Daenerys Targaryen, the daughter of King Aerys II Targaryen, is one of the last survivors of House Targaryen (a noble, silvery-blonde, fair-skinned family in the Game of Thrones universe). Because her father was ousted from the Iron Throne (the kings' seat) and murdered, she believes that it is her birthright to claim the throne as hers.
Daenerys in her old "simple" home in Essos.
So far, this probably sounds like it's just any other fictionalized version of like, historical Europe, right? Well, yeah. Because that's pretty much what it is, even if a lot of folks will point out that "it's just a story; it's not based on reality, this has nothing to do with history or modern time" (completely missing the point that fictional stories DO both intentionally and unintentionally reflect our opinions, biases and reflections on society, but whatever).
Okay, so what happens next is that Daenerys' brother brokers a marriage between her and a Dothraki warrior named Khal Drogo. Dothraki, in contrast to Targaryen, have brown skin and are introduced to us as nomadic warrior "savages". So poor noble lady Daenerys is not feeling too excited about the marriage.
This is when things start to get interesting. Daenerys' and Khal Drogo's wedding, Episode 1, Season 1:
Notice how Daenerys white skin looks almost luminescent standing next to the Dothraki people. Of course, she is also centered in the image, and there's a stroke of sun hitting her head. The point here, if you haven't watched the show, is basically to show the audience how terrible it is for Daenerys to be sold off to marry a member of this tribe. Scroll back up and take a look at her in her, uh, natural habitat. Essos is falling apart, which is why her brother is forced to marry her off, but look how... civilized they are there. How nice everything looks, with flowers and nice curtains and Roman columns.
To the left is Daenerys, sitting next to Khal Drogo. Daenerys is, to say the least, out of her element here (made extra obvious, of course, with her silver colored hair and clean, silver colored dress that stand in stark contrast to the how the rest of the people are dressed). Notice how much she sticks out, and how the rest of the people in the background merge together. The point here is not actually introduce you to the Dothraki people as people, but rather as faceless barbaric savages.
This is made clear to us through the way they introduce us to the Dothraki people:
One of the close-ups shown during the wedding scene is the two (dancing? copulating?) people above. In the next sequence, another man throws this man off the woman, and he continues where that man left off. It is clear that the woman is completely subordinate here and has absolutely no say; the men take what they want from her while she is silently submitting. The men are not only sexually predatory but very violent towards one another, too. It's pretty obvious that this is a way to emphasize just how shockingly barbaric they are.
So, if you didn't get it yet, here's another rape-dance sequence. Just in case you weren't convinced about how primitive and brutish these people are.
And in the mean time, this is what Daenerys is thinking about this.
"That's not right!"
Throughout the scene, all sorts of imagery is flooding the screen, all of which is introducing, in various shocking ways, how different and strange and scary Dothraki are. Everything about their culture - their food, their dancing, their music, their customs - it's all prestended in a way to shock the viewer, and make the viewer feel empathy for Daenerys. In order to maximize this effect, the shots of the "weird" ways of the Dothrakis are layered with close-ups of Daenerys looking afraid and disturbed.
Notice this effect in the layering of images of the wedding food, and Daenerys facial expression:
Talk about a great way of othering other people!
Ok, moving on. So, after spending some time with Khal Drogo and teaching all the savages about how to make love and how to treat women and a whole lot of other things (that I won't go into now), Daenerys leaves the Dothraki and go out on a journey to win back her throne. In order to do this, though, she needs an army.
Enter Season 3, episode 1: Daenerys sets off to Astapor, Slaver's Bay, to buy some (brown-skinned) slaves. Upon arrival, though, she is horrified by how they are treated (they're slaves; what was she expecting?!) With this newfound knowledge, Daenerys decides to take it upon herself to buy all 80,000 slaves owned by the master of Astapor to set them all free. Interestingly enough, right after declaring the slaves' freedom, she goes right ahead to ask if they want to freely join her army... which they do, because, of course. How convenient for Daenerys, who INTENTIONALLY travelled to Slaver's Bay to buy slaves because she needed an army.
Enter Season 3, episode 1: Daenerys sets off to Astapor, Slaver's Bay, to buy some (brown-skinned) slaves. Upon arrival, though, she is horrified by how they are treated (they're slaves; what was she expecting?!) With this newfound knowledge, Daenerys decides to take it upon herself to buy all 80,000 slaves owned by the master of Astapor to set them all free. Interestingly enough, right after declaring the slaves' freedom, she goes right ahead to ask if they want to freely join her army... which they do, because, of course. How convenient for Daenerys, who INTENTIONALLY travelled to Slaver's Bay to buy slaves because she needed an army.
"I'm a white noble lady and I get what I want! Duh!"
So, after the slaves decide to join her, Daenerys rides into a horde of slaves, Moses-separating-the-oceans-style. Notice again how much she sticks out. She's even sitting on a white horse! She's like a combination of all epic white saviors: Prince Charming on a white horse, Abraham Lincoln (of the white house), pretty much any imperialist on a mission to "free" black and brown people ever...
Okay, but it gets worse.
After getting her army of "free" slaves, Daenerys decides that, heck, she's good at this whole (white) savior thing -- why not free some more (poor brown) slaves? So that's exactly what she does in the finale of Season 3. Here she is:
And here are the slaves of Yunkai. Notice, again, how much Daenerys stands out with her blonde hair and fair skin -- a noble lady from the North has come to save them.
What happens next is the following: Daenerys holds a speech about how she can't free the slaves, they can only free themselves (whatever that is supposed to mean; she clearly freed the other slaves, but whatever), the slaves start shouting, with tears in their eyes, "MHYSA," which we learn means "mother" in their language. Daenerys then walks into the sea of brown bodies and goes crowdsurfing, all the while by being named "mother."
Okay, so this was the season finale of Season 3 of Game of Thrones.
It seems pretty obvious to me that Daenerys is suffering from a really bad case of White Savior Complex, and the show is pretty darn good at emphasizing just how lucky all the brown folks are to have this pretty white noble lady come in and save them, all the while she is actually on a mission to win back her throne back up North (because that is her real concern, after all). Sounds familiar? (hint: every imperialist country ever going into black and brown countries in the name of "freedom" or, alternatively, in the name of feeling good about yourself)
It seems pretty obvious to me that Daenerys is suffering from a really bad case of White Savior Complex, and the show is pretty darn good at emphasizing just how lucky all the brown folks are to have this pretty white noble lady come in and save them, all the while she is actually on a mission to win back her throne back up North (because that is her real concern, after all). Sounds familiar? (hint: every imperialist country ever going into black and brown countries in the name of "freedom" or, alternatively, in the name of feeling good about yourself)
Here are some other, non-fictional white saviors, for reference:
~ Paulina
