#;; drogo returning to her is giving MOTHER

[kaerinio]

at some point, i will write a thing about how dany embodies the triple goddess, how her various journeys and battles exist through this framework, how her external acceptance as the mother is so deeply tied to the divine archetype of the mother goddess (esp in terms of life, stability, power), and how this open embodiment of all three is recognized not only by dany, but others, as well. also . . . dany as maiden, mother, and crone speaking to followers of the seven is a thing that i need to explore. 👀

[agentrouka-blog]

It seems like Dany in book is still having hard time believing that her father was a Mad King who was hated in Westros. When Selmy tried to mention it she stopped him because she didn't like where it was going despite she asked him about it.

That entire scene is so...

(Cut for long quote)

Dany is reading a book of fairytales that she acknowledges are not proper history. (Symbolismmmmm.) But she keeps getting distracted by doubts about herself.

She played at being a queen, yet sometimes she still felt like a scared little girl. Viserys always said what a dolt I was. Was he truly mad? She closed the book. She could still recall Ser Jorah, if she wished. Or send Daario to kill him. Dany fled from the choice, out onto the terrace. She found Rhaegal asleep beside the pool, a green and bronze coil basking in the sun. Drogon was perched up atop the pyramid, in the place where the huge bronze harpy had stood before she had commanded it to be pulled down. He spread his wings and roared when he spied her. There was no sign of Viserion, but when she went to the parapet and scanned the horizon she saw pale wings in the far distance, sweeping above the river. He is hunting. They grow bolder every day. Yet it still made her anxious when they flew too far away. One day one of them may not return, she thought. “Your Grace?” She turned to find Ser Barristan behind her. “What more would you have of me, ser? I spared you, I took you into my service, now give me some peace.” “Forgive me, Your Grace. It was only … now that you know who I am …” The old man hesitated. “A knight of the Kingsguard is in the king’s presence day and night. For that reason, our vows require us to protect his secrets as we would his life. But your father’s secrets by rights belong to you now, along with his throne, and … I thought perhaps you might have questions for me.” Questions? She had a hundred questions, a thousand, ten thousand. Why couldn’t she think of one? “Was my father truly mad?” she blurted out. Why do I ask that? “Viserys said this talk of madness was a ploy of the Usurper’s …” “Viserys was a child, and the queen sheltered him as much as she could. Your father always had a little madness in him, I now believe. Yet he was charming and generous as well, so his lapses were forgiven. His reign began with such promise … but as the years passed, the lapses grew more frequent, until …” Dany stopped him. “Do I want to hear this now?” Ser Barristan considered a moment. “Perhaps not. Not now.” “Not now,” she agreed. “One day. One day you must tell me all. The good and the bad. There is some good to be said of my father, surely?” “There is, Your Grace. Of him, and those who came before him. Your grandfather Jaehaerys and his brother, their father Aegon, your mother … and Rhaegar. Him most of all.” “I wish I could have known him.” Her voice was wistful. “I wish he could have known you,” the old knight said. “When you are ready, I will tell you all.” Dany kissed him on the cheek and sent him on his way. That night her handmaids brought her lamb, with a salad of raisins and carrots soaked in wine, and a hot flaky bread dripping with honey. She could eat none of it. Did Rhaegar ever grow so weary? she wondered. Did Aegon, after his conquest? Later, when the time came for sleep, Dany took Irri into bed with her, for the first time since the ship. But even as she shuddered in release and wound her fingers through her handmaid’s thick black hair, she pretended it was Drogo holding her … only somehow his face kept turning into Daario’s. If I want Daario I need only say so. She lay with Irri’s legs entangled in her own. His eyes looked almost purple today … (ASOS, Daenerys VI)

The whole scene is so utterly rife with Red Flags.

Dany has just commited a(nother) massacre, made herself Supreme Leader Until I Move On and banished Jorah for his past spying. She (correctly) surmises that she is overwhelmed and questions her suitability for the job of ruling. She questions her family's sanity.

She wants to avoid what those questions imply. Out on the terrace, she sees Drogon doing his best Replacement Harpy impression (symbolismmmmm) while another one is off hunting boldly (surely nothing bad can come of that behavior in the near future...) and...

A glimpse of hope! A dude with unique personal information about her family appears and offers to share it! Perhaps that uncomfortable feeling can return into focus and be addressed?

Nah.

AND THEN the guy goes "You know what? You're totally right. This isn't really relevant or urgent. Nothing about your family history is alarming enough to question your path in general. Your brother was AWESOME btw."

Barristan, even if he had told her things, would never have helped her come to uncomfortable conclusions because he is the worst kind of hypocritical sycophant for a) any monarch he happens to be serving at the time, and b) House Targaryen in particular. The conversation they are putting off... would not have been useful anyway.

So a placated Dany returns the focus on herself and her feelings, but validated, and her next move is to turn the "this must never happen again" incident with her "not a sex slave" Irri into "actually, time to honorable serve your khaleesi like a sex toy while she fantasizes about other people". People who remind her of her family and their Valyrian looks.

She is burrowing into her Targaryen identity in ways she hadn't even done before, taking liberties with her power that she had shied away from before. Her yelp review will be underwhelming. "Her kisses tasted of duty". Because that's what it was. Dany doesn't care.

She ends up making a choice the next morning.

“My city,” said Dany. “I was looking for a house with a red door, but by night all the doors are black.”

And it is a reasonable choice on the surface, that finally has her standing fast to accept a sense of responsibility for the outcomes of her actions here.

But already we see how the missing context of Westerosi history is distorting her understanding, and Barristan bolstered this. Because she creates a difference where there isn't one.

“Aegon the Conqueror brought fire and blood to Westeros, but afterward he gave them peace, prosperity, and justice. But all I have brought to Slaver’s Bay is death and ruin. I have been more khal than queen, smashing and plundering, then moving on.” “There is nothing to stay for,” said Brown Ben Plumm. “Your Grace, the slavers brought their doom on themselves,” said Daario Naharis. “You have brought freedom as well,” Missandei pointed out. “Freedom to starve?” asked Dany sharply. “Freedom to die? Am I a dragon, or a harpy?” Am I mad? Do I have the taint? “A dragon,” Ser Barristan said with certainty. “Meereen is not Westeros, Your Grace.” “But how can I rule seven kingdoms if I cannot rule a single city?” He had no answer to that. Dany turned away from them, to gaze out over the city once again. “My children need time to heal and learn. My dragons need time to grow and test their wings. And I need the same. I will not let this city go the way of Astapor. I will not let the harpy of Yunkai chain up those I’ve freed all over again.” She turned back to look at their faces. “I will not march.” “What will you do then, Khaleesi?” asked Rakharo. “Stay,” she said. “Rule. And be a queen.”

Dany sees a difference between dragon and harpy that the earlier image of Drogon in the harpy's place already shows us is a false dichotomy. She imagines prosperity and peace in the aftermath of Aegon's invasion where he created no such thing. She is concerned with her sanity and suitability to rule, so she will stay temporarily to test herself on this city of human beings.

The human children must heal and learn. Her dragons need to grow and fly.

Dany needs the same, she says. The same as her dragons, not the same as her children. There will be little healing and learning. But we will see her fly off on Drogon, ecstatic, while the people of her city burn below.

It was never going to end any other way, because "if I look back I am lost" is her curse. She is not interested in the facts, because they hinder her fantasy of the red door. But she will also never get facts because there is no one who would give them to her.

She prefers a book of fairytales over a proper history and she will begin to forget there's a difference.

[daenerystargaryen06]

This is late 'cause I've been very busy and sick- but let's get into it.

I've seen so many comments like this one on Tik Tok, really terrible platform for comments like these to pop up since everyone likes spreading their hate for Dany on Daenerys edits/videos, especially on other comments that show support for Daenerys and uplift her. But this one in particular genuinely baffles me no, I won't blur the name out; this dude commented this on a public forum for everyone to see. Just don't send him hate or anything... even if this part of the fandom isn't as crazy as all the others.

'Drogon isn't as crazy as his slave master Dany'. Let's break this down, shall we? First point- Dany isn't a slave master, ESPECIALLY to Drogon. Dany was a bridal sex slave herself, in the show at the age of 16/17, in the books at the age of 13. She knows what it's like to be a slave, she was one herself, and due to her enslavement and the horrors she saw when wed to Drogo (his own people's violence against not only her but also the Lhazareen)- Daenerys wants equality for everyone. She breaks the chains from those enslaved in Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen. She works to free these people from their sufferings and plight and give them agency to achieve freedom for themselves and no longer live under the cruelty of the Masters. In the show, she sets up a council of freedmen to govern themselves to rule the cities, and she ensures the Masters no longer remained a threat to her people before she left to Westeros. In the Books, she is currently struggling against the Masters and is facing many struggles, but she is still striving to ensure her people remain free and safe from the Masters without worry of cruelty and fear under the Masters for their own profit.

"There speaks one who has been neither." Dany's nostrils flared. "Do you know what it is like to be sold, squire? I do. My brother sold me to Khal Drogo for the promise of a golden crown. Well, Drogo crowned him in gold, though not as he had wished, and I . . . my sun-and-stars made a queen of me, but if he had been a different man, it might have been much otherwise. Do you think I have forgotten how it felt to be afraid?" -A Storm of Swords - Daenerys II

"He was too eloquent for her. Dany had no answer for him, only the raw feeling in her belly. "Slavery is not the same as rain," she insisted. "I have been rained on and I have been sold. It is not the same. No man wants to be owned." -A Dance with Dragons - Daenerys III

Even worse is that this comment refers to Dany as being DROGON's slave master. Drogon has never been considered a slave to Dany. He is her child, her son. Her dragons are her children. Dany has never regarded them as slaves, nor will she ever regard to them as such. Rhaegal and Viserion were chained because Drogon killed a child, and Dany feared her dragons would grow unruly and begin to kill more of her people, yet she also regrets this decision. She cries when she does this in the show. She reflects upon it and regrets it in the books. She will always care for and love her dragons, who she loves alike to a mother. She regards to them as her children and would never willingly harm them.

In the show and books, Dany struggles with Drogon making his own decisions. But she does not try to enforce him under her will like a Master would a slave. She wants him to listen, yes, but every mother wants their child to listen and behave. In the show, she never harms Drogon or forces him to submit, he WILLINGLY listens to her once she gains back her identity after burning the Khals in Vaes Dothrak and going against the Masters when she returns to Meereen. If he didn't wish to listen, he wouldn't have to, as he possesses a mind and will of his own which was already shown in seasons 4-5. In the books, she has to whip Drogon into submission, but it was not to enslave Drogon- it was to SAVE him and her people from death in the Fighting Pit when he comes and almost loses his life while burning the people around him. If not for her, Drogon would have died, and he attacks back at her as well within the Pit before he submits to her and allows her to ride upon him away from the violence that was occurring.

Calling Dany Drogon's slave master is alike to calling every other Targ before her slave masters to their dragons, when we know that isn't true, and Dany's connection to her dragons is actually very much different and runs deeper than that of her ancestors with their own dragons.

Now, on the topic of 'craziness', Dany is far from it. In the show, she only became 'crazy' in the very last few episodes of the last season, when the writers ruined her character all for their excuse to have Jon kill her since they couldn't even think up a better ending. Before that, are we just going to ignore the fact that Dany actually went against what her father had done, did things for the good of others and cared for those considered 'lesser', and saved basically all of Westeros when she allied with Jon and it was the majority of HER armies and dragons that fought against the WW and NK? She only went 'crazy' when the writers wanted her to, and even that I don't consider canon, due to the fact she was painted as a HERO before they assassinated her entire character and made her go off the deep end and even that I don't view as just 'crazy'.

In the books, she fears becoming like her father, she is compared most to Rhaegar (a character many in the books view as sane and heroic), and she reflects most upon her actions and questions her decisions made. She is a grey character at most, and even still, she is the one character that does the most good and selfless acts in the books compared to everyone else. She wants what is best for her people, she wants to make them happy and give them good lives, and she wants to be a good Queen who isn't just feared or violent to achieve what she wants. She forgoes Westeros to keep in Meereen for her people's safety. She works the hardest to attempt for peace with the Masters without bloodshed or acts of cruelty and she is compassionate, intelligent, and an empathetic woman. She sees suffering and instead of accepting it like everyone else in that world has, she works AGAINST it to save those who do suffer due to her own experiences of suffering and pain. She is, in all, a hero who wants to do good. That doesn't seem very 'crazy' or 'slave master' to me.

Someone should really pick up the books, but I fear that their reading comprehension would be just as bad as their comments on Tik Tok.

[rise-my-angel]

Heres the rub: Mirri Maz Duuri is not responsible for what happened to Drogo or Rhaego. She was very clear that Drogo was going to die from his wounds. She gave specific instructions which Drogo didn't listen to, and the result is naturally his wound getting infected passed the point of curing. Drogo was already going to die, so nothing that happens to him is Mirris fault.

Rhaego though, I contest the idea that Mirri did anything to him to intentionally and maliciously kill a child. Clearly Mirri understood that Rhaego would be the price for Drogo, but first, that is Danys fault for asking absolutely no more questions on the matter once Mirri clarified it would not be Danys life as the price. As soon as she learned she was not to die, she clearly considered any other life not worthy of question. Mirri distinctly warns her multiple times of the danger and price of the blood magic she is demanding Mirri perform, but does not ask her to clarify what any of those warnings mean beyond her own life.

But here's the thing, when Mirri tells Dany what Rhaego looked like when he was born, this is not the first time a Targaryean woman has given birth to a highly deformed stillborn. Rhaenyra was said to have given birth to an equally as deformed child, and while some of this can be chalked up as exaggerations, history also tells us that real life babies born from massive degrees of inbreeding were born with highly unusual deformities.

Rhaego might have been alive inside Dany but that does not mean that he would've gone on to be a viable live birth, or even really go on to survive infancy.

So if the dying Drogos life is traded for the barley alive Rhaego, it explains why neither life really made it. The situations would have ended up the same if Dany never ordered Mirri to perform the spell. Drogo would die from injuries and Dany would've go on to birth a highly deformed, barley alive Rhaego who likely wouldn't have survived due to the extreme nature of his birth defects.

Targaryean women have a very concerning track record of fertility issues. Danys own mother suffered 8 miscarriages and stillbirths before having a living child and then died giving birth to her next. Fertility and stillbirth is a rampant issue amongst these women due to the abhorrent effects of generational inbreeding.

Drogo was always going to die from his injuries, and Rhaego was never going to survive being born from a mother with such damaged genetics.

But because Dany ordered her to do this, she can claim it was Mirri who caused this.

"When your womb quickens again and you bear a living child. Then he will return, and not before."

Isn't some prophetic vision or warning or confession. Its Mirri telling Dany that Drogo will never be as he once was, because it is as possible as Dany giving birth to a living child. It's her saying that Mirri cannot promise he will come back because she cannot promise the impossible.

Even if Mirri did all of this on purpose, which we do not know because Dany burns her alive before finding out with any true certainty, it doesn't matter.

Drogo and Rhaego were never going to survive anyways. But Mirri gets blamed, because we are fooled into thinking Danys pov is her being a reliable narrator, and she tells us Mirri is to blame and then burns her alive before the audience has a chance to question that position.

Mirri isn't a child murderer. The effects of rampant incestual inbreedings on hereditary genetics is Rhaegos killer.

[blade-liger-4ever]

I can hardly believe I just did this, but...

Here's my take for Rhaego Targaryen, the Stallion Who Mounts the World, plus small ideas for a minor AU of sorts.

Warning, I'm putting a cut here because Tumblr is stupid and won't let me order the pictures side by side in the proper order.

So for this take - which is personally how I'd like to see an AU of Game of Thrones, give or take some details that are or aren't changed - I like to imagine that both Drogo and Rhaego lived, with Daenerys and Drogo teaming up to retake the Iron Throne, Daenerys acting as the great strategist/political powerhouse (while being backed by her three dragons, who keep their names and most of their personalities), while Drogo leads the troops and trains all the men Daenerys brings him through her alliances. I'd probably let it be done so that Daenerys, maybe through a dealing with the witch that, obviously, doesn't involve her husband and son's deaths, does leave her unable to bear more children. Regardless of whether or not that's a factor at all in this AU, Rhaego has no more biological siblings, but quickly grows to view Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion as his brothers, while the dragons in turn also view him as their youngest brother and protect him as fiercely as their mother and father (Drogo being their father - oldest boy is named for him, after all.)

Robb would also live, and I'd like to, personally, introduce a tribe of white tiger shape-shifters from "The Land of Always Winter". I'm....honestly wanting him to marry the tribe's princess, who can really kick butt, too. The reason for this is that I feel the Night King's home for the last few centuries is underdeveloped, and I feel Robb should marry someone with experience in warfare - that, and I really like white tigers. Additionally, I'd probably have White Tiger Princess sent to find the Starks and reveal to them their ties to House Targaryen, and organize an alliance with House Stark as they battle the frozen zombies (by the way, this revelation is achieved by prophetesses from their land, and all members of the tribe learn to fight and care for each other because of the constant threat of the Night King.)

So....hrm, let me think. I guess it otherwise goes according to canon, but they manage to fix enough things that when Daenerys and Drogo - who have practically reclaimed most of the Seven Kingdoms, I suppose - meet them and learn of their family ties, Robb and Jon come to an agreement with them: Daenerys will rule the Seven Kingdoms, with Jon acting as her Hand and ruling most of the North. House Stark is still intact, though Ned, Catelyn, and Rickon are still dead, and Robb marries the White Tiger Princess and unites the two lands through their marriage. Additionally, the white tiger tribe (which I'm terribly sorry I forgot to mention earlier) has access to ice dragons, allowing for the regrowth of the dragon presence in Westeros through crossbreeding the species, and giving Jon his own dragon so that he can embrace his Targaryen heritage.

Other bullet points that I want to leave here:

Rhaego rides Viserion, who is the only unclaimed of the three dragons (I feel Drogo should ride Rhaegal, who in this story, grows to be nearly as big as Drogon.) Viserion is also the fastest, earning him the nickname "The Pale Wind".

Grey Wind lives, and gets to remain by his master's side all through to the war's end.

Nymeria reunites with Arya, who perhaps returns to the North or chooses another future for herself.

The Hound lives, always accompanying Arya, regardless of her life choice.

Jaime lives, actually gets to redeem himself, and maybe marries or otherwise has a relationship with Brienne.

Cersei gets to die, hopefully horribly (I hate her, okay?)

Sansa...TBD, either by myself or anyone else who reads this and enjoys it.

Jorah lives, acting as Rhaego's guardian and teacher as he grows.

Jon marries either Ygritte or some other woman; I personally prefer Daenerys x Drogo.

And lastly, we would probably get an epilogue of sorts where we see a young adult Rhaego, having inherited his family legacy and trained Dothraki dragonriders, embarking on a conquest of Valyria, which I'd use as a Sequel Hook for a future series.

And that's it. If you like this, thank you for reading it. If you didn't, just skip this post; it's merely a way for me to kick out the ideas that have been rattling around in my brain for Heaven knows how long.

Also, if anyone wants to make a story out of this, you have my blessing to do so. I only ask you credit me for the source of the concepts and original inventions for this. I'm not a fan of Game of Thrones, nor have I really watched it - I just looked up the characters, found I liked them, and thought "what if?"

Have fun people, and take care.

[lolitastories]

BLACK AND BLOOD

Y/N L/N is the daughter of the Great Khal Drogo although she was raised by the king of the unknown lands. After finding out he died she travels and finds the one who caused his death. Along this adventure she meets the mother of dragons. Jon Snow. Night walkers. We will see if she really has the Dothraki blood flowing through her veins.

Chapter 1:

“Do you trust her this much?” My eyes are still on Daenery. Eyeing every expression on her face. Evey movement and twitch she may do. Of course I don’t trust her much. She was the reason Khal was dead. The only reason my people and I are here is because I am fulfilling his last command, to place the little queen on her throne. I could have taken the Dothaki back home and I could have gone to Omnis, the unknown lands. “We are fighting for her but what do we get in return?” My older sister kept talking as my older brother scolded her to shut up. I wanted to get up and storm off. She was right in one thing. We are fighting for her. But what we get in return is accomplishment. No Dothraki has traveled across the narrow sea. No girl has led Dothrakis before I took over. Back home we had trouble with rogue Dothrakis wanting to take over our lands. My brother was supposed to take over and join our people but that wasn’t enough when they rebelled again. My father, the king of Omnis, told us to back off. After Khal died the Rogues took over planning to overthrow us but I didn’t let that happen. The loyal followers of Drogo helped me take over and in the process save Daenerys. Now we follow her but haven’t pledged allegiance to her.

“If you want to travel back I will have no say in it sister. I know we are in risky lands, fighting a war that has nothing to do with us but Drogo made a promised and as his kids we will make that promise a reality”

“He abandoned us as kids. Why should we owe him any type of loyalty? Just because he showed interest in us 2 years before his death?” My brother wasn’t the one to forget or forgive. In my heart I know what he is feeling but he also would be lying if those two years weren’t enough for him to build a relationship with Khal.

“I extend the same propisiation to you brother, you may leave at any point you wish to. I will not stop you” His eyes moved from my position to the crowd. When I decided to join the mother of dragons in this journey I gave them the option to stay. In reality I would have felt much better if one of them stayed behind. To protect our lands.The room falls silent as the throne room opens. Daenerys is sitting on the throne. Walking in, Tyrion and Missadei make their way to stand beside Daenerys. The 2 men being escorted by my people stop walking. They look around with caution, wise of them to do so. One man has dark curly hair. Dark eyes that give all his emotions aways, yet his cold face is stone. The other one stands beside him. He was an older man, a certain authority is present.

“You stand in the presence of Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, rightful heir to the Iron Throne, rightful Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Seven Kingdoms, the Mother of Dragons, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, The Unburnt, The Breaker of Chains” I couldn’t help but smirk. I feel the tension to my sides but I ignore the two.

“Khaleesi'' My sister scoffts. “She didn’t earn the name just for being Khal's wife for some time” Joia had strong ideas. My people consider her Khaleesi in honor of Khal, which I respect. I will not fight for a position that has no power over mine.

“Why can’t you be more like Grisill, he seems to take a very much interest in our Khaleesi '' I turn to my brother who only shruggs keeping his eyes on the two strangers. They look at eachother unsure on what to say.

“This is Jon Snow” The older man introduces himself. “He’s King in the North” Jon, King in the North. Heard about him on the way to Dragonstone. I thought he would be less stupid then to come all the way from his ice to some cliffs.

“Thank you for traveling so far, My Lords. I hope the seas weren't too rough.” My eyes move to the floor. They always did in situations like these. My father never bothered to correct it as I have spent all my years telling him I would never be part of his console. My sister would marry off to some guy and move away. My brother was destined to take Khals place and I would travel the lands until I got bored and the youngest one, the one child of his, would succeed him.

“The winds were kind, Your Grace.” His voice was low and rough. Maybe the change of weather didn’t help?

“Apologies. I have a Flea Bottom accent, I know. But Jon Snow is King in the North, Your Grace. He's not a lord.” I couldn’t help but smirk. We didn’t have titles such as lords, knights, or commanders. We had ranks of power but called eachother by name, unless referring to the high family.

“Forgive me?”

“Your Grace, this is Ser Davos Seaworth” Tyrion spoke. Seaworth. Davos Seaworth. What a funny name.

“Forgive me, Ser Davos. I never did receive a formal education, but I could have sworn the last King in the North was Torren Stark who bent the knee to my ancestor Aegon Targaryen in exchange for his life and the lives of the northmen. Torren Stark swore fealty to House Targaryen in perpetuity. But do I have my facts wrong?”

“I wasn't there, Your Grace.” Davos responds by moving ahead a little.

“No. Of course not. But still, an oath is an oath. In perpetuity means -- what does perpetuity mean, Lord Tyrion?”

“Forever.”

“Forever. So I assume, My Lord, that you're here to bend the knee.” Such a strong way to get people to follow.

“I am not.” Such a strong way to answer a woman who has three dragons. He doesn’t seem ubothered by Daenerys' smile fading away.

“Oh. Well, that is unfortunate. You've travelled all this way to break faith with House Targaryen?”

“Break faith? Your father burned my grandfather alive. He burned my uncle alive. He would have burned the Seven Kingdoms.”

“My father was an evil man. On behalf of House Targaryen I ask your forgiveness for the crimes he committed against your family. And I ask you not to judge a daughter by the sins of her father. Our two houses were allies for centuries. Those were the best centuries the kingdom's ever known. Centuries of peace and prosperity with the Targaryens sitting on the Iron Throne and a Stark serving as Warden of the North. I am the last Targaryen, Jon Snow. Honor the pledge your ancestor made to mine. Bend the knee and I will name you Warden of the North. Together we will save this country from those who would destroy it”

“You're right. You're not guilty of your father's crime. And I'm not beholden to my ancestor's vows.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Because I need your help and you need mine.” Now that caught my attention. I look up towards him waiting to hear his words.

Did you see three dragons flying overhead when you arrived?”

“I did” He nods unbothered.

“Y/N” All eyes move towards. I only engaged with Daenerys who motioned me to move forward. I walk up a couple of steps placing myself to the right of her and left of Tyrion. “This is Y/N L/N from the unknown lands. Leader of the Dothraki and the unsullied, all of whom have sworn to kill for me” I didn’t stand by her words but I know what is the truth.

“They're hard to miss” A smirk played on my lips. She has the army. The name to take the throne. Three dragons and he still stands there like he has power. The good kind.

“But still, I need your help?”

“Not to defeat Cersei. You could storm King's Landing tomorrow and the city would fall. Hell, we almost took it and we didn't even have dragons.” That is why Davos was brought. He seems to take inconsideration the other side's needs. The King lacks those qualities.

“Almost” Tyrion speaks

“But you haven't stormed King's Landing. Why not? The only reason I can see is you don't want to kill thousands of innocent people. It's the fastest way to win the war but you won't do it. Which means at the very least you're better than Cersei.” Jon tries to take a step forward but is against it as my people flinch.

“Still, that doesn't explain why I need your help.”

“Because right now you and I and Cersei and everyone else, we're children playing at a game screaming that the rules aren't fair.” Daenerys didn’t like that. She stands walk down towards Tyrion.

“You told me you liked this man”

“ I do.”

“In the time since he's met me he's refused to call me queen, he's refused to bow and now he's calling me a child.”

“ I believe he's calling all of us children. Figure of speech”

“Your Grace, everone you know will die before winter is over if we don't defeat the enemy to the north.”

“ As far as I can see, you are the enemy to the north”

“I am not your enemy. The dead are the enemy.”

“The dead?” Her expression falls towards his words. No smile. She looks over to Tyrion who also seems confused. “Is that another figure of speech?”

“The Army of the Dead is on the march” He stops moving his direction to Tyrion. “You don’t know me well, My Lord, but do you think I am a liar or a madman?”

“No, I don't think you're either of those things.” yet the things he speaks of sounds like he is.

“The Army of the Dead is real. The White Walkers are real. The Knight King

is real. I've seen them. If they get past the wall and we're squabbling amongst ourselveswe're finished.”

“I was born at Dragonstone. Not that I can remember it.” She walks the rest of the steps down towards Jon. “We fled before Robert's assassins could find us. Robert was your father's best friend, no? I wonder if your father knew his best friend sent assassins to murder a baby girl in her crib. Not that it matters now of course. I spent my life in foreign lands. So many men have tried to kill me. I don't remember all of their names. I have been sold like a broodmare. I have been chained and betrayed, raped and defiled. Do you know what kept me standing through all those years in exile? Faith. Not in any gods. Not in myths and legends. In myself. In Daenerys Targaryen. The world hadn't seen a dragon in centuries until my children were born. The Dothraki hadn't crossed the sea. Any sea.They did for me. I was born to rule the Seven Kingdoms. And I will.”

“You'll be ruling over a graveyard if we don't defeat the Night King.”

“The war against my sister has already begun. You can't expect us to halt hostilities and join you in fighting whatever you saw beyond the wall.” Tyrion stops once he had reach both of them down the stairs.

“You don't believe him. I understand that. It sounds like nonsense. But if destiny has brough Daenerys Targaryen back to our shores, it has also made Jon Snow King in the North. You were the first to bring Dothraki to Westeros. He was the first to make allies with Wildlings and northmen. He was named Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. He was named King in the North. Not because of his birthright. He has no birthright. He's a damn bastard. All those hard son's of bitches chose him as their leader because they believe in him.” Davos says, a hint of stress in his voice.All those things you don't believe in, he faced those things. He fought those things for the good of his people. He risked his life for his people. He took a knife to the heart for his people. He gave his own-”Befor he could continue Jon cuts him off with a look. “If we don't put asside our enmities and band together we will die. And then it doesn't matter whose skeleton sits on the Iron Throne”

“ If it doesn't matter you might as well kneel. Swear your allegiance to Queen Daenerys. Help her to defeat my sister and together our armies will protect the north.” Jon shakes his head moving his eyes to the ground.

There's no time for that. There's no time for any of this. While we stand here debating –”

“It takes no time to bend the knee. Pledge your sword to her cause.” His desperation would get Tyrion hurt one day.

“And why would I do that?” His eyes directed to Daenerys now “I mean no offense, Your Grace, but I don't know you. As far as I can tell your claim to the throne rests entirely on your father's name. And my own father fought to overthrow the Mad King. The lords of the north placed their trust in me to lead them. And I will continue to do so as well as I can.”

“ That's fair. It's also fair to point out that I'm the rightful queen of the Seven Kingdoms. By declaring yourself king of the northernmost kingdom, you are in open rebellion.” My attention is set aside as Varys starts whispering in my ear. I nod making my way down to Daenerys and giving her the message. “You must forgive my manners. You will both be tired after your long journey. We'll have baths drawn for you and supper sent to your rooms.” She turns to me, “Take the to their rooms”

“Am I your prisoner?” He doesn’t move an inch

“Not yet.” With those final words Daenerys turns her back and walks towards her console. The doors close behind us. Greyworm on the lead as I stand behind the men with a couple dothrakis behind me.

“Notify every elat. Avvos zala kishi khaleesi tat tikh killed she mae remekat” I speak to the men behind me. They open the doors for Jons room and Greyworm motions Davos to follow him to his room. “Someone will be here shortly for anything you need” I gave him a smile before turning around.

“Never heard anyone from the unknown lands” I stop in my tracks turning towards him. Darn.

“Omnis” I simply replied. “We like to keep to ourselves and not both people” I shrug.

“Then what made you come across the sea to fight a war you seem not to have much intrest in?”

“It's a long story”

“Princess?” I turn around and see Varys behind me.

“Rest. You will need it” I watch Jon’s smile and with that I walk along Varys to find Daenerys.

[elegantwoes]

'Her brother had thought it was the khal’s way of apologizing for the wrong Dany had done him. She had begged Ser Jorah not to tell him the truth, lest he be shamed. The knight had replied that the king could well do with a bit of shame … yet he had done as she bid'

I have to commend Dany and her attempt to diffuse the situation. I miss this trait in the upcoming books, though.

'Viserys gazed at it with boredom in his eyes. “How long must we linger amidst these ruins before Drogo gives me my army? I grow tired of waiting.'

Good lord Viserys sounds like a petulant child here. He should have stayed in Pentos with Illyrio.

'Yes, Khaleesi, but … the Dothraki look on these things differently than we do in the west. I have told him as much, as Illyrio told him, but your brother does not listen. The horselords are no traders. Viserys thinks he sold you, and now he wants his price. Yet Khal Drogo would say he had you as a gift. He will give Viserys a gift in return, yes … in his own time. You do not demand a gift, not of a khal. You do not demand anything of a khal.'

It’s interesting what is stated here. Jorah, and by extension Illyrio, have warned Viserys he will come to regret never adapting more to the Dothraki culture. How his lack of respect for them let to his undoing. It makes me think. Since Viserys is a foreshadowing for Dany, it’s highly likely she will make similar mistakes in Westeros, because just like Viserys, she will refuse to adapt to it’s customs. And that will lead to her doom.

'What … what if it were not Viserys?” she asked. “If it were someone else who led them? Someone stronger? Could the Dothraki truly conquer the Seven Kingdoms?'

Oh look the wheels in Dany’s head are turning. She’s ready to usurp Viserys. Typical Targaryen behavior.

'He took from me all I loved, for the sake of a few lice-ridden poachers and his precious honor,” Ser Jorah said bitterly. From his tone, she could tell the loss still pained him. He changed the subject quickly. '

You sold them as slaves, Jorah, and that’s against the law. What should Ned have done. Celebrated you crimes?

'The Dothraki do not build. A thousand years ago, to make a house, they would dig a hole in the earth and cover it with a woven grass roof. The buildings you see were made by slaves brought here from lands they’ve plundered, and they built each after the fashion of their own peoples.'

A rather ominous line to associate with the Dothraki. It should be noted that Dany is embracing the Dothraki way swimmingly. Not a good look by the way.

'yet Vaes Dothrak is large enough to house every man of every khalasar, should all the khals return to the Mother at once. The crones have prophesied that one day that will come to pass, and so Vaes Dothrak must be ready to embrace all its children.'

A foreshadow for TWOW and how Dany will take over most of the Khalasar with the help of Drogon? I say yes.

'In some khalasars, Jhiqui said, the bloodriders shared the khal’s wine, his tent, and even his wives, though never his horses. A man’s mount was his own.'

Good lord what is this? GRRM racism jumped out when he wrote this.

'When her son sat the Iron Throne, she would see that he had bloodriders of his own to protect him against treachery in his Kingsguard.'

It’s interesting how Dany is never accused of usurping for these thoughts.

'It caught him full in the face. Viserys let go of her. Blood ran down his cheek where the edge of one of the medallions had sliced it open. “You are the one who forgets himself,” Dany said to him. “Didn’t you learn anything that day in the grass? Leave me now, before I summon my khas to drag you out. And pray that Khal Drogo does not hear of this, or he will cut open your belly and feed you your own entrails.'

Its good to see Dany stand up to her abuser. Well done, Dany. Definitely the highlight of the chapter.

The next chapter we are with our future kindhearted king: Bran.

[butterflyintochains]

Princess Shaena Targaryen-Martell

Information on her:

''Presenting her grace, Princess Shaena of Houses Targaryen and Martell. Princess of Dragonstone and Dorne, The Dreamer Reborn, The Desert Dragon, The Last Valyrian.'' - Allyria Dayne, her lady in waiting.

Shaena, born in 261 AC in King's Landing, is the oldest daughter of Aerys II and Queen Rhaella Targaryen. The younger sister of Crown Prince Rhaegar, and elder sister of Prince Viserys and Princess Daenerys.

A kind, intelligent, generous, and popular princess amongst the court. Beloved by her mother, though terrified of her father growing up. Lives mostly on Dragonstone with her older brother during her late childhood and early teen years.

Takes up archery on her brother's request, in order to be able to protect herself.

Her father pushes many marriage options onto her. The first being Jaime Lannister, then Euron Greyjoy, then Lucerys Velaryon. Eventually, she falls in love with - and later marries - Oberyn Martell a few weeks after the disastrous Tourney at Harrenhal. The ceremony witnessed by only close friends.

Upon moving to Dorne, she and Oberyn settle in the Water Gardens, and lay low during the rebellion. Oberyn making Shaena feel safe for once in her life, and Shaena taming his worse impulses.

Her Family

Aerys II Targaryen - father (deceased) Queen Rhaella Targaryen - mother (deceased) Prince Rhaegar Targaryen - older brother (deceased) Prince Viserys Targaryen - younger brother (deceased) Queen Daenerys Targaryen - younger sister Princess Elia Martell - sister-in-law (deceased) Princess Rhaenys Targaryen - niece (deceased) Prince Aegon Targaryen - nephew (deceased) Lady Lyanna Stark - sister-in-law (deceased) Jon Snow - nephew Doran Martell and Mellario Martell - brother and sister-in-law Arianne, Quentyn, and Trystane Martell - niece and nephews Khal Drogo - brother-in-law (deceased) Rhaego - nephew (stillborn)

The Sun-Dragons

Prince Oberyn Martell (husband) Prince Daeron Martell-Targaryen (son) Princess Elia Martell-Targaryen (daughter) Princess Alyssa Martell-Targaryen (daughter) Prince Duncan Martell-Targaryen (son) Princess Loreza Martell-Targaryen (daughter) Prince Baelon Martell-Targaryen (son) Prince Lyonel Martell-Targaryen (son) Princess Daenys Martell-Targaryen (daughter)

During The Rebellion

Shaena and Oberyn were expecting Daeron during the rebellion, and knew of Robert's ethnic cleansing plot of all Targaryen heirs, so sheltered in place in Dorne until their son came. Just after Daeron was born, the family fled east to Pentos for a few years, where Elia and Alyssa were born. Neither involved themselves much in the rebellion, but both were greatly opposed to it. Oberyn goes above and beyond to protect his wife during the war, and ensure she and their baby are safe. They also pull each other out of the darkness of grief of losing their most beloved siblings. Elia's death hitting Oberyn hard, and Shaena almost broken completely by losing Rhaegar and her mother.

Afterwards, both lay low in Pentos. Oberyn joining the Second Sons, and Shaena tending to the family from their manse.

They return to Dorne in 285 AC, Doran giving them the Water Gardens as a permanent residence. Shaena takes to concealing her silver hair with scarves whilst out in public during this time.

Overall, though, the couple are very happy together, and try to stay out of the public eye as much as they possibly can. A sharp contrast to the convenient marriage of Rhaegar and Elia, and the divorce of Doran and Mellario.

War of The Five Kings

Dorne stays neutral, but Shaena supports Robb's cause more than any other, she alone of her family knowing who exactly Robb grew up with at Winterfell. She also regularly sends anonymous letters north to her uncle and nephew. Oberyn also comes around to his wife's way of thinking. The couple also keep close tabs on her younger siblings out east, both incredibly proud of the woman her sister is growing into.

A small fringe group try to drum up a movement for Shaena to become queen, given that she's the oldest surviving child of the last Targaryen king. But, both Shaena and Oberyn quash this as soon as it crops up. Shaena can't afford the hassle, and doesn't want to be queen anyway.

Winter In Westeros

As winter nears, Shaena's old dragon dreams crop up again, telling her a long fossilized egg is somewhere in the caves of Dragonstone, calling out to her. As hard as she tries to ignore it and raise her family in peace, she can't shake the need to go to Dragonstone.

With her husband's encouragement, she makes the long voyage. Finding the scarlet and gold egg laid by Syrax all those years ago, she keeps the egg as a reminder of her dwindling family, and returns home to her own family.

Then, three moons later, she gets the news of her little sister's return home, with her own trio of dragons, and a massive army. However, the massive presence of her sister frightens Shaena, the memories of her father still fresh after all these years. Oberyn manages to pull her out of her anxiety, and accepts the summons to Dragonstone. The couple pledge fealty in exchange for one simple thing: keeping their calm family life. Something Daenerys grants happily.

Eventually, her dragon egg hatches, a small female hatchling being birthed from the long petrified egg. Shaena decides to name her new dragon Nymerax - honouring her husband's lineage with her family's mascot creature.

Shaena manages to convince Daenerys to fly north to Jon before dealing with Cersei, and provides a long distance sounding board for her younger sister. Vowing to herself to be the matriarch for the two much younger Targaryens. Approving their council positions, eventually joining them with Oberyn at Winterfell. Both serving on the front line against the Night King.

Jon and Daenerys fly the couple home to Dorne ahead of their conquest effort beginning.

Post Restoration

After Cersei is overthrown, both Oberyn and Shaena are offered seats on the new Imperial Council, Oberyn as Minister of Coin, and Shaena as Minister of Laws. The couple are honoured, but decline the seats in order to keep their private, happy life in Dorne with their children and animals.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Achievements

Helping to uncover part of the Maesters Conspiracy.

Hatching the first dragon on Westerosi soil in a century.

Setting Daenerys on the path to being a smarter queen, and marrying Jon much earlier.

Keeping Oberyn from dying to The Mountain.

Helping keep Dorne from imploding when Doran is assassinated.

Nicknames

Shae (to her brother and mother)

Moonlight (to Oberyn)

Sweetheart, Darling, Beloved (to Oberyn)

Sweet Shaena (to her mother)

Titles

Princess of Dragonstone and Dorne

Lady of The Water Gardens

The Last Valyrian

The Dreamer Reborn

The Desert Dragon

Shaena The Humble

Familiars

Dragon - Nymerax

Cats - Violet, Honey, and Dawn

Horse - Meraxes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: Hey, all! Just an idea that's been sitting in my head for a while today! Will be writing some Shaena/Oberyn stuff soon hopefully!

A/N 2: Added some more info to the post, finally happy with it. The image for the faceclaim is AI generated - not by me though - so I don't know who made it. All the rest are from pinterest, and the egg is obviously Dany's hands. Just wanted to represent who Shaena is. I think Oberyn is a lucky man, anyway.

[mordoriscalling]

Assurance and Authority (4/25)

Post-BOTFA Persuasion Au: Bilbo returns to the Shire after the Quest, having rejected Thorin’s proposal of marriage. For years after, he struggles with regret. When he and Thorin meet again, he knows better than to hope. 

Chapter 4 also available on AO3

(Ch 1) (Ch 2) (Ch 3)

The Great Smials in Tuckborough, the ancestral home of the Tooks, was a system of numerous smials connected by a multitude of tunnels, in which the Tooks had been residing for generations. The place was a remarkable piece of construction, which constituted a home to many a dozen families and still allowed them to host guests. Despite that, the Smials were typically rather crowded on normal days, but there were times when the place was nearly packed to the brim with hobbits, which occurred if many guests were visiting at the same time.

Such was the case when Bilbo took Primula up on her invitation. Prior to his arrival, Primula had come to Tuckborough from Buckland together with her husband and son, two sisters Amaranth and Asphodel, her mother Mirabella and her father Gorbadoc Brandybuck, as well as half a dozen of their relatives. The reason for their visit to Tuckborough was both a familial and a diplomatic one - they all wished to see their Took relatives, and Gorbadoc, the Master of Buckland, wanted to meet with his nephew Fortinbras II, the current Thain of the Shire.

With the Great Smials so overcrowded, there was scarcely a chance of not bumping into any hobbit after leaving one’s room. Bilbo, when he passed someone in the corridors of the Smials, more often than not ended up seeing one of Primula’s immediate family. This was not unfortunate in itself, but the problem was that they all liked to confide in Bilbo about their problems and tiffs, which often concerned Primula’s husband Drogo.

"My dear Bilbo,” aunt Mirabella told him one morning on their way to breakfast, "I must say that I did promise myself not to meddle in the affairs of any of my daughters, but bless me, I have no very good opinion of the way Drogo intervenes with how Prim rears Frodo. He always has objections to how she encourages his curiosity and lectures Frodo about what’s respectable. The lad is just a little fauntling, for goodness’s sake!”

"Bilbo, my dear boy,” uncle Gorbadoc said when he and Bilbo chanced upon each other in a pantry, "Since you’re the head of the Bagginses, I wonder if there’s something you you could do to arrange for Drogo to have more earnings? I’m sure he could use more money to indulge his appetite better. Why, he dines with us at least twice a week, and he always eats for three every time! Not that I mind, but I’m sure it would put him at ease to be able to buy more food for himself.”

"Whilst you’re here,” Amaranth murmured to Bilbo while they helped with washing the dishes, "Could you possibly give Drogo a hint that it would be better if he didn’t try to take precedence over papa? We know you Bagginses are an esteemed lot, but Drogo has no authority in Brandy Hall, Baggins or not.”

‘No matter how much Drogo insists on them, papa doesn’t care about proper table manners,” Asphodel said while she and Bilbo were baking lemon cake, "It’s good food he cares about.”

Primula herself had a thing or two to say as well. "I can take care of Frodo just fine without Drogo’s lectures,” she grumbled to Bilbo one evening over tea. ‘I know our boy is a Baggins and with that come certain expectations, but he’s just as much a Brandybuck as he’s a Baggins!” She sighed. "And I wish you could have him assured that nothing would happen to him when boating if only he allowed me to teach him how to swim. Perhaps you could talk some sense to him, Bilbo? Swimming is really something that one should be able to do.”

When Bilbo tried to raise these concerns with Drogo, most of his attempts were futile, as Drogo had just as many issues to complain about.

"Oh, Bilbo, you have no idea how relieved I am!” he said once when they enjoyed a smoke by the Great Door. "To have a Baggins around who understands me! Really, Brandybucks are too strange for me sometimes. How can they go boating, I will never understand. It can’t be safe. And to think Primula wanted to take Frodo boating too! To endanger our boy so! You must try to tell her to be more reasonable, Bilbo.” Another time, he said, "The very thought of going boating makes me feel ill. You have seen Brandywine, you know how wide and deep that river is. Merely being near it makes me uneasy, and living next to so much water makes my joints ache. I swear, it’s all because of that moist river air. I’m so relieved to have come here, I feel better indeed. I wish I had another Baggins with me in Buckland, then I’d be seen and heard. Perhaps you could talk to them in a way that would make them understand me?”

The unsolicited role of a mediator began to tire Bilbo profusely. His only respite from it was being outside of the Great Smials altogether, which was why he took to long walks most eagerly. Often accompanied by Primula, Frodo and many other fauntlings, Bilbo would wander around the green hills of Tuckborough, exploring its colourful meadows, charming groves and little brooks.

When not busy entertaining or watching the little ones, Bilbo found his mind wandering as much as his feet did. He tried his best not to dwell on the past, instead turning his thoughts to the problem at hand. It was not the first time that he bore witness to all the disagreements stemming from Primula’s marriage to Drogo. Since they had been wed six years ago and welcomed their son into the world a year later, the couple had been facing a problem of not seeing eye to eye on certain matters with one another and each other’s relatives. That was not to say they were unhappy together; they were greatly fond of each other, loved their son dearly, and found as much charm as fault in each other’s differences. Rather, Bilbo worried that, because of their financial circumstances, they were too dependent on Primula’s parents and thus, having no prospects of moving elsewhere, they were always bound to living near disapproving family members. Such conditions fostered only conflict and could not be beneficial for their union in the perspective of decades. Bilbo believed that the situation was likely to lead to unhappiness, and Primula’s well-being concerned him greatly; the lass, eighteen years his junior, was one of his relatives that were most dear to him.

She had always been a curious spirit ever since she had been little, and when she had been old enough to speak, she would always seek Bilbo out during family gatherings, at the time when Bilbo had been past his second eleventy birthday and everyone had already labelled him as quite a bit of a recluse. Little Primula, being a tiny fauntling, had not cared about the general opinion of him and befriended him right away. She had stayed constant in her liking of Bilbo for all her childhood, and the two had formed a strong connection, similar to that of siblings. Once Primula grew older, their bond had been nurtured by them both, which Bilbo could not have been more grateful for, especially since it had been Primula more than any other who had helped Bilbo overcome the grief of becoming an orphan.

Due to their closeness, Bilbo worried about Primula’s happiness a lot, so much so that one day he did ask her about it outright.

“Are you happy, Prim?” he said during one of their outings, on a sunny afternoon at the beginning of Wedmath. They had played hounds and hares with Frodo and a dozen other fauntlings earlier, after which the whole group enjoyed a picnic. Now that the children had had their rest, they were up again, playing leaf flutes at the top of the hill, which Bilbo and Primula were slowly climbing.

“Of course I am, Bilbo,” she replied. “I have a family of my own now, a healthy child, whatever else could I wish for?”

Bilbo frowned, displeased with her answer, for he knew far too well what one with family and a child but no place to call their own would dearly wish for. “Primula,” he said, “If you ever find yourselves in need of a different smial to stay, Bag End’s doors are always open to you, for as long as you wish.”

“Why, Bilbo, I could never impose on you so!”

“Come, now, Prim, it’s an invitation freely given. Besides, I’m sure Drogo would find the comforts of Bag End most beneficial to his health.”

At that, Primula laughed out loud. “He would indeed. There would be nothing better for his joints than the ability to run a hot bath at will!” She sobered. “Still, you’re too good, Bilbo. I cannot find it in myself to abuse your generosity like this.”

“It’d be no abuse! It’s simply the least I could do. I wish you to take me up on this invitation.”

“Bilbo, please. You must realise that it’s not easy for me to accept charity.”

“Charity? It’s not charity. I’m much more selfish in my offer than you can imagine.”

“How so?”

Before Bilbo could reply, one of the fauntlings above shouted a question about whether the group could go play in the creek on the other side of the hill, which Primula gave them permission to do.

“My adventure has changed me very much,” Bilbo said once the little ones disappeared from view. ‘Before, I was more than happy to eat my dinners alone. Once most of my grief of losing mama and papa passed, I loved my solitude. Then, my adventure showed me what I had been missing, and now I can scarcely like lack of companionship.”

“I see,” Primula replied, and that was all they said on the matter.

They walked in companionable silence, reaching the top of the hill. Bilbo began to imagine what it would be like to have Primula, Drogo and Frodo live with him and he found the idea exceedingly pleasing. He had always believed that his father had built Bag End for it to be full of laughter; the smial standing near empty seemed to be a terrible waste that had been weighing on Bilbo’s heart and mind for some time now.

When Bilbo and Primula were about to descend the hill to join the fauntlings at the creek, a call from behind them caught their attention.

"Mister Bilbo!”

It was a tween lad, running up to them together with another boy, whom Bilbo recognized to be Hamson and Halfred, the two oldest children of Bilbo’s gardener Hamfast Gamgee. The boys were visibly red in the face even from some distance away.

"Mister Bilbo!” Hamson cried again. "We’ve been looking for you!”

The two lads finally stood before them, panting heavily.

"Papa sends us,” Halfred said. "There were three dozen dwarven soldiers marching through Hobbiton before noon, and a few of those dwarves knocked on Bag End’s door! They even asked him where you were, mister Bilbo. Papa said you’d want to know.”

"Are they friends of yours, mister Bilbo?” Hamson asked.

“I don’t know,” shocked Bilbo replied, as was the truth. “Perhaps.”

Bilbo had indeed invited the Company to visit his smial anytime. He had told them at what time tea was and even not to bother knocking, when he had bidden them farewell. Thus, Bilbo dearly hoped that the dwarven soldiers in question were some of his friends, but at the same time feared the heirs of Durin might’ve knocked on his door, even though the likelihood of that event was exceedingly small. Alas, before he could ask the boys if they knew anything about how the dwarves looked like, Frodo’s pained cry carried in the air.

[vis3rys]

@daerias asked: "Last time you spoke to me like this, you were 10 years old and you'd just stolen Father's horse. What have you done now?" from mother rhaella

"I   speak   as   I   wish,   mother.   I   am   not   a   child."   No,   that   child   had   died   a   long   time   ago,   had   it   not?   Still,   she   is   his   mother.   Viserys   might   envy   his   sister   for   living   a   life   where   she   does   not   remember   or   even   know   of   the   Rebellion.   She   understands   nothing   of   it.   She   calls   it   home   but   she   does   not   know   the   Red   Keep.   Her   Khalasar   despises   him   and   he   is   given   no   choice.   "Daenerys   is   giving   me   a   choice.   Leave.   Or   her   brute   of   a   Khal   might   murder   me."   And   he   knows   she   is   right   and   he   hates   it.   All   of   this   was   for   an   army   that   Khal   Drogo   never   gave   him.   He   took   his   sister,   who   would've   been   his   perfect   bride   if   he   ever   had   taken   the   throne   back.  

He   gave   him   his   sister   and   Drogo   gives   him   nothing   but   desert.   He   is   not   even   allowed   to   take   the   Lyseni   girl   with   him   for   company.   "I   will   return   to   Pentos.   Illyrio   said   there   is   news   from   Dorne   there.   I   will   go   to   Dorne   then."   There   is   a   short   pause   as   he   sounds   almost   defeated.   They   love   her   so   easily,   he   is   an   outsider.   Beggar   King.   They   mocked   him   as   a   child,   a   burden   of   a   family   and   crown   on   him   and   none   seem   to   care.  

"Princess   Arianne   is   said   to   wait   for   me.   I   will   have   a   Dornish   bride   and   do   what   precious   Rhaegar   never   did.   Take   the   throne   and   treat   my   wife   properly."   He   still   loves   his   brother   but   the   realization   that   his   brother   had   made   mistakes,   hurt   him.   He   wears   his   clothes,   torn   and   mended,   but   they   don't   fix   him   properly.   Rhaegar   was   wider.   He   will   never   be   him.   So   he   will   leave   them   to   the   seven   hells.   "Stay   with   her   if   you   wish.   I   figure   that   is   what   you   would   do   regardless."

[aegor-bamfsteel]

Do you think Dany have similarities with Aragon of LOTR?

I haven’t read the books in awhile, so I can’t give you a thorough analysis. Users such as fedonciadale have written on LOTR-ASOIAF parallels, but usually with Jon as the Aragorn figure, although I did write a response saying it’s the Targaryens who are deconstructions of the High Men of Gondor/Arnor rather than their ancestors, the Numenoreans. Dany does have similarities in that she’s the last Targaryen (as far as she knows), who is determined to claim a throne her ancestors vacated due to wars (not for power itself; but for either love or desire for home), is likely going to be met with some hostility on declaring herself queen (see book!Denethor, who refused to recognize Aragorn as king to the end), if you believe that the Dragons=Lightbringer then you have ancestral weapons being reforged (Aragorn’s sword Narsil had been broken in battle by his ancestor Isildur, but reforged by the elves into “the Flame of the West” Anduril and later used to prove his ancestry; much like Dany hatching the long extinct dragons, which are used to prove her ancestry which was why Aegon was initially trying to seek her). The second draft of LOTR, where Aragorn returns Eowyn’s affections but is unable to heal her after her battle with the Witch King, gives another parallel between Dany and Drogo (though idk if GRRM knows that version). There are some significant differences, like Dany always knowing her family history, not knowing a true home (Aragorn was initially fostered at Rivendell), her mother died in childbirth (versus Aragorn’s mother living to be 100), didn’t spend generations in disguise learning under different rulers of his future kingdom, or spent years leading the Rangers protecting the Shire/Breeland in secret (that’s a big part of her character; she is a teenager and makes mistakes, while Aragorn is 89 when the quest starts).

[dracharenae]

His breath stank of the wine Dany had gotten him at the bazaar. His judgement clouded and he could hear the feast happening without him. The Targaryen King walks in, demanding for his sister, angry and tired Viserys notes how the Dothraki Dogs look at him and it makes him enraged. They look at him with disgust, with a look of pity and now as he walks in sword in tow they look at him with horror and anger. Though he doesn’t register the last two. Just as he’s about to yell at Khal Drogo and his slut of wife, he feels a hand pull him back, which makes Viserys yank free of the grasp, turning on the person quickly, his lilac eyes crazed in rage and his matted hair flung across his face. “How dare you touch the Dragon! I will-” He stops as he sees it’s Rhaenys not Jorah that holds him, though the exiled knight is close by. 

Viserys is still reeling from his emotions, not softening from Rhaenys’s touch. “I want to sit with Khal Drogo and my sister. I am a King. I deserve that respect, you sit with them. Why should I be shunned to sit with the elderly and blind? I deserve more respect then this Rhaenys. Even the sellswords in Esso gave me more respect!” Though he would never admit their version of respect was fake and ended with the food being eaten, the gold taken and Viserys left with nothing to show for it. Least here there was a long await to a promise. 

༺✹༻ IT IS THE SHARP BREATH FROM SER JORAH that first catches rhaenys' attentions. her head turns, curious at first, to level her gaze at the bear knight. his hand is latched onto the hilt of his sword and his steely eyes are sharply set in a different direction. there is only a fleeting moment of ignorance, in quiet speculation where rhaenys could have imagined a million and one things, before it comes crashing down. she hears his voice. it is doused in wine and there is a sway to his movement as he guides himself through the crowd . . . no, no, no. rhaenys' eyes flash towards dany, who has not yet been made aware of viserys' presence. her purple eyes are focused on khal drogo. good. rhaenys stays jorah's hand as she pushes through the crowd, eventually latching ahold of viserys' arm herself. as to be expected, he puts up a fight. his words are bitter and angry and his eyes threaten to spill with tears, but none of it matters. rhaenys cannot afford to feel sympathy for him in this moment, or pity. she needs to get him out before he causes a scene. or worse, gets himself killed. she quickly scans the crowd, then pulls viserys through a small gap of dothraki towards the exit. he struggles, but her grip tightens.

❝ respect isn't a gift in the khalasar, viserys it's earned, ❞ rhaenys hisses. once parted through the tent, she uses all of her effort to shove him. she stands protectively at its entrance, ignoring looks she earns from other members of the khalasar. her heart clenches as she looks upon viserys. a frightened boy, she thinks. he's still the frightened boy who first left dragonstone, the one who had clung onto his mother and lost the house with the red door. i know. i was there. we share the pain, viserys, but dany does not suffer for it. she won't. rhaenys straightens, steeling herself for whatever anger or abuses viserys means to throw her way. dany. dany. dany. she chants the khaleesi's name in her head like a mantra. for her. ❝ dany and i wear their clothes, we speak their language. they respect us. all you have done is insult them ceaselessly and expect to be called a king in return. you can't, vis. that's not how this works . . . it's not just the three of us, anymore. dany is a khaleesi now. we must respect her husband and her people, or what are we to do ? ? ? do you expect khal drogo to give you his army if you are perpetually cruel to his wife and berating his people ? ? ? viserys, please - i am asking you . . . go back to your tent. sleep the wine off. and return with apologies for dany and her khal. i don't want you to get hurt because of this. ❞

@notenoughmuses

[istumpysk]

Operation Stumpy Re-Read

ADWD: Daenerys VII (Chapter 43)

Daario lay upon his stomach, the light linen coverlets tangled about his long legs, his face half-buried in the pillows.

Dany ran her hand down his back, tracing the line of his spine. His skin was smooth beneath her touch, almost hairless. His skin is silk and satin. She loved the feel of him beneath her fingers. She loved to run her fingers through his hair, to knead the ache from his calves after a long day in the saddle, to cup his cock and feel it harden against her palm.

It's time for Daenerys Targaryen's second great romance.

Apparently she'll have many in this series, while the actual romantic heroine will have none.

+.+.+

If she had been some ordinary woman, she would gladly have spent her whole life touching Daario, tracing his scars and making him tell her how he'd come by every one. I would give up my crown if he asked it of me, Dany thought … but he had not asked it, and never would. Daario might whisper words of love when the two of them were as one, but she knew it was the dragon queen he loved. If I gave up my crown, he would not want me. Besides, kings who lost their crowns oft lost their heads as well, and she could see no reason why it would be any different for a queen.

Maybe you shouldn't have a crown then.

I'll give her credit for that honest moment of reflection.

+.+.+

If I could, I would. Khal Drogo had been her sun-and-stars, but he had been dead so long that Daenerys had almost forgotten how it felt to love and be loved. Daario had helped her to remember. I was dead and he brought me back to life. I was asleep and he woke me. My brave captain. Even so, of late he grew too bold. On the day that he returned from his latest sortie, he had tossed the head of a Yunkish lord at her feet and kissed her in the hall for all the world to see, until Barristan Selmy pulled the two of them apart. Ser Grandfather had been so wroth that Dany feared blood might be shed. "We cannot wed, my love. You know why."

Ser Grandfather ... ouch. Daario influence has started.

+.+.+

"You are beautiful," she blurted as she watched him don his riding boots and lace them up. Some days he let her do that for him, but not today, it seemed. That's done with too.

Once again I'm torn.

"Let his mother and his sisters examine one another and share the special cake. I shall not be eating it. Nor shall I wash the noble Hizdahr's noble feet."

"Magnificence, you do not understand," protested Reznak. "The washing of the feet is hallowed by tradition. - Daenerys VI, ADWD

I have no issue with Daenerys refusing this tradition. My problem is she is more than willing to lace Daario's boots for him.

+.+.+

"Where are you going?"

"Out into your city," he said, "to drink a keg or two and pick a quarrel. It has been too long since I've killed a man. Might be I should seek out your betrothed."

Do we believe him?

+.+.+

"As my queen commands. Will you hold court today?"

"No. On the morrow I will be a woman wed, and Hizdahr will be king. Let him hold court. These are his people."

[...]

"Only a little, bright heart. Will you come hold court?"

"After my wedding, perhaps. After the peace."

Uh oh, is Daenerys already bored with her job?

His people. Hizdahr's people.

"Enough." Dany slapped the table. "No one will be left to die. You are all my people." Her dreams of home and love had blinded her. "I will not abandon Meereen to the fate of Astapor. It grieves me to say so, but Westeros must wait." - Daenerys III, ADWD

+.+.+

"This after that you speak of never comes. You should hold court. My new men do not believe that you are real. The ones who came over from the Windblown. Bred and born in Westeros, most of them, full of tales about Targaryens. They want to see one with their own eyes. The Frog has a gift for you."

[...]

"Oh, a clever frog. 'Give the gift to me.' " She threw the other pillow at him. "Would I have ever seen it?"

Daario stroked his gilded mustachio. "Would I steal from my sweet queen? If it were a gift worthy of you, I would have put it into your soft hands myself."

"As a token of your love?"

"As to that I will not say, but I told him that he could give it to you. You would not make a liar of Daario Naharis?" 

I'm sorry, am I understanding this exchange correctly? Did he just avoid saying he loves her? Lol

"You have not said you love me."

"I will, if it would please Your Radiance." - Daenerys IV, ADWD

+.+.+

Dany sat amongst the rumpled bedclothes with her arms about her knees, so forlorn that she did not hear when Missandei came creeping in with bread and milk and figs. 

Not only does Missandei keep interrupting Daenerys when she's contemplating betrayal, she also has a habit of sneaking up on Daenerys (and Barristan!) undetected.

"My queen?" said a soft voice in the darkness.

Dany flinched. "Who is there?"

"Only Missandei." The Naathi scribe moved closer to the bed. - Daenerys VIII, ADWD

x

Ser Barristan turned. "Missandei. Child. How long have you been standing there?" - The Queensguard, ADWD

What's going on here?

Arya. Arya Stark is what's going on here.

+.+.+

The prospect of wrestling with Meereen once more left her feeling weary. Sleep came hard, even when Daario came back, so drunk that he could hardly stand. Beneath her coverlets she tossed and turned, dreaming that Hizdahr was kissing her … but his lips were blue and bruised, and when he thrust himself inside her, his manhood was cold as ice. 

I prefer the Tyrion interpretation.

It was Lemore who forced the water from your lungs after Griff had pulled you up. You were as cold as ice, and your lips were blue. Yandry said we ought to throw you back, but the lad forbade it. - Tyrion VI, ADWD

But Euron works too. I'm not greedy.

+.+.+

She sat up with her hair disheveled and the bedclothes atangle. Her captain slept beside her, yet she was alone. 

Oh my goodness, soulmates not foils.

Even with Ygritte sleeping beside him, he felt alone. He did not want to die alone. - Jon V, ASOS

We can't compete with two people feeling alone.

+.+.+

Reznak mo Reznak bowed and beamed. "Magnificence, every day you grow more beautiful. I think the prospect of your wedding has given you a glow. Oh, my shining queen!"

Dany sighed. "Summon the first petitioner."

It had been so long since she last held court that the crush of cases was almost overwhelming. The back of the hall was a solid press of people, and scuffles broke out over precedence. 

And why were you not holding court? Is it because you suck as a queen and the author practically spells that out for the reader?

+.+.+

Her last meeting with the Green Grace had not gone well. "What would you have of me?"

"I would speak to you about the presumption of a certain sellsword captain."

She dares say that in open court? Dany felt a blaze of anger. She has courage, I grant that, but if she thinks I am about to suffer another scolding, she could not be more wrong. "The treachery of Brown Ben Plumm has shocked us all," she said, "but your warning comes too late. And now I know you will want to return to your temple to pray for peace."

The Green Grace bowed. "I shall pray for you as well."

Another slap, thought Dany, color rising to her face.

Boy, that is unlike the Daenerys of the six previous chapters.

Too much Daario in the diet.

+.+.+

The rest was a tedium the queen knew well. She sat upon her cushions, listening, one foot jiggling with impatience. Jhiqui brought a platter of figs and ham at midday. There seemed to be no end to the petitioners. For every two she sent off smiling, one left red-eyed or muttering.

Let's play a game. Which one would make the best monarch?

Daenerys. ↑

Robert.

Laws are a tedious business and counting coppers is worse. And the people … there is no end of them. I sit on that damnable iron chair and listen to them complain until my mind is numb and my ass is raw. - Eddard I, AGOT

Cersei.

"May I have the honor of accompanying Your Grace to court?"

"If you can bear the tedium," said Cersei. - Cersei VIII, AFFC

Bran.

"As you will, my prince," said Ser Rodrik. "You did well." Bran flushed with pleasure. Being a lord was not so tedious as he had feared - Bran II, ACOK

You said Bran, didn't you? Wrong.

It was a trick question, the answer is Sansa.

He caught a glimpse of Septa Mordane in the gallery, with his daughter Sansa beside her. Ned felt a flash of anger; this was no place for a girl. - Eddard XI, AGOT

x

"I'm sure I don't know why Arya does anything." Sansa hated stables, smelly places full of manure and flies. Even when she went riding, she liked the boy to saddle the horse and bring it to her in the yard. "Do you want to hear about the court or not?" - Sansa III, AGOT

+.+.+

It was close to sunset before Daario Naharis appeared with his new Stormcrows, the Westerosi who had come over to him from the Windblown. Dany found herself glancing at them as yet another petitioner droned on and on. These are my people. I am their rightful queen. 

George is relentless when trying to get a point across.

+.+.+

It was close to sunset before Daario Naharis appeared with his new Stormcrows, the Westerosi who had come over to him from the Windblown. Dany found herself glancing at them as yet another petitioner droned on and on. These are my people. I am their rightful queen. 

The Westerosi. Her people.

On the morrow I will be a woman wed, and Hizdahr will be king. Let him hold court. These are his people.

You have to be the biggest mark in the world to fall for this girl.

+.+.+

When Daario brought them forward, she saw that one of them was a woman, big and blond and all in mail. "Pretty Meris," her captain named her, though pretty was the last thing Dany would have called her. She was six feet tall and earless, with a slit nose, deep scars in both cheeks, and the coldest eyes the queen had ever seen. As for the rest …

Have we figured out why there's a Brienne?

+.+.+

Gerrold was a lean, tall youth with sun streaks in his hair and laughing blue-green eyes. That smile has won many a maiden's heart, I'll wager. His cloak was made of soft brown wool lined with sandsilk, a goodly garment.

Frog, the squire, was the youngest of the three, and the least impressive, a solemn, stocky lad, brown of hair and eye. His face was squarish, with a high forehead, heavy jaw, and broad nose. The stubble on his cheeks and chin made him look like a boy trying to grow his first beard. Dany had no inkling why anyone would call him Frog. Perhaps he can jump farther than the others.

Off to a great start.

+.+.+

"If it please Your Grace, may I first present my gift?"

"If you wish," Daenerys said, curious, but as Frog started forward Daario Naharis stepped in front of him and held out a gloved hand. "Give this gift to me."

Stone-faced, the stocky lad bent, unlaced his boot, and drew a yellowed parchment from a hidden flap within.

"This is your gift? A scrap of writing?" Daario snatched the parchment out of the Dornishman's hands and unrolled it, squinting at the seals and signatures. "Very pretty, all the gold and ribbons, but I do not read your Westerosi scratchings."

"Bring it to the queen," Ser Barristan commanded. "Now."

Dany could feel the anger in the hall. "I am only a young girl, and young girls must have their gifts," she said lightly. "Daario, please, you must not tease me. Give it here."

This is outrageous, and she let it happen.

+.+.+

"Prince Doran." He sank back onto one knee. "Your Grace, I have the honor to be Quentyn Martell, a prince of Dorne and your most leal subject."

Dany laughed.

The Dornish prince flushed red, whilst her own court and counselors gave her puzzled looks. "Radiance?" said Skahaz Shavepate, in the Ghiscari tongue. "Why do you laugh?"

"They call him frog," she said, "and we have just learned why. In the Seven Kingdoms there are children's tales of frogs who turn into enchanted princes when kissed by their true love." Smiling at the Dornish knights, she switched back to the Common Tongue. "Tell me, Prince Quentyn, are you enchanted?"

Laughing, then speaking in a language he can't understand. How rude.

"I do not speak your tongue," Quentyn answered. Though he could read and write High Valyrian, he had little practice speaking it. - The Merchant's Man, ADWD

+.+.+

"Tell me, Prince Quentyn, are you enchanted?"

"No, Your Grace."

"I feared as much." Neither enchanted nor enchanting, alas. A pity he's the prince, and not the one with the wide shoulders and the sandy hair. 

Get those spears ready, Doran. She's coming home.

+.+.+

"My father hoped that you might find me acceptable."

Daario Naharis gave a scornful laugh. "I say you are a pup. The queen needs a man beside her, not a mewling boy. You are no fit husband for a woman such as her. When you lick your lips, do you still taste your mother's milk?"

Ser Gerris Drinkwater darkened at his words. "Mind your tongue, sellsword. You are speaking to a prince of Dorne."

"And to his wet nurse, I am thinking." Daario brushed his thumbs across his sword hilts and smiled dangerously.

I'm supposed to believe this child (derogatory) is a good queen when she lets a sellsword speak to a prince of Dorne like this? A potential ally.

Quentyn may be dead, but the remaining Dornishmen will remember what happened here.

The Tattered Prince turned back to Quentyn. "Could that be true? Surely not. What of your marriage pact?"

"She laughed at him," said Pretty Meris.

Daenerys never laughed. - The Spurned Suitor, ADWD

+.+.+

Skahaz scowled, as only he could scowl. "This boy might serve for Dorne, but Meereen needs a king of Ghiscari blood."

But not Hizdahr zo Loraq, amirite Skahaz?

+.+.+

The queen rose. "Then we are done for now."

Daario and Ser Barristan followed her up the steps to her apartments. "This changes everything," the old knight said.

"This changes nothing," Dany said, as Irri removed her crown. "What good are three men?"

There's Barristan Selmy pushing her to make a bad decision. What else is new?

My unpopular opinion is that she made the right choice choosing Meereen over Quentyn.

Of course she'll abandon Meereen anyway, so I can't give her too much credit.

+.+.+

She found herself remembering her nightmare. Sometimes there is truth in dreams. Could Hizdahr zo Loraq be working for the warlocks, was that what the dream had meant? Could the dream have been a sending? Were the gods telling her to put Hizdahr aside and wed this Dornish prince instead? 

I'm laughing.

"Shade-of-the-evening, the wine of the warlocks. I came upon a cask of it when I captured a certain galleas out of Qarth, along with some cloves and nutmeg, forty bolts of green silk, and four warlocks who told a curious tale. One presumed to threaten me, so I killed him and fed him to the other three. - The Reaver, AFFC

If he gives her Pyat Pree I will die.

+.+.+

Something tickled at her memory. "Ser Barristan, what are the arms of House Martell?"

"A sun in splendor, transfixed by a spear."

The sun's son. A shiver went through her. "Shadows and whispers." What else had Quaithe said? The pale mare and the sun's son. There was a lion in it too, and a dragon. Or am I the dragon? "Beware the perfumed seneschal." That she remembered. "Dreams and prophecies. Why must they always be in riddles? I hate this. Oh, leave me, ser. Tomorrow is my wedding day."

The second Daenerys makes this connection you know the sun's son can't be Quentyn Martell. This girl only misses.

+.+.+

That night Daario had her every way a man can have a woman, and she gave herself to him willingly. The last time, as the sun was coming up, she used her mouth to make him hard again, as Doreah had taught her long ago, then rode him so wildly that his wound began to bleed again, and for one sweet heartbeat she could not tell whether he was inside of her, or her inside of him.

+.+.+

But when the sun rose upon her wedding day so did Daario Naharis, donning his clothes and buckling on his sword belt with its gleaming golden wantons. "Where are you going?" Dany asked him. "I forbid you to make a sortie today."

"My queen is cruel," her captain said. "If I cannot slay your foes, how shall I amuse myself whilst you are being wed?"

Do we believe him?

+.+.+

When he was gone, Missandei brought the queen a simple meal of goat cheese and olives, with raisins for a sweet. "Your Grace needs more than wine to break her fast. You are such a tiny thing, and you will surely need your strength today."

That made Daenerys laugh, coming from a girl so small. She relied so much on the little scribe that she oft forgot that Missandei had only turned eleven. 

The girl that keeps sneaking up on Daenerys is 11 years old.

:)

+.+.+

Afterward, as Jhiqui was patting Daenerys dry, Irri approached with her tokar. Dany envied the Dothraki maids their loose sandsilk trousers and painted vests. They would be much cooler than her in her tokar, with its heavy fringe of baby pearls. "Help me wind this round myself, please. I cannot manage all these pearls by myself."

[...]

"The day is too hot to be shut up in a palanquin," said Dany. "Have my silver saddled. I would not go to my lord husband upon the backs of bearers."

"Your Grace," said Missandei, "this one is so sorry, but you cannot ride in a tokar."

The little scribe was right, as she so often was. The tokar was not a garment meant for horseback. Dany made a face.

The mother of dragons rejects your baby pearls. She prefers the winged horse.

"All those pearls will make me rattle when I walk."

"The pearls symbolize fertility. The more pearls Your Worship wears, the more healthy children she will bear."

"Why would I want a hundred children?" - Daenerys VI, ADWD

+.+.+

Missandei reemerged from inside the pyramid. "Reznak and Skahaz beg the honor of escorting Your Grace to the Temple of the Graces. Reznak has ordered your palanquin made ready."

Meereenese seldom rode within their city walls. They preferred palanquins, litters, and sedan chairs, borne upon the shoulders of their slaves. "Horses befoul the streets," one man of Zakh had told her, "slaves do not." Dany had freed the slaves, yet palanquins, litters, and sedan chairs still choked the streets as before, and none of them floated magically through the air.

[...]

Dany made a face. "As you say. Not the palanquin, though. I would suffocate behind those drapes. Have them ready a sedan chair." If she must wear her floppy ears, let all the rabbits see her.

It's not terribly important, but remember this.

(Sounds like she still has slaves!)

+.+.+

The seneschal wore a tokar of maroon samite with golden fringes. "Hizdahr zo Loraq is most fortunate in you … and you in him, if I may be so bold as to say. This match will save our city, you will see."

"So we pray. I want to plant my olive trees and see them fruit." Does it matter that Hizdahr's kisses do not please me? Peace will please me. Am I a queen or just a woman?

+.+.+

"The crowds will be thick as flies today." The Shavepate was clad in a pleated black skirt and a muscled breastplate, with a brazen helm shaped like a serpent's head beneath one arm.

"Should I be afraid of flies? Your Brazen Beasts will keep me safe from any harm."

A serpent's head? Subtle!

Once she says that, I'm thinking those Brazen Beasts will not be keeping her safe. See The Meereenese Blot for more details.

+.+.+

The three Dornishmen were with him, talking, but they broke off when the queen appeared. Their prince went to one knee. "Your Grace, I must entreat you. My father's strength is failing, but his devotion to your cause is as strong as ever. If my manner or my person have displeased you, that is my sorrow, but—"

"If you would please me, ser, be happy for me," Daenerys said. "This is my wedding day. They will be dancing in the Yellow City, I do not doubt." 

It's amazing how quickly this marriage pact is dismissed. It barely occupies the chapter or her thoughts. It's practically a footnote.

Meanwhile Doran has his whole life and kingdom riding on it.

+.+.+

The old knight inclined his head. "The queen your mother was always mindful of her duty." He was handsome in his gold-and-silver armor, his white cloak streaming from his shoulders, but he sounded like a man in pain, as if every word were a stone he had to pass. "As a girl, though … she was once smitten with a young knight from the stormlands who wore her favor at a tourney and named her queen of love and beauty. A brief thing."

"What happened to this knight?"

"He put away his lance the day your lady mother wed your father. Afterward he became most pious, and was heard to say that only the Maiden could replace Queen Rhaella in his heart. His passion was impossible, of course. A landed knight is no fit consort for a princess of royal blood."

Ser Bonifer Hasty.

Ser Bonifer himself had been a promising knight in his youth, but something had happened to him, a defeat or a disgrace or a near brush with death, and afterward he had decided that jousting was an empty vanity and put away his lance for good and all. - Jaime III, AFFC

Who knows, maybe Daenerys will meet him one day.

+.+.+

"And my father? Was there some woman he loved better than his queen?"

Ser Barristan shifted in the saddle. "Not … not loved. Mayhaps wanted is a better word, but … it was only kitchen gossip, the whispers of washerwomen and stableboys …"

"I want to know. I never knew my father. I want to know everything about him. The good and … the rest."

She won't even say the word bad. Lol

+.+.+

"As you command." The white knight chose his words with care. "Prince Aerys … as a youth, he was taken with a certain lady of Casterly Rock, a cousin of Tywin Lannister. When she and Tywin wed, your father drank too much wine at the wedding feast and was heard to say that it was a great pity that the lord's right to the first night had been abolished. A drunken jape, no more, but Tywin Lannister was not a man to forget such words, or the … the liberties your father took during the bedding." His face reddened. "I have said too much, Your Grace. I—"

Bootlicking Barry is having a difficult time defaming the great Aerys Targaryen.

There's the passage that broke the brains of half the fandom.

It has been reliably reported, however, that King Aerys took unwonted liberties with Lady Joanna's person during her bedding ceremony, to Tywin's displeasure. Not long thereafter, Queen Rhaella dismissed Joanna Lannister from her service. No reason for this was ever given, but Lady Joanna departed at once for Casterly Rock and seldom visited King's Landing thereafter. - The World of Ice and Fire

Kind of hard for Aerys to be Tyrion's father when Joanna Lannister was never in King's Landing, no?

Anyway, did you enjoy this story of a jealous Mad King trying to interfere with a loving marriage between two cousins? We'll have to wait and see if we get another daddy-daughter parallel.

(I could be talking about two different couples! Isn't it fun!?)

+.+.+

Another procession had come up beside her own, and Hizdahr zo Loraq was smiling at her from his own sedan chair.

How did he know to travel on a sedan chair? She was supposed to ride in a palanquin.

+.+.+

My king. Dany wondered where Daario Naharis was, what he was doing. If this were a story, he would gallop up just as we reached the temple, to challenge Hizdahr for my hand.

Side by side the queen's procession and Hizdahr zo Loraq's made their slow way across Meereen, until finally the Temple of the Graces loomed up before them, its golden domes flashing in the sun. How beautiful, the queen tried to tell herself, but inside her was some foolish little girl who could not help but look about for Daario. If he loved you, he would come and carry you off at swordpoint, as Rhaegar carried off his northern girl, the girl in her insisted, but the queen knew that was folly. Even if her captain was mad enough to attempt it, the Brazen Beasts would cut him down before he got within a hundred yards of her.

My eyes couldn't roll further back.

She actually framed Rhaegar carrying off Lyanna at swordpoint and raping her as love. She's been told the same story as everyone else.

+.+.+

Galazza Galare awaited them outside the temple doors, surrounded by her sisters in white and pink and red, blue and gold and purple. There are fewer than there were. Dany looked for Ezzara and did not see her. Has the bloody flux taken even her? 

Daenerys is always wrong, so I don't know what to make of this. People seem to believe Ezzara is a Pahl?

"You have no lack of enemies, Your Grace. You can see their pyramids from your terrace. Zhak, Hazkar, Ghazeen, Merreq, Loraq, all the old slaving families. Pahl. Pahl, most of all. A house of women now. Bitter old women with a taste for blood. Women do not forget. Women do not forgive." - Daenerys I, ADWD

Maybe, but I don't know where they're getting that from.

+.+.+

He has gentle hands, she mused, as warm fragrant oils ran between her toes. If he has a gentle heart as well, I may grow fond of him in time.

When her feet were clean, Hizdahr dried them with a soft towel, laced her sandals on again, and helped her stand. Hand in hand, they followed the Green Grace inside the temple, where the air was thick with incense and the gods of Ghis stood cloaked in shadows in their alcoves.

Four hours later, they emerged again as man and wife, bound together wrist and ankle with chains of yellow gold.

Sorry Hizadahr, the breaker of chains (or her dragons) will not be subdued.

Four hour wedding not long after a speedy northern wedding. Is there a message here?

Final thoughts:

It was mentioned on Reddit this chapter had to be rewritten five times. Can anyone verify George said that?

This doesn't feel like a hard chapter to write.

-> return to menu <-

[yenneferdivengerberg]

Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones 2.10: “Valar Morghulis"

➻Doreah took a fever and grew worse with every league they crossed. Her lips and hands broke with blood blisters, her hair came out in clumps, and one evenfall she lacked the strength to mount her horse. Jhogo said they must leave her or bind her to her saddle, but Dany remembered a night on the Dothraki sea, when the Lysene girl had taught her secrets so that Drogo might love her more. She gave Doreah water from her own skin, cooled her brow with a damp cloth, and held her hand until she died, shivering. Only then would she permit the khalasar to press on.

➳Xaro Xhoan Daxos would be no help to her, she knew that now. For all his professions of devotion, he was playing his own game, not unlike Pyat Pree. The night he asked her to leave, Dany had begged one last favor of him. “An army, is it?” Xaro asked. “A kettle of gold? A galley, perhaps?” Dany blushed. She hated begging. “A ship, yes.” Xaro’s eyes had glittered as brightly as the jewels in his nose. “I am a trader, Khaleesi. So perhaps we should speak no more of giving, but rather of trade. For one of your dragons, you shall have ten of the finest ships in my fleet. You need only say that one sweet word.” “No,” she said. “Alas,” Xaro sobbed, “that was not the word I meant.” “Would you ask a mother to sell one of her children?” “Whyever not? They can always make more. Mothers sell their children every day.” “Not the Mother of Dragons.” “Not even for twenty ships?” “Not for a hundred.” His mouth curled downward. “I do not have a hundred. But you have three dragons. Grant me one, for all my kindnesses. You will still have two and thirty ships as well.” Thirty ships would be enough to land a small army on the shore of Westeros. But I do not have a small army. “How many ships do you own, Xaro?” “Eighty-three, if one does not count my pleasure barge.” “And your colleagues in the Thirteen?” “Among us all, perhaps a thousand.” “And the Spicers and the Tourmaline Brotherhood?” “Their trifling fleets are of no account.” “Even so,” she said, “tell me.” “Twelve or thirteen hundred for the Spicers. No more than eight hundred for the Brotherhood.” “And the Asshai’i, the Braavosi, the Summer Islanders, the Ibbenese, and all the other peoples who sail the great salt sea, how many ships do they have? All together?” “Many and more,” he said irritably. “What does this matter?” “I am trying to set a price on one of the three living dragons in the world.” Dany smiled at him sweetly. “It seems to me that one-third of all the ships in the world would be fair.” Xaro’s tears ran down his cheeks on either side of his jewel-encrusted nose. “Did I not warn you not to enter the Palace of Dust? This is the very thing I feared. The whispers of the warlocks have made you as mad as Mallarawan’s wife. A third of all the ships in the world? Pah. Pah, I say. Pah.” Dany had not seen him since. His seneschal brought her messages, each cooler than the last. She must quit his house. He was done feeding her and her people. He demanded the return of his gifts, which she had accepted in bad faith. Her only consolation was that at least she’d had the great good sense not to marry him.

[reginarubie]

I liked your take on Dany and blood magic. I wanted to ask you about why Mirri was helping Drogo in first place when he was wounded? Also when Dany accuse Mirri for killing Rhaego, she didn't deny it. She claimed that it's good as now Rhaego will never going to terrorise people. It seems like Mirri know about prophecy of Stallion who mount the world. But I don't understand why she was helping Dany at first place. Do you think she was doing this in good faith?

Hello!

I am glad you liked my interpretation on blood magic, in the beginning when I started reading the books it was jarring at first that such a thought may come to me, but the more I delved into the asoiaf lore the more it made sense.

Anyway, back to your question. The whole character of Mirri (as well as many that Daenerys encounters early on) is very compelling and created ad hoc to draw, in my opinion, certain conclusion from Dany and in the reader about Dany and how her moral and ideals were askew to begin with.

I feel like a premise (bear with me it will be a bit long because there are things that I have to explain a bit more in the detail) is necessary before delving into my answer to your question. And the premise is this one, I don't think — philosophically nor in practice — that certain people (and therefor certain characters in fiction) are born evil, or mad, or bad and neither that they are born good, and saint and healthy (mentally and physically). I think people are simply people, they are born with the potential to be both, it's the way they are raised, the trauma they endure, the challenges they face and mostly the way they react that makes them either this or that, and it's never a clean cut. You're evil and wrong, you're good and saint.

As I said in the post you refer to: this one and another reply on the same matter, see here I think that Daenerys, as a character has as many flaws as she has merits, and that dying and being reborn (after a fashion, this is mostly a theory I have that will be either confirmed or disproved by Jon post-resurrection, but I digress) enhances both leaning towards what she recognises herself as. 

In clearer words, in the asoiaf world we have several instances (in the story currently being told) of people returning from the death and in each case them being returned from the dead has changed or twisted something inside of them and they have (in some cases) assumed a whole new personality and identity and they’ve become an enhanced version of what they envision/choose to be. My theory pertaining this can be easily explained:

Ser Beric Dondarrion → was charged by Eddard Stark to bring to justice the Mountain and the Lannister men that were terrorising the Riverlands after the capture of Tyrion by Catelyn. Beric dies at the Mummer’s Ford and is revived by the Last Kiss performed on him by Thoros of Myr a red priest following the Red God. After his resurrection, Beric Dondarrion seems to formally forget all of his duties to his household and keep and remains in the Riverlands as a brigand and outlaw and creates the Brotherhood without Banners with which he assaults Lannister men in the Riverlands. From a ser, charged with a mission to an outlaw who has made of that mission his life purpose. 

Catelyn Stark aka Lady Stoneheart → Catelyn Stark dies at the Twins during the wedding between Edmure and Roslin Frey; as she dies she is pleading with Old Walder Frey to let her son, her only remaining son, alive. When Beric Dondarrion gives his life for hers, by performing on her the Last Kiss (a prayer/magic he learned from Thoros of Myr) she returns from the dead as Lady Stoneheart, her whole demeanour and attitude so changed that she cannot be anymore, neither formally, nor in substance, Lady Catelyn Stark thus Martin has signalled this complete change in identity and personality giving her a new name, befitting of her new identity, Lady Stoneheart. What has her death and rebirth made of Catelyn Stark, a mother?, it has made her a vengeful mother whose only purpose in life is avenging her children by destroying the Freys and the Lannisters. 

Daenerys Targaryen (imo, as I’ve said in the post referenced above) → now, here we delve in my own theory as it is not canonically recognised that Daenerys actually died in the Red Waste albeit the text does seem to hint at that and it makes more sense with the whole blood ritual as many comments on how Daenerys died in the Red Waste and became Daenerys Targaryen, wearing her name as a true Targaryen (for a more detailed outline, for anyone interested, I’ve discussed this and what it entails in the first post linked above). Anyway, before she enters the pyre Daenerys was already changing from the scared, quiet girl we meet at the beginning of AGOT, it all begins with her dreams, in which she sees the black dragon defending her, defining her as she starts bit by bit in styling herself more after him than after herself. By the time she enters the pyre she has already started this metamorphosis and the betrayal by Mirri (as she lives it) is a stepping stone, with the death of Rhaego and Drogo, toward her completely embracing her new identity that of Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of dragons and (as later she herself muses at one point, Mother of monsters — ADWD, Daenerys II) it is telling in fact that as Daenerys is the only POV by which we see her journey thus far, that before this moment, AGOT end, Daenerys always refers to herself as Dany and seldomly as Daenerys, she sometimes thinks she is a Targaryen but the first time she herself thinks of herself as Daenerys Targaryen is at first neutrally when she weds Drogo, as if it was merely a news she was relying to herself, then when she thinks she never felt like a princess until she rode her mare; but even in those cases is always tinted with something she is not or was not feeling like, or tinged with fear; the first time she actually does so without outer fear but by pride and starting to recognise herself as such is at first when she comments on how dragons feed on sheep and horse without distinctions and how she is the blood of Aegon and Maegor up until after she has exited the pyre when the metamorphosis is complete. After this moment Daenerys Targaryen changes her identity, styling it even more on the dragon of her dream, and her attitude, demeanour changes based on how she perceives herself. Before she was a scared girl with a goal in mind (return home and take back the IT) who was growing bolder and stronger, a girl capable of feeling empathy but also capable of turning away of not looking back to not see and detach herself from the ruin brought around and after her; after she is reborn in fire and blood (yeah, it’s not a coincidence I am using her House words, it has a meaning linked with my theory on how Azor Ahai is a dark hero, Daenerys might be it and Drogon might be her Lightbringer based off the fact that there are parallels between Daenerys and how she works and Lucifer/Samael; you can find it in this series of posts ) she is an enhanced version of that girl, she is brazenly confident (although she does feel fear upon occasions), a conqueror, she feels empathy and acts on it only to give way because of her higher goal, she is embracing the dragon (Mercy, thought Dany. They will have the dragon's mercy — Daenerys II, ADWD, notice this happens just before she gives leave to an expert torturer to torture young girls before their father for informations she isn’t even sure she might have).

Jon Snow → at the moment Jon is laying dead, but we know by the show that he will be returned to life by Melisandre a priestess of the Red God. Now, since Jon has been defined as half a wolf, half a wildling (I see what you are, Snow. Half a wolf and half a wildling — Jon X, ADWD), I think his rebirth will either make or break my theory, as if I am right Jon will enhance who he identifies with, and who is that?, you might ask, the answer is simple, all in all, the only thing Jon ever wanted to be was a Stark, his whole journey is imbued in his wish to be recognised as a Stark, but his true identity is not simply that of a Stark but that of the fiercest Stark’s defender and we see it from the moment he’s first shown to us in GOT, Bran I because as soon as they discover the direwolves and the adults want to mercy-kill them it’s Jon who advocates and convinces Ned to let them keep the pups and it’s done by him willingly omitting himself from the count of Ned’s children (which again, foreshadowing for the parentage reveal but that’s nothing new to us by now). He sacrifices himself time and time again to defend the Starks, why, book canon wants him killed not because he let the wildling through the Wall (tho that does play a part), he gets killed in the books because he decides to get out of its place of neutrality the Watch by leading it against the Boltons to defend Jeyne who is posing as Arya Stark, his sister. He dies the Stark’s defender, if he will rise even more of a Stark defender (as the show suggests — he becomes a kinslayer to save his siblings from Daenerys; which is the worst thing one can be by Westerosi standards) it will mean that dying and returning from the death basically does not change you, but enhances the truth of yourself, it enhances the bad and good (petty, baby-swapping Jon is returning and is returning updated I’m telling you) in a way that is completely absolute.

An important consideration to make is that in all this occasions we are coincidentally featuring a red priest, a red priestess from Asshai and a maegi who has learned this skill in blood magic by a shadowmage in Asshai. It is not coincidental as the faith in the Lord of Light, while being especially based in Volantis is mostly linked with Asshai and its culture, why the whole prophecies recorded about the Lord of Light and his champion, Azor Ahai reborn are found in the Book of Asshai.

So, to return to your question we have to start with this premise to say this the Daenerys Mirri meets in the beginning it’s not the same Daen

The first point we should discuss is why they meet and they meet because Daenerys has convinced Drogo (helped also by the attempt of her life) to move west and take back the Seven Kingdoms in her and their son’s names; for doing so Drogo needs ship enough for his khaleesar and to purchase ships he needs even more wealth than he has, thus he raids and during one of this raids Daenerys meets Mirri Maz Duur.

I am the blood of the dragon, Daenerys Targaryen reminded herself as she turned her face away. She pressed her lips together and hardened her heart and rode on toward the gate.

(...)

Slaves, Dany thought. Khal Drogo would drive them downriver to one of the towns on Slaver’s Bay. She wanted to cry, but she told herself that she must be strong. This is war, this is what it looks like, this is the price of the Iron Throne.

— Daenerys VII, AGOT

This is when I say she is capable of feeling empathy to a point, but is also able to detach herself, look away in order to reach her goal, the IT (if I look back I am lost does take a different meaning in that light, doesn’t it?).

Each time Dany reined up, sent her khas to make an end to it, and claimed the victim as slave. One of them, a thick-bodied, flat-nosed woman of forty years, blessed Dany haltingly in the Common Tongue, but from the others she got only flat black stares. They were suspicious of her, she realized with sadness; afraid that she had saved them for some worse fate.

(...)

“I am khaleesi, heir to the Seven Kingdoms, the blood of the dragon,” Dany reminded him. “It is not for you to tell me what I cannot do.”

(...)

“No man can stand before the sun of my life,” Dany said, “the father of the stallion who mounts the world.”

— Daenerys VII, AGOT

So yes, Mirri Maz Duur knows that the child Daenerys is carrying may very well be the Stallion who mounts the world, because Daenerys herself says so, and if you read the tone of her phrase is worshipping, proud and filled with condescending towards anyone else who isn’t she (who is a Targaryen and we know how Targaryens thought about them being superior of other men), her sun and stars and her son, the stallion who mounts the world. And even if I did not believe in prophecies, she does, and in Mirri’ shoes I would’ve been concerned about her doing everything in her power to make sure her son truly becomes the stallion who mounts the world. 

When she was done, Drogo was frowning. “This is the way of war. These women are our slaves now, to do with as we please.”

“It pleases me to hold them safe,” Dany said, wondering if she had dared too much. “If your warriors would mount these women, let them take them gently and keep them for wives. Give them places in the khalasar and let them bear you sons.”

Qotho was ever the cruelest of the bloodriders. It was he who laughed. “Does the horse breed with the sheep?”

Something in his tone reminded her of Viserys. Dany turned on him angrily. “The dragon feeds on horse and sheep alike.”

— Daenerys VII, AGOT

Now, besides her saying hold instead of keep, we do see her morals are askew here, don’t we? And I bet Mirri did too. Why is the use of the word hold important over the word keep, because hold in my experience of English (and I could be wrong since I am not a native speaker) is usually used pertaining things while keep can be used both for things and people (keep safe someone) now the fact that she uses the word hold means she still envisions them as slaves. They are slaves for her to do as she pleases and she pleases that they are safe because of her, but as said above they were afraid that she had saved them for some worse fate. That is the mindset of a slaver. 

Khal Drogo smiled. “See how fierce she grows!” he said. “It is my son inside her, the stallion who mounts the world, filling her with his fire. Ride slowly, Qotho . . . if the mother does not burn you where you sit, the son will trample you into the mud. And you, Mago, hold your tongue and find another lamb to mount. These belong to my khaleesi.” 

— Daenerys VII, AGOT

And if we see this connected to Aerea Targaryen (who died cooking from within and was considered to have fire inside of her for her temperament) and Laena Velaryon (who was considered a fiery girl) it does sound a bit disturbing to us readers. But even more to someone like Mirri. Yes, this child has saved them, she has saved them because it pleases her pride and her persona, not because she thinks it’s right (otherwise she would not have that mindset); if one day she was to change her mind what would happen to them? A worse fate perhaps?

“Silver Lady,” a woman’s voice said behind her, “I can help the Great Rider with his hurts.”

Dany turned her head. The speaker was one of the slaves she had claimed, the heavy, flatnosed woman who had blessed her.

“The khal needs no help from women who lie with sheep,” barked Qotho. “Aggo, cut out her tongue.”

Aggo grabbed her hair and pressed a knife to her throat.Dany lifted a hand. “No. She is mine. Let her speak.”

— Daenerys VII, AGOT

Now, Mirri has supposedly blessed Daenerys when she has stopped her rape, which I would too, I would thank her as well if I had just be spared another raping. 

“I meant no wrong, fierce riders.” The woman spoke Dothraki well. 

The robes she wore had once been the lightest and finest of woolens, rich with embroidery, but now they were mud-caked and bloody and ripped. She clutched the torn cloth of her bodice to her heavy breasts.

So, this far we know that Mirri was a godswife of the temple of her people, someone her people kept in high consideration as signalled by the clothes she was wearing before the Dothraki had attacked. Her life has been turned upside down only because Daenerys wishes to take the Iron throne (instead than settling in the life she so much likes between the Dothraki as powerful khaleesi and mother of the next khal). 

 “I have some small skill in the healing arts.”

“Who are you?” Dany asked her.

“I am named Mirri Maz Duur. I am godswife of this temple.”

“Maegi,” grunted Haggo, fingering his arakh. 

A maegi was a woman who lay with demons and practiced the blackest of sorceries, a vile thing, evil and soulless, who came to men in the dark of night and sucked life and strength from their bodies.

“I am a healer,” Mirri Maz Duur said.

“A healer of sheeps,” sneered Qotho. “Blood of my blood, I say kill this maegi and wait for the hairless men.”

Dany ignored the bloodrider’s outburst. This old, homely, thickbodied woman did not look like a maegi to her. “Where did you learn your healing, Mirri Maz Duur?”

“My mother was godswife before me, and taught me all the songs and spells most pleasing to the Great Shepherd, and how to make the sacred smokes and ointments from leaf and root and berry. When I was younger and more fair, I went in caravan to Asshai by the Shadow, to learn from their mages. Ships from many lands come to Asshai, so I lingered long to study the healing ways of distant peoples. A moonsinger of the Jogos Nhai gifted me with her birthing songs, a woman of your own riding people taught me the magics of grass and corn and horse, and a maester from the Sunset Lands opened a body for me and showed me all the secrets that hide beneath the skin.”

(...)

“Why should you want to help my khal?”

“All men are one flock, or so we are taught,” replied Mirri Maz Duur. “The Great Shepherd sent me to earth to heal his lambs, wherever I might find them.”

So, Mirri has learned from many people. Especially she spent many years in Asshai and learned from them the art of healing and their dark sorceries. And, when asked Mirri says that all men are one flock. Now, this could be the truth I do question it, but I think to speak of people’ motivations one should consider everything. Slavery might be a concept we are unfamiliar with, a concept belonging to far away lands or faraway times, but in that time it was not so. Mirri knew she was a slave and what this entailed, and how could she better insure she had a possibility of leading a good life (even as a slave) or maybe even be freed than by pleasing the gullible woman who has saved her from one of her rapists?, she was seeing a chance, she took it. If it went bad and the woman did not free her nor let her lead a good life, Mirri could always change midway and poison the khal or kill herself, if it went well she might be freed. Or so it would seem. But...

“You must say the prayers I give you and keep the lambskin in place for ten days and ten nights,” she said. “There will be fever, and itching, and a great scar when the healing is done.”

Khal Drogo sat, bells ringing. “I sing of my scars, sheep woman.” He flexed his arm and scowled.

“Drink neither wine nor the milk of the poppy,” she cautioned him. “Pain you will have, but you must keep your body strong to fight the poison spirits.”

(...)

“As you say, rider,” the woman answered him, gathering up her jars and bottles. “The Great Shepherd guards the flock.”

— Daenerys VII, AGOT

The Great Shepherd guards the flock, and all people are one flock, or maybe not. Maybe Mirri has taken in her hands the fate of the khal to defend her flock from the Great Rider. 

The next chapter opens with Drogo falling off his saddle because of the fever.

Eroeh stared fearfully at Drogo where he lay. “He dies,” she whispered.

Dany slapped her. “The khal cannot die. He is the father of the stallion who mounts the world. His hair has never been cut. He still wears the bells his father gave him.”

Eroeh is one of her slaves, she saved her from a raping, yet so easily she slaps her when the girl shows her fear. And we can say Daenerys was scared as well, yet, this gets worse when she sends Eroeh away from her side, so, by the time Drogo dies and his khaleesar breaks apart Eroeh is seized by Mago, he rapes her, gives her to his new khal and she is gang-raped then killed. Daenerys who had her sent away from her side, swears vengeance for her, but will in time even forgets her face. 

Anyway, after they discovered that the wound has festered Jorah begs Daenerys to flee because neither her nor the child are safe after Drogo dies, which looks like will happen soon. Then Mirri enters the tent:

A stirring at the tent flap made Dany turn her head. Mirri Maz Duur entered, bowing low. Days on the march, trailing behind the khalasar, had left her limping and haggard, with blistered and bleeding feet and hollows under her eyes. Behind her came Qotho and Haggo, carrying the godswife’s chest between them.

Is this the way Daenerys keeps her slaves safe and in health, especially after she asked (instead of commanding) that Mirri helps her through the birth of Rhaego when the time comes?; a woman like Mirri who had been clad in the best of clothes that could be found between the Lamb Men, has not been kept safe by the khaleesi, she’s being used. She’s being treated as a slave. Even if Daenerys lacked the power to free whoever she pleased, if she treated them as people and not slaves they would’ve felt in a different way toward her. 

“No,” Dany said. “I will not have her harmed.”

Are you sure? Because she seems like she has been harmed enough while you were superficially looking another way.

Dany turned back to Mirri Maz Duur. The woman’s eyes were wary. “So you have saved me once more.”

“And now you must save him,” Dany said. “Please . . . ”

“You do not ask a slave,” Mirri replied sharply, “you tell her.” She went to Drogo burning on his mat, and gazed long at his wound.

This, if Mirri wasn’t already in bad faith, wanting to avenge her people by killing Drogo when she offered to treat him, this is the moment this changes. Because she has seen that life as a slave of this khaleesi is not worth anything, because she has lost all else, all she thought hopelessly Daenerys might give her as to how she had posed herself as a saviour of sorts. 

Bear in mind, the fact that Mirri might want to extract revenge on Drogo does not mean she means Daenerys’ harm, besides Daenerys own askew idea that a raped woman would like to marry her rapist, she has indeed saved Mirri from more hurt and she could not have known before seeing it what the Dothraki were doing. So Mirri might have been inclined to kill Drogo and do nothing to Daenerys, to her knowledge the woman would have lived in the Dosh Khaleen as a revered widow of a khal. At the worst her babe, the Stallion who mounts the world, would have been taken care of as well and Mirri had defended the flock. In her mind it might have been a sound plan. 

“He has been dulling the hurt with milk of the poppy.”

“Yes,” Dany admitted.

“I made him a poultice of firepod and sting-me-not and bound it in a lambskin.”

“It burned, he said. He tore it off. The herbwomen made him a new one, wet and soothing.”

“It burned, yes. There is great healing magic in fire, even your hairless men know that.”

“Make him another poultice,” Dany begged. “This time I will make certain he wears it.”

“The time for that is past, my lady,” Mirri said. “All I can do now is ease the dark road before him, so he might ride painless to the night lands. He will be gone by morning.”

Her words were a knife through Dany’s breast. 

What had she ever done to make the gods so cruel? She had finally found a safe place, had finally tasted love and hope. She was finally going home. And now to lose it all . . . “No,” she pleaded. “Save him, and I will free you, I swear it. You must know a way . . . some magic, some . . . ” 

So, Drogo has done exactly what Mirri told him not to do and has made so that the wound festered and he was about to die. 

Now, if we know that Mirri thinks she is a slave, because of the way she has been treated, she knows she cannot refuse and thus is forced to comply with this blood ritual. Now, does it come as a surprise that she might want to have at least revenge for all she and all the people she knew and cared for have lost?

“Then you truly are a maegi . . . ”

“Am I?” Mirri Maz Duur smiled. “Only a maegi can save your rider now, Silver Lady.”

If we see that and put it together with her almost off-screen comment on how the Shepherd God keeps his flock safe it does sound a bit villainous pass me the term. So, yeah, she might have predetermined she wanted to kill Drogo from the beginning; tho she might have meant no harm to Daenerys.

“Death?” Dany wrapped her arms around herself protectively, rocked back and forth on her heels. “My death?” She told herself she would die for him, if she must. She was the blood of the dragon, she would not be afraid. Her brother Rhaegar had died for the woman he loved.

“No,” Mirri Maz Duur promised. “Not your death, Khaleesi.”

Daenerys does wrap her arms around herself protectively but not around her belly her first thought is for herself, not for her child. She is trembling with relief when Mirri tells her that the ritual won’t claim her life, she doesn’t even asks if the child she carries in her womb may come to harm because of it. 

“Go with them, Silver Lady,” Mirri Maz Duur told her.

“I will stay,” Dany said. “The man took me under the stars and gave life to the child inside me. I will not leave him.”

“You must. Once I begin to sing, no one must enter this tent. My song will wake powers old and dark. The dead will dance here this night. No living man must look on them.”

— Daenerys VIII, AGOT

So Mirri does warn her in some way, she must not enter the tent. No matter what. I truly think Mirri is grateful in way for the fact that Daenerys saved her, but she also feels that she is beyond saving, there is no worth in her life anymore is there is no choice for her but to obey. She has matured the feeling that she cannot be free, unless Daenerys frees her formally and substantially. We know what happens then, Daenerys disregard everything the Dothraki stands for and believe in to save Drogo’s life, thus she is pushed and falls on her belly, causing her to go in early labour which causes her to be in such a pain she cannot stop Jorah from taking her inside the tent, condemning her son even further. 

next chapter she learns the truth, and it opens ominously.

Wings shadowed her fever dreams.

I won’t delve into the entire foreshadowing on this opening line of Daenerys IX, but it is compelling for the journey up ahead. Especially since a line often repeated is:

“You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?”

Because this is the moment the dragon finally wakes in Daenerys. 

She felt sad, and yet . . . she could feel Rhaego receding from her, as if he had never been.

Ser Jorah and Mirri Maz Duur entered a few moments later, and found Dany standing over the other dragon’s eggs, the two still in their chest. It seemed to her that they felt as hot as the one she had slept with, which was passing strange. 

“Ser Jorah, come here,” she said. She took his hand and placed it on the black egg with the scarlet swirls. “What do you feel?”

“Shell, hard as rock.” The knight was wary. “Scales.”

“Heat?”

“No. Cold stone.” He took his hand away. “Princess, are you well? Should you be up, weak as you are?”

“Weak? I am strong, Jorah.” 

She just lost a child, yet she feels strong. The blood rite twisted Rhaego, gave life to the father, but the strength Mirri said must go to the father...it went to the mother. To Daenerys.

Her dream just before she wakes is of a grown Rhaego, with a silver-gold braid and copper skin, and I wonder, could it not be the same as her dream pertaining Rhaegar?, where she sees her brother in armour as voices chant the last dragon, and yet we she rises the visor of the helmet she sees herself? Is she taking not only her son’s strength due the blood rite but his fate as well in a way?

“Monstrous,” Mirri Maz Duur finished for him. The knight was a powerful man, yet Dany understood in that moment that the maegi was stronger, and crueler, and infinitely more dangerous. “Twisted. I drew him forth myself. He was scaled like a lizard, blind, with the stub of a tail and small leather wings like the wings of a bat. When I touched him, the flesh sloughed off the bone, and inside he was full of graveworms and the stink of corruption. He had been dead for years.”

Darkness, Dany thought. The terrible darkness sweeping up behind to devour her. If she looked back she was lost.

So, she birthed a chimera because the blood rite twisted Rhaego’ flesh and now she cannot look back, she won’t do it, because otherwise she’s lost.

“No,” Mirri Maz Duur said. “That was a lie you told yourself. You knew the price.”

“Leave us. I would speak with this maegi alone.” Mormont and the Dothraki withdrew. 

“You knew,” Dany said when they were gone. She ached, inside and out, but her fury gave her strength. “You knew what I was buying, and you knew the price, and yet you let me pay it.”

“It was wrong of them to burn my temple,” the heavy, flat-nosed woman said placidly. “That angered the Great Shepherd.”

“This was no god’s work,” Dany said coldly. If I look back I am lost. “You cheated me. You murdered my child within me.”

“The stallion who mounts the world will burn no cities now. His khalasar shall trample no nations into dust.”

“I spoke for you,” she said, anguished. “I saved you.”

“Saved me?” The Lhazareen woman spat. “Three riders had taken me, not as a man takes a woman but from behind, as a dog takes a bitch. The fourth was in me when you rode past. How then did you save me? I saw my god’s house burn, where I had healed good men beyond counting. My home they burned as well, and in the street I saw piles of heads. I saw the head of a baker who made my bread. I saw the head of a boy I had saved from deadeye fever, only three moons past. I heard children crying as the riders drove them off with their whips. Tell me again what you saved.”

“Your life.”

Mirri Maz Duur laughed cruelly. “Look to your khal and see what life is worth, when all the rest is gone.”

—Daenerys IX, AGOT

So, back to your question.

 I feel like Mirri is a more complex character than many give her account for, perhaps she did not mean to kill Daenerys or harm her from the beginning, for Daenerys did spare her some harm, although only to a superficial looker. She might have wanted to see if she could gain freedom, but above all, Mirri was a woman of her God, the Shepherd God, who is peaceful by all accounts we are given, yet Mirri has spent many years in Asshai, she has seen many things, is it wondrous she would try to save the flock by killing off the men who threaten to destroy it and make it dust?

Maybe it’s more complex than that. 

Mirri might have wanted to spare Daenerys harm, and maybe she even meant to give her son a chance, but after having seen the way the mother conducted herself?, after having seen what Daenerys is ready to sacrifice to get her wish, her IT she might have lost hope in that, and decided to avenge her flock.

I think she might have been in good faith toward Daenerys in the beginning, the same cannot be said certainly for Drogo and after she has seen the way Daenerys treated those she claimed as her own she lost hope in both her and her son Rhaego. She might have acted to kill Drogo (hoping he may tear off the poultice?, seems unlikely) and when Rhaego ended up dead too she might have thought this was the will of her God who was guarding the flock and defending it from the demons who threatened to burn it to dust. 

What I can say is this, free choice has had a good deal of importance. Drogo did tear off his poultice, I cannot say that poultice would not have killed him, but Mirri had no way to know he would do that, tho she could suspect he would not follow her instructions by the way he had acted. She might have done something similar to a doctor, treated her patient because her morality and her belief that all men are one flock demanded it of her and all lives were to be saved, but left the rest in the hands of the God, and her God decreed both man and child dead, which was maybe her end goal. Because it secured that no one would unite all the people of the world bringing death, war and destruction in his/her wake. What Mirri did not count on was the blood rite, she did not count on Daenerys going through with that, nor to learn how to do it properly to bring dragons in the world, becoming in the end what Rhaego might have been. Because show canon Daenerys in the end wants to free the whole world from tyrant, and we know that tyrants are all rulers who aren’t her. 

Sorry for the length of the reply!, thank for the ask and I hope you enjoyed the read tho!, what do you think? And I wish you a very good day!

[asongofsilks]

ASOIAF FANCASTING --> EVERY NAMED FEMALE CHARACTER ABOVE THE AGE OF FIVE, PART XVI

Daenerys Targaryen (b. 284 AC): The youngest child of King Aerys II and his wife Rhaella. When Robert's Rebellion broke out, Aerys sent his pregnant queen to Dragonstone, where she died giving birth to Daenerys. She and her older brother Viserys were smuggled to safety by Ser Willem Darry, who cared for them in a house in Braavos, but after his death she and Viserys ended up wandering the Free Cities. They eventually find refuge at Magister Illyrio's in Pentos, where Viserys concocts a plan to reconquer Westeros with a Dothraki army and weds Dany to Khal Drogo to gain this army. Dany finds strength on the Dothraki sea and settles as a khaleesi, whilst Viserys is killed for disrespecting their customs and threatening his pregnant sister. When Drogo succumbs to infection following a wound, Daenerys tries to revive him with the help of Mirri Maz Duur using black magic, but her unborn son Rhaego is slain for the sacrifice and Drogo is only brought back to be trapped in his dead body. Dany smothers him and burns Mirri Maz Duur on his funeral pyre, where she enters the fire and hatches three dragons out of dragons' eggs that have turned to stone. Now with her own small but loyal band, she travels first to Qarth and then to Slavers' Bay, looking for the means to reconquer Westeros. But rather than purchase fighting slaves, she makes war on the slave cities and devastates Astapor and Yunkai. After taking Meereen, she decides to stay and rule over the city rather than see it fall into chaos. However, she is unable to enact a lasting peace between the freedmen and former slave owners, and after a child is killed by her dragon Drogon, she locks up his brothers (Drogon does not let himself be captured). As part of the attempt to stop attacks on the freedmen, she marries Hizdahr zo Loraq. However, at the reopening of the fighting pits, Drogon returns and spreads devastation until Dany mounts him and flies out of the city. Drogon flies to the Dothraki sea, where the khalasar of Khal Jhaqo, an old enemy, finds her. Fancast: Emilia Clarke.

Daenora Targaryen (b. approx. 215 AC): Youngest child of Prince Rhaegel Targaryen and his wife, Alys Arryn. She was sister to Aelor and Aelora Targaryen. She was married to her cousin, Aerion Targaryen, and had a son, Maegor, with him before his death by drinking wildfire. She was not considered as an heir for her uncle, King Aerys I, and the Great Council of 233 AC passed over her son's claim on account of his infancy and his father's madness. Fancast: Reese Witherspoon.

Daenys Targaryen (b. approx. 128 BC): The daughter of Aenar Targaryen, a dragonlord of the Valyrian Freehold. She foresaw the destruction of Valyria twelve years before it happened. Her father heeded her visions, sold all their holdings in the Freehold, and moved the family to the island of Dragonstone, which became the first seat of the Targaryens in Westeros. She was married to her brother Gaemon, who was later called Gaemon the Glorious, and they ruled Dragonstone together. Fancast: Emily Baldoni.

Princess Daeryssa (Age of Heroes): A princess who, the songs say, was once saved from giants by the legendary knight Serwyn of the Mirror Shield. (My own headcanon: Though likely retconned out of existence, I thought Daeryssa might be a king's daughter from any of the small kingdoms of the age of Heroes, maybe with a mother of Valyrian blood.) Fancast: Seychelle Gabriel.

Dalla (main series era): A serving woman at Dragonstone, part of Stannis Baratheon's staff. Fancast: Jessica Baglow.

Dalla (d. 300 AC): The wife of Mance Rayder, chosen King-Beyond-the-Wall to lead the Free Folk in their flight from the Others. She dies giving birth to her son during the battle between Mance's forces and the army of Stannis Baratheon. Fancast: Julia Ormond.

Dancy (main series era): A prostitute at Chataya's establishment in King's Landing. Fancast: Cintia Dicker.

Danelle Lothston (b. approx. 190 AC): The last of her House, she was the Lady of Harrenhal and Head of House Lothston in her own right. She wore armour and led men into battle, notably when she called her banners to end the Second Blackfyre Rebellion in its infancy at Whitewalls. During the reign of Maekar I, she reportedly turned to the dark arts, which caused her madness and the downfall of the Lothston line. People still tell stories of her bathing in blood and eating children. Fancast: Oksana Butovskaya.

Danny Flint (probably lived after the Conquest): She was a girl who joined the Night's Watch, pretending to be a boy. However, when her secret was found out, she was raped and murdered by her sworn brothers. Her song claims that her ghost still walks the Nightfort. Fancast: Ava Acres.

Darla Deddings (lived 130 AC): During the Dance of the Dragons, rioteers in King's Landing attempted to rape Lady Darla and her brother was killed defending her. Fancast: Kaitlyn Dever.

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