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ludcake · 8 months

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I've been chatting with beloved mutual @amethyinst and recently found a way better way of like, articulating my thoughts on the Others and the whole Fire and Ice thing.

I've written one or two pieces of meta on the Others before and I am a strong believer that they're people and not evil ice demons and that they have some cognition, society and that the books won't end with them just getting all destroyed and murdered in a big war - for a lot of reasons, including the fact that I think that would go very much against the overarching theme of the books, both in the sense that I disbelieve the idea that the Others are the big threat we have to pay attention but are too concerned with our own small, petty issues (I think that it would do an immense disservice to the struggles that these characters endure to ultimately frame them as pointless) and because I disbelieve that the ultimate, overarching conflict will be a big war in a display of violence.

The thing is, obviously, the Others are Ice - and we have the dragons, on the opposite corner, as Fire. Martin's mentioned a couple of times that fire, and the dragons, represent passion, and they represent life, and that's part of why they're associated with Dany's position as mother and breaker of chains... And he's also mentioned a couple of times that the Others are "ice sidhe", that they can do things with ice that are incredible, but I'm going to focus on that idea of them as sidhe - as fey beings, as counter to fire, but also as spirits and bound by spells.

To me, it's difficult to accept the idea that the dragons, and fire, is wholly positive - we've seen how "fire consumes until there's nothing left" is a theme through Thoros and Berric, and we've seen how dragons were used by the Targaryens and the Valyrians to keep a vast tyrannical empire that oppressed several peoples and kept them as slaves, the same system that Dany now uses her dragons to destroy. There's clearly a greater theme here, at play, that dragons aren't universally positive - and throughout A Dance With Dragons, specifically, we see Martin use the dragons, in particular Drogon, to represent Dany's desire for freedom, to escape politics, to escape Meereen, to fly and burn and end peace and crush the slavers.

And frankly, I don't think that the ultimate answer is that it's a necessarily good instinct. It's not a bad one either.

There's been a few pieces written about the Others that go at length about their role - a few ones that link their appearance to the sacking of the barrows beyond the Wall, or the idea that the ancient Pact has been broken, or the idea of the Wall and the Night's Watch as ultimately institutions of separation, and of course, linking the 7000ft tall wall of ice to the ice guys. And I think there's a point to be made here... There's few times where we see the Others themselves, but it has always fascinated me how in A Game of Thrones' Prologue, the Others ambushing Ser Waymar Royce accept his request for a fair and just duel, and fight against him in his own terms.

I think that if dragons are passion, and freedom, and warmth, then the Others are oaths, and laws, and the cold. The Others are not evil, but they are duty - and the dragons are love. Love is the death of duty, duty is the death of love - the Others are a slowly marching force, that moves ever onwards, and they will have their ultimate reckoning, and they will bind people to oaths and laws. They are Ned Stark executing a poor boy who was running for his life. They are Robb Stark executing the father of his friends for treason. They are Ser Barristan Selmy standing by while King Aerys ruled tyrannically. They are Duncan the Tall standing up and keeping to his oath of knighthood. They are Prince Baelor Targaryen defending Duncan. They are Stannis marching onwards for duty. They are every law and every oath and every rule, just or unjust, whether it upholds ideals or not - they are the ice sidhe, they are what you swear upon, they are the Old Gods of the North which look through the weirwoods and tell whether you've said a lie. They are cold, harsh, unforgiving truth.

And the dragons, of course, are that opposite. They are Maegor the Cruel destroying every rule of the realm, every demand of the Faith, because he rides Balerion. They are Daenerys destroying slavery and breaking the wheel, because she is the mother of dragons. They are passion and they are love, they are the impulse for freedom, they are might-makes-right and the breaking of chains, they are the Valyrians destroying every rule of society because they have dragons, they are Daenaerys making a better world because she has dragons, they are Aegon V seeing glimpses of a world where the smallfolk would not toil so much because he'd have dragons, they are Aerys the Mad burning his victims because he is a dragon. They are tyranny, and they are freedom - they are the fact that you are beholden to nothing but yourself.

And that can be used for good, and for ill; just as oaths can be good, or bad.

And that's what ice and fire are; they may both end the world, and they may both uphold it, but they are duty and love. The human heart in conflict with itself.

Is this a definitive analysis? Not at all. I'd love to see people counter argue or add onto it! It's just my brief thoughts on the bilaterality of ice and fire, and how that dichotomy is often presented, I think; I might write up something longer with proper references to the books sometime. But it is A Thought I've Had, and I think it's worth writing out.

#asoiaf #.txt #valyrianscrolls #adwd #the others #meta #the human heart in conflict with itself is the only thing worth writing about #and what is more human than the conflict between love and duty #between what you believe and what you want #what youve been taught and what you desire #what youre pressured to do and what you yearn to do

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gwenllian-in-the-abbey · 3 months

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Is there anything good (positive achievement) about the Valyrian/ghiscarian empires? I feel GRRM didn't bother giving them nuanced and interesting history beside mass slavery, rape and genocide, esp the ghiscarians they are mash up of the all the racist oriental tropes you can think of

Hi anon, this is a really good question. I think you can look at it two ways.

On the one hand, if we're analyzing the books from a literary perspective, GRRM's portrayal of the entire continent of Essos is pretty Orientalist and doesn't hold up that well. And we can blame this to some extent on GRRM being a white boomer who clearly did not think all that deeply about the stereotypes he was playing into when he created his "exotic" eastern continent. 90s fantasy was rife with this stuff (even my beloved Robin Hobb is not completely immune-- I'm looking at you, Chalcedeans), and at the time Orientalism was, much like critical race theory or decolonization, a grad school level concept, unless you ran in activist circles. You didn't have Tumblr and Twitter and TikTok and Youtube generating Discourse, you had to actively seek out different perspectives. And ex-hippie liberal white boomers often assumed that they already had the right perspectives, that they knew what traps to avoid, and so you'd get 90s SFF authors thinking they were very cleverly subverting these tropes by going, "I know, I'll have an intensely misogynistic culture of desert dwelling nomads who have harems and slaves but I'll make them white." It was pretty bleak. Luckily for all of us, fantasy has come a long way since then.

And yeah, once you see the Orientalism in ASOIAF, you can't unsee it. Lys is basically the fantasy version of the "pleasure planet" trope, the Dothraki are a stereotype of the Mongol armies without any of the many positive contributions the Molgols made, Qarth is like the Coleridge poem come to life with people riding camels with jeweled saddles and wearing tiger skins, with its women baring one breast and it's sophisticated assassin's guild, and Mereen has its pyramids. The entire continent is brimming with spices and jewels and pleasure houses and people saying "Your Magnificence." It is also a place of blood magic and dragons and Red Gods and shadowlands. It is everything exciting and "exotic," juxtaposed against what appears to most readers to be very mundane--septas and pseudocatholicism and maesters in the citadel. So yeah, it's an Orientalist's fantasy world, and the point of all this is not necessarily to cast it as evil per se, but to cast it as "Other" (and to be clear, Orientalism is harmful and GRRM deserves the criticism he gets for leaning into stereotypes). Valyria and the Valyrians are certainly included in that-- they are explicitly Other as foreign born ruling family in Westeros, and they are treated that way both in-world and by the narrative.

The question then becomes, although GRRM's depictions of Essos lean heavily and inelegantly into Orientalist tropes, why did he create these worlds the way he did? Why is Valyria an "Other" and what significance does it have to the story? And I think that some of this is GRRM's shorthand for something magical that is lost and forgotten and fading away, just like Valyria itself is in the memories of the Targaryen family. It is the Xanadu of Coleridge's Kubla Khan, not just the East viewed from the West, but the past viewed from the present, a nostalgic yearning for a place that only ever existed in the imagination. When the narrative does visit these places in person, rather than telling us about them secondhand, they become ugly and brutal, the jeweled facade hiding a rot underneath. In ASOIAF we have Dany ripping that facade off of Meereen and Yunkai, but she idealizes her own Targaryen heritage, and that is not insignificant, and as readers, we are invited to idealize it right along with her, in spite of plenty of hints that perhaps we should not (like the aforementioned slavery). We even hear Astapori and Yunkish slavers speaking to Dany echo sentiments about the even older Ghiscari empire, also lost, "Ours is the blood of ancient Ghis, whose empire was old when Valyria was yet a squalling child." Old Ghis and the Valyrians who conquered them are both long gone at this point, and yet their descendants are clinging to the legacies of cultures that would be wholly foreign to both of them. Because if Valyria is Xanadu, the Old Valyrians and Old Ghiscari are also Ozymandias, the mighty who have fallen, their once grand civilizations nothing but forgotten ruins. The Targaryens don't yet realize that they are that "half-sunk shattered visage," that they are yearning for something that is gone and never returning, something they never really knew in the first place.

Westeros is not immune to this either. I think it's a consistent theme that GRRM plays with is the ways which the past is glorified and distorted and romanticized. Even in a meta-sense, his entire medieval world is, in many ways, a half-remembered medieval fantasy, the medieval world as imagined by people who read Ivanhoe, rather than a medieval world as actually was. And GRRM simultaneously presents this romanticized world alongside the brutality of the past (and to drive that point home, George's medieval world is much more brutal than the real medieval world was), and so he asks us, just like Dany must ask herself at some point, is the past really all that romantic? Or are we simply yearning for something unnamable and Other? And if we yearn for that, why?

On the other hand, from an in-world perspective, if you are Westerosi, are there any redeeming qualities to Valyrian culture? And I think we can answer that question by asking ourselves, is there anything salvageable from the past, even if the past was terrible? Even if what we perceive of Old Valyria wavers between a horrific empire based on conquest and slavery, and an idealized homeland full of magical dragonriders, depending on who is doing the telling, if we accept it as a fully fleshed out world, then I think we can remember no cultures are monoliths. Old Valyria had art, architecture, fashion, music, literature, and I like to imagine that there were good freeholders, perhaps even Valyrian versions of the Roman Stoics and the Cynics, who raised moral objections to slavery. Certainly the Valyrian "freeholder" government itself, a kind of proto-democracy, similar to that of Athens, was innovative for its particular time and place, even if it was not as democratic as our modern democracies are, and that model of government is replicated throughout Essos, where strict hereditary monarchy seems to be relatively uncommon. Valyria also had a great deal of religious freedom, which persists throughout Essos as well. And as with any empire, it's important to keep in mind that the ruling class made up only a small percentage of actual Valyria, and we know there were Valyrians who were not dragonlords but just normal people, going about their lives who had nothing to do with the atrocities committed, and those people were telling stories, creating art, writing songs, and producing culture too. So I think, tying back into how GRRM uses Valyria and Essos in his narrative, we do not have to discard the past entirely, nor do in-world Targaryens, but it's the romanticization that's the problem, and I think that's something that both in-world characters and readers are cautioned against.

#asks #old valyria #grrm #asoiaf #orientalism in asoiaf #essos #house targaryen #anti targ restoration #grrm critical #anti targaryen

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queenaryastark · 1 year

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“You must train them as well,” their father said. “You must train them. The kennelmaster will have nothing to do with these monsters, I promise you that. And the gods help you if you neglect them, or brutalize them, or train them badly. These are not dogs to beg for treats and slink off at a kick. A direwolf will rip a man’s arm off his shoulder as easily as a dog will kill a rat. Are you sure you want this?” -- Bran I, AGOT

“A monster,” Bran said.

The ranger looked at Bran as if the rest of them did not exist. “Your monster, Brandon Stark.” -- Bran I, ADWD

This time the monsters did not frighten her. They seemed almost old friends. Arya held the candle over her head. With each step she took, the shadows moved against the walls, as if they were turning to watch her pass. “Dragons,” she whispered. -- Arya IV, AGOT

It is real, all of it, he thought, the wars, the intrigues, the great bloody game, and me in the center of it … me, the dwarf, the monster, the one they scorned and laughed at, but now I hold it all, the power, the city, the girl. This was what I was made for, and gods forgive me, but I do love it … -- Tyrion VII, ACOK

Mother of dragons, Daenerys thought. Mother of monsters. What have I unleashed upon the world? A queen I am, but my throne is made of burned bones, and it rests on quicksand. Without dragons, how could she hope to hold Meereen, much less win back Westeros? I am the blood of the dragon, she thought. If they are monsters, so am I. -- Dany II, ADWD

… but it was the Young Wolf who was the monster. More beast than boy, that one, puffed up with pride and bloodlust... -- Davos III, ADWD

The theme of connecting the heroic characters to monsters in ASOIAF is so fascinating. From the first chapter, the direwolves are called monsters repeatedly, and the threat of their violence, even as they serve as beloved pets to the child protagonists, is always present if not on full display. It's the same with dragons as Arya sees the skulls as monsters when she first sees them and then they become a symbol of protection for her as she seeks the "monsters" out while escaping from the Lannisters. Dany begins to see herself and her dragons as monsters due to their growing violence as well. And of course, Tyrion has been taught to see himself as a monster due to his disability. Robb, Jon, and Bran have levels of being referred to as villainous monsters or beastlings as well, with Bran even being warned by Jojen that he would be hunted and killed by his own people if his powers were known. Then there's Coldhands, the type of monster that the main story is fighting against, pledging himself as Bran's monster. It's just an interesting subversion.

#bran stark #arya stark #daenerys targaryen #asoiaf #reading and rambling

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branwendaughterofllyr · 1 year

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branwen please share with us some more BNFs/JoLa tea ☕️ thank you kindly x

I’m probably going to regret this but I couldn’t resist lol.

I actually feel bad for a lot of the BNFs, including JoLa. The end of GoT wasn’t really fun for most of them, and most of them have left the fandom. JoLa has pretty much abandoned her tumblr, and good for her honestly. I think she’s a very silly, even over sensitive person, but she genuinely believed that she was going to be right. She hates being called a BNF and denies she ever was one, which is par for the course for her. She would alternate between denying she was invested in jonerys as a ship and commissioning jonerys fanart.

Her takes on Dany were honestly pretty hilarious in their tone deafness, which led to a lot of joking about her in my circle. She was really, really into Tyrion, which, uh, okay. The “curtain of light” theory has become pretty infamous now, and I cannot emphasize enough how seriously it was taken by some of the BNFs on tumblr. Big BNF poorquentyn (is he still around? Didn’t he convert to Jonsa at one point?) responded a lot to JoLa and nobodysuspectsthebutterfly back in the day.

I’ve screenshotted some of my favorite posts, most of which are from like 2015-2018.

I mean come on, Dany and Jon bang and have baby Drogo to save the world beyond the curtain of light? SPECTACULAR. I wish I was on those drugs.

And it’s amazing because on one hand I’m like “yes! The power of love as humanity’s greatest strength is a theme of ASOIAF!” And on the other hand I’m like “and where do Dany and Tyrion come into this at all????”

Beloved, read a single Sam chapter, I’m begging.

My personal favorite is how she justifies Dany ditching Meereen after she’s wrecked the place. Look, slavery was an inherently unsustainable system, and Dany did everyone a favor by wrecking everything and then flinching off.

Which, like yes, Dany did a good thing by trying to end slavery but also it’s a millennia old system??? It’s pretty stable, and Dany hasn’t really done a great job implementing change, and things are going to be way worse after she leaves, and any positive changes aren’t going to come at her hands. (and also has she really ended slavery? really, really?)

The Titanic comparison????? AMAZING.

Dany is the lifeboat come to save the entire world.

The best part is by far the tags

NEVER SAY THE BNFS DIDN’T GIVE US ANYTHING.

I loved these tags so much that one of the lovelies on the Jonsa discord made me this back in the day.

SHE’s SHOOTING STAR<3

THERE ONE MOMENT, GONE THE NEXT BUT FOREVER WONDEROUS TO BEHOLD

Who needs permanent political change, long lasting growth, and tree planting when you could have her <3

She can’t stay and actually fix any problems, she has a continent to set on fire and a curtain of light to fuck under.

It’s crazy how such wildly different interpretations can come about from the same text, and it’s rather satisfying to me personally that I am in fact not crazy and what I was seeing the narrative is actually there.

The Tyrion humping and the refusal to acknowledge that maybe magic nukes bad actually are what cracked me up to no end.

Yes, the real enemy is the cold, but also maybe Fire and Blood is not the end-all be-all solution???? Like, just think about it for more than five seconds. Did the chapters about the destructiveness of fire mean nothing to you? Did WF, the home of the heroes at the heart of the story, going up in flames ring no bells???? Did Arya’s escape from a fire described like a dragon, where she desperately kissed the mud when she realized she was still alive not set off any alarms???? Literally anything that has to with trees??? No? Okay.

I cannot even begin to unravel her Bran takes, so I’m not going to try.

And lest I forget, JoLa also supported Sansan and even Creepyfinger at various points, sooooooo. I took her assertions that she’s a big Sansa fan with a pile of salt.

But nobody go harass JoLa’s account please. The only reason I’m talking about this is because it was literally years ago at this point, and she’s moved on and I’m reminiscing about the horrible old days. JoLa was actually a pretty civil and nice person (I think it was nobodywhosuspectsthebutterfly who was the combative one), if very silly and wrong.

#I don't even want to talk about JoLa's Tyrion takes because they make my head hurt #the Dany ones just make me laugh #Branwen answers

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gotgifsandmusings · 2 years

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Hi, been a fan since season 5 but was MIA during season 8 because life. I was wondering what you thought of Dany's descent as Queen of the Ashes? Do you think some of your earlier points i.e Hizdahr zo Sansa work in D&D's benefit unironically now (even though they have lost all credibility as writers)? Ignoring how it was butchered, of course.

Congratulations, you asked the very question that broke Julia and my collective brain and is the reason we never finished our S8 retrospectives, lol.

Because like...yes. This show had basically done a horrible job of distinguishing "good" vs. "bad" guys on the show in all ways other than marketing. It was just accepted that Cersei was the "most vile woman in Westeros," when we see the "heroes" do similarly awful things (e.g. Arya murdering the entire Frey male line, baking them into pies, and feeding them to Walder).

So enter Season 7/8 where it's I guess setting up Dany's descent (while also being an earnest love story for some reason), and we get this weird case of "it's only evil/questionable when Dany does war things." Tyrion can burn Stannis's fleet with wildfire, but Dany can't burn her enemies' soldiers with Drogon because...Tyrion is on a hill looking sad? Jon can execute a literal traumatized child who tried to kill him, but Dany can't execute the Tarlys who wouldn't have taken the black anyway?

It just becomes this crap pile of misogynistic implications, where it seems like our reasons we're supposed to be skeptical of Dany are because she does things unilaterally, and when women do that on the show it's bad. When men do it on the show, it's leadership. Then of course, her strafing to burn as many innocents in King's Landing was just comically stupid. We've SEEN Dany in power already...we saw her grapple with not being beloved by everyone in Meereen. We know what motivates her, and it's just not fitting that she'd suddenly want to kill all the innocents. Or that bells make her take things personally.

Really, what's sort of funny about this show is that we could have had a heel-turn for Sansa to be Queen of the Ashes, or for Jaime to be King of the Ashes, and because this show is so obsessed with everyone being motivated by revenge and having cool badass moments, there'd be equal seeding for any of these characters burning down King's Landing.

But no, the issue was Dany's..."liberation theology" (these guys are so, so stupid).

So like...yes? It does help retroactively sorta? But also no, it doesn't, because they don't get to have it both ways and argue her 'targ madness coin' just happened to land in S8, especially when Dany is arguably the character we've seen in a position of power the most, and understanding how she wields it.

This is getting rambly, so let me leave you with a snippet from one of our many failed attempts to write this retrospective (note it's a very rough draft):

"...After rewatching Season 8, the true point of Varys turning sides was hearing that Jon had a better claim to the throne. The Tarly executions in Season 7 kicked off his skepticism about Dany’s leadership qualities. However, in between those two events, the only beat we could point to was Dany being grumpy at a party. She did try to fire Tyrion a few times and Varys is a Carol Award-winning Tyrion-stan, but we never saw his reaction to that specifically. It had been Jorah that pleaded for Tyrion remaining her Hand this year. All we saw was Varys side-eyeing her sitting back in a chair at a party.

We couldn't even adequately tie Dany’s actions to similar actions on the parts of Tyrion and Jon and make a solid sexism case, because it just became this horrible circular discussion of which actions counted vs. not. The fact is, Varys was in Dany’s camp until he wasn’t. He had concerns, sure, but the turning point was a grumpy party! Maybe her UberEats delivered the wrong latte and she’s lactose intolerant!

Taking this to the macro level, we simply never saw Dany develop into a villain. The narrative decided she was a villain in Episode 4 of the final season, and then chided and insulted us for ever thinking she wasn’t. We could spend a separate 6,000 words arguing whether or not her actions of previous seasons could have been framed as villainous (remember how Kylie kept saying how Cersei and Dany were kind of the same in their actions?), but it’s not productive. The writers were in Dany’s camp until they weren’t.

[first she came for the slavers]

Ignoring the just horrific implications of how they evoked Niemöller here, this Tyrion quote is just baldly ridiculous. You (dear writers) cheered for her when she burned the Dothraki, and we know because of the framing and the music and the things characters said about her afterwards. Also, you wrote an entire plotline about how nailing the slavers to the crosses had unintended consequences that she had to reconcile with, and it was part of her development as a leader. But then you decided learning was wrong, or opening the fighting pits was wrong, or Tyrion had to convince the red priests to worship her to re-engage commerce? Or something??

It’s almost like there was no coherent planning and Dany didn’t have a series arc at all! She was the cool, badass Khaleesi lady, until she wasn’t. She was the person in charge of Meereen until Tyrion came. She was the revolutionary who loved the smallfolk and wanted to reduce suffering until she was the paranoid narcissist who didn’t get enough praise. She was a feminist icon until she was a cautionary tale about ambitious women. She was a Marxist reformer that wanted to break the wheel which had harmed so many until she was Horde Prime who sought people’s liberation through their deaths."

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imaginarianisms · 6 days

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full name : daenerys i targaryen. other names : dany, my lady, little princess, dan ares, wife, moon of my life, sweet queen, good lady, great lady, sweet lady, my shining queen, gentle queen, fair queen, great queen, gracious queen, just queen, bright heart, bright light, little silverhair queen, my radiance, my delight, my light of love, my love, my sweet song of joy, her grace, your grace, your worship, your high-and-mightiness, your radiance, your magnificence, stormborn, daenerys stormborn, daenerys stormborn of the house targaryen the first of her name, daenerys targaryen the first of her name, queen of the andals and the rhoynar and the first men, queen of meereen, queen of westeros, queen of the nine daughters, queen of the bay of dragons, empress of all valyria, princess of dragonstone, princess of summerhall, the dragon's daughter, dragonmother, khaleesi, khaleesi of the great grass sea, khaleesi of the dothraki, mhysa, the breaker of shackles, the unburnt, the breaker of chains, the mother of dragons, the mother of monsters, the bride of dragons, the bride of fire, the daughter of death, the slayer of lies, child of three, little girl, arrogant child, soft mewling fool, the beggar queen, treacherous sow, westerosi pig, cow, little whore, ignorant whore of a westerner, horselord's whore, whore, little whore, westerosi whore, the whore of westeros, bitch of a queen, oathbreaker, monster, the mad king's daughter, sunset savage, savage, bright shining child queen, the targaryen girl, the young queen shining from afar, mother, tato, aelalla, maela, qathei, our beloved queen, young girl, little queen, child queen, sweet young girl, little dragon queen, sweet child queen, the targaryen princess, the targaryen queen, the true targaryen, our hope, our rightful queen, the queen of the rabbits, the younger more beautiful queen, the daughter of dragons, the silver lady, the silver queen, the dragon queen, the queen across the waters, the queen across the sea, the queen in the east, the queen beyond the bones, the lady regent of the seven kingdoms, the queen of the sunset kingdoms, the queen of the seven kingdoms, lord of the seven kingdoms, protector of the seven kingdoms, protector of the realm, slayer of masters, the liberator, the unifier, aegon the conqueror with teats, rhaenyra come again, she-dragon, the fairest of them all, the fairest woman in the world, the most beautiful woman in the world, the last dragon, the amethyst empress returned, the world's deliverer, the prince that was promised, the princess that was promised, azor ahai, azor ahai returned, azor ahai reborn, the great stallion, the fiery stallion, the stallion who mounts the world, the unifier of the great grass sea, zhavorsa kazga, khal vezhven, sorceress, the black dragon, the dragon, the winged victory, daenerys the dragonbinder, daenerys the dreamer, daenerys the conqueror, the great khaleesi, the great khal, the obsidian empress. age : 16-17 (a game of thrones), 18-19 (a clash of kings), 20-21 (a storm of swords), 22-23 (a feast for crows-a dance with dragons-the winds of winter), 24 (a dream of spring). species : human; seeress & dragonrider (main); human; draconic alterhuman (modern). gender : femme leaning futch presenting cis woman. sexuality : ambiamorous demibiromantic bisexual.

origin : dragonstone, the crownlands, westeros. (main; verse varies); america (modern; verse varies). current location : dragonstone. (main; verse varies); americas (modern; verse varies). nationality : westerosi; essosi (main; canon); american (modern). ethnicity : the blood of old valyria (house targaryen, house velaryon, possibly house celtigar & house rogare), with first men (house blackwood & house massey), rhoynar (house martell & house dayne), andal (house arryn) & summer islander (house velaryon) ancestry (main); multiracial; white, indigenous, black, latina, & desi. spoken languages : high valyrian, dothraki, ghiscari & the common westerosi tongue. (main; canon); english, spanish, italian, latin, asl & basl. (modern). family : aerys ii targaryen (father-uncle), rhaella targaryen (mother-aunt), rhaegar targaryen (older brother), viserys iii targaryen (older brother), rhaego (son; khal drogo), drogon, rhaegal & viserion (her children, her dragons) the silver (her mare), barristan selmy (grandfather figure), shaera velaryon (maternal figure; @velcryons). partner(s) : khal drogo (first husband; deceased), hizdahr zo loraq (second husband; executed on charges of treason), daario naharis (paramour), currently single.

occupation : queen. (main; canon). student, activist, influencer & socialite as she technically doesn't have to work as a wealthy woman but does so anyway. (modern). religion : syncretic view of the gods of old valyria, the dothraki horse god the great stallion, & the faith of the seven & later mother rhoyne, r'hllor & the old gods; omnist. height : 5'2". body type : slender, hourglass, fairly well toned; short. disabilities & neurodivergencies : autistic, C-PTSD & hypersexuality due to trauma. hair : silver-gold (natural); was bald for a time after khal drogo's funeral pyre, her hair became short & recently grew long with intricate braids interweaved with silver bells. eyes : bright eyes; amethyst eyes. tattoos : obtains traditional henna tattoos on her hands. piercings : n/a (main; canon); beaded & a dragon in hoop earrings style (modern). scars : her hands are calloused due to being the wife of a warlord, has faded stretch marks across her belly from her pregnancy carrying rhaego, on her inner thighs & hands while riding drogon before she gets the proper saddle & reins. (main; canon).

educational background : little growing up, mostly streetsmarts for a very long time as she grew up on the streets of the free cities in exile with her brother viserys then later becomes self taught in a khaleesi then a queen's education & eventually becomes knowledgeable in magic & valyrian sorcery, particularly glass candles via marwyn the mage of the citadel. (main; canon); college. (modern). social media : n/a (canon); most general social media (modern). smoking : n/a. drinking : social. drugs : cannabis to induce trance & divination by the dosh khaleen at vaes dothrak; has taken the shade of the evening while visiting the house of the undying in qarth. athletics : a wonderful dancer, quick runner & rider of horses & dragons. hobbies : singing, dancing, flirting, music, poetry, writing, literature, reading children's stories & songs from westeros about tall & handsome heroes, languages, history, archery, gardening, sunbathing, bathing in scalding hot baths, equestrianism, riding, hawking, sailing, swimming, sweet things, dragonlore & sorcery. favorite drink : mare's milk, peach juice, milk & honey. favorite food : sausages, cheese, grapes & peaches. favorite music : classical (canon); indie, folk, pop, classical, rock (modern). clothing style : classical gowns of the age, wears mostly gowns of silks, satins, velvets, myrish lace, furs whenever necessary and jewels, does wear dothraki wardrobe with a painted vest & riding leathers while barefoot & her hair oiled, with silk or horsehair pants, woven grass sandals, a medallion belt and a hrakkar cloak that was gifted to her by khal drogo, has a qartheen gown which leaves one breast bare & several ghiscari tokars, was gifted a lacquered dragon mask from the asshai'i shadowbinder quaithe upon her visit there that she occasionally uses in warfare for intimidation and to protect her face, and according to rumor to prevent others from falling in love with her, upon returning to westeros, she begins to wear more westerosi & valyrian cultural clothing while wearing one sun painted on each of her cheeks representing her desire for justice and vengeance for elia martell and her two children rhaenys and aegon targaryen and as homage to the princess nymeria of the rhoynar who led her people to a new home, gemstones reflecting both her valyrian and non-valyrian heritages that're connected to the silver bells in her intricately braided hair as per dothraki custom, one for each of her victories in her conquests of western essos and now westeros; while she does show homage to her non-valyrian heritage by wearing an overcoat with the sigils of house velaryon, house massey, house arryn, house martell, house dayne and house blackwood, she mostly begins wearing her black valyrian steel armor created from the forges of qohor during her conquest of essos and dresses of the black & red of house targaryen. (main; canon); casual/business casual, coquette, goth, hyperfeminine, academia & preppy (modern).

Tagged by: stole it from ourselves& !! Tagging: anyone who breathes !

#daenerys targaryen. || headcanons.#dash games.#/ w slur #/ sex worker slur #ask to tag / tw !#/ incest mention #<- jic #bc yknow. she's a targaryen & there's a lotta inbreeding in there

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aboveallarescuer · 2 years

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I have to say, what made this Daenerys event so exciting and special to me in particular was the abundance of wonderful content made by book!Dany fans for book!Dany fans.

We received three gorgeous edits of Dany's book outfits!!!!!

We received four GLORIOUS gifsets (ALL of them!!!) of Dany's battle plans in Yunkai and Meereen!!!!! (As far as I can tell, there wasn't any for the Meereen strategy aside from a crappy one that I'd made, while the Yunkai plan was quoted before in captions, but was never the focus of the edit.)

We received three gifsets featuring the scene in which Dany visits and looks after the Astapori refugees!!!!! (I’m particularly happy about this one because, as far as I know, there was only one edit featuring this scene until this year. But then I used it for three crappy gifsets and commissioned an amazing fanart of it AND THEN Dany month happened)

We received five gifsets showing the moment in which Dany refuses to wash Hizdahr's feet if he doesn't wash hers first!!!!! (I think there was only one until this event)

We received the best Dany/Mirri Maz Duur edit of all time!!!!!

We received Dany/Daario edits that highlight how their relationship brings out Dany’s romantic and sweet side, as well as her dreams of home and love!!!!! I don't remember any similar one until now.

We received a gifset of the scene in which Dany jokes about how a firmer, stronger butt is what a good king needs!!!!! Now we have a gifset AND a fanart of this moment, I'm soooo happy about this!!!!!

We received a Jorah critical gifset!!!!!! It was about time, lol.

We received beautiful (and ACCURATE) edits about Dany's personality traits!!!!!

We received two gifsets with Dany fancasts riding the silver!!!!!

We received a gifset of Doreah's final moments!!!!!

We received a gifset of Dany sending a healer to take care of Belwas's wounds!!!!! AKHSJKSJO!!!!

We received a gifset of the scene at the end of ASOS highlighting how much Dany enjoys to read books as a hobby!!!!!

We received an edit showing that Dany pays attention to pickpockets on the streets because she's "no pampered lady"!!!!!

We received a fully comprehensive meta about Dany's intelligence and skills!!!!!

We received a gifset of the scene at the end of ADWD in which Dany realizes on her own that the locusts had been poisoned and that someone had tried to murder her!!!!!!

We received gifsets showcasing Dany's cast of supporting characters (most of whom - aside from Missandei and maybe Jorah - are wayyyy too often overlooked by the fandom) with excellent fancasts!!!!!

We received a gifset of the scene in which Dany laughs about Quentyn's "transformation" from frog to prince at court!!!!!

We received a gifset of Dany and Missandei's interaction at the end of ADWD Dany VIII!!!!!

We received beautiful gifsets showing how Dany is beloved by her people and seen as a symbol of hope!!!!!

We received two gifsets of Dany and Egg's parallels!!!!! They had never been giffed before, despite the two having some obvious similarities.

We received edits with unique concepts!!!!!

I probably forgot about other great edits and posts, sorry... But I'm writing this in a hurry and wanted to mention some of the highlights of the month for me, personally.

idk whether the amount of participation in this event was high or low because I'd never joined one before, but this one was a success for me regardless of that. The love, care and attention to book!Dany's character and storyline was really, really evident in every single day!

Ahhhh, I love Daenerys Targaryen!!!!! I love the Dany fandom!!!!! I love my fandom friends (this month was even more special to me because I talk to five of the people who regularly posted content, so I know how clever, talented and kind they are)!!!!! I can’t stop gushing about this event and all the content we got, I feel so incredibly grateful for it. <33333

#daenerys targaryen #danymonth2021 #júlia... sree... marie... lina... ramona... and everyone else... you're all amazing!!!!! <33333 #i'll miss following the danymonth2021 tag to make sure i'll find amazing and pro dany content #i wish i had contributed more to the event but #the level of quality was intimidating so i gave up on certain ideas #i may turn them into gifsets later when/if i find the right footage #this event encouraged me to start using fancasts and stop relying on show scenes #from now on i'll actually try to make my gifsets look decent lol

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jackoshadows · 3 years

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what i don’t understand is sansa stans who insist that she learnt from the best (cersei ans littlefinger) and so she’ll be an amazing ruler and player. first of all, when did she learn about the game from cersei? she was a hostage in kings landing, she wasn’t sitting in on small council meetings or anything and cersei definitely wasn’t telling her about all the moves she was making. the only time cersei really gives her ‘advice’ is during blackwater when she says that ‘tears/sex is a woman’s weapon’. regardless, cersei isn’t someone you want to be taught from, she makes terrible decision after terrible decision in affc. (since we’re on this topic, dany is the younger and more beautiful queen who foils cersei).

as for littlefinger, he’s definitely not a leader or ruler. he subtly manipulates things here and there and gets away with a lot of it because he stays under the radar. he’s not someone who inspires devotion for sure. nothing about the vale arc in affc puts sansa in an actual leadership position.

I agree it's best that no one learns how to be a ruler from Cersei Lannister, considering how much she messes up in AFfC.

And yes, it’s my opinion that Sansa's arc is leading towards outwitting Littlefinger and understanding how to play the game rather than ruling. And with two books left to go, she still has a lot of learning to do and being able to process the information available to her, analyze it and connect the dots and use the data to her advantage.

I just finished my ADwD and TWoW sample chapter re-reads so a rather long essay under the cut.

Sansa did acknowledge early on that unlike Cersei, if she were to become queen, she would prioritize getting the people's love over their fear - like the Tyrells did. But unlike the majority opinion of fandom, I think that this points to Sansa giving more importance to PR than to actual ruling. That it was better to be a loved monarch than a feared one.

It’s funny that Sansa stans often point the finger at Dany as being narcissistic, entitled and arrogant, when the few comments that Sansa makes about being queen revolve around her.

“Go ahead, call me all the names you want,” Sansa said airily. “You won’t dare when I’m married to Joffrey. You’ll have to bow to me and call me Your Grace. ” - Sansa, AGoT

“ If I am ever a queen, I'll make them love me.” - Sansa, ACoK

Compare her quotes to those of current leaders/rulers in the books:

A good lord protects his people, he reminded himself. - Bran, ACoK

“Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves?“ - Daenerys, ASoS

“And I know that a king protects his people, or he is no king at all.” Davos, ASoS

I was trying to win the throne to save the kingdom, when I should have been trying to save the kingdom to win the throne." - Stannis, ASoS

“I am the shield that guards the realms of men. Those are the words. So tell me, my lord— what are these wildlings, if not men?” - Jon Snow, ADwD

The other leaders in the quotes are putting the people first, prioritizing the people’s needs first no matter how much it affects the rulers themselves. Jon’s decision to let the Wildlings through the wall is necessary, but highly unpopular among his men. And ruling is more than just being beloved by the people -

"Allow me to give my lord one last piece of counsel,” the old man had said, “the same council that I one gave my brother when we parted for the last time. He was three-and-thirty when the Great Council chose him to mount the Iron Throne. A man grown with sons of his own, yet in some ways still a boy. Egg had an innocence to him, a sweetness we all loved. Kill the boy within you, I told him the day I took the ship for the Wall. It takes a man to rule. An Aegon, not an Egg. Kill boy and let the man be born.” The old man felt Jon’s face. “You are half the age that Egg was, and your own burden is a crueler one, I fear. You will have little joy of your command, but I think you have the strength in you to do the things that must be done. Kill the boy, Jon Snow. Winter is almost upon us. Kill the boy and let the man be born.” - Jon Snow, ADwD

This is the hard part of ruling be it in the middle ages or now. It’s not enough to be a good man to be an effective ruler. It’s complicated and it’s hard. How do I resolve this thing? Do I do the moral thing? But what about the political consequences of the moral thing? Do I do the pragmatic, cynical thing and kind of screw the people who are screwed by it? I mean, it is HARD. - GRRM

In this context, Sansa’s quote about being queen comes off as naive, ignorant, fairy taleish, like the queens in her stories - where everyone loves the queens and that’s all that’s necessary to be one.

It’s easy for Sansa stans to nitpick and criticize each and every one of Dany’s decisions and then praise future best queen Sansa - who has done absolutely nothing as a leader and has instead thus far served as an uncritical narrator to events around her. We don’t know what kind of leader Sansa would be because she has never been put in those situations or even shown an aptitude for strategic thinking.

Let me use an example I came across while recently re-reading ADwD and TWoW sample chapters. TWoW spoilers - if you don’t want to be spoiled on TWoW, please read no further.

-------------------------------------------------------

In ADwD, Jon is confronted with food shortage if they let the Wildlings through the wall:

“If we had sufficient coin, we could buy food from the south and bring it in by ship,” the Lord Steward said. We could, thought Jon, if we had the gold, and someone willing to sell us food. Both of those were lacking. Our best hope may be the Eyrie. The Vale of Arryn was famously fertile and had gone untouched during the fighting. - Jon Snow, ADwD

I have already written extensively on Jon’s political know-how of the North and using it in his strategizing and planning of Stannis’ campaign. But here we see that his knowledge extends to the south, where, knowing that the Vale stayed neutral during the WOT5K and it’s geography of being fertile, he sees it as a possible source to buy food for the Wall.

Now let’s go to the Vale in book 6, TWoW, Alayne’s sample chapter. After being called a bastard by Harry the Heir, a hurt Sansa goes looking for Littlefinger and chances upon a scheme of price gouging:

Near the bottom, she heard Lord Grafton’s booming voice, and followed.

“The merchants are clamoring to buy and the lords are clamoring to sell,” the Gulltowner was saying when she found them. Though not a tall man, Grafton was wide, with thick arms and shoulders. His hair was a dirty blond mop. “How am I to stop that, my lord?”

“Post guardsmen on the docks. If need be, seize the ships. How does not matter, so long as no food leaves the Vale”

“These prices, though,” protested fat Lord Belmore,”

“These prices are more than fair. Wait. If need be, buy the food yourself and keep it stored. Winter is coming. Prices must go higher.”

“Perhaps,” said Belmore, doubtfully. “Bronze Yohn will not wait, ” Grafton complained. “He need not ship through Gulltown, he has his own ports. Whilst we are hoarding our harvest, Royce and the other Lords Declarant will turn theirs into silver, you may be sure of that.”

“Let us hope so,” said Petyr. “When their granaries are empty, they will need every scrap of that silver to buy sustenance from us. And now if you will excuse me, my lord, it would seem my daughter has need of me.”

“Lady Alayne,” Lord Grafton said. “You look bright-eyed this morning.” ” You are kind to say so, my lord. Father, I am sorry to disturb you, but I thought you would want to know that the Waynwoods have arrived.”

We are now in book 6 territory, this would be the point where a future queen/leader Sansa reflects on what she just saw - Littlefinger is hoarding grain and letting Royce and others sell theirs so that he can later increase the prices for demand from a starving populace and have the rest of the Vale Lords be dependent on him and with winter coming, there is currently much demand for the grain.

This would be where, if GRRM is writing for the future leader of the North, Sansa would wonder what is happening in the North with respect to the food situation since she just heard that merchants are clamoring for grain and winter is coming. Or she would think on LF’s scheme - is it a good plan or a bad plan? Does she think that Yohn Royce is right to sell his grain? What is her view on hoarding all the food for price gouging while people possibly starve elsewhere? What does she think of starving the populace for profit? Does she approve? Or does she think it’s ethically wrong?

We get no answers to these questions to give us a hint of what kind of ruler future best queen Sansa will be. It’s a blank slate because while Sansa acts as a narrator here and describes one of LF’s little schemes, she herself as no opinion on it. Instead Sansa’s immediate concern when speaking to Littlefinger is that Harry the Heir called her a bastard in front of everyone. Meanwhile Dany in ADwD:

Skahaz had been named Warden of the River, with charge of all the ferries, dredges, and irrigation ditches along the Skahazadhan for fifty leagues, but the Shavepate had refused that ancient and honorable office, as Hizdahr called it, preferring to retire to the modest pyramid of Kandaq.

Mounted men were of more use in open fields and hills than in the narrow streets and alleys of the city. Beyond Meereen's walls of many-colored brick, Dany's rule was tenuous at best. Thousands of slaves still toiled on vast estates in the hills, growing wheat and olives, herding sheep and goats, and mining salt and copper. Meereen's storehouses held ample supplies of grain, oil, olives, dried fruit, and salted meat, but the stores were dwindling. So Dany had dispatched her tiny khalasar to subdue the hinterlands, under the command of her three bloodriders, whilst Brown Ben Plumm took his Second Sons south to guard against Yunkish incursions.

The most crucial task of all she had entrusted to Daario Naharis, glib-tongued Daario with his gold tooth and trident beard, smiling his wicked smile through purple whiskers. Beyond the eastern hills was a range of rounded sandstone mountains, the Khyzai Pass, and Lhazar. If Daario could convince the Lhazarene to reopen the overland trade routes, grains could be brought down the river or over the hills at need …

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

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

Sansa does not come anywhere close to Dany and Jon in terms of leadership and that she’s so often pushed as this future queen in fandom, including by bnfs and so called asoiaf experts, is baffling, frustrating and hilarious.

What, if any, attributes does Sansa have to even be a peacetime ruler? After the war means rebuilding from scratch, making deals, hard bargaining, strategizing, using political tools, rebuilding the economy for war torn lands, get in the food, grow the food - precisely the kind of thing Dany is doing in Meereen. Or Jon thinking of building green houses in the Gift to grow food.

But Sansa building a snow model of Winterfell means that she’s the best qualified peace time ruler? Reddit dudebros and so called tumblr feminists united in wanting female characters who wield soft power and uphold the patriarchy as future rulers.

Even when it comes to personal growth, while Sansa has come a long way from her AGoT days, she still has some catching up to do with her peers. After getting hold of LF, Sansa complains that Harry is a horrible person for calling her a bastard.

Come,” Petyr said, “walk with me.” He took her by the arm and led her deeper into the vaults, past an empty dungeon. “And how was your first meeting with Harry the Heir?”

“He’s horrible.”

“The world is full of horrors, sweet. By now you ought to know that. You’ve seen enough of them.”

“Yes,” she said, “but why must he be so cruel? He called me your bastard. Right in the yard, in front of everyone.”

Now, personally, this is the point where I would like some introspection from Sansa. Remember when Sansa called out Jon as a jealous bastard in front of her friends in AGoT and Arya defended him?

Sansa sighed as she stitched. “Poor Jon,” she said. “He gets jealous because he's a bastard.”

“He’s our brother,” Arya said, much too loudly. Her voice cut through the afternoon quiet of the tower room.

“Our half brother,” Sansa corrected, soft and precise. - Arya, AGoT

Considering the way Sansa ignored Joffrey’s attack on Arya, it’s a good bet that if Harry the Heir had called out Jon Snow as a bastard in front of everyone in AGoT, Sansa would not have an issue with it. Now that she is being insulted as one, she gets to experience the hurt that Jon felt everyday growing up in Winterfell as a real bastard.

But even here, she refuses to scrutinize the situation more than simply getting angry at being called a bastard. Sansa is often held up as this compassionate, kindest person, ‘beacon of hope for the future’, a queen who cares for the masses etc. But where is her questioning why the classist prejudice against bastards is in itself wrong?

She is angry that she is being called a bastard, she is not angry that bastards are treated as less than. She doesn’t question the societal prejudice against bastards, only angry that she has to pretend to be one and be insulted as one. She doesn’t spare a second reflecting on her bastard brother Jon Snow or question her low opinion of bastards:

Sansa could never understand how two sisters, born only two years apart, could be so different. It would have been easier if Arya had been a bastard, like their half brother Jon. She even looked like Jon, with the long face and brown hair of the Starks, and nothing of their lady mother in her face or her coloring. And Jon’s mother had been common, or so people whispered. Once, when she was littler, Sansa had even asked Mother if perhaps there hadn’t been some mistake. - Sansa, AGoT

And that’s the difference I see between Sansa and characters like Dany, Arya, Jon, Brienne and even with Tyrion and Penny. While GRRM interrogates Westerosi society prejudices, feudalism, classism, sexism, slavery, ableism, bigotry, the effects of war on the small folk etc with these other characters, Sansa rarely reflects on these issues. That’s why it makes no sense when epithets like ‘embodiment of hope for the future’ is used to describe the character. Hope for whom? The small folk? The patriarchy? The feudal lords?

Sansa being nice to people like the stuttering Ser Wallace is held up as her being the kindest ever. But Jon is nice to Shireen, Arya is kind to Weasel, Jaime is kind to Tyrion. Why is kindness and compassion only highlighted for Sansa, like some unique feature of hers when many characters, even the villains, exhibit kindness?

This is Jon Snow in ADwD

“I see what you are, Snow. Half a wolf and half a wildling, baseborn get of a traitor and a whore. You would deliver a highborn maid to the bed of some stinking savage. Did you sample her yourself first?” He laughed. “If you mean to kill me, do it and be damned for a kinslayer. Stark and Karstark are one blood.”

“My name is Snow.”

“Bastard.”

“Guilty. Of that, at least.” - Jon Snow, ADwD

This is Sansa Stark in TWoW:

Ser Harrold looked down at her coldly. “Why should it please me to be escorted anywhere by Littlefinger’s bastard?”

“Yes,” she said, “but why must he be so cruel? He called me your bastard. Right in the yard, in front of everyone.” - Alayne, TWoW

Sansa in TWoW is as hurt by the bastard moniker as Jon Snow was in AGoT when addressed as such by Tyrion. She’s emotionally where Jon Snow was in AGoT, while Jon has matured enough to not care for such insults anymore. And this is book 6! I guess it makes sense considering Jon is 16 -17 and Sansa would be 13 - 14 years old, making her younger than him in AGoT. But this is why the whole ‘Jon should take Sansa’s advice to rule because she’s the smartest ever!’ trash the show pushed to hype up Sansa is complete nonsense.

I don’t know how many chapters GRRM will be devoting to Sansa in the Vale in TWoW, but there’s still a lot of growth and character development pending for book Sansa. As I have always said, Sansa has a lot of information but she rarely if ever introspects on what she has heard and seen. She knows that LF last had Jeyne Poole but at one point wonders where Jeyne Poole is... Just ask LF dammit! She knows that Lysa had Jon Arryn poisoned on LF’s say so and knows that SweetRobin is being dosed with dangerous levels of Sweetsleep and that LF is banking on his death and yet thinks that SweetRobin will be okay. She needs to start putting two and two together to come up with four and I suspect that in itself will take up the whole of TWoW.

So will Sansa become any kind of queen or ruler? No. If she survives the books, I can see her being Lady of the Vale and be moving the chess pieces around. I can see her gaining agency and maybe even be the real power in the Vale aka Littefinger. Just like Jon, Arya, Bran and Dany I think Sansa will be a darker character in TWoW. The game of thrones cannot be played honorably and she will need to get her hands dirty to outwit LF and take him down at his own game.

The point where Sansa simply stops narrating what she sees and actually starts analyzing what she sees in her POV chapters is when the student will become the master and I am excited to see that happening.

#asks

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agentrouka-blog · 3 years

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Any thoughts on Summer and Nymeria future? Since the direwolves were out of the show because they were too "hard" to make.

My current suspicion is that their connection to the Starks is going to be severed when Bran sacrifices the magical ability that comprises warging and greenseeing in order to resolve the ice threat.

I may be wrong about that, but it doesn’t seem like much of a sacrifice if they get to keep their magic pets. The wolves are a part of them, a kind of superpower, and they privilege them over other people. A lesser kind of dragon.

In order for the abdication of too much power to be consistent, they can’t keep them. It has to hurt.

Summer is sort of a neutral direwolf. He's attacked people to protect Bran and Jon, but the only human "meat" he's eaten have been wights. If he doesn’t die to protect Bran, he may end up running free in the far North eventually? No idea. I haven’t had too many thoughts about Summer.

Nymeria is another story.

Arya vehemently denies that Nymeria would eat a baby in ASOS, but in Braavos she has a vivid wolf dream of her eating a harmless shepherd.

So beautiful. She licked her lips, remembering. The bleating of the sheep, the terror in the shepherd's eyes, the sound the dogs had made as she killed them one by one, the snarling of her pack. Game had become scarcer since the snows began to fall, but last night they had feasted. Lamb and dog and mutton and the flesh of man. Some of her little grey cousins were afraid of men, even dead men, but not her. Meat was meat, and men were prey. She was the night wolf. (ADWD, The Blind Girl)

Arya is aware of the fact that the wolf dreams are a reflection of reality and she is growing aware of her warging ability with the cat that helps her see that the kindly man is hitting "Blind Beth" in sneak attacks. She doesn't question that there are snows in the Riverlands, she knows it's real.

Nymeria is eating innocent human beings. That's kind of hard to reconcile with a fluffy future for Arya's direwolf. That's Drogon type stuff. Hazzea’s remains were, incidentally, mistaken for sheep bones at first, because that’s what Drogon had been killing and stealing from the smallfolk outside Meereen. It’s what he’s carrying home for Dany to “Dragonstone” in her final chapter. (Or is it?)

So, I think Arya's reunion with Nymeria will be colored by absolute heartbreak when she realizes what has become of her wolf. Which obviously mirrors her own dark path, and will likely lead to a mirror/foil situation to Dany when it comes to caging this danger and choosing between wolf and people.

This is foreshadowed in the moment when Arya tries to brush Nymeria’s fur by the Trident and her wolf struggles and resists. Arya dismisses Myrcella's fear of the wolves, like Catelyn dismisses the fear of Jeyne Westerling.

"Myrcella is a little baby." Arya grabbed Nymeria around her neck, but the moment she pulled out the brush again the direwolf wriggled free and bounded off. Frustrated, Arya threw down the brush. "Bad wolf!" she shouted. (AGOT, Sansa I)

Which has a painful match in...

The man in the green cloak said, "I heard how this hellbitch walked into a village one day . . . a market day, people everywhere, and she walks in bold as you please and tears a baby from his mother's arms. When the tale reached Lord Mooton, him and his sons swore they'd put an end to her. They tracked her to her lair with a pack of wolfhounds, and barely escaped with their skins. Not one of those dogs came back, not one."

That's just a story," Arya blurted out before she could stop herself. "Wolves don't eat babies." (ACOK, Arya II)

But don't they? Why wouldn’t they? Arya’s first kill was a child, too.

Arya released Nymeria into the Riverlands. She was just a terrified child, she wanted to save her beloved wolf, but she unleashed a monstrous predator with no natural enemies into a well populated, cultivated region.

The most responsible thing Arya can do after they reunite is to “leash” her and remove her from the area. If she utilizes the wolves against the wights, all the better, but I don’t forsee a happy ending for a direwolf that has become accustomed to hunting humans.

Robb was devastated for Grey Wind.

"A hall is no place for a wolf. He gets restless, you've seen. Growling and snapping. I should never have taken him into battle with me. He's killed too many men to fear them now. Jeyne's anxious around him, and he terrifies her mother."

And there's the heart of it, Catelyn thought. "He is part of you, Robb. To fear him is to fear you."

"I am not a wolf, no matter what they call me." Robb sounded cross. "Grey Wind killed a man at the Crag, another at Ashemark, and six or seven at Oxcross. If you had seen—"

"I saw Bran's wolf tear out a man's throat at Winterfell," she said sharply, "and loved him for it."

"That's different. The man at the Crag was a knight Jeyne had known all her life. You can't blame her for being afraid. Grey Wind doesn't like her uncle either. He bares his teeth every time Ser Rolph comes near him."

There’s a painful duality.

Grey Wind senses the untrustworthy nature of Jeyne’s family, but Robb is earnestly horrified at what he turned his own wolf into. Both things are true at the same time. Grey Wind dies with Robb, most likely literally since Robb probably intuitively warged into him after his first death, and their final moments were a blood bath because Grey Wind instinctively fought and killed. A horrifying way to go, given Robb’s own misery at it.

The big choice will be between uncontrollable wolfblood and plain humanity, and I suspect Grey Wind and Robb give us a hint which way lies peace.

If Nymeria has to die, I could imagine Arya being “with” her, and sharing her suffering like Robb shared Grey Wind’s, but returning to her own body like Varamyr after the eagle was killed. He needed to recover, he lost his previous status and power, but he survived. Unlike Varamyr, Arya would have the inner fortitude to move on.

Out of all the direwolves, I see Ghost’s survival as the most likely. He has committed no “crimes”, has a fitting name, and will have perhaps the most intense personal bond to Jon because he is a “proper” non-warging pet long before his likely turn as the vessel for Jon’s soul during his recovery period from being stabbed quite a bit. Their bond is natural and unnatural both, and while the severed link between them will hurt particularly badly because Jon and Ghost will have literally been one for an extended time, Jon will be able to return to a normal bond outside of that. He will probably say goodbye again, for a third and final time, but there is a small chance that this white wolf may hang around House Stark anyway.

#House Stark #direwolves #Nymeria the direwolf #Summer the direwolf #parallels #arya stark #anti daenerys targaryen #ghost the direwolf #Grey Wind the direwolf #warging

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nooneeverlookedforagirl · 3 years

Text

AU where Drogo does not kill Viserys.

Jhiqui runs to him when Viserys drags Doreah to their tent by her hair. She says the foreigner is mad with anger and she fears for the khaleesi. He walks in just in time to see him slap Daenerys so hard she falls to the floor. Daenerys, the girl Viserys gifted him. Daenerys, his wife. Daenerys, the moon of his life. Daenerys with their son in her belly.

Whatever Viserys might have done or said after hitting her was nothing. His fierce little wife strikes him so hard across the face with a golden chain that it leaves a mark. He falls to the side just as Drogo reaches them, and he picks Viserys up by the throat with one hand.

Drogo might have killed him then and there, but his wife begs for his life. He is her brother, her only family, she says, in broken Dothraki. Perhaps he does not understand all the words, but he understands enough. Send him away, Daenerys pleads, but do not kill him.

It might have been better if he had. Viserys follows them on foot for many days. On their first encounter with another khalasar, just outside Vaes Dothrak, Drogo gifts him to the other khal. The Andal tells his wife, he knows, but she says nothing to him and if she is angry it does not show.

Then Drogo falls from his horse on the Dothraki Sea, and Daenerys is reborn in fire and blood. One of their children she names Viserion, for her brother.

When Daenerys burns the khals one of their riders brings her a gift. It's Viserys, filthy and despondent, but alive. Neither knows what quite to do with the other, the beggar king and the dragon queen. Still, for the blood they share, Daenerys gives him a simple tent and male servants and a single horse, and he rides with her when they leave.

He rides with her all the way to Meereen, for when she finds Drogon on the Great Grass Sea she tames him with nothing except a whip, her khalasar in awe as she lands him in their midst. She looks at Viserys, and he at her, and then she pulls him onto Drogon's scales and together the last dragons fly toward the besieged city.

Daenerys keeps looking at him like she expects a fit, like she expects him to demand what is rightfully his, from a crown or a Targaryen bride to rooms suitable for the queen's brother. He does none of that. When the city has calmed and the slavers have died, he goes to her in her counsel room and kneels before her, taking her hands in his.

"I'm sorry." Viserys says, looking up into her eyes. "I was a poor brother and a worse king. I hurt you, I thought only of myself, I sold you into slavery. I was young and afraid and desperate, but I should have protected you. All we had was each other."

This Mother of Dragons, this Breaker of Chains, she is above all a rescuer. Daenerys drowned the slaver cities in blood rather than leave strangers to their chains, she can scarcely abandon her own brother. Instead she drops to her knees beside him on the floor and tells him of all that has happened since they parted.

When she is done, Viserys says, "I cannot be the king. You must go on in my stead."

"The throne is yours by right." Dany replies.

Viserys pauses, then admits, "I can father no children, Dany. You are the last of our house. You hatched dragons and conquered cities. You must be the queen."

"The maegi said-"

"That you would go to the Dosh Khaleen and become one of them. Or that you would die on Drogo's funeral pyre." Her brother touches her face with a gentleness she has never felt from him before. "A witch who murdered your son and husband is not a reliable source of information, Dany."

"If one of us has a child, then they must take the throne," she insists, "I am the blood of the dragon and for that I ruled, but Viserys I only want peace. The little house with the lemon trees and the red door. Peace."

"Let us rule together, then. As brother and sister," Viserys tells her, "We are the last of our blood and we only have each other."

Then they return to Westeros, where Cersei and the White Walkers await them. The dragons do not allow Viserys to ride, but they seem to like him. Brother and sister, Viserys rides behind Dany on Drogon's back, the last dragons the five of them.

"You are not here to be queen of the ashes," Tyrion tells her.

"Nonsense," Viserys scoffs, "You've lived through a starving Kings Landing, Lord Tyrion. It's said they ripped people apart and ate them still living in front of your eyes."

Drogon burns the Red Keep to the ground with its inhabitants inside but saves thousands from starvation and wildfire. The siblings find Cersei dead on the throne, having poisoned herself, and Tyrion weeps over her. Daenerys returns her body to the Rock, for his sake, and names Olenna Tyrell their Hand.

"With the queen's permission I'll go north and take one," Jorah Mormont offers.

"None of our men are going beyond the Wall. This is all ridiculous. You, the "King in the North" are going to personally go to the most dangerous place in the world for the sake of Jaime Lannister and his men?" Viserys touches his sister's shoulder gently. "You can never trust a Lannister," he tells her, Tyrion looking more uncomfortable by the second, "when Tywin Lannister swore to our father that he would fight for him, he sacked the city and murdered Rhaegar's family. Rhaenys, all of three. Aegon, the rightful king. Elia of Dorne. Jaime Lannister himself broke his sworn oath to our father. Do not trust them. Do not."

Jon Snow goes without Jorah Mormont, and of all the men that step beyond the Wall only he makes it back, bloody and battered, barely alive. Those that had gone with him had traded their lives for his, and had died for nothing. Jon has his wight. Jaime Lannister does not stir from the Rock. Perhaps he swears not to attack them, but he did not have the strength to fight in the field anyway.

"You will rule wisely and well, while she-" Varys begins, but Jon cuts him off.

"If you want another ruler, go and speak to Viserys."

And Varys has, but whatever happened to him in Essos has made it so that he will hear not a word of it. What Varys did say he expects made it back to Daenerys. "Viserys is his father's son, just so, and Rhaegar's son comes before his brother."

Varys will burn that night, when Viserys and Jon both swear that he is a traitor. Viserys would burn Jon too, but Dany refuses him. Burning the North's chosen ruler will do little to make them love her, she says. I love him, she does not, but he hears anyway.

Viserys has seen Jon's eyes. He is a Targaryen, that one, not a Stark, not like his beloved Ned. He takes to wearing full armor, even on Dragonstone, and warns Grey Worm as well. They come to an understanding, if an uncertain one, for Grey Worm has lost Missandei and he will not lose her as well.

As the Red Keep is rebuilt, Dany goes to walk among the ruins. Sometimes she goes up to the Iron Throne, although that room has not been started yet, just to be alone and think. She takes no guards but her children. In the throne room, she welcomes Jon to her, angry or not. They argue.

Casterly Rock has burned, and Viserys is looking for his sister. He finds her usual guard in the hall, and asks where she is. "The throne room," they say, "Jon Snow is with her."

He starts to run. Alarmed, the Unsullied follow him. She had commanded to be left alone, but Jon Snow is one of her generals, one of her trusted allies. The queen has been alone with him before, in more intimate places, and

"You are my queen." Jon says, and she lets him embrace her. There is a blade in his belt, one that almost killed his brother. He reaches for it.

Yet Viserys is not fast enough. He is only a man, but Drogon is not. While he is not Viserys' in the way he is Daenerys', he still feels his fear, still knows it's for his mother. With a flap of his great wings he shakes the snow away and soars up to the ruined keep.

Viserys bursts into the throne room steps ahead of the guards to find Daenerys naked and on her knees, weeping over the corpse of her lover, half-burned away along with her clothes. He still holds the blade he would have killed her with.

Removing his cloak, he drapes it over her instead, hiding both her nakedness and the swell of her stomach as she cries. Viserys pulls her away from the body, turning her face into his shoulder. His mother was careful, so careful, to shelter him from the worst of his father's atrocities, but this is not the first time he has smelled burning flesh. It's all he can do to mummer in High Valyrian to his sister, trying to calm her.

"You were right." Are her first words. "I should never have trusted him. You were right."

Above them is Drogon, the son she bore from Khal Drogo's pyre. Because of her they sit in the halls their ancestors built and call themselves king and queen. Three cities yet stand in Essos, their slaves free for the first time in thousands upon thousands of years. All her doing.

Viserys accepted a long time ago that he was never going to take back the Seven Kingdoms. He was never going to go home. Yet here he stands, all because of his little sister. Viserys had wanted his father's throne; Daenerys envisioned a new world. Jon Snow is but dush and ash.

"No," he presses a kiss to her forehead, and tries to wipe away the tears. "You're a conqueror, Dany, you're a queen. He chose the old world, and you will craft a new one."

#daenerys targaryen #viserys targaryen #game of thrones #fanfic #this started out much darker #but why can't they be happy?

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rainhadaenerys · 4 years

Text

Dany's titles and names

Daenerys Targaryen

Stormborn

Princess of Dragonstone

Khaleesi

Khaleesi to Drogo’s riders

Khaleesi of the Dothraki

Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea

The Unburnt

Mother of Dragons

Breaker of Chains / Breaker of Shackles

Queen of Meereen

First of her Name

Queen of Westeros

Lady Regnant of the Seven Kingdoms

Protector of the Realm

Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men

Azor Ahai

Stallion Who Mounts the World

Princess That Was Promised

The Younger More Beautiful Queen

Child of Three

The Slayer of Lies

Daughter of Death

Bride of Fire

The Last Dragon

Dragon's Daughter

Daughter of Dragons

Bride of Dragons

Dany - by Viserys

Little Princess - by Ser Willem Darry

My Lady - by Ser Willem Darry

Dan Ares Wife - by Khal Drogo

Moon of My Life - by Khal Drogo

Silver Lady - by Mirri Maz Duur

Great lady - Brass merchant

Child queen - by Tyrion

Sweet child queen - by Tyrion

Bright shining child queen - by Ser Barristan

Young queen shining from afar - by Qavo

The Most Beautiful Woman in The World - by Quentyn, Victarion (and presumably many people all around the world)

Little dragon queen - by Tyrion

Little queen - by Tyrion, Franklyn Flowers, and Belwas

She-dragon - by Jon Connington

Sweet queen - by Xaro, Daario, Hizdahr and the Green Grace

Gentle queen - by Reznak and Hizdahr

Gracious queen - by Grey Worm and Hizdahr

My shining queen - by Reznak

Sweet lady - by Hizdahr

My light of love - by Xaro

Bright light - by Xaro

My sweet song of joy - by Xaro

My delight - by Xaro

My sweet delight - by Xaro

Great queen - by Quhuro Mo and Reznak

Dragonmother - by Quhuru Mo

Dragon Queen - all around the world

Silver Queen - all around the world

Mother, Mhysa, Maela, Qathei, Tato, Aelalla - by the freedmen

Aegon the Conqueror with teats - by Tyrion

Magnificence - by her Ghiscari subjects

Your Worship - by her Ghiscari subjects

Your Radiance - by her Ghiscari subjects

Your Grace - by her Westerosi Subjects

Your High-and-Mightiness - Brown Ben Plumm

Little silverhair queen - by Belwas

Fair queen - by Daario

My radiance - by Daario

Bright heart - by Daario

Bitch of a queen - Gerris Drinkwater

The Mad King's Daughter - by Leo Tyrell, Tyrion, Arianne and Westerosi smallfolk

The queen of the rabbits - by Dany herself

Mother of Monsters - by Dany herself

Queen of Slaver’s Bay - by Mace Tyrell

Young Girl - by Dany bherself, by Ser Barristan

Just Queen - by Tyrion

The Targaryen girl - by Ned, Littlefinger, Harry Strickland

Sweet young girl - by Illyrio

Arrogant child - by Qavo

True Targaryen - Illyrio

The fairest woman in the world

Our rightful queen - by Mollander

Our beloved queen - by Tyrion

Targaryen queen - by Tyrion

Targaryen princess - by Ned

Whore - by Robert Baratheon, Kraznys and Grazdan mo Eraz

Our hope - by Aemon Targaryen

My love - by Euron

Good lady - by brass merchant

Little girl - by Mero

Treacherous sow - by Mero

Horselord’s whore - by Prendahl na Ghezn

Westerosi whore - Kraznys

Westerosi pig - by Kraznys

Cow - by Kraznys

Soft mewling fool - by Kraznys

Little whore - by Kraznys

Ignorant whore of a westerner - by Kraznys

Savage - by Kraznys

Sunset savage - by Kraznys

Whore of Westeros - by Kraznys

Beggar queen - by Kraznys

#daenerys targaryen #asoiaf meta #asoiaf #valyrianscrolls #there must be more but this post has been in my drafts for too long #i'll keep editing as i find more #my meta

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tatticstudio55 · 4 years

Text

Dany, ghosts and mythical figures

Pasting it under the cut because it’s a bit long. I wrote this for a colloquy that’s currently scheduled for the end of May, and I try to be optimist but it’s in France, I live in Canada, all our borders are currently closed and it doesn’t look like things are about to get better anytime soon, so... I though I’d try translating it into english (warning: it might not come off as too polished) and share it here, at the very least 😔. Que sera sera. Aaaaand tagging you @tomakeitbeautifultolive

The term "ghost" used here therefore refers to this role of intermediary, or passer, between the worlds concerned – Cécile Sakai

The loss, the mourning and the reality of the in-between, or intermediate states, occupy a fundamental place in Daenerys’s story. She was born in mourning, exiled from birth and leads a wandering existence from an early childhood. No matter where she goes, she’s seen as a stranger. She exists, but does not really belong anywhere. Her story is shaped by the reality and experience of the intermediary.

The first thing we notice about her, and from her first appearance in the novels, is the way in which the author uses the character's physical appearance to indicate a symbolic proximity to the ghostly, or the surreal: her pallor, her small size, her typical Valyrian features. Even the dress, chosen for her by Illyrio Myopatis, seems to enhances Daenerys’s “immateriality”:

Dany touched it. The cloth was so smooth that it seemed to run through her fingers like water. She could not remember ever wearing anything so soft. It frightened her. She pulled her hand away. "Is it really mine?" – AGOT, Dany I

The dress is meant as a reflection of the wearer. Daenerys’s eyes are the same color as the dress, (or a close match – amethyst and plum), her hair the same liquidity (“The girl brushed her hair until it shone like molten silver”), her body the same ethereal characteristics ("She is a vision, Your Grace, a vision," he told her brother. "Drogo will be enraptured." "She's too skinny," Viserys said.). Beyond the matter of the body itself, Daenerys shows some parallels with vampirism, ritually “absorbing” elements which quite clearly symbolize life forces. Pregnant, she eats a stallion's heart "raw and bloody", in accordance with the Dothrake custom that believes it will give the child strength, swiftness and fearlessness. The scene takes place in a nocturnal environment and the text very much emphasize the "bloodiness" of the ceremony. Daenerys later receives, and in more dire circumstances, her first “initiation” to blood magic with Mirri Maz Duur (blood magic resting on the vampirical tenet that only death can pay for life). And when Drogo's funeral pyre burns –

The flames writhed before her like the women who had danced at her wedding, whirling and singing and spinning their yellow and orange and crimson veils, fearsome to behold, yet lovely, so lovely, alive with heat. Dany opened her arms to them, her skin flushed and glowing. – AGOT, Dany X

Here she appears not quite “human”, glowing and feeding from the fire, whereas the flames are depicted in a very anthropomorphic way. The "dancers" spin, twirl and whirl in a vision that celebrates sensuality and physical vigor. Daenerys merges with the flames and is reborn from them, but her own body is no longer able to give life.

Subsequently, the books bring forefront the foils between the ever-growing physical presence of the dragons and the frail-like body of their mother. Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion fall into every physical extreme: extreme size and strength (getting there), the extreme amount of food they eat and the heat they give off. They "steam" in the cold, at night, while around them the khalasar disintegrate, Daenerys' flesh "falls away" and she becomes "lean and hard as a stick" (ACOK, Dany I). Drogon’s fire saves Daenerys from actual vampirical beings (the Undyings). The foils between mother and dragon(s) reaches a climax in Dany IX, ADWD, when Daenerys confronts an unleashed (and much larger) Drogon in the arena of Daznak:

In the smoldering red pits of Drogon's eyes, Dany saw her own reflection. How small she looked, how weak and frail and scared. – ADWD, Dany IX

Where Drogon is the “body” and Dany the “ghost”, the overwhelming physical presence of the former emphasizes and amplifies the stark opposite of the latter. Dany, like the first dress she was given, is akin to water and keep slipping through people’s fingers: those who hunt her, those who want her dead, those who want to marry her and those who want to use her.

Laughter erupted all around them. Even the old man joined in. "You saw her, then," said the redheaded boy behind them. "You saw the queen. Is she as beautiful as they say?"

I saw a slender girl with silvery hair wrapped in a tokar, he might have told them. Her face was veiled, and I never got close enough for a good look. – ADWD, Tyrion XI

Here, for instance, those who speak are on the hunt for stories, tales and rumors about the queen. Evasive, Tyrion withholds what he knows. At the same time, he is himself in the position of the frustrated chaser (she was veiled, she was too far away). The losses and bereavements already experienced by characters like Jorah Mormont and himself add an additional angle to the matter: Jorah sees Daenerys as a second Lynesse Hightower (the wife he lost) and Tyrion, while on his “grand travel” to Meereen, asks left right and center "Where do whores go?” (in reference to Tysha, the wife he also lost.) They are both haunted by the ghost of beloved women, which Daenerys gradually comes to replaces, as "perfect" and "ideal" as the first ones, but no less out of reach. Her geographical location in ADWD - Meereen is under siege by sea and land, boats no longer pass through Slaver’s Bay - reveals and hides a more metaphysical gap between Daenerys and her "pursuers": Jorah, Tyrion, Aegon, Euron, Victarion. Quentyn Martell is the exception, not that it ends well for him.

Orpheus and Persephone

-Orpheus

Dany is established very early on as a type of “psychopomp” (for lack of a better word) character: a character who passes from one metaphysical space to another (typically the "world of the dead" and the "world of the living"). Despite her belonging to the "living" world, Dany is pushed into spaces that are heavily associated with death, as well as in roles bearing resemblances with at least two psychopomp figures from Greek mythology: Orpheus and Persephone. Her overall narrative has an orphic tone ("If I look back, I am lost"), but the myth first really appears when Dany plea with Mirri Maz Duur to save Drogo's life:

Mirri Maz Duur tossed a red powder onto the coals. It gave the smoke a spicy scent, a pleasant enough smell, yet Eroeh fled sobbing, and Dany was filled with fear. But she had gone too far to turn back now. – AGOT, Dany VIII

The one rule that Orpheus must follow (to not look back at Eurydice) is meant to keep humans from witnessing directly god(s)’s doings. Mirri Maz Duur imposes the same rule on Dany:

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

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

Like Dany, Mirri is a psychopomp figure with an ambiguous characterization (the author hints more directly of her ties to the supernatural than he does with Dany). The Lhazarean occupies two realms simultaneously, both intertwining and merging in her presence: a mythical realm from an immemorial time/space, and the realm of the ordinary:

Mirri Maz Duur chanted words in a tongue that Dany did not know, and a knife appeared in her hand. Dany never saw where it came from. It looked old; hammered red bronze, leaf-shaped, its blade covered with ancient glyphs. - AGOT, Dany VIII

The knife’s unknown origins can be interpreted in two ways. Dany does not know where and when it was made - the only conclusion she can draw is that it must be "very old" – nor does she know how (or where) Mirri managed to conceal the weapon. As a result, Mirri comes off as a symbolic embodiment of the mythical realm that’s intertwining with the “normal” space (the tent):

The tent was aglow with the light of braziers within. Through the blood-spattered sandsilk, she glimpsed shadows moving.

Mirri Maz Duur was dancing, and not alone. – AGOT, Dany VIII

The mythical space, however, ends up overflowing its confines - the walls of the tent - onto the ordinary realm, and effectively swallows it. The scenes inside and outside the tent, “bruised-red sky”, Qotho "dancing”, “arakh dancing with arakh”, the Dothraki shouting; Mirri’s “inhuman wails”, the dancing shadows, the brazier, the "bloody bath" inside, are all in perfect symmetry with each other. Then,

No, she shouted, or perhaps she only thought it, for no whisper of sound escaped her lips. She was being carried. Her eyes opened to gaze up at a flat dead sky, black and bleak and starless. Please, no. The sound of Mirri Maz Duur's voice grew louder, until it filled the world. The shapes! she screamed. The dancers!

Ser Jorah carried her inside the tent. – AGOT, Dany VIII

Here, for instance, the text really insists on the ever-growing presence of the mythical space. The last sentence of the chapter ("Ser Jorah carried her inside the tent") deliberately draws a foil between the reduced space of the tent and the immensity of the sky, somehow making the tent appears much bigger than it really is. And the more it grows, the more it pushes the boundaries of the ordinary space. When Dany open her eyes, the sky itself is remindful of the Asphodels. This is an initiation, i.e., Dany passing from one realm to another for the first time. The "behavior" of the mythical space (the tent) also bring up the question: is Dany the one moving towards said space, or is it the expanding space that’s moving towards her? The tension between the mythical and the ordinary is projected onto its two main actors, Daenerys and Mirri. There’s an underlying, thematic reciprocity established between them, one projecting a distorted reflection of the other, the first even going so far as to assume the role of the second after thanking her for her “lessons". Roles, identities, functions, times and spaces interpenetrate and repel each other, and Dany passes fairly fluidly from one state to another. We talked about how Mirri seemed to have a foot in an ancient, mythical time, but in her next chapter, it is Dany who finds herself trapped in a feverish dream filled with ghosts (her deceased brothers) and mythical figures. The dream is essentially a retelling of Orpheus in the underworld: chased by a cold shadow, Dany runs across a stone hall lined with specters, towards a tiny, faraway red door that’s presumably the only way out. She must reach the door at all costs without looking back, even as the ghosts of loved ones, dead or alive (Drogo, Jorah, Rhaego), appear and vanish before her eyes.

After the tent comes the Red Waste in ACOK, another hardly disguised “underworld” landscape:

“That way lies the red lands, Khaleesi. A grim place and terrible, the riders say."

The rivers they crossed were dry as dead men's bones. Their mounts subsisted on the tough brown devilgrass that grew in clumps at the base of rocks and dead trees.

The Dothraki began to mutter fearfully that the comet had led them to some hell.

The next pool they found was scalding hot and stinking of brimstone. – ACOK, Dany I

Not faring too well, the Khalasar soon turns into a procession of deads (the sick, the starving, the dying and those who died for real). In proper ghost fashion, travel is generally done at night. When they finally reach "Vae Tolorro", Irri ironically worries that the place might be haunted, while in fact they are most likely the “ghosts” there. The place is nicknamed "gardens of the dead", but no one dies there, except for a woman bitten by a scorpion. Coincidentally, Eurydice also died of a poisoned bite.

Seemingly, there’s a pattern with the underworld-coded spaces visited by Dany: each one is larger than the previous one. First a tent, followed by the Red Waste (and a brief “halt” in the HotU), then by Slaver’s Bay. Meereen is a grotesque look-alike of the greek underworld: located in desertic lands, rich in precious stones, with its own brand of Styx ("the slow brown Skahazadhan”), walls topped with “rows of harpy heads with open mouths”, peoples inside worshiping the gods of Ghis with blood sacrifices in the fighting pits. In ADWD, thousands of fleeing astaporian, crippled by hunger and illness, many of them on the brink of death, are crowding under the walls of Meereen. And Dany happens to be this underworld’s queen.

-Persephone

In ACOK, on the day the Khalasar reaches Vae Tolorro, Jorah Mormont visits Dany in her tent and gives her a peach. Then, at her request, he ends up telling her the sad story of his marriage to Lady Lynesse Hightower:

My home was a great disappointment to Lynesse. It was too cold, too damp, too far away, my castle no more than a wooden longhall. We had no masques, no mummer shows, no balls or fairs. Seasons might pass without a singer ever coming to play for us, and there's not a goldsmith on the island. Even meals became a trial. – ACOK, Dany I

The Hightowers are established in the Reach, the most fertile and greenest region of the Seven Kingdoms, and Jorah meets Lynesse in Lannisport smack in the middle of grand festivities. Lynesse is taken from her “flowery kingdom” to be the lady of a gloomy, dead-looking island. Jorah tries to coax her with various luxuries, including the food (“I lived for her smiles, so I sent all the way to Oldtown for a new cook”), but three seeds of pomegranate won’t do. Every now and then Lynesse must be brought back “up”:

I built a fine ship for her and we sailed to Lannisport and Oldtown for festivals and fairs, and once even to Braavos, where I borrowed heavily from the moneylenders. – ACOK, Dany I

Of course, the money runs out and they’re forced to set sail for Bear Islands. Not that it prevents them from leaving again later:

When I heard that Eddard Stark was coming to Bear Island, I was so lost to honor that rather than stay and face his judgment, I took her with me into exile. Nothing mattered but our love, I told myself. We fled to Lys, where I sold my ship for gold to keep us. – ACOK, Dany I

Their marriage eventually dissolves, but the story starts again with Dany in Lynesse’s position. We get an inkling of it with a simple scene (he brings her a fruit plucked from "in the gardens of the dead"), but which also harbors a predatory tone ("The lion pelt slid off one shoulder and she tugged it back into place. "Was she beautiful?" "Very beautiful." Ser Jorah lifted his eyes from her shoulder to her face. " / “Dany shivered, and pulled the lionskin tight about her. She looked like me. It explained much that she had not truly understood. He wants me, she realized. He loves me as he loved her, not as a knight loves his queen but as a man loves a woman.” – ACOK, Dany I). We spoke above of metaphorical “underworlds” visited, occupied or conquered by Dany: Mirri’s tent, the Red Waste, Slaver’s Bay. Not trivially, it is Jorah who carries her inside the tent, Jorah who advises her to go through the Red Waste, Jorah who persuades her to sail to Slaver’s Bay. Persephone’s myth being anchored in the duality of the fertile seasons (the summer months, when Persephone is reunited with Demeter) and the dead seasons (the winter months, which she must spend with her husband), its underlying presence in Dany’s narrative also evolves accordingly, here in relation to Dany’s fertility, here in her role as “Demeter” in Meereen (when she plants bean crops, olive trees), at a key time where Jorah (Hades) isn’t by her side. Hints pointing to Persephone and Demeter are all the more revealing because there seems to be a direct link between plant fertility, mother / child union and human fertility:

"I am the blood of the dragon," she told the grass, aloud.

Once, the grass whispered back, until you chained your dragons in the dark.

"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." – ADWD, Dany X

This "exchange" takes place in the Dothrake Sea, "paler than she remembered, a wan and sickly green on the verge of going yellow”. Dany, distraught by the death of a little girl, by the conviction that she herself will never conceive, and guilt-ridden for chaining her own "children" in a dark pit (another metaphor of Persephone chained to the underworld during winter), expresses her sorrow at the dying grass. Then, Jorah’s “ghost” returns to her:

Never, said the grass, in the gruff tones of Jorah Mormont. You were warned, Your Grace. Let this city be, I said. Your war is in Westeros, I told you. – ADWD, Dany X

The dying of the grass, crops and vegetation is always presented as the prima facie of the end of summer and the return of Persephone to the underworld. This is why the grass speaks with Jorah’s voice, and why Daenerys mourns her lost, forgotten or dead children in a dying grass sea.

Appearance and resorption of myths

We’ll try to tackle the character's role in a more general context here, because her narrative impact is currently limited to Essos. It’s through Tyrion that Dany and Westeros really intersect for the first time. From the fighting pits, Tyrion sees a veiled, “slender girl with silvery hair wrapped in a tokar” in the tribunes. This is not Jorah or Barristan, or even Quentyn Martell who, although tied to both sides of Planetos, do not play a significant role in what’s currently happening on the West side. Tyrion is another matter. He is the in-narrative eye of Westeros.

They’re about to unleash lions on Tyrion and Penny. As soon as she hears of it, Dany puts the breaks. Tyrion's memories of her make her akin to an apparition, or a mirage: veiled, indistinct, distant, soaring in a whirlwind of smoke on her dragon. It also happens in a place sharing glaring resemblances with the Red Waste:

“She had seen the fighting pits many times from her terrace. The small ones dotted the face of Meereen like pockmarks; the larger were weeping sores, red and raw.”

“The red sands drank his blood”

“Running, she could feel the sand between her toes, hot and rough.”

“He beat his wings again, sending up a choking storm of scarlet sand. Dany stumbled into the hot red cloud, coughing.”

“Black blood was flowing from the wound where the spear had pierced him, smoking where it dripped onto the scorched sands.”

“The black wings cracked like thunder, and suddenly the scarlet sands were falling away beneath her.” – ADWD, Dany IX

In ACOK, Dany and her Khalasar also encounter a mirage-like city in the desert:

"A city, Khaleesi," they cried. "A city pale as the moon and lovely as a maid. An hour's ride, no more."

When the city appeared before her, its walls and towers shimmering white behind a veil of heat, it looked so beautiful that Dany was certain it must be a mirage. – ACOK, Dany I

Vae Tolorro and Dany are not mirages, however. Vae Tolorro really saved Dany’s Khalasar from a certain death in the desert. Dany really saved Tyrion from the lions. The repercussions of her actions are too real, her physical impact on the story is too great for one to put her among the true "ghost" characters, such as Lynesse or Tysha.

Only, here’s the deal: Daenerys Targaryen is a character of exceptional circumstances, of one-time deals, and exceptional circumstances, 1) do not last, 2) do not happen again, and 3) are not recoverable. Circumstances such as these create myths, and myths are reproduced, or imitated, or preserved as legends, but they will never happen a second time like they happened on the first time. Vae Tolorro did exist once, but withdrew from the story once his function was filled, and Dany will likely never return there. Drogon did appear in the Daznak arena, causing an “unusual” disaster, but the incident is unlikely to happen again. What remains afterward of Vae Tolorro, of Daenerys and Drogon in the arena, are mirages, imitations and imitators. Dany is not at this stage. She is at the archaic stage of the first time (Mircea Eliade, The myth of the eternal return), where the gap between the mythical and the ordinary is the deepest, and where the resorption of the myth is the most brutally felt. Dany, a very human character in and of itself, suffers from these effects more than anyone. Immediately after the birth of her dragons (the mythical event), she must undertake a difficult journey in the desert, that leaves her physically worn out and, in a way, physically diminished (the resorption):

Dany hungered and thirsted with the rest of them. The milk in her breasts dried up, her nipples cracked and bled, and the flesh fell away from her day by day until she was lean and hard as a stick - ACOK, Dany I

And following immediately her first flight on Drogon (the mythical event) she gets lost in the Dothrake sea, which once again takes a physical toll on her –

It was afternoon by the time Dany found the stream she had glimpsed atop the hill. It was a rill, a rivulet, a trickle, no wider than her arm … and her arm had grown thinner every day she spent on Dragonstone. – ADWD, Dany X

- almost to the point of literally being resorbed into the earth:

My flesh will feed the wolves and carrion crows, she thought sadly, and worms will burrow through my womb. – ADWD, Dany X

There are therefore two fundamental elements one should consider with regards to Dany: the authentic myth, and the nostalgia of the lost myth. It’s part of what makes Dany’s narrative so compelling. The authentic myth belongs to an immemorial past. The memory of the myth belongs to the present. And Daenerys belongs to both. Should she reconcile these two parts? If so, is this reconciliation supposed to play a role in the outcome, not only of her own story, but of the entire series? We raise the issue because the myth / memory dichotomy is not exclusive to Dany; see, for example, the "Others" (the myth) and the three-eyed raven (the memory). It all remains to be seen. In any case, I’m intrigued by this tendency to bestow ghost-like characteristic to a character who’s frequently moving from one realm to another, whatever these realms are supposed to be: the world of the dead and the world of the living, the past and the present, the mythical and the real…

#asoiaf #asoiaf meta #valyrianscrolls #daenerys targaryen

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shannygoatgruff · 4 years

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The World Over - Part II

Genre: Vikings/GOT Crossover Fan Fiction

Overall Rating: MA – violence, language, strong sexual content

Summary: Ivar the Boneless and Daenerys Targaryen find themselves unlikely allies. But each has something that the other needs to get them what they want. He has the tactical skill to take her all the way to Kings Landing. She has the dragon army that will give him all of England, possibly Norway. Will they be each other’s savior or demise?

A/N: Neither show’s timeline is cannon. They aren’t meant to be - I’d have to do a lot of finessing to make everything work if I kept to the script!

Little Orphan Dany

Thoughts weighed heavily on the young woman's mind. How was she, a mere 19-year-old, one of the most feared women on this side of the Narrow Sea? She didn't want to be feared. She wanted to be loved – by her brother, by the people, by her khalasar…by her sun and her stars; her beloved Drogo.

Turning over in her bed, Daenerys Targaryen let out an audible sigh. This was not the life she had imagined. Her brother, Viserys, was the one that wanted to reclaim the Iron Throne, not her. She just wanted to go home. Only, where was home? She was a bastard without a country, driven out by the usurper Robert Baratheon during the slaughter of her family.

Looking out at the rooftops of Meereen, Dany thought back to where her home could be. When she was younger, she used to believe that her home was somewhere in Westeros – though she wasn't sure where. She never felt apart of Westeros.

At one point in time, she believed her home was the island of Dragonstone - the ancestral home of the Targaryens, and where she was born. Her mother had still been heavy with Daenerys in her belly when she escaped with Viserys after King Robert put himself on the Iron Throne. Her mother died giving birth to Dany in that place.

Viserys had tried to convince Dany that their home was in King’s Landing. Dany was sure if they ever made it there that he would have spent most of his time parading her around at court like she was a slave on sale at auction. He had filled her head with so many stories about the Red Keep, that she often wondered how he could remember what it looked like seeing as he was so young when they fled. There was no doubt in her mind that he would have tried to use her to gain every favor with every lord and nobleman in all of King’s Landing. The thought made her shutter.

Would she really be connected to King’s Landing? That was where her father had ruled. So much blood had been spilled there. So many people changed allegiances, like the ebbing of the tide. Not knowing who to trust, who was on your side...

Plus she had heard they kept the remains of the dragons of the Kings of Old within the Red Keep. What kind of horrible place was that? She would probably be as much a stranger there as she would be on the Wall.

The more she thought about it, the more she knew that her only home had ever been with Drogo. Khal Drogo. How she missed her Drogo. He had been her everything.

She was been totally against it when Viserys had Magister Illyrio arrange the marriage. She only dared to say something one time to her brother and the look in his eyes was enough for her to never utter any other words about the match again. Viserys had beat her before, but she had never angered him enough to 'wake the dragon' which he always threatened to do. She did not really know what that meant, nor did she want to find out.

Being the dutiful sister, Dany prepared to marry a complete and total stranger. Not only did she not know this man who was almost 10 years her senior, but they were from two different worlds. They did not speak the same language or share the same customs. She literally did not have any idea what or how to do as a married woman, let alone as a wife of a Khal.

The day Daenerys first saw Drogo, she was petrified. She could not will her feet to move toward him as she stood on the balcony for his inspection. She was just a girl. She had just barely had her blood for a full lunar season, and she was expected to have sex with this man. And that's what he was – a man. Khal Drogo was a huge man, full of muscles and stood at a full 6'4" tall. His hair was the deepest shade of black she had ever seen and hung in a long ponytail that landed on his horse when he sat astride it.

They were each other's polar opposite. He had the most exotic toffee-colored skin and chocolate eyes, compared to Dany's boring pale skin, towhead and blue eyes. Where he was tall and hard, she was just above 5 feet and soft. He was dark and brooding, she was pale and childlike. She could see callouses on his hands as he gripped the reins of his horse. Her hands were as smooth as silk reminding her that she had never done a day's labor in her life. He smelled like sweat, oil, and sand. She smelled like rose water. He spoke in a guttural language that she did not understand. She spoke the common tongue and Old Valyrian, which to him sounded like gibberish. There were no two things that they had in common.

She had no mother or sister to explain to her what was supposed to happen on her wedding night. Only a brother who told her to make sure she pleased him. And that advice was only because Viserys wanted, no needed something from her betrothed. Daenerys didn't even know the first things about the Dothraki, except they were violent, nomadic horse lords who probably mounted their women like a steed mounted a mare.

She knew nothing about the man she was to marry and even less than that about sex. And when he took her, she had been afraid and cried. She cried for weeks after that night – every time he took her. She knew people found it pleasurable. The Dothraki were not shy about sex, they had it out in the open for the entire horde to see. But she didn't know what she was doing and couldn't communicate with her husband to ask him to show her.

She longed for the passion that the bards and poets spoke of, so she sought the help of her slave. She learned to talk to her husband, and how to love him.

Drogo and Dany worked. Somehow, they fit together like a hand and glove. Drogo became the air that Daenerys breathed. He taught her love and confidence in herself that she did not know she possessed. She taught him patience and that a Khal did not always have to be ruthless during the quiet times between a husband and wife. There's was a match brought together by the old gods and the new.

And Rhaego…her sweet Rhaego. He was promised to be the Stallion Who Mounts the World, if only he had lived. The thought of the son that she and Drogo created was a memory that was too hard for her to bear. She lost her son and her husband in rapid succession. She went from being a wife and a mother for all of those months to now this...

Losing her two great loves had changed her. She went into the flames as Daenerys Targaryen and came out Daenerys Stormborn – The Mother of Dragons. Rhaegal, Viserion, and Drogon were now her children – her young dragons were so much like children. She cared for them and protected them, and in return they loved her. Her three sons were going to avenge their family name in Westeros.

The Lannisters did not deserve her father's throne and she would reclaim it for her husband and son.

Now she was here. A Khaleesi, with her own khalasar, an army of Unsullied soldiers and the Second Sons at her command. Not to mention, she had the entire country of Meereen to liberate from slavers. No wonder she was having trouble sleeping. If only Drogo were here to put his strong arms around her and pull her into his embrace. She would easily be able to drift off into a deep slumber. He would help her strategize a plan to free the slaves, help the merchants, and punish the masters. Then maybe she could concentrate on a way to recruit more soldiers for her army and plan how to get their horde across the Narrow Sea.

"This is impossible," Dany huffed, sitting up to lift the pitcher of cool water next to her bed. She filled an empty goblet, sat down the pitcher and placed the glass to her lips. Breathing in deeply, she closed her eyes and said a silent prayer that the water had not been poisoned before she took a large gulp. "I am no war strategist.”

Looking over to her bed, she turned up her lip and shook her head. Daario meant well, but he was not what she needed. He wasn't Drogo. He did not even come close. Why was she allowing him to take company in her bed? She barely enjoyed his company during the waking hours, let alone at night. This had to stop. Loneliness was no cause for desperation.

Carefully, she swung her feet over the side of the bed and place them into awaiting slippers. She stood, grabbing the pale blue silk robe. She slipped the fabric over her arms, transporting the goblet from one hand to the other, as not to spill the liquid inside. She continued to drink, as she made her way out of her chamber.

As Dany walked the dimly lit hallways, she pondered where to go. She could see who was in the council room, and perhaps talk strategy on how to get the slavers of Yunkai back under control. Or perhaps, since the night was so nice, she would take a walk to the clearing and visit with her dragons.

She continued to walk down the hall until she heard voices and the soft flutter of laughter. The light lilt made her stop and smile. As quickly as the laughing started it stopped. Dany slowly rounded the corner and tried to stop the corners of her mouth from turning up.

Grey Worm stood at attention, arching his back and holding his head at up, "My Queen."

"Torgo Nudho," Dany nodded at Grey Worm, "Missandei." She turned and looked at her most trusted advisor, then back to Grey Worm. "If you will excuse me for a moment, I need to discuss some things with Missandei," she noticed the lightning-quick flicker of disappointment that flashed across Grey Worm's face and how it disappeared almost as quickly.

Clenching his jaws, he bowed to Daenerys, before stealing a look at Missandei and exiting the room.

A huge smile split Dany's face in two. Grabbing the darker woman by the arm, she ushered Missandei over to the window bench aligned with soft pillows and sat her down beside her. "So…tell me. Are there new developments between you and Grey Worm?" Dany held her goblet in both hands and guided it to her lips. She kept her eyes eagerly trained on her friend.

Missandei was thoughtful in her answer, but as usual, kept her face very neutral and her voice calm, "No developments as of yet. But, I have noticed the way he watches me. It is no longer like is protecting me. There is another look in his gaze, now." Playing with the hem of her gown, she furrowed her brows. "I am starting to feel differently toward him. But, I don't know that I should. I don't know that I can…that he can…if we could ever…"

Dany put her hand on her friend's arm to quiet her questions, "In this uncertain time, I know one thing to be true. We all must find love when and where we can. We don't know if tomorrow is promised to us. Stop worrying about if you or he or you both can, whatever. Think about what you can do, and what you enjoy doing, together." She let her gaze go to the other side of the room, "While we are in Meereen, we have it easy. When we cross the Narrow Sea, things will change. Steal away as much time with him as you can. These times may not be afforded to you, later."

"Is that what you are doing with Daario?" Missandei looked at her lap, then up at Dany's face, afraid she had overstepped her bounds. "I mean no harm, but I do not understand why you share your bed with him. You barely tolerate him."

Dany let out a hearty laugh, "I know!" She sat her goblet on the floor beside her and took Missandei's hand in hers. "I grow bored here. I can listen to the quarrels of farmers all day and think of how to get to King’s Landing. The truth is being here," she motioned around the room, "bores me. We are building a great army that grows stronger by the day. My dragons are growing big and strong. Soon, there will be nothing standing in the way of me taking back the Iron Throne. I have the army to do it, but not the plan. That's why I spend time with Daario. I keep hoping one day something brilliant will come out of his pretty mouth, but nothing ever does."

"What about Ser Jorah? He must have a plan." Missandei chimed in.

"Nothing that will not cause me to lose more than half of the Dothraki, Unsullied and Second Sons. I am not prepared to sacrifice them." Dany stood up and walked over to the large table, picking up one of the war pieces on the map and turned it over in her hand. "I need a tactician. Someone to beat them at their own game. When our army comes, we will give them a fight like they have never seen before." Turning back to her friend, she smiled softly, "So I say again, go, find your man. Enjoy him now. Soon, we will rain fire upon Westeros."

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bydragonfireandblood · 5 years

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What happened after The Iron Throne

In my ideal world, we would have never gotten to this point anyway, but that's what the show gave us. So here's what happened afterwards. A lot of these points are inspired by other people's posts, but they all needed to be collected together for the ending Dany deserves, so here goes.

Drogon, following his instincts, takes Dany to Kinvara, where she is resurrected

Dany probably has to sit back and think things over, consider some of her choices—but in the end she decides against going back to Westeros

She goes back to Meereen, where people are overjoyed to see her back

They smile when they see her, just like she'd hoped

She meets Daario again. He's one of the only men who didn't screw her over in the end (also—awesome dyed beard and cocky rogue attitude? He's cooler than people give him credit for). He becomes one of her closest advisors (maybe more, if you don't hate him)

She also reunites with Grey Worm and the remaining Dothraki and Unsullied. Grey Worm remains her trusted Master of War and close military advisor

Yara is thrilled to see Dany alive again in Volantis, and sticks by her side as the commander of the navy

Dany often spends her time not in the palace, but in her house she has built. She paints the doors red, and plants lemon trees

She makes a close alliance with Dorne, as its people are no more fond of Bran's leadership than she is

She continues to overthrow slavers throughout Essos until it can truly be considered a free land

At one point, nobles in Westeros who made a profit from the slavery send a war fleet to deal with this "problem". They're almost annihilated by Yara's ships, and you can imagine their surprise and fear as a great black dragon soars from the sky, with none other than Daenerys Targaryen on his back. They don't dare come back

Dany finds more "stone" dragon eggs and hatches them. She names some of the new hatchlings after her ancestors' dragons, like Sunfyre and Silverwing

Drogon is like a big, kinda-grumpy-sometimes dad to them

Crime is pretty low—Daenerys cares about justice, and besides, who's going to run around hurting people when there's a pretty good chance a dragon will fly down and eat you?

She also puts a huge focus on food and water supply, building aquaducts and plantations so that starvation will never be a problem for her people

Since dragons and magic are back, the people set about rebuilding Valyria as a future capitol

Children play with dragon kites of shining silks

(Oooh, imagine a kite festival with dragon kites! That would be awesome)

Dany wears more blue like she used to, because she looked good in blue, damnit! But also if she has to fight anyone, she has some badass Targaryen-like armor with dragon scale textures and a crown-helmet like a dragon's wings

Her crown is shaped like three dragons' heads, one bejeweled with onyx and rubies, one with emeralds, and one with citrine

There are sometimes plays and puppet shows about Dany freeing the slaves, played with elaborate fabric dragon puppets sewn with jewels or glass beads until they sparkle

"Mhysa" is one of Dany's favorite titles, and she's always cheered to hear her people saying it

She makes it a point to personally hear the requests and complaints of the people

She's an unusual queen—she doesn't seem unreachable to her people, not so far above her that they cannot talk to her and trust her. When she walks the street they can talk with her, and children often run over to spend some time with her. She buys them sweets or small toys from the marketplace as they walk

Her nameday is celebrated by all with feasting and dancing. Sometimes the parties last nearly a week. She didn't want them to make such a huge deal of it at first, but she was assured that it is because they love her. Now she joins in personally and invites everyone to Meereen for a feast

Anyone who wants to flee the oppressive monarchy in Westeros is free to come to Essos. All are welcome, regardless of where they're from

There are two statues in the city square: Missandei and Jorah. Dany actually wrote a poem for each of them (which I can't share because I can't write poetry) and had them engraved on the bases

Dragons are a beloved symbol—think dragon stained glass and mosaics, gardens with dragon topiaries. The Targaryen sigil is the flag

Dany keeps a close council of people on every subject (including Grey Worm, Yara, and Daario) since she cannot know everything about ruling. She trusts their advice and listens to everything they have to say

Dany is probably the most loved ruler that Essos has ever had

#queen daenerys #daenerys stormborn #pro daenerys #daenerys targaryen #got daenerys targaryen #targaryen #meereen #volantis #dany #drogon #it's the ending she deserves after everything d&d put her through

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flibbertigiblet · 5 years

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Episode 1: FORESHADOWING GALORE

Was it a perfect episode? No. The pacing is still a bit iffy, the dialogue bland, and important scenes felt rushed/undeveloped. But did it give me hope and/or satisfaction? Yes. Light on action, but heavy on foreshadowing, this episode lays the groundwork for three of our favorite theories – Dark!Dany, Political!Jon, and Jonsa.

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I never thought that we would get all our theories openly confirmed in the first episode. The showrunners are giving us the last moments of calm before the storm, and it makes sense that they allow the viewers to enjoy Jon’s homecoming and the various reunions between several beloved characters before they hit us with the major twists those theories entail. What they do instead is pepper the episode with strong hints of these outcomes. In this post, I’ll be highlighting the plot points and dialogue that support these theories, rather than going through the premiere scene by scene.

Let’s jump right into it. This is a long one.

Arrival at Winterfell

After a heartfelt hug with Bran (and thank the gods that we finally get a semblance of humanity from the Three-Eyed Raven in this), Jon turns to Sansa, who had been watching their reunion with a small but fond smile on her face. As Jon rears up to embrace his “sister”, the camera makes sure to cut away from them to focus on Daenerys and Jorah, watching them from a distance. Bran is kept in frame, observing their reactions. Sansa too, turns her gaze on the newcomers, even as she wraps her arms around Jon.

I will admit to being disappointed that the reunion hug between Jon and Sansa was much briefer and less intense than what we got in the HBO trailer, but in retrospect, that fact makes me go “hmm”. After all, they chose that particular sequence to be the first and only snippet from S8 to show in that trailer, despite the episode’s truncated version of the hug (or any other scene from the season, really) being a possible option. A photo of this scene shot from yet another angle from a Spanish(?) publication was circulating the internet only days ago. D&D want us to pay special attention to the relationship between Jon and Sansa.

Podrick Dany certainly is.

Dany and Sansa eye each other from across the courtyard, before the former approaches the Starks. As Lyanna Mormont and Lord Royce stare at her with suspicion, Jon makes introductions.

“My sister, Sansa Stark, the Lady of Winterfell.”

“Thank you for inviting us into your home, Lady Stark,” Daenerys says with a fixed smile. “The North is as beautiful as your brother claimed, as are you.” (You know, one way of interpreting this line was that it was Jon who told Dany that Sansa is beautiful. Because, well. She is.)

Sansa is not impressed by the transparent attempt at flattery. She looks Dany up and down and leans back slightly in thinly-veiled disdain, but her words and voice are perfectly civil. “Winterfell is yours, your Grace.” Take note: neither she nor anyone else in the courtyard bends the knee to their would-be queen.

Daenerys doesn’t buy Sansa’s act for a second, but Bran doesn’t have time for this catfight and tells everyone what’s what. The Wall has fallen, and the Army of the Dead (+ dragon) are marching to Winterfell. That sobers them up quickly.

Meeting the Lords

Everyone is gathered in the Great Hall. Pay attention to the framing. At the head table, Sansa has been relegated to Jon’s right, where Davos, as the Hand of the King, used to sit. Daenerys has taken up Sansa’s former seat to his left, where the Lady of Winterfell typically sits. In this first shot, however, Dany is standing by the fireplace, leaving a visual and metaphorical gap between the Northern pair and Team Dany, represented by Tyrion, who is seated at the far end of the table.

As acting leader of Winterfell, Sansa is the one running the meeting. She establishes the fact that she has called on all the banners to retreat to Winterfell, and asks for an update from Lord Umber, last of that once-mighty House. A young boy no older than Bran was in season 1 pops his head out from behind one of the nameless Lords. He is small, and cute, and has been singled out by the script, so clearly he is doomed.

He addresses first Sansa - “We need more horses and wagons, my Lady,” – then Jon – “and my Lord,” – who flashes him a quick smile – “and my Queen.” – and only then Daenerys, who does not love being third on this list. “Sorry,” apologizes awkwardly. His business is sorted out, and he is sent off.

Jon instructs Maester Wolkan to send ravens to the Night’s Watch to summon them to Winterfell. “At once, Your Grace,” says the man, out of habit, probably, but it’s all the excuse Lyanna Mormont needs to stand up to sass Jon for renouncing his crown (mostly because D&D have designated her the improbable mouthpiece of the North and have not bothered to introduce us to any of the other lords).

Jon tries to make his case, but nobody is convinced, not even when Tyrion tags himself in. As he tries to sway the Northern lords, the camera cuts to the other three – Jon in between the two women, Stark and Targaryen, black and white. They really couldn’t be more obvious about the symbolism here, but in case you missed it, the showrunners give us more evidence that we’re not about to get The Hair Braiding That Was Promised.

Sansa is facing the lords, addressing Tyrion, but is clearly speaking to Daenerys when she asks just how Winterfell is supposed to feed Team Dany’s massive armies and the dragons. Like the responsible leader that she is – take notes, kiddos – Sansa had spent the past few months stockpiling supplies to help her people through winter. Was the North expected to support these newcomers too? “What do dragons eat, anyway?”

“Whatever they want,” says Dany.

The two women look at each other with no further pretense at friendliness. Battle lines have been drawn.

(Jon sits there, pretending not to notice.)

A Proposed Proposal

Davos, Varys and Tyrion are discussing how to salvage the alliance between their respective sides. Davos tells the others that Northerners do not trust easily, that this trust needs to be earned. But he is hopeful that it can happen. “On the off chance that we survive the Night King, what if the Seven Kingdoms, for once in their whole shit history, were ruled by a just woman and an honorable man?”

He is talking about a possible marriage between Jon and Dany, but at this point the audience knows the truth of their relationship, and by the end of the episode – spoiler – Jon does too. Whether or not the GA realizes it yet, this makes the conversation equally applicable to the Jonsa side of the triangle.

Plus, le gasp! A Stark-Targaryen marriage? How dreadfully romantic.*

*Okay, I am actually strongly anti-Rhaegar, but the show plays them as some kind of grand romantic pairing so I will try to contain my antipathy for the purposes of this review.

A Darker Turn

Down at the courtyard, Daenerys is feeling somewhat put upon.

“Your sister doesn’t like me.”

Jon tries to mollify her. “She doesn’t know you. If it makes you feel any better, she didn’t like me either when we were growing up.”

“She doesn’t need to be my friend. But I am her queen. If she can’t respect me…”

WHAT, DANY? IF SANSA CAN’T RESPECT YOU, WHAT WILL YOU DO?

We’ve been saying it for a long while now, but guys. Dark!Dany is coming. While certain elements of the fandom persist in denying the obvious trajectory of her character arc, the foreboding undertone of this line is hard to ignore. What made this even more chilling was that she said this to Jon, a member of her family, who doesn’t yet know at this point in the episode what Dany’s extreme reaction tends to be for insubordination.

(Oh, but we know.)

When Sam learns of what Daenerys did to his father and brother, he could barely hold it together long enough to excuse himself from her presence before falling apart. Despite what Dany stans would have you think, this is a perfectly human and normal reaction to hearing such dreadful news. Also human and understandable? Mistrusting the kind of ruler who would execute a man for not bending the knee. Especially since Sam has personally seen a more humane sort of leadership before in Jon, who he later urges to take up his birthright as the true heir to the Iron Throne.

Other metas have discussed Dany’s approach to leadership and her increasingly draconian (an apt word, no?) attitude towards what she feels is her rightful position as Queen of the 7K. That she can and will take what is hers. A sense of entitlement not dissimilar to that which she attributed to her dragons earlier in that public display which did not endear her to her Northern subjects…

Side note: We’ve seen the indiscriminate destruction that an unchecked dragon can reap before when one of them – then only half-grown – killed the young daughter of a goatherd in Meereen. We even received a handy reminder of this straight from the mouth of Dany’s staunchest supporter and ally only in the episode before this one: “Dragons don’t understand the difference between what is theirs and what isn’t. Land, livestock, children…letting them roam free around the city was a problem.” – Jorah Mormont, S07E07.

And because it hasn’t been hammered into our heads enough, we are reminded of this again later on, when her Dothraki riders list exactly how much her dragons had consumed just that same day (“only eighteen goats and eleven sheep”, which apparently means “the dragons are barely eating”). This is followed by a powerful shot of said dragons surrounded by the charred bones of the livestock that could have fed dozens of people.

The same people who cowered as the dragons flew over Mole’s Town, and whose fear she appeared to relish.

Foreshadowing much?

That Dragon Flying Scene

Oh boy. I’ll be honest. I wasn’t excited to see this one at all. In the end it was both more and less awful than I imagined it would be. The dragon riding scene is bound to be controversial. Thrilling to some, pandering of the worst kind to others. To me, it smacks of fanservice, but let’s give the show the benefit of the doubt and try to parse its storytelling purpose in the greater scheme of things.

Despite Daenerys’ unsubtle threat towards Sansa in the previous scene – which Jon was conveniently prevented from addressing due to the interruption of the Dothraki – and the sight of Drogon and Rhaegal apparently sulking whilst surrounded by the remains of the food they are “barely eating”, the showrunners made the odd decision to play this scene with a note of levity.

Out of nowhere, Dany oh-so-casually encourages her lover to try riding her dragon, a foolhardy decision based on what, exactly? The one time Jon had a moment with one of her “gorgeous beast(s)”? Dany teases him about his initial reluctance, and laughs at his ungraceful attempts to hang on as the two dragons freewheel over the snow-covered lands of the North before landing in front of a beautiful waterfall for a “romantic” moment.

In dialogue calling back to Jon and Ygritte’s famous cave scene (listen, are D&D just going to troll us by recycling all of Jon’s best hits?):

“We could stay a thousand years, says Daenerys, looking back at Jon. “No one would find us.”

“We’d be pretty old,” says Jon with uncharacteristic humor.

I believe Jon’s lightheartedness stems as much from his being home with his family at long last as the thrill of dragonriding with a pretty girl by his side. The two flirt using cheesy lines straight out of bad fanfiction before sharing a kiss which I suppose will please the stans.

Not me, though. Romantic music playing in the background or not, like in boatbang, the supposed passion of the moment is interrupted by a third party which makes the whole thing awkward. The final shot of Jon’s eyes widening as he sees Rhaegal staring directly at him as he kisses the Dragon Queen made me snort, but it is unclear whether it was played for a laugh, is meant to underline the awkwardness of this romance, or be an ominous portent of the revelations to come.

And Now For the Good Stuff

That terrible unnecessary Disneyfied brightly lit, panoramic, even mildly comedic sequence contrasted sharply with the scene between Jon and Sansa only minutes later. We are treated to a Jonsa staple: a warm, candlelit scene full of tension, fluttering eyelashes, and heaving bosoms. This time, the air is shimmering with a new emotion – jealousy.

The two start off by discussing a message from Lord Glover, who “wishes (them) good fortune but he’s staying in Deepwood Motte with his men.” This immediately sparks an argument between them about Jon having bent the knee. They’ve had variations of this fight before, and to be honest, it’s a little tired. While I fully understand Sansa’s reservations about the presence of Dany and her armies in the North in terms of logistics, I tend to be more sympathetic to Jon’s insistence that the discussion on Northern independence needs to take a back seat for the moment given the gravity of the threats they are facing. But Sansa clings stubbornly to this old argument, and she (rather unfairly) lays the blame for Lord Glover’s desertion at Jon’s feet (let’s blame who is really at fault here, Sansa – the disloyal lord himself).

But of course, that’s not really what they’re fighting about.

“You didn’t tell me you were going to abandon your crown,” she says, voice shaking with anger as she turns her back on Jon.

Jon, frustrated, moves several steps closer. “I never wanted a crown. All I wanted was to protect the North. I brought two armies home with me, two dragons.”

Sansa spins around. “And a Targaryen queen?” she spits out.

Ah, and here we come to what appears to be the true cause of her wrath. Jon reminds Sansa that without Daenerys (and her martial strength), they don’t stand a chance against the Army of the Dead. Sansa is silent. She cannot argue the need for the armies and the dragons, but she takes particular exception to the woman who leads them. Why, Sansa? TELL US WHY.

It’s in their eyes as much as their words.

Jon heaves a deep sigh, closes his eyes. “Do you have any faith in me at all?” (Y’all, this line just about broke my heart cause he just wants her to love trust him.)

Sansa’s eyes are soft and slightly glassy. “You know I do.”

Jon takes another step or two towards Sansa, never breaking their gaze. “She’ll be a good queen. For all of us.” His eyes move away briefly. “She’s not her father.”

Sansa looks down, gathering herself with a deep breath. “No, she’s much prettier.”

Jon gives a pained smile of acknowledgment. It is his turn to avoid her stare.

“Did you bend the knee to save the North?” Sansa asks him, her eyes unfocused. “Or because you love her?”

Jon glances up at Sansa, but doesn’t respond.

END SCENE.

(Let’s give a standing ovation to Sophie and Kit for acting the hell out of this scene. I want a hundred gifs of this, people. Please get on it.)

The subtext is rich, rich, rich, my Jonsas. The dream is still alive.

One Last Thought - The Importance of Sansa Stark

Nothing made me happier than seeing our Queen in the North Lady of Winterfell given all the credit and respect that is her due after seasons of anti bullshit. See:

The people’s deference to her position and the role that she plays in the North

Tyrion’s acknowledgment of her survival skills - “Many underestimated you. Most of them are dead now.”

Arya’s steadfast defense of her - “She’s the smartest person I ever met.” - when Jon (Jon???) himself was expressing frustration towards her (check out @athimbleful 's recent ask for an explanation for Jon’s behavior in this scene)

Even Dany’s behaviour towards Sansa (first with that cringey introduction), and later when she singles her out for not “respecting” her, despite the fact that none of the Northern lords were showing her any warmth is an indication of her awareness of Sansa’s alpha status, which is right and just and exactly as it should be.

As recent promo materials, cast interviews, etc. seem be strongly pro-Sansa, I am reasonably optimistic that this all bodes well for our girl. For that alone, I will breathe a little easier...

...at least for one more week.

#got spoilers #got episode review #anti daenerys #dark!dany #political!jon #political jon #jonsa #jonsa is coming #got s8 #got s8 spoilers #jon snow #sansa stark #sansa stark defense squad

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