Quote:
Originally Posted by aberkok
I've talked to another male friend about this part of the book. It is difficult to process. Mostly because our "liberated" male minds can't reconcile her rape by, then subsequent love for Drogo.
I don't feel the show was much different from the book. I remember some more talking between them, but at the end of the day, does the amount of her resignation really change the power balance? Whether she "allowed him" or didn't I feel it was still rape. If anything the show was more realistic (and more likely to have had more minds involved in the handling of it).
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Well, the whole progression of Dany's relationship with Drogo happens beyond that scene. If I recall, she doesn't appreciate his sexual aggressiveness in consequent acts, but I seem to remember than she herself came to enjoy it in some capacity.
The resignation isn't what changed the power balance. I'm not sure I'd call it a resignation. I saw it more as a shift in perspective. She didn't so much as think to
close her eyes and think of Westeros as realize that a part of a woman's politics in this world is through sexual unison. As a Khal, Drogo needs an heir, and by providing him with one, Dany establishes more influence and power than her brother could hope for in his exile. She could have resisted Drogo and essentially get raped, or she could just go with it. She could look at it as a resignation, or she could accept it willingly and work it to her advantage.
EDIT: From the book:
He stopped then [caressing her, and playing with her breasts], and drew her down onto his lap. Dany was flushed and breathless, her heart fluttering in her chest. He cupped her face in his huge hands and she looked into his eyes. "No?" he said, and she knew it was a question.
She took his hand and moved it down to the wetness between her thighs. "Yes," she whispered as she put his finger inside her.
Of course, this is my most elaborate interpretation. It's my view that Martin doesn't fare well with regard to writing women. He tends to write them as schemers, sluts, and/or outcasts (if they're ugly). They come to life on the page by descriptions of what they're wearing, whether they're fat or voluptuous, and the size of their tits. (In a way, much better written than Robert Jordan's "She crossed her arms beneath her breasts.")
But as with everything I read, I try to get some value and meaning out of it. The Ice and Fire series is driven by plot and action. Characterization, while more elaborate than in a lot of epic fantasy, tends to get sacrificed in the end.