#kandaq

[knightsickness]

ik its popularly assumed that hizdahr is going to be one of the first victims of dany's new fire and blood targaryen ethos in twow because he tried to have drogon killed but that fails to consider that the team in meereen rn is 1. barristan (thinks hizdahr is a poisoner who should be put to death) 2. victarion (means to marry dany. hizdahr as her current husband is in the way) 3. jorah (in love with dany) 4. daario (in love with dany) 5. tyrion (hizdahr tried to feed him and penny to lions for fun like two days ago) 6. the shavepate (hizdahr's longterm blood feud rival who definitely framed him for the poison thing) + also every single guy here is a murderer. if he survives long enough for dany to kill him i'd be impressed thats the worlds most executed man

[lady-of-the-citadel]

on the asoiaf reread (relistening) grind, and coming around to Barristan in adwd.

i am not sure that we see barristan get angry much in the series, except in the throne room when he is dismissed from the kingsguard. And even more rarely, an anger towards the kings he's served. it has mostly been guilt at his own actions, or passive aggression at jaime lannister. BUT the line, "no army on this earth could have stopped me from killing him [robert]" regarding elia's children blew my socks off when i heard the line again. something something about famously honorable men forsaking their sacred honor to do what their rage demands. boy oh BOY, is it narratively delicious.

also not barristan recalling this specific story to skahaz. the stank of westerosi historical and cultural exceptionalism do be STRONG, in my humble opinion

[goodqueenaly]

Hello! If Daenerys returns to Meereen, what do you think will happen to Skahaz? I can see him presenting Barristan s murder as the work of the Harpy, but killing all those child hostages? Any way he wiggles out of that?

I tend to think that the horror of the murder of the child hostages will be seen through Barristan's eyes, rather than Dany's. Barristan was the one who more recently, and just as vehemently as Dany, argued with the Shavepate over killing the children; Barristan is the one who helped reinstate the Shavepate as a leading power player in Meereen; Barristan is the one who left Skahaz as the most prominent member of Dany's court/entourage not on the battlefield itself. For Barristan, who already deeply distrusts the secrecy and brutality of Skahaz and his Brazen Beasts, the Shavepate's murder of the queen's young cupbearers will I think be the ultimate betrayal: the allusion by Barristan to the murdered children of Prince Rhaegar, whom Ser Barristan was unable to save from Tywin's vicious sacking of King's Landing, will I believe prove a tragic prophecy, as his sometime ally stands over the "bloody bodies" of murdered Meereenese children. In turn, just as Barristan swore not to condone such an act, so I think Barristan will attempt to prove what he said in his mind he would have done with Robert - namely, that "[i]f [Barristan] had seen him [i.e. Robert Baratheon] smile over the red ruins of Rhaegar's children, no army on this earth could have stopped [Barristan] from killing [Robert]".

To this point as well, I also tend to think Dany is not going to be returning to Meereen immediately at the beginning of TWOW. Dany is definitely going to return to Meereen, to be sure, albeit I think relatively briefly, but she has more immediate problems - and different semi-mystical or overtly mystical demands - temporarily pulling her away from the conflicts of Meereen - namely, Khal Jhaqo and Dany's foreseen return to the Mother of Mountains, there almost certainly to be acclaimed as the stallion that mounts the world. As a result, I don't think Dany is going back to Meereen until well after (again, relatively speaking) the time of the murders has passed, giving Skahaz plenty of time, if he might so choose (and if he remains alive to do so, of course), to come up with a plausible cover story for the murders of not just the children (and, probably, Hizdahr and Reznak), but also Barristan himself (a skill Skahaz definitely has, given his plot with the locusts and his successful framing of Hizdahr for that poisoning).

All of this is to say that Dany may not be in the best position, on a strictly narrative level, either to know precisely or learn later what happened with respect to Skahaz and the child hostages or, as a consequence, to react with the sort of disgust and fury I think we'll definitely see through Barristan's perspective in this moment (which, to be clear, I think she absolutely would if and when she should ever learn the truth). I don't know that any of Dany's courtiers or new would-be advisors would know or have reason to know precisely what happened with respect to Barristan and Skahaz, especially if Skahaz publicly proclaims that it was the no-good-very-bad Sons of the Harpy who killed the old white knight and the child cupbearers. Too, I don't think Dany is going to be particularly invested in sticking around in Meereen, and so she may simply accept Skahaz (again, if he is still alive) as a suitable enough regent in her name in Meereen, or king in his own right, to continue the revolution she started. Of course, Skahaz may not survive at all - always a distinct possibility, given the instability of post-Dany Meereen exacerbated by the sudden influx of outside power players following the battle outside the city's walls - making the whole question potentially moot.

[horizon-verizon]

Thoughts on Daenerys publicly executing the former slave and how she went about it in S05x02?

In a word? Not great. Boo.

The show rewrite & repurposing of Mossader &seems like it was meant to rewrite progression of the "error" Daenerys makes with her dragons by essentially adding another one that I'm sure they didn't think was an serious error. A way for them to try to make Dany seem a worse leader & thinker than she really is. I don't like how the show basically tried to make her look tyrannical by making her violently suppress the actions of someone who was both devoted to her and really had already been shut down before when he was saying the right thing. Which was to just get rid of this harpy-hire dude at the very least and at most what she said abt sending a message.

I also hated how it made Mossader look irrational & nearly "savage" through a display of fanatics--in how he almost dreamily said he did it "for her", posing Daenyers' goddess-like stature as easily shiftable to threatening. Foreshadowing that horrible erroneous ending of her becoming a Hitler figure. Like the scene was saying to us she inspires generationally brutalized and dehumanized brown people to the point of irrational "frenzy" and she cannot even be nuanced or sympathetic as she had been before in her ruling for Mossader. This pathetic-ized person who had at one point called her Mhysa and believed in her.

But the narrative the show pushes is not even fair itself to this man (hypocritically) & is just using him to denigrate Dany; becasue why are we making the only male brown former slave besides Grey Worm do such a thing AND be as I said "fanatical" towards the white Dany??! This man, who was put on their council as the voice and reason of those freed Meereenese...appears to us as totally unreasonable bc we know and he "should" have known that there were consequences for disrupting the Westerosi-style of "fair trial" and "honor"...The trial would be a false one, bc this guy will not be let off or go free. His crimes are obvious. Even if we did posit him going free, he'd likely just go back to being a hire for the harpy!

Plus we saw how actual ineffectual and emotion-based/false honor-based actual Westerosi trials can be through both of the trials against Tyrion: at the Eyries; esp the one at the Red Keep after Joffrey dies. So much for fairness of the superior Westerosi style of justice! (another hypocrisy of the writing itself)

So the show has Dany simultaneously "fails" Mossader, and utterly. As if the bonds she has with the slaves and her mission really don't mean anything to her.

After all, does she not marry Hizdahr, reopen the fighting pits (later) to stop the killings of the freedmen...Then she kills the freedman who was supposed to rep them all??

And the points Hizdahr & Barristan Selmy tried to make against killing the dude besides the trial..."poor and young"; "Why should he want to bring back slavery? What did it do for him?"; " I don't know it, and I'm the head of a great family."...why are we even indulging in these stupid protests?!!! We know his presence is so the other nobles feel they have say and influence over Dany, but there was no rebuttal (or at least a sign from her dismissing Hizdahr, whether he sees it or not) from show!Dany against his absurd "logic" about "going easy" on this guy. Huh?!

Subsequently, she loses a lot of faith from the freedmen who beg for not only Mossader's life but for her to not bend to the masters' clear attempt to confuse the priority. Which is their total freedom at those masters' expense. Which is exactly what D&D wanted bc they hate her, refuse to understand her, and lost interest in this series.

It was just a huge mess!

CONTEXT for comparison

a)

Mossador died differently in the original book series ("A Dance with Dragons -- Daenerys II"):

In the show, he gets executed because show!Daenerys wanted to re-establish a peace of between the freedmen and the former (not so former) slavers and elites of Meereen. Some, if not all, of these elites formed the group "Sons of the Harpy", and in the show one of these are captured. Show!Mossader didn't believe that any of the Masters would just lie down and allow Daenerys' end to legal slavery in Meereen stick. And that they'd eventually somehow either get this prisoner out OR this Master would be somehow saved in the process of a the trial that was planned for him:

MOSSADOR: Sons of the Harpy, they want to put a collar back on my neck. On all of our necks. Please, Your Grace, you must kill him. DAENERYS: It would send a message. BARRISTAN: I think you should exercise restraint, Your Grace. DAENERYS: Why? BARRISTAN: For one thing, he may have valuable information. DAARIO: The Son of the Harpy has no more valuable information. BARRISTAN: How do you know that? DAARIO: Because I questioned him. HIZDAHR: And the information you did get, he is young and poor. MOSSADOR: He is born free. HIZDAHR: Why should he want to bring back slavery? What did it do for him? DAENERYS: Perhaps the only thing that gave him pride was knowing that there was someone lower than he was. MOSSADOR: They pay him. Great families afraid to do a thing. They pay poor man to do it for them. HIZDAHR: And how do you know this? MOSSADOR: Everyone knows this. HIZDAHR: I don't know it, and I'm the head of a great family. BARRISTAN: We do not know what this man did or didn't do. (to Daenerys) Give him a trial, at least. A fair trial. Show all of the citizens of Meereen that you are better than those who would depose. Teach them a better way. MOSSADOR: I do not know the place from where Old Ser comes. Things maybe are different there, I hope. But here, in Meereen, before Daenerys Stormborn, they own us. So we learn much about them or we do not live long. They teach me what they are. Mercy, fair trial: these mean nothing to them. All they understand is blood!

So he preemptively and vengefully kills the prisoner, and as you see here, he expresses no regrets about disobeying Daenerys and doing it:

DAENERYS: Why? MOSSADOR (Valyrian): For you, Mhysa. You wanted the Harpy dead, but your hands were tied. I set you free, as you did all of us. DAENERYS: He was our prisoner, awaiting trial. You had no right. MOSSADOR: He would rather rip your city apart than see slaves lifted from the dirt. DAENERYS: There are no more slaves. There are no more Masters. MOSSADOR: Then who lives in the Pyramids? Who wears gold masks and murders your children? When Grey Worm came to us, I was the first to take up the knife for you. I remember the look on my father's face as I struck down his Master, who had traded his infant son for a dog. My father died in the fighting. If we allow the Sons of the Harpy to return us to chains, he never lived. DAENERYS: The Harpy's life was not yours to take. Once, the Masters were the law-- MOSSADOR: And now you are the law! DAENERYS: The law is the law. Take him.

Mossador died differently in the original book series ("A Dance with Dragons -- Daenerys II"):

He's one of the many freedmen murdered by the Sons. And it's not until the 4th episode that her 2nd husband will appear, and he matters bc this is about how she gets on Drogon and re-orient her goals.

b) Attempt at a Summary (How Dany Actually gets to Marry Hizdahr, his role, and Riding Drogon out of the Pit.)

Bk!Dany does have an arc where she at first tries to acclimate or compromise with the former slave masters for the sake of peace in Meereen but comes to realize that her efforts is simply not going to work. She reopens the fighting pits where former slave gladiators would fight after Hizdahr zo Loraq petitions her several times and brings some famous gladiators to beg her to reopen them. She, like in the show, marries Hizdahr and makes him her royal consort when he meets her condition of bringing some 90 days of peace (the high priestess, the Green Grace Galazza Galare suggested a marriage to him). Absolutely no murders or attacks against freedmen nor those few nobles who actually are obeying Dany. In this observation and despite what another noble, Skahaz mo Kandaq, warned about Hizdahr being the the Harpy, leader of the Sons of the Harpy. He was one fo the nobles who decided to abandon the slavery society and "ways" other nobles want to keep going. Again, she wanted that peace and dismissed his warning, and Hizdahr starts to show his true colors in his dismissing Skahaz from his position as the leader of the new Meerenese "city watch", or police, and appointing one of his own cousins. He says that this is to get more of the nobles on her side. (He's not the Harpy, but he's definitely closely tied to them.)

They reopen the fighting pits to celebrate the wedding; Hizdahr insists the fighters volunteered. Hizdahr offers Dany locust treats, it turns out they are poisoned later on when we see Strong Belwas get very sick from them and it's only due to his large and heavyset body that he survives. Dany sees that he's very into the violence, in a way that gets mixed with a sexual excitement at it. During another fight, Drogon appears, Hizdahr calls for people to kill Drogon, and Daenerys jumps into the pit to calm and try to bring Drogon to heel, she's flies off, Drogon basically leading her. Dany, half starved & dehydrated, dreams of her brother and hallucinates Jorah Mormount (those close to her who've betrayed her) but it's also her reflecting on her persistent guilt for the girl Drogon killed that motivated her into the mistake of locking up her dragons. Narrowly escaping a Dothraki scout, she and Drogo fly to another place, eating horse, and that's where the scout's khal, Jhaqo, and his warriors find her. Resumably to try to rape & kill her or to to take her back to Vaes Dothrak to the dosh khaleen and become one of them forever.

In all the time Dany was gone, Hizdahr has been trying to use his marriage to Daenerys to rule Meereen in her absence and a plot (he likely enabled even by just taking instructions) to retake the city gets foiled under Barristan Selmy, Missandei, and Grey Worm's leadership. There are prisoners they take & essentially they are now running the city in Dany's name, waiting for her return. Hizdahr is one of those prisoners. But in the show, Hizdahr died at the pits when a Harpy stabs him.

[coldflasher]

you know what im thinking about right now? how much i wish we could have had an infantino street-style team-up episode with coldwest. just. imagine

[mypage4sure]

Okay so I had been watching Order of the greenhand's video on Danerys...and actually their not bad? For all their faults, their views on Daenerys are actually pretty dang good.

That said I do low key disagree on who is the harpy video, they think the greengrace poisoned the honeyed Locus to send a message to Hizdahr, my views are more that Skahaz posioned them, to cause a disruption to the peace, I do agree that it wasn't enough to kill, nor was it meant specially for Dany.

That said, I do agree that the most likely harpy is The Greengrace.

[forestcat222]

I made a list of every single asioaf house I could find and put it in alphabetical order. There may be a few houses missing but as of right now there are 496 houses written down. There may be some doubles, if so I apologize but when I tried to recheck it my tablet (which I used to write this) froze. I wrote this on my notes app. This includes houses from all game of Thrones media, video games, the adaptations, the books hotd and anything else I could find. I hope that whoever stumbles across this uses it because this took way to long for just me to use. (BTW houses from essos and YI-TI are includes)

Ahlaq

Algood

Allyrion

Amber

Ambrose

Andrik

Antaryon

Appleton

Arryn

Ashford

Ashwood

Baelish

Ball

Banefort

Bar Emmon

Baratheon

Bax

Beesbury

Belgrave

Belmore

Bettley

Bigglestone

Blackbar

Blackberry

Blackbrow

Blackfyre

Blackmont

Blackmyre

Blacktyde

Blackwood

Blanetree

Blount

Boggs

Bole

Bolling

Bolton

Borrel

Botley

Bourney

Bracken

Branch

Branfield

Breakstone

Briar

Bridges

Brightstone

Brook

Broom

Broome

Brownbarrow

Brownhill

Brune

Bu

Buckler

Buckwell

Bulwer

Burley

Bush

Bushy

Butterwell

Byrch

Bywater

Cafferen

Cargyll

Caron

Cassel

Casterly

Caswell

Caulfield

Cave

Celtigar

Cerwyn

Chai

Chambers

Charlton

Chelsted

Chester

Choq

Chyttering

Clegane

Clifton

Cobb

Cockshaw

Codd

Coldwater

Cole

Condon

Conklyn

Connington

Corbray

Corbray

Cordwayner

Coststayne

Cox

Crabb

Crakehall

Crane

Cray

Cressey

Crowl

Cupps

Cuy

Dargood

Darke

Darklyn

Darkwood

Darry

Dayne

Deddings

Dhazak

Doggett

Dondarrion

Donniger

Dormand of Dormand Hall

Drinkwater

Drox

Drumm

Dryland

Dults

Dunn

Durrandon

Durwell

Dustin

Edgerton

Egen

Elesham

Elliver

Eraz

Erenford

Errol

Estermont

Estren

Faez

Falwell

Farman

Farring

Farrow

Farwynd

Fell

Fenn

Ferren

Fisher

Flint

Florent

Follard

Foote

Footly

Forrester

Fossoway

Fowler

Foxglove

Fregar

Frey

Frost

Galare

Gardener

Gargalen

Garner

Gaunt

Ghazeen

Glenmore of Rillwater Crossing

Glover

Goodbrook

Goodbrother

Goode

Gower

Graceford

Grafton

Grandison

Graves

Grayson

Greenfield

Greengood

Greenhill

Greenleaf

Greenwood

Grell

Grey

Greyiron

Greyjoy

Greyjoy

Greystark

Grimm

Groves

Haen

Haigh

Hamell

Har

Harclay

Hardy

Hardyng

Harlaw

Harlton of Castlewood

Harroway

Harte

Hastwyck

Hasty

Hawick

Hawthorne

Hayford

Hazkar

Herston

Hersy

Hetherspoon

Hewett

Hightower

Hoare

Hogg

Hollard

Holt

Hook

Hornwood

Horpe

Hull

Humble

Hunt

Hunter

Hutcheson

Inchfield

Ironmaker

Ironsmith

Jar

Jast

Jordayne

Justman

Kandaq

Karstark

Kattleblack

Keath

Kenning

Kidwell

Knott

Kyndall

Ladybright

Lake

Langward

Lannet

Lannister

Lanny

Lansdale

Lantell

Leek

Lefford

Leygood

Liddle

Lightfoot

Lipps

Lo

Locke

Lolliston

Long

Longthorpe

Longwaters

Lonmouth

Loraq

Lorch

Lothston

Lowther

Lyberr

Lychester

Lydden

Lynderly

Magnar

Malcolm

Mallery

Mallister

Manderly

Mandrake

Manning

Manwoody

Marbrand

Marreq

Marsh

Martell

Massey

Mazin

Meadows

Mengo

Merlyn

Merryweather

Mertyns

Middlebury

Mollen

Moore

Mooton

Moreland

Morgryn

Mormont

Morrigen

Moss

Mudd

Mullendore

Musgood

Myatt

Myraq

Myre

Nakloz

Naqqan

Nayland

Netley

Norcross

Norrey

Norridge

Nute

Nutt

Oakheart

Oldflowers

Orkwood

Orme

Osgrey

Otherys

Overton

Paege

Parren

Payne

Peake

Peasebury

Peat

Peckledon

Pemford

Penny

Penrose

Perryn

Phal

Piper

Plumm

Pol

Polander

Pommingham

Poole

Potter

Prestayn

Prester

Pryor

Pyle

Pyne

Qaggaz

Qhoqua

Qo

Qoherys

Qorgyle

Quagg

Quazzar

Rambton

Rankenfell

Redbeard

Redding

Redfort

Redwyne

Reed

Reyann

Reyne

Reznak

Rhaezn

Rhazdar

Rhysling

Risley

Rogare

Rogers

Rollingford

Roote

Rosby

Rowan

Roxton

Royce

Ruskyn

Ruthermont

Ruttiger

Ryder

Ryger

Rykker

Ryswell

Saltcliffe

Santagar

Sarsfield

Sarwyck of Riverspring

Sawyer

Seaworth

Selmy

Serrett

Serry

Sharp

Shawney

Shell

Shepherd

Shermer

Shett

Slate

Sloane

Slynt

Smallwood

Sparr

Spicer

Stackhouse

Stackspear

Staedmon

Stane

Stark

Staunton

Stokeworth

Stonehouse

Stonetree

Stout

Straw

Strickland

Strong

Suggs

Sunderland

Sunderly

Sunglass

Swann

Sweet

Swyft

Swygert

Tallhart

Tarbeck

Targaryen

Tarly

Tarth

Tarwick

Tawney

Teague

Templeton

Terrick

Thenn

Thorne

Toland

Tollett

Torrent

Towers

Toyne

Trant

Tudbury

Tully

Turnberry

Tyrell

Uffering

Uhlez

Uller

Ullor

Umber

Upcliff

Vaith

Vance

Varner

Velaryon

Vikary

Volmark

Vypren

Vyrwel

Wade

Wagstaff

Warrick

Waterman

Waxley

Wayn

Waynwood

Weatherwax

Weaver

Webber

Wells

Wells

Wendwater

Wensington

Westbrook

Westerling

Westford

Whent

Whitehead

Whitehill

Whitfield

Wibberley

Willum

Wode

Woodfoot

Woodhull

Woods

Woodwright

Woolfield

Wormwood

Wull

Wydmen

Wyl

Wylde

Wynch

Wythers

Xaq

Xho

Yarwyck

Yelshire

Yew

Yherizan

Yronwood

Yunzak

Zhak

Zherzyn

[greenbloods]

asexual characters in westeros

vaegon. too based for the red keep, too cringe for westeros (targ genes). antithesis of icky old man jaehaerys' idea of an ideal man [a hyper-militaristic strong man who has the hots for his sister-wife and enacts control over the women in his life]. peaces out of the family drama and becomes an archmaester. he and saera are two sides of the same coin. the only way to outlive the red keep is to escape it

varys. kind of low hanging fruit but cmon. though i guess this is more a show canon thing with the one scene between him and oberyn, but it still applies to book canon

larys strong. all credit to the show for making him a foot freak who mostly uses his sexuality as a power thing over alicent. however. i am just a freak for ace evil advisors scheming and conniving because the only thing they have the hots for is power and the Realm. in fact yknow what? skahaz mo kandaq the shavepate is also ace. and tyland lannister. i would make petyr ace to were it not for yknow *gestures broadly at littlefinger*

maegelle. ok so the only ways to escape jaehaerys and alysanne is to refuse to play the game of marriages, right? and you either do that by being saera, or by taking vows against marriage like vaegon. maegelle was promised to be a septa at a young age so i dont know how much being ace played into that decision, but i think it's a nice parallel between her and vaegon and rounds out the trio

maegor. nah im just fucking with you. but imagine, right?

stannis. ok canonically he does share melisandre's bed willingly and not just for shadowbaby making purposes but to me he is ace. marching off to bed like robert would march off to war, the opposite of robert in every way, ice to his fire. plus it would make the baratheon brothers bi ace and gay respectively and thats something.

cheese of notable gang 'blood and.' yep thats right diversity wins your local ratcatcher childmurderer is ace <3

meera reed. zeroooo evidence for this i just like positing stuff <33

qhorin halfhand. soorryyy to all the manceqhorin truthers out there but when when mance said "the Halfhand was carved of old oak, but I am made of flesh" that was all the confirmation i needed. plus half the watch is gay so i think everyone was looking at qhorin like he was the odd guy out who took his oath to the watch too seriously while everyone else was rolling their eyes at old man Q too proud to get it down in mole's town

blackfish. 100% ace and aro this is literally canon he doesnt want to get married hes not interested in it. in this world where to be a be a woman is to marry and to be a man is to marry and to marry is to consummate he refuses to participate in the system outright!! he takes a nice nepo uncle job with his niece in the vale and settles down for 20 years as the seven intended. aroace blackfish is real to me.

[diamondperfumes]

I will be debunking this post about Skahaz being the Harpy.

Just as Daenerys is ruminating on equally implausible answers, the author introduces a wolf, unseen and far away but present enough to interrupt her thoughts. It is a deliberately jarring, almost incongruous moment: Daenerys certainly never encounters this wolf, and the threat of a lupine predator only briefly reenters her mind once more in the chapter. The story jumps from Daenerys' musings to the wolf's howling with a sharp immediacy, juxtaposing the theoretical considerations of a clearly political plot and the dangerous ambiance of the Dothraki Sea without any apparent justification for doing so. Yet I think the author includes the howling wolf in this moment specifically to identify the person Daenerys could not - that is, the individual actually responsible for the poisoning at Daznak's Pit. After all, the chapter immediately preceding "Daenerys X" is "The Queen's Hand" - a chapter which features none other than Skahaz mo Kandaq in a "new" Brazen Beasts mask, "a wolf's head with lolling tongue". If Skahaz has not yet openly taken credit for the poisoning - instead cleverly using the naturally suspicious Barristan to frame Hizdahr for the crime and thus bring down his, Skahaz's, great political enemy - the Shavepate has slyly hinted as much (andindeed by using masks): when Barristan and Skahaz enter the Great Pyramid to depose Hizdahr, Skahaz has his Brazen Beasts wear locust masks, and even tells Barristan that he "ha[s] more locusts if [Barristan] need[s] them". Now, in "Daenerys X", the story allows Skahaz the same sort of subtle boasting: narratively transformed into the natural equivalent of his bronze disguise, Skahaz presents himself as the true poisoner, the solution Daenerys herself could not reach. If we do in fact get an admission from Skahaz on this point - and I would not be entirely surprised if he said so in the moments before he also kills Barristan Selmy - then we can look to this moment for the author's clue to that revelation[.]

I agree with the introduction of the wolf being a tie into her political plot, but the parallel is with Jon Snow being betrayed, just as Dany was betrayed by someone she trusted. Jon Snow is killed for breaking his Night's Watch vows, upon declaring war to save his sister. Dany is betrayed by the Harpy, a figure she gives weighty political authority to during her rule in Meereen. The Harpy is a key figure on her Court.

The wolf's howling makes Dany feel "sad and lonely." Not angry or hurt, but sad and lonely. Yes, Skahaz wears a wolf mask in ADWD Chapter 70, but Jon Snow dies in ADWD Chapter 69, around the same time that ADWD Chapter 71 is taking place. There is a tonal shift from Dany ruminating on who may have betrayed her, to Dany empathizing with the wolf's loneliness. How the wolf's howl makes her feel is key to interpreting the passage.

Dany falls asleep after she hears the wolf howl. To reinforce the connection to Jon Snow/the politics at the Wall, George includes this passage when she wakes up:

“It turned out that their anthill was on the other side of her wall. She wondered how the ants had managed to climb over it and find her. To them these tumbledown stones must loom as huge as the Wall of Westeros. The biggest wall in all the world, her brother Viserys used to say, as proud as if he’d built it himself."

Ants are crawling all over Dany when she wakes up, and she compares their perception of her makeshift Dragonstone to how people must see the Wall of Westeros, the biggest wall in the world. This is a very deliberate analogy for George to make. He could have used any comparison, but he chose to analogize the ants crawling on the makeshift Dragonstone to the people on the Wall, right after a night where Dany has dreams of starlight and Quaithe, when she falls asleep hearing a lonely wolf's howl.

Skahaz's Brazen Beasts wearing locust masks is a deliberate anti-parallel to the Harpy using locusts to poison Dany. The Harpy is trying to take Dany down, and Skahaz is trying to take Hizdahr down. However, Skahaz would not wear locust masks to hint to Barristan that he's the real poisoner, because it would only make Barristan suspicious of him. The irony is in freedmen wearing the faces of the very insects that slavers devour as a delicacy, and that they attempted to use to poison Dany. It's a way of mocking the slaver hegemony. While Skahaz has political reasons to have Hizdahr arrested, he gains nothing from poisoning Dany. In the aftermath of Dany's flight, Skahaz is deposed and Hizdahr, as king, holds all the power, and is able to chip away at everything Dany achieved as Queen of Meereen. If Skahaz's goal is to get rid of Hizdahr, poisoning Dany, which leaves a vacuum in her absence that strengthens Hizdahr, does not service him at all, especially because Dany is the one who gave him power.

Moreover, Barristan in that very chapter realizes that the poisoner is not Hizdahr:

“In return he gave her peace. Do not cast it away, ser, I beg you. Peace is the pearl beyond price. Hizdahr is of Loraq. Never would he soil his hands with poison. He is innocent.” “How can you be certain?” Unless you know the poisoner.

Barristan understands that the person who poisoned the locusts––the person who coerced Hizdahr's confectioner by kidnapping his daughter, the person who butchered his daughter into nine pieces when he failed to poison Dany––is the same person who so confidently guarantees that Hizdahr would never poison Dany, who engineered Hizdahr's marriage to Dany, the one whom neither Dany nor Barristan suspected of poisoning the locusts or being the Harpy.

Hizdahr is not the poisoner or the Harpy, but he is a son of the Harpy.

The person who benefits most from Dany being poisoned is the Harpy. Skahaz and Hizdahr are both narratively framed as potential poisoners. Attention is drawn as far away from the real Harpy as possible in adjudicating who the real poisoner is. Hizdahr, to gain a throne and roll back Dany's antislavery accomplishments. Skahaz, to have Hizdahr framed for the crime and removed from power. Both are presented as viable political actors with realistic motivations for wanting to poison Dany––how did Hizdahr truly secure the peace? how did Skahaz know all the details about the confectioner?––while the Harpy herself is distanced from the act, from the means of the act, and from the motivation for the act.

Barristan certainly will die defending Dany from the Harpy. But it will not be a death in the shadows. It will occur in the moment where action is taking place, where Barristan is bodily defending Dany:

“The scarab unfolded with a hiss. Dany caught a glimpse of a malign black face, almost human, and an arched tail dripping venom … and then the box flew from her hand in pieces, turning end over end. Sudden pain twisted her fingers. As she cried out and clutched her hand, the brass merchant let out a shriek, a woman screamed, and suddenly the Qartheen were shouting and pushing each other aside. Ser Jorah slammed past her, and Dany stumbled to one knee. She heard the hiss again. The old man drove the butt of his staff into the ground, Aggo came riding through an eggseller’s stall and vaulted from his saddle, Jhogo’s whip cracked overhead, Ser Jorah slammed the eunuch over the head with the brass platter, sailors and whores and merchants were fleeing or shouting or both …” (ACOK Dany V) - “The old man feinted with one end of the staff, pulled it back, and whipped the other end about faster than Dany would have believed. The Titan’s Bastard staggered back into the surf, spitting blood and broken teeth from the ruin of his mouth. Whitebeard put Dany behind him. Mero slashed at his face. The old man jerked back, cat-quick. The staff thumped Mero’s ribs, sending him reeling. Arstan splashed sideways, parried a looping cut, danced away from a second, checked a third mid-swing. The moves were so fast she could hardly follow.” (ASOS Dany V)

In the fifth chapters of her ACOK and ASOS arcs, Barristan defends Dany from an assassin––the manticore and the Titan's Bastard. It will only be fitting that he finds his end defending Dany from the Harpy of Meereen, completing the pattern of threes where some symbol/figure of an antagonistic political institution (the Sorrowful Men of Qarth & Mero of Braavos, the original commander of the initially slaver-aligned sellsword company, the Second Sons) comes to murder Dany.

[dinastiatargaryen]

Paralelos entre Cersei e Daenerys (Parte 3)

Daenerys se cerca de múltiplos pontos de vista para conciliar diversas demandas e tomar decisões informadas e justas.

" - Uma rainha deve escutar a todos. Os de nascimento alto e baixo, os fortes e os fracos, os nobres e os venais. Uma voz pode proferir falsidades, mas em muitas sempre é possível encontrar a verdade. - Lera aquilo num livro." - A Tormenta de Espadas // Daenerys I

"Dany reuniu seu conselho para ouvi-los. Verme Cinzento estava lá pelos Imaculados, Skahaz mo Kandaq pelas Bestas de Bronze. Na ausência de seus companheiros de sangue, um encarquilhado jaqqua rhan chamado Rommo, vesgo e de pernas arqueadas, falava pelos dothraki. Seus libertos eram representados pelos capitães das três companhias que ela formara: Mollono Yos Dob dos Escudos Robustos, Symon Costas-Listradas dos Irmãos Livres e Marselen dos Homens da Mãe. Reznak mo Reznak permanecia sentado ao lado da rainha e Belwas, o Forte, estava em pé atrás dela, com os enormes braços cruzados. Dany não teria falta de conselhos." - A Dança dos Dragões // Daenerys III

Cersei prefere ter conselheiros que apoiem tudo o que ela diz, porque ela só se preocupa que suas necessidades sejam atendidas e que suas opiniões sejam ouvidas.

" - Um governador fraco precisa de uma Mão forte, como Aerys precisou do pai. Um governador forte requer apenas um servo diligente para carregar ordens." - O Festim dos Corvos // Jaime

"Os meus conselheiros. Cersei arrancara todas as rosas, e todos aqueles com obrigações para com o tio ou os irmãos. Nos seus lugares encontravam-se homens cuja lealdade lhe pertenceria. Até lhes dera novos t��tulos, pedidos de empréstimo as Cidades Livres; a rainha não admitiria nenhum "mestre" na corte além de si própria." - O Festim dos Corvos // Cersei IV

Ilustração Daenerys: Drazenka Kimpel

Ilustração Cersei: Evans03

[knightsickness]

i think hizdahr is going to die in a ridiculous comedy of errors sort of way since barristan is trying not to outright murder him before dany gets back. like they move him from one cell to another and hizdahr trips down 4 flights of stairs and he’s ok but he stubbed his toe and the toenail broke off and the little toenail shard gets infected and they don’t want the infection to kill him so they call in a healer and the healer doesn’t assassinate him or anything but it turns out he’s deathly allergic to the pine nuts in the poultice and he asphyxiates and dies seconds before dany flies back in on drogon

as much as im fond of the idea of prologue pov hizdahr dying in an unprecedented stupid way. i would have to say these two guys actively talking about wanting to kill him are the current favourites on the killing him front

[azwanjen]

Lama tak pekena Nasi Kandaq Nawab Shah Padang Temusu... Sangat berbaloi dan harga murah.. Rasanya nasi kandaq paling Surrrr di SP ni..Hidden gem.. Tapi pilihan lauk tak banyak..

Nasi +Ayam goreng+Bendi+ Telur rebus goreng+Air Teh 0 ais= Rm 9.80..

[goodqueenaly]

I am on my third read-through of the series and am just LOVING all the delicious foreshadowing/backshadowing in Jon VI in ACoK. What's your favorite non-vision-quest chapter that strongly foreshadows events and revelations to come?

I don't know if this counts, but -

She wondered if Hizdahr was still king. His crown had come from her, could he hold it in her absence? He wanted Drogon dead. I heard him. "Kill it," he screamed, "kill the beast," and the look upon his face was lustful. And Strong Belwas had been on his knees, heaving and shuddering. Poison. It had to be poison. The honeyed locusts. Hizdahr urged them on me, but Belwas ate them all. She had made Hizdahr her king, taken him into her bed, opened the fighting pits for him, he had no reason to want her dead. Yet who else could it have been? Reznak, her perfumed seneschal? The Yunkai'i? The Sons of the Harpy? Off in the distance, a wolf howled.

Here is Daenerys, trying to figure out who wanted her dead and why. Daenerys has (correctly) figured out that someone poisoned the locusts in her box at Daznak's Pit, but is stuck on trying to explain the assassination attempt. While she acknowledges the seeming obviousness of Hizdahr as a candidate, Daenerys also (again, I think correctly) realizes that Hizdahr appears to lack the motivation to assassinate her - that, in fact, Hizdahr had every reason to keep Daenerys around, for the sake of both his interests and his (nuptial) crown. Yet Daenerys is no more able to light on a reasonable alternate candidate, and can only list various generally and/or vaguely antagonistic factions in and around Meereen.

Just as Daenerys is ruminating on equally implausible answers, the author introduces a wolf, unseen and far away but present enough to interrupt her thoughts. It is a deliberately jarring, almost incongruous moment: Daenerys certainly never encounters this wolf, and the threat of a lupine predator only briefly reenters her mind once more in the chapter. The story jumps from Daenerys' musings to the wolf's howling with a sharp immediacy, juxtaposing the theoretical considerations of a clearly political plot and the dangerous ambiance of the Dothraki Sea without any apparent justification for doing so.

Yet I think the author includes the howling wolf in this moment specifically to identify the person Daenerys could not - that is, the individual actually responsible for the poisoning at Daznak's Pit. After all, the chapter immediately preceding "Daenerys X" is "The Queen's Hand" - a chapter which features none other than Skahaz mo Kandaq in a "new" Brazen Beasts mask, "a wolf's head with lolling tongue". If Skahaz has not yet openly taken credit for the poisoning - instead cleverly using the naturally suspicious Barristan to frame Hizdahr for the crime and thus bring down his, Skahaz's, great political enemy - the Shavepate has slyly hinted as much (andindeed by using masks): when Barristan and Skahaz enter the Great Pyramid to depose Hizdahr, Skahaz has his Brazen Beasts wear locust masks, and even tells Barristan that he "ha[s] more locusts if [Barristan] need[s] them". Now, in "Daenerys X", the story allows Skahaz the same sort of subtle boasting: narratively transformed into the natural equivalent of his bronze disguise, Skahaz presents himself as the true poisoner, the solution Daenerys herself could not reach. If we do in fact get an admission from Skahaz on this point - and I would not be entirely surprised if he said so in the moments before he also kills Barristan Selmy - then we can look to this moment for the author's clue to that revelation,

[loadedcanons]

"Egypt and Kandaq, Bialya were the ones I was planning to liberate," she stated, having glanced at the locations on the plaques. "Come now, Jaime, we can be civil, right? It's not a crime to steal stolen property, right?" If she can't bring him around on her plan, it might be worth leaving and just infiltrating the museum's back areas, steal things from that side of their collection.

He looked at her hand, the scarab once again analyzing her. Even if she didn't know it, he immediately knew she was lying. Her vitals were weird, but nothing the alien tech inside of him couldn't pin down. "uh huh. And, how much would this nominal fee be?" He said crossing his arms and looking at her skeptically. "Do you even know where those artifacts are from?"

[fatin928]

Nasi kandaq shatu

June 26, 2023