhain Shadowien said:

She wants to liberate people who are being oppressed (and in a feudal society, it's very easy for the common people to be oppressed) or enslaved.

Dany has decided Westeros is more important than that. If she really cared about freedom, abolition, and liberation she would have been thinking about these things in her last chapter. Instead she thinks about Viserys, her birthright, Westeros, Drogon, and flying. 

[Loose Bolt]

1 hour ago, Rose of Red Lake said:

Dany has decided Westeros is more important than that. If she really cared about freedom, abolition, and liberation she would have been thinking about these things in her last chapter. Instead she thinks about Viserys, her birthright, Westeros, Drogon, and flying. 

When Dany leaves to Westeros her legacy will be massive bloodbath. After all she has destroyed old order without building new one so without her and her dragons anything she had done will be wiped out by power hungry warlords. In fact I suspect that slavers will win and so even her victory against slavery will be only temporary and in the long run would become void.

[Rose of Red Lake]

7 hours ago, Loose Bolt said:

When Dany leaves to Westeros her legacy will be massive bloodbath. After all she has destroyed old order without building new one so without her and her dragons anything she had done will be wiped out by power hungry warlords. In fact I suspect that slavers will win and so even her victory against slavery will be only temporary and in the long run would become void.

Pretty much. She decided she's not in the rebuilding or the farming business, lol

[James Fenimore Cooper XXII]

Who do you think would be the better ruler, Jon or Dany?  Dany would make the better ruler.