Who Counts as Daenerys Targaryen’s Best Friend
In discussions of who is Daenerys Targaryen best friend, viewers often point to a small circle of companions who offered sustained loyalty and shaped her arc across Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire. Unlike fleeting allies, these characters share a long history, mutual reliance, and emotional openness that align with how audiences understand close friendship. This relationship explainer examines the figures most consistently named as her dearest confidants, the narrative role of those bonds, and how trust evolved under escalating responsibilities and trauma.
Why the Question Itself Is Enduring
Daenerys commands armies and dragons, yet audiences repeatedly ask about her vulnerability and private attachments. Friendships frame her not only as a ruler but as a person who can give and receive loyalty, affection, and honest challenge. In a narrative built on shifting alliances, pinpointing her steadiest confidants helps explain her choices, red flags, and turning points. The search for a best friend reflects a deeper curiosity about who she could truly be, alone or beside someone she trusts.
Core Dynamics of Daenerys’s Closest Bonds
Key relationships that are called her best friendships share several durable markers across episodes and source material:
- Longitudinal presence: companions present across multiple seasons or books, surviving or witnessing pivotal moments.
- Reciprocal honesty: friends who challenge her openly, not merely flatter or obey.
- Emotional reliance: scenes where personal grief, fear, or joy are shared, not only political strategy.
- Shared risk: willingness to place themselves in danger for her and for one another.
- Evolution over time: bonds that adapt as her power grows and her vulnerabilities shift.
Narrative Weight Versus Screen Time
Close narrative focus does not automatically equal best-friend status; some characters appear frequently but function as advisors, lovers, or rivals. A best friend in this context is someone Daenerys treats as a chosen family member—someone whose presence she seeks in intimate moments and whose absence she feels acutely.
Ser Jorah Mormont: Advisor, Protector, and Longstanding Companion
Ser Jorah Mormont is the companion most often named when audiences ask about Daenerys best friend. Their relationship begins with espionage and obligation, yet it transforms into steadfast loyalty and candid counsel. Jorah’s willingness to deliver uncomfortable truths, combined with his readiness to sacrifice himself for her safety, creates a bond that feels deeply personal and strategically significant. Across both show and books, he occupies a unique space somewhere between sworn shield, adviser, and friend.
Milestones in the Jorah–Daenerys Relationship
| Event or Period | Verified Detail | Source Type |
|---|---|---|
| Daenerys’s exile in Pentos | Jorah returns as an informer, warns her of assassination | Show, Season 2 |
| Battle of Qarth | Jorah defends Daenerys from assassins; she expels him after betrayal but later forgives him | Show, Season 2–3; Book, A Dance with Dragons |
| Meereen | Jorah acts as a political adviser and combatant, balancing counsel and obedience | Show, Seasons 4–6; Book, A Dance with Dragons |
| End of series | Jorah survives and continues to serve, representing continuity in her life | Show, Season 8 |
| Post-series speculation | Relationship left ambiguous but framed as loyal companions | Show conclusion; companion dynamics in published books |
Nuances and Limits
Jorah’s status as a protector and adviser sometimes overshadows pure friendship, given his assigned mission and ongoing concern for her throne. Yet his repeated returns, expressions of care, and moments of candidness resonate with viewers as a form of chosen kinship. In analyzing any best-friend claim, it is useful to separate narrative function from emotional weight and to acknowledge that Daenerys herself defines closeness in different ways across her arc.
Other Companions Named as Potential Best Friends
While Jorah is most frequent, audiences and readers also highlight other figures who share deep bonds with Daenerys:
- Tyrion Lannister: intellectual rapport and political partnership, particularly in Meereen and beyond.
- Hizdahr zo Loraq: emotional openness and shared downtime in Meereen, though their relationship faces narrative disruption.
- Her dragons: unmistakably sources of comfort and identity, though framed more as family than friends in most analyses.
Each of these reflects a different dimension of her needs—strategic partnership, conversational equality, and intimate familiarity—making the idea of a single best friend more layered than it initially appears.
Comparative Snapshot
| Companion | Primary Bond Dimension | Consistency Across Continities | Public Perception of Friendship |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ser Jorah Mormont | Advisor + protector, candid loyalty | High continuity in show and books | Most frequently called best friend |
| Tyrion Lannister | Intellectual equals, political allies | Strong in show; more variable in books | Widely respected partnership |
| Hizdahr zo Loraq | Personal rapport, intimacy in Meereen | Abrupted in show; more sustained in books | Recognized but contested closeness |
| Dragons | Emotional sustenance, identity | Central from start to end | Seen as family rather than friends |
How Power, Trauma, and Culture Shape These Bonds
Daenerys’s friendships are inseparable from her power trajectory. Early in her journey, shared hardship fosters intense closeness, especially with those who also flee oppression. As she gains command, the asymmetry of her role complicates intimacy; advisors and protectors proliferate, while peers capable of honest challenge become scarce. Trauma—from the loss of allies, the violence of conquest, and the burden of leadership—pushes her toward those she trusts, but also toward isolation. Cultural context matters too: in Westerosi courts, alliances often masquerade as friendship, making it harder to distinguish strategic bonds from genuine connection.
Definitional Clarity: What Counts as a Best Friend in Narrative Worlds
For storytelling purposes, a best friend can be anyone a protagonist treats as a trusted equal, someone they turn to in crisis, and whose perspective they actively seek. This is distinct from: - Companionship based solely on shared goals. - Familial bonds by blood or marriage. - Subordinate loyalty rooted in duty or fear. Across long-form sagas like A Song of Ice and Fire, these lines blur, and relationships evolve. Best friendships may deepen, fracture, or quietly persist in a changed form, reflecting the characters’ growth and losses.
Verifying Claims in Fan Discourse and Canonical Sources
Claims about Daenerys’s best friend should be assessed against on-screen behavior, authorial statements, and consistent patterns rather than a single scene. Reliable indicators include repeated vulnerability, mutual advice in moments of uncertainty, and presence across major turning points. Where evidence is mixed, it is reasonable to acknowledge ambiguity rather than force a single answer. In both canon and fandom, the most durable friendships are those that survive shifts in power, ideology, and geography.
Conclusion: The Lasting Appeal of Asking About Daenerys’s Closest Friend
The question of Daenerys Targaryen best friend endures because it speaks to a central tension in her character: the hunger for genuine connection amid extraordinary power and risk. Whether viewers land on Jorah, Tyrion, Hizdahr, or see her dragons as her truest companions, the search reveals how friendship functions as a lens for understanding her strengths, blind spots, and humanity. An evergreen understanding of these bonds emphasizes sustained presence, reciprocal honesty, and emotional risk—qualities that continue to shape how audiences interpret her story long after the final season.