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lupinusalbus · 5 years ago

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Season 8 Plot: Jon and Dany are Tainted; Sansa Rises (Part 1)

There was so much wrong with seasons seven and eight of Game of Thrones, especially with the portrayals of most of the major characters. Many of the show characters are quite different in some aspects from what they are in the books, but we know that many of the end points will be very similar. We also know that Martin likes to subvert expectations about “heroes”. This may mean both Jon and Dany are slated to be sullied as characters in TWOW, not just Dany alone. What follows is my theory of why the writing in season 8 went down the way it did. It doesn’t mean I believe the writing and characterizations were actually good. In part 2, I will get more specific about what I think the writers were actually trying to accomplish, muddled as it was. If we look at the skeleton outline of what happened towards the end of the series, however, it looks something like this:

Jon is disillusioned, but his reunion with Sansa inspires him to take up the Stark’s seemingly hopeless cause

Dany arrives at Dragonstone and plans her conquest

Jon and Sansa take back Winterfell, their relationship deepens

Jon’s personal renewal upon being named King in the North causes him to continue his mission to act against the Night King. This leads him to his fateful meeting with Daenerys Targaryen.

Dany falls in love with Jon and agrees to fight in the North after losing a Dragon trying to rescue him. Jon kneels to Dany; they go North with her armies. Meanwhile, the Night King breaks through the Wall with Viserion.

Jon learns about his true heritage. In the meantime, Dany has received a chilly reception from the Starks, especially Sansa who wants to continue with Northern Independence.

The Night King is defeated; killed by Arya Stark. Heavy losses are suffered by Dany’s armies and the Northern forces. Dany is disturbed by the implications of Jon’s lineage when she sees how much the Northerners love him. Their sexual relationship becomes troubled as Jon experiences qualms about it. She asks Jon to keep his true parentage a secret.

Jon tells the Starks who he really is. Sansa tells Tyrion, who tells Varys. Meanwhile, Dany and Jon head South separately to fight Cersei.

Dany loses Rhaegal. Missendai is executed by Cersei; Dany becomes more paranoid and isolated.

Varys plots to overthrow Dany in favor of Jon Snow. He is discovered and burned alive. Jon reaffirms his political fealty to Dany but again rejects her advances and she concludes that she must rule by fear in Westeros. Dany knows that Sansa has plotted against her.

Dany and Jon move to attack King’s Landing. Tyrion frees Jaimie who was captured by Dany’s forces while sneaking into King’s Landing.

Rather than accept the surrender of Cersei’s forces, Dany goes “mad” and burns King’s Landing and much of the populace to cinders. Her forces and the Northern forces commit atrocities. Jaimie and Cersei die; Jon Snow is horrified by what Dany has wreaked.

At her victory rally at the Red Keep, Dany announces her plans to liberate the world. Tyrion throws his Hand’s badge down the steps in a dramatic display and Dany has him arrested. Tyrion convinces Jon that he must act against Dany before it’s too late.

Jon kills Dany as they kiss in front of the Iron Throne and Drogon absconds with her body. Jon is arrested off camera.

Bran is named King; Tyrion is his hand. Sansa secures the North’s continuing independence. Jon is sentenced to go back to The Wall in an apparent compromise between Gray Worm and the Starks.

Arya sails off to explore unknown territory under the Stark Banner, Sansa is named Queen in the North, Jon sets out beyond The Wall to resettle the Wildlings. It’s unclear when or whether he plans to return.

(More Below the Cut)

The biggest story arc in the final two seasons is that of Dany and Jon’s political/personal alliance and subsequent military actions. Almost all of the other stories play out against this backdrop. If we could encapsulate Dany’s story in a nutshell, it could be divided into her life before and after she met Jon Snow. Soon after she met him, she decided to decimate much of the Lannister army in the Loot Train attack, which gave her an advantage against Cersei. Dany was weakened by going North with Jon and fighting against the Night King, both militarily and personally. It can be argued that her relationship with Jon Snow brought about her downfall. We don’t know whether Jon and the Starks could have defeated the Night King without Dany, however it looks like this is at least a possibility because of the way the story played out. The Stark’s plan essentially outwitted the Night King by using Bran as bait, and when he went down, the entire AOTD went down with him. Had it played out a bit differently, it’s conceivable that it could have been done without Dany. At any rate, Dany’s journey to the North eventually weakened her in more ways than one.

Dany and Jon at the Battle for Winterfell (HBO)

Dany’s Love for Jon Snow - a Fateful Event

As I wrote previously, Dany’s relationship with Jon was very different from her previous two. In her marriage to Drogo, Dany began as the weaker partner who was basically treated like a piece of property; however improbably, they did grow to love each other. Gradually, she gained power to the point where Drogo ended up dying because Dany demanded that he stop some rapes that were occurring after a raid. In her relationship with Daario Naharis, Dany was the dominant partner. She easily left him behind when she sailed for Westeros.

After Jon arrives at Dragonstone to seek Dany’s help against the Night King, Dany becomes infatuated with him. Jon’s personal integrity, conscientiousness and restraint represent an advancement for Dany compared to her past relationships. However, these very qualities of Jon’s are also what will seal her doom.

We don’t get to see very much of Jon and Dany’s relationship before she finds out that he is a Targaryen and technically her rival for the throne. However, Jon has bent the knee to Dany, and as such he is obligated to be deferential. When Jon learns of the true circumstances of his birth from Samwell Tarly, he immediately reacts to Sam’s suggestion that Dany should not be Queen by calling it treason. During the Battle for Winterfell, the two seem to work in tandem although Jon prioritizes Bran’s safety over Dany’s. This happens immediately after Jon tells Dany about his birth, and after the battle it causes a rift to develop in their relationship.

In the scene after the celebratory feast at Winterfell, Dany tells Jon that she loves him. Jon is ultimately unable to make love to her which leads Dany to have a melt down over his parentage. Jon swears that he doesn’t want the throne and will be loyal. But he then takes exception to Dany’s demand that he keep his secret from Sansa and Arya. Although Jon continues his political loyalty to Dany, their emotional attachment is now deeply disturbed.

There is no doubt, however, that Dany wishes to continue their relationship. In the scene of the two together at Dragonstone, she tries to heal their rift, and he again rejects her advances. And just before her death, Dany envisions them working side by side together as Targaryens; probably in a marriage as has been their custom. Although we can argue about what love means to a flawed character like Dany, there is no doubt that her feelings for Jon Snow continued until the end.

This scene at Dragonstone between Dany and Jon is pivotal and provides an important glimpse into Dany’s dark side. We don’t see whether Jon was summoned or if he just showed up to talk to Dany; but we do get to see her reaction to being thwarted. Jon’s qualms about continuing their physical relationship (read as rejection by Dany) is seemingly projected onto Westeros at large by Dany with the implication being that the lack of love being shown her is what causes her to unleash her fury.

Jon’s Faustian Bargain

The impending invasion of the Night King placed Jon in a difficult situation with regard to his relationship with Dany, since persuading her to help him was paramount. As King in the North, his commitment was to protect his people and the Starks. He keenly feels the weight of his responsibilities, just as he did when he was Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. His instinct is usually to try and unite rather than divide and also to first look to people’s best qualities rather than antagonize them. This is why many in the Night’s Watch felt him to be a natural leader. Those who would take different tacks, such as Alesair Thorne would always be a problem or threat to people such as Jon who are more visionary in nature.

In spite of his prowess and bravery in conflicts and on the battlefield, Jon does not enjoy these pursuits. His natural inclination is that of an idealistic protector who possesses a strong sense of right and wrong - an honorable man in the mold of his foster father, Ned Stark. In spite of not being a “true” Stark, Jon has loved the Stark family and wished to defend and avenge them during the War of the Five Kings and the Battle of the Bastards. In love relationships, Jon is cautious, but “loyal and true”, as Ygritte tells him. His natural impulse is not to dominate or use women, like many of the men on Game of Thrones. Jon sometimes shows a bit of chauvinism when interacting with his sisters, but we can’t expect him not to display these qualities from time to time in the world of the show. All in all, he is an exceptional and admirable person with a good conscience, though not as shrewd as the book character.

One reason that Jon’s relationship with Dany becomes so problematic is their clashing world views. Jon could not have helped but see this early on in their interactions because of Dany’s dictatorial and regal style. Of course there was another side to Dany which she sometimes demonstrated with intimates, but Jon’s natural inclination is to be wary of people who behave arrogantly. Although its difficult to determine exactly what the show’s writers were trying to do with Jon’s character during season 7, it’s safe to say that Jon was unlikely to have sought a romantic relationship with Dany, but instead was drawn into it because of her attraction to him. From the outset, their overall motives were not compatible: Dany’s was to conquer Westeros; Jon’s was to save it. And while Dany’s slogan of breaking the wheel may have given her traction with enslaved peoples, in Westeros it tended to fall short.

Much of the drama of season 7 was about whether or not these two characters would get together, as allies and/or as lovers. There are really only three possibilities for Jon’s inner feelings about his relationship with Dany, although we know Dany’s feelings for Jon. The first is that Jon loves or at least admires her sincerely; the second is that he is manipulating her and feels no love (but does have sexual desire); and the third is that he is drawn into the relationship because of a combination of the dire circumstances they are facing and Dany’s obvious ardor for him. The third possibility makes the most sense to me and does not completely preclude political motives on his part.

Jon’s relationship with Ygritte is something of a model for his later relationship with Dany. Ygriite was the aggressor, and although she may have started down that path as a way of engineering her escape, her feelings for Jon soon became genuine. In any case, Jon wasn’t the pursuer initially in that relationship, and Ygriite’s personality tended to overpower his. Their relationship was messy because of external factors and Jon eventually had to “return to himself” by leaving Ygritte. There is a similar dynamic at play in Jon’s relationship with Dany. The possibility that Jon could be lead astray by a woman also seemed to be something that Sansa feared had happened upon Jon’s return to Winterfell with the Dragon Queen; she had hinted as much to Jon early in season 7, before Dany had even come into the picture.

The show presents Jon as having given up his crown in order to gain Dany’s assistance. This is how Jon explains and justifies what he did to the Northmen in an assembly and also to Sansa and Arya. Jon giving up the crown seems to be the issue that upsets the Starks and others more than Dany’s mere presence in the North with her forces. Especially for Sansa, Northern independence should not have to be on the table anymore, but Jon has given it away without consulting her. To Sansa, Jon has fallen under the spell of a usurper whom she doesn’t trust. However, near the end of season 7 Dany had first offered to fight with Jon without his having bent the knee, which is what Jon purportedly had wanted all along.

The fact that he then bends the knee anyway suggests that he has in some sense become more sympathetic to Dany. Perhaps he feels that he must give something up to her because she lost a dragon in her attempt to rescue Jon and the others. Perhaps he really doesn’t value the crown; but if this is the case, why did he accept it, especially knowing how much it means to Sansa? Jon most likely feels that he is playing it smart by putting aside his pride but also has some kind of feeling for Dany after her rescue attempt and offer to fight with him. Like Ygritte, Dany is a warrior who physically puts herself on the line, and this is attractive to Jon.

In Jon’s eyes he is trading his crown (and Northern independence) for Dany’s support; but mixed into this bargain is an emotional bond. The attraction seems stronger on Dany’s side, but Jon has allowed himself to be drawn in, and as Varys observes, to be overshadowed by Dany’s all-consuming quest. But just as in his relationship with Ygritte, there is a side of Jon to which he must ultimately remain true - his loyalty to the North and his real family.

Was Sansa Right All Along?

At the beginning of Season 7, Sansa advises Jon that he needs to be smart because Robb and Ned Stark had made stupid mistakes. Sansa’s overall assessment seems to be that Ned and Robb were naive and had underestimated their enemies. Sansa first gets this feeling about Jon around the time of the Battle of the Bastards. She doesn’t approve of Jon’s decision to attack Ramsay’s army with the low number of men they have been able to muster. She also correctly intuits that Jon will fall into a trap that Ramsay is likely to be preparing. In the end, Sansa saves the day by having requested help from Littlefinger and the Knights of the Vale, but it turned out that her misgivings about Jon were accurate.

In season 8, Sansa’s misgivings about Dany are also eventually proven correct when Dany evolves into a destructive tyrant and burns King’s landing. All along Sansa and Arya had expressed their distrust of Dany to Jon, but Jon does not really listen and goes on supporting Dany. Jon claims more than once that the Starks just don’t know Dany well enough yet, implying that they’ll eventually come to like her, and he also expresses to Dany a belief that they all can live together. Presumably he means they can all co-exist in Westeros.

Sansa and Arya get nowhere with Jon when they try to talk to him before he leaves for Dragonstone. At this point, Jon also tells them about his true identity as the son of Lyanna and Rhaegar. It is soon after this that Sansa moves to protect Jon and the North by revealing his secret to Tyrion Lannister.

From the perspective of how Game of Thrones ends up, the most prescient character all along was indeed Sansa. Her insight into Jon’s tendencies began at the Battle of the Bastards and is foreshadowed by her comment to him about needing to be smarter than Ned and Robb. Sansa also remarks to Dany that men do stupid things for women, which can only be taken at face value by the audience. Dany’s remark about “who is manipulating whom”, probably does not imply true canniness on the part of Jon but is actually a reference to Dany’s own infatuation with him combined with her desire to placate Sansa.

Jon had kept the interest of the North in mind by focusing on the threat of the Night King, while Sansa had all along remained motivated by continuing the Northern independence which Jon’s crowning had reinstated. Her distrust of Dany was based upon several factors, but insight into Dany’s true propensities that later turned out to be correct was probably a major driver. This is not really spelled out by the show; we are only given lines like Arya’s to Jon about Sansa being the “smartest person I know.” This possibility seems to have pretty much escaped Jon, who is focused on the Night King and his sense of indebtedness to Dany.

Sansa and Jon (The Starks) bring about Dany’s Downfall

Jon’s character arc in season 8 appears to only confirm Sansa’s misgivings about him. Here are a few actions by Jon which were likely perceived as alarming by Sansa:

He bent the knee, which we know Sansa disapproves of, not only because Dany is a Targaryen but because Sansa has become devoted to the cause of Northern independence. Sansa wanted Jon to remain King in the North.

Sansa perceives Jon’s “love” for Dany (which he probably admitted to her in episode one) as a sign that he is again vulnerable to making poor judgements as she saw him do in the past and which remind her of other male Starks.

Jon’s repeated assurances that Dany will be a good queen despite evidence to the contrary.

Jon’s fealty to Dany even after learning of his parentage. What did Sansa think of this? We didn’t get to hear, but her spilling the beans to Tyrion tells us she believes it to be a mistake. We have to believe that Sansa told Jon as much after Bran revealed the truth about him, and he wouldn’t listen.

What stands out about Sansa during all of this is that she trusted her own judgements over Jon’s and ultimately acted upon them in opposition to Jon’s instructions. Since Sansa is correct about Dany, she is shown to have the best judgement and therefore lives up to her implied “smartness”. Of course Jon’s character arc of naivete and blind devotion is deeply disappointing and antithetical to some of his past actions. Yet Sansa’s misgivings about his judgement are seemingly proven true in the end. Jon’s decision to kill Dany, which was portrayed as being more about protecting Sansa than about Dany’s fitness, was not reached until almost the last minute, and only after a discussion with Tyrion in which he seems to defend Dany. Unfortunately this is what the show gave us, but in the end, the Starks are mostly on the ascent because of Sansa and Jon. It is likely that Sansa telling Tyrion about Jon’s Targaryen heritage contributed to Dany’s burning of King’s Landing. This is evidenced by her paranoia, self pity and instability in her scene with Jon after Varys’s execution. Soon afterwards, Jon ended Dany’s life and the tipping point for him was almost certainly his (late) realization that Dany would likely try to kill Sansa.

Part 2 will be about the plot the writers may have intended to portray.

#jon snow #Sansa Stark #sansa and jon #daenerys targaryen #the starks #game of thrones #got season 8 #bad writing got

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noqueenbutthequeeninthenorth · 6 years ago

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season 5

Season 5 was actually better than I remember. I still think they do a shitty job of making Sansa’s marriage to Ramsay make any goddamn sense in Littlefinger’s overall ~scheme~ but once I accepted that I could move past it. As Sansa says in season 6, either he knew what Ramsay was and he’s her enemy or he didn’t know and he’s an idiot. Neither quite makes sense.

And obviously I love Sansa and this season both sucks and is important to her character arc. Sophie does a lovely job as ever. IDK. It was hard to watch.

The lead-up to Jon’s betrayal is pretty good. I was never a huge fan of the Olly character but I appreciated what they were trying to do with him.

I also honestly forgot that it took so long for Jon and Tormund to become friends??? Like, in my head they’re BESTIES but actually Tormund doesn’t come around on him until they go to Hardhome in 5.08.

Hardhome is still good, btw. It’s a good battle. Honestly, I thought it was episode 9 because it feels like an episode 9.

The shit that goes down in the House of Black and White makes NO SENSE. I just need to get that out there. I hate the faceless men tbh and I wish Arya had done something else. I get it, like in terms of her plot and character arc and all that. I just hate them and find their cult extremely annoying.

I’m hoping if TWOW ever comes out, we get a little more convincing build up from “Stannis is a difficult man but he loves his daughter” to “Hell yes let’s burn Shireen!” Anyway, Shireen is PRECiOUS and did nothing wrong and deserved better.

Speaking of people who are precious and deserved better: MYRCELLA. I love her.

The Dorne plot sucks and we all know it. I still am not quite sure where the Dorne plot was going in the books but it was obviously LOADS better than this shitshow. And don’t even get me started on the stupid fucking sand snakes being characterized as super sexy poison temptresses or whatthefuckever. The entire thing where one of them keeps flirting with Bronn is insane, it’s like an old man’s disgusting fantasy. “Bad pussy.” #NeverForget

Cersei’s plot in this season is amazing bc it goes from her thinking she’s so smart and fucking with Loras and Margaery in majorly evil ways and us as viewers wanting her to get caught out for being a hypocrite, to us as viewers ROOTING FOR HER because the shit she goes through is so awful. Like, I don’t root for Cersei longterm. But her imprisonment? The walk of atonement? It’s such disgusting bullshit that I end up CHEERING when Qyburn and FrankenMountain show up to help her. And those dudes are the creepiest!

Obviously a lot of this is due to Lena Headey being AMAZING. Her face is soooo good.

I also think Jonathan Pryce as the High Sparrow is QUITE good. I hate him, but he’s excellent at being extremely earnest while doing despicable stuff that he genuinely believes is good.

Sam and Gilly. Cute as HELL.

So it turns out I was wrong that Tyrion never feels bad about killing Shae in the show, so that’s .... nice I guess. It doesn’t really help but it’s. Something. I’m trying to not hold this grudge forever. The show just fucked this up so bad.

Okay and that brings us to Daenerys and Mereen. Honestly? I think this plot is good because ruling is EXTREMELY hard. In the books I really fell in love with Dany during this arc, believe it or not. She felt the most HUMAN to me because for the first time since she’d gotten her dragons, she was running up against problems she couldn’t just burn down. In the show it’s not nearly as complex obviously, but they do a great job of conveying 1) how dangerous the dragons are, and 2) the fact that Dany truly doesn’t seem to know much about Mereen, nor did she have any political plans beyond “end slavery,” which, while obviously very good, isn’t a full plan to run an entire place. And the thing is? Dany realizes this. She herself says that if she can’t rule Slaver’s Bay, how will she rule Seven Kingdoms? She says that she won’t abandon Mereen and let the people she freed end up enslaved again. And yet .......... ultimately, what happens? Dany wants to do good, and she’s an excellent conqueror, but an excellent conqueror does not an excellent ruler make and unfortunately she kind of ends up using Mereen as basically an experiment that goes really wrong, before deciding, fuck it, off to Westeros, let’s leave Daario “let’s just kill everyone” Naharis in charge.

Sidenote: Am I the only one who feels kinda bad for HIzdahr? Like, he’s a little shit from a family of shits, but he works very hard to accommodate Dany, offers her tips on how to better rule and understand Mereen, and for that he’s threatened with being burned alive, imprisoned, and then forced to marry the woman who threatened/imprisoned him ... and then ultimately get killed by the very people he was trying to help smooth things over with.

I’m still frankly unconvinced by Varys backing Dany. Like, sure, she’s the best option among the known field of contenders, but he’s also seen no evidence that she has the capacity to rule the Seven Kingdoms with any success. I’m not saying he shouldn’t back her, just that he doesn’t even MEET HER before he joins her side. He arrives in Mereen just as she disappears on Drogon and is left to rule the city with Tyrion.

More on Dany disappearing on Drogon. I do feel like..... that’s the moment where she decides: her dragons are more important than her people. I think it’s crucial that she makes this decision. I think she still cares about the people, still very much wants to do good, but she was the Mother of Dragons before she was Mhysa, and that’s still where her priorities lie. The occasional dead little girl is worth the cost of her dragons’ existence and freedom, and her own goals.

Missandei and Grey Worm are still just THE BEST, their romance is so lovely and sweet and slow-burn.

#long post #SORRY #i shouldn't have packed it all into one post but i got really caught up in it so wasn't doing regular recaps lol #molly's pre-season 8 rewatch

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aegor-bamfsteel · 3 years ago

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In the same book that Daemon’s wife is identified as Rohanne (twoiaf) there‘s another Tyroshi woman, Kiera, married to not just one but two Targaryen princes who were expected to succeed their fathers as king. So this isn’t Early Installment Weirdness where Tyroshi brides were considered lesser than they ended up being by Fire and Blood era (when the Archon’s daughter was proposed as a match for Jaehaerys one), but were nearly always thought of as princely brides since they became relevant. Da3ron had his own policies that diverged from his father’s, and I guess he didn’t want to waste any sons‘ hands on Aegon’s ideas (even though Aerys’ betrothal seemed to be a long time coming, possibly even after the Rebellion; and unless Mountain Dornish houses bar Yronwood were likewise upset at bearing the brunt of Da3ron I’s conquest but getting few benefits, I’m struggling to think of advantages to Maekar’s match). If he didn’t want to betroth one of his sons to Rohanne, he would’ve had to let the match continue or buy the Archon off.

Not only does the match get Daemon out of the Red Keep like Cat said, Da3ron gets to present himself as “kind and just” (an embarrassing amount of the fandom thinks it’s great he “gave Daemon a keep and a wife”, when he didn’t even give him a keep, and the establishment of House Blackfyre was to avoid angering Rohanne’s family), and perhaps most importantly: Da3ron had already had it in his mind that Daemon—the 14 year old to his 31—would rebel; he wanted this future rebellion to have the fewest allies possible. As the Florents, Hightowers, Tyrells, and Martells proved elsewhere, some of the strongest, most loyal allies are sealed with a marriage contract. Imagine if Daemon had wed…probably not a Lord Paramount’s daughter, but into a “second-tier” house like Reyne or Peake (I fully assume given their characterization regarding Queenship, pre-Rohanne they tried for a betrothal), or even to Caron or other marcher house, that would’ve given him a base of loyal fighters without having to do much. Rohanne, as a foreigner that speaks a different language and practices another religion (as the reaction to Larra Rogare showed, Westeros is highly xenophobic), and who comes from a city that doesn’t value martial prowess, would give Daemon the least amount of usable allies and might even turn a few of the pious away from him. Of course the joke is on Da3ron (using Westerosi xenophobia to stick it to teenagers while trying to integrate a kingdom you’ve been at war with for generations has a chance of backfiring), because after the Rebellion Rohanne rescued the cause by giving them a base of operations in Tyrosh and educating their children, but Da3ron didn’t count on the marriage being as successful as it was.

A side note: this is something of a headcanon based on the obviously Valyrian name Kiera versus the not Valyrian Rohanne. Although wealth is valued more than birth in Tyrosh, in sister cities Myr and Lys there are ancient families where “the blood of Valyria” runs strong; Lys is especially favored for beautiful women as wives/mistresses of Targaryens because they look Valyrian. A reason why the Archon might’ve agreed to the match with a landless not yet legitimized child—other than gambling that he might get land and legitimacy—whereas another Archon like Kiera’s relative would be able to demand a prince, is because Rohanne was not Valyrian or from any old bloodline, (she doesn’t even have a last name like the freeborn working poor Daario Naharis, Roro Uhuris, or originally Moreo Tumitis, which led me to speculate that maybe her family were freedmen) and the Archon agreed to wed them to show the Valyrian-Tyroshi that his family were worthy of marrying into that of the last dragonriders. Otherwise, I don’t think he would’ve accepted such a mismatched offer. Basically, both Da3ron and Aegon treated Rohanne and family as lesser due to their foreign, non-Valyrian origins; this probably contributed to her actions pre and post Rebellion.

Why would you think the archon agreed to betroth Rohanne to Daemon ? Wouldn't he have rathered a betrothal with Aerys ?

because aegon iv proposed it

because daeron ii was willing to pay the dowry

because daeron’s legitimacy was being questioned

and because daemon seemed like aegon’s favourite child since daemon was gifted blackfyre, an ancestral valyrian sword

this ended up paying off for a while since daemon was legitimised by aegon and later declared king.

@godihatethisfreakingcat what do you think?

#asoiaf #asoiaf headcanon #rohanne of tyrosh #aegon iv #anti daeron ii

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romanaisalive · 7 years ago

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Got

Now this is STRICTLY show, I have other preferences in the book.

favourite female character: Olennafavourite male character: Benjenleast favourite female character: Cersei (I enjoy her as a villain but...no)least favourite male character: Rhaegar rn because WTF DUDEfavourite ship: maybe Jaime/Brienne but I don’t have strong shipsleast favourite ship: Dany/Daario Naharisfilm/tv show rating: 6/10 (really good scenes and CGI but the plot and the characterizations are all over the place)

#ask #game #got #okaynextcrisis

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loavesofoaves · 8 years ago

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Game of Thrones Episode 7.01 Review

Cut for Spoilers

Shall we begin?

This is the single line of dialogue Daenerys utters after an entire scene where nothing really happens except pretty music, breathtaking backgrounds, and setup to her return to her family home, Dragonstone. It also sums up an episode that on the surface has some promising stuff going in but is mostly filler.

Arya’s Revenge

Whelp, the leaks were real. After slitting Walder Frey’s throat at the end of season 6, Arya is still thirsty for blood and decides to poison the entire Frey clan (save presumably the women and children) at a feast while wearing Walder’s face. While it is exciting to see those responsible for the Red Wedding get what’s coming to them from the last Stark they expected, the scene feels unearned. First, Arya’s vendettas have always been against individuals and having her mass murder with poison (especially when “Weasel Soup” was omitted from Season 2) just doesn’t seem her style. Two, because Arya’s Braavos arc was clumsily handled in the show, we never saw her learn how to wear others’ faces, so to have her imitate Walder Frey so flawlessly requires suspension of disbelief. Third, while we know Arya has the motive for this murder, we have not seen the setup other than a quick scene at the end of the previous season. How long has she planned this out? Why did she take this detour when she stated to Jaqen in season 6 that she was a Stark and was going home? When did she find out offscreen that Robb’s wife had been pregnant? How long has she been masquerading as Walder? The whole thing just feels rushed, fanservice-y, and the classic D & D “creatively it made sense so we wanted it to happen.”

To top things off, we also get a scene of Arya running into a group of Lannister soldiers who offer her some rabbit and are shown to be presumably decent human beings. I could make some bullshit excuse and say the scene exists to create sympathy in Arya and question her judgments toward her enemies (especially with her fresh from murdering all the Freys, mirroring Sansa’s attitude that the children should be punished for the crimes of the whole family), but we have proof that this scene was added to give an Ed Sheeran cameo as a surprise for Maisie Williams, who is a known fan.

Da fuq.

This is a whole new level of pandering to actors low, even for D & D. I have nothing against Sheeran, or even the scene itself—it’s an OK scene—but my concern is that because this season has been condensed, this is not the most efficient use of screentime. Maybe the scene will have payoff in the future, but I just can’t help but feel like it was shoehorned in as an afterthought, especially with the thoughtless use of a song that is supposed to be about Tyrion and Shae.

Bran Arrives at the Wall

That’s it. That’s really all there is to say. Which is all well and good—I’d rather have the episode skimp on parts that don’t need to be fleshed out rather than add in unnecessary filler (which is why Bran’s storyline in the show is one of the least offensive. Less is sometimes more). We do get a nice long creepy vision of the Night’s Army, so that’s cool. I don’t really get why Bran’s psychic prowess and snooping on Edd’s life proves his identity, but there are better things to get annoyed about.

Jon Is That Kind of Feminist that Will Mansplain the Second You Disagree with Him

We see Jon, Sansa, and Davos addressing a crowd of Northern Lords at Winterfell. Jon declares that both boys and girls must train for the upcoming war, and when one of the lords disagrees, Lyanna Mormont shuts him down by saying that she isn’t going to sit around knitting socks while there’s a war going on.

Well, excussssse me, princess, but you need warm fucking clothes to survive a winter war, so someone has to knit the fucking socks. Say it with me kids: FEMINISM DOES NOT MEAN DISSING TRADITIONALLY FEMININE ACTIVITIES.

But Jon does have a point: This is the war to end all wars and half the population should be able to defend themselves. And we do get a nice moment with Brienne feeling validated, so I’m totally here for that.

Next, there is a debate on what should be done to the Umber’s and Karstark’s lands. Sansa wants to give them away to more loyal houses, but Jon insists that the surviving children of the traitor lords who perished in the battle with the Boltons should not be punished for their fathers’ crimes. They argue as sketchy Littlefinger smirks and grinds up against a wall like he’s taking a really satisfying shit. Ew. Seriously, like, could you be any less subtle?

Book! Littlefinger is such a good villain because he’s charming and charismatic and he makes people want to believe him. But Show! Littlefinger continues to be a mustache-twirling charlatan whose time is clearly running out. Even Sansa is shooting him down and insulting him with witty zingers at this point. He will never be able to recover from D & D’s poor writing choices from Season 5, but hey, he’s supposed to be one of the final villains soooooooo…

Anyways, the Jon-Sansa argument feels manufactured, as it’s out-of-character for Sansa to speak up in a public setting like that (but then again, when has show! Sansa had consistent characterization?). We get a scene afterwards of Jon scolding Sansa for criticizing him in public (where’s your “I’m With Her” shirt now, Jon?), but she reassures him that she is just trying to look out for him so he doesn’t make the same mistakes as Ned or Robb. She also warns Jon that Cersei is just as big of a threat as the White Walkers, and interestingly, Jon says, “It sounds like you almost admire her.” While I don’t buy this “Is Sansa power-hungry?” subplot, I am all for a Sansa-Cersei showdown in the near future.

Speaking of…

Pirates of the Caribbean 6: Why Is Jaime Still Here?

Seriously. I’m not amused anymore. Even if you throw the books out the window, how does it make any narrative sense for Jaime to still be standing by Cersei? She did exactly the thing Jaime feared the Mad King would do—a man he killed knowing his reputation would forever be tarnished because of it. And last season’s finale seemed to suggest he was finally done, with his look of disapproval at Cersei when she ascended the throne.

But nope. Jaime is still here because D & D fucked up his character arc by sending him to Dorne and now they don’t know what to do with him after half-assing his Riverlands plotline. Sure, he’s a little ticked off that Cersei’s irresponsibility led to Tommen’s death, but that’s not a dealbreaker. He wants to talk about his feelings, but Cersei—who the show has repeatedly emphasized as loving her children—no longer gives any fucks. THIS is finally book! Cersei. A delusional woman who has no regard for loyalty or logic and only loves her children and Jaime as extensions of herself, she ignores basically everything Jaime has to say, furthering my query as to why the fuck he just doesn’t up and leave.

Well, I can foresee what might cause this eventual rift: a certain swaggy pirate. Frankly, show! Euron with his new wardrobe looks like my headcanon of Daario Naharis (sans the blue beard). But whatever, let’s roll with it. He has changed his tune and now wants to marry Cersei, not Daenerys, in order to get revenge on his niece and nephew. He offers her his fleet in exchange for her hand (while also making a joke about Jaime’s lack of two hands), but Cersei declines. Eurio Greyjaris, however, promises to come back with a gift to persuade her.

Now I am OK with Cersei and Euron becoming the big bad power couple, but this would be, ahem, more dramatically satisfying if D & D had actually bothered to develop Euron instead of, you know, DORNE.

Welcome to the Shitadel

In probably the most uncomfortable training montage ever, we see Samwell at his glorious unpaid internship at the Citadel cleaning up shit and serving bowls of something that looks like shit in rapid succession and retching—ugh, just thinking about it makes me want to barf. But hey, I’ll give credit where credit is due: This was an effective way to convey the passage of time and show, not tell, Sam’s hardships. Especially when Sam’s storyline has been skimped on and was in desperate need of some catching up.

The Citadel is also Hogwarts, because first-years are not allowed into the restricted section in the library and Slughorn is there (although I totally did not recognize him). Samwell asks Professor Slughorn if he can have permission to go to the restricted section because the world is basically going to end if no one reads up on those white walkers, and Slughorn promptly tells him that Climate Change is a hoax invented by Dorne. Thus, Sam steals the books and looks over them with Gilly and toddler Sam, who has finally aged accordingly.

Oh, and Sam realizes he should tell Jon about all the dragonglass at Dragonstone even though Stannis already did several seasons ago?

Oh, and also Jorah is there dramatically thrusting his rock arm out and rotting away in a cell.

And Finally Some Progress: The Gravedigger

So I am biased because I am a Sandor Clegane stans, but damn it, it is nice to see him get the screentime he deserves for once. We find the Hound traveling north (although this is in the Riverlands, and it wasn’t snowing at the Twins where Arya was but fuck geography!) with Beric Dondarrion and Thoros of Myr. They stumble upon the house he robbed in Season 4, and just as he predicted, the kind father and daughter he screwed over have died. Finally coming to terms with his actions, Sandor shows remorse and buries their bodies, noting that they deserved better.

There’s also a fair amount of banter with Beric and Thoros here, which is good, because it looks like we’re going to be seeing more of them. After dissing Thoros’s man bun, he asks him why he’s so grumpy and the Hound responds, “Experience.”

Same.

Sandor asks Beric why he’s still alive when there’s nothing special about him (because there’s no Lady Stoneheart for him to die for) and then Thoros has the Hound look into the flames and instead of coming back with a zinger, Sandor does indeed see what looks to be the vision of the walkers we saw earlier in the episode and…a mountain…

~airhorn sounds in the distance~

CALM DOWN IT’S NOT TIME FOR CLEGANEBOWL YET.

They do seem to be headed for Eastwatch by the Sea, which is also where Tormund is going…hmmmmm…

What’s the deal with Dragonstone?

And finally, we get Team Targaryen landing at Dragonstone, which has conveniently been deserted by Team Stannis after being so disappointed by how he was handled in Season 5 that they couldn’t even anymore.

And….that’s the end of the episode. I wouldn’t mind, as the music and visuals for the scene almost make up for the lack of dialogue, but god damn deadpan Daenerys just isn’t showing the emotion this scene deserves. I just don’t feel the significance of Dragonstone here, so perhaps maybe this scene could’ve benefited from some dialogue.

And hell, I just realized Ed Sheeran had more lines than Peter Dinklage in this episode. Let that sink in.

Overall

This episode was OK. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad either. I thought we got some much-needed coverage of the Hound’s and Sam’s plotlines while also covering the usual bases. Barring the cold open massacre (which as I said before, was purely fanservice), it was a very standard first episode of the season, and a yearlong+ hiatus was not going to change that. But the problem with that is that this is a shorter season than usual, so we shall see if things from here on out have problems with pacing, which, based on past experience, they probably will be.

5/10

And a confession: This Tormund hitting on Brienne thing is getting old. It was funny the first few times, but now it just makes him look like a creep who won’t take “no” for an answer. We haven’t seen any real character development for this guy in a while; I’m hoping his detour to Eastwatch will give him something to do.

#game of thrones #got #spoilers #7.01 #Dragonstone #7 x 01 #review #proud book snob

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horizon-verizon · 2 years ago

Note

Some actors have issues wearing colored contact lenses which is valid but I get the feeling that the people involved with adapting the asoiaf books into got and hotd never even bothered trying purple lenses.

They didn't care about what the Purple Eyes mean in the grand scheme of things and made the choice to make their valyrian characters just look like normal blonde people.

It's both sad and annoying.

There's so much emphasis on colors and visuals and imagery in the books and its so upsetting that the people involved with adapting that into an actual visual medium chose to give us this ugly, desaturated world.

Where's the Color? Where's the Symbolism? Where are the Purple Eyes!?

Anon is referring to this POST.

I could sacrifice contacts for actors, but is it actually that difficult to change eye color in post? Anyway, you don't even have to tell me about your frustrations, I feel you anon.

Example: The Tyroshi and Darrio Naharis, usually color their hair in bright colors....where is his blue hair?!

Tyroshi dyers soon learned to produce scarlet, crimson, and deep indigo dyes as well by varying the diet of the snails. Later centuries saw them devise dyes of a hundred other shades and hues, some naturally and some through alchemy. Brightly colored garments won the favor of lords and princes the world over, and the dyes that produced them all came from Tyrosh. The city grew rich, and with wealth came ostentation. Tyroshi delight in flamboyant display, and men and women both delight in dyeing their hair in garish and unnatural colors. (AWoIaF p.263)

#asoiaf asks to me #daario naharis #tyrosh asoiaf #asoiaf lore #awoiaf #daario naharis's characterization #asoiaf

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aboveallarescuer · 4 years ago

Text

Daenerys Targaryen in A Storm of Swords vs Game of Thrones - Episode 4.1: Two Swords

In this series of posts, I intend to analyze precisely how the show writers downplayed or erased several key aspects of Daenerys Targaryen’s characterization, even when they had the books to help them write her as the compelling, intelligent, compassionate, frugal, open-minded and self-critical character that GRRM created.

I want to make it clear that these posts are not primarily meant to offer a better alternative to what the show writers gave us. I understand that they had many constraints (e.g. other storylines to handle, a limited amount of time to write the scripts, budget, actors who may have asked for a certain number of lines, etc) working against them. However, considering how disrespectful the show’s ending was to Daenerys Targaryen and how the book material that they left out makes it even more ludicrous to think that she will also become a villain in A Song of Ice and Fire, I believe that these reviews are more than warranted. They are meant to dissect everything about Dany’s characterization that was lost in translation, with a lot of book evidence to corroborate my statements.

Since these reviews will dissect scene by scene, I recommend taking a look at this post because I will use its sequence to order Dany’s scenes.

This post is relevant in case you want to know which chapters were adapted in which GoT episodes (however, I didn’t make the list myself, all the information comes from the GoT Wiki, so I can’t guarantee that it’s 100% reliable).

In general, I will call the Dany from the books “Dany” and the Dany from the TV series “show!Dany”.

Scene 1

While seeing show!Dany with her dragons is always enjoyable on its own, I have some problems with this moment. The first is that we'll begin season four with show!Dany worrying about her dragons' behavior here and, later, end it with her locking two of her dragons away. These scenes don't focus as much on show!Dany herself as they focus on her relationship with her dragons, which I think is quite a problem in comparison to how ASOS and ADWD (which will be the book that the writers will adapt starting from episode 4.6) begin and end:

Dany begins ASOS hopeful and happy that she's finally going to Westeros. She ends the book disillusioned because her efforts to help the former slaves didn't pay off like she expected, so she calls off her dreams of home in order to stay and fulfill (what she thinks is) her moral duty as queen.

Dany begins ADWD distraught because she's still dealing with the nobility's backlash and retaliation against her authority even now that she has tried to be conciliatory and rule in peace. She ends the book a) disabused of the notion that peace is possible and b) directing her eyes to Westeros again.

As we can see, these two books begin and end displaying Dany's multiple dilemmas: home vs duty, other people vs herself, peace vs war, conciliation vs use of force and so on.

In the show, while her last scene in the season four finale at least highlights her compassion towards her people, I'd argue it still mainly focuses on her relationship with her dragons (which is only one of many issues that Dany deals with in the books) rather than on grappling with the questions above in a way that centers primarily on show!Dany herself, like the books do with Dany.

My second problem is that having show!Dany be concerned about her dragons' behavior that much earlier than in the books poses another problem:

In ADWD, Dany ultimately failed in protecting her human children during her tenure because she chose peace with the slavers and was, therefore, detached from her dragon children, from her Targaryen heritage and from her identity as the Mother of Dragons. By meeting Drogon again, getting in touch with who she was and choosing fire and blood (war), she will be able to protect her people again and be a better mhysa. Ultimately, mother of dragons and mhysa are complementary parts of who Dany is.

In the show, however, the dragons begin to seem troublesome before we get to Meereen, before show!Dany begins to rule and before the issue of peace vs war becomes a major dilemma for her. This happened for two reasons: a) D&D are bad writers who dismiss themes as only being necessary for eighth-grade book reports (here, I imagine they probably just wanted to add more shock value to show!Dany's plotline) and b) D&D think that peace = good (even if it privileges a status quo that normalizes slavery) and war = bad, so killing slavers = bad, dragons = bad and continuing on with an anti-slavery revolution = bad (failure to understand reason 1 of why Dany's storyline matters).

My third problem is that, in the books, it's clear that what really upsets Dany is not that the dragons are eating goats, but rather that, as they grow and become more independent, the chances of her dragons a) hurting other people or b) running away increase:

“They have been wild while you were gone, Khaleesi,” Irri told her. “Viserion clawed splinters from the door, do you see? And Drogon made to escape when the slaver men came to see them. When I grabbed his tail to hold him back, he turned and bit me.” She showed Dany the marks of his teeth on her hand.

“Did any of them try to burn their way free?” That was the thing that frightened Dany the most.

“No, Khaleesi. Drogon breathed his fire, but in the empty air. The slaver men feared to come near him.”

She kissed Irri’s hand where Drogon had bitten it. “I’m sorry he hurt you. Dragons are not meant to be locked up in a small ship’s cabin.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

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. (ASOS Daenerys VI)

Her dragons were growing wild of late. Rhaegal had snapped at Irri, and Viserion had set Reznak’s tokar ablaze the last time the seneschal had called. I have left them too much to themselves, but where am I to find the time for them? (ADWD Daenerys I)

If I look back, I am doomed, Dany told herself … but how could she not look back? I should have seen it coming. Was I so blind, or did I close my eyes willfully, so I would not have to see the price of power?

[...] At Astapor the slaver's eyes had melted. On the road to Yunkai, when Daario tossed the heads of Sallor the Bald and Prendahl na Ghezn at her feet, her children made a feast of them. Dragons had no fear of men. And a dragon large enough to gorge on sheep could take a child just as easily. (ADWD Daenerys II)

Before what happened to Hazzea, she was okay with the fact that they were hunting and devouring sheep:

Viserion sensed her disquiet. [...] “You should be hunting with your brothers. Have you and Drogon been fighting again?” (ADWD Daenerys I)

Her dragons had grown too large to be content with rats and cats and dogs. The more they eat, the larger they will grow, Ser Barristan had warned her, and the larger they grow, the more they’ll eat. Drogon especially ranged far afield and could easily devour a sheep a day. (ADWD Daenerys I)

Basically, this is my way of saying that, if they needed to have a scene where show!Dany is uneasy about what the dragons were doing, they should've shown them almost harming one of the people in her retinue or something along those lines (rather than being shocked at seeing them hunt and eat), for that would showcase her empathy like in the books.

My fourth problem with this scene is that we see part of it from show!Jorah's point of view:

JORAH: They’re dragons, Khaleesi. They can never be tamed. Not even by their mother.

In the show, he gets the first line of show!Dany's season four storyline, he gets to be anxious about the dragons before show!Dany is (which undermines how reflective she is in the books) and he is the one who warns her of their wildness when, in the books, she is aware of it without anyone having to tell her. It's another subtle way of undermining show!Dany's agency in comparison to her book counterpart, unfortunately.

My fifth and final problem is that, well, this scene was written by the same people who thought that it was necessary to have show!Dany's dragons taken from her in season two (which never happened in ACOK) and show her going "back to being a really frightened little girl" because she is "so defined" by them. It's the opposite in the books: the dragons only turned into weapons to fight against slavery because of her choices. So, with that in mind, I don't like how they made them so important in her first and last scenes of the season when they never were in the books. And all of this conflict feels superfluous in retrospect, when one remembers that show!Dany doesn't struggle to control them in the last three seasons at all.

DAENERYS: Ser Barristan.

BARRISTAN: Your Grace.

DAENERYS: Where’s Daario Naharis? Where’s Grey Worm?

BARRISTAN: Gambling, Your Grace.

DAENERYS: Gambling?

I have problems with how show!Barristan and show!Dany are being portrayed here because it feels like the show writers switched their characterizations when we consider what we know of them in the books.

First, why is show!Barristan holding his laughter about this situation? In the books, Barristan clearly dislikes Daario and his influence on Dany:

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. (ADWD Daenerys VII)

“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.” (ADWD Daenerys VII)

“...Poor Daario, her brave captain … she will never forget him, no … but better for all of us if he is dead, yes? Better for Daenerys too.”

Better for Daenerys, and for Westeros. Daenerys Targaryen loved her captain, but that was the girl in her, not the queen. [...]

Her love for Daario is poison. A slower poison than the locusts, but in the end as deadly. (ADWD The Kingbreaker)

Now, Barristan is a product of his misogynistic society and I do think he's wrong for thinking (in the last quote above) that Dany's love for Daario is a sign of immaturity, but my point here is that he wouldn't be laughing about something that Daario was doing behind Dany's back; in fact, he would've most likely informed her as soon as he learned about it because he respects her authority.

Additionally, he's known for lacking a sense of humor and not being relaxed, which makes this scene even more OOC for him:

The old knight was a good man, but sometimes very literal. It was only a jape, ser, she thought, but she sat on one of the pillows just the same. (ADWD Daenerys II)

“She needs a spear,” Ser Barristan said, as Barsena vaulted over the beast’s second charge. “That is no way to fight a boar.” He sounded like someone’s fussy old grandsire, just as Daario was always saying. (ADWD Daenerys IX)

Second, why is show!Dany being portrayed as the uptight one here? In the chapter that they are drawing from, there are several moments displaying her carefree side:

“Five, were there? Well, that’s a confusion. I could not give you a number, my queen. This old Plumm was a lord, though, must have been a famous fellow in his day, the talk of all the land. The thing was, begging your royal pardon, he had himself a cock six foot long.”

The three bells in Dany’s braid tinkled when she laughed. “You mean inches, I think.”

“Feet,” Brown Ben said firmly. “If it was inches, who’d want to talk about it, now? Your Grace.”

Dany giggled like a little girl. (ASOS Daenerys V)

He tried to spare me the sight of the dead children too. He should not have done that, but he meant it kindly. And Daario Naharis made her laugh, which Ser Jorah never did. (ASOS Daenerys V)

Besides admiring Daario's sense of humor and swagger, Dany also appreciates that she can let go of the burdens of queenship (and luxury) and be more spontaneous and frugal when she's with him:

In Meereen I was a queen in silk, nibbling on stuffed dates and honeyed lamb, she remembered. What would my noble husband think if he could see me now? Hizdahr would be horrified, no doubt. But Daario ...

Daario would laugh, carve off a hunk of horsemeat with his arakh, and squat down to eat beside her. (ADWD Daenerys X)

Unfortunately, the show never allows any of those aspects of Dany's characterization to come across onscreen because the writers wanted show!Dany to appear very stoic, which we know because Emilia's said in an interview that they wanted her to "sit up straight and don't smile, you're not funny", which is quite a shame; not only the writers would've been more faithful to the books by allowing her to smile and laugh and enjoy herself, it would've made show!Dany more endearing.

Ultimately, I think the change in these characters comes down to a) D&D not really understanding any of the characters of the books and b) their sexist assumptions that men are funnier than women and that powerful women are all ice queens.

I also need to talk about how show!Dany's connection to the Dothraki, the Unsullied and the freedmen is being undermined onscreen in comparison to what we get solely from ASOS Daenerys V.

In the show, the Dothraki only appear briefly in the background of this episode to never be seen again through the rest of season four and the entirety of season five.

In ASOS Daenerys V, we see how Dany's time with the Dothraki influenced her when she judges the slavers' reaction to her army or assesses the way that Oznak fights:

They are pissing on slaves, to show how little they fear us, she thought. They would never dare such a thing if it were a Dothraki khalasar outside their gates. (ASOS Daenerys V)

Oznak zo Pahl charged a third time, and now Dany could see plainly that he was riding past Belwas, the way a Westerosi knight might ride at an opponent in a tilt, rather than at him, like a Dothraki riding down a foe. (ASOS Daenerys V)

We also see her interacting with her khalasar and considering that her bloodriders a) are too important to send to fight against Oznak and b) aren't the most adequate men to send to Meereen's sewers:

Her bloodriders were in such a fever to go meet him that they almost came to blows. “Blood of my blood,” Dany told them, “your place is here by me. This man is a buzzing fly, no more. Ignore him, he will soon be gone.” Aggo, Jhogo, and Rakharo were brave warriors, but they were young, and too valuable to risk. They kept her khalasar together, and were her best scouts too. (ASOS Daenerys V)

“When cowards hide behind great walls, it is they who are defeated, Khaleesi,” Ko Jhogo said.

Her other bloodriders concurred. “Blood of my blood,” said Rakharo, “when cowards hide and burn the food and fodder, great khals must seek for braver foes. This is known.”

“It is known,” Jhiqui agreed, as she poured.

“Not to me.” (ASOS Daenerys V)

“These sewers do not sound promising.” Grey Worm would lead his Unsullied down the sewers if she commanded it, she knew; her bloodriders would do no less. But none of them was suited to the task. The Dothraki were horsemen, and the strength of the Unsullied was their discipline on the battlefield. Can I send men to die in the dark on such a slender hope? (ASOS Daenerys V)

So, despite not getting enough characterization to be set apart as their own individuals because of GRRM's racism, the Dothraki people's influence on Dany's decision-making is still clear. Unfortunately, this is completely absent from the show.

On HBO, when show!Dany passes by the Unsullied, they are shown standing still in silent ranks for no reason while their commander show!Grey Worm is on a contest against show!Daario because the writers wanted it to happen, even though it doesn't gel with his characterization (more on that later).

In ASOS Daenerys V, when Dany passes by the Unsullied, a) they are shown separated in groups that are either training (along with Grey Worm) or bathing and b) we get information on their hygiene practices:

As they rode past the stakes and pits that surrounded the eunuch encampment, Dany could hear Grey Worm and his sergeants running one company through a series of drills with shield, shortsword, and heavy spear. Another company was bathing in the sea, clad only in white linen breechclouts. The eunuchs were very clean, she had noticed. Some of her sellswords smelled as if they had not washed or changed their clothes since her father lost the Iron Throne, but the Unsullied bathed each evening, even if they’d marched all day. When no water was available they cleansed themselves with sand, the Dothraki way. (ASOS Daenerys V)

It's lovely to see Dany returning the Unsullied's greeting, which is another example of how she (relatively speaking) sees lowborn people as equals to her:

The eunuchs knelt as she passed, raising clenched fists to their breasts. Dany returned the salute. (ASOS Daenerys V)

We also get to see the Unsullied cheer for Belwas after he won his duel:

The besiegers gave him a raucous welcome as soon as he reached the camp. Her Dothraki hooted and screamed, and the Unsullied sent up a great clangor by banging their spears against their shields. (ASOS Daenerys V)

We get to see Grey Worm openly objecting to Daario's suggestion that the Unsullied are immune to the boiling oil that the slavers would probably throw at them if they tried to storm the gates. While he and the Unsullied would still do this if Dany had given them the command, this is a subtle sign of his character development because it displays that, unlike with the slave masters, he's at least now able to speak out about the risks that he and his men would face:

“...We can storm the gates with axes, to be sure, but ...”

“Did you see them bronze heads above the gates?” asked Brown Ben Plumm. “Rows of harpy heads with open mouths? The Meereenese can squirt boiling oil out them mouths, and cook your axemen where they stand.”

Daario Naharis gave Grey Worm a smile. “Perhaps the Unsullied should wield the axes. Boiling oil feels like no more than a warm bath to you, I have heard.”

“This is false.” Grey Worm did not return the smile. “These ones do not feel burns as men do, yet such oil blinds and kills. The Unsullied do not fear to die, though. Give these ones rams, and we will batter down these gates or die in the attempt.” (ASOS Daenerys V)

And then, we see Dany deciding not to endanger the Unsullied's lives (similar to how she sought to prevent too many former slaves of Astapor from dying in the battle of Yunkai), which highlights both her compassion and her intelligence (since she shows knowledge of the Unsullied's particular strengths to conclude that they shouldn't be sent to the sewers):

Dany sighed. “I will not throw away Unsullied lives, Grey Worm. (ASOS Daenerys V)

Sadly, the show ignores all of this.

On HBO, show!Dany walked past the freedmen on her way to meet show!Daario.

In ASOS Daenerys V, Dany chose to go meet the freedmen because she didn't want to spend time distracted by her feelings for Daario:

“Missandei,” she called, “have my silver saddled. Your own mount as well.”

The little scribe bowed. “As Your Grace commands. Shall I summon your bloodriders to guard you?”

“We’ll take Arstan. I do not mean to leave the camps.” She had no enemies among her children. (ASOS Daenerys V)

We learn that the fighting men were provided with weapons from the other two cities and were now being trained (though not at the particular moment that she chose to meet them):

South of the ordered realm of stakes, pits, drills, and bathing eunuchs lay the encampments of her freedmen, a far noisier and more chaotic place. Dany had armed the former slaves as best she could with weapons from Astapor and Yunkai, and Ser Jorah had organized the fighting men into four strong companies, yet she saw no one drilling here. (ASOS Daenerys V)

Besides the fighting men, we also get information on children and women:

They passed a driftwood fire where a hundred people had gathered to roast the carcass of a horse. She could smell the meat and hear the fat sizzling as the spit boys turned, but the sight only made her frown.

Children ran behind their horses, skipping and laughing. [...]

Dany had stopped to speak to a pregnant woman who wanted the Mother of Dragons to name her baby[.] (ASOS Daenerys V)

Then, there's also how the freedmen perceive and act around Dany:

Some of the freedmen greeted her as “Mother,” while others begged for boons or favors. Some prayed for strange gods to bless her, and some asked her to bless them instead. She smiled at them, turning right and left, touching their hands when they raised them, letting those who knelt reach up to touch her stirrup or her leg. Many of the freedmen believed there was good fortune in her touch. If it helps give them courage, let them touch me, she thought. There are hard trials yet ahead ... (ASOS Daenerys V)

Instead of believing that she has a "glorious destiny" (like the show writers put it), Dany's actual thoughts display that she only allows the freedmen to revere her because it helps them to feel safe; this is another sign of her empathy, not of her self-gratification or entitlement as many often think.

Finally, the chapter shows the freedmen killing a man for Dany:

Mero went sprawling, blood bubbling from his mouth as the waves washed over him. A moment later the freedmen washed over him too, knives and stones and angry fists rising and falling in a frenzy. (ASOS Daenerys V)

In the books, the former captain of the Second Sons, Mero, hid among the freedmen and bided his time to kill Dany out of revenge for having been deceived by her in Yunkai. Barristan defended her and defeated Mero with a stick, which then led to the freedmen ultimately killing him for their mhysa (and to Barristan's identity and Jorah's treason being revealed).

On HBO, because a) show!Barristan's identity was revealed right away and b) show!Mero was killed by show!Daario (who is part of the Second Sons onscreen rather than the Stormcrows onpage), this scene never happened, making this another example of Dany's connection with the freedmen being undermined from books to show.

If the writers really cared about "the people who may be suffering the repercussions of the decisions made by those heroic people" (which was their justification for leaving show!Dany out of the picture in the second half of the episode where they had her decide to kill thousands of innocents out of nowhere), they would've shown the (already limited) interactions between Dany and her khalasar, the Unsullied and the freedmen at the very least. In fact, if the writers really cared about them, they could've gone further and explored characters that GRRM himself didn't:

“Nine, the noble Reznak said. Who else?”

“Three freedmen, murdered in their homes,” the Shavepate said. “A moneylender, a cobbler, and the harpist Rylona Rhee. They cut her fingers off before they killed her.” The queen flinched. Rylona Rhee had played the harp as sweetly as the Maiden. When she had been a slave in Yunkai, she had played for every highborn family in the city. In Meereen she had become a leader amongst the Yunkish freedmen, their voice in Dany’s councils. (ADWD Daenerys II)

Rylona Rhee was a character whose existence we only learned about in ADWD, after she was already killed by the Harpy's Sons. As the quote shows, though, she represented the Yunkish freedmen's interests in Dany's court and had a lot of potential as a character that GRRM didn't tap into. The show could've easily improved this... Think about it: if Rylona was among the Yunkish freedmen, this means that she met Dany at the end of ASOS Daenerys IV (which, in the show, was episode 3.10). From that point until ADWD Daenerys II, the entirety of season four and the beginning of season five went by (this happened because the show writers reaaaallly stretched out the events of ASOS Daenerys V and VI and parts of ADWD Daenerys I and II). This span of time would've been the perfect opportunity to introduce Rylona's character, flesh her out and give us more information about the freedmen.

Now, the show writers would've never done something like this, of course; they only cared about the lowborn people's deaths and the shock value that would come with them, not about their motivations and lives in general.

DAENERYS: How long have they been at it?

MISSANDEI: Since midnight, Your Grace.

DAARIO: Ser Worm is stronger than he looks. But I can see his arms beginning to shake.

DAENERYS: What’s the prize to winning this stupid contest?

DAARIO: The honour of riding by your side on the road to Meereen.

DAENERYS: That honour goes to Ser Jorah and Ser Barristan, as neither of them kept me waiting this morning. You two will ride in the rear guard and protect the livestock. The last man holding his sword can find a new queen to fight for.

I already talked about my first issue with the scene, which is that it portrays show!Dany as rigid and strict while it ignores that her book counterpart is allowed to be playful and not take herself seriously in several moments in the books, including in this chapter (see above).

My second problem with it is that ... why would either show!Grey Worm or show!Daario think that this contest would give one of them "the honour of riding by [show!Dany's] side on the road to Meereen"? Did they forget that this choice is show!Dany's to make? Did they forget that she is their leader? By comparison, this is what Grey Worm says when Hizdahr tries to give him orders after Dany departs Meereen:

Hizdahr’s blunder with Grey Worm had cost him the Unsullied. When His Grace had tried to put them under the command of a cousin, as he had the Brazen Beasts, Grey Worm had informed the king that they were free men who took commands only from their mother. (ADWD The Queensguard)

Considering that Grey Worm only respects his queen's authority in the books, I doubt that he would've accepted to join this contest because he would know that its "prize" is worthless to begin with. Same goes for Daario. Unfortunately, this goes in line with how the (sexist) writers of this show have show!Dany's men make decisions among themselves and forget that show!Dany is their liege (another example: show!Barristan asking show!Jorah (rather than show!Dany) to take part in the battle of Yunkai), which is something that would've been fixed by simply paying more attention to the books. Unfortunately, this will only get worse as time goes on.

DAARIO: You like this girl? Must be frustrating.

GREY WORM: You are not a smart man, Daario Naharis.

DAARIO: I’d rather have no brains and two balls.

I'm fine with the show introducing a romantic relationship between show!Grey Worm and show!Missandei (which doesn't happen in the books because Missandei is 10-11), but it bothers me that the writers thought that the very first scene suggesting that show!Grey Worm has feelings for show!Missandei should feature show!Daario making an eunuch joke. Not that this would've been better if it weren't the first scene hinting at MissWorm, of course, it's needlessly offensive regardless and, while GRRM isn't immune to stuff like this either, it's true that this doesn't even happen in the books to begin with.

Scene 2

DAENERYS: Have you ever been to Meereen?

MISSANDEI: Several times, Your Grace, with Master Kraznys.

DAENERYS: And?

MISSANDEI: They say a thousand slaves died building the Great Pyramid of Meereen.

DAENERYS: And now an army of former slaves is marching to her gates. You think the Great Masters are worried?

MISSANDEI: If they’re smart, Your Grace.

This detail about a thousand slaves having died while they built the Great Pyramid of Meereen is a show only invention.

Show!Missandei telling show!Dany that the Great Masters should be worried about the latter's army if they are smart is also a show only invention (which leaves a really bad taste in my mouth in retrospect, since this original bit of dialogue most likely stems from their impression that show!Dany is "becoming more and more viable as a threat" based on her campaign in Slaver's Bay, which will also inform why, six years later, they'll think that it's okay to say that show!Dany's actions in King's Landing were foreshadowed by her "willingness to go forth and conquer all [her] enemies"; failure to understand reasons 1 and 2 of why Dany's storyline matters).

It makes no sense that the writers felt the need to add original lines when we could've had what ASOS Daenerys V actually gave us:

When she looked over one shoulder, there it stood, the afternoon sun blazing off the bronze harpy atop the Great Pyramid. Inside Meereen the slavers would soon be reclining in their fringed tokars to feast on lamb and olives, unborn puppies, honeyed dormice and other such delicacies, whilst outside her children went hungry. A sudden wild anger filled her. I will bring you down, she swore. (ASOS Daenerys V)

As the quote above shows, Dany's discomfort with the Meereenese slavers' privileges and traditions stems from the fact that they only have these things to begin with because they've maintained and benefitted from the slave trade for centuries. That's why she no longer enjoys eating puppies:

“...We give each boy a puppy on the day that he is cut. At the end of the first year, he is required to strangle it. Any who cannot are killed, and fed to the surviving dogs.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

“Good dog in Astapor, little queen. Eat?” He offered it with a greasy grin.

“That is kind of you, Belwas, but no.” Dany had eaten dog in other places, at other times, but just now all she could think of was the Unsullied and their stupid puppies. (ASOS Daenerys II)

Or why she asked Jhogo not to use the whip inside Astapor:

He stopped before a thickset man who had the look of Lhazar about him and brought his whip up sharply, laying a line of blood across one copper cheek. The eunuch blinked, and stood there, bleeding. “Would you like another?” asked Kraznys.

“If it please your worship.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

“Make way for the Mother of Dragons!” But when he uncoiled the great silverhandled whip that Dany had given him, and made to crack it in the air, she leaned out and told him nay. “Not in this place, blood of my blood,” she said, in his own tongue. “These bricks have heard too much of the sound of whips.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

Or why she considered banning the tokar, though she ultimately kept it in an attempt to help to make peace with the slavers:

Walking in a tokar demanded small, mincing steps and exquisite balance, lest one tread upon those heavy trailing fringes. It was not a garment meant for any man who had to work. The tokar was a master’s garment, a sign of wealth and power.

Dany had wanted to ban the tokar when she took Meereen, but her advisors had convinced her otherwise. “The Mother of Dragons must don the tokar or be forever hated,” warned the Green Grace, Galazza Galare. “In the wools of Westeros or a gown of Myrish lace, Your Radiance shall forever remain a stranger amongst us, a grotesque outlander, a barbarian conqueror. Meereen’s queen must be a lady of Old Ghis.” Brown Ben Plumm, the captain of the Second Sons, had put it more succinctly. “Man wants to be the king o’ the rabbits, he best wear a pair o’ floppy ears.” (ADWD Daenerys I)

Or why she was intent on keeping the fighting pits closed:

“Ask her if she wishes to view our fighting pits,” Kraznys added. “Douquor’s Pit has a fine folly scheduled for the evening. A bear and three small boys. One boy will be rolled in honey, one in blood, and one in rotting fish, and she may wager on which the bear will eat first.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

“Why?” she demanded, when Ithoke had finished. “You are no longer slaves, doomed to die at a master’s whim. I freed you. Why should you wish to end your lives upon the scarlet sands?” (ADWD Daenerys II)

Or, finally, why she chose to replace the previous throne for an ebony bench:

Her audience chamber was on the level below, an echoing high-ceilinged room with walls of purple marble. It was a chilly place for all its grandeur. There had been a throne there, a fantastic thing of carved and gilded wood in the shape of a savage harpy. She had taken one long look and commanded it be broken up for firewood. “I will not sit in the harpy’s lap,” she told them. Instead she sat upon a simple ebony bench. It served, though she had heard the Meereenese muttering that it did not befit a queen. (ASOS Daenerys VI)

All of these examples highlight that Dany struggles to accept the Meereenese slavers' culture because of her desire to end slavery and achieve equality. The quote from ASOS Daenerys V above could've easily been added in the show during a conversation between show!Dany and show!Missandei like this one.

Now, one could argue that this couldn't have happened in this episode because show!Dany hadn't yet a) seen the one hundred and sixty-three dead children, b) arrived in Meereen, c) seen the Great Pyramid and/or d) faced the risk of her people starve during the siege, all of which increase her righteous anger and determination to move forward with her crusade and do justice. That's true, but it leads to another question: why didn't they let this episode begin with show!Dany in Meereen like how ASOS Daenerys V begins, that is, with her having to face Meereen's champion?

Meereen was as large as Astapor and Yunkai combined. Like her sister cities she was built of brick, but where Astapor had been red and Yunkai yellow, Meereen was made with bricks of many colors. Her walls were higher than Yunkai’s and in better repair, studded with bastions and anchored by great defensive towers at every angle. Behind them, huge against the sky, could be seen the top of the Great Pyramid, a monstrous thing eight hundred feet tall with a towering bronze harpy at its top.

“The harpy is a craven thing,” Daario Naharis said when he saw it. “She has a woman’s heart and a chicken’s legs. Small wonder her sons hide behind their walls.”

But the hero did not hide. He rode out the city gates, armored in scales of copper and jet and mounted upon a white charger whose striped pink-and-white barding matched the silk cloak flowing from the hero’s shoulders. The lance he bore was fourteen feet long, swirled in pink and white, and his hair was shaped and teased and lacquered into two great curling ram’s horns. Back and forth he rode beneath the walls of multicolored bricks, challenging the besiegers to send a champion forth to meet him in single combat. (ASOS Daenerys V)

That's a problem that I have with how they adapted ASOS Daenerys V. The chapter can be divided in a list of four parts, which goes like this:

How Dany deals with Meereen's champion (this happens in episode 4.3)

Discussions on how to take Meereen (this never happens in the show)

Dany's thoughts on/flashbacks with Daario and Jorah (this more or less happens in episode 4.1; some are show only inventions)

Dany a) meeting her children and Mero and b) finding out the truth about her knights (a never happens; b happens in episodes 3.1 for show!Barristan and 4.8 for show!Jorah)

Despite being a chapter jam-packed with action and drama, the show adaptation diluted its impact by 1) fragmenting it, 2) overfocusing on certain parts over others, 3) creating new (and often unnecessary) scenes and 4) displaying its events out of the intended sequence. Problems 1-3 were already present in the adaptation of Dany's first four ASOS chapters, but I'd argue problem 4 is more serious in ASOS Daenerys V.

In the case of this particular scene, again, because it takes place before show!Dany reaches Meereen (and because the show writers never understood reasons 1 and 2 of why Dany's storyline matters), we don't get to see how her problems with the Meereenese slavers' culture are tied to their practice of slavery. This, unfortunately, is another case of the show undermining Dany's characterization from page to screen.

DAENERYS: You were told to ride at the back of the train.

DAARIO: Yes, My Queen. But I need to speak to you about something important. A matter of strategy.

MISSANDEI: Your Grace.

DAENERYS: All right, what is this matter of strategy?

DAARIO: A dusk rose.

DAENERYS: Would you like to walk at the back of the train instead of riding?

DAARIO: And this one’s called lady’s lace.

DAENERYS: Would you like to walk without shoes?

DAARIO: You have to know a land to rule it. Its plants, its rivers, its roads, its people. Dusk rose tea eases fever. Everyone in Meereen knows that. Especially the slaves who have to make the tea. If you want them to follow you, you have to become a part of their world.

DAARIO: Strategy. Harpy’s Gold. No tea from this one. Beautiful but poisonous.

DAENERYS: You are a gambler, aren’t you?

DAARIO: Your Grace.

This exchange is adapted from this part of ASOS Daenerys V:

On the road from Yunkai, Daario had brought her a flower or a sprig of some plant every evening when he made his report ... to help her learn the land, he said. Waspwillow, dusky roses, wild mint, lady’s lace, daggerleaf, broom, prickly ben, harpy’s gold ... (ASOS Daenerys V)

I have some problems with it, though. The first is that they have show!Daario tell show!Dany that she has "to know a land to rule it". In the books, at this point in time, Dany does not have any intention to stay and rule Meereen because she thinks that abolishing slavery was enough on its own; she only changes her mind after seeing the aftermath of the sack of Meereen, hearing news of Astapor (where her council was deposed and slavery is being reinstalled by a former slave named Cleon) and Yunkai (which was rumored to be making alliances with sellswords to defeat her) and understanding that her anti-slavery measures can be easily undone if she leaves so soon. Additionally, I dislike that they chose to only adapt a (veeery brief) scene from the chapter where she's shown to lack knowledge. Why not also adapt, for example, the scene in which she chooses Belwas to fight for her against Meereen's champion and we get to see her whole line of reasoning for doing so? That they even added the detail (that isn't in the books) about how a ruler should have knowledge of the region (which show!Dany doesn't yet) only adds salt to the wound, since it subtly indicates that the show writers themselves find her ineffective as a ruler when she certainly isn't.

The second problem is that show!Dany's feelings for show!Daario are not that clear onscreen in comparison to what we get in the books:

Dany found herself stealing looks at the Tyroshi when her captains came to council, and sometimes at night she remembered the way his gold tooth glittered when he smiled. That, and his eyes. His bright blue eyes. On the road from Yunkai, Daario had brought her a flower or a sprig of some plant every evening when he made his report ... to help her learn the land, he said. Waspwillow, dusky roses, wild mint, lady’s lace, daggerleaf, broom, prickly ben, harpy’s gold ... He tried to spare me the sight of the dead children too. He should not have done that, but he meant it kindly. And Daario Naharis made her laugh, which Ser Jorah never did.

Dany tried to imagine what it would be like if she allowed Daario to kiss her, the way Jorah had kissed her on the ship. The thought was exciting and disturbing, both at once. It is too great a risk. The Tyroshi sellsword was not a good man, no one needed to tell her that. Under the smiles and the jests he was dangerous, even cruel. Sallor and Prendahl had woken one morning as his partners; that very night he’d given her their heads. Khal Drogo could be cruel as well, and there was never a man more dangerous. She had come to love him all the same. Could I love Daario? What would it mean, if I took him into my bed? Would that make him one of the heads of the dragon? Ser Jorah would be angry, she knew, but he was the one who’d said she had to take two husbands. Perhaps I should marry them both and be done with it. (ASOS Daenerys V)

As one can see, Dany's crush on Daario is significant for highlighting a) how Dany is a romantic person who associates sexual attraction with love and marriage (hence why she compares Daario with her first husband) and b) how her feelings for Daario are tied to her desire to find a home or, in this case, someone who she can rely on (hence why she remembers the prophecy of the three heads of the dragon when she thinks of him).

It was particularly important to display her crush onscreen because of what happens later in ADWD. Unlike what certain people think, Dany's dilemma between Daario and Hizdahr doesn't just represent the choices that she needs to make as a ruler (war or peace), it also illustrates the clash between her main motivations, home and duty: Daario is the former (what Dany wants for herself) and Hizdahr is the latter (what Dany thinks she must do for her people).

Unfortunately, this doesn't come across in the show. To be fair, at least we get to see show!Dany shyly smiling here, but this will be undermined later. In episode 4.7, show!Daario will say:

DAARIO: Never met a woman who didn’t like wildflowers.

In episode 5.7, this is how show!Dany will answer to show!Daario's marriage proposal:

DAENERYS: Even if I wanted to do such an inadvisable thing, I couldn’t.

Then, in episode 6.10, this is what she tells show!Tyrion after rejecting show!Daario:

DAENERYS: Do you know what frightens me? I said farewell to a man who loves me. A man I thought I cared for. And I felt nothing.

I wouldn't be surprised if the show writers made these changes because they a) are among the readers who think that Dany is unlikable/irresponsible when she expresses her romantic feelings for Daario in the books (whereas I happen to think that that makes her more relatable) and b) wanted her to appear more regal (based on their ideas of what that means, of course) in the show because she's older, but, regardless of why they did so, this is quite a problem: if show!Dany isn't in love with show!Daario, her conflict becomes much less pronounced in comparison to her book counterpart's (which, as we'll see later as the show progresses, it did).

JORAH: There’s one on every mile marker between here and Meereen.

DAENERYS: How many miles are there between here and Meereen?

JORAH: One-hundred and sixty three, Your Grace.

BARRISTAN: I’ll tell our men to ride ahead and bury them. You don’t need to see this.

DAENERYS: You will do no such thing. I will see each and every one of their faces. Remove her collar before you bury her.

This is my favorite moment of the episode because it's a major example of how Dany's leadership style is defined by her desire to protect the ones who can't protect themselves (which applies to both book and show versions). Now that she wields power, she won't remain passive when she sees injustices occur, in fact, she'll want to confront them in order to remember why is it that she's fighting:

“I will see them,” she said. “I will see every one, and count them, and look upon their faces. And I will remember.”

By the time they came to Meereen sitting on the salt coast beside her river, the count stood at one hundred and sixty-three. I will have this city, Dany pledged to herself once more. (ASOS Daenerys VI)

Being a queen is not about self-gratification for Dany, it's about her responsibility and duty towards others, which is what this scene ultimately reinforces.

That being said, there are still some problems with the scene.

One, while the scene on its own does illustrate the kind of ruler (and person) that show!Dany is regardless of what the show writers were intending, I think that their primary intention was to provide shock value with the sight of the dead children (which is also the most likely reason as to why they succeeded in depicting how horrific the Unsullied's training was). If they had intended the scene to showcase show!Dany's selfless motivations like in the books, they wouldn't have later stated that her war in Slaver's Bay was defined by "that willingness to go forth and conquer all your enemies" or by how "she's not seeing the cost" (failure to understand reasons 1, 2 and 5 of why Dany's storyline matters). Unlike them, Dany knows that some wars are morally righteous because there are cases in which the status quo is not worthy of being uphold, especially not one that allows children to be murdered without their killers being punished (which also informs her views on Robert, his supporters and the Baratheon regime in general).

Two, the show leaves out the fact that, in the books, the Meereenese slavers burned their own city's lands in order to prepare for Dany's arrival:

The Great Masters of Meereen had withdrawn before Dany’s advance, harvesting all they could and burning what they could not harvest. Scorched fields and poisoned wells had greeted her at every hand. (ASOS Daenerys V)

This is important for two major reasons.

One, it raises the stakes of the conflict in the moment. If Dany continues to besiege the city for too long, her people will starve. If she gives up on conquering Meereen, on the other hand, not only slavery will remain, but her people will die of starvation on the way back to Westeros. If she wants to protect the freedmen that followed her, then, her only choice is to take Meereen.

Dany set great store by Ser Jorah’s counsel, but to leave Meereen untouched was more than she could stomach. She could not forget the children on their posts, the birds tearing at their entrails, their skinny arms pointing up the coast road. “Ser Jorah, you say we have no food left. If I march west, how can I feed my freedmen?”

“You can’t. I am sorry, Khaleesi. They must feed themselves or starve. Many and more will die along the march, yes. That will be hard, but there is no way to save them. We need to put this scorched earth well behind us.”

Dany had left a trail of corpses behind her when she crossed the red waste. It was a sight she never meant to see again. “No,” she said. “I will not march my people off to die.” My children. (ASOS Daenerys V)

Two, it raises the stakes of the conflict in ADWD. By scorching the fields, the slavers deprived Meereen of one of its main sources of income: olives. Now the city's economy is stagnant because it has neither olives nor slaves (because, as we know, Dany abolished slavery) to sell:

For centuries Meereen and her sister cities Yunkai and Astapor had been the linchpins of the slave trade, the place where Dothraki khals and the corsairs of the Basilisk Isles sold their captives and the rest of the world came to buy. Without slaves, Meereen had little to offer traders. Copper was plentiful in the Ghiscari hills, but the metal was not as valuable as it had been when bronze ruled the world. The cedars that had once grown tall along the coast grew no more, felled by the axes of the Old Empire or consumed by dragonfire when Ghis made war against Valyria. Once the trees had gone, the soil baked beneath the hot sun and blew away in thick red clouds. (ADWD Daenerys III)

“The sea provides all the salt that Qarth requires, but I would gladly take as many olives as you cared to sell me. Olive oil as well.”

“I have none to offer. The slavers burned the trees.” Olives had been grown along the shores of Slaver’s Bay for centuries; but the Meereenese had put their ancient groves to the torch as Dany’s host advanced on them, leaving her to cross a blackened wasteland. “We are replanting, but it takes seven years before an olive tree begins to bear, and thirty years before it can truly be called productive.” (ADWD Daenerys III)

However, because the show didn't bother to depict how the slavers destroyed their own city's fields, we don't get to see neither a) how it becomes harder for Dany to sustain a siege (and how conquering Meereen became her only choice if she wanted not only to free the slaves, but also to protect the freedmen that came with her) nor b) how, later, she struggles with reforming the city's economy (which is one of the many ways that the show adaptation undermined her political arc in ADWD).

For this review, there’s no comment of mine on any Inside the Episode because D&D’s Inside the Episode 4.1 doesn’t talk about show!Dany’s storyline. I’m not commenting on show!Dany’s clothes either because she’s wearing the same clothes from season three and I’ve talked about them before in past reviews.

#daenerys targaryen #asoiaf meta #asoiaf vs got #asos vs got #daario naharis #grey worm #rylona rhee #barristan selmy #s4 #a storm of swords #a dance with dragons

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aboveallarescuer · 5 years ago

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Daenerys Targaryen in A Storm of Swords vs Game of Thrones - Episode 3.5: Kissed by Fire

Since these reviews will dissect scene by scene, I recommend taking a look at this post because I will use its sequence to order Dany’s scenes.

In general, I will call the Dany from the books “Dany” and the Dany from the TV series “show!Dany”.

Scene 5

This episode was written by Bryan Cogman, but he admits here that the scenes in Essos were actually written by D&D.

Before I talk about the scene itself, we need to consider that its premise is flawed to begin with. Neither Barristan nor Jorah are known for making jokes and being friendly and amusing in general, they are actually known for lacking a sense of humor:

And Daario Naharis made her laugh, which Ser Jorah never did. (ASOS Daenerys V)

"Give that tongue of yours a rest unless you'd rather I tied it in a knot."

Tyrion swallowed his retort. His lip was still fat and swollen from the last time he had pushed the big knight too far. Hard hands and no sense of humor makes for a bad marriage. That much he'd learned on the road from Selhorys. (ADWD Tyrion VII)

Twice exiled, and small wonder, Tyrion thought. I'd exile him too if I could. The man is cold, brooding, sullen, deaf to humor. And those are his good points. (ADWD Tyrion VIII)

Littlefinger was the last. As Ned looked to him, Lord Petyr stifled a yawn. "When you find yourself in bed with an ugly woman, the best thing to do is close your eyes and get on with it," he declared. "Waiting won't make the maid any prettier. Kiss her and be done with it."

"Kiss her?" Ser Barristan repeated, aghast.

"A steel kiss," said Littlefinger. (AGOT Eddard VIII)

In the purple hall, Dany found her ebon bench piled high about with satin pillows. The sight brought a wan smile to her lips. Ser Barristan’s work, she knew. The old knight was a good man, but sometimes very literal. It was only a jape, ser, she thought, but she sat on one of the pillows just the same. (ADWD Daenerys II)

Which is not to say that they can't ever laugh at people's jokes or make jokes themselves, but it's noticeable that the show's time to depict Dany's storyline is limited and that they still chose to write a scene that has little to do with their core personality traits.

Even more importantly, these two are unable to be friendly with one another because Jorah is too suspicious of Barristan and wants to isolate Dany from other men:

“In King’s Landing, your ancestors raised an immense domed castle for their dragons. The Dragonpit, it is called. It still stands atop the Hill of Rhaenys, though all in ruins now. That was where the royal dragons dwelt in days of yore, and a cavernous dwelling it was, with iron doors so wide that thirty knights could ride through them abreast. Yet even so, it was noted that none of the pit dragons ever reached the size of their ancestors. The maesters say it was because of the walls around them, and the great dome above their heads.”

“If walls could keep us small, peasants would all be tiny and kings as large as giants,” said Ser Jorah. “I’ve seen huge men born in hovels, and dwarfs who dwelt in castles.”

“Men are men,” Whitebeard replied. “Dragons are dragons.”

Ser Jorah snorted his disdain. “How profound.” The exile knight had no love for the old man, he’d made that plain from the first. “What do you know of dragons, anyway?” (ASOS Daenerys I)

“It was said that no man ever knew Prince Rhaegar, truly. I had the privilege of seeing him in tourney, though, and often heard him play his harp with its silver strings.”

Ser Jorah snorted. “Along with a thousand others at some harvest feast. Next you’ll claim you squired for him.” (ASOS Daenerys I)

“A warrior without peer ... those are fine words, Your Grace, but words win no battles.”

“Swords win battles,” Ser Jorah said bluntly. “And Prince Rhaegar knew how to use one.” (ASOS Daenerys I) 

“...A change in the wind may bring the gift of victory.” He glanced at Ser Jorah. “Or a lady’s favor knotted round an arm.”

Mormont’s face darkened. “Be careful what you say, old man.”

Arstan had seen Ser Jorah fight at Lannisport, Dany knew, in the tourney Mormont had won with a lady’s favor knotted round his arm. He had won the lady too; Lynesse of House Hightower, his second wife, highborn and beautiful ... but she had ruined him, and abandoned him, and the memory of her was bitter to him now. “Be gentle, my knight.” She put a hand on Jorah’s arm. “Arstan had no wish to give offense, I’m certain.”

“As you say, Khaleesi.” Ser Jorah’s voice was grudging. (ASOS Daenerys I)

Ser Jorah watched with a frown on his blunt honest face. Mormont was big and burly, strong of jaw and thick of shoulder. Not a handsome man by any means, but as true a friend as Dany had ever known. “You would be wise to take that old man’s words well salted,” he told her when Whitebeard was out of earshot.

[...] “This Arstan Whitebeard is playing you false. He is too old to be a squire, and too well spoken to be serving that oaf of a eunuch.” (ASOS Daenerys I)

“Sit, good ser, and tell me what is troubling you.”

“Three things.” Ser Jorah sat. “Strong Belwas. This Arstan Whitebeard. And Illyrio Mopatis, who sent them.” (ASOS Daenerys I)

But when Mero was gone, Arstan Whitebeard said, “That one has an evil reputation, even in Westeros. Do not be misled by his manner, Your Grace. He will drink three toasts to your health tonight, and rape you on the morrow.”

“The old man’s right for once,” Ser Jorah said. (ASOS Daenerys IV)

“Whilst you have an honest beard, is that what you are telling me? You are the only man I should ever trust?”

He stiffened. “I did not say that.”

“You say it every day. Pyat Pree’s a liar, Xaro’s a schemer, Belwas a braggart, Arstan an assassin ... do you think I’m still some virgin girl, that I cannot hear the words behind the words?” (ASOS Daenerys IV)

“Khaleesi, before you kneels Ser Barristan Selmy, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, who betrayed your House to serve the Usurper Robert Baratheon.”

The old knight did not so much as blink. “The crow calls the raven black, and you speak of betrayal.” (ASOS Daenerys V)

I doubt their book counterparts would spend their time apart from Dany talking to each other about their pasts, and I think that's a significant change because it's another way that makes show!Jorah (whose book counterpart is a slaver who tries to groom, isolate and undermine Dany) be seen in a much more positive light than in the books.

JORAH: It was a bitch of a siege.

BARRISTAN: Mm, you were first through the breach at Pyke?

JORAH: The second. Thoros of Myr went in alone, waving that flaming sword of his.

BARRISTAN: Thoros of Myr. Bloody madman. Robert knighted you after the battle?

JORAH: Proudest moment of my life. One knee in the dust, the king's sword on my shoulder, listening to the words. "In the name of the Warrior, I charge you to be brave." All I could think of was how badly I had to piss. In full plate metal for 16 hours. Never occurred to me till the fighting was over. I was very nearly the first man knighted to piss on the king's boots.

In the books, the siege of Pyke is brought up in this context:

“By then my father had taken the black, so I was Lord of Bear Island in my own right. I had no lack of marriage offers, but before I could reach a decision Lord Balon Greyjoy rose in rebellion against the Usurper, and Ned Stark called his banners to help his friend Robert. The final battle was on Pyke. When Robert’s stonethrowers opened a breach in King Balon’s wall, a priest from Myr was the first man through, but I was not far behind. For that I won my knighthood.”

“To celebrate his victory, Robert ordained that a tourney should be held outside Lannisport. It was there I saw Lynesse, a maid half my age. She had come up from Oldtown with her father to see her brothers joust. I could not take my eyes off her. In a fit of madness, I begged her favor to wear in the tourney, never dreaming she would grant my request, yet she did.”

[...] “What did she look like, your Lady Lynesse?”

Ser Jorah smiled sadly. “Why, she looked a bit like you, Daenerys.” He bowed low. “Sleep well, my queen.”

Dany shivered, and pulled the lionskin tight about her. She looked like me. It explained much that she had not truly understood. He wants me, she realized. He loves me as he loved her, not as a knight loves his queen but as a man loves a woman. She tried to imagine herself in Ser Jorah’s arms, kissing him, pleasuring him, letting him enter her. It was no good. When she closed her eyes, his face kept changing into Drogo’s.

[...] She had heard the longing in Ser Jorah’s voice when he spoke of his Bear Island. He can never have me, but one day I can give him back his home and honor. That much I can do for him. (ACOK Daenerys I)

As we can see above, the siege of Pyke is brought up to contextualize Jorah and Lynesse's relationship and parallel their relationship with Dany and Jorah's current one. It is there to service Dany's storyline, motivations and relationships - with that backstory, she realizes at that point that, while Jorah loves her, she can't love him back. This makes her feel guilty, so much so that she thinks she has to compensate by bringing him back home. This is also an instance that displays how deeply ingrained patriarchal views are on this universe - because Dany is a woman, she thinks she owes her knight something in return for his protection. The roles of liege and object of desire intersect in a way that wouldn't happen to a king.

But why am I saying all of this? My point is that connections between past and present in ASOIAF matter only to the extent that they say something about our POV characters. The Arianne/Rhaenyra and Arianne/Nymeria comparisons matter only to the extent that they inform Arianne's motivations and storyline, as well as the Jon Snow/Blackfyres one, which informs Catelyn's views on Jon. By contrast, the show brought up the siege in Pyke only so that we would empathize with show!Jorah again, but that was never the main purpose in the books, in which the backstory primarily serviced Dany's character. But then, the show writers are intent on erasing how creepy and disrespectful Jorah's treatment of Dany in the books is.

Also, the only new detail that they added was that Jorah wanted to urinate while Robert was knighting him. Was that really necessary?

BARRISTAN: Robert would have laughed. He was a good man, a great warrior. And a terrible king. I burned away my years fighting for terrible kings.

In the books, Barristan has more conflicted feelings about Robert Baratheon than he ever lets on in the show:

“Some truths are hard to hear. Robert was a ... a good knight ... chivalrous, brave ... he spared my life, and the lives of many others ...[”] (ASOS Daenerys VI)

I came to bring Daenerys home. Yet he had lost her, just as he had lost her father and her brother. Even Robert. I failed him too. (ADWD The Queensguard)

And what did Robert say when he saw them? Did he smile? Barristan Selmy had been badly wounded on the Trident, so he had been spared the sight of Lord Tywin's gift, but oft he wondered. If I had seen him smile over the red ruins of Rhaegar's children, no army on this earth could have stopped me from killing him. (ADWD The Kingsguard)

Barristan may admit Robert's value as a knight (highly questionable as it is), praise him for showing mercy to the Targaryen loyalists and be ashamed for "failing" him. At the same time, Barristan still feels anger for the deaths of Rhaegar's children, so much so that he can't stop himself from thinking he would avenge them if he had seen Robert smiling at the sight of their corpses. Also, when he thinks about the people he failed, he thinks that he failed "even Robert", which shows that he had considerably less regard for him than he did either Dany or Rhaegar.

I don't think Barristan would ever call Robert a "good man", and I think his feelings for Robert are particularly important because they inform Barristan's siding with Ned when he asks Robert not to kill Dany, as well as why he chose to follow Viserys (Rhaegar's heir) instead of Stannis (Robert's heir) and why he demands that the Shavepate does not kill Dany's hostages if he is to side with him.

Also, again, Barristan would never share his personal feelings (much less negative ones) about anyone with Jorah.

The infuriating part, though, is this one:

JORAH: You swore an oath.

BARRISTAN: Yes. And a man of honor keeps his vows, even if he's serving a drunk or a lunatic. Just once in my life before it's over, I want to know what it's like to serve with pride, to fight for someone I believe in. Do you believe in her?

JORAH: With all my heart.

First, they portray show!Jorah as a reliable source as to whether we should trust show!Dany or not. While one might argue that these are two different characters, not only the erasure of Jorah's negative behaviors for the sake of an unrequited love story is still disgusting, but Jorah was never a reliable source about Dany in the books.

Second, Barristan's arc is partly about finding out on his own that Dany is a worthy liege after spending years following bad kings:

“...The truth is, I wanted to watch you for a time before pledging you my sword. To make certain that you were not ...”

“... my father’s daughter?” If she was not her father’s daughter, who was she?

“... mad,” he finished. “But I see no taint in you.”  (ASOS Daenerys VI)

“So I am a coin in the hands of some god, is that what you are saying, ser?”

“No,” Ser Barristan replied. “You are the trueborn heir of Westeros. To the end of my days I shall remain your faithful knight, should you find me worthy to bear a sword again. If not, I am content to serve Strong Belwas as his squire.” (ASOS Daenerys VI)

“I flung my sword at Joffrey’s feet and have not touched one since. Only from the hand of my queen will I accept a sword again.”

“As you wish.” Dany took the sword from Brown Ben and offered it hilt first. The old man took it reverently. “Now kneel,” she told him, “and swear it to my service.”

He went to one knee and lay the blade before her as he said the words. (ASOS Daenerys VI)

“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. (ASOS Daenerys VI)

Having show!Barristan ask show!Jorah's opinion on show!Dany diminishes the impact of the passages above, which display his own judgment based on the time he spent on Dany's side.

Having show!Barristan ask show!Jorah's opinion on show!Dany undercuts Barristan's arc. The show writers might have show!Barristan say that he wants to "fight for someone [he] believe[s] in", but that's just lip service; these words ring hollow because we don't see him finding out for himself.

Could the show writers have added an original scene that gives the characters around show!Dany more to do? Of course (though I've argued before that even the scenes focusing on show!Dany are often seen from the viewpoint of her advisors and prevent us from fully experiencing the journey with show!Dany herself). But they should have thought about whether it fits into their characterizations in the books and, if it doesn't, why is that change necessary? What does having show!Barristan not find out on his own that show!Dany is a liege worth following cause besides undermining both Dany's and Barristan's characters? What does having show!Jorah not be a creepy and be a reliable source about show!Dany cause besides making a slaver look better?

Show!Grey Worm's first scene has its strengths. I like how it displays show!Dany's genuine empathy for the Unsullied, as well as show!Grey Worm's admiration for her. The actors gave good performances. There is one departure from the books (that I don't really understand the purpose of; they probably forgot about it), though:

DAENERYS: What is your name?

GREY WORM: Grey Worm.

DAENERYS: Grey Worm...

MISSANDEI: All Unsullied boys are given new names when they are cut ... Grey Worm, Red Flea, Black Rat. Names that remind them what they are ... vermin.

The books go even further on the slavers' dehumanization of the Unsullied:

“This one’s name is Red Flea, your worship.” 

The girl repeated their exchange in the Common Tongue. 

“And yesterday, what was it?” 

“Black Rat, your worship.” 

“The day before?” 

“Brown Flea, your worship.” 

“Before that?” 

“This one does not recall, your worship. Blue Toad, perhaps. Or Blue Worm.”

“Tell her all their names are such,” Kraznys commanded the girl. “It reminds them that by themselves they are vermin. The name disks are thrown in an empty cask at duty’s end, and each dawn plucked up again at random.”

“More madness,” said Arstan, when he heard. “How can any man possibly remember a new name every day?”

“Those who cannot are culled in training, along with those who cannot run all day in full pack, scale a mountain in the black of night, walk across a bed of coals, or slay an infant.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

Not only their names remind them that they are vermin, they are also changed every day so that they lose their sense of individuality.

Even with this change, I'd say that the scene still conveys how unacceptable and cruel the slavers' treatment was.

There are other changes that I find more concerning. The first is the most inconsequential: why is show!Missandei calling show!Dany khaleesi instead of Your Grace? Only Jorah and her khalasar call her by that title in the books. I suppose this is a Doylist issue since s3!Dany was more recognized as "khaleesi" than "Daenerys" by the audience, but it still goes against their characterizations.

The second is that, as I said in my 3.4 review, this scene would have made more sense in Astapor:

One of the first things Dany had done after the fall of Astapor was abolish the custom of giving the Unsullied new slave names every day. Most of those born free had returned to their birth names; those who still remembered them, at least. Others had called themselves after heroes or gods, and sometimes weapons, gems, and even flowers, which resulted in soldiers with some very peculiar names, to Dany’s ears. Grey Worm had remained Grey Worm. When she asked him why, he said, “It is a lucky name. The name this one was born to was accursed. That was the name he had when he was taken for a slave. But Grey Worm is the name this one drew the day Daenerys Stormborn set him free.” (ASOS Daenerys IV)

Dany still had to choose which freedmen would occupy the ruling council, so I assume she stayed in Astapor for a few days. With that in mind, if abolishing the custom of new slave names was one of the first things Dany did after the fall of Astapor, it's much more likely that she did it there rather than on the march to Yunkai. Why couldn't they have written this scene there? Because seeing her leave Astapor makes for a more visually impressive scene, I guess. As I said before, though, it gives weight to the superficial reading that show!Dany only went to the city, took its military force and left (even if we'll later find out that she also installed a ruling council there in 4.5). Being faithful to the books would've prevented any misconception of this sort from happening.

My third and final issue is that this scene is meant to be of secondary importance in the books. As one can see in ASOS Daenerys IV, it only appears as a brief flashback in the context of a scene in which Dany is seen giving Grey Worm military orders. That's because the focus of the chapter is on Dany's character development as a leader and a military tactician (similar to how ASOS Daenerys VI only shows the conquest of Meereen as a brief flashback in the context of Jorah telling Dany that her "sewer rats" won her the city; that's because the focus of the chapter is less on the adrenaline and victory and more on the aftermath of the sack and its negative consequences, intertwined with Dany's personal problems).

One might argue that we could have had both this scene and show!Dany's character development in the next episodes. However, as I will explain in future reviews, the show writers don't care about show!Dany's character development at all, which is why it becomes enough of an issue for me to bring it up.

JORAH: King Robert wanted her dead.

BARRISTAN: Of course he wanted her dead. She's a Targaryen. The last Targaryen.

JORAH: I suppose no one on the small council could speak sense to him.

In this interview with Bryan Cogman, Elio Garcia interprets show!Jorah's actions as if he were "fishing for information about just what Barristan knew about him and his dealings with Varys". That's not an unreasonable guess, but it's another one that does a disservice to Barristan's character. In the books, Barristan only hid information from Dany about Jorah because revealing Jorah's betrayal would mean revealing his identity. If his identity had been already revealed, he would have told her much earlier - that's what happens right after she finds out that he's Barristan Selmy, after all:

“...And since the day you wed Khal Drogo, there has been an informer by your side selling your secrets, trading whispers to the Spider for gold and promises.” (ASOS Daenerys V)

However, because the show writers probably know this, they made another change just as detrimental to Barristan's character:

BARRISTAN: I didn't sit on the small council.

JORAH: No? Doesn't the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard traditionally ...

BARRISTAN: Traditionally, yes, but I killed a dozen of Robert's friends during his rebellion. He didn't want advice on how to govern from a man who had fought for the Mad King. Can't say I minded much. I always hated the politics.

I'm not saying that the Barristan of the books loves the politics or that he's one of the best political players of the books. Far from that. Still, his character development culminates in these realizations:

The gods of Westeros were far away, yet Ser Barristan Selmy paused for a moment to say a silent prayer, asking the Crone to light his way to wisdom. For the children, he told himself. For the city. For my queen. (ADWD The Queensguard)

His queen was the Mother of Dragons; he would not allow her children to come to harm. (ADWD The Kingbreaker)

"You would break King Hizdahr's peace, old man?"

"I would shatter it." Once, long ago, a prince had named him Barristan the Bold. A part of that boy was in him still. (ADWD The Queen's Hand)

Before Dany, Barristan remained silent as he watched Aerys and Robert committing atrocities and abusing their power. After Dany, he's not only revolting against a bad king (Hizdahr), he's also taking on her anti-slavery cause and declaring war against the slavers. That's character development. Siding with Ned against Dany's death was Barristan’s first (albeit small) act of rebellion and the beginning of an arc that will later lead him to fight against slavery because of the very girl whose murder he opposed.

On HBO, not only we'll never see show!Barristan doing any of this (because he'll be killed off earlier), we are seeing him dismiss the importance of political action, which is the very opposite of the ultimate realization of his book counterpart's arc. And what's worse is that all of these changes are being made for the sake of show!Jorah's character.

JORAH: Yeah, I imagine I would, too. Hours spent jabbering about backstabbings and betrayals the world over.

I don't know if show!Jorah reducing politics to "jabbering about backstabbings and betrayals the world over" is necessarily proof that this is what the show writers think. That being said, that dismissal can be considered foreshadowing of how little they will care about adapting Dany's ADWD storyline properly. It can also be interpreted as proof of how they tend to oversimplify the characters according to their basic archetypes. If Jorah and Barristan are warriors, of course they don't care about politics and are friendly with each other (all men are friendly with each other and all women are catty with each other, right? See also: Tyrion/Davos, Jon/Gendry, Sansa/Arya, Dany/Sansa, etc).

BARRISTAN: Mm-hmm. Still, she'll have to wade through that muck if she wants to rule the Seven Kingdoms. She'll have good men around her to advise her, men with experience.

JORAH: Which men do you have in mind?

BARRISTAN: Forgive me, Ser Jorah, for what I'm about to say, but your reputation in Westeros has suffered over the years.

JORAH: It suffered for a reason. I sold men into slavery.

BARRISTAN: I don't know if your presence by her side will help our cause when we go home.

JORAH: Our cause? Forgive me, Ser Barristan, but I was busy defending the khaleesi against King Robert's assassins while you were still bowing to the man.

BARRISTAN: We both want her to rule. Am I wrong?

JORAH: You only joined us a few days ago. I can't speak to your intentions.

BARRISTAN: If we're truly her loyal servants, we will do whatever needs to be done, no matter the cost, no matter our pride.

JORAH: You're not Lord Commander here. You're just another exile. And I take my orders from the queen.

First, I don’t know why the heck would show!Barristan tell show!Jorah rather than show!Dany that Jorah’s presence might not help her cause. Not only it makes him dumb (because show!Jorah obviously wouldn't take that well), it also makes it seem that he likes show!Jorah enough to advise him to leave, which is not true at all in the books, as I've already showed above.

Second, I hate that this exchange makes it seem that show!Jorah feels guilty for selling men into slavery (he doesn't in the books). He was still trying to normalize slavery in 3.1 and 3.3!

I know that fandom tends to praise Bryan Cogman for trying to correct plot holes and for paying attention to the books' events and the show's continuity. That knowledge doesn't mean he necessarily understands the characters well - he certainly does not understand Dany well, and this comment is proof of his ignorance:

“Yeah, it’s probably refreshing for Iain Glen! How many times can he explain something about Essos culture to Dany? ;)”

If he really understood Dany, he would also say that we don't just see Jorah giving Dany knowledge. We also see her retain that knowledge and apply it later, we also see that she has knowledge of her own (because, let's not forget, she has lived in Essos for almost her whole life, certainly for a longer period than Jorah) and we also see her making decisions of her own volition. The misconception that Dany is ignorant and too reliant on the men around her is dismissive of her character, but it unfortunately informs the show's writing of her, for they erase many moments showcasing her intelligence and competence.

He also says that "the Dany stuff is a challenge" because of the lack of material, which is a flimsy excuse - many key scenes of her chapters were cut (see here), even if she doesn't have a lot of chapters in ASOS. Lack of material to adapt was never an issue for anyone in any storyline. The show writers should have been overwhelmed with the amount of material they had and the necessity to select them properly (which they failed to do because they mostly looked at the scenes as plot points).

I'm nitpicking his comments, admittedly, because he also said that (show!)Dany's story is "the rise of a villain". He really doesn't know anything about her.

For this review, there's no comment of mine on any Inside the Episode because D&D's Inside the Episode 3.5 doesn't talk about show!Dany's storyline. I'm not commenting on show!Dany's clothes either because she's wearing the same clothes from episode 3.4 and I've talked about them here.

#daenerys targaryen #asoiaf meta #valyrianscrolls #barristan selmy #grey worm #asos vs got #asoiaf vs got #jorah mormont #a storm of swords #s3

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aboveallarescuer · 5 years ago

Text

Dany considering, threatening to take and/or taking violent measures

As I was rereading ASOIAF, I made it my goal to compile all* the book passages demonstrating either certain key attributes of Daenerys Targaryen (e.g. that she's compassionate and smart) or aspects of hers that are usually overstated (e.g. that she's ambitious and prophecy-driven). Doing such a task may seem exaggerated, but I'd argue it's not, for many, many misconceptions about Dany have become widespread in light of the show's final season's events (and even before).

It must be acknowledged that it can be tricky to reference, say, ADWD passages to counter-argument how she was depicted in season eight (which allegedly follows ADOS events). Dany will have had plenty of character development in the span of two books. However, whatever happens to Dany in the next two books, I would argue that there is more than enough material to conclude that her show counterpart was made to fall for flaws that she (for the most part) never had and actions that she (for the most part) would never take. (and that's not even considering the double standards and the contradictions with what had been shown from show!Dany up until then, but that's obviously out of the scope of these lists)

Another objection to the purpose of these lists is that Game of Thrones is different from A Song of Ice and Fire and should be analyzed on its own, which is a fair point. However, the show is also an adaptation of these books, which begs the questions: why did they change Dany's character? Why did they overfocus on negative traits of hers or depicted them as negative when they weren't supposed to be or gave her negative traits that were never hers to begin with? Another fact that undermines the show=/=books argument is that most people think that the show's ending will be the books', albeit only in broad strokes and in different circumstances. As a result, people's perception of Dany is inevitably influenced by the show, which is a shame.

I hope these lists can be useful for whoever wants to find book passages to defend (or even simply explore different facets of) Dany's character in metas or conversations.

*Well, at least all the passages that I could find in her chapters, which is no guarantee that the effort was perfectly executed, but I did my best.

Also, people could interpret certain passages differently and then come up with a different collection of passages if they ever attempted to make one, so I'm not saying that this list is completely objective (nor that there could ever be one).

Also, some passages have been cut short according to whether they were, IMO, relevant to the specific topic of the list they're in, so the context surrounding them may not always be clear (always read the books and use asearchoficeandfire). Many of them appear in different lists, sometimes fully referenced, sometimes not.

I listed the passages back to front because I felt doing so highlighted Dany's evolution better.

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

To justify the existence of this list, let's see examples of widespread opinions that I feel misrepresent Daenerys Targaryen:

It's just time that we acknowledge that Daenerys' behavior over the past few seasons has been more of someone with an overinflated ego and an limitless sense of entitlement than that of a ruler with the well-being of their subjects and land in mind. If I can really spill the tea, she's acting a lot like the Mad King as well as Cersei, who's currently acting all type of the fool on the Iron Throne. Violence may be a necessary evil, but like...do we really have to burn everybody alive? Is that really what we want for Westeros? (x)

[S]he’d rather slaughter her enemies than use them to her advantage. Sure, sometimes you need a good slaughter, but you have to be willing to try diplomacy, too. (x)

The issue isn’t whether it’s better if the slave cities remained slave cities — it goes without saying, that’s reprehensible. But her most striking moments ruling Meereen are quite sadistic in nature. In season four, when the Meereenese crucify slave children as a threat to Dany, she responds by crucifying an equal number of noblemen once she takes over the city, despite Ser Barristan’s pleas for mercy; “I will answer injustice with justice,” she coolly responds. Revisiting that scene, it’s pretty disturbing. What starts out as a moment of joyous liberation — and the slaves chanting “Mhysa!” her way — ends with the anguished screams of the newly crucified Meereenese across the city.

Fast forward to season five, when Ser Barristan is unceremoniously murdered in an alley by the Sons of the Harpy, Dany rounds up Meereen’s elected leaders to interrogate them and find out who among them could be a secret Harpy. To establish she’s not fucking around, she picks one of them at random to be burned alive and subsequently eaten by two of her dragons. She’s not just content with her decision; despite not getting any answers, Dany’s entranced by the sight of her dragons and the burning fire.

Dany’s fascination with fire — not to mention her nonchalant attitude toward violence — bears an uncomfortable resemblance to her father, the “Mad King” Aerys Targaryen. (x)

Are Dany's acts of violence supposed to make you wonder if she's going to "burn everybody alive"? Are her acts of violence "quite sadistic in nature"? Does she feel "entranced by the sight of her dragons and the burning fire" and has a "fascination with fire"?

I would argue GRRM has written a character who only chooses violence either for humanitarian reasons or for political goals (which are often intertwined), and even in the latter case, she seeks to avoid collateral damage (ASOS Dany III, ASOS Dany IV). She's not immune to acting on vengeance, but so far it's always been motivated by the injustices perpetrated upon others (ASOS Dany VI, ADWD Dany II); you can argue that "harsh justice", as she puts it, is not justice, but you can't argue that she's doing it for them. The one exception to this is her burning of Mirri Maz Duur, but even then, it is not because she is "sadistic", she explicitly recognizes the futility of vengeance. She kills her because she needs her life for the ritual that culminates with the birth of the dragons. You could argue Mirri didn't deserve it, but Mirri also killed her child and left Drogo in a comatose state. And she lives in a society that largely normalizes violence. Dany's entire characterization must be taken into consideration.

With that in mind, there is no textual evidence to suggest she will decide to burn every noncombatant she can find because she was unhappy about their reception. None. She fights to be queen because she wants to protect the ones who can't protect themselves and it is her duty towards her lost family. She carries unbearable guilt over her mistakes (or ramifications that had nothing to do with her). She treats her achievements and inheritances as a duty rather than as something that elevates her beyond others. She wants a home for herself and peace for everyone.

I should also add that the list about the moments showcasing her empathy and compassion is more than four times bigger than this one. One can argue I'm being biased, but it says something that passages showing instances when she does take violent measures would not fill a whole list. I also had to look for moments when she considers or threatens to in order to fill this one. And even then, her positive aspects greatly surpass her "negative" ones. Why would GRRM focus so much more on her sympathy towards others rather than on her ruthlessness? Must be because Daenerys Targaryen is ultimately meant to be a sympathetic character who is not supposed to turn into a mass murderer of her own volition, ever.

A Dance with Dragons

ADWD Daenerys VIII

The hall rang to Yunkish laughter, Yunkish songs, Yunkish prayers. Dancers danced; musicians played queer tunes with bells and squeaks and bladders; singers sang ancient love songs in the incomprehensible tongue of Old Ghis. Wine flowed—not the thin pale stuff of Slaver’s Bay but rich sweet vintages from the Arbor and dreamwine from Qarth, flavored with strange spices. The Yunkai’i had come at King Hizdahr’s invitation, to sign the peace and witness the rebirth of Meereen’s far-famed fighting pits. Her noble husband had opened the Great Pyramid to fete them.

I hate this, thought Daenerys Targaryen. How did this happen, that I am drinking and smiling with men I’d sooner flay?

“You don’t never want to trust a sellsword, m’lady.”

“I have learned that much. One day I must be sure to thank you for the lesson.”

“Is there some man in the Second Sons who might be persuaded to … remove … Brown Ben?”

“As Daario Naharis once removed the other captains of the Stormcrows?” The old knight looked uncomfortable. “Perhaps. I would not know, Your Grace.”

No, she thought, you are too honest and too honorable. “If not, the Yunkai’i employ three other companies.”

“Rogues and cutthroats, scum of a hundred battlefields,” Ser Barristan warned, “with captains full as treacherous as Plumm.”

“I am only a young girl and know little of such things, but it seems to me that we want them to be treacherous. Once, you’ll recall, I convinced the Second Sons and Stormcrows to join us.”

“If Your Grace wishes a privy word with Gylo Rhegan or the Tattered Prince, I could bring them up to your apartments.”

“This is not the time. Too many eyes, too many ears. Their absence would be noted even if you could separate them discreetly from the Yunkai’i. We must find some quieter way of reaching out to them … not tonight, but soon.”

“As you command. Though I fear this is not a task for which I am well suited. In King’s Landing work of this sort was left to Lord Littlefinger or the Spider. We old knights are simple men, only good for fighting.” He patted his sword hilt.

“Our prisoners,” suggested Dany. “The Westerosi who came over from the Windblown with the three Dornishmen. We still have them in cells, do we not? Use them.”

“Free them, you mean? Is that wise? They were sent here to worm their way into your trust, so they might betray Your Grace at the first chance.”

“Then they failed. I do not trust them. I will never trust them.” If truth be told, Dany was forgetting how to trust. “We can still use them. One was a woman. Meris. Send her back, as a … a gesture of my regard. If their captain is a clever man, he will understand.”

“The woman is the worst of all.”

“All the better.” Dany considered a moment. “We should sound out the Long Lances too. And the Company of the Cat.”

“Bloodbeard.” Ser Barristan’s frown deepened. “If it please Your Grace, we want no part of him. Your Grace is too young to remember the Ninepenny Kings, but this Bloodbeard is cut from the same savage cloth. There is no honor in him, only hunger … for gold, for glory, for blood.”

“You know more of such men than me, ser.” If Bloodbeard might be truly the most dishonorable and greedy of the sellswords, he might be the easiest to sway, but she was loath to go against Ser Barristan’s counsel in such matters. “Do as you think best. But do it soon. If Hizdahr’s peace should break, I want to be ready. I do not trust the slavers.” I do not trust my husband. “They will turn on us at the first sign of weakness.”

“The Yunkai’i grow weaker as well. The bloody flux has taken hold amongst the Tolosi, it is said, and spread across the river to the third Ghiscari legion.”

The pale mare. Daenerys sighed. Quaithe warned me of the pale mare’s coming. She told me of the Dornish prince as well, the sun’s son. She told me much and more, but all in riddles. “I cannot rely on plague to save me from my enemies. Set Pretty Meris free. At once.”

ADWD Daenerys VI

“If we should wed by Westerosi rites …”

“The gods of Ghis would deem it no true union.” Galazza Galare’s face was hidden behind a veil of green silk. Only her eyes showed, green and wise and sad. “In the eyes of the city you would be the noble Hizdahr’s concubine, not his lawful wedded wife. Your children would be bastards. Your Worship must marry Hizdahr in the Temple of the Graces, with all the nobility of Meereen on hand to bear witness to your union.”

Get the heads of all the noble houses out of their pyramids on some pretext, Daario had said. The dragon’s words are fire and blood. Dany pushed the thought aside. It was not worthy of her. “As you wish,” she sighed.

Dany filled his wine cup again, wanting nothing so much as to pour the flagon over his head and drown his complacent smile.

She wanted to scream, to gnash her teeth and tear her clothes and beat upon the floor. Instead she said, “Close the gates. Will you make me say it thrice?” They were her children, but she could not help them now.

ADWD Daenerys IV

“The Shavepate has ways of finding the truth.”

“I do not doubt that Skahaz would soon have me confessing. A day with him, and I will be one of the Harpy’s Sons. Two days, and I will be the Harpy. Three, and it will turn out I slew your father too, back in the Sunset Kingdoms when I was yet a boy. Then he will impale me on a stake and you can watch me die … but afterward the killings will go on.”

ADWD Daenerys III

“The Wise Masters should follow their example. I spared Yunkai before, but I will not make that mistake again. If they should dare attack me, this time I shall raze their Yellow City to the ground.”

“Have you forgotten? I have dragons.” [...]

“My dragons have grown, my shoulders have not. They range far afield, hunting.” Hazzea, forgive me. She wondered how much Xaro knew, what whispers he had heard. “Ask the Good Masters of Astapor about my dragons if you doubt them.” I saw a slaver’s eyes melt and go running down his cheeks.

Westeros. Home. But if she left, what would happen to her city? Meereen was never your city, her brother’s voice seemed to whisper. Your cities are across the sea. Your Seven Kingdoms, where your enemies await you. You were born to serve them blood and fire.

“Xaro Xhoan Daxos does not threaten. He promises.”

Her sadness turned to fury. “And I promise you that if you are not gone before the sun comes up, we will learn how well a liar’s tears can quench dragonfire. Leave me, Xaro. Quickly.”

ADWD Daenerys II

Mercy, thought Dany. They will have the dragon’s mercy. “Skahaz, I have changed my mind. Question the man sharply.”

“I could. Or I could question the daughters sharply whilst the father looks on. That will wring some names from him.”

“Do as you think best, but bring me names.” Her fury was a fire in her belly.

She was the blood of the dragon. She could kill the Sons of the Harpy, and the sons of the sons, and the sons of the sons of the sons. But a dragon could not feed a hungry child nor help a dying woman’s pain. And who would ever dare to love a dragon?

She sniffed suspiciously at Reznak mo Reznak. I could command the Shavepate to arrest him and put him to the question. Would that forestall the prophecy? Or would some other betrayer take his place?

ADWD Daenerys I

Dany said a silent prayer that somewhere one of the Harpy’s Sons was dying even now, clutching at his belly and writhing in pain.

Daenerys pushed her hair back. “Find these cowards for me. Find them, so that I might teach the Harpy’s Sons what it means to wake the dragon.”

She had not forgotten the slave children the Great Masters had nailed up along the road from Yunkai. They had numbered one hundred sixty-three, a child every mile, nailed to mileposts with one arm outstretched to point her way. After Meereen had fallen, Dany had nailed up a like number of Great Masters. Swarms of flies had attended their slow dying, and the stench had lingered long in the plaza. Yet some days she feared that she had not gone far enough. These Meereenese were a sly and stubborn people who resisted her at every turn.

“...Women do not forget. Women do not forgive.”

No, Dany thought, and the Usurper’s dogs will learn that, when I return to Westeros.

There were times when Dany wondered if that razor might not be better saved for Reznak’s throat. He was a useful man, but she liked him little and trusted him less. The Undying of Qarth had told her she would be thrice betrayed. Mirri Maz Duur had been the first, Ser Jorah the second. Would Reznak be the third? The Shavepate? Daario? Or will it be someone I would never suspect, Ser Barristan or Grey Worm or Missandei?

A Storm of Swords

ASOS Daenerys VI

“I want your leaders,” Dany told them. “Give them up, and the rest of you shall be spared.”

“How many?” one old woman had asked, sobbing. “How many must you have to spare us?”

“One hundred and sixty-three,” she answered.

She had them nailed to wooden posts around the plaza, each man pointing at the next. The anger was fierce and hot inside her when she gave the command; it made her feel like an avenging dragon. But later, when she passed the men dying on the posts, when she heard their moans and smelled their bowels and blood ...

Dany put the glass aside, frowning. It was just. It was. I did it for the children.

Dany remembered the horror she had felt when she had seen the Plaza of Punishment in Astapor. I made a horror just as great, but surely they deserved it. Harsh justice is still justice.

“Do not ever presume to touch me again, or to speak my name. You have until dawn to collect your things and leave this city. If you’re found in Meereen past break of day, I will have Strong Belwas twist your head off. I will. Believe that.”

ASOS Daenerys V

Worst of all, they had nailed a slave child up on every milepost along the coast road from Yunkai, nailed them up still living with their entrails hanging out and one arm always outstretched to point the way to Meereen. [...] “I will see them,” she said. “I will see every one, and count them, and look upon their faces. And I will remember.”

ASOS Daenerys IV

“I say, you are mad.”

“Am I?” Dany shrugged, and said, “Dracarys.”

The dragons answered. Rhaegal hissed and smoked, Viserion snapped, and Drogon spat swirling red-black flame. It touched the drape of Grazdan’s tokar, and the silk caught in half a heartbeat. Golden marks spilled across the carpets as the envoy stumbled over the chest, shouting curses and beating at his arm until Whitebeard flung a flagon of water over him to douse the flames. “You swore I should have safe conduct! “ the Yunkish envoy wailed.

“Do all the Yunkai’i whine so over a singed tokar? I shall buy you a new one ... if you deliver up your slaves within three days. Elsewise, Drogon shall give you a warmer kiss.”

ASOS Daenerys III

“He will not come,” Kraznys said.

“There is a reason. A dragon is no slave.” And Dany swept the lash down as hard as she could across the slaver’s face. Kraznys screamed and staggered back, the blood running red down his cheeks into his perfumed beard. The harpy’s fingers had torn his features half to pieces with one slash, but she did not pause to contemplate the ruin. “Drogon,” she sang out loudly, sweetly, all her fear forgotten. “Dracarys.”

The black dragon spread his wings and roared.

[...] “Unsullied!” Dany galloped before them, her silver-gold braid flying behind her, her bell chiming with every stride. “Slay the Good Masters, slay the soldiers, slay every man who wears a tokar or holds a whip, but harm no child under twelve, and strike the chains off every slave you see.” She raised the harpy’s fingers in the air ... and then she flung the scourge aside. “Freedom!” she sang out. “Dracarys! Dracarys!”

“Dracarys!” they shouted back, the sweetest word she’d ever heard. “Dracarys! Dracarys!” And all around them slavers ran and sobbed and begged and died, and the dusty air was filled with spears and fire.

ASOS Daenerys I

[“]The warlocks said the second treason would be for gold. What does Illyrio Mopatis love more than gold?”

“His skin.” Across the cabin Drogon stirred restlessly, steam rising from his snout. “Mirri Maz Duur betrayed me. I burned her for it.”

A Clash of Kings

ACOK Daenerys III

“I mean to sail to Westeros, and drink the wine of vengeance from the skull of the Usurper.”

[...] “Will nothing turn you from this madness?”

“Nothing,” she said, wishing she was as certain as she sounded.

A Game of Thrones

AGOT Daenerys X

“I am tired of the maegi’s braying,” Dany told Jhogo. He took his whip to her, and after that the godswife kept silent.

As she climbed down off the pyre, she noticed Mirri Maz Duur watching her. “You are mad,” the godswife said hoarsely.

“Is it so far from madness to wisdom?” Dany asked. “Ser Jorah, take this maegi and bind her to the pyre.”

“To the ... my queen, no, hear me ...”

“Do as I say.” Still he hesitated, until her anger flared. “You swore to obey me, whatever might come. Rakharo, help him.”

[...] “I thank you, Mirri Maz Duur,” she said, “for the lessons you have taught me.”

“You will not hear me scream,” Mirri responded as the oil dripped from her hair and soaked her clothing.

“I will,” Dany said, “but it is not your screams I want, only your life. I remember what you told me. Only death can pay for life.”

AGOT Daenerys IX

“Eroeh?” asked Dany, remembering the frightened child she had saved outside the city of the Lamb Men.

“Mago seized her, who is Khal Jhaqo’s bloodrider now,” said Jhogo. “He mounted her high and low and gave her to his khal, and Jhaqo gave her to his other bloodriders. They were six. When they were done with her, they cut her throat.”

“It was her fate, Khaleesi,” said Aggo. 

If I look back I am lost. “It was a cruel fate,” Dany said, “yet not so cruel as Mago’s will be. I promise you that, by the old gods and the new, by the lamb god and the horse god and every god that lives. I swear it by the Mother of Mountains and the Womb of the World. Before I am done with them, Mago and Ko Jhaqo will plead for the mercy they showed Eroeh.”

The Dothraki exchanged uncertain glances. “Khaleesi,” the handmaid Irri explained, as if to a child, “Jhaqo is a khal now, with twenty thousand riders at his back.”

She lifted her head. “And I am Daenerys Stormhorn, Daenerys of House Targaryen, of the blood of Aegon the Conqueror and Maegor the Cruel and old Valyria before them. I am the dragon’s daughter, and I swear to you, these men will die screaming. Now bring me to Khal Drogo.”

Dany called out for the men of her khas and bid them take Mirri Maz Duur and bind her hand and foot, but the maegi smiled at her as they carried her off, as if they shared a secret. A word, and Dany could have her head off ... yet then what would she have? A head? If life was worthless, what was death?

AGOT Daenerys VIII

“You do not command me, Khaleesi,” Qotho said.

“Find Mirri Maz Duur,” she told him. The godswife would be walking among the other Lamb Men, in the long column of slaves. “Bring her to me, with her chest.”

Qotho glared down at her, his eyes hard as flint. “The maegi.” He spat. “This I will not do.”

“You will,” Dany said, “or when Drogo wakes, he will hear why you defied me.”

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.”

“Khaleesi,” Jhiqui said, “he fell from his horse.”

Trembling, her eyes full of sudden tears, Dany turned away from them.

Only a horse, Dany thought. If she could buy Drogo’s life with the death of a horse, she would pay a thousand times over.

She caught him by the shoulder, but Qotho shoved her aside. Dany fell to her knees, crossing her arms over her belly to protect the child within. “Stop him,” she commanded her khas, “kill him.”

AGOT Daenerys VII

“I will not have her harmed,” Dany said. “I claim her. Do as I command you, or Khal Drogo will know the reason why.”

AGOT Daenerys VI

“You will drink,” Dany said, cold as ice. “Empty the cup, or I will tell them to hold you down while Ser Jorah pours the whole cask down your throat.”

His khalasar left Vaes Dothrak two days later, striking south and west across the plains. Khal Drogo led them on his great red stallion, with Daenerys beside him on her silver. The wineseller hurried behind them, naked, on foot, chained at throat and wrists. His chains were fastened to the halter of Dany’s silver. As she rode, he ran after her, barefoot and stumbling. No harm would come to him ... so long as he kept up.

AGOT Daenerys IV

“I am the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, not some grass-stained savage with bells in his hair,” Viserys spat back at her. He grabbed her arm. “You forget yourself, slut. Do you think that big belly will protect you if you wake the dragon?”

His fingers dug into her arm painfully and for an instant Dany felt like a child again, quailing in the face of his rage. She reached out with her other hand and grabbed the first thing she touched, the belt she’d hoped to give him, a heavy chain of ornate bronze medallions. She swung it with all her strength.

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.”

#daenerys targaryen #a dance with dragons #a storm of swords #a clash of kings #a game of thrones #dany passages

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