10. SHE HAD TROUBLE RULING MEEREEN
Meereen isn’t a small city, but it’s nowhere near the size of the seven kingdoms, and still Daenerys found its internal politics too difficult to control. She liberated the slaves, and in doing so she set the entire culture of Meereen spinning out of control. She didn’t think through the consequences of her actions, which could have disastrous consequences in the politically complex world of Westeros.
Meereen is designed as a test run for Daenerys. It’s a place where she can try out her skills as a ruler, and work out the bugs. That test run goes terribly.
Instead of proving what a competent ruler Daenerys can be, it showcases all of her flaws as a leader, and reveals how quickly she can destabilize the land she rules over. Granted, Meereen and Westeros are very different places, but you could reasonably lose faith in her ability to rule well after seeing what she did with Meereen. Even Tyrion couldn’t save it.
9. HER PRINCIPLED LEADERSHIP MAY BE A PROBLEM
Daenerys is a principled person, which is a good thing, most of the time. Unfortunately, Dany tends to get herself in trouble because she is so unwilling to compromise with others, especially when they take more ethically dubious positions than her own. This unwillingness to compromise may seem admirable, but it’s what ultimately puts her in thorny positions a large part of the time.
Of course, Dany’s principled beliefs come from a truly good place. She wants to make the places she rules over better for those who live there, but her decisions have unintended consequences that she never considers. With someone like Tyrion by her side, she may be able to avoid such bad decisions, but Dany’s principles seem a little too much like those that Ned and Robb Stark once held; ones that ultimately led to their demise.
Game of Thrones loves to cut down characters who are trying to do the right thing, and Dany could be the last victim of that trend.
8. JON MAY HAVE A MORE LEGITIMATE CLAIM TO THE THRONE
Westeros is a patriarchal society above all else, and that may be bad news for Daenerys, whether or not she decides to marry Jon. As we learned at the end of last season, Jon isn’t actually Ned’s bastard son, but is instead the child of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Mormont.
It’s unclear whether or not Jon was born out of wedlock. If he wasn’t, he most definitely has a stronger claim to the throne that Dany, because he’s a man, and a son of Aerys’s heir. Even if he was born a bastard, he may still have a better shot at taking the throne than his aunt Dany does.
There are several implications throughout the books and the show that bastards can be legitimized for the purposes of ruling. One such idea comes after King Robert dies, when many correctly believe that Joffrey isn’t a legitimate heir, and decide one of his bastards should be baptized instead. This has led many fans to suggest that Jon could be legitimized, even if Daenerys has the more rightful claim.
7. SHE’LL BE SEEN AS A CONQUEROR
Daenerys sees Westeros as hers to claim. When she looks at the seven kingdoms, she sees land waiting to be ruled by its rightful heir. The people of Westeros haven’t been waiting for her, though, and many of them are unaware that she exists. This means that, when she does return to conquer Westeros, she will be coming to the land the way her ancestor once did; as a foreign conqueror.
While it’s true that Aegon ultimately did manage to unite the Seven Kingdoms, but he did so with the kind of brutality that Dany may not wish to repeat. Although she can be cruel, she may want to be warmly received by the citizens of her kingdom, which is an expectation that may not be based in reality.
If Dany wants to take back what she believes is hers, she’ll have to do it by force – which isn’t going to make her very popular, especially when innocent people die.
6. THE THREE-HEADS-OF-THE-DRAGON PROPHECY
This may not be touched on very heavily in the world of the show, but George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series lays out a prophecy that “the dragon has three heads.” While it’s never been confirmed, many have suggested that this theory means that no one person will be able to successfully rule over Westeros on their own. Instead, it will require three of the central figures (in both the show and the books) to get the job done.
Most configurations of these three dragon heads feature Daenerys prominently, but all of them suggest that she’ll be unable to rule the Seven Kingdoms on her own.
While it’s true that she and her dragons will be instrumental pieces of the puzzle at the end of this story, the three-headed-dragon theory suggests that no character, not even Dany, will be strong enough to rule over Westeros on their own. Perhaps that’s for the best, considering what happened under the last king.