When did Daenerys Targaryen become your least favourite character?

[tze]

I think there's a distinction between "liking" Dany as a person and "liking" what GRRM is doing with her character from a literary standpoint. Since AGOT, we've been looking at Dany solely through her eyes, relying on her personal likeability (comparatively) and the reactions of those around her (Jorah, Barristan, etc.) to "push" our views of her one way or the other, while seeing all of this in a cultural milieu that heavily prejudices the reader in favor of Dany (and those that follow her) and against pretty much everyone else she encounters in Essos. It's not until ADWD that we really start to realize how incredibly one-sided this whole narrative has been from the start, how heavily GRRM has been utilizing the "unreliable narrator" to mold Dany's arc, how many things we can read into her thoughts and actions that weren't always readily apparent in earlier books.

On the one hand, ADWD is the time when I most disliked Dany as a person. But on the other hand, ADWD also highlighted and clarified a number of the rather brilliant literary devices GRRM has actually been using all along with this character, and it casts a really fascinating light both on her previous actions and on the road ahead.

Basically, ADWD is the book that made me want to smack Dany for being terrible but hug GRRM for making her terrible in such a fascinating way.

[Jamie Lannister]

Five books later and she's still in a state of perpetual irrelevance, saved only by people like Barristan and Victarion and Tyrion who are all out to bring her back one way or another.

For all the good it's doing them...

[ipsuel]

Beginning of CoK... Loved her in GoT... have not had a single reason to like her since :-)

[Winter's Lady]

Liked her in GOT... oh what Summer child I was. Then it went downward from there on. ADWD was rock bottom. Her last chapter was a teeny tiny glimmer of hope though. Maybe she'll do something relevant finally.

[Jerritus]

Never.

[Kate Poem]

For example: 63 victims. Her obsession with Daario.

[Spotted Pate]

In Game of thrones she was my favorite pow character since her chapters meant we got to read about the awesome dothraki. In the following books she got less and less interesting.

Drogo and Viserys no longer present in her story made me lose about 50% of my interest in what was going on in her chapters.

My problem with Daenerys is not her character, i think she's very likeable considering how she is suddenly put in a position of great power after leading such a dysfunctional life and being raised by her bi-polar brother. All things considered she turned out really nice if not exceedingly clever.

What i don't like is how Martin seemingly reserves his worst writing for her chapters. That's the major issue for me. Her chapters are simply boring and relatively badly written.

Another thing is the pedo element of her story. She's 13-15, call me old fashioned but she should not be having the child of a cruel warlord. She should not "be taken in every way that a man can take a woman" by some disgusting mercenary. Seriously Martin that shit's fucked up.

I love Dany in the tv-series though. Now that i think about it i prefer the tv-version of almost all characters.

[Arch-MaesterPhilip]

She was my favorite POV in AGOT. And for me she really peaked in ASOS when she takes possession of the Unsullied. Then she fell off the proverbial cliff. I hope she bounces back in TWOW but I'm not getting my hopes up.

[Maester Nikolas]

Indeed. TV show version of Dany is incredible- much more fitting with how I wanted Dany to develop. Have you heard her lines in some of the new trailers? I can't help but smile, and imagine what a Ghiscari looks like wreathed in red-black flames. Fire & Blood baby.

[FourthofHerName]

I loved Dany's transformation in AGOT; the first time she rode her Silver was exhilerating and she at least seem to have some fire in her (dragon reference not necessarily intended) while she was with Drogo and the Dothraki. I started to question her competence when she refused to leave with Jorah after Drogo fell into unconsciousness, but then she had the whole dragon thing, which was cool. The point of no return for my frustration was when she refused to sail for Westeros after acquiring the unsullied. She totally could have taken advantage of that momentum and procured ships, etc. The fact that she turned down Quentyn's proposal in order to deal with Meereen, though, makes me think she doesn't really care that much about Westeros. It was Viserys's goal, for sure, but she never knew Westeros. It's just some fictional place, no more "real" to her than Asshai. I guess that makes me want her just to stay in the east and let someone rule in Westeros who really gives a shit. Or maybe Victarion will be a positive influence on her, much like Drogo, and she'll at least be interesting again.

[Sevumar]

I don't think Dany is my least favorite charcter, but she's certainly toward the bottom as far as PoVs go.

I found Dany interesting and compelling in AGoT, where her story arc is about breaking free of the abuse and the expectations of others to become her own person. As I got into ACoK, her sense of entitlement and the way she treated some of her followers really started to bother me. That's when I first began to get the sense that she's a person I couldn't respect as a leader until she'd had a chance to do some growing up.

ASoS and ADWD only served to reinforce the thoughts that had begun to emerge in Clash. She has some high moments in her battle against the slavers, but that plot arc is largely undermined by the fact that her enemies are very one-dimensional and cartoonish as villains go. She has a clever thought or two, rants about Robert never having done any justice, but does little to think about how a better king/queen ought to rule. We start seeing more of Dany's cruel side, which is made worse by the fact that she believes herself justified in perpetrating horriffic crimes in Astapor and in Meereen.

As other posters have mentioned, the things that really tanked my estimation of her were the murders of 167 members of the upper class in Meereen, her use of torture to try to fight the insurgency, and her refusal to make decisions in a systematic way instead of going on her gut feeling in the moment. From the moment she decided to rule Meereen, she became unsympathetic and insufferable. She combines all the worst qualities of an inexperienced teenager with the sense of entitlement of a pricess in her attempts to rule Meereen. Worst of all, she says she has a desire to become a better leader, but she shows no signs of making any serious effort to actually improve her skills or gain some maturity and perspective. At the end of ADWD, the signs point to her learning all the wrong lessons instead of those that might make her a better queen in the future.

[Prince of Dragonstone]

A lot of people on this board strongly dislike, to put it mildly, Daenerys' long tenure in Meereen. At first I was in the same camp but then I realized that, from a realistic standpoint, it makes perfect sense. How can Dany be expected to rule the entire continent of Westeros if she cannot rule the city-state of Meereen? Her time in Meereen is meant to give her practice for when she comes into the Iron Throne. She must be able to deal with the Sons of the Harpy and the Yunkai"i alliance, for how else would she ever be able to deal with the formidable Westerosi houses???

It is one thing to conquer Westeros with her three dragons. Anyone could take down a country with dragons. It is an entirely different matter to actually govern the Seven Kingdoms. She has to subdue the Lannisters, Tyrells, Greyjoys, Northmen and all the rest. Her only natural ally in Westeros is the Martells. That leaves everyone else as enemies.

When Dany stated at the end of ASoS that she meant to stay in Meereen and learn how to be a good queen, I knew exactly what she meant.

[King Bronn l]

She has dragons, and yet to me she still has the most boring PoV's in the book.

[The Knight of ...]

I was always kind of meh about her, but ~Daario~ cinched it.

[Prince of Dragonstone]

Also, why are some of you so caught up with the execution of the 167 slave masters? Were you so choked up when these same slave masters nailed 167 CHILDREN to posts outside of Meereen to taunt Danerys???

How very strange to feel sympathy for murderous, barbaric slavers. Dany had every right to bring justice to those child killing pigs. This is a brutal world that GRRM created and brutal justice is called for when terrible acts happen. I am not opposed to murder when it is justified within this harsh world.

[Smartell]

I like the character Daenerys a lot, but I found her storyline in a Dance with Dragons to be just... boring. It's more to do with George's wrting than with Dany. Don't get me wrong, I love his work - but it was frustrating reading about her being in Meereen. It seemed so pointless and such a waste of time. For her and the reader.

So I do like Dany, I just hate that she's been stuck in Meereen fighting a war that isn't really doing anything productive.

[Maester Nikolas]

Here, here Prince of Dragonstone! I am with you- I don't like cruelty either, but those slavers deserve everything that will be coming to them, and speaking logistically and in terms of strongly disliking the slavers, Dany has been quite lenient in Meereen- trying to make everyone happy. By the end of ADWD it seems that she's accepted that she has to be who she is, and not what the people want, because there's too many people, and too many opinions. Trying to make everyone happy is what caused the trouble in Meereen in the first place.

[The Sunset King]

Dance with Dragons clinched Ramsay's position as least favorite character, although he has extremely stiff competition.

[Val the Wildling Princess]

Also, why are some of you so caught up with the execution of the 167 slave masters? Were you so choked up when these same slave masters nailed 167 CHILDREN to posts outside of Meereen to taunt Danerys???

How very strange to feel sympathy for murderous, barbaric slavers. Dany had every right to bring justice to those child killing pigs. This is a brutal world that GRRM created and brutal justice is called for when terrible acts happen. I am not opposed to murder when it is justified within this harsh world.

Because she ordered the crucifixion of those people and never cared to know if all of them were guilty or not, so it's very likely that innocent people died too since she doesn't even know who her enemies are. I don't know how disliking what she did makes me like what the slavers did with the children, I dont follow that logic, sorry, in my book, what she did was as terrible as what they did. Whatever, reading your last sentence, we're never gonna agree about this.

[Baitac]

I like Dany. I want GRRM to fix her.