Matching 50 Game of Thrones characters with each of the 50 states

Hawaii: Daenerys Targaryen

What do you think of when you see images of lava spewing out of actual volcanoes in Hawaii (seriously, check it out here)? For me, it’s hard to think of anything besides the fiery power of dragons, which makes the Aloha State the perfect match for Daenerys Targaryen.

Even Game of Thrones nubes know who Daenerys is. Her rise from the ashes of her crumbled House is iconic. Daenerys was raised in the Free Cities, far away from her birth home in Westeros. She spent most of her childhood expecting to return to the Seven Kingdoms one day when her older brother, Viserys, took back the throne.

Obviously, this is not how things went down. After having her brother killed, Daenerys began a meteoric rise to power. She is currently traipsing around Westeros with Jon Snow and intends to take the crown for herself in the near future.

Aside from the fiery lava, Daenerys really does have a lot in common with Hawaii. For one thing, she’s a natural islander. She was born on Dragonstone, the ancestral residence of the Targaryens. When she reclaims the island stronghold in season 7, it truly feels like a homecoming, even though she’d never actually set foot there.

Daenerys is similar to the Hawaiians in that she, too, was raised far away from the bulk of her nation. There’s a lot of water that separates Hawaii from the United States mainland, just as there’s a lot of space between King’s Landing and the Free Cities. Hawaii and Daenerys have both developed their own unique personalities, but they’re still part of a greater whole.