Wait a minute. Isn’t House of the Dragon just around the corner? It only makes sense for us to focus on the most ferocious, boldest, and unquestionably bossy Targaryen as the series will examine the Targaryen family’s ascent and their conquering of the seven kingdoms.
We are, in fact, referring to Daenerys Targaryen, the first of her name, Mother of Dragons, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, The Unburnt, Breaker of Chains, Queen of the Andals, Rhoynar, and the First Men, and Protector of the Seven Kingdoms.
You can not deny that Emilia Clarke’s character was a force in the franchise and provided one of the best moments in the entire programme, even though the last couple of titles may not have been the ideal choices for her anymore. Daenerys has come a long way, after all.
She is a woman who emerged from the ashes and gradually found her place in the world. She slaughtered many who opposed her, ate a horse’s heart, and witnessed the death of her brother while continuing to be a formidable force.
We have compiled this list of the 15 most badass moments of Daenerys Targaryen in honour of these unforgettable beautiful yet potent moments; stay for the honourable mentions at the conclusion of the list. Shall we get started?
Daenerys, the Khaleesi of the Dothraki
Viserys Targaryen was a complete monster, as everyone who has watched the series is well aware. He was an absolute arse, and the lack of sense, sensitivity, and spine just served to make him worse. He repeatedly threatened to harm her and frequently undressed her in an effort to make her look good in the eyes of others.
Daenerys submits to her brother’s whims towards the start of the series, revealing how humble and insecure she is about her place in society. However, Daenerys gradually gains self-confidence after her brother essentially sells her to Jason Momoa’s Khal Drogo.
Daenerys orders the Khalasar to stop unless otherwise instructed when on a protracted march with the Khalasar because she feels compassion for the men and women walking. When Viserys perceives this as an insult, he strikes Daenerys, but a Dothraki stops him. Viserys, however, does not take this to heart. Later, Viserys smacks a pregnant Daenerys rather hard, although by this point, she sees herself as the queen she was destined to be.
I am a Khaleesi of the Dothraki! I am the wife of the great Khal, and I carry his son inside me. The next time you raise a hand to me will be the last time you have hands! Not only does she beat his abusive brother, but she educates him about his meagre worth and value. It was probably at this moment that Daenerys started to take charge of her own life, and the incident became a major turning point in her life.
Daenerys, The Heart Eater
As mentioned earlier, Daenerys was expecting a child with Khal Drogo. And we all know how weirdly wonderful the Dothraki customs are! They respect strength over everything else, and to be a great Khal or Khaleesi; one is got to show strength in weird and often violent ways. A Dothraki custom demanded that the Khaleesi eat the entire heart of a horse, and a raw heart at that! Daenerys and the Khalasar reached Vaes Dothrak, the only and holy city of the Dothraki.
Here, she was to perform the ritual. The entire sequence was filled with blood and gut-churning visuals, and Emilia Clarke brought a certain realism with her flawless acting skills. The audience could feel and almost experience what it would be to eat a raw horse heart, and that was the beauty of it. Nevertheless, Daenerys performs the deed against all odds and earns the love and respect of her new people.
However, her brother Viserys couldn’t digest this fact and grew jealous. He immediately went to Daenery’s tent to flee with three dragon eggs that the dragon queen had received as a wedding gift. Fortunately, he was stopped by Ser Jorah Mormont, a fiend turned friend of the Khaleesi. This further aggravated Viserys, he could see his dream of sailing to Westeros fail miserably.
But sadly for him, he did not know how to deal with losses and hard times. He crashed the celebratory dinner of the Khalasar in a drunken state and pointed a blade at Daenerys’s belly. He told the Khal, that all he wanted was his side of the bargain, the crown, and the Iron Chair. But he had gone too far and was a lost cause. Khal Drogo told him that he would have his golden crown, a fact that made Viserys elated.
Little did the boy know that the Khal would melt gold and pour it on his head. Viserys died then and there, but Daenerys seemed to be least affected by it. ‘He was no dragon; fire cannot kill a dragon.’ By now, she had learned what a failure his brother had been all along, but at this moment, she lost every ounce of sisterly affection. Moral of the story? Do not threaten the children of the mother of Dragons.
Daenerys, The Unburnt Avenger
Among the several things that Daenerys is known for, one of them has to be her penchant for justice and punishment. Apart from the last season, she displayed her habitual liking for giving people what they deserved, but how did it all start? Well, the beginning had to be the incident with the witch called Mirri Maz Duur.
The Khalasar had plundered the woman’s village, and she had been raped several times before being saved by the Khaleesi. However, when the Khal fell sick due to a fatal wound, the witch offered to treat the KHal with blood magic. However, it was all a trick. Not only did she turn the Khal into a living corpse but she also led to the stillbirth of Rhaego, Daenerys’s child.
Naturally, Daenerys was angry. I mean, she watched her brother die without a change in expression because he had threatened her child, and this witch indirectly killed the baby. What was the mother of dragons gonna do? Well, she bound the witch to a pyre and burned her alive. However, something else also happened, something that changed the course of the world. She walked into the pyre with her dragon eggs.
Everyone thought that she had sacrificed herself, but that was far from true. When the sun came up, and the fire doused, we saw an unburnt Daenerys rise from the ashes, and with her were her three dragons. Ser Jorah Mormont and the Dothraki, who remained with her, fell on their knees, which symbolised their acceptance of Daenerys as their leader and queen.
Daenerys, The Breaker of Chains
While she believes that she’s a just human being who doesn’t do wrong, Daenerys often uses her intellect to outsmart those she despises, and the course she takes is not always righteous. For instance, when she reaches Astapor to buy the unsullied, she is often humiliated by Master Kraznys. But what really infuriates Daenerys is the training that the Unsullied undergo to become who they become.
It turns out, that each Unsullied has to kill a babe in front of its mother’s eyes, for which a silver coin is paid, but to the babe’s owner instead of the mother. She learns that Kraznys had 8000 Unsullied to sell, which meant that 8000 infants had lost their lives. But Daenerys knew that it was not the fault of the Unsullied, but their masters. She strikes a deal with Kraznys, offering him Drogon, the largest of Daenerys’s dragons, in exchange for 8000 unsullied.
Her advisors, Jorah Mormont and Ser Barristen Selmy, advice against this decision, because it was dragons that won wars. However, Daenerys is no child, and shuts them up. Later, on the day of the exchange, Daenerys hands a chained Drogon to the slave master. But to everyone’s surprise, she not only orders Drogon to burn Kraznys but asks the Unsullied to kill all the masters and slaves. However, she makes it a point to ask them not to kill any innocents.
Alas, by the end of the show, she had lost all empathy when she levelled King’s Landing to the ground. This incident showed the military mind and cunning of Daenerys Targaryen, and if she ever wanted to sit on the Iron Throne, she needed to be this way.
Daenerys invades Meereen
Before invading Westeros, Daenerys had to learn what it meant to be queen. I mean, she had spent her childhood wandering across the world, away from her home, and under a mortal threat from King Robert Baratheon. Naturally, she didn’t have the faintest idea of what it meant to be the head of a state, let alone the massive seven kingdoms. In her quest to free the slaves of the world, she reached Meereen, but the road to Meereen was a difficult one, at least emotionally.
Her army halted when Daenerys came across a slave child crucified, while the child’s hand pointed in the direction of Meereen. It turned out that there was one such child at every one-mile mark and Meereen was still 163 miles away. Daenerys was clearly outraged at the state of affairs and was determined to free Meereen of its cruel masters. Upon reaching the gates of Meereen, she was welcomed by the Meereenese enslavers and slaves alike, while a Meereenese champion came out of its gates to battle Daenerys’s champion.
Both Ser Barristen and Mormont offered to be the champion, but they were too important to her, and she chose Dario Naharis, who was neither a member of her Queensguard nor her most trusted advisor. It’s another thing altogether that the two of them soon started sleeping together. Nevertheless, Dario Naharis easily defeated the Meereenese champion, and Daenerys laid siege to the city.
She spoke directly to the slaves and gave them the example of Astapor before catapulting the broken chains, and it wasn’t before long that Daenerys managed to inspire courage into the slaves of Meereen. Later that night, she sent Torgo Nudho and his men to supply weapons to the slaves, so that they could start an interior revolt And as for the 163 dead children, she made 163 masters of Meereen face the same fate as the innocent crucified children.
The invasion of Meereen was not the result of bloodshed of her own men or the murder of thousands of innocents. She took the city of Meereen by using her sheer intellect and sound advice from the experienced men around her. When the people of Meereen hail her as mother, I truly had goosebumps in my body. And no matter how many times I watch the show, the feeling remains the same.
Dany at the Daznak pit
In Meereen, Daenerys had shut down the fighting pits because she felt that human blood should not be spilt in the name of entertainment. However, the fighting pits were nothing less than a cultural symbol in Meereen. After many requests from people around her, she reluctantly agrees to the reopening of Daznak’s Pit. However, after the fighting was done, the Sons of The Harpy attacked Daenerys.
She would have died along with Tyrion, Missandei, Mormont, and others had it not been for Drogon, who returned after being M.I.A for quite some time. Not only did Drogon defend his mother, but he took her away. But this scene was a crucial scene because Daenerys rides a dragon for the first time in the show, another act that became a turning point in the history of Westeros.
She was initially indecisive about riding a dragon, and clearly, she did not know how to ride one. But as she once told Jon Snow, no one knows how to ride a dragon until they ride one. The moment of affection that Daenerys and Drogon share at this moment is nothing short of emotional. But as the music swells to match a motivational tone, the audience learns that it was a defining moment in the life of Daenerys Targaryen.
Daenerys, The Khaleesi of The Great Grass See
The sixth season of Game of Thrones saw several developments in terms of story arcs and character development. However, one incident from Daenerys’s life from the season had us all dropping our jaws in awe of the unbroken, the unburnt, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea. So, as it happens, after she gets attacked by Sons of the Harpy, Drogon saves her but takes her far away to a location unknown to her.
She has no choice but to wander around in search of food and help. In the end, she gets captured by a Dothraki horde, who take her to Khal Moro as a gift. The dragon Queen had to suffer and endure a lot before she could convince the Khal that she was Khal Drogo’s widow. As was the Dothraki custom, all the widowed Khaleesis are to live with the Dosh Khaleen. However, there was a catch.
If she would join the Dosh Khaleen or not was to be decided by a bunch of Khals, who clearly had no respect for the widow of their fallen brethren. But she was wise enough to know that the Khals would not let a beauty like herself join a bunch of widows. As it happened, Jorah Mormont and Daario Naharis had located the Khaleesi, and met her. She then made an elaborate escape plan, that would also win the Dothraki hearts for her.
When she was brought to the Khals, she remarked her wishes about leading the Dothraki, which infuriated the Khals. She then went on to drop the braziers one by one, burning the temple to ground, and the Khals with it. As thousands of Dothraki gathered around the burning structure, Daenerys came out, unhurt, unburnt, naked. And at this moment, all the Dothraki bowed before her, accepting her as the first Khaleesi to lead them.
Messing With The Masters
Once she returned to Meereen with her Dothraki, she found it in a state of turmoil as the master from other slave cities had come to bring Meereen down. They could not accept the fact that a city with a history of slavery could prosper. However, the masters did not understand that they were far from a match when it came to the Mother of Dragons. Upon the advice of Tyrion Lannister, she decided to hold peace talks and discuss terms of surrender.
But the wise masters were not so wise after all, and they threatened the Dragon Queen, even making demands such as killing the dragons and reselling the enslaved people back in the market, including Missandei. Daenerys had had enough. She sat on Drogon and burned the ships. This was the first time that Daenerys used her dragons to fight in an actual battle, some may even call it a war. And as she rightly says, “my reign has just begun.”
Sailing To Westeros
After she had everything she needed, an army, wealth, and dragons, Daenerys planned to sail to Westeros. The journey itself seemed to be its own reward with Tyrion and others by her side. She was sailing with three dragons and two armies, but much more awaited her across the sea. Daenerys Targaryen had proved herself, a girl who had nothing in her possession apart from a lost family name and her intellect. She was now going to take what she believed was rightfully hers.
She Saves The North But Loses Her Child
Jon sails to Dragonstone with his men to convince her that the real enemy lies beyond the wall. It was imperative that she joined the great war with her dragons because fire destroyed the undead army. However, despite many appeals, Daenerys does not get convinced. Soon, Jon leaves with Mormont on a dangerous mission of capturing a blue eyed zombie. But as would have been expected, they get attacked by the army of the dead. Jon sends Gendry to the castle so that he can send a raven to Daenerys telling about what happened.
Just as the men were bout to die beyond the wall, Daenerys arrived with her dragons and lighted the army of the dead. The entire sequence seemed like a climactic battle between the dead and the living. There was fire, strength, and dragons, a combination that led to several goosebumps. However, Daenerys lost Viserion, her faithful dragon. A loss that could never really be repaid. Furthermore, she had to leave Jon behind, which seemed like another great loss.
Breaking the Wheel
“Lannister, Targaryen, Baratheon, Stark, Tyrell, they’re all just spokes on a wheel. This one’s on top, then that one’s on top, and on and on it spins, crushing those on the ground.”
Tyrion: “It’s a beautiful dream: stopping the wheel. You’re not the first person who’s ever dreamed it…”
Daenerys: “I’m not going to stop the wheel… I’m going to break the wheel!”
The girl who rose from the ashes had many a plan for the world, what boosted her confidence was the winning streak she had. She had never once lost a battle and was good at the art of war. However, the same can not be said about her political discourse, or the game of thrones.
Much like Robert Baratheon was a great warrior but a bad king, Daenerys was going to follow a similar path. Having said that, she was determined to transform the way the world functioned. It’s like saying that after she won the game of thrones, she wanted to change the way the game was played, bringing in her own set of rules.
With her sky high ambition and intoxicating self-confidence, she wanted to destroy all the noble families, until no one but she remained at the top. But when she spoke first about breaking the wheel, this is not quite what she meant. Her true colours came out much later, towards the end of the show.
Spoils of War
When Jamie leads the Lannister forces into the walls of High Garden, he had little idea of the various shocks he was about to receive. Firstly, Lady Olena Tyrell tells Jamie about how it was she who poisoned Joffrey, his son born out of incest with his sister Cersei. But Jamie could not really have his revenge. When he walked out of the castle with the spoils of war, he was justifyingly shaken, but more was awaiting the lion.
If incredulity and disbelief made a baby, its face would have looked like that of Jamie’s when he saw Daenerys riding her dragon over the Lannister and Tarly forces. Westerosis had not seen a dragon in hundreds of years, but there it was, a full grown dragon being ridden by a dragon queen. She was laying waste to the spoils of war.
However, things truly went beyond Lannister control when the Dothraki came howling on their horses, breaking the Lannister blockade and crushing everyone who came in their way. This was another impossible achievement because the Dothraki had never sailed across the Narrow Sea, which they believed was the poison water. Daenerys proves her might by destroying the Lannister army and either killing those who stood against her or having them bend their knees before her.
Meeting Cersei
When it was decided that Cersei would meet Daenerys, people lost their shit and for all the right reasons. It would have been something like the meeting between an unstoppable force and an immovable object. We all know how Cersei Lannister really is, and on the day of the meeting, Cersei reached the Dragon Pit, but Daenerys was late. Cersei was visibly feeling insulted because she had to wait for Daenerys, her enemy. However, Daenerys soon arrives riding Drogon, and steps down from him in a fashion that was beyond classy and badass.
Levelling King’s Landing
Nothing defines the downfall in Daenerys’s character, as do the last couple of episodes of the show. She could have been so much and done so much, but it is true, you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. She discarded all her morals and ideals when she lay waste to King’s Landing and all its people, killing thousands by the minute. She spared no one; she killed innocents, children, women, elderly, and what made it worse was the fact that Daenerys never truly regretted it! The scene was undoubtedly badass, but it was a bit of a stretch.
Her Last Speech
Say what you will about Daenerys Targaryen, even until her last speech, the young Queen was more formidable than many of the Westerosi lords and past kings! In her speech, she addresses the Dothraki and the Unsullied, and thanks them for helping her in liberating King’s Landing and its people. But she claims that the war of breaking the wheel was not yet over. In fact, she wanted her idea of justice to spread across all the seven kingdoms and eventually the world. But her Hand of the Queen, Tyrion, insults her by saying that she slaughtered an entire city, and throws away his Hand of The Queen pin. However, Daenerys seems to be least affected by it and has him arrested for treason.
That was our list of 15 most badass moments of Daenerys Targaryen from the Game of Thrones TV show. However, this video will remain incomplete without a few honourable mentions.