The people who live there, they're not your enemies. They're innocents, like the ones you liberated in Meereen!
Daenerys TargaryenIn Meereen, the slaves turned on the Masters and liberated the city themselves the moment I arrived.
They're afraid! Anyone who resists Cersei will see his family butchered! You can't expect them to be heroes. They're hostages.
Daenerys Targaryen
They are. In a tyrant's grip. Whose fault is that? Mine?
What does it matter whose fault it is?! Thousands of children will die if the city burns!
Daenerys Targaryen
Your sister knows how to use her enemies' weaknesses against them. That's what she thinks our mercy is. Weakness.
Daenerys Targaryen
But she's wrong. Mercy is our strength. Our mercy towards future generations, who will never again be held hostage by a tyrant. [to Grey Worm] Ready the Unsullied. Tonight you sail for King's Landing to join the Northern armies.
Cersei's followers will abandon her, if they know the war is lost. Give them that chance. If the city surrenders, they will ring the bells and raise the gates. Please, if you hear them ringing the bells, call off the attack.
[after a pause, Dany nods to Grey Worm]
Daenerys Targaryen
Wait for me outside the city. You'll know when it's time.
[Grey Worm nods and leaves. After a pause, Tyrion bows and starts to leave]
Daenerys Targaryen
Your brother was stopped, trying to get through our lines. [Tyrion turns around] It seems he hasn't abandoned your sister, after all. The next time you fail me... will be the last time you fail me.
[Daenerys addresses her army before the ruins of the Red Keep]
Daenerys Targaryen
[in Dothraki] Blood of my blood! You kept all your promises to me. You killed my enemies in their iron suits. You tore down their stone houses. You gave me the Seven Kingdoms! [the Dothraki cheer and Drogon roars. Daenerys turns to Grey Worm, addressing him in High Valyrian] You have walked beside me since the Plaza of Pride. You are the bravest of men, the most loyal of soldiers. I name you commander of all my forces, the Queen's Master of War! [the Unsullied stamp their spears in approval, while Grey Worm nods in gratitude] Unsullied. All of you were torn from your mothers' arms and made into slaves. Now...you are liberators! You have freed the people of King's Landing from the grip of a tyrant! But the war is not over. We will not lay down our spears until we have liberated all the people of the world! From Winterfell to Dorne, from Lannisport to Qarth, from the Summer Isles to the Jade Sea! Men, women and children have suffered too long beneath the wheel. Will you break the wheel with me?! [her armies cheer in affirmation. As she watches, Tyrion steps forward to stand beside her. She doesn't look at him] You freed your brother. You committed treason.
[disgusted] I freed my brother. And you slaughtered a city. [Tyrion tears off his Hand of the Queen brooch and throws it away]
[Daenerys inspects the Iron Throne as Jon enters the throne room behind her]
Daenerys Targaryen
When I was a girl, my brother told me it was made from a thousand swords from Aegon's fallen enemies. What do a thousand swords look like in the mind of a little girl who can't count to twenty? I imagined a mountain of swords too high to climb. So many fallen enemies you could only see the soles of Aegon's feet.
I saw them executing Lannister prisoners in the street. They said they were acting on your orders.
Daenerys Targaryen
It was necessary.
Necessary?! Have you been down there?! Have you seen?! Children, little children burned!
Daenerys Targaryen
I tried to make peace with Cersei. She used their innocence as a weapon against me. She thought it would cripple me.
Daenerys Targaryen
He conspired behind my back with my enemies. How have you treated people who did the same to you, even when it broke your heart?
[close to tears] Forgive him.
Daenerys Targaryen
I can't.
You can. You can forgive all of them, make them see they made a mistake. Make them understand. Please, Dany.
Daenerys Targaryen
We can't hide behind small mercies. The world we need won't be built by men loyal to the world we have.
The world we need is a world of mercy, it has to be!
Daenerys Targaryen
And it will be! It's not easy to see something that's never been before...a good world.
How do you know? How do you know it will be good?
Daenerys Targaryen
Because I know what is good. And so do you.
Daenerys Targaryen
You do! You do, you've always known.
What about everyone else? All the other people who think they know what's good?
Daenerys Targaryen
They don't get to choose. Be with me. Build the new world with me! This is our reason! It has been from the beginning, since you were a little boy with a bastard's name and I was a little girl who couldn't count to twenty. We do it together. We break the wheel...together.
You are my Queen. Now and always.
[They kiss, then Jon stabs Daenerys]
Game of Thrones · 356 quotes
