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gondorosi · 5 years ago

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ASOIAF v/s GoT - Part 1: The Disdain for Vulnerable Heroes

Book to screen adaptations are tricky as it is. Adapting high fantasy is even trickier as visual artistry quite often takes precedence over plot and characterization. It’s difficult to adequately portray complex morality, hard decisions and internal agony. Characters are often simplified and pared down to only a few most visually arresting characteristics (mighty king/queen, unbeatable warrior, mysterious magic person, wise-cracking smartass etc etc etc). Plotlines are reworked to make them non-controversial, consequences are ignored and the more difficult subplots are simply done away with. Such actions are common across adaptations, and GoT is no exception.

The distancing of the show from the books started becoming significantly observable S5 onwards. At a certain pivotal point, the obvious heroic characters began to get pigeon-holed - the noble (Jon), the badass (Arya) and the conqueror (Dany). Crucial characters like Tyrion and Bran also began to lose all trappings of individual motives to dedicate themselves to a ‘greater cause’. Characters canonically unreliable and/or unfavourable such as Jorah, Sansa and Varys get painted in a far more positive light than they deserve.

Of course, in Martin’s world the characters are far more layered and conflicted. And thus, to stick to the massively simplified (almost bastardized) show characterizations, D&D quite happily chunked off LARGE plot points essential to the main characters, in effect neutering everything that makes ASOIAF so fascinating to begin with.

Let’s first consider the two most obvious leader-heroes of the saga. Both Jon and Dany start out handicapped and subjugated in their own way, before quickly discovering that they have innate capabilities suppressed by their respective environments. Both of them find a role they are good at and use that role to accomplish something revolutionary. Both of them disregard the dangers posed by proponents of tradition and both of them are brought down or grievously hurt by those resistant to change. However, both of them are young. Both of them struggle with self-worth, purpose and identity. They’re two deeply traumatized young heroes who keep the truths of their hearts to themselves. However, the show begins to distance them from their vulnerability somewhere around the middle of its run. There’s a deliberate choice made to move away from complex characterization and focus only on heroics - whether its raining down fire from atop a dragon, or cleaving through enemies with a sword in hand. And while this makes for arresting and unforgettable visuals, you have to wonder why two such beautifully layered characters had to lose their tender facets to continue being badass heroes.

Dany

No two ways about it - the show has done an exemplary job of building up Daenerys Targaryen the Queen and Conqueror (Season 8 exists only in the Upside Down). Her fiery nature, her courage and her incredible journey from a prized possession to a radical force commanding the very air around her. But before she earned all her titles, she was Dany - a quiet, observant and highly intelligent child who just just wanted to go home. The house with the red door is instrumental to Dany’s psyche as a person - and never mentioning it, or alluding to it takes away something vital from Dany’s story.

That was when they lived in Braavos, in the big house with the red door. Dany had her own room there, with a lemon tree outside her window. After Ser Willem had died, the servants had stolen what little money they had left, and soon after they had been put out of the big house. Dany had cried when the red door closed behind them forever.

All that Daenerys wanted back was the big house with the red door, the lemon tree outside her window, the childhood she had never known.

The red door features prominently in Dany’s thoughts, dreams and visions. To a young Dany, her name is as much a burden and a cage to her as the lack of a name is to Jon. He thirsts for the recognition and dignity of a true name, she dreams of the unfettered lightness of a life without the heavy legacy of her name.

It might sound contradictory, but for all that the show played up the power and near invincibility of the dragons, they skimmed over their ACTUAL importance to Dany’s entire Essos arc, and subsequently her identity. The show posits her as the Dragon Queen almost from the very beginning - whereas in the narrative of the books, it’s a realization she must come to after losing almost everything she’s fought for in Slaver’s Bay.

Remember who you are, Daenerys. The dragons know. Do you?

This line means much more in the context of Dany’s journey of self-realization than the show ever bothered to address. Through her entire arc Dany is struggling to place herself. She’s caught between the ‘Last Targaryen’ - the rightful ruler of Westeros set to take back the Throne stolen from her family by scheming enemies; and the Mother and Queen of the freed slaves of Slaver’s Bay who look to her to destroy a society which has progressed on the strength of broken bones of slaves. Beyond it all she is the Mother of Dragons - which brings all the boys to her yard. Dorne, fAegon, Victarion and Euron don’t give two hoots about the young girl who overturned the age old practice of slavery - they want her dragons. By the time she’s stumbling across the Dothraki Sea delirious, in pain and hallucinating, she knows not which of these three identities is who she truly is.

The door loomed before her, the red door, so close, so close, the hall was a blur around her, the cold receding behind. And now the stone was gone and she flew across the Dothraki sea, high and higher, the green rippling beneath, and all that lived and breathed fled in terror from the shadow of her wings.

That’s what the show misses. The crux of Daenerys Targaryen isn’t that she HAS dragons, it’s that she IS the dragon. The issue with this interpretation in the show is that to truly take Danerys being the last dragon to it’s intended narrative conclusion, you have to admit that her journey would not, and could not end with her becoming Queen of the 7K. The show turned her magic into a political prop which is entirely incongruous with the world-building elements established by Martin. ASOIAF’s magic doesn’t exist as a plaything and a tool for those desiring power. Magic exists to combat magic. Daenerys Targaryen is a conqueror, a queen and a rescuer but she is also more. (I could go on and on about Dany as the Last Dragon but that would be derailing the intent of this post.)

You are a queen, her bear said. In Westeros. “It is such a long way,” she complained. “I was tired, Jorah. I was weary of war. I wanted to rest, to laugh, to plant trees and see them grow. I am only a young girl.”

This is not a Dany the show allows us to observe. The Daenerys Targaryen of the show is not allowed to be vulnerable or uncertain or crumble. She’s not allowed to question her purpose and path in the world. After all, how can the most powerful character in the show ever falter? This is where the show takes the easy way out of putting more emphasis on the visual extravaganza - dragons burning down ships and Emilia Clarke walking through flames unscathed are easy crowd pleasers. But these are also just surface level considerations of Dany’s power and importance. She isn’t who she is because she has dragons - she has her dragons because she is who she is.

But a major point of contention is - who DOES she need to be? See, Dany has always known she’s ‘important’ - in the way political prisoners are important. In the beginning it’s only her family name which holds her value. Her gradual journey from being only symbolically important as a Targaryen, to owning her own narrative as herself is fraught with considerable internal turmoil. The identity Dany cherishes most is that of Mother. Choosing to free the slaves in Astapor and Yunkai is the first decision she takes as a player with power and resources, and this decision has NOTHING to do with her destiny as a Targaryen. You identify a hero by their choices - and it is in this moment, uninfluenced by magic, or a greater power, this young girl sees the horror in a long established custom and CHOOSES to fight it. I would anyway have been invested as Daenerys as a character - but that one action firmly placed her on a pedestal .

In spite of where her destiny may pull her she wants to retain her softer dreams, her yearning for an uncomplicated happiness. At the same time, she’s voluntarily taken on the burden of ruling in Mereen, despite the responsibility very clearly chaining her. At the end of ADWD, her fevered dreams seem to suggest that both her softness and her duty are pulling her away from her true destiny. Dany’s struggles with self revolve around choosing between her identities as the Dragon, the Mother and the Conqueror - I personally subscribe to the belief that Dany ‘finding herself’ would mean realising that her three identities are not separate, but feed into each other to create the Daenerys Targaryen she is meant to be.

The show puts the cart before the horse and ignores the reverberating impact of a piece of Old Valyria being reborn on the shores of the continent where the empire fell. Her trek through the Dothraki Sea once she escapes on Drogon’s back is such a crucial pivot point in her story - it is literally the point where the old Dany is being left behind for who she will ultimately need to become.

And saw her brother Rhaegar, mounted on a stallion as black as his armor. Fire glimmered red through the narrow eye slit of his helm. "The last dragon," Ser Jorah's voice whispered faintly. "The last, the last." Dany lifted his polished black visor. The face within was her own.

After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars.

She woke to the taste of ashes.

The show does make it clear that Dany’s ultimate destiny lies in Westeros - but the Iron Throne can hardly be it. Why will the last dragon be so singularly focused on a crumbling monarchy? Unjustly attacked and exiled and now fighting to retake their ‘rightful’ place - that’s a traditional fantasy storyline and in a purely monarchical power struggle needs neither Dany’s magic nor her dragons. The Iron Throne is such a low bar - what Daenerys attempted in Slaver’s Bay is ten times more difficult and impressive. As of this point in the books Mereen is on the brink of absolute chaos and the situation is much, much more convoluted than the show made it out to be. The political uprising of Mereen was dealt with so laughably on the show - ‘Bring dragons, Burn shit’ doesn’t solve any problems whatsoever but let’s save that for the next part.

Painting Dany’s journey back to Westeros as simply an exiled royal returning to take back what’s theirs removed the poignancy in Dany looking for home in Westeros. There’s this sense of yearning in her desperately looking for a place to belong in a country that’s little more than a fable to her. She tried SO hard to make a home with the Dothraki and to find a place as the ruler of Mereen - but if there’s one takeaway from ADWD it’s that Dany’s fate doesn’t rest in Essos. I expect WoW to be a bloody reckoning, an agonizing choice between Dany’s duty and destiny. The new world order she’s established is far too new and fragile to sustain itself. As we see from Cleon’s ascent in Astapor, evil opportunists exists everywhere, regardless of societal class. To cement her order, Dany and her inner circle need to stay in Mereen for a lengthy period of time. But Westeros is calling - she has to choose. It’s nowhere near as easy as the three Yunkish Masters being the only figureheads, the Greyjoy siblings traipsing into the pyramids with the ships she needs, and alliances falling into her lap just so that D&D don’t need to put in any effort into creating plot and can simply throw spectacular CGI at us.

My point is - you don’t need a dragon (or three) to fight Cersei Lannister and a court jester on ADHD masquerading as Euron Greyjoy (not Pilou, its obvious the dude read the books and expected great things from his character). You do however need them to fulfil the prophecy passed down generations of Targaryens, beginning from Aegon the Conqueror. You do need the last living embodiment of the magic of Old Valyria to combat the foul, unholy magic wielded by the utterly terrifying Euron Greyjoy of the books. The reason Aegon began his conquest of Westeros is beyond mere ambition - and if we go by what Martin himself revealed about his intentions, the Others ARE the final War. We had only 2 episodes in S7 to show Daenerys understanding the gravity of the Night King (godawful mission beyond the Wall and polar bear wights aside) - and then arrives the wrecking ball of S8 with its ‘Northern Independence’ and ‘my Iron Throne’.

The trouble with legendary heroes is this - they save the world for everyone else. Dany defeats all other claimants to the Throne and takes back Dragonstone, King’s Landing and the Seven Kingdoms, as Viserys wanted, and she believes her duty to be. She and Jon lead the Last Alliance against the Great Other. Maybe they win and live happily ever after. Maybe they win, but only after losing everything they hold dear. And maybe they win, and only lose part of themselves. Does that end Dany’s story? Is a Kingdom and a reign what she’s been searching for? Dany’s story only ends when she finds herself in front of that red door again.

Jon

It’s an infuriating irony that despite portraying him as MUCH softer than in the books, Jon’s vulnerability is either non-existent in the show, or is turned into a weakness. Where does the show ever dwell on his deep seated issues with identity, duty and survivor’s guilt? Where does the show address the raw power of his love for Arya? And why does the show think that the progression of Hardhome, being fucking murdered AND resurrected, and then Rickon’s death in front of his eyes would NOT leave a lasting mental impact?

To its’ credit, the show did clearly indicate Catelyn’s hatred for Jon. What we didn’t see, and thus don’t have a ready reference for (in the show) is how Catelyn’s treatment affected Jon. In the books though, you can clearly suss out the emotional impact of the years of Jon’s childhood.

He reached the landing and stood for a long moment, afraid. Ghost nuzzled at his hand. He took courage from that. He straightened, and entered the room.

He stood in the door for a moment, afraid to speak, afraid to come closer. The window was open. Below, a wolf howled. Ghost heard and lifted his head.

This is at Bran’s bedside when he’s still deep in a coma, with no certainty of whether he will ever wake again. Jon’s leaving for the NW, and this may very well be the last time he ever sees Bran again. Jon loves his little brother with everything he has, yet the overbearing emotion at this moment is his fear of Catelyn Stark.

Keep in mind that every POV hides something or the other from the reader. Thoughts and feelings may seem disjointed as a critical memory which aligns the two is missing. In this case, Jon is actively NOT thinking of any particular incident. Yet his fear is all pervasive. It’s an uncovered wound and it hurts him. We may not know exactly what has happened between Jon and Catelyn in the 14 years leading up to this moment, but Jon’s fear of her is very real. This almost paralyzing fear of Catelyn placed against the overbearing love he feels for Bran at this moment makes this exchange stand out for several reasons, chief amongst which is that Catelyn has left an indelible mark on Jon’s psyche.

Robb and Bran and Rickon were his father’s sons, and he loved them still, yet Jon knew that he had never truly been one of them. Catelyn Stark had seen to that.

By the time the moon was full again, he would be back in Winterfell with his brothers. Your half-brothers, a voice inside reminded him. And Lady Stark, who will not welcome you. There was no place for him in Winterfell, no place in King’s Landing either.

The fear lessens once he leaves the halls of Winterfell, and bitterness takes its place. Jon’s feelings about her are tinged with fury and resentment. He’s long past hoping for affection from her, but what still rankles and will never stop being a source of anger, is that she deliberately tried to sabotage his relationships with others who most definitely were his family.

Jon’s thoughts make it obvious that he is painfully aware that he doesn’t belong. For an awareness this heavy to be so deeply etched into a young boy’s entire being, the message has to have been reinforced intensely over the entire duration of his life in Winterfell. That’s not compatible with the assumption that Catelyn was only cold and dismissive of him. We don’t see the instances in either Jon’s or Catelyn’s viewpoints in the books, but the inference is all but thrown at us.

Jon’s growth as a person, a leader and a revolutionary is dependent on his time with the NW just as much as his time with the FF. The show cut out far too many important aspects of his time with the FF, but atleast that part of his journey was treated with more respect than his accomplishments as a man of the NW. (Let me not start on the absolute blasphemy to turn one of the most decisive characters in the entire saga into a dithering, uncertain, meek fool in S8.)

Unlike Dany, Jon has never been important. He has no name, no legacy to uphold, no shoes to step into. All he has are his natural abilities - his startlingly accurate powers of perception for someone so young, his capacity for taking feedback to change for the better and his razor sharp practical intelligence. The text seems to suggest that Jon was indirectly forced to downplay his abilities due to his status - besting Robb was just not done.

With her deep blue eyes and hard cold mouth, she looked a bit like Stannis. Iron, he thought, but brittle. She was looking at him the way she used to look at him at Winterfell, whenever he had bested Robb at swords or sums or most anything. Who are you? that look had always seemed to say. This is not your place. Why are you here?

It’s at the Night’s Watch that Jon first starts to become someone more than Ned Stark’s bastard - in his OWN estimation. The world will continue to see only a bastard and Ned Stark’s shame, but its here that Jon learns to accept and move beyond it. It’s in the yard of the NW training yard that Jon receives his first harsh lesson about himself - he’s lording the privilege of his castle education over boys far less fortunate than him. It’s at the NW that he has the opportunity to use his abilities. It’s here that Jon finds his calling as the champion of the misfits, the ill-begotten, the unwanted and the reviled. He becomes the de-facto trainer of the boys Alliser Thorne deems beneath his dignity. He’s the one convincing Maester Aemon of Sam’s worth as his squire. And it’s at the NW that Jon first begins forming his opinion of the wars of the south - something which he will carry till the end.

When dead men come hunting in the night, do you think it matters who sits the Iron Throne?

The staggering impact of his experience in the NW to his character is an essay in itself. For the purposes of this post, suffice to say that without the NW Jon would never have grown to the position to have an impact on the greater story. As of ADWD, the Wall under Jon’s leadership has become somewhat of a rallying ground - hosting a King, a highborn Northern lady looking for deliverance and support, as well as the center for revitalizing the Watch, rebuilding the Wall and rekindling hope in the North.

At some point after his resurrection in the show, Jon’s portrayal starts edging over into the ‘noble, sacrificial hero’ archetype. This wouldn’t necessarily have been a BAD thing – if this ‘goodness’ and ‘nobility’ didn’t come at the expense of Jon’s overall characterization.

His ‘goodness’ comes in the form of forgiving Sansa for keeping the Vale army secret and keeping her as his closest confidant. This so-called goodness of heart is rank naivete the sharply perceptive and observant book!Jon would have been stupefied at. Jon knows to judge people by their actions – and Sansa’s actions made it obvious that she’s playing her own game and considers her brothers’ lives expendable collateral. The Jon who understood the heaviness of the mantle of leadership well enough to cultivate distance from even his closest friends in the NW would NEVER have allowed Sansa so close.

The ‘honourable’ show!Jon allows his Lords and his sister to question and challenge him openly. The ‘noble’ King Jon has to explain himself before undertaking a journey to gain a potential ally - the only possible ally against a War the North seems unwilling to believe despite the reports of the dead having been around since S1. The honest son of Ned Stark cannot lie to his House’s greatest living enemy. Lord Commander Jon would sooner have jumped off from the top of the Wall than take these decisions. He’s aware of the nature of power and authority, and that more than holding a position its important to make those around you believe you hold power. Power can do great good - but it is also fickle.

Despite the NK and the AoTD being turned into a cosmic farce in the last season, the show did quite a good job of building up the horror, menace and sense of doom in the previous seasons. Hardhome is prime example of why the show was once the pinnacle of television – and what Jon saw there, coupled with the utter failure of his mission to evacuate all the FF would have pushed Jon to the brink of insanity anyway. From what we know of Jon, he carries the deaths of his father, Robb, Bran, Rickon and Winterfell close to him. Compound the steadily growing pressure of that loss with the fact that he loses Grenn, Pyp and Ygritte in the same night. Three of the people most important to Jon but a loss he was never given the time to process as Stannis’s army arrives the very next day. He’s still carrying this heaviness when Hardhome happens, and Jon is exactly the kind of man to blame himself for the people he was unable to evacuate. Not to mention, this is the first time he sees the Night King RAISE the dead – this is the point where the true power of the enemy is fully revealed. That was existential horror at its most visceral and not a sight a man is likely to forget, least of all a man who’s trying his best to create the only resistance.

Let’s forego the changed circumstances of Jon’s murder in the show and consider the act as is – Jon does the right thing, knows he’s doing the right thing and is betrayed and murdered for it. He’s dead and then he’s not and while he’s still struggling with resurrection, betrayal and the memories of Hardhome, Sansa arrives and he’s in the middle of the quest to retake Winterfell. It’s traumatic experience upon traumatic experience, a never-ending series of emotional turmoil with no outlet or time to grieve. This is the only reason I see Jon’s actions at the Battle of Bastards being true to his mental condition in the show – having Rickon die right in front of him when his little brother was pretty much the only reason he was able to gather the mental strength for the campaign would have unhinged him to the point of that ridiculously suicidal move.

But see that’s the last time we see any strong emotion from Jon. He seemed mentally and emotionally exhausted in the Winds of Winter episode, and that’s understandable but only at THAT point. That kind of exhaustion sets in only once you’re done with your battles and Jon’s true battle was just beginning. It’s just never acknowledged – when in truth he would barely have a handle on his temper and would be obsessed with the NK to the point of delirium. We apparently can’t have a functional main hero with his emotions all over the place, gathering the strength to do what must be done while falling apart inside. Or if we DO show him as someone struggling with himself, it’s to paint him as someone too weak to see the truth. Someone too blinded by love who should never have been in charge in the first place.

Heroes are strong, brave, just and honourable. They are powerful and commanding and inspiring. And at the very core of it all, heroes are human. Wish the show had remembered that.

#ASoIaF #jon snow #daenerys targaryen #anti got #jonerys #book!jon #book!dany #show!jon #show!dany

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whateverthedragonswant · 4 years ago

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“Dany would never burn innocent children alive.”

Episode 4x10: The Children:

Yes, she was disgusted and horrified by what happened and she did the right thing, locking up Viserion and Rhaegal, but don’t forget Drogon is an extension of her, literally and figuratively, and “A dragon is not a slave” -- of course it hurt her to lock them up, not only because they were her children, but also because she is being forced to stay “locked up” herself, ruling and trying to adapt when she really is not a ruler and finds all of this tedious and monotonous (this is why they show the former slave unhappy with his “freedom” right before the goat herder and why she mentions the word “a goat or a chair” in dialogue with him to signify the day to day life, the expectations, the moderation of impulses, what she views as a lack of freedom for herself). And when it comes down to the goats or the chair, what happens in the end?

“They ruined Dany’s character for ratings! This wasn’t supposed to happen!”

1x01 (Khaleesi arc starts):

2x01 (Mother Of Dragons arc that started in 1x10 in that moment is just beginning to take off):

(The white mare that Drogo gave her last season dies on this trek, the people are starving as is Dany herself but hey, the dragons are fed)

3x04 (Breaker Of Chains arc kicks off):

(same white horse from 3x04)

(and if you think this framing isn’t intentional, that she doesn’t have Missandei standing equal with her after speaking to the slaves that is then followed by the Mhysa moment...let me assure you, it’s very intentional)

6x06 (Khaleesi arc 2.0 has started in 6x04 and now starts her Queen/”Take Back What’s Mine” arc):

What does Daario tell her in this conversation? That she’s a conqueror, not a ruler. That she wasn’t made to sit in a chair. And what does she switch to from the white horse in the picture above?

Her son with Drogo was predicted to be the Great Stallion That Will Mount the World which Dany then assumed that role (in the books iirc she also believes a part of unborn son’s spirit resides in Drogon as well) - and now that she changes mounts permanently (except for the ships and that one time on horseback with Jon), it’s the very same moment that she gives this speech, that she accepts who she is and is free to be (in her mind), and what her real goal is.

And let’s not forget during the very battle that results in the Tarlys being burnt to a crisp and a conquest occurs by using Drogon to immobilize the Lannister army (supported by the Dothraki), Jaime was riding a white horse that he had been riding before the battle (it’s important for this particular scene as well as the whole battle) and we know what happened there:

And when is the next time we see Dany riding a horse?

In 8x01, she now has a darker horse. And why you ask? Because it’s the beginning of her dark descent officially. Everything else was subtle (and some not so subtle imho) up until this point. And what did Jon tell her in 7x06 about the North? “They’ll see you for what you are” And what happens in this scene? The North are not welcoming, the dragons fly overhead and intimidate them, Dany has that little smirk afterwards, and the music even reflects the turn. All of this was meant to show you, it’s on now, we’re entering into her last arc. Not only in this gif above is it Drogon letting out an intimidating roar as he flies overhead but this visual parallel is uncanny:

And if you think that’s coincidental, think again:

And what does Jon say in 8x01? “You’ve completely ruined horses for me” It’s meant as a joke which Dany takes it as such, because it’s right after Jon’s first experience flying but there was way more to this scene when Jon talked about the dragons that was cut, but this line was kept. I wonder why...

8x05 (all of Dany’s other arcs are gone and there’s only one left: dark!Daenerys):

I’ve heard the theory about how this horse represents the pale horse of Death, not only for the massacre, but also for Arya and the infamous “Not today” phrase. But it’s also appearing right after the massacre happens and there is no one left for Arya to help. This horse also represents the end of Dany as the Breaker Of Chains, the Khaleesi, and of course, the Mother Of Dragons (she still had Drogon but in these last two episodes he was nothing more than a weapon to her, to gain what she wanted to take back “with fire and blood”; sadly, we also see that heartbreaking scene where he still loves his mother, even though she used him in the end - this is part of the reason why Rhaegal’s death was so heart-shattering, not just because of his death and its impact on Dany and the audience but also because there was no turning back now for her, even before she made the decision she did in 8x05) - Arya’s POV in 8x05 was the POV of people on the ground, not only to give weight to Arya’s line to Jon in 8x06 “I know a killer when I see one” but because they were going to shift from Dany’s POV up in the sky from the moment she makes the decision to burn KL to the ground. And the reason they did that is because they didn’t want you to sympathize with Dany, they didn’t want you to see what she was feeling because it was pure rage and certitude of her destiny. This was not a heroic event for Dany nor was it out of the blue; they wanted you to see the people on the ground, and Jon and Arya helped center that. (Jon and Dany were the last two Targaryens, two sides of the same coin, & Arya who encompasses Lyanna qualities and was an assassin, someone who also wanted to “rip them out root and stem” in revenge for what happened to her family - and the minute she turns away from that path is when she’s thrust into the chaos of Dany’s attack) No one on the ground thought “Oh this poor woman”, instead they were all running for cover, realizing there was nowhere to hide, and waiting to die. It was chaos and horror and and death, and that’s what the audience was meant to see, not to have anything detracted from the impact of that moment. We were meant to see the other side of the conquest, to see the POV of the conquered or currently being conquered. People were helpless and scared. Like Tyrion says to Jon in 8x06 “You’ve been up there. Would you have done it?” The men, women, and children of KL were ants to her from up on Drogon’s back, of course it was easier for her to burn everyone that way. To see them all as one big hindrance to getting what she wanted most: the IT that she felt she deserved by right.

Long story short, yes, Dany was going to go dark. Yes, Dany was not above burning innocent people alive. Her drive, her goal, was not just the IT, it was also what the IT represented for her: her destiny to build a better world, a world where the dragon rules over all. And that is why ashes show up in her vision in 2x10, not just as a precursor to 8x05′s events, but also because that was always what she wanted. You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?

#dark!dany #dark!dany meta #got #game of thrones #gotposts #dark!daenerys

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daratheuncrowned · 5 years ago

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Rhaego's life-force revived the fossilized dragon eggs.

In the tent, Mirri conducted the blood ritual to transfer the life-force of Drogo’s horse into Drogo’s lifeless body. She was completely aware that a horse’s life was insufficient to bring a man to full consciousness.

Jorah disobeyed Mirri’s clear instructions not to bring Dany into the tent and brought Dany into the tent. Dany’s unborn son, Rhaego, was unwittingly involved in the blood ritual. The Drogo-horse swap went as planned. However, Rhaego’s life-force was transferred into the dragon eggs.

In Dany’s dream, she sees her son Rhaego, who looks so strong and healthy. Then, he vomits fire and crumbles away to ashes. When Dany wakes up, she sees her stillborn son. He took on the form of the petrified dragon eggs: His corpse was deformed and monstrous and rotten as if he’d been dead for centuries. However, he was alive and kicking up a storm inside Dany before she entered the tent. In terms of his physical form: He was “scaled like a lizard,” had a “stub of a tail,” and “small leather wings like the wings of a bat.” He looked like a dead baby dragon.

After she wakes up, Dany feels “something twist and stretch” in the stone eggs, and they feel warm to her. Rhaego’s life-force already revived them, and they were alive for the first time in centuries.

When they were lit by flames, the eggs-- which were now alive-- hatched.

Dany didn’t need to step into the funeral pyre for the dragon eggs to hatch. She stood before the fire, and she heard the crack of “shattering stone” and saw the shell, which was “pale and veined with gold,” on the ground. Viserion already broke out of his shell. Then, there was the second crack, which was “loud and sharp as thunder.” That was Rhaegel hatching. After the first two dragons hatched, Dany “stepped forward into the firestorm.” That was Drogon. This is why Drogon bonded to Dany more than the other two and he eventually became the one she rode: He was the only one who hatched in her presence in the fire.

Both Mirri and Dany made the incorrect assumption that Rhaego’s life force transferred into Drogo. Mirri assumed that the unborn baby’s lifeforce was not enough to grant full consciousness to Drogo. She believed that Rhaego’s monstrous appearance was a reflection of Drogo’s monstrous actions. Dany believed that Mirri deliberately killed Rhaego to make Drogo comatose: She stated, “show me what I bought with my son’s life” and was horrified that Drogo was still comatose.

Dany doesn’t consciously know that Rhaego’s life-force revived the eggs, but she subconsciously senses it. Even before she wakes up, Dany knew that her son was dead. She doesn’t explain how she knows this or why he died, but she instinctively does. After she wakes up, Dany doesn’t ask to see her son, whom she had a terrible dream about. She immediately asks her handmaids to bring her the dragon eggs. She holds onto them and hugs them as she sleeps, reminding me of a mother doing skin-to-skin contact with her newborn baby. As they hatch, Dany “call[s] to her children.” She views the dragons as her children, which is different than every other Targaryen’s relationship to their dragon. She even breast-feeds them, which no other Targaryen has ever done. The dragons are carnivores, so they only eat sheep, lambs, pork, etc, so they shouldn’t want to drink human breast milk. Yet, they do. There is a part of Rhaego inside them that recognizes Dany as their mother.

Ironically, Mirri inadvertently performed the ritual to hatch the dragons. Thus, she granted Dany the power to become the Stallion That Mounts the World.

#dany #rhaego #drogon #rhaegel #viserion #dragon #mirri maz duur

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kei-yuki · 5 years ago

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A thought about the stallion who mounts the world, the Dothraki and Drogon

“No longer, Khaleesi. You belong to the Dothraki now. In your womb rides the stallion who mounts the world.” He held out his cup, and a slave filled it with fermented mare’s milk, sour-smelling and thick with clots. Dany waved her away. Even the smell of it made her feel ill, and she would take no chances of bringing up the horse heart she had forced herself to eat. “What does it mean?” she asked.“What is this stallion? Everyone was shouting it at me, but I don’t understand.”

“The stallion is the khal of khals promised in ancient prophecy, child. He will unite the Dothraki into a single khalasar and ride to the ends of the earth, or so it was promised. All the people of the world will be his herd.”

A Game of Thrones, Daenerys V

Of course, we all know that Rhaego died and that the stallion will be, in fact, Daenerys. But, can we think for a moment about the prophecy from a possible Dothraki point of view?

“Tell me how my child died.”

“He never lived, my princess. The women say...” He faltered, and Dany saw how the flesh hung loose on him, and the way he limped when he moved.

“Tell me. Tell me what the women say.”

He turned his face away. His eyes were haunted. “They say the child was...” She waited, but Ser Jorah could not say it. His face grew dark with shame. He looked half a corpse himself.

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

A Game of Thrones, Daenerys IX

It’s a curious description for a human baby. Yes, we know about other cases like this among the Targaryen but not the Dothraki. Actually, if we think about it, the description seems more like a baby dragon!

“Drogo’s khalasar is gone,” she said.

“A khal who cannot ride is no khal,” said Jhogo.

“The Dothraki follow only the strong,” Ser Jorah said. “I am sorry, my princess. There was no way to hold them. Ko Pono left first, naming himself Khal Pono, and many followed him. Jhaqo was not long to do the same. The rest slipped away night by night, in large bands and small. There are a dozen new khalasars on the Dothraki sea, where once there was only Drogo’s.”

“The old remain,” said Aggo. “The frightened, the weak, and the sick. And we who swore.We remain.”

A Game of Thrones, Daenerys IX

And yes, the Dothraki know about Rhaego. They know that Daenerys, Drogo’s khalessi, gave birth a monstrous baby. The women in Drogo’s khalasar that followed Khal Pono, Khal Jhaqo, etc., know the story and probably they tell to the rest. We can imagine now what they will think when Danerys come back with Drogon at her side... and I am very curious about the dosh khaleen!

What do you think?

#daenerys targaryen #THE STALLION WHO MOUNTS THE WORLD #Dothraki #rhaego #drogon #dosh khaleen #asoiaf speculation

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rainhadaenerys · 5 years ago

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Daenerys Meta Masterpost Part 6 - ASOIAF

This is part 6 of my Daenerys Meta Masterpost. I’ve compiled more than 2000 metas about Daenerys, both about the books and the show, and I intend to constantly update this post with more metas. The metas listed here will be linked to their reblogs in my blog, (since many people tend to change their usernames, and I don’t want the links to stop working in this case). Of the metas linked here, the ones that I wrote are in bold text. It’s also important to note that the metas here reflect my own opinions about the characters, I don’t claim to be listing every meta that was ever written about Daenerys.

In this part 6, I’ll list metas about the following topics:

MAGIC AND PROPHECIES

DAENERYS AND FERTILITY

ENDGAME, SPECULATION AND STORY STRUCTURE

HOUSE TARGARYEN

DRAGONS

DOTHRAKI

WORLDBUILDING

This is a list about the books, but there might be a few metas that mix books and show if I think they bring up interesting points about the books.

Link to the complete Masterpost: HERE

Last update: July 18 2021

OBS: This post has reached (or is close to reaching) the limit of links established by Tumblr (250 links). To read more metas about the topics of this part 4, see the PART 6B and PART 6C.

MAGIC AND PROPHECIES

Drogon is lightbringer

Dany’s Destiny & Prophesies of Essos - Azor Ahai, Stallion who mounts the world & Promised Prince

Dany being fireproof

the bleeding star

Dany didn’t intend to die when she walked into the pyre

Daenerys is Azor Ahai/Prince that was Promised

Azor Ahai and the Prince that was Promised are the same prophecy

Daenerys is Azor Ahai reborn

Magic is returning to the world because of Daenerys

Dany is not Nissa Nissa, she’s Azor Ahai

Problematic implications of Dany as Nissa Nissa

Interpretation of the House of the Undying

Daenerys' Fevered Dream

From Broodmare to The Stallion who Mounts The World

The role of prophecy in A Song of Ice and Fire - Dany, Quaithe

What are Dany’s treasons?

The betrayals against Dany don't follow the pattern of the prophecy, so most likely Dany will be the betrayer

How do you interpret the Slayer of Lies prophecy?

Will Dany have to sacrifice the magic that frees her and makes her feel at home for “the real” world? Or should magic continue in the world?

What does “daughter of death” means?

Did the Long Night happen in Essos? Are all the prophecies that Dany fits different prophecies or the same prophecy? (this meta is only marginally related to Dany)

The Blood of the Dragon

A comparison between the warg bond and the dragonrider bond

Daenerys’ ultimate destination: Beyond the Wall?

Why Dany as Azor Ahai is more subversive than Jon

Edits: Azor Ahai/Princess that was promised: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

Edit: Stallion who mounts the world is the same as Azor Ahai and PTWP

Edit: Stallion who mounts the world

Edits: House of the Undying: (1) (2)

Edit: Quaithe’s prophecies

Without Dunk, Azor Ahai and the three heads of the dragon wouldn't be born

Bookends - Foreshadowing of Dany's role in the War for the Dawn: (1) (2)

Dany is Azor Ahai and the dragons are Lightbringer

The idea that the subject of the "Song of Ice and Fire" prophecy has to have ice and fire lineage lacks basis

Drogo and King’s Blood

Dany X AGoT vs. Davos I ACoK: Azor Ahai

The Birth of the Dragons (how Dany pieced together the clues to birth them)

Is the foreshadowing for Dany as Azor Ahai too in-your-face for it to be true?

Azor Ahai and the color red

The shadows Dany sees in Mirri's tent

Daenerys being Azor Ahai is inherently subversive

Speculation on why the wording of the prophecies of the fires changes from "for" to "to" in "fire to love"

Theory: the Stallion Who Mounts The World is about is about protecting the Dothraki from the Long Night

The Stallion who Mounts the World is the same as The Prince That Was Promised

Drogo is Nissa Nissa

The mummer's dragon is not Jon

Euron's association with the Long Night and him going after Dany is another evidence that Dany is Azor Ahai

Dany’s dream of ghosts of kings with eyes of different colors, their connection to her dragons, and their connection to Azor Ahai

Ghost grass is part of the Dothraki myth of the Long Night

Three treasons prophecy: Dany is the betrayer

Dany is the Stallion who mounts the world, not Drogon, and the Dosh Khaleen sensed it, but assumed it has her child due to sexism

Dany's dream of the cold manhood can be interpret as both Euron and Hizdahr

Theory: heroic ideals involved in the Azor Ahai legend, and Azor Ahai could be a bad guy

How Dany made the magic in the world stronger

The magical bond of Targaryens and their dragons and Starks and their direwolves makes them stronger

Who is the blue eyed king who casts no shadow?

What does the prophecy of the three heads of the dragon mean?

to anyone who thinks the "stallion who mounts the world" prophecy died with rhaego

What were the shadows Dany saw in Mirri's tent?

Daenerys, House Targaryen and Prophetic Dreams

The Stallion who Mounts the World: A Positive Prophecy

Dany's treason for love

House of the Undying (and how the colors foreshadow Dany's future fight against the Others)

Why Drogo's and Rhaegar's expectations for their sons mean that Dany is Azor Aha, and why prophecies do matter

How Dany's prophecies are a subversion of the tradicional fantasy prophecy that often promises success and heroism

Dany is not Nissa Nissa, she is Azor Ahai, and why dragons are more likely to be Lightbringer than a flaming sword

Born to Burn the Others (Daenerys Targaryen)

The dosh khaleen sensed that Dany was the Stallion who mounts the World, but didn't realize it because of patriarchy

Quaithe’s Circle

Another hint that the Stallion prophecy is the same as Azor Ahai and the Prince that was promised: the Others are the milk men of the Stallion prophecy

Dragonstone is another evidence that Daenerys is Azor Ahai

Azor Ahai is not just a tale, and being just a tale is not more “woke”

The birth of the dragons and king’s blood

Dany and Jon fitting prophecies is not contradicting any theme, Dany and Jon won't "guess correctly" the prophecies

Dany is AAR; is Lightbringer the giveaway?

DAENERYS AND FERTILITY

An argument for Dany having children in the next books

Daenerys Stormborn: The Barren Woman

Did Mirri really “curse” Dany? Could her “prophecy” have been fulfilled?

Daenerys will have children because of the “threes” in her story

Mirri never said that Dany couldn’t have children

Did Dany have a miscarriage in ADWD?

Speculation: Mirri was not telling Dany that she was infertile, but that she couldn't have children because she was going to be a dosh khaleen

In her last ADWD, was Dany just having a miscarriage, or did she also have the pale mare?

ENDGAME, SPECULATION AND STORY STRUCTURE

Reasons for Dany to be queen

The dragons fates

Child of Three - Breaking the Cicle (with three different additions to the original post): (1) (2) (3)

The Three Stages of Dany’s Journey

Dany will destroy the Iron Throne

Dany closed out the first two arcs of ASOIAF

Show ending vs book ending

Does Dany has the arc of a tragic heroine

Dany's new path post ADWD: Will she be a mad queen?

Will Tyrion be able to tell Dany about the wildfire in King's Landing?

Who will be responsible for the destruction of King's Landing? Could Young Griff or Euron be involved?

King’s landing being destroyed by wildfire theory

Why I think death is a bad ending that doesn’t fit Dany’s story and arc at all, no matter how this death happens

Would you accept an honorable and memorable death for Dany?

More reasons why I think self-sacrifice is a bad ending for Dany

Objections about death being Dany's endgame

The sexist implications of Dany dying or being evil considering the fate of past female Targaryens

Dany’s arc and the possibility of her death - A queen belongs to her people, not to herself

Daenerys Targaryen is The Great Other (criticism of the idea that Dany should die fighting the Others, and how her war against slavery shouldn't be secondary to the War for the Dawn; see addition to this meta HERE)

Dany's story is about how the job of a ruler is never finished, and how it's important to fight the human monsters, so saving the world from magical creatures and dying is not really a good ending

Dany’s death as a hero in the War for the Dawn would cheapen her character arc and fight against slavery

Peace and war, fire and blood, double standards against Dany's choice for war in ASOIAF, and sexist implications of her likely endgame

Political problems that would arise if Dany died, and why the end of House Targaryen does not mean the end of oppression or feudalism

Does Dany have a secret origin? What about the lemon trees that supposedly don’t grow in Braavos?

Will Dany be evil or die in the books? Books and show evidence

Potential foreshadowing in AGOT Bran VI

Would Dany give up on the throne if she learned the truth about Jon? What would be her reaction?

About Dany rebuilding Valyria: would this ending make sense? Could this be a good ending for her?

Will Daenerys free the Wildlings from Hardhome taken as slaves?

Second Dance of the Dragons (internal conflict, and why Dany won't go on a bloody rampage)

Speculation about Dany dying in the end and discussion about whether her story is about politics or not

Endgame speculation: Targaryen restoration vs Stark restoration

Refutation of the claim that there are many mentions of "kinslaying" in Jon's chapters and that this somehow indicates that Jon will kill Dany

When will Dany use Targaryen colors in the books?

Speculation on Dany's endgame and criticism of GRRM's bias in favor of the Starks

Criticism of a Dany dying endgame, and how every theme in ASOIAF is already present in Dany’s arc

The Walls of Qarth, the prophecies of the House of the Undying, and foreshadowing of how Dany’s story will be

Dany’s people will be left unmoored and unprotected if she dies or if she becomes a mad queen

Speculation: Jon Connington will be the one to burn King’s Landing in the books, not Dany

Why the theory of Dany accidentally burning King's landing should be criticized

It's quite likely that many girls in Essos will be named after Dany

There’s little to no foreshadowing of Dany burning King’s Landing: (1) (2)

GRRM already debunked the Dany burns the Water Gardens theory, so there's no point in speculating that she would burn King's Landing on purpose

Bran, Sansa and Arya are not more qualified than Dany, Jon and Tyrion to rebuild

Jon and Dany - both beyond the Wall at the end? (discussion)

Does GRRM's claim that "anyone can die" have to apply to Dany? Do the heroes really have to die?

A speculation that Dany’s story happens in phases: maiden, mother, crone

A possible foreshadowing of the accidental ignition of the Wildfire in King's Landing

Could Jon Snow kill Daenerys in a way that is not sexist?

Volantis is Doomed

The characters of ASOIAF will be turned into songs

The theory that Dany will burn King’s Landing accidentally and have to sacrifice herself to redeem herself is not groundbreaking and has already been done

The double standards and bias in the fandom speculations about Daenerys can be criticized even if they are correct; in that case, the criticism serves as a criticism of the writing

Why Daenerys is relevant to the main story

The idea that Dany would urn King’s Landing on purpose is even more ridiculous when you consider that people don’t expect this even from darker characters

Dany dying doesn't make sense and goes against the ruling themes in the books

Do the maiden/mother/crone references in Dany's story mean that she is going to die?

Dany's character goals go beyond the War for the Dawn, meaning that it doesn't make sense for her to die

GRRM subverting fantasy tropes doesn't mean he won't follow his own foreshadowing and write a bleak and nonsensical ending

Foreshadowing that Jon Connington will burn King's landing, not Dany

Will Dany die?

Criticism of a King Bran Endgame

About the theory of Dany accidentally burning King's Landing and the double standards between Dany and Tyrion

Dany's tragic life is another reason why a tragic ending wouldn't be a good idea

HOUSE TARGARYEN

Did House Targaryen bring “bad feudalism” to Westeros?

All Houses built their power on feudalism and conquest, not just House Targaryen

Is House Targaryen obsessed with blood superiority?

House Targaryen and Dany’s claim to the throne

House Targaryen and Northern Independence

House Targaryen and the use of force

Dragons and the power of Targaryen women

House Targaryen and the color red

Targaryen Colors and Villainy

House Targaryen and their huge importance to saving the world

Dany’s claim to the throne

House Targaryen and willingness to think outside the box

How many Targaryen were actually mad?

Targaryen rule in Westeros: positive aspects

Reminder that the Starks might be cousins once removed of Dany’s

How and when was Dany conceived?

The complications of the succession order, and the precedent against women

More about the order of succession

Does Jon have a better claim than Dany? Would he be able to prove it?

Genetics of Fire Resistance

Comparison between House Targaryen, other houses and their conquests (or why other houses don’t have the moral high ground): (1) (2) (3)

Targaryens cannot be compared to Nazis: the belief in superiority is not based on race, but on class, and is shared by all noble houses

Dany's claim to the throne comes not just from Aerys, but from Rhaella, and therefore, even if Aerys' claim is invalid, Rhaella's and Dany's are not

Stark conquest and restoration vs Targaryen conquest and restoration, Aegon's intentions and Dany's intentions

House Stark and House Targaryen + Parallels

If the Targaryens were oppressors for uniting the Seven Kingdoms, then Robert and Ned would have separated the Seven Kingdoms after the Rebellion

Does the North hate the Targaryens in the books?

The narrative of ASOIAF does not ask people to unequivocally support any of the houses

Is Jon's claim (if he is legitimate) stronger than Dany's? Did Aerys really pass over Rhaegar and his children?

Did Aerys pass over Rhaegar in favor of Viserys?

Was Aegon the Conqueror aware of the Long Night?

Dany has the same right to the throne that the Starks have to Winterfell, and House Targaryen was no different from House Stark

Dany's claim does not depend on the approval of House Martell and Dorne

Jon is not the heir to House Targaryen, and it's Daenerys who represents House Targaryen, not him

Dany is actually the rightful heir of the 7 kingdoms (in the books at least)

Get off my dragon - The Targaryens didn't rule just by dragon and fear

Theory that Aegon decided to unite Westeros to prepare for the threat of the Others

"Three heads of the dragon" prophecy and House Targaryen

Viserys says Daenerys is not a fish, but Targaryens actually have Velaryon blood

There’s a reason GRRM gave dragons to a Targaryen woman

A few clarifications on how Aegon’s Conquest went

Do Targaryens have albinism?

Did GRRM make the Targaryens awful?

Do Targaryens have resistance to getting sick?

DRAGONS

Reasons why dragons are just overgrown cats

Related to the above meta: House Targaryen and their fondness of cats

death & rebirth: Dany’s children

A potential parallel between Daenerys and her dragons

Why only the Targaryens remained dragonlords after the doom?

Theory: The Valyrians mated with dragons: (1) (2)

Dany and her dragons' relationship (list of book passages)

Why GRRM chose to make the dragons suckle on Dany’s breasts

Does Dany admit that dragons are untamable? And how does she control the spreading of this information?

A few comparisons between ASOIAF and dragon lore throughout history

How do people sit on a dragon? What kind of saddle do they use?

Are there living dragons or dragon eggs in Asshai?

Is it possible that Dany’s eggs were Elissa Farman’s eggs?

DOTHRAKI

Prohibition of spilling blood in Vaes Dothrak

Dothraki/Mongols

How would Dany deal with the Dothraki in Westeros?

Possible historical parallel for the dosh khaleen

Khaleesi of nothing, the millionth of your name

Women in Dothraki society, dosh khaleen, and a criticism of GRRM’s writing

Speculation about the sexism of Dothraki society in the past

Do Dothraki care about bloodlines and inheritance?

The complexity of Dothraki culture

The word "I" in the Dothraki language

Part of the Dothraki language came from the TV show “The Office”

How pregnant Dothraki women are not only expected to ride until the end of pregnancy, but to give birth in carts

How do Dothraki handle gifts?

Schwarzer's Canvass: The Dothraki and Westeros (Could Drogo and his khalasar conquer the Seven Kingdoms?)

Dothraki and art

Meta Monday: The Horde

WORLDBUILDING

Ghiscari Empire

How do people in Essos count the years?

Is it realistic that Dany and Viserys were left to wander Essos in penury?

In Essos, do languages have a common ancestor?

Speculation of how Astapor could have been built with the blood of slaves even more literally

A Song of Ice and Fire Series - Character Word Counts for Books 1 ~ 5

Daenerys Hurricane-born: Hurricanes in Westeros

Valyrian as a lingua franca, and why Grazdan speaks Valyrian instead of Ghiscari given that he thinks that Dany doesn't speak Valyrian

Parallel between Vaes Dothrak and Winter Town

Parallel between the Water Gardens built for Daenerys of Dorne and the springs of Winterfell

How to speak “If I look back I am lost” in High Valyrian

Why is slavery illegal in Westeros?

#daenerys targaryen #asoiaf meta #valyrianscrolls #asoiaf #masterpost #daenerys meta masterpost #my meta

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aboveallarescuer · 5 years ago

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Dany longing for a home, people to belong to and peace and safety in general

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:

Power is what Daenerys wants and that's really all she wants. She lusts after the Iron Throne with a hunger that is truly baffling. She's not from Westeros, or at least she's never really lived there her entire life. (x)

Why does she want to be queen so badly? Is it to bring a more just era of rule to the land? [...]

Why? What will she do with this power? Will she be a good and just monarch or will she be more like her father, the Mad King? More and more I suspect that she will be a very bad queen, only interested in doing what is right only if it helps her secure the Iron Throne. (x)

Her ruthlessness can't just mean nothing. She's far too power-hungry and far too cold to end up as a good person, ruling magnanimously over a peaceful land. (x)

Never mind that demanding that Dany asks herself why she wants to be queen is not understanding how the Westerosi pseudofeudalistic system works (or that she outright states that "justice ... that’s what kings are for" in ASOS Dany III).

Is power really all Dany wants, to the point of "lust[ing] after the Iron Throne" (particularly gross wording)? Is Dany "only interested in doing what is right only if it helps her secure the Iron Throne"? Is Dany "far too power-hungry and far too cold to end up as a good person"?

I would argue these claims certainly cannot be made after reading the books (some can't even after watching the show's first 71 episodes, but the show can be all over the place and ... I digress), so take a look at these passages.

A Dance with Dragons

ADWD Daenerys X

The hill loomed larger down here. Dany had taken to calling it Dragonstone, after the ancient citadel where she’d been born. She had no memories of that Dragonstone, but she would not soon forget this one. Scrub grass and thorny bushes covered its lower slopes; higher up a jagged tangle of bare rock thrust steep and sudden into the sky. There, amidst broken boulders, razor-sharp ridges, and needle spires, Drogon made his lair inside a shallow cave. He had dwelt there for some time, Dany had realized when she first saw the hill. The air smelled of ash, every rock and tree in sight was scorched and blackened, the ground strewn with burned and broken bones, yet it had been home to him.

Dany knew the lure of home.

Daenerys Targaryen was no stranger to the Dothraki sea, the great ocean of grass that stretched from the forest of Qohor to the Mother of Mountains and the Womb of the World. She had seen it first when she was still a girl, newly wed to Khal Drogo and on her way to Vaes Dothrak to be presented to the crones of the dosh khaleen. The sight of all that grass stretching out before her had taken her breath away. The sky was blue, the grass was green, and I was full of hope. Ser Jorah had been with her then, her gruff old bear. She’d had Irri and Jhiqui and Doreah to care for her, her sun-and-stars to hold her in the night, his child growing inside her. Rhaego. I was going to name him Rhaego, and the dosh khaleen said he would be the Stallion Who Mounts the World. Not since those half-remembered days in Braavos when she lived in the house with the red door had she been as happy.

No, Dany told herself. If I look back I am lost. She might live for years amongst the sunbaked rocks of Dragonstone, riding Drogon by day and gnawing at his leavings every evenfall as the great grass sea turned from gold to orange, but that was not the life she had been born to. So once again she turned her back upon the distant hill and closed her ears to the song of flight and freedom that the wind sang as it played amongst the hill’s stony ridges. The stream was trickling south by southeast, as near as she could tell. She followed it. Take me to the river, that is all I ask of you. Take me to the river, and I will do the rest.

The hours passed slowly. The stream bent this way and that, and Dany followed, beating time upon her leg with the whip, trying not to think about how far she had to go, or the pounding in her head, or her empty belly. Take one step. Take the next. Another step. Another. What else could she do?

“Drogon killed a little girl. Her name was ... her name ...” Dany could not recall the child’s name. That made her so sad that she would have cried if all her tears had not been burned away. “I will never have a little girl. I was the Mother of Dragons.”

In the stream or out of it, I must keep walking. Water flows downhill. The stream will take me to the river, and the river will take me home.

Except it wouldn’t, not truly.

Meereen was not her home, and never would be. It was a city of strange men with strange gods and stranger hair, of slavers wrapped in fringed tokars, where grace was earned through whoring, butchery was art, and dog was a delicacy. Meereen would always be the Harpy’s city, and Daenerys could not be a harpy.

ADWD Daenerys IX

She pushed herself to her feet, splashing softly. Water ran down her legs and beaded on her breasts. The sun was climbing up the sky, and her people would soon be gathering. She would rather have drifted in the fragrant pool all day, eating iced fruit off silver trays and dreaming of a house with a red door, but a queen belongs to her people, not to herself.

Treachery on treachery, the queen thought wearily. Is there no end to it?

In Westeros the septons spoke of seven hells and seven heavens, but the Seven Kingdoms and their gods were far away. If she died here, Dany wondered, would the horse god of the Dothraki part the grass and claim her for his starry khalasar, so she might ride the nightlands beside her sun-and-stars? Or would the angry gods of Ghis send their harpies to seize her soul and drag her down to torment?

ADWD Daenerys VIII

Every child knows its mother, Dany thought. When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves … “They call to me. Come.”

Dany slid her arms around him and let him have his way. Drunk as he was, she knew he would not be inside her long.

Nor was he. Afterward he nuzzled at her ear and whispered, “Gods grant that we have made a son tonight.”

The words of Mirri Maz Duur rang in her head. When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When your womb quickens again, and you bear a living child. Then he will return, and not before. The meaning was plain enough; Khal Drogo was as like to return from the dead as she was to bear a living child. But there are some secrets she could not bring herself to share, even with a husband, so she let Hizdahr zo Loraq keep his hopes.

Her noble husband was soon fast asleep. Daenerys could only twist and turn beside him. She wanted to shake him, wake him, make him hold her, kiss her, fuck her again, but even if he did, he would fall back to sleep again afterward, leaving her alone in the darkness. She wondered what Daario was doing. Was he restless as well? Was he thinking about her? Did he love her, truly? Did he hate her for marrying Hizdahr? I should never have taken him into my bed. He was only a sellsword, no fit consort for a queen, and yet …

I knew that all along, but I did it anyway.

“My queen?” said a soft voice in the darkness.

Dany flinched. “Who is there?”

“Only Missandei.” The Naathi scribe moved closer to the bed. “This one heard you crying.”

“Crying? I was not crying. Why would I cry? I have my peace, I have my king, I have everything a queen might wish for. You had a bad dream, that was all.”

“As you say, Your Grace.” She bowed and made to go.

“Stay,” said Dany. “I do not wish to be alone.”

“His Grace is with you,” Missandei pointed out.

“His Grace is dreaming, but I cannot sleep. On the morrow I must bathe in blood. The price of peace.” She smiled wanly and patted the bed. “Come. Sit. Talk with me.”

ADWD Daenerys VII

If she had been some ordinary woman, she would gladly have spent her whole life touching Daario, tracing his scars and making him tell her how he’d come by every one. I would give up my crown if he asked it of me, Dany thought … but he had not asked it, and never would.

Khal Drogo had been her sun-and-stars, but he had been dead so long that Daenerys had almost forgotten how it felt to love and be loved. Daario had helped her to remember. I was dead and he brought me back to life. I was asleep and he woke me. My brave captain.

“...Bring your frog to court tomorrow. The others too. The Westerosi.” It would be nice to hear the Common Tongue from someone besides Ser Barristan.

She went to the parapet and stood there gazing down upon the city as she had done a hundred times before. It will never be my city. It will never be my home.

It was close to sunset before Daario Naharis appeared with his new Stormcrows, the Westerosi who had come over to him from the Windblown. Dany found herself glancing at them as yet another petitioner droned on and on. These are my people. I am their rightful queen. They seemed a scruffy bunch, but that was only to be expected of sellswords. The youngest could not have been more than a year older than her; the oldest must have seen sixty namedays. A few sported signs of wealth: gold arm rings, silken tunics, silverstudded sword belts. Plunder. For the most part, their clothes were plainly made and showed signs of hard wear.

When she saw the name Ser Willem Darry, her heart beat a little faster.

This was done in Braavos, while we were living in the house with the red door. Why did that make her feel so strange?

ADWD Daenerys VI

Dany tried to speak and found no words. She remembered Ben’s face the last time she had seen it. It was a warm face, a face I trusted. Dark skin and white hair, the broken nose, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. Even the dragons had been fond of old Brown Ben, who liked to boast that he had a drop of dragon blood himself. Three treasons will you know. Once for gold and once for blood and once for love. Was Plumm the third treason, or the second? And what did that make Ser Jorah, her gruff old bear? Would she never have a friend that she could trust? What good are prophecies if you cannot make sense of them? If I marry Hizdahr before the sun comes up, will all these armies melt away like morning dew and let me rule in peace? Daario’s announcement had sparked an uproar. [...] “Be quiet! I have heard enough.”

[...] 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. “Leave me. Daario, remain. That cut should be washed, and I have more questions for you.”

[...] He kissed her.

[...] “I thought you would be the one to betray me. Once for blood and once for gold and once for love, the warlocks said. I thought … I never thought Brown Ben. Even my dragons seemed to trust him.” She clutched her captain by the shoulders. “Promise me that you will never turn against me. I could not bear that. Promise me.”

ADWD Daenerys III

Dany could feel the warmth of his fingers. He was warm in Qarth as well, she recalled, until the day he had no more use for me.

That only made him chuckle. “The Dothraki horselords call the Lhazarene the Lamb Men. When you shear them, all they do is bleat. They are not a martial people.”

Even a sheepish friend is better than none.

Dany had never known a home. In Braavos, there had been a house with a red door, but that was all.

Westeros. Home. But if she left, what would happen to her city?

The next morning Dany woke as full of hope as she had been since first she came to Slaver’s Bay. Daario would soon be at her side once more, and together they would sail for Westeros. For home.

Take these ships and sail away, or you will surely die screaming. You cannot know how many enemies you have made.”

I know one stands before me now, weeping mummer’s tears. The realization made her sad.

Dany seated herself upon her bench again to gaze across the blue silk sea, toward distant Westeros. One day, she promised herself.

ADWD Daenerys I

She had been dreaming of a house with a red door when Missandei woke her. There had been no time to dress.

A Storm of Swords

ASOS Daenerys VI

Up here in her garden Dany sometimes felt like a god, living atop the highest mountain in the world.

Do all gods feel so lonely? Some must, surely. Missandei had told her of the Lord of Harmony, worshiped by the Peaceful People of Naath; he was the only true god, her little scribe said, the god who always was and always would be, who made the moon and stars and earth, and all the creatures that dwelt upon them. Poor Lord of Harmony. Dany pitied him. It must be terrible to be alone for all time, attended by hordes of butterfly women you could make or unmake at a word. Westeros had seven gods at least, though Viserys had told her that some septons said the seven were only aspects of a single god, seven facets of a single crystal. That was just confusing. The red priests believed in two gods, she had heard, but two who were eternally at war. Dany liked that even less. She would not want to be eternally at war.

The dragon has three heads. There are two men in the world who I can trust, if I can find them. I will not be alone then. We will be three against the world, like Aegon and his sisters.

She looked away until she heard the doors open and close. Then she sank back onto the ebony bench. He’s gone, then. My father and my mother, my brothers, Ser Willem Darry, Drogo who was my sun-and-stars, his son who died inside me, and now Ser Jorah ...

She was Daenerys Stormborn, the Unburnt, khaleesi and queen, Mother of Dragons, slayer of warlocks, breaker of chains, and there was no one in the world that she could trust.

ASOS Daenerys V

“Khaleesi, it was only at the start, before I came to know you ... before I came to love ...”

“Do not say that word!” She backed away from him. “How could you? What did the Usurper promise you? Gold, was it gold?” The Undying had said she would be betrayed twice more, once for gold and once for love. “Tell me what you were promised?”

“Varys said ... I might go home.” He bowed his head.

I was going to take you home! [...] Was there no one she could trust, no one to keep her safe?

ASOS Daenerys IV

Dany found herself wondering whether he was right about Daario. She felt very lonely all of a sudden. Mirri Maz Duur had promised that she would never bear a living child. House Targaryen will end with me. That made her sad. “You must be my children,” she told the dragons, “my three fierce children. Arstan says dragons live longer than men, so you will go on after I am dead.”

Dany looked at Missandei. “What are they shouting?”

“It is Ghiscari, the old pure tongue. It means ‘Mother.’”

Dany felt a lightness in her chest. I will never bear a living child, she remembered. Her hand trembled as she raised it. Perhaps she smiled. She must have, because the man grinned and shouted again, and others took up the cry. “Mhysa!” they called. “Mhysa! MHYSA!” They were all smiling at her, reaching for her, kneeling before her.

ASOS Daenerys I

Across the still blue water came the slow steady beat of drums and the soft swish of oars from the galleys. The great cog groaned in their wake, the heavy lines stretched taut between. Balerion’s sails hung limp, drooping forlorn from the masts. Yet even so, as she stood upon the forecastle watching her dragons chase each other across a cloudless blue sky, Daenerys Targaryen was as happy as she could ever remember being.

The narrow sea was often stormy, and Dany had crossed it half a hundred times as a girl, running from one Free City to the next half a step ahead of the Usurper’s hired knives. She loved the sea. She liked the sharp salty smell of the air, and the vastness of horizons bounded only by a vault of azure sky above. It made her feel small, but free as well. She liked the dolphins that sometimes swam along beside Balerion, slicing through the waves like silvery spears, and the flying fish they glimpsed now and again. She even liked the sailors, with all their songs and stories. Once on a voyage to Braavos, as she’d watched the crew wrestle down a great green sail in a rising gale, she had even thought how fine it would be to be a sailor.

They are my children, she told herself, and if the maegi spoke truly, they are the only children I am ever like to have.

A Clash of Kings

ACOK Daenerys V

It was not by choice that she sought the waterfront. She was fleeing again. Her whole life had been one long flight, it seemed. She had begun running in her mother’s womb, and never once stopped. How often had she and Viserys stolen away in the black of night, a bare step ahead of the Usurper’s hired knives? But it was run or die. Xaro had learned that Pyat Pree was gathering the surviving warlocks together to work ill on her.

Her bloodriders would sooner have returned to their great grass sea, even if it meant braving the red waste again. Dany herself had toyed with the idea of settling in Vaes Tolorro until her dragons grew great and strong.

It was good to hear men speaking Valyrian once more, and even the Common Tongue, Dany thought as they approached the first ship.

ACOK Daenerys III

Part of her would have liked nothing more than to lead her people back to Vaes Tolorro, and make the dead city bloom. No, that is defeat. I have something Viserys never had. I have the dragons. The dragons are all the difference.

“...The Qartheen have a curious wedding custom, my queen. On the day of their union, a wife may ask a token of love from her husband. Whatsoever she desires of his worldly goods, he must grant. And he may ask the same of her. One thing only may be asked, but whatever is named may not be denied.”

“One thing,” she repeated. “And it may not be denied?”

“With one dragon, Xaro Xhoan Daxos would rule this city, but one ship will further our cause but little.”

Dany nibbled at an onion and reflected ruefully on the faithlessness of men.

ACOK Daenerys II

She wondered whether Aegon’s Red Keep had a pool like this, and fragrant gardens full of lavender and mint. It must, surely. Viserys always said the Seven Kingdoms were more beautiful than any other place in the world.

The thought of home disquieted her. If her sun-and-stars had lived, he would have led his khalasar across the poison water and swept away her enemies, but his strength had left the world. Her bloodriders remained, sworn to her for life and skilled in slaughter, but only in the ways of the horselords. The Dothraki sacked cities and plundered kingdoms, they did not rule them. Dany had no wish to reduce King’s Landing to a blackened ruin full of unquiet ghosts. She had supped enough on tears. I want to make my kingdom beautiful, to fill it with fat men and pretty maids and laughing children. I want my people to smile when they see me ride by, the way Viserys said they smiled for my father.

But before she could do that she must conquer.

A Game of Thrones

AGOT Daenerys VIII

Dany did not want to go back to Vaes Dothrak and live the rest of her life among those terrible old women, yet she knew that the knight spoke the truth. Drogo had been more than her sun-and-stars; he had been the shield that kept her safe. “I will not leave him,” she said stubbornly, miserably. She took his hand again. “I will not.”

“All I can do now is ease the dark road before him, so he might ride painless to the night lands. He will be gone by morning.”

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

AGOT Daenerys VI

“The stallion who mounts the world has no need of iron chairs.”

[...] “It was prophesied that the stallion will ride to the ends of the earth,” she said.

“The earth ends at the black salt sea,” Drogo answered at once. He wet a cloth in a basin of warm water to wipe the sweat and oil from his skin. “No horse can cross the poison water.”

“In the Free Cities, there are ships by the thousand,” Dany told him, as she had told him before. “Wooden horses with a hundred legs, that fly across the sea on wings full of wind.”

Khal Drogo did not want to hear it. “We will speak no more of wooden horses and iron chairs.” [...]

Savage beasts he did not fear, nor any man who had ever drawn breath, but the sea was a different matter. To the Dothraki, water that a horse could not drink was something foul; the heaving grey-green plains of the ocean filled them with superstitious loathing. Drogo was a bolder man than the other horselords in half a hundred ways, she had found ... but not in this. If only she could get him onto a ship ...

“My princess. How may I serve you?”

“You must talk to my lord husband,” Dany said. “Drogo says the stallion who mounts the world will have all the lands of the earth to rule, and no need to cross the poison water. He talks of leading his khalasar east after Rhaego is born, to plunder the lands around the Jade Sea.”

[...] “The khal has never seen the Seven Kingdoms,” he said. [...]

“But he must ride west,” Dany said, despairing. “Please, help me make him understand.” She had never seen the Seven Kingdoms either, no more than Drogo, yet she felt as though she knew them from all the tales her brother had told her. Viserys had promised her a thousand times that he would take her back one day, but he was dead now and his promises had died with him.

“The Dothraki do things in their own time, for their own reasons,” the knight answered. “Have patience, Princess. Do not make your brother’s mistake. We will go home, I promise you.”

Home? The word made her feel sad. Ser Jorah had his Bear Island, but what was home to her? A few tales, names recited as solemnly as the words of a prayer, the fading memory of a red door ... was Vaes Dothrak to be her home forever? When she looked at the crones of the dosh khaleen, was she looking at her future?

You could never tell what treasures the traders might bring this time, and it would be good to hear men speaking Valyrian again, as they did in the Free Cities.

If I were not the blood of the dragon, she thought wistfully, this could be my home. She was khaleesi, she had a strong man and a swift horse, handmaids to serve her, warriors to keep her safe, an honored place in the dosh khaleen awaiting her when she grew old ... and in her womb grew a son who would one day bestride the world. That should be enough for any woman ... but not for the dragon. With Viserys gone, Daenerys was the last, the very last. She was the seed of kings and conquerors, and so too the child inside her. She must not forget.

But the Western Market smelled of home.

As Irri and Jhiqui helped her from her litter, she sniffed, and recognized the sharp odors of garlic and pepper, scents that reminded Dany of days long gone in the alleys of Tyrosh and Myr and brought a fond smile to her face. Under that she smelled the heady sweet perfumes of Lys. She saw slaves carrying bolts of intricate Myrish lace and fine wools in a dozen rich colors. Caravan guards wandered among the aisles in copper helmets and knee-length tunics of quilted yellow cotton, empty scabbards swinging from their woven leather belts. Behind one stall an armorer displayed steel breastplates worked with gold and silver in ornate patterns, and helms hammered in the shapes of fanciful beasts. Next to him was a pretty young woman selling Lannisport goldwork, rings and brooches and torcs and exquisitely wrought medallions suitable for belting. A huge eunuch guarded her stall, mute and hairless, dressed in sweat-stained velvets and scowling at anyone who came close. Across the aisle, a fat cloth trader from Yi Ti was haggling with a Pentoshi over the price of some green dye, the monkey tail on his hat swaying back and forth as he shook his head.

“When I was a little girl, I loved to play in the bazaar,” Dany told Ser Jorah as they wandered down the shady aisle between the stalls. “It was so alive there, all the people shouting and laughing, so many wonderful things to look at ... though we seldom had enough coin to buy anything ... well, except for a sausage now and again, or honeyfingers ... do they have honeyfingers in the Seven Kingdoms, the kind they bake in Tyrosh?”

[...] Her handmaids trailed along as Dany resumed her stroll through the market. “Oh, look,” she exclaimed to Doreah, “those are the kind of sausages I meant.” She pointed to a stall where a wizened little woman was grilling meat and onions on a hot firestone. “They make them with lots of garlic and hot peppers.” Delighted with her discovery, Dany insisted the others join her for a sausage. Her handmaids wolfed theirs down giggling and grinning, though the men of her khas sniffed at the grilled meat suspiciously. “They taste different than I remember,” Dany said after her first few bites.

“In Pentos, I make them with pork,” the old woman said, “but all my pigs died on the Dothraki sea. These are made of horsemeat, Khaleesi, but I spice them the same.”

“Oh.” Dany felt disappointed, but Quaro liked his sausage so well he decided to have another one, and Rakharo had to outdo him and eat three more, belching loudly. Dany giggled.

“You have not laughed since your brother the Khal Rhaggat was crowned by Drogo,” said Irri. “It is good to see, Khaleesi.”

Dany smiled shyly. It was sweet to laugh. She felt half a girl again.

She did take a dozen flasks of scented oils, the perfumes of her childhood; she had only to close her eyes and sniff them and she could see the big house with the red door once more.

AGOT Daenerys IV

Every khal had his bloodriders. At first Dany had thought of them as a kind of Dothraki Kingsguard, sworn to protect their lord, but it went further than that. Jhiqui had taught her that a bloodrider was more than a guard; they were the khal’s brothers, his shadows, his fiercest friends. “Blood of my blood,” Drogo called them, and so it was; they shared a single life. The ancient traditions of the horselords demanded that when the khal died, his bloodriders died with him, to ride at his side in the night lands. If the khal died at the hands of some enemy, they lived only long enough to avenge him, and then followed him joyfully into the grave. In some khalasars, Jhiqui said, the bloodriders shared the khal’s wine, his tent, and even his wives, though never his horses. A man’s mount was his own.

Daenerys was glad that Khal Drogo did not hold to those ancient ways. She should not have liked being shared. And while old Cohollo treated her kindly enough, the others frightened her; Haggo, huge and silent, often glowered as if he had forgotten who she was, and Qotho had cruel eyes and quick hands that liked to hurt. He left bruises on Doreah’s soft white skin whenever he touched her, and sometimes made Irri sob in the night. Even his horses seemed to fear him.

Yet they were bound to Drogo for life and death, so Daenerys had no choice but to accept them. And sometimes she found herself wishing her father had been protected by such men. In the songs, the white knights of the Kingsguard were ever noble, valiant, and true, and yet King Aerys had been murdered by one of them, the handsome boy they now called the Kingslayer, and a second, Ser Barristan the Bold, had gone over to the Usurper. She wondered if all men were as false in the Seven Kingdoms. When her son sat the Iron Throne, she would see that he had bloodriders of his own to protect him against treachery in his Kingsguard. ~

“Please, bring me one of the dragon’s eggs.”

Irri fetched the egg with the deep green shell, bronze flecks shining amid its scales as she turned it in her small hands. Dany curled up on her side, pulling the sandsilk cloak across her and cradling the egg in the hollow between her swollen belly and small, tender breasts. She liked to hold them. They were so beautiful, and sometimes just being close to them made her feel stronger, braver, as if somehow she were drawing strength from the stone dragons locked inside.

She was lying there, holding the egg, when she felt the child move within her ... as if he were reaching out, brother to brother, blood to blood. “You are the dragon,” Dany whispered to him, “the true dragon. I know it. I know it.” And she smiled, and went to sleep dreaming of home.

AGOT Daenerys III

“Have you forgotten who you are? Look at you. Look at you!”

Dany did not need to look. She was barefoot, with oiled hair, wearing Dothraki riding leathers and a painted vest given her as a bride gift. She looked as though she belonged here. Viserys was soiled and stained in city silks and ringmail.

“What do you pray for, Ser Jorah?” she asked him.

“Home,” he said. His voice was thick with longing.

“I pray for home too,” she told him, believing it.

Ser Jorah laughed. “Look around you then, Khaleesi.”

But it was not the plains Dany saw then. It was King’s Landing and the great Red Keep that Aegon the Conqueror had built. It was Dragonstone where she had been born. In her mind’s eye they burned with a thousand lights, a fire blazing in every window. In her mind’s eye, all the doors were red.

AGOT Daenerys II

Dany had never felt so alone as she did seated in the midst of that vast horde. Her brother had told her to smile, and so she smiled until her face ached and the tears came unbidden to her eyes. She did her best to hide them, knowing how angry Viserys would be if he saw her crying, terrified of how Khal Drogo might react. Food was brought to her, steaming joints of meat and thick black sausages and Dothraki blood pies, and later fruits and sweetgrass stews and delicate pastries from the kitchens of Pentos, but she waved it all away. Her stomach was a roil, and she knew she could keep none of it down.

There was no one to talk to. Khal Drogo shouted commands and jests down to his bloodriders, and laughed at their replies, but he scarcely glanced at Dany beside him. They had no common language. Dothraki was incomprehensible to her, and the khal knew only a few words of the bastard Valyrian of the Free Cities, and none at all of the Common Tongue of the Seven Kingdoms. She would even have welcomed the conversation of Illyrio and her brother, but they were too far below to hear her.

So she sat in her wedding silks, nursing a cup of honeyed wine, afraid to eat, talking silently to herself.

AGOT Daenerys I

When he was gone, Dany went to her window and looked out wistfully on the waters of the bay. The square brick towers of Pentos were black silhouettes outlined against the setting sun. Dany could hear the singing of the red priests as they lit their night fires and the shouts of ragged children playing games beyond the walls of the estate. For a moment she wished she could be out there with them, barefoot and breathless and dressed in tatters, with no past and no future and no feast to attend at Khal Drogo’s manse.

Somewhere beyond the sunset, across the narrow sea, lay a land of green hills and flowered plains and great rushing rivers, where towers of dark stone rose amidst magnificent blue-grey mountains, and armored knights rode to battle beneath the banners of their lords. The Dothraki called that land Rhaesh Andahli, the land of the Andals. In the Free Cities, they talked of Westeros and the Sunset Kingdoms. Her brother had a simpler name. “Our land,” he called it. The words were like a prayer with him. If he said them enough, the gods were sure to hear. “Ours by blood right, taken from us by treachery, but ours still, ours forever. You do not steal from the dragon, oh, no. The dragon remembers.”

And perhaps the dragon did remember, but Dany could not. She had never seen this land her brother said was theirs, this realm beyond the narrow sea. These places he talked of, Casterly Rock and the Eyrie, Highgarden and the Vale of Arryn, Dorne and the Isle of Faces, they were just words to her. Viserys had been a boy of eight when they fled King’s Landing to escape the advancing armies of the Usurper, but Daenerys had been only a quickening in their mother’s womb.

Yet sometimes Dany would picture the way it had been, so often had her brother told her the stories. The midnight flight to Dragonstone, moonlight shimmering on the ship’s black sails. Her brother Rhaegar battling the Usurper in the bloody waters of the Trident and dying for the woman he loved. The sack of King’s Landing by the ones Viserys called the Usurper’s dogs, the lords Lannister and Stark. Princess Elia of Dorne pleading for mercy as Rhaegar’s heir was ripped from her breast and murdered before her eyes. The polished skulls of the last dragons staring down sightlessly from the walls of the throne room while the Kingslayer opened Father’s throat with a golden sword.

She had been born on Dragonstone nine moons after their flight, while a raging summer storm threatened to rip the island fastness apart. They said that storm was terrible. The Targaryen fleet was smashed while it lay at anchor, and huge stone blocks were ripped from the parapets and sent hurtling into the wild waters of the narrow sea. Her mother had died birthing her, and for that her brother Viserys had never forgiven her.

She did not remember Dragonstone either. They had run again, just before the Usurper’s brother set sail with his new-built fleet. By then only Dragonstone itself, the ancient seat of their House, had remained of the Seven Kingdoms that had once been theirs. It would not remain for long. The garrison had been prepared to sell them to the Usurper, but one night Ser Willem Darry and four loyal men had broken into the nursery and stolen them both, along with her wet nurse, and set sail under cover of darkness for the safety of the Braavosian coast.

She remembered Ser Willem dimly, a great grey bear of a man, half-blind, roaring and bellowing orders from his sickbed. The servants had lived in terror of him, but he had always been kind to Dany. He called her “Little Princess” and sometimes “My Lady,” and his hands were soft as old leather. He never left his bed, though, and the smell of sickness clung to him day and night, a hot, moist, sickly sweet odor. That was when they lived in Braavos, in the big house with the red door. Dany had her own room there, with a lemon tree outside her window. After Ser Willem had died, the servants had stolen what little money they had left, and soon after they had been put out of the big house. Dany had cried when the red door closed behind them forever.

[...] “We will have it all back someday, sweet sister,” he would promise her. Sometimes his hands shook when he talked about it. “The jewels and the silks, Dragonstone and King’s Landing, the Iron Throne and the Seven Kingdoms, all they have taken from us, we will have it back.” Viserys lived for that day. All that Daenerys wanted back was the big house with the red door, the lemon tree outside her window, the childhood she had never known.

“Those three are Drogo’s bloodriders, there,” he said. “By the pillar is Khal Moro, with his son Rhogoro. The man with the green beard is brother to the Archon of Tyrosh, and the man behind him is Ser Jorah Mormont.”

The last name caught Daenerys. “A knight?”

“No less.” Illyrio smiled through his beard. “Anointed with the seven oils by the High Septon himself.”

“What is he doing here?” she blurted.

“The Usurper wanted his head,” Illyrio told them. “Some trifling affront. He sold some poachers to a Tyroshi slaver instead of giving them to the Night’s Watch. Absurd law. A man should be able to do as he likes with his own chattel.”

“I shall wish to speak with Ser Jorah before the night is done,” her brother said. Dany found herself looking at the knight curiously. He was an older man, past forty and balding, but still strong and fit. Instead of silks and cottons, he wore wool and leather. His tunic was a dark green, embroidered with the likeness of a black bear standing on two legs.

She was still looking at this strange man from the homeland she had never known when Magister Illyrio placed a moist hand on her bare shoulder.

“I don’t want to be his queen,” she heard herself say in a small, thin voice. “Please, please, Viserys, I don’t want to, I want to go home.”

“Home?” He kept his voice low, but she could hear the fury in his tone. “How are we to go home, sweet sister? They took our home from us!” He drew her into the shadows, out of sight, his fingers digging into her skin. “How are we to go home?” he repeated, meaning King’s Landing, and Dragonstone, and all the realm they had lost.

Dany had only meant their rooms in Illyrio’s estate, no true home surely, though all they had, but her brother did not want to hear that. There was no home there for him. Even the big house with the red door had not been home for him. His fingers dug hard into her arm, demanding an answer. “I don’t know ...” she said at last, her voice breaking. Tears welled in her eyes.

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

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redteabaron · 5 years ago

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drogon - the stallion who mounts the world; daenerys and the ghost grass

i have a lot of misgivings regarding d@ny being the ‘stallion who mounts the world’ (since her storyline is full of white savior tropes and all other sorts of similarly racist affiliated opinions, to say nothing of her own personal thoughts towards the cultures she defines in incredibly small boxes or the ‘servants’ she keeps) - but i admit i somewhat buy that the world-ending stallion didn’t necessarily die with her son rhaego; drogon functions as her truest expression of self and is undoubtedly her favorite ‘child’. maybe the stallion was never necessarily meant to be a person. “as swift as the wind he rides, and behind him his khalasar covers the earth...fierce as a storm this prince will be... The bells in his hair will sing his coming, and the milk men in the stone tents will fear his name. The prince is riding, and he shall be the stallion who mounts the world.” (and from season seven during loot train, we see drogon flying above the khalasar, raining down fire and terror; a veritable storm like his ‘mother’)

i could break this down a lot more, but i don’t feel like it because even attributing this to her storyline is pretty exhausting for numerous reasons, but i can’t ignore that drogon fits the bill as the stallion. particularly with the specifics in the books regarding dany learning how to ride horses, “the taming” of khal drogo, and later riding drogon (to the sounds of chaos below and leaving her people behind after drogon kills a bunch of people). idk, personally, i thought that not only does d@ny consider them her her children, albeit useful tools when necessity demands it, but those around her buy into the idea as well - even if they are terrible creatures who may obey her. it’s bit like being the mother of the kid from the Omen film (where we also see the tie with the figure of an anti-christ like character appear). and i hate to be the obvious one here; but stallions are horses and the horse theme in d@ny’s arc has shown that she has become adept at riding and dealing with any pain they might cause (such as when she had to toughen up to keep up with the dothraki even though her thighs bled). the stallion who mounts the world might be drogon, a steed capable of bringing cities to their knees; but is only a vehicle for the rider. (of course there’s every chance that she is the SWMTW but that’s boring and i don’t want to waste a theory on it when there’s bunches more out there)

actually, i believe dany and the others are meant to be symbolized by ghost grass. it’s the invasive grass that the dothraki believe will cover the world one day, and it holds the spirits of the damned (definitely a parallel to the others, as they could be considered damned and invasive, but considering d@ny’s spiral, i see parallels already being formed). it’s aggressive, invasive, kind of ethereal and beautiful. the fact that it’s growing in the garden of gehane (signaling an increase of warlock power, which she already contributed to when she ‘births’ her dragons), can also be a sign that there are parallels not just with her and the ghost grass, but her and the others. they both might endeavor to cover the world - or devour it (however they obviously define ‘world’ differently; the others wish to overwhelm the world of the living, obviously making them the enemy of everyone, whereas d@ny’s ‘world’ is focused on westeros rather than anywhere else she may be currently).

#rambling #asoiaf #anti daenerys #anti dany #dark!dany #very obviously not edited

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simply-ellas-stuff · 6 years ago

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If they wanted Jon to kill Daenerys and still be a good guy they could have done one simple thing.

Through out all of season 7 they foreshadowed Dany getting pregnant with Jon's kid right?

So, lets Alternative-Universe-This-Shit;;

- They win the great war. Everything happens the same with that.

- Dany listens to Sansa and they stay in Winterfell for a few weeks to let everyone (armies and Dragons) recuperate.

- Jon and Dany avoid each other like the fucking plague because their related and they fucked until Dany starts feeling sick and sees the Maester of Winterfell and learns she's pregnant.

- Despite the incest [Which is not a new thing in A Song of Ice and Fire nor is it considered gross to most houses in-universes(don't get me wrong, its fucking disgusting but let's just follow Westerosi world rules)] Dany and Jon get married {So, Jon's child isn't a bastard like he was raised to be} under the Weirwood tree in Winterfell and it's announced to EVERYONE that Jon is Aegon Targaryen and the rightful king of the throne.

- Dany and Jon agree to take the throne together and Rule as a couple.

- Dany and Jon ask Varys to send spies to Kings Landing to learn what Cersei has been doing and learn of the new Scorpions.

- Varys and Tyrion convince Jon and Dany to send a raven to Cersei that they Both have a claim to the throne together.

- Cersei, having just lost her child via miscarriage, refuses to back down and ends up getting into a fight with Dany and Jon. The battle happens the same way as it did in 8x05 except neither Dany nor Jon kill innocents in Kings Landing (because killing innocents is not what either do).

- Dany and Jon sentence Cersei to death by Dragonsfire for blowing up the Great Sept of Baelor, killing innocents, being an awful person, being a usurper, etc, etc, etc

- Dany and Jon have that half-Stark-half-Targaryen sigil thing and rule the Seven kingdoms together while Dany gets more and more pregnant.

- Missandei and Rhaegal live. Jaimie stays with Brienne. Tyrion stays Hand of the Queen/King, Varys lives (and died in Westeros of Old Age like Melisandre predicted), and Drogon and Rhaegal lay eggs and create more little baby dragons. Ghost also moves to Kings Landing with Jon

- Dany goes into labor in the middle of the night and Drogon soars the skies in worry the whole time she's trying to have her child.

- Something goes wrong during the labor and delivery process where either Dany is too exhausted or her body can effectly push the child out itself (which happens).

- Jon essentially Kills Dany in childbirth when she has trouble pushing out the baby on her own [c-section style] after she begs him because "I can't lose another son, please My Love" and Jon is the one who does it because no one wants to be blamed for killing their Queen. Jon and Dany's child, a boy, is born and Dany bleeds out holding her Son. [Or this could happen in a flashforward after she's had a couple of kids during the first few years of their rule so the Targaryens have more seedlings to spread around Westeros]

- Then we enter like a dark dream world where Dany sees Drogo (still badass), all the Dothraki she lost(still following her rule), and her first son Rhaego (the copper skinned, silver haired beauty she dreamed about) and they welcome her into the Dothraki Night Lands. Drogo promising her that "Your new boy will be great, he will thrive in the name of The Stallion Who Will Mount The World, Moon of My Life" Then Dany mounts the horse that Drogo gave her at their wedding and rides off with her son and first love knowing her second son, and husband, will be fine without her.

- Flashforward, Jon has raised his son well (with the help of his sisters and brother - Sansa named someone she trusts [maybe Brienne] Warden of the North in her name while she remarried-to-Tyrion lives in Kings Landing to help raise her nephew but returns to Winterfell often to rule of Lady of Winterfell and take care of people, Arya marries Gendry and while he rules Stormsend she lives in Kings Landing teaching men and women alike how to be warriors like her only returning to Stormsend to have a few child to keep the Baratheon name alive, and Bran [after they plant a Weirwood in Kings Landing] lives with Jon teaching all of the history of Westeros, and the world, to the Citadel and his nephew) and the Seven Kingdom thrives under Jon's and his son's rule. The Dragons have returned. House Stark and House Targaryen live on as a shared name by Dany and Jon's son [Stargaryen? Stark-Targaryen? Targaryen-Stark?].

It's bitter sweet because Dany gets what she wants only to die to protect her son. Jon has to be King without the second person he's every loved, even when her never wanted to be king at all. Technically House Stark does die out because neither Bran nor Sansa never have kids(for obvious reasons) and Arya has little Baratheon's, if they even have kids at all while she's teaching people to be assassins. But the dragons live, House Targaryen thrives, the Night King is dead, and the Seven Kingdoms have peace - for a while, because it's Game of Thrones.

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nightqueendany · 7 years ago

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I thought I'd come to you with this. It's about the HOTU and the 'Dragon has three heads' prophecies Dany gets. "three fires must you light: one for life and one for death and one to love… three mounts must you ride: one to bed and one to dread and one to love… three treasons will you know: once for blood and once for gold and once for love… daughter of death, slayer of lies, bride of fire…" I'd love to hear your opinion of it.

This one is so much fun to interpret because there are honestly so many different ways to look at it, but of course, I have some theories.

… mother of dragons … child of three … “Three?” She did not understand. … three heads has the dragon … the ghost chorus yammered inside her skull with never a lip moving, never a breath stirring the still blue air. … mother of dragons … child of storm … The whispers became a swirling song. … three fires must you light … one for life and one for death and one to love … Her own heart was beating in unison to the one that floated before her, blue and corrupt … three mounts must you ride … one to bed and one to dread and one to love … The voices were growing louder, she realized, and it seemed her heart was slowing, and even her breath. … three treasons will you know … once for blood and once for gold and once for love …

Viserys screamed as the molten gold ran down his cheeks and filled his mouth. A tall lord with copper skin and silver-gold hair stood beneath the banner of a fiery stallion, a burning city behind him. Rubies flew like drops of blood from the chest of a dying prince, and he sank to his knees in the water and with his last breath murmured a woman’s name… . mother of dragons, daughter of death … Glowing like sunset, a red sword was raised in the hand of a blue-eyed king who cast no shadow. A cloth dragon swayed on poles amidst a cheering crowd. From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire… . mother of dragons, slayer of lies … Her silver was trotting through the grass, to a darkling stream beneath a sea of stars. A corpse stood at the prow of a ship, eyes bright in his dead face, grey lips smiling sadly. A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness… . mother of dragons, bride of fire …

Let’s look at the second part first. This is the whole vision with the “threes” in it’s entirety and I think it can be broken into three parts:

Daughter of Death:

Slayer of Lies:

Glowing like sunset, a red sword was raised in the hand of a blue-eyed king who cast no shadow. A cloth dragon swayed on poles amidst a cheering crowd. From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire… . mother of dragons, slayer of lies …

and Bride of Fire:

Her silver was trotting through the grass, to a darkling stream beneath a sea of stars. A corpse stood at the prow of a ship, eyes bright in his dead face, grey lips smiling sadly. A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness… . mother of dragons, bride of fire …

So Daenerys is given three titles by the warlocks: Daughter of Death, Slayer of Lies, and Bride of Fire. These are all things that Daenerys either already is or will become.

First let’s look at Daughter of Death. Like the vision as a whole, each section breaks into “threes” too:

Viserys screamed as the molten gold ran down his cheeks and filled his mouth.

A tall lord with copper skin and silver-gold hair stood beneath the banner of a fiery stallion, a burning city behind him.

Rubies flew like drops of blood from the chest of a dying prince, and he sank to his knees in the water and with his last breath murmured a woman’s name.

The first is Viserys being killed by Khal Drogo which is something Daenerys actually saw happen. The second is her son Rhaego as an adult had he lived as the Stallion Who Mounts the World. And the last is Rhaegar dying on the Trident whispering Lyanna’s name.

With each of these deaths, Daenerys gains yet another title: When Viserys dies she becomes the Heir to the Iron Throne. When Rhaego dies, she becomes the Stallion Who Mounts the World. And when Rhaegar dies, she becomes The Prince Who Was Promised. Three deaths for Daenerys to get closer to her destiny.

Slayer of Lies:

(A) Glowing like sunset, a red sword was raised in the hand of a blue-eyed king who cast no shadow.

(B) A cloth dragon swayed on poles amidst a cheering crowd.

The first, the blue-eyed king, is Stannis. The lie that Daenerys will slay is that Melisandre believes Stannis is the Prince Who Was Promised. That title belongs to her. The second, cloth dragons swaying is likely a vision of fAegon during his war to take “back” the Iron Throne. The lie Daenerys will slay is that fAegon is actually Rhaegar’s son and the Heir to the Iron Throne. That title also belongs to her.

The third…I am honestly not sure about actually. This one has me and many other theorists stumped. BUT, because the other two lies have to do with her titles, this one may have to do with The Stallion Who Mounts the World. Some say it has to do with Jon Connington because he has greyscale turning to stone. It also, may have to do with Jon Snow somehow and the lie that Jon is Ned’s son. Jon was born in a tower, he is often described as a shadow. But…unlike the others, it’s not nearly as clear.

Bride of fire (my favorite):

(I) Her silver was trotting through the grass, to a darkling stream beneath a sea of stars.

(II) A corpse stood at the prow of a ship, eyes bright in his dead face, grey lips smiling sadly.

(III) A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness

Her silver trotting through the grass…the silver was Drogo’s bride-gift to Dany when they wed so this is a reference to him. The corpse on the prow of a ship…one of the Greyjoys. Euron or Victarion as both want to marry her. Now in the show, Euron wanted to marry Dany but Yara and Theon made it to Meereen first. Yara has kind of taken Victarion’s storyline so there’s no marriage but there is that alliance between Dany and the Iron Born. In the books, she and Victarion may very well marry briefly. And lastly…a blue flower in a Wall of Ice. This is our boy, Jon Snow. Blue flower is the winter rose which has always been associated with Lyanna (the crown Rhaegar gave her when he made her Queen of Love and Beauty was made of Winter Roses) and she’s Jon’s mother. And Jon is at the Wall “growing”, gaining more responsibility and power and eventually becoming Lord Commander.

Before we get into the first part of the vision, let’s take a look at the organization of these.

1, I. - Viserys killed by Drogo (Daughter of Death), Her silver given to her by Drogo (Bride of Fire). Both of those have to do with Drogo somehow but the only one that doesn’t fit is (A) Stannis as PTWP (Slayer of Lies).

3, III. - Rhaegar dying whispering Lyanna’s name - Jon’s parents (Daughter of Death), and Blue rose in Wall of Ice - Jon Snow (Bride of Fire). Again, both have to do with Jon and we’re not sure about © - Sone beast breathing shadow fire (Slayer of Lies)

The middle parts of each 2. Rhaego, B fAegon, II. Greyjoy, seemingly have nothing to do with each other. Anyone have clever theories for this?

How does this relate to the first part of the vision?

(I honestly have no idea!)

three fires must you light … one for life and one for death and one to love

three mounts must you ride … one to bed and one to dread and one to love

three treasons will you know … once for blood and once for gold and once for love

We have Fires, Mounts, and Treasons.

But lets start with the Fires You Must Light:

One for life - hatching of the dragons. This event also slays the lie that Stannis is the Prince Who Was Promised because it is one of the requirements to be PTWP (waking dragons from stone, forging lightbringer) - which is also why I think the dragons ARE Lightbringer because Dany had to kill Drogo.

One for death - open for interpretation, no clue. Could be Dany burning the Khals in Vaes Dothrak. Could be Dany defeating the Night King or killing undead Viserion. Really no idea.

One TO Love (notice the difference in wording) - this is interesting because how do you love a fire? I think this may be her child with Jon. She is the Bride of Fire after all, she and Jon both being Targaryen, their child would be Targaryen.

Mounts You Must Ride:

One to bed - kind of up for interpretation because Dany has a few lovers - Drogo, Daario, Hizdar (in the books). But it’s likely Drogo because he takes her virginity.

One to dread - Most likely Drogon as he is compared to Balerion the Black Dread and he is Dany’s chosen Mount as the Stallion Who Mounts The World.

One to love - Most likely Jon as they’re together now and their relationship was not forced upon them (like her marriage to Drogo was) so it is pure love, not just them fucking.

And lastly Treasons You Will Know:

Now, many people think these are treasons that people will commit against Dany but I am of the belief that these may be treasons Dany will commit herself.

Once for blood - (again many say Miri Maz Durr but) I think this is Viserys. He was her blood and she didn’t stop Drogo from killing him. Plus it is the first scene of her next set of visions for Daughter of Death.

Once for gold - up for interpretation. Could be when she tricked the masters of the Unsullied in Astapor. She didn’t gain gold but it was a transaction that she didn’t hold up her end of the bargain for.

Once for love - up for interpretation also but I think this will be Jon dying a second time and Dany going against his wishes to have Melisandre or another red priest bring him back.

So so far as organization, it seems the first part of each vision has to do with Drogo and the last part of each has to do with Jon. Each middle part of each vision seems to be it’s own thing.

But what does everyone else think??

Thanks so much for the ask! This was so much fun!

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nobodysuspectsthebutterfly · 7 years ago

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what do you think people miss all the time in the books? I mean like an important plot point that people may not get, or focus on the wrong things to make sense out of things? Im really trying to word this in a way it doesnt sound stupid lol. I know lots of times people skip over things because the characters skip over things but yknow, just wondering if you ever noticed a pattern with the fans overlooking things, thanks!

There’s a lot of things people miss, but I think they can best be divided up into four categories:

character elements (often missed because of bias)

little details

secret but huge story elements

themes

Character elements that people miss, often because of prior bias, include things like the intelligence of Sansa and Catelyn, or the importance of Brienne’s arc in AFFC. (I’ve seen people who admitted to skimming/skipping over their chapters then say those chapters are “boring” or that “nothing ever happens in them”. If you didn’t read them, how the hell would you know?) Other biases affecting reading includes the Stark filter, or the Tyrion-is-the-only-good-Lannister filter, or sexist bias against Dany, and so on. (That last is particularly egregious, where you have people theorizing that Drogon is the Stallion who Mounts the World, or that Victarion is Azor Ahai/TPTWP, of all people, anyone but Dany.) There’s also the stan-defense bias (for characters unfairly slighted by fandom and/or the show) that ends with them missing other characters’ qualities. (I recently had an argument with someone on twitter who claimed Stannis was the only king candidate who wants to do justice. Uh huh.)

As for little details, I list a bunch of commonly missed ones here. Other little things include the fact that Princess Rhaenys Targaryen’s black kitten grew up to be the mean black one-eared tomcat that Arya chases through the Red Keep. And things like the fact that Arya and company miss Jaime and Brienne at the Inn of the Kneeling Man by like a day or less. Many of these little details have become more known because of social media and forums, so they’re not quite so overlooked these days, but they can still blow people’s minds when they’re pointed out. I’ve occasionally debated doing a “ASOIAF - did you know” series of posts, just to detail these details. :)

Secret but huge story elements that often get overlooked include such things as R+L=J and the fact that Aegon is a Blackfyre. Also, the post that prompted that little details list was regarding the fact that the Alchemist that Pate encounters in the AFFC prologue is a Faceless Man, and is the Pate the Sam meets in his last chapter (as Pate is murdered in the prologue), and that Faceless Man is the one formerly known as Jaqen H’ghar, and he was the one who killed Balon Greyjoy too. (And that when not-Jaqen, he doesn’t talk like Jaqen does, that’s a Lorathi thing.) Which is a pretty huge story element that many people overlook! But again, social media and forums have made these things far more known among people who missed them while reading, not to mention the show (for R+L=J in particular)… Still, there’s probably fans of the books who never look at the internet and avoid all show things (few and far between these days but nevertheless), who are going to get totally blown away when these plot points are fully revealed in the end.

(Also, don’t forget GRRM’s Chekhov’s guns, some of which may be little details and some of which may be huge story elements, we’ll just have to see what happens when they’re fired.)

Themes – oh, there’s too much to go into about the themes of the books that people overlook. GRRM being anti-war is a big one, often overshadowed by the fact that the books are about war. (But it’s not meant to be glorified, even if sometimes it is glorious and thrilling.) For more info, you can check my ASOIAF themes tag, or over on @asoiafuniversity under themes.

If you have any questions about anything more specific, or any things you think you might have missed, or anything that’s confusing to you in general about the plot or whatever, just let me know. :)

#bothwolvesandgirls #asoiaf #asoiaf meta #asoiaf theories #little asoiaf things #asoiaf themes #asoiaf fandom #too many other things to tag

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trinuviel · 8 years ago

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A hero in her own mind... On Daenerys Targaryen (part 6)

This post is a continuation of my thoughts on Daenerys Targaryen’s narrative arc in Game of Thrones. Like the two previous posts, the focus is her season 6 arc, which I’ve had to break up into several separate parts due to length. Season 6 marks a crucial moment in Daenerys’ journey and there are a lot of things to unpack in her season 6 narrative. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5)

DAENERYS THE CONQUEROR

In my last post, I talked about Daario’s line to Daenerys about her being a conqueror, not a ruler (s6, ep6) – and I find the distinction between conquering and rule an interesting one in relation to Daenerys, and it is one that crops up more than once in season 6. In the very first episode, this distinction is brought up between Daario Naharis and Jorah Mormont as they search for Daenerys in the lands after she flew away from Meereen on the back of Drogon at the end of season 5:

Daario: Perhaps she’s tired of being Queen. I don’t think she likes it very much.

Jorah: She’s too smart to like it.

Jorah’s answer implies that she’s a good queen because she doesn’t like being one. This fits with the idea that a humble ruler is the paragon for king- or queenship, that the one most suited for rule is the one who doesn’t pursue power. However, there’s a difference between not pursuing power and not liking being a ruler – those two aren’t necessarily the same thing.

Daenerys didn’t have queenship thrust upon her, she chose to stay in Meereen and rule the city – no one asked her to stay and rule! It was quite a different situation than the one Jon finds himself in at the end of season 6 when he’s publicly acclaimed king by the Northern lords and the Knights of the Vale.

Disliking being queen doesn’t automatically mean that Dany doesn’t like having power. It could also mean that she doesn’t like all the thorny issues and nitty gritty details of actual governance.

In short, Jorah’s comment can be read several ways. In a Watsonian per-spective, Jorah’s comment is a compliment though he isn’t exactly an unbiased observer. However, if we approach the comment in Doylist terms, it does offer the audience the opportunity to ponder why Daenerys wants to conquer Westeros if she actually doesn’t like to govern? It also begs the question: What exactly is it that Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen enjoys?

The exchange between Daario and Jorah continues:

Daario: I want to see what the world looks like when she’s done conquering it.

Jorah: So do I.

This entire scene moves from commenting on Daenerys’s feelings about governance to her role as a conqueror, signaling the end of her Essosi arc and setting the stage for her upcoming Westerosi arc where she’ll show up as a conqueror.

The exchange between Daario and Jorah as well as Daario’s “Your’re a conqueror Daenerys Stormborn” makes me recall the scene from the first season where the crones of the Dosh Khaleen speaks a prophecy about Daenerys’ unborn son (s1, ep6), which Jorah explains to Viserys:

The Stallion that Mounts the World. The Stallion is the Khal of khals. He’ll unite the people into a single khalasar, all the people of the world will be his herd.

Daenerys’ unborn son Rhaego didn’t survive to be born due to the intervention of Mirri Maz Duur. However, this season Dany kills all the khals by burning them alive in the temple of the Dosh Khaleen, she effectively names herself Khal of khals from the back of her dragon and leads all of the khalasars to Meereen before she finally sets off for Westeros with the Dothraki, her Unsullied and the Greyjoy fleet. Thus, one could make the argument that Daenerys herself became the subject of the prophecy about her son. She became The Dragon that Mounts the World.

As a Targaryen conqueror, Dany has certain parallels with her illustrious ancestor Aegon the Conqueror. Like him, she has three dragons and like him, she comes to conquer Westeros. Unlike her ancestor, the scale of Dany’s conquests are much larger and so are their political and social effects. She completely up-ended the political and economic structures of Slaver’s Bay and those changes will be felt for decades.

Her exploits bring Alexander the Great to mind. The young man who conquered most of the know world in the 4th century BC. He swept across the world in a blaze of glory that was brief but intense – and the world was never the same again. I see Daenerys is a similar way; she is like the red comet that heralds the dragons – blazing across the world in an inferno of fire and blood. A harbinger of change that she’ll most likely never see herself.

A DARKER PATH

In my last two posts (Part 4, Part 5), I’ve talked about how Daenerys undergoes a symbolic of “rebirth” in the fires of the Dosh Khaleen and that the woman that emerges from the inferno is a much more ruthless woman. The script for episode 9 confirms this:

INT. GREAT PYRAMID - PENTHOUSE - DAY

The sound of the impacts and the distant chaos they cause are audible throughout this scene between DAENERYS TARGARYEN and TYRION LANNISTER, adding further pressure to an already pressurized situation.

Tyrion flinches each time a projectile lands near the pyramid, because he’s human and it’s a natural human reaction.

Dany never flinches. She is not the same woman who flew away from Daznak’s Pit on the back of a dragon. She is changed, changed utterly, a terrible beauty glaring at Tyrion.

This is an incredibly ominous description of Daenerys – not only is it explicity stated that she is utterly changed in a way that is described as “terrible” but it is also, not very subtly, implied that there is now something less human about her!

After the description quoted above, the non-verbal interaction between Dany and Tyrion is described thusly:

BOOM!

Dany watches Tyrion flinching, regarding him as the snake regards the mouse.

Likening Dany to a snake that eyes its prey is an incredibly sinister image. This ominous description of Dany comes right before we get this exchange between the two of them:

Daenerys: Good. Shall we begin?

Tyrion: Do we have a plan?

Daenerys: I will crucify the Masters. I will set their fleet afire, kill every last one of their soldiers, and return their cities to the dirt. That is my plan. (beat) You don’t approve.

Tyrion knows he must tread carefully here.

Tyrion: You once told me you knew what your father was.

BOOM!

Tyrion: Did you know his plans for King's Landing, when the Lannister armies were at his gates?

BOOM!

Tyrion: Probably not. He told my brother, and Jaime told me. Do you know what wildfire is? (off Dany’s nod) He had caches of it hidden under the Red Keep, under the guild halls, the Sept of Baelor, all the major thoroughfares.

BOOM!

Tyrion: He would have burned every one of his citizens, the loyal ones and the traitors, every man, woman, and child. That's why Jaime killed him.

Daenerys: This is entirely different.

Tyrion: You’re talking about destroying cities. It’s not entirely different. (beat) I'd like to suggest an alternate approach.

BOOM!

Once again, the specter of Mad King Aerys is raised in conjunction with Dany’s tendency to react with extreme violence – and once again, she needs to be gently guided away from going nuclear on entire cities.

In the light of the script, it is interesting to see how this scene plays out on the screen:

youtube

Channeling a terrible and inhumane beauty is not an easy feat and I fear that Emilia Clarke didn’t quite succeed. I’m not particularly impressed with her performance in general but it is quite clear that her emotionless demeanor is intentional in this scene. She doesn’t emote at all, which is rather unsettling in and of itself, but I think that this particular aspect of the script didn’t translate very well. I certainly didn’t get a feeling that Dany was looking at Tyrion like a snake eyes its prey. However, I do think that Peter Dinklage’s performance managed to convey a certain unease with her. However, It is subtle and can easily be interpreted as him being affected by the bombardment that Meereen is under.

In the following scene where Dany and her advisors parlay with the Masters from Astapor and Yunkai, the script once again paints Dany in a negative light. When the envoys demand her unconditional surrender, Dany simply smirks and says: “My reign has just begun”. Then Drogon appears, which is followed by this description in the script:

Dany never turns to look at the approaching DROGON. She doesn’t have to look. She only allows the faintest hint of a smile. A smile that says: my tyranny’s not ended, motherfucker. It’s only just begun.

Notice that while Dany says: My reign has just begun, the script describes her smile as saying: My tyranny’s not ended!

The language of the script is very ominous when it comes to the description of Dany – the language is not that associated with a hero but rather with a villain. Quite shocking actually. THIS IS SIMPLY NOT HOW A HERO IS DESCRIBED! Especially when you compare this description of Dany with how Jon, Sansa and company are described at the parley with Ramsay: They look beautiful and majestic, sitting there with Winterfell in the deep background. Though I’m arguing that Dany is stepping onto a dark path, I actually find the way that the script describes her and her actions pretty shocking.

It is as though the inferno of the Dosh Khaleen burnt away something essential in Dany. In this context, I find the interview that Emilia Clarke did with Entertainment Weekly in March 2016 illuminating. About Daenerys, Emilia says:

This season it feels like she’s learning the last lesson she needs to learn. She’s not being swayed by anyone. She knows what’s-what. There’s just a few remnants of being human that she’s shaking off.

I don’t know about the rest of you but I find that scary as hell. I still find it hard to truly imagine her as a full-blown villain since we still get to see her more caring side in her conversation with Yara Greyjoy about leaving the world a better place - but I fear that she’s starting to suppress the caring, empathetic part of her nature. The kind and gentle heart that Jorah saw in Daenerys in seasons 1 and 2 has turned harder and less gentle. Is Dany’s heart still kind? The jury is not yet out on this question but I do find it telling that when Tyrion brings up Mad King Aerys and his plan to let King’s Landing burn, Dany doesn’t seem affected at all. If you compare that to how she reacted to Barristan Selmy’s tales about her father (s5,ep2), the difference is both stark and ominous (timestamp, 1:35):

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I actually don’t think we’re meant to see Dany in an entirely negative light – yet. However, the script suggests that she’s heading into villain territory. The fact that her father the Mad King Aerys is brought up several times in relation to her actions is rather worrisome, not to mention foreboding, since both Barristan and Tyrion bring him up as a cautionary tale. The words of House Targaryen is Fire and Blood – yet for Daenerys these words also seem to be a siren song that tempts her into extreme violence. She succumbed to it in season 5 after the death of Barristan Selmy – and his words about how her father enjoyed punishing people turned out to be prophetic.

Unlike many fans, I found Dany’s season 5 arc very interesting (it was the best part of the season) because she undergoes a very interesting yet also somewhat surprising character development. We get to see her unrestrained by good counsel and she was terrifying! The crypt scene with the Masters and the dragons should make people worry. Though the man who was burned was a nameless wretch, the narrative focus was on Dany and Hizdahr, a character the show had taken some pains to establish as a sympathetic guy. That scene showed us the Mad King’s daughter – and like her father, she enjoyed her grisly display of power.

What I find so very interesting about Daenerys and her arc, is the fact that there are a lot of little clues scattered over the seasons that indicate that she’ll tread a much darker path in her journey towards her goal: the Iron Throne. We’ve seen plenty of questionable actions on her part, especially her penchant for setting people on fire. She has a definite pattern – she’s been setting people on fire since season 1 (I think season 4 is the only season she hasn’t burnt anyone alive). Furthermore, her first reaction to opposition is always extreme violence. Again and again, the people around Daenerys has had to gently steer her away from going nuclear on her enemies.

Despite all these little clues, all her questionable actions, many people still see Daenerys as a hero. If I am right and she’s going be become a much darker character, it will be a surprising plot twist for the general audience. Why is that so?

She made a very good first impression.

The righteousness of her crusade against slavery off-sets the brutality of her methods.

The people she burns are unambiguously awful (Mirri Maz Dur is an exception IMO but that would require a separate post).

Then there are the scenes that confuse the viewers, like the rousing speech scene that actually is an inversion of the traditional hero’s speech.

Not to mention that quite a few of her scenes are accompanied by truly epic, hair-raising music. Unlike any other art form, music bypasses the intellect and goes right to the gut. It is the most emotionally effecting art form and the music that accompanies her scenes plays a big part in how people perceive her..

WHY I THINK DANY GOING DARK IS A GOOD IDEA

Personally, I think that it would be a brilliant narrative move to have Daenerys move into a role as a villain or a very dark antagonists to the other protagonists of the story, making it hard to chose between her and the Starks. It would be an emotional punch to the gut – and we know how GRRM loves those. It would also make Daenerys Targaryen one of the most unique and complex female characters in fantasy fiction and that is certainly not a bad thing at all.

#game of thrones #character analysis #anti daenerys #a hero in her own mind

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