Oh dang I missed all kinds of discussion goodness.
I don't think it's a matter of, "Dany is a white woman, therefore nothing she ever does will be right even if she's being the best person she can possibly be given the setting she's in and what's true in their universe."
I get that in the setting she has every reason to look at the people she's trying to civilize and say, "Holy crap. This is barbaric." Her response is compassionate and courageous and demonstrates empathy for people different than she is, which is nice.
I think what is important to note, though, is that she's doing a very predictable thing for a white character to be doing. There are all kinds of perfectly sensible and credible in-setting reasons for the beacon of civilization to be a magical white woman, but the fact is that it's a common way to portray white people. It's a common thing to have a white person do in fiction, and even if every single time there's a sensible narrative justification for why in this world there is a white person faced with foreign barbarians in need of their message of civilization... the fact that it's a trend means that we may have stumbled across an assumption a lot of writers make about whiteness.
I know that racism manifests itself differently in different places, but George R. R. Martin is from a part of the world where for centuries white people considered themselves at the finishing end of a continuum of civilization, with dusky swarthy savages and barbarians at one end and good solid whiteness at the other. The fact that in real life white people have done so much damage and committed so many heinously barbarian crimes by galloping all over the world assuming that everybody else needs their culture replaced with the one white people had underlines rather than undermines how bullshitty this is.
I'm getting the vibe that you feel like the "beacon of civilization characters are white" trope is a coincidence and that nobody can say it's a problematic trend as long as every instance has a completely solid in-world justification. As long as those people really are savages and as long as it makes sense for the beacon of civilization character to be white, it doesn't matter if it happens over and over and over again. It doesn't matter if someone can hear about Dany's crusade against savagery and think, "I bet that character is white, and not just accidentally but pointedly white," because that is how predictable it is, as long as it makes sense in-world.
What bothers me is that people keep creating settings where in-world, scary darkie savages need a white person to show them what a good culture looks like.
no subject
I don't think it's a matter of, "Dany is a white woman, therefore nothing she ever does will be right even if she's being the best person she can possibly be given the setting she's in and what's true in their universe."
I get that in the setting she has every reason to look at the people she's trying to civilize and say, "Holy crap. This is barbaric." Her response is compassionate and courageous and demonstrates empathy for people different than she is, which is nice.
I think what is important to note, though, is that she's doing a very predictable thing for a white character to be doing. There are all kinds of perfectly sensible and credible in-setting reasons for the beacon of civilization to be a magical white woman, but the fact is that it's a common way to portray white people. It's a common thing to have a white person do in fiction, and even if every single time there's a sensible narrative justification for why in this world there is a white person faced with foreign barbarians in need of their message of civilization... the fact that it's a trend means that we may have stumbled across an assumption a lot of writers make about whiteness.
I know that racism manifests itself differently in different places, but George R. R. Martin is from a part of the world where for centuries white people considered themselves at the finishing end of a continuum of civilization, with dusky swarthy savages and barbarians at one end and good solid whiteness at the other. The fact that in real life white people have done so much damage and committed so many heinously barbarian crimes by galloping all over the world assuming that everybody else needs their culture replaced with the one white people had underlines rather than undermines how bullshitty this is.
I'm getting the vibe that you feel like the "beacon of civilization characters are white" trope is a coincidence and that nobody can say it's a problematic trend as long as every instance has a completely solid in-world justification. As long as those people really are savages and as long as it makes sense for the beacon of civilization character to be white, it doesn't matter if it happens over and over and over again. It doesn't matter if someone can hear about Dany's crusade against savagery and think, "I bet that character is white, and not just accidentally but pointedly white," because that is how predictable it is, as long as it makes sense in-world.
What bothers me is that people keep creating settings where in-world, scary darkie savages need a white person to show them what a good culture looks like.