Wednesday, 10th June 2015, 20:55 by and into
Dany is leading a slave revolt. One that she hopes will catapult her into power across the sea, true. But at this point she has shown that she truly abhors slavery and wants to eliminate it, and is willing to delay, and even jeopardize, her longer term plans and her personal interests in order to do so.
She wouldn't be anywhere if the majority of the slaves did not actually want to be freed from bondage. This thread has been lost somewhat in this season but it was made abundantly clear in earlier seasons. The slaves are clearly part of the culture in Mereen and the other cities Dany conquered, and they ultimately decided to follow her rule. So she understands quite well the culture of the *majority* of the populations of the city she rules, it would seem, as they willingly follow her.
You can say that closing the fighting pits was a mistake borne out of a kind of cultural elitism, which she later tried to rectify (but too late). Sure. But it isn't like the masters of Mereen hated Dany because she closed the fighting pits—that just added insult to injury. They hate her because she abolished slavery and made it so they can't own people any more, and do stuff like crucify hundreds of slave children just to send a message, whenever the fancy strikes them.
Now, you can raise the uncomfortable identity politics behind the fact that a white person was, for some time, single-handedly leading this revolt, and that the slaves were often (though not entirely) portrayed as passive and complacent until they had a white leader. (This was brought up plenty in reviews during seasons two and three.) But to compare what Dany is doing—leading what is, in point of fact, a populist rebellion—to the Bush administration actually implies that the latter's mission had a *lot* more credence than it actually deserves.
Dany is closer to Spartacus, which seems to be one touchstone for her narrative. And she began as no better than a slave herself, you'll remember, despite her noble ancestry, so she does actually know what de facto serfdom (including being raped because you completely belong to someone else) actually feels like.
The analogy to Bush really doesn't make any sense.
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