THE STORY OF DRAGONS.
The Last Dragon Riders & Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen.
I've had discussions before about taking away either of these girls from the narrative and how bad it would be when it comes to the thematic story of the Dragons. This post is more in-depth about that idea and how it concludes with the mother of Dragons.
Hatching and Bonding
Nettles is a dragon seed with the strangest relationship to her dragon. Her claiming him was dependent on her slaughtering sheep and feeding him every day for a prolonged period of time in order to bond with him.
Rhaena takes three dragon eggs with her when she is sent away, eventually, towards the end of the dance, one hatches in the Vale, giving us Morning. In the show, so far, we see that she holds dragon eggs to the fire, trying to hatch it.
Dany is given three fossilized eggs at the beginning of her marriage. After her husband and baby die, she commits a blood sacrifice using blood magic and a funeral pyre to hatch the three dragons she's breastfeeding by the end of it. Establishing the strangest bond we've seen with dragons and their riders.
Urchin and Lady
Nettles grows up on the streets of Spice Town and Hull alone, being visually marred from an incident, with an alleged scar across her nose.
Rhaena is raised in Pentos with her parents and sister and later on Dragonstone with her stepmother, father, 3 step brothers, and two half brothers. She was betrothed to the heir to Drifmark.
Dany grows up with the understanding that she might marry Viserys. She is raised first in a house in Pentos and soon after from house to house until people get tired of them. Eventually, they meet Illyrio, but not before Viserys earns the title of The Beggar King.
George has issues (love)
One of them sees a 32 year old at 16 and his two daughters and decideds to marry him out of all possible options.
The other is 16 with the 49 year old prince consort and has an assassination attempt placed on her for it.
Dany is married off to a 31 year old at 13 who abuses her. After a while, she 'falls in love'.
Magic and Blood
The Valyrians used blood magic to bind themselves to their dragons. It's a trait passed down and kept pure with the incestuous practices of all the dragonlords. It's the reason that Rhaena hatches her Dragon.
Nettles call this into question when taming a wild dragon. Rather than relying on the same blood link she should have, she uses sheep to bond with Sheepstealer every day until he allows her to become his rider. This is in the aftermath of him killing every Valyrian bastard before her.
Dany's magic is both types of blood magic. The sacrifice of herself, her husband and child on the pyre to hatch her eggs, and the fact that she's a Targaryen all tie into her ability to hatch her dragons.
Where we are and Where we go
Rhaena hatches morning out of three dragon eggs in the Vale. She has Morning on her shoulders at the end of her war, being able to fly her all over the realm as a Targaryen Princess after the war. She becomes the darling of the city. A vision of hope for her house.
Nettles is taken away from politics and to safety by her dragon. For years, she's alone in the Vale mountains with her dragon, becoming a deity for the burned men.
At the end of A Game of Thrones, Dany has hatched 3 dragons from her eggs, and by the end of the last book so far Drogon has taken her away from all the politics of Meeren.
Darling and Fire Witch
A beacon of hope in the idea of Targaryen restoration. Darling of the city alongside her sister. Beloved by artists and designers alike.
She forms a religion around her dragon. Creating the most dangerous tribe in the Mountains of the Vale. With ceremonies of burning the men attached in exchange for gifts.
Dany is the idea of the Targaryen restoration when she hatches her Dragons. Drogo's Khalesar starts to follow her after this feat, she is the Unburnt.
Dany and her girls
All of this is to allude to the idea that the differences in these girls' lives allow for a parallel with Daenerys. Nettles doesn't hatch dragons, and Rhaena doesn't use any type of sacrifice to hatch hers.
Nettles grows up on the streets, but Rhaena has siblings and is raised in Essos.
No one in the narrative has any expectation for Nettles until she claims dragon. Rhaena is born as close to a princess as one can be without being one.
Nettles, on Driftmark, is raised on the shadow of the dynasty of the great house, Targaryen. Rhaena is a dragonless girl at the height of the house Targaryen's power, again in the shadow.
They both establish differing parallels and middle grounds for her character, all while Daenerys herself is her own person with traits distinctly apart from these two girls. She's the fire in A Song of Ice and Fire. George wrote Fire and Blood after we met Daenerys. The fun with that is that he can make these parallels tying her to the world and giving her character relationships in history.
Bride, Daughter, and Mother of Dragons.
Nettles is the bride of dragons in this concept. She rides a male dragon who gives her power and acclaim. One of five women to do so and the only one still alive alongside her dragon that ties her into the main plot. She is also the last lover of Daemon Targaryen. The man tied thematically to the last dragon of the conquest. I think she is the bride within this idea, married to dragons because it wasn't something inherited, it was something she chose to tie herself to and allegedly with either man or dragon spent the rest of her days alongside.
Rhaena, as the daughter of Dragons, seems really obvious. Her mother was the rider of Vhagar, and her father was Daemon. At the end of the war she is one of the three women of house Targaryen still alive and the only dragon rider with her dragon. She becomes a Princess after the war. She is the daughter of Dragons.
Daenerys is the Mother of Dragons. She hatches her three dragons from stone eggs and breast feeds them as they are hatched. Obviously, she is also the bride and daughter, but due to the power of three, I think I'm gonna take the stand and say she's the Mother.
The power of three
These three are the story of the death and return of dragons in Westeros and to their world. Without Nettles or Rhaena in their exact plots, only half of the story is told. They both leave the world without Dragons, a torch lit again by Daenerys. Within this series and the idea of the power of three, why wouldn't the last of the dragon riders be connected?
Brave girls who, through various means, carry distinctive lights in the story of dragons. It's my personal opinion that the intention is never to give the title to either Nettles or Rhaena but to have them serve as different sides to Daenerys. Her story intertwined with them both to continue the story of Dragons.
'To go north, you must journey south, to reach the west you must go east. To go forward, you must go back and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.'
—Quaithe to Daenerys Targaryen
73 notes
·
View notes