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jozor-johai · 10 months ago

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okay really cool addition by @grennseyelashes that I couldn’t allow to be lost in tags

Why I believe that the Shavepate had troubling plans for Dany's dragons after she left... and why Quentyn's timing was so important.

I was looking at ADWD The Dragontamer, and there’s this one sequence in particular that really stood out to me… and the more I tried to figure out what it was supposed to mean, the more I started to suspect just how important Quentyn’s plan was because of the specific timing that he freed the dragons. I think he didn't just free them, but save them from the Shavepate.

I believe that this entire point can be backed up by the text alone, but I first want to also contextualize it from an authorial perspective, too. The first reason is tautological, if we trust GRRM as an author: we know Quentyn is important to the story because he is in the story. Further, though, we have outside reason to believe that he’s of particular importance to the plot of Meereen because of the so-called “Meereenese Knot,” where all of the POV players in Meereen had to be arranged in a particular fashion in order to achieve the end result that GRRM wanted.

I only draw attention to this because it’s a reminder that Quentyn’s actions are of particular significance. He only gets four chapters, and two of them are either planning to release the dragons or releasing the dragons. It’s kind of his thing. So why did it have to happen that way?

An Almost-Broken Door

I think that this moment where Quentyn arrives at the doors to the dragon’s dungeon offers a key clue:

The size and thickness of those doors was enough to make Quentyn Martell question the wisdom of this course. Even worse, both doors were plainly dinted by something inside trying to get out. The thick iron was cracked and splitting in three places, and the upper corner of the left-hand door looked partly melted.

Quentyn notices that these doors have been heavily damaged by the dragons within. Of course, on an immediate read, this serves to show the readers the new force and strength of the now-older dragons, and to show Quentyn yet another omen as to why his cause is ill-advised. Like he does at so many other moments, Quentyn registers that he should “question the wisdom” of his plan, but carries on regardless.

However, the degree of the damage that this door has taken stands out as particularly significant. The door is not just dented, not only “cracked,” it’s even “splitting” in three places. It’s being melted away from the very frame. This is a door which does not have much longer to hold. Inside, the dragons have broken out of their chains.

With this door, GRRM is showing us that given just a little more time, these dragons might have gotten out on their own. There’s a sense of inevitability to it: even if Quentyn hadn’t freed the dragons that night, they still would have escaped.

As an aside: I do think there’s an element of symbolic significance for Dany here which should not be overlooked. It’s important that Dany’s dragons—and with them, her agency, power, her sense of freedom and self—would have been freed even without intervention from Quentyn. After all, Quentyn really wanted dragons, power, and agency for himself and Dorne, not because he necessarily had Dany’s best interests at heart, so I think it would be symbolically wrong for those desires of his own to be essential to freeing Dany’s dragons. It’s better that, like Dany’s eventual escape from her “floppy ears,” it was inevitable that her dragons would escape, too. But that’s not exactly what I’m here to talk about. What I’m interested in here is what that means for the plot and Quentyn’s role in it.

If it were the case that the dragons would have broken out regardless, then what was the point of Quentyn? Even better, what was the point of George showing us that the dragons were just about to break out anyway, even in the moment that Quentyn opens that door for them?

I argue that the description of the *almost-*compromised door is meant to show us that Quentyn freeing the dragons on that night, in that moment, is specifically significant.

However, there’s an interesting wrinkle to this: if the dragons had broken out on their own, they would be flying uncontrolled over the city… which is exactly what happens anyway. Quentyn dies freeing the dragons, the rest of his allies flee, and so the dragons roam free with no masters (yay, no masters!)

From what we can infer from the description of the breaking door, consider this timeline of possibility:

If Quentyn frees the dragons:

Quentyn frees the dragons and they roam free

If Quentyn does not free the dragons:

(time when Quentyn would arrive)

unknown amount of time passes before the dragons break out

Dragons free themselves through the broken door and they roam free

If we understand the broken door to indicate that the dragons would have ended up breaking out on their own anyway, and the result of Quentyn’s actions is practically the same, then there has to be a different significance to this moment than purely the fact that Quentyn frees the dragons.

Based on what the door tells us, I argue that the question is not, “why is it important that Quentyn frees the dragons?” Instead, the question is “why is it important that Quentyn frees the dragons now, before they inevitably free themselves?”

As an aside: this is generally where I assume the “Quentyn-is-alive” theories originate. If you believe that Quentyn is, in fact, alive and riding a dragon, then that answers the question of significance for you. My issue with that theory is that it fills in the answer to this question with pure speculation: that theory supposes that GRRM is withholding key information that will change our understanding of what has happened, and therefore the meaning of Quentyn’s actions.

However, I believe the opposite: I believe GRRM has given us all the information we need to understand why Quentyn’s actions have particular meaning, and it’s given to us in the very next paragraph following the description of the door.

Locust Masks

Picking up the text from right where I left off, Quentyn is given another opportunity to second guess his plan when his code word fails him:

Four Brazen Beasts stood guarding the door. Three held long spears; the fourth, the serjeant, was armed with short sword and dagger. His mask was wrought in the shape of a basilisk's head. The other three were masked as insects. Locusts, Quentyn realized. "Dog," he said. The serjeant stiffened. That was all it took for Quentyn Martell to realize that something had gone awry. "Take them," he croaked, even as the basilisk's hand darted for his shortsword.

Because this chapter immediately follows The Kingbreaker, we know that these locust masks mark these particular Brazen Beasts as part of the Shavepate’s special force of loyalist agents.

Appropriately, then, these were waiting in particular for a different code word, not “dog”... and because we were told the alternate code word in The Kingbreaker, we can only assume they were expecting to hear “Groleo.”

Finally, again because of the events of The Kingbreaker, which ends with the announcement that the dragons have been freed, we also know that this is happening on the very night of Skahaz and Barristan’s coup, and so these locust-masked men are here as a part of that same coup.

Because I believe that something about Quentyn’s actions are significant, I will here rephrase my question of “why is it important that Quentyn frees the dragons now, before they inevitably free themselves?” to a new, more specific question: “why is it important that Quentyn frees the dragons now, the very night of the Shavepate’s coup?”

With that, let us briefly update that theoretical timeline:

If Quentyn frees the dragons:

Shavepate coup begins

Quentyn frees the dragons and they roam free

If Quentyn does not free the dragons:

Shavepate coup begins

(time when Quentyn would arrive)

unknown amount of time passes before the dragons break out

Dragons free themselves through the broken door and they roam free

The fact that the locusts are allies of the Shavepate’s coup is not a revolutionary idea, it’s plainly evident in the text.

But if they are directly involved in that coup plot, what were they doing by the dragon’s door?

"Groleo" and the Missing Shavepate

When Barristan is greeted by locust-masked Brazen Beasts outside of Hizdahr’s door in The Kingbreaker, they allow him through without issue, and even direct him on his way to capture Hizdahr:

"Groleo," Ser Barristan said. "Groleo," the bull returned. "Third hall to the right." The rat unlocked the chain. Ser Barristan and his escort stepped through into a narrow, torchlit servants' corridor of red and black brick. Their footsteps echoed on the floors as they strode past two halls and took the third one to the right.

If, similarly, the Brazen Beasts outside the dragon-dungeon door would only accept “Groleo,” seeing as they did not accept “dog,” the way that the earlier Brazen Beasts did, then the clear assumption to make is that these locusts outside the dragon’s door are also waiting to let someone through. That someone was certainly not Quentyn, and would have known the special Shavepate-only coup code word.

It’s also notable, then, that the Shavepate is almost entirely absent from Barristan’s part of the coup. Instead, he’s off to do his own mission.

We also know that wherever the Shavepate was headed, it’s not where he told Barristan he would be:

"Your Worship," Miklaz said, "the noble Reznak mo Reznak says to t-tell you, come at once." The boy addressed the king as if Ser Barristan were not there, as if there were no dead man sprawled upon the carpet, his life's blood slowly staining the silk red. Skahaz was supposed to take Reznak into custody until we could be certain of his loyalty. Had something gone awry?

Skahaz told Barristan that he was going to take Reznak into custody, but at the time of Quentyn freeing the dragons, Reznak was still free to go about his seneschal duties. Barristan realizes that something doesn’t line up with what he was told, but he doesn’t understand the full significance.

Rather than interpret this situation as one where Barristan is being aided by a force of locust-masked Brazen Beasts to kill the King’s guards and take the King into custody, we might look at this night another way: while Skahaz knew where Barristan would be, that Barristan would be occupied fighting pit-fighters, and that Barristan would be surrounded by the Shavepate’s loyalist forces at all times, the Shavepate was somewhere else, doing some activity that he did not disclose to Barristan.

As it turns out, something had gone awry, but nothing to do with Reznak—because, in all likelihood, the Shavepate was heading to the dragon dungeon, where he had locust-masked coup agents waiting to receive the word “Groleo” and allow him through.

(Of course, we can’t know that the Shavepate himself was headed for the dragon dungeon, but the significance of such a destination would mean it would either have to be him or someone close and trusted enough that the distinction would make little difference, and so I will use “Shavepate” to refer to this agent.)

Final Conclusions

I said before that it’s clear that the door guards for the dragons were part of the Shavepate’s coup, and that this was not a new idea. However, I believe that putting all these pieces together answers my ultimate question:

“If it is not important that Quentyn simply frees the dragons, because they would have broken out eventually, then why is it important that Quentyn frees the dragons now, the very night of the Shavepate’s coup?”

And my answer is:

Because whatever the Skahaz had planned for the dragons during the night of the coup, when he knew Barristan would be occupied and surrounded by Shavepate forces, was going to end in a different result than the inevitable. Whatever the Shavepate had planned, it would not simply be the dragons roaming free over the city... and therein lies the significance of Quentyn’s actions in that particular moment.

So, with this new thought, we add a final update our theoretical timeline:

If Quentyn frees the dragons:

Shavepate coup begins

Quentyn frees the dragons and they roam free

If Quentyn does not free the dragons:

Shavepate coup begins

(time when Quentyn would arrive)

Someone involved with the Shavepate coup, likely Skahaz himself, arrives at the dragon door and is allowed through with code word “Groleo,” not “dog.”

the dragons are not freed

As for what he would have done, I don’t believe we can say with confidence. However, I do feel confident arguing that whatever it was, Dany would not have approved—because why else act when Barristan is not around to intervene? And, as noted above, the free dragons have symbolic significance to Dany. With them, she is free. With Skahaz mo Kandaq’s intervention… I fear their fate would have been more tragic.

#jozor thoughts #asoiaf meta

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