Daenerys Targaryen (/dəˈnɛərɪs tɑːrˈɡɛəriən/ də-NAIR-iss tar-GAIR-ee-ən)[2] is a fictional character in the series of epic fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire by American author George R. R. Martin.

[9] Almost 14 years before the events of the novels, after her father and eldest brother Rhaegar were killed during Robert's rebellion, Daenerys was born during a great storm, earning her the nickname "Stormborn.

"[10] Her mother, Rhaella, died in childbirth, and the Master of Arms of the Red Keep, Ser Willem Darry whisked Daenerys and her older brother Viserys away to Braavos before Dragonstone's garrison could surrender the children to Robert.

Game of Thrones creators D. B. Weiss and David Benioff described Daenerys as a combination of Joan of Arc, Lawrence of Arabia and Napoleon.

Tales of Daenerys's beauty are numerous, and throughout the novels she encounters countless suitors who seek her hand in marriage, sometimes to gain control of her three dragons.

She is saved by Arstan Whitebeard, who has been sent by Illyrio Morpatis, along with the eunuch ex-gladiator called Strong Belwas and three ships to take Daenerys back to Pentos.

She negotiates with Kraznys mo Nakloz, promising a dragon in payment, but she betrays the Good Masters and commands the Unsullied to kill the slavers.

[29] Reflecting on the character's evolution in the television series, she stated: "Throughout the season she's had an insane transformation from someone who barely even spoke and timidly did everything her brother said into a mother of dragons and a queen of armies and a killer of slave masters.

During the wedding, exiled knight Ser Jorah Mormont pledges his loyalty to Daenerys while her benefactor Illyrio Mopatis gifts her three petrified dragon eggs.

As she arrives, the warlocks of Qarth attempt to assassinate her, but Ser Barristan Selmy, who was Kingsguard to Aerys Targaryen, thwarts them; Daenerys accepts him into her service.

After the Sons kill Ser Barristan, Daenerys decides she will attempt to restore peace by reopening Meereen's fighting pits and taking the Meereenese noble Hizdhar zo Loraq as her husband.

After discovering that Jorah, who had followed her to Vaes Dothrak with Daario, is infected with the terminal disease greyscale, Daenerys orders him to find a cure and return to her services.

Daenerys leaves Daario and the Second Sons in Meereen to keep the peace, names Tyrion Lannister as Hand of the Queen and finally sets sail for Westeros.

[42] Daenerys arrives at the island fortress of Dragonstone, the ancient Targaryen stronghold once held by the late Stannis Baratheon, and finds it abandoned.

Jon and a cured Jorah lead an expedition beyond the Wall to capture a wight, which they will use to convince the self-declared Queen of Westeros, Cersei Lannister, that the threat is real.

[3][47] Rolling Stone ranked her number one on a list of Top 40 Game of Thrones Characters, describing her story as a "non-stop confrontation with complex ideas about sex, war, gender, race, politics and morality".

[48] Salon's Andrew Leonard, in his review of A Dance with Dragons, called Daenerys one of the series' three strongest characters and bemoaned her lack of inclusion in A Feast for Crows.

In the seventh season premiere episode "Dragonstone", Daniel D'Addario of Time said Daenerys and Tyrion Lannister's meeting "seem to elicit the most interest from the show itself".

[81][82] Andrew Lotz, a professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh, said that Daenerys should seize power as described in Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince.

[86][87][88] Most critics found the villainous turn, realized after Daenerys needlessly murdered thousands of innocents by burning down King's Landing, rushed and therefore unearned.

[94] Vox noted similarities between Targaryen's leadership in the later television seasons and communist revolutionary leaders Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong and Fidel Castro.

"[74] Dockterman felt that "there's an additional layer of latent sexism to be analyzed here too: Cersei and Daenerys are two power hungry women, literally evil queens in fairytale parlance" while "men like Theon and Jaime have been redeemed" and Jon looked "to be the obvious choice for a selfless king".

[91] Arguing that the writers expected the audience to ignore almost everything they knew about Daenerys to buy that she would torch thousands of innocents because she was lonely and betrayed, Noel Ransome of Vice News asked, "[N]ow we're meant to believe that the most reasonably lovable protagonist is now the show's most unreasonable villain?

"[96] Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone believes that Daenerys's descent into madness is a development that requires "at least another half of a regular-length GoT season to feel earned".

[89] While one reason commentators gave for the plot line change was not having any more source material from George R. R. Martin, as episodes since season 5 were written based on outlines of the unreleased The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring,[99][100] Vox's Andrew Prokop said that Daenerys "may well have been the series' ultimate villain all along" and that the show and George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels had foreshadowed this.

[86] James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly also pointed to signs that Daenerys was always destined to be a villain, such as her vision in the House of the Undying where she walked through the snow-covered Red Keep (later retconned to be white ash) falling into the throne room.

"[105] Emily St. James of Vox quoted writer Sady Doyle writing, "Women who expected Daenerys to become a benevolent feminist ruler, to break the wheel and end the cycle of oppression, were not stupid; they were following basic story logic."

St. James said that "many people have related to Dany deeply, seeing in her an avatar of feminine power they hadn't seen elsewhere in pop culture when the show debuted in 2011" and that HBO's marketing also made her feel like the chosen one.

She asked, given that the show always returned to Daenerys's fundamental principles after her vicious or vindictive actions, "Why wouldn't people come to heavily identify with that character?

[109] Clarke, along with the other main cast members, was nominated seven times for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.