05x07, 'The Gift'
Daenerys stands alone at the council table waiting for the others to arrive. She feels strangely disconnected this morning. Daario's words have been echoing in her mind all night.
All rulers are butchers.
Is that how he sees her?
It troubles her, a little.
I am a queen, not a butcher.
Daario doesn't seem to understand that.
She's always known that he's never quite been on the same wavelength as her. That's never really been a problem. Daario is a good warrior, but it's not the quality she likes best in him. That's a far more carnal thing, a thirst he is more than happy to slake.
She gets on with him well. He's funny and charming and exasperatingly arrogant.
But he doesn't know her.
That's partly her fault; she is so conscious of the careful walls she has constructed around herself. She can't afford to be too easily hurt. First with Drogo and Rhaego, then with Rakharo and Irri…finally with Jorah and Ser Barristan.
Especially with Jorah. Never in a thousand years and one had she expected he could betray her.
But he's the only one who understood her, too. Ser Barristan had been on his way, stepping up to fill Jorah's place. Missandei and Grey Worm are growing in strength and getting to that position.
But Jorah had been with her from the start. Experienced every single tribulation that she did. Knew her.
You have a gentle heart.
She'd pushed against that, mistaking gentle with weak.
But now it seems as if others have lost sight of that.
All rulers are butchers.
And so perhaps that is true, for the fighting pits reopen and later she will be forced to tour the lesser pits with her future husband, pretending to be interested if she can.
This is a victory for the former Masters. But it is the final concession she will ever make.