It is interesting to me the different ways the Dothraki and portrayed and the whiplash you get from watching them. One second you love them (like when they protect Daenerys from Viserys) and other times you are unsure or afraid of them (like when they make Daenerys eat the horse heart). They are both portrayed as harsh, violent, and heartless while at the same time being a group that you root for as a whole. I think this is because as an audience we resent Viserys and when Viserys refers to the Dothraki as easy to manipulate, or stupid and animalistic we want to root for the Dothraki as the underestimated underdog. I think we also appreciate the devotion the majority of the Dothraki have to Daenerys as their Khaleesi and we are able to see past the flaws of the Dothraki. In watching these episodes I was able to see a lot of the Orientalism we have been reading and discussing and the idea that the Dothraki is this “other” population of brutish foreigners to those in Westeros. You can see this in the way the rulers of Westeros underestimate the threat of Daenerys and the Dothraki, seeing them as a short term nuisance.
I agree that it is hard to decide whether to love or hate the Dothraki! I found it interesting that the Dothraki were not considered a threat to Westeros until Daenerys became their leader because they refused to cross water that their horses wouldn't drink. This reflects Orientalist ideas because now that a Westerner is leading the unintelligent and brutish Easterners they are seen as a threat.
I think that the way the show paints the Dothraki as a morally ambiguous people is especially interesting. Many times we see that Orientalism will highlight the exoticism that's fun and interesting but will underscore the barbarism and otherness. In Game of Thrones, though, they are at times extremely human and sympathetic, but there are other times where I cringe at the amount of brutality they're willing to inflict. We get a full but conflicting image of the Dothraki, which makes for a more interesting and realistic story.
really nicely put, and I think really captures the complexities of what Said would call the hegemony of orientalist thought! It lends itself to a complex, shifting ambiguity
The tension you highlight in the portrayals of the Dothraki is really interesting, and you explain how it's constructed very well here. Connecting it to Orientalism, what really strikes me here is just how worryingly appealing orientalist narratives can be. Orientalist narratives are in many ways so culturally embedded that we've learned to enjoy them, especially when they fit into tropes we like (like the underdog narrative you mention).