Her brother Viserys gifted her with three handmaids. Dany knew they had cost him nothing; Illyrio no doubt had provided the girls. Irri and Jhiqui were copper-skinned Dothraki with black hair and almond-shaped eyes. Doreah a fair-haired, blue-eyed Lyseni girl. “These are no common servants, sweet sister,” her brother told her as they were brought forward one by one. “Illyrio and I selected them personally for you." “Irri will teach you riding, Jhiqui the Dothraki tongue and Doreah will instruct you in the womanly acts of love.” He smiled thinly. “She’s very good, Illyrio and I can both swear to that.” - Daenerys II, AGOT

Yoon Young Bae as Irri

Chuluun Khulan as Jhiqui

Magdalena Mielcarz as Doreah

"Magnificence, the people of Meereen have come to celebrate our union. You heard them cheering you. Do not cast away their love." "It was my floppy ears they cheered, not me. Take me from this abbatoir, husband." She could hear the boar snorting, the shouts of the spearmen, the crack of the pitmaster's whip. "Sweet lady, no. Stay only a while longer. For the folly, and one last match. Close your eyes, no one will see. They will be watching Belaquo and Ghogor. This is no time for--" A shadow rippled across his face.

#danyweek2023 day 3 prompt: badass moments - dany taking off her veil and tokar, ready to leave the fighting pits just as drogon finally returns (featuring irri and jhiqui discussing the matches, and belwas being queasy from the locusts). shadow-free version:

What character(s) would you have liked George to have included as a POV that made sense for the story?

Irri or Jhiqui late in ADWD after Dany left to augment Barry and Quentyn. And suddenly they turn from "simple, superstitious, loyal" and essentially mindless handmaidens to complex characters with their own opinions, motivations, priorities and judgments, and - this would be crucial - with an explicit eloquence that is denied to them from Dany's POV.

Dany speaks Dothraki as a second language, learned recently, and I can't help but think that the clunky, simplified way we hear them speak through Dany's POV is due to her inability to properly pick up and convey the nuances of their speech.

Either of these two characters suddenly emerging from the obscurity of Dany's inattention, as three-dimensional individuals would be really powerful because it would instantly reveal Dany as lacking true interest in them as people, which is pretty damning in terms of her heroic self-image. Plus, it would finally grant us better insight into Dothraki culture from inside it, giving it a voice and dignity, even if we don't share their values, similarly to the various Greyjoys giving us nuance and detail on Ironborn culture.

I think this would have amplified the impact of Dany's grasslands POV, her self-image contrasting with an outside perspective.

“He told me the moon was an egg, Khaleesi,’ the Lysene girl said. ‘Once there were two moons in the sky, but one wandered too close to the sun and cracked from the heat. A thousand thousand dragons poured forth, and drank the fire of the sun. That is why dragons breathe flame. One day the older moon will kiss the sun too, and then it will crack and the dragons will return.”

Got fed up; it's rough bois

the way Daenerys treats Irri in the books is incredibly disturbing and I hate how it's overlooked by both the narrative and the majority of the fandom.

Daenerys uses Irri for sex at least twice over the course of the story, once in Storm and once in Dance. I really, truly cannot overstate how horrific the power imbalance between them is: Daenerys is her khaleesi, her queen and her employer; Irri was formerly a slave in her service and is now her maid with absolutely nowhere else to go. She has evidently been conditioned to believe that displaying absolute obedience to her higher-ups, including sexual services, is her "duty", which Daenerys recognizes and still actively exploits for her own pleasure. This is also why consent between them is utterly impossible – contrary to some asoiaf blogs who claim that consent was not a major issue in this situation (lol) or that Irri freely consented, Irri’s conditioning means that she will never be able to freely consent to someone like Daenerys, who is her employer and holds absolute power over her. Daenerys herself acknowledges this and feels guilty (damning in itself), but ends up using her in such a manner anyway, despite explicitly recognizing that Irri's kisses "tasted of duty" and nothing more.

What makes this even worse is that despite using her in this way in Storm, Daenerys has no issue saying that Irri and Jhiqui (who are her age and have had the same, if not worse, experiences than she has) are "only girls" in comparison to her. She also dismisses their (pretty sensible, imo?) concern about her touching sick and dead people by calling them "utter fools" and saying the Dothraki were only wise when it came to horses. She says all this AFTER sleeping with Irri, which makes it twice as bad - Daenerys considers her a little girl and a fool when it comes to advising her, but still finds it perfectly fine to use her for sex? This condescension extends to their sexual relationship as well, where Daenerys refers to Irri as "the maid", "her handmaid" and "the Dothraki girl" as she has sex with her. It's patronizing, disrespectful and exploitative at best, outright dehumanizing at worst.

While I highly doubt this was Grrm's intention, Daenerys's dynamic with Irri is clearly reminiscent of the horrific way Cersei uses Taena Merryweather. Dany is obviously not as vicious with Irri as Cersei was with Taena but that really doesn't change the fact that she was still a queen exploiting her employee's obedience and conditioned sense of "duty" for her own pleasure, made even worse by the fact that Irri, as a servant and former slave with no family, no connections and nowhere else to go, was 10x more vulnerable than Taena was and certainly more dependent on Dany. It's bizarre how Cersei's treatment of Taena is recognized as fucked up by most of the fandom but Daenerys's treatment of Irri is not, even though the power imbalance between them is infinitely worse. (also: Grrm writing about TWO white queens using their brown maids/ladies-in-waiting for sex is flat-out racist. I'm also extremely uncomfortable with how both wlw interactions are dubiously consensual at best and arguably revolve around Cersei/Dany's relationships with men to some extent: Cersei uses Taena to reenact her trauma by Robert, and Dany not only "pretended it was Drogo holding her...only somehow his face kept turning into Daario's" when she was having sex with Irri, but also explicitly states that "it was Daario she wanted, or perhaps Drogo, not Irri").

Certainly, Daenerys and Irri's dynamic is part and parcel of Grrm's fucked notion of consent and piss-poor writing of wlw relationships (both of which he should be called out for far more than he is, btw), but it doesn't change the fact that in-universe, these are Daenerys's textual actions. Grrm seems to believe that Drogo didn't rape Daenerys (a 13 year old who was forced into marriage) on their wedding night because she said "yes", just like he seems to believe that Jaime didn't coerce Cersei to have sex with him over their own son's dead body because she eventually responded to Jaime's advances, but I clearly recognize them as rape and coercion. The same logic and same standards apply to Daenerys and the way she uses and exploits Irri and she should be judged accordingly.

Positive female interaction we were robbed of on game of thrones series:

1. Arianne Martell and her cousin Tyene Sand being as close as sisters would be

2. Asha Greyjoy and Alysanne Mormont starting as enemies from opposite sides to war eventually becoming closer

3. Irri and Jhiqui both searching for Dany after the latter disappeared flying on Drogon on ADWD. Also Doreah being a friend to Dany until the end ( unlike how she was portrayed on tv series)

4. Daenerys Targaryen being a mother figure to Missandei ( who unlike her tv series counterpart is a little kid)

5. Lady Smallwood the first woman who called Arya pretty, boosting her confidence.

6. Arya despite being a kid and hunted herself, becoming a protector of an even younger child, Weasel

7. Arya befriending all sort of women and girls in Bravos.

Those are just at the top of my head. It's possible I'm forgetting a few.

A very common argument Dany antis love to use is that Dany is a hypocrite and a villain because she "raped Irri". This just a blatantly false assertion, Dany never raped anyone, let alone Irri. @rainhadaenerys has a fantastic post dissecting the sex scenes here. Instead of doing that in this post, I'm going to talk about what this perception seems to stem from.

First, the obvious, hatred of Daenerys in general. I saw an anti say at the end of their long list of contrived and false reasons for hating her was that they found her annoying. I think this is probably the most honest answer a non-stansa/jonsa could give. While stansas/jonsas hate Dany because of the perceived threat she poses to their fav, anyone not in that boat has a different reason: they found her character annoying for some reason (most likely sexism).

And being faced with the fact that she not only is one of the favorites of the fandom but also of George himself, these antis decided to come up with these completely braindead takes to support their unfounded dislike of her. It's ok to simply dislike a character because they annoy you, that happens a lot with writing, but it's a completely different matter when you start coming up with ideas and interpretations to try to make your personal preference (and/or internalized misogyny) seem less outlandish.

Now, the reason why people can take sections like the Dany/Irri section out of context is simply because of George's writing decisions. I think it's common knowledge in the fandom that George gave ridiculously little thought to the Dothraki characters. Irri and Jhiqui are never given povs or even much personality. This is a serious flaw in George's writing and world building. Unfortunately, this flaw allows people (ie antis) to just imprint whatever they want onto these characters.

However, the antis do also tend to ignore any passive character development given to Irri (little that it is). Irri has been by Dany's side since they were both slaves (Irri a bed slave and Dany a bridal) in Drogo's Khalasar. She was present throughout all of Dany's anti-slavery campaign, if anyone knows and understands that they have their freedom, it'd be Irri. Even before the events in Astapor, Dany makes it clear she has her freedom. Irri knows she isn't slave anymore, let alone Dany's, the antis refuse to acknowledge this or Irri's personal agency even less than George does.

Basically, the idea of Dany as a "rapist" is driven purely by spite and a refusal to try to understand a character, underdeveloped as she is. George has majorly contributed to the misconceptions surrounding the Dothraki characters by not fleshing them out the way he did with other side characters.

DAENERYS APPRECIATION MONTH 2022 ↳ Day 3: The Dothraki → Irri and Jhiqui

"Khalakka dothrae mr'anha!" she proclaimed in her best Dothraki. A prince rides inside me! She had practiced the phrase for days with her handmaid Jhiqui. *** She kissed Irri’s hand where Drogon had bitten it. “I’m sorry he hurt you. Dragons are not meant to be locked up in a small ship’s cabin.” *** When Doreah looked longingly at a fertility charm at a magician’s booth, Dany took that too and gave it to the handmaid, thinking that now she should find something for Irri and Jhiqui as well. *** Distantly, as from far away, Dany heard her handmaid Jhiqui sobbing in fear, pleading that she dared not translate, that the khal would bind her and drag her behind his horse all the way up the Mother of Mountains. She put her arm around the girl. "Don't be afraid," she said. "I shall tell him." *** As the world darkened, Dany settled in and closed her eyes, but sleep refused to come. The night was cold, the ground hard, her belly empty. She found herself thinking of Meereen, of Daario, her love, and Hizdahr, her husband, of Irri and Jhiqui and sweet Missandei, Ser Barristan and Reznak and Skahaz Shavepate. Do they fear me dead? I flew off on a dragon's back. Will they think he ate me?

If you still don’t understand the Dothraki Problem

Here is what we know about the personality of *spins wheel* Small Paul, who appeared in two chapters in ASOS:

He is valued by the Watch primarily for his strength, and for his good spirit. He is not the sharpest guy around, which leads to him being easily led to a direction or another, and he doesn’t have a very strong moral compass of his own. However, when not influenced, he appears to be a kind and selfless person, willing to work hard for the Watch and for his brothers - even when it costs him. He has a childish innocence to him, and likes Lord Mormont’s bird because he finds it amusing.

Here is what we know about the personalities of Aggo, Rakharo, Jhogo, Jhiqui and Irri, who have been around since the beginning of AGOT:

... They think Dany is cool?

Daenerys and her female servants

finished up an irri commission for @redwolf17 ! god this was so fun hhee, redwolf has the best takes on dothraki culture >:) so go read her fic The Weirwood Queen

The Weirwood Queen, Art Gallery 4

All art by the spectacular @ohnoitsmyra

Olyvar Sand, 300 AC

Gilly, 300 AC

Daenerys Targaryen, 300 AC

Irri, 303 AC

Sister Edythe, 303 AC

Paul the Pious, High Septon of Harrenhal, 303 AC (regalia)

Paul the Pious, High Septon of Harrenhal, 303 AC (usual garb)

The Embrace (Olyvar Sand and Sansa Stark), 304 AC

Whenever I see adaptations of novels, comics, and games that elevate the source material, I get deeply and monstrously bitter. Wheel of Time, Foundation, Percy Jackson, The Boys, Outlander, Big Little Lies, Pachinko, Sharp Objects, WATCHMEN!!! All are so good, so beautifully written and moving that when you stack shit like Game of Thrones beside them, it falls flat on its face.

I still think about Jon telling Angela that he is in every moment they spent together all at once. Every time I think about Watchmen S01E9, my throat gets tight and my mouth wobbles. A triumph of storytelling. When you compare this with the disappointment that is Game of Thrones, it becomes clear that being mediocre, white, and a man often leads to success even when you fail.

I get angry because it’s possible to take novels/comics with so many moving parts and rich history, update them for our time and make the rich source material even richer. Those men just didn’t know how. 

And before anyone says the first three seasons are good. Are they? Are they really? Or are we just blinded by the perceived faithfulness to GRRM’s work when we weigh it against the utter shit show that was the last season? The show lifts all the best parts wholesale from the books and magnifies all the worst parts. 

They portrayed the Dothraki with a lack of care compared to the Free Folk. They furthered the lack of non-white perspectives by erasing what little we had. Presenting freedom as if it is worse than chattel slavery. The extinction of the Dothraki in service of white Northerners who were less than welcoming. 

The show does not name more than half of Daenerys' more prominent Dothraki characters on screen. Killing Irri, Jhiqui and Doreah to further isolate Daenerys. Transferring all the better traits from women to the men in their lives. Turning Jorah from an old paedophilic creep into whatever the fuck that was on the show. Alluding to the “first they came” poem for rapists, slavers and other monsters. Peddling the gentle slave-owner myth as if owning a person is not inherently violent. 

Having Missandei be beheaded in chains to fuel madness for literally no reason. Cersei could’ve bargained for her life or at least some concession from Daenerys with Missandei’s life, but they have her behead Missandei for no other reason than to piss off a woman with a large army and an even larger dragon. It made little sense then, and it makes even less sense now. 

I know it’s a bit much to still be so affected by that dumpster fire almost a decade in, but I saw that interview with those idiots yesterday, and I have been furious ever since. 

So to avoid suffering from same face syndrome and practice a bit with faces I decided to draw the Handmaidens mentioned through ASOIAF

Irri and Jhiqui, handmaidens of Daenerys Targaryen

Jeyne Poole, handmaiden of Sansa Stark

Joanna Lannister, handmaiden of Rhaella Targaryen

Unnamed Princess of Dorne (Loreza), handmaiden of Rhaella Targaryen

Ashara Dayne, handmaiden of Elia Martell

Taena Merryweather, handmaiden of Cersei Lannister

Melara Hetherspoon, handmaiden of Cersei Lannister

Elinor Tyrell, handmaiden of Margaery Tyrell