#PRINCESS OF DRAGONSTONE [ . . . ] arc.

[deanrys]

TAGS   ( CURRENTLY )

[asongofgoldenfireandblackblood]

The year is 129 AC, King Viserys Targaryen has just passed... ...His eldest daughter, Crown Princess Rhaenyra is about to ascend the Throne... ...And his eldest son Prince Aegon has been given Dragonstone to grow the Targaryen line... ...What role will you play in Westeros' new Golden Age?

A SONG OF GOLDEN FIRE AND BLACK BLOOD HQ is a semi-appless, newly created No Dance!Fire and Blood / House of the Dragon AU RP, but that doesn't mean we're short on the scheming, intrigue, and drama that makes ASoIaF RP so thrilling. Just because the Dragons won't be Dancing doesn't mean there aren't dangerous tensions simmering just beneath the surface, wild ambitions ready to sacrifice peace in pursuit of their grand visions for Westeros, and the Kingdom may yet still find itself at War.

The site is currently in our SOFT LAUNCH phase and plotting our first arc; check out Our Plot, our Most Wanted, and come join our Discord to share your vision and help build our AU!

[lemonhemlock]

What r ur thoughts on daemon x rhaenyra relationship

Daemyra nation, rise up! For how much I shit on these two, you wouldn't realise I actually like them. I am not immune to Tik Tok edits with Unholy in the background. The chemistry between the actors draws you in, that's a given.

[I am not going to get into a heavy-handed disclaimer about this not being a healthy relationship, because that's just been dissected to death by now.]

I have to admit that Ryan Condal's declaration that Daemon was maybe in love with Viserys and wanted to be intricately connected to him explains so much about his character. But, at the same, it's so jarring to see how the majority of the audience insisted on perceiving him; the lady asking the question is a perfect example, she felt "betrayed" by the scene of Daemon choking Rhaenyra because she really wanted Daemon to have a heroic arc. But that's just not who he is a character and that's reflected both in his fucked-up relationship with Rhaenyra and in the way the audience insists on ascribing them a dynamic of wholesome domestic fluff that just isn't there.

I really find it very interesting how many genderbending questions this show indirectly poses about the characters. Would Rhaenyra have been much happier had she been born a boy and could have, therefore, married Alicent herself? Would Daemon have been happier born a girl and married to Viserys? It makes a lot of sense for someone so intent on cannibalizing Viserys to move on to the closest person with whom he could possibly recreate that, i.e. Viserys' own daughter.

In many ways, Rhaenyra truly is the wife Daemon always wanted - a perfect Targaryen princess with Targaryen parents & Valyrian looks, who could give him unmistakably Targaryen sons, place him in close proximity to the throne & forever connect him to Viserys. And, in many ways, Daemon is the husband Rhaenyra always wanted - a provocative, intoxicating bad boy that is such an arsehole to anyone BUT HER. He's a teenage fantasy. *cue Katy Perry's Teenage Dream playing in the background* I have no doubt that they're sexually attracted to each other. That they even get along fine on a day-by-day basis.

But I would like to challenge Daemyra citizens on the following points. Overall, I think Rhaenyra is a much better partner to Daemon than he is to her, because Daemon invariably seems to bail out on her whenever things get tough:

He abandons her in the brothel. I mean, kudos for deciding not to take her maidenhead after all, I suppose, but how in the world is she supposed to get back to the Red Keep? Does she even know the way? She could get both discovered and/or assaulted. Does Daemon think this a thrilling possibility somehow - of something happening to Rhaenyra, but him not being directly responsible? Or does he only think of himself in that moment and of his need to get away?

He abandons her at the wedding brawl. She was just challenging him to abscond with her to Dragonstone and marry her. Wouldn't a commotion like this be the perfect opportunity to slip away? Why ditch her immediately and not even try to protect her at least? Isn't she the reason he came back from his exile in the first place?

He abandons her during the eye-gouging trial. Rhaenyra could have been in big trouble here and Daemon doesn't lift a finger to help her in any way. Even though he is one of the few people who could have actually had some input, considering his girls were also hurt. He could have diffused the situation or even backed her up a little - anything. I would have been terribly pissed with him if he simply materialized by my side after I'd have been cut with a knife & he just stood there smirking by the door. Even Matt Smith added that Daemon would have been happy just to see them all implode. The only explanation I can think of is that it's in Daemon's interest as well for the Strong boys to be called bastards, since he gets closer in the line of succession if they're disinherited.

He abandons her during her difficult labour and miscarriage. I understand he may have been triggered and I'm even willing to consider the deleted scenes with him mourning on the beach as proof that he was genuinely saddened by all this, but come on. Rhaenyra is crying out for him and he ignores her. He can hear her through the castle walls; it's cruel. At some point, you've got to man up and go to your screaming (and possibly dying) wife. Even Jace & Luke go and see her & they're teenagers! Even Viserys has the decency to stay in the birthing room with Aemma.*

The choking scene has been debated to death already.

There is, nevertheless, more to this. I'm not going to deny that he respects Rhaenyra, as much as he can respect anyone anyway. He gives her back the egg. He begrudgingly follows her lead on the bridge when they're facing Otto in the final episode. He moves to stop Ser Criston when he rushes to aid knifed-up Alicent. He crowns her. He cuts Vaemond's head in half - but is this just because he insulted Rhaenyra or was he just itching for violence and saw an opportunity?

I do feel like Rhaenyra has some terrible blind spots in relation to Daemon. The appeal of their relationship is that it's exciting and enticing and taboo, but, ultimately, it will break down because both of them have this idealized image of the other that neither lives up to. Rhaenyra thinks of herself as the perpetual exception for Daemon and, while I don't believe Daemon would ever truly give her up, he does seem the most comfortable recreating a dynamic in which he is the senior, worldly partner that can impress a young, guileless girl and be somewhat of a mentor to her (young!Rhaenyra, Nettles, even Mysaria was in an inferior social role). I don't think he knows how to handle a relationship of equals. He seems to struggle a lot with the idea of Rhaenyra topping the hierarchy.

*So many parallels with Viserys, actually. He stays with Aemma, holds her hand and even tries to comfort her, but decides to kill her for the baby anyway. Whereas Daemon doesn't go to Laena, but refuses to allow the surgeons to perform a cesarean on her. I feel like he would refuse it for Rhaenyra as well, but, then again, he prefers to keep away and not offer her any support.

I also wonder if Viserys doesn't mirror Daemon in his choice of bride, too. Daemon wants Rhaenyra as a way to always keep close to Viserys, but what if Viserys chose Alicent because she was Otto's daughter, as well? As a way of keeping close to his dear friend whom he cherished and respected. Isn't Viserys' fondness for his Hand another reason why Daemon has a bone to pick with Otto?

[aegor-bamfsteel]

"Dany is nothing like her ancestors and she is going to break the pattern by going to be a good queen."- Dany stans. Only they don't acknowledge that she is repeating her ancestors mistakes. Basically her whole arc is why Targs sucked.

“Däny is nothing like her ancestors…” Better not tell her that:

I am blood of the dragon, she told herself. I am Dænerys Stormborn, Princess of Dragonstone, of the blood and seed of Aegon the Conqueror. —AGOT Dâny II

I am Dænerys Stormborn, Dænerys of House Targaryen, of the blood of Aegon the Conqueror and Maegor the Cruel and old Valyria before them. I am the dragon's daughter, and I swear to you, these men will die screaming. Now bring me to Khal Drogo." —AGOT Dâny IX

Remind your Good Master of who I am. Remind him that I am Dænerys Stormborn, Mother of Dragons, the Unburnt, trueborn queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. My blood is the blood of Aegon the Conqueror, and of old Valyria before him." —ASOS Dâny II

Mother of dragons, Dænerys 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. —ADWD Dâny II

No. You are the blood of the dragon. The whispering was growing fainter, as if Ser Jorah were falling farther behind. Dragons plant no trees. Remember that. Remember who you are, what you were made to be. Remember your words. "Fire and Blood," Dænerys told the swaying grass. —ADWD Dâny X

Dæny constantly invokes her ancestors/bloodline as well as her dragons to keep herself brave, to impress others, to remind herself of who she is. Her last chapter has her embracing that Tárg legacy (specifically the one that plants no trees aka destruction), not turning away from it for a lasting peace. The Tárg legacy (or at least her idea of it) is a huge part of her character; you can’t say she’s nothing like her ancestors when she keeps invoking their memory and refuses to listen about any of the ill they (not even Aerys II) did.

“She’s going to break the pattern by being a good queen” there’s certain Tárg kings who are considered good rulers, such as Jæhaerys I and Viserys II. GRRM went out of his way in Fire&Blood to show how awful J1 was (to the dismay of a few fans), hanging small folk by their entrails and mistreating his wife/daughters; and he made sure in ASOS that Oberyn Martell accused V2 of poisoning his nephew. Then there’s Dâron 2 and Aègon V, who fandom considers good, but both caused massive rebellions and A5’s obsession with dragons led him to an early grave. Basically every time there’s a Tàrg that’s supposed to be a good ruler, GRRM ends up showing they’re either violent/murderous, abusive, paranoid, prophecy-obsessed, and kinslayers, not unlike the other Tárgs.

“Basically her whole arc is why the Tárgs suck” you’re right that the Tárg legacy is destructive and holds itself up as superior to the exclusion of others. It’s one of the reasons why I don’t like GRRM’s supplemental books on them (other than being a massive downgrade in characters/plot), because their point was already proven with Dâny, and trying to make sorta competent kings confuses the issue (J1 planted trees/built roads, so there’s still a way for D to honor her family but be a good ruler, when it ignores the context of how the Iron Throne was founded). Basically Dâny has a good arc using the Tárg legacy and dragons to give her the courage she lacked growing up, and struggling to balance her wishes for peace with her reality of trying to take the Throne she views as birthright by conquest, all on her own. But I guess GRRM needs more money and HBO needs more to milk out of the franchise.

[lya-dustin]

Queen

Idea @toms-cherry-trees suggested last year where Aemma says that line Mary Tudor tells Anne Boleyn on the Tudors (the I know no queen but my mother)

Takes place in the Someone will remember us universe.

Sorry Alicent/team green stans, in this universe the greens (sans Helaena and Daeron and Aemond post redemption arc) are all awful

There is a strange thrill of knowing her darling goodfamily cannot harm her.

Aemma may be a hostage, but rules and traditions dictate that as an honoured guest and kinswoman she must never come into harm by them.

Especially by those who claim to be obedient little slaves to the gods like her infernal goodmother.

Alicent has never liked her, always finding fault with her since she can remember. These acts of defiance irritate her more than the puppet rulers she installed into place.

Aemma chooses not to address Helaena as Queen nor does she curtsy as she passes by as etiquette dictates.

After all, Aemma has been named Princess of Dragonstone by her mother despite being Aemond’s wife and hostage to Alicent and outranks Helaena.

“You disrespect your queen at every turn, did your Septa not teach you better?” Alicent, really sets herself up for these, the princess inwardly smirks.

“My Septa taught me well, she taught me the will of a king cannot be broken even by his wife.” Aemma answered in a falsely sweet tone she knows grates her darling goodmother. “I know no queen save for my mother, Lady Alicent.”

If she didn’t love Aemond she would have never attached herself to this family no matter how good Aemma gets along with Helaena and little Daeron.

“Your impertinence will cost you, child.” The auburn haired widow schools her face into a serene mask as she comes to kneel at the feet of the Mother, made in the likeness of the Queen Aemma was named for.

This Aemma cannot see anything but the vindictive bitch who had her maids hold her down while she and the maester inspected her maidenhead.

She hates her like she’s never hated anyone before. Aemma will dance on her grave and cast her bones to the dogs when she finally dies.

“It gained me your favourite son, didn’t it?”

[horizon-verizon]

So I know a lot of us are confused about that portion of fans that claim to love Rhaenyra yet think Dany is a mAd KwEeN, but I think I know why it is. Because if you look any deeper into them, most of them are also Sansa stans. And it makes me think that they're people who read Fire & Blood (poorly) or the wikis BEFORE HotD came out and gave us "perfect victims" Alicent and Helaena, and so with no other "perfect victims" as an option, they settled for Sansa-fying Rhaenyra with the most "passive" interpretation they could manage and now they're locked into it.

But it does make me wonder... the way these people weirdly see Rhaenyra as a Westerosi princess and Dany as the foreign invader, when 'realistically,' Rhaenyra would probably be more connected to "Valyrian" culture than Dany... how much of the "Dany is an evil foreign colonizer" mentality for these people comes less from her coming from dragon-Atlantis and being a supposed "white savior," and more from her association with the scary brown cultures they claim to be concerned for.

This has a lot of merit. I really need to observe how the asoiaf fandom moves more often.

Rhaenyra would probably be more connected to "Valyrian" culture than Dany

Because Rhaenrya was at least brought up in the height of Targ power and luxury, having had grown up with Targ family members and access to relics from the Conquerors and even before then, with her having ruled Dragonstone. This is important for the next part.

how much of the "Dany is an evil foreign colonizer" mentality for these people comes less from her coming from dragon-Atlantis and being a supposed "white savior," and more from her association with the scary brown cultures they claim to be concerned for.

If they were really so concerned for these "scary brown" folk, they'd observe how:

a) many of them are "white" or pale skinned... slavery is not race based in Essos, but class based. GoT fucked that up.

b) it is slavery that which Dany is trying to destroy, that ultimately debases and endangers every single enslaved person in Essos, not her. Dany has rescued many enslaved or raped or otherwise broken and oppressed people by destroying/tricking their enslavers or rapists or killers. Thus, Dany is a force of good.

So there has been a collective campaign (yes, I'm not exaggerating) to make as if all she does she does for ego or to betray her own people and make them her perfect soldiers/slaves once she de-establishes slavery in Essos. they hate to see a woman win, even when you pull up quotes and draw connections and show the arc that negates their stupid takes.

[inferniso]

✢⁎. each loop we die through

@ofdusk sent:

In a blip of thought that certainly belongs off of the battlefield, Corrin realizes she is something like giddy. Facing Idunn, being presented with an opportunity to properly see someone like herself in combat...

Not the time.

"I trust you won't go easy on me just because we're friends!" Playful challenge alights in the crimson of the princess' eyes, her fingers twitching eagerly around the hilt of her blade. "You must genuinely try to kill me!"

Corrin (6/6) attacks Idunn with Sunder (Venin Edge). Roll: 18, Hit! -2HP (Critical Damage, Sunder) and Idunn is inflicted with Minor poison! (Idunn 4/6)

She is light on her feet as her body springs forward, dragon's blood thrumming eagerly in her veins. The sword feels right in her hand, a glittering flash in the afternoon sunlight as it is arced downward and upon her opponent. It's hardly her divine blade or the power from which she has come to expect, but that's all for the better in this moment, anyway.

It’s an order it had received many a time before, so,

How could it refuse?

“Corrin, of N-oh...” begins the dragon, its hands fumbling with the satchel around its waist, “Very well. If this is what you wish, then I will fight. Again.”

Perhaps it is for the best that Idunn is struck before having the chance to transform. Corrin’s blade seeps into its skin, slicing through human scales and manakete flesh the mere instant a pair of arms can raise to block the blow. In that swift motion, Idunn produces her dragonstone, but she is still mortal when the string of venom permeates her form.

It hurts. It almost makes it cry.

But the dragon--half-demon, half-divine--stands firm, injuries and all. It has survived much worse, and will again. Backing away a few paces, it prepares to follow Corrin’s orders. You must genuinely try to kill me, she said. Idunn doesn’t quite understand why someone would wish this upon themselves, but can think of only one way to complete this order:

Her stone begins to gleam; sparkling light is its chrysalis.

From Idunn’s body rips and morphs an unsightly beast, with scales the color of ink and feathers dyed by heaven’s embrace. It is an amalgamation of virtue and sin, sporting a tail of mixed design, mismatched wings, the body of a god and head of a demon. It roars, and when it does, vocal chords tuned to neither night nor day know not the kind of sound they should produce. It comes out hoarse and pure, ringing high and dropping low all the same. 

But above all, it is a sign that Idunn is in control. Its crossfade of eyes lock in on Corrin--she who wishes to be killed--and begin an assault.

Idunn (4/6) counterattacks Corrin with Phoenix Claws. Roll: 1, Hit! -1 HP! (Corrin 5/6)

From those lungs it spills flaming breath, fueled by the boughs of paradise and stoked by the heat of inferno. It covers the area around Corrin with the mere turn of Idunn’s neck, instantly transforming their battlefield into a display of divine judgement.

But it does not go much further, for the accumulation of toxins in the dragon’s blood has it recoiling; it hurts to breathe, too.

Idunn (4/6) loses 0.5 HP to Minor Poison! (Idunn 3.5/6)

So instead, it readies its mighty claws. They had once slashed at pegasi and horses, decimating both steed and rider. Today, they seek Nohr, each flying in one long thrust from Idunn.

Idunn (3.5/6) attacks Corrin with Fading Blow (Venin Knuckles). Roll: 16 and 7, Hit and Hit! -1 HP and Corrin is inflicted with Minor Poison, -1 HP and Corrin is inflicted with Toxic Poison! (Corrin 3/6)

When they land, the other of its kind will find that the poison has spread into its claws. Whether as an immune response or byproduct of the sheer volume of corrupted blood now flowing from Idunn, its scratches are laced with the same kind of hurting venom that Corrin sought to use against it.

How ironic.

[zoyazenik]

bitch u can’t just post u got a new fucking oc aND NOT TELL ME ?!?! I NEED DETAILS FUCKING STAT

HEHEHEHEHHE

so basically the idea is that she was a cousin of queen aemma and was taken in when her parents died as a ward, but when aemma died she went from being rhaenyra’s lady in waiting/viserys’s ward to being rhaenyra’s personal handmaiden.

and i’m going to be exploring darker topics, as well as rhaenyra’s darker side. SO rhaenyra has an obsession with her, she loves her, but doesn’t fully realize what that love is, so their friendship is borderline toxic. and rhaenyra knows that she loves criston and is jealous, so she sleeps with criston and when she finds out??? absolute heartbreak. so the ten years pass, and the friendship she had with criston has fizzled out as he becomes the queen’s protector (though she still loves him), and she spends her days hidden away from princess rhaenyra in fear of her breaking her heart again.

rhaenyra tries to take her with her to dragonstone, but the queen announces her as her own handmaiden. sometime in episode six, criston and her run into each other again (she’ll be crying, likely having just seen rhaenyra who subconsciously reminded her of her heartache) and criston sees a kindred soul in this girl he completely forgot about. and so he feels this insane protectiveness over her, possessiveness. and it goes from there (she’s team green, and yes, there will be a corruption arc)

and who's the face claim, you ask???

[qcyqoyi]

⟨  daniela  nieves.  cis  female.  she/her.  twenty-seven.  ⟩  we  welcome  deirassi  to  king’s  landing  ,  the  singer  from  naath.  keep  an  eye  out  for  their  distrustful  nature,  they  tend  to  cover  it  up  by  acting  intelligent.  rumor  has  it  they  are  neutral  to  the  peace  treaty,  and  their  loyalties  lie  with  the  realm.  you’ll  know  it’s  them  when  you  get  flashes  of  a  delicate  voice  luring  you  in  like  a  siren  song,  the  whispers  of  a  language  unknown,  and  deep  violet  eyes  studying  those  around  them  cautiously.  

tw: death mention, abuse, slavery

BIO 

though her memories of her early years are vague, deirassi remembers nothing but love and joy from her youth.  it had long been heard that the naathi were a peaceful people, something she remembered to be true.  both parents were lovers of art, fueling deira’s love for music and acting.  but everything good in her life was cut short when slavers came too naath.

the people of naath had always been easy to pick off, no fighters naturally born and appealing to the eyes of others.  her parents didn’t stand a chance and were dead before they could protect their only child.  

life in essos was not a joyous one.  despite wishing to give up accept her new fate, deira continued on, finding happiness in anything she possibly could.  on a rare occasion, she got to view the acting troupes that passed through, helping to cling to any memories of her time back home.  it was a small thing to hold onto in a world full of pain but all that could get her through.

luck seemed to be on her side for once when hearing the actors planning to move onto the next place.  with nothing to lose and everything to gain, she escaped the distracted slavers and his in the caravan of the actors until they found her the next day.  but they were kind people who allowed her to work with them and earn her keep, to which she quickly agreed and began her travel with them.  

king’s landing was not so different from many of the places she’d been but the coin was better.  it was for that reason they stayed there longer, even getting the chance to perform at an event for the royal family of the south.  it was how she knew what princess visenya looked like when she saw her about the city on her own.  sure, she had covered up her silver targaryen hair and wore clothing more suited for commoners, but deirassi never forgot a face and could not forget hers.  

though she approached, she kept visenya’s secret, acting as guide to the city she had quickly learned but it was saving the princess that changed things for them and deira was asked to be in her service.  

since, she has been serving the princess well, but does not serve all targaryens.  seeing all that she has over the years, deira’s true loyalty lies with the people and the realm.  she only hopes that, once again, the slavers could be removed from essos so that people everywhere could have the peace they deserved.

EXTRAS

deira has a very sweet and caring nature about her.  some would give the credit to her soothing voice, which she uses often to seem more meek than she is.

though initially a pacifist, she is now very skilled in various forms of fighting.  she hates it but knows if her people could have defended themselves, her life may have been different.

life had proved that some people were just horrible people and she does not trust others easily.  she can even be suspicious of those close to her loved ones, knowing that the westerosi have their own motives and hunger for names and titles.

she speaks various essosi languages, including valyrian and it’s various dialects.

though she no longer stays with the acting troupe, they are the only family she knows and she still keeps in contact with them, even performing with them whenever they are in the capital.

ARCS

knowing visenya will be safe at dragonstone with her dragon, deirassi stayed in king’s landing for a bit to spend time with victario and old friends & family.  from there, she meets visenya at summerhall before they head north together for arc two.

[hereyesblueasice]

Arya has acceptance symbolism? What does that even mean? i.e people accept her? But I can make this argument for all the characters including Sansa? 😭😭 Also Sansa isn't only one with Tully looks ffs. Robb the young wolf looked like Edmure Tully, not Eddard Stark. What sort of role reversal will Arya and Sansa have? Will Sansa pick up a sword and start fighting?🧐🧐 Since this is the logical outcome of Arya taking Sansa's place as the lady/queen? Sorry Arya fans she will still not die or be umimportant if this happens. Or is the role reversal is about being an "outcast"? Among whom? Northerners? Or her family? ARYA? JON? BRAN? RICKON? Believing Sansa's family will shun her (lmao imagine Bran and Rickon kicking Sansa out of the family because she looks like ... them 😂😂 or Arya doing so because Lady died in place of Nymeria... So who remains? Jon? Yeah brother himself has more chances of being kicked to Dragonstone for being a Targaryen so his chances of purifying the Stark family from evil Sansa's clutches are looking grim) this is ... certainly a choice, and has as much chance of happening as Dany ruling Westeros. So northerners have no authority to "outcast" their princess sorry.

Exactly, like.. Arya has never been not accepted by Northerners, especially not even by her own family. She’s always been accepted and loved. Her arc has a heavy theme of her feeling like an outsider, not of the North, but just in her family circle. So I’m not sure where this “acceptance symbolism” is coming from.

I think what irritated me the most was “Sansa finding her true happiness” which is apparently settling for being shunned by her own people and being the lady of the Vale. The same place she couldn’t be herself in. Also the same place where he aunt tried to murder her, and her “guardian” tried to groom her and mess with her head. Sansa wants exactly what the rest of her siblings want. She wants to be reunited with them in their own home. She wants to be safe.

They know GRRM is setting her up for a return to Winterfell, but they’re playing dumb I guess. She will be there to help rebuild Winterfell, and she’s much much closer to home than Arya is. But either way, the North will accept all the Stark children. And like you said, the Stark kids aren’t just gonna let Sansa be ostracized. (Even Arya)

[stxrfclls]

characters updates + summaries going into arc iii  . ( posting now to get it out of my drafts )

𝐀𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐗𝐀𝐒 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐋  .   

abraxas travels to the vale to wed his bride, sharra, and after a hefty amount of celebrating there they travel to sunspear for a smaller celebration prior to ryon + nyse’s wedding. he spends the remainder of his time there.

𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀 𝐅𝐎𝐖𝐋𝐄𝐑  .   

achara travels on the sea with her triplets + regnar, but eventually returns to sky reach to see her family and spend time with just them before dorne. fair to assume if you saw regnar at the beginning of the skip achara and 3 demons were there too.

𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐀 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐊  . 

alexia remains in winterfell under the guise of helping her good sister and the newly born wolf, but in truth is too fearful to visit casterly rock. but it all quickly becomes easy to stay in winterfell when harrion offers to break her betrothal, and after speaking to loras, lex agrees to do so. she gets to see her sister betrothed to the man who has taken her heart, and forces her help at wedding planning. lex also celebrates a name day over the skip.

𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐒 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐅𝐄  .   

astris travels home to spend some time with her family before they rejoin kaelys and attach to wherever the kraken goes. likely to pyke. just assume if you saw kae in the latter half of the skip that astris was there.

𝐂𝐄𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐑𝐘𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋  .   

cedrick writes to his family to have them meet him half way as ravella having her child keeps him bound to winterfell. he leaves for two days to meet them, then rides back with his children and the mother of his youngest in tow. he remains in winterfell helping with as much as he can so harry can focus on fatherhood, and relishes in his children being there finally.

𝐃𝐀𝐄𝐆𝐎𝐍 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐘𝐉𝐎𝐘  .   

daegon returns to pyke for a short time before taking the mothers of his children and the three little pykes on a sailing trip. it’s not the cleanest, but he’s trying. the kids and their mothers are on a different ship and do not see the drunk ravings of the rest of his crew.

𝐄𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐀 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐍  .   

eirelia stays in winterfell for the entire break, traveling with the starks to dorne when the call comes. she focuses on her work, and ignoring her brother who sends incessant ravens about the possibility of her being wed.

𝐇𝐔𝐆𝐎 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓  .   

hugo bids his family farewell and remains in winterfell by choice. he does some light traveling to visit friends in the north, but never stays too far as he wishes to be there for harry and the new babe.

𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐒 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐘𝐄𝐍  .   

lucerys travels to summerhall to remain, inviting all family to come whenever they’d like. he’s visited by visera, daeron, and who knows who else. writes letters to his son often, is v obviously happy when daeron does finally visit.

𝐑𝐄𝐈𝐋𝐀 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐘𝐄𝐍 𝐍𝐄𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐘  .  

reila travels to king’s landing with her husband but when labor grows near begs to go to dragonstone where she ultimately gives birth to princess rhaelle targaryen. she spends a good few weeks resting and mothering, visited by her brother and rhaegar’s siblings, before traveling to dorne by ship.

𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐀 𝐁𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐎𝐍  .  

sarisa travels back to storm’s end for all of two weeks before traveling to braavos. she only sails to dorne when a raven comes from her brother, but does travel immediately and arrives on time.

𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐍 𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐇  .  

tharon returns to the vale to watch sharra wed, remains for a few weeks after she and her new husband part, then drags his wife off to his clan to spend some weeks with them before traveling back to the eyrie and then to dorne with the arryns.

𝐕𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐍𝐀 𝐓𝐘𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐋  . 

vareena travels to highgarden where she remains the entire time with elif. she spends time truly grieving her father, visiting a few different houses in the reach to check on them, including old town to visit mel, and ensuring the relations between houses and great house remain strong.

[asongofgoldenfireandblackblood]

The year is 129 AC, King Viserys Targaryen has just passed... ...His eldest daughter, Crown Princess Rhaenyra is about to ascend the Throne... ...And his eldest son Prince Aegon has been given Dragonstone to grow the Targaryen line... ...What role will you play in Westeros' new Golden Age?

A SONG OF GOLDEN FIRE AND BLACK BLOOD HQ is a semi-appless, newly created No Dance!Fire and Blood / House of the Dragon AU RP, but that doesn't mean we're short on the scheming, intrigue, and drama that makes ASoIaF RP so thrilling. Just because the Dragons won't be Dancing doesn't mean there aren't dangerous tensions simmering just beneath the surface, wild ambitions ready to sacrifice peace in pursuit of their grand visions for Westeros, and the Kingdom may yet still find itself at War.

The site is currently in our SOFT LAUNCH phase and plotting our first arc; check out Our Plot, our Most Wanted, and come join our Discord to share your vision and help build our AU!

[tatticstudio55]

Jon and Dany – both beyond the Wall at the end?

DAY SEVEN (Sunday, August 2nd) Leadership  |  Free Choice  |  DoS: Royal Retirement / Passing the Torch

This is less meta-ish and borders more on the speculative side, but I’d like to discuss a Jon and Dany (potential) ending I’ve never seen anyone talk about before: them ending both beyond the Wall, living with the free folks/as free folks. So, basically, the ending Jon got on the show, but with Dany by his side. I would even go as far as to say that the showrunners might have considered it.

This is not by any means “my ideal” Jonerys ending. That would be Jon and Dany settling on Dragonstone with a bunch of targlings and wild dragons. I do not, alas, think this is where the story is going. I do not expect either (or both) of them on the IT either. On the other hand, an ending with them both beyond the Wall seems to me like it could work with the overall story. There is already some book evidence/foreshadowing pointing to Jon’s endgame there, notably in ASOS when he (forgive my French) “finds himself” beyond the Wall:

“On the edge of the haunted forest, where the tents had been, Jon found an oakwood stump and sat.

Ygritte wanted me to be a wildling. Stannis wants me to be the Lord of Winterfell. But what do I want? The sun crept down the sky to dip behind the Wall where it curved through the western hills. Jon watched as that towering expanse of ice took on the reds and pinks of sunset.

[…]

He wanted it, Jon knew then. He wanted it as much as he had ever wanted anything. I have always wanted it, he thought, guiltily. May the gods forgive me. It was a hunger inside him, sharp as a dragonglass blade. A hunger . . . he could feel it. It was food he needed, prey, a red deer that stank of fear or a great elk proud and defiant. He needed to kill and fill his belly with fresh meat and hot dark blood. His mouth began to water with the thought.

It was a long moment before he understood what was happening. When he did, he bolted to his feet. "Ghost?" He turned toward the wood, and there he came, padding silently out of the green dusk, the breath coming warm and white from his open jaws. "Ghost!" he shouted, and the direwolf broke into a run.

[…]

He had his answer then.” Jon XII, ASOS

Dany is more of a wild card, but even the show gave us SOME reasons to believe that D&D played with the idea at some point: the pregnancy bait, Dany’s comment in 7x07 about King’s Landing and how “constrictive” the Dragonpit felt, Dany’s “we could stay here a thousand years. No one would find us” line in 8x01. Most importantly, back when I was watching season 7, this is the impression I was getting (from the showrunners):

Dany is a good person at heart, but she would not make a good queen nor would she like being queen.

I do not wholly agree with this, especially if we are talking about bookDany, who would make – and is – a much better queen than she is given credit for, but it looked to me like this is where the show was going with her. Or, at least, this is the message they were trying to communicate. They were not trying to “hide” Dany’s dark turn from the audience by making her or trying to make her bad-good-bad-good-bad-good, they simply had another endgame in mind for the character. I do not want to make this about the show but had to get this out of the way.

Now onto bookDany:

A while ago, I posted a meta where I discussed a pattern in Daenerys’s story: twice she succeeded at something magical, highly dangerous and related to dragons, and twice after she ended up in a desertic environment, thirsting, starving and nearly dying from exposition. Following the rule of 3 (which is especially predominant in her arc), it will probably happen again and – since there is no Great Grass Sea in Westeros – the “desertic environment” swallowing her afterward will be the frozen lands beyond the Wall. It could mean that she will die there, but it could also mean that she will simply disappear there. Her fate could also be revealed to the reader while remaining unknown to most characters. This would fit with Dany’s current representation in the story so far: she is an enigma, a rumor; nobody really knows her whereabouts, who she is, what she is, what she wants, what she has, if she is even real.

There are numerous parallels to be drawn between Daenerys and Mance Rayder, which I covered here. I would love the irony of Dany coming to Westeros thinking she is reclaiming her family’s lands, only to settle in the only part that was never conquered by the Targaryen. There is the (disputable, ok, but) fact that the only region in all of the continent where dragons could turn up useful for tree planting would be beyond the Wall (so frozen soil can be thawed and warmed up for plants to grow there again). Martin hung a pretty riffle on the metaphorical Wall when Silverwing refused to fly across in Fire and Blood. There is this pattern of wildling women making up Jon’s romantic prospects; first a wildling “commoner” (Ygritte), then a wildling “princess” (Val), then a wildling “queen” (Dany, eventually, if this theory proves to be correct). So of course, you will ask –

If this is Martin’s intended ending, why couldn’t the d’s just go with it?

Well, because the d’s never gave Dany any incentive to go beyond the Wall, apart from a brief rescue mission back in season 7. If Dany must end up there, something has got to bring her there and the show scrapped or discarded all of it : no Lands of Always Winter, no curtain of light, no this, no that, no nothing. And once she gets there in the books, because I am quite sure she will, she will not come back. The North is Dany’s ultimate destination. No yoyoing back and forth North and South like what the show did. That was just dumb. Travel time and distances should mean something, even if you have dragons (plus, Dany’s armies would have to travel on foot, horseback or by boat, like everybody else). The closest of yoyoing we have ever gotten in asoiaf was probably with Catelyn, it spanned three books, and she never made it back North anyway.

Did the d’s consider going with that ending? They might just. The clues were certainly there (see above…) but at some point, they must have realized that it would not work with the hole they had dug themselves in.

Now about the elephant in the room

I know some people will think that Dany ending beyond the Wall does not make much sense for her story, which technically (so far) does not have much to do with the lands beyond the Wall. In a way, I agree. Some people would also find such an ending anticlimactic to her arc and a waste after everything she has learned about leadership and politics in Meereen. I also agree. On a watsonian level, an ending with, say, Dany as a queen in Westeros – I think it works. Of course, I do. Where it does not work is on a doyalist level. Dany already had her arc of becoming queen. She achieved that by the end of book 3. Then she had to learn all the nit and gritty and dirty work of ruling over the rubble of a corrupt system while trying to make the lives better for everyone. If Dany becomes queen in Westeros, the same thing will happen again. Different setting, different people, same story. Some people have criticized the underlying message of Dany’s fight against slavery as “only a preparation” for what comes next in Westeros, saying it would undermine the real value of Dany’s work in Essos. I agree. However, the same problem applies if Dany becomes queen in Westeros: then her time in Essos is reduced to a prop up, a preparation, as if ruling Essos were somewhat less important than ruling Westeros. Furthermore, I cannot imagine an ending where Dany, still in possession of significant military forces – significant enough to secure her a crown, anyway – could choose to settle in Westeros without being plagued with guilt over leaving Essos’s slaves behind. I am sorry, I just cannot.

This is also, I think, where part of the “Dany is not a peace time queen” mentality comes from. Dany will never be a peace time queen, not because she prefers war, or because she does not want peace, but because what she is trying to achieve, in these times and places, means a lifetime of war. You cannot undo and rebuild an entire system that is rotten at its core in a single lifetime (heck, even show!Tyrion said this to her, for what the show is worth now…), much less in a few years. Dany is not a peace time queen because she is not a queen that is interested in maintaining the statue quo. At least that is how her time in Meereen revealed her. Arya would not be a peace time queen either. Jon would not be a peace time king. They could never be, less they abandoned their ideals and their ethics for a more comfortable life.

Then you might say that an ending where Dany goes back to Essos works too. It does – once again, on a watsonian level. What is the problem with this on a doyalist level? It turns Dany into a deus ex machina, coming to Westeros just in time to save it, then leaving it right after, as if neither the Others, nor her had ever been there.

The two remaining options are: either she dies a queen in Westeros, most likely during the Great War, or… the queen, Daenerys Targaryen, dies, while Dany lives.

That means that all reasonable possibilities, or choices, to keep on fighting as a queen are taken from her. Maybe her forces were severely depleted during the Great War. Maybe her dragons died. Maybe both. Maybe her function, not as an individual, but as a character in a specific story called A song of ice and fire, was to destroy an old system (AND to inspire others to follow in her footsteps, ensure that her efforts were not in vain, that the first steps will not go wasted, that the work she started will be taken up by other peoples, and others after them, and others after), not to rebuild the new one. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. Frodo Baggins’ role in The Lord of the Rings was to destroy something evil. His gardener Sam was the one who planted the trees and went on to become a mayor afterward. One was a destroyer and the other was a builder, but in the end, they were both heroes.

Not to mention that Frodo did not die at the end. You could say that he went on to live beyond the Wall too.

[mymothershumility]

neverflownwithme asked: ❝ i’ve waited all these years for you to admit we’re made for each other. ❞

past transmissions || { always accepting }

{ @neverflownwithme​ }

Even in the late stages of spring, the air remains cool and crisp so far north. Winds howl through the trees, cause the branches to twist and sway among the treetops. For a moment, the gale increases, fueled by the thundering snap of leathern wings and a dragoness’ roar.

The earth groans under Sunfyre’s descent, ground shaking as the dragoness alights first upon the walls of Winterfell before descending into the training yard. Form lowering upon the flagstones within the training yard, golden scales gleaming in the late afternoon light, the dragoness stills to allow her rider to slip from her back. Her only movement comes when she cranes her neck back, offering her head and snout as a brace for her rider.

Laira is careful in her dismount, having flown from the sands of Sunspear back to the Northern seat of Winterfell. The journey had been long and her muscles are stiff from the extended time spent upon Sunfyre’s back. Gloved hands take hold of one of the dragoness’ golden horns, landing with barely a sound back upon solid ground.

Sunfyre chirps at her when she is safely upon her feet once again, golden snout brushing tenderly at her middle as her scarlet eyes look over her.

The Princess returns the affection, gloved fingers sweeping softly over her mount’s head as she smiles in return.

“Your Grace,” a voice calls out.

Laira glances up, smiling all the more when she spies the form of her good-sister crossing the training yard. Moone lopes ahead of her, the black direwolf striking a path for Laira. Sunfyre blows warm air upon the direwolf when she is near enough. Moone answers with a huff of her own, squeezing herself against Laira’s opposite side.

“Lyanna,” Laira greets the young woman, granting Moone the affection that she seeks from her. Her free hand brushes over the direwolf’s head, fingers rubbing softly upon her ears. “I gather things have been well in my absence,” she goes on, catching the woman’s eye as she takes the final few steps. There is a teasing smile already spreading across Lyanna’s face.

“Well enough,” Lyanna assures. “The staff will be relieved to see you have returned, in truth. Perhaps now my dearest brother will cease his growling and stalking about. He has been quite sullen as of late.”

Laira’s answering smile is knowing. “Be kind to him, Lyanna,” she advises, leaning to spare a parting murmur to Sunfyre. The dragoness turns without hesitance, climbing back atop Winterfell’s walls and taking flight with a solitary snap of her great wings. “He worries over me when I travel about the realm. Even with Sunfyre to look after me, he worries.”

The dragoness is already high above Wintefell, circling the great castle in widening arcs. Within moments, her mount will be hidden up within the cover of the clouds, scouring the ground from her vantage point for prey.

“Yes. To be sure, he worries over you,” the She-Wolf chuckles. She reaches and tucks her arm through Laira’s own, drawing her nearer to her as they begin to walk from the training yard. “I believe more than anything, however, is he misses you when you are away.”

“Is such a thing so horrible?” the Princess questions, a quiet laugh echoing in her words.

“Only to those who are forced to endure his moods during your absence,” Lyanna says. “None of us anticipated how utterly besotted Hal would become with you when he first met you.”

One chance meeting with the Princess at a tourney at Harrenhal celebrating King Rhaegar’s ascent to the throne and everything had seemed to fall perfectly into place for the two of them. It had been less than a year later that Hal had wed the Princess in King’s Landing.

And, it had been less than half a year ago that King Rhaegar had named Laira as his heir, bestowing the title of Princess of Dragonstone upon her.

“He will wish to see you,” Lyanna says, nodding to an attendant as they enter into the Great Hall.  “No doubt he is already aware that you have arrived home once more.”

It was difficult for the Princess to arrive in secret when her dragonmount announced her arrival in such a manner.

Lyanna leaves her on her way to her own quarters. It is a short trek from where her good-sister departs her to the doors of her own apartments. When she opens them, Laira is struck with the welcoming familiarity of them. Her time in Sunspear had been pleasing and she had enjoyed the time she had been granted with her sister.

However, Sunspear was not Dragonstone nor was it Winterfell. It was in such places that Laira truly felt at peace. It was in such places that she had crafted a true home for herself.

A fire has been stoked within the hearth. It is the first thing that she notices when she enters the space. Candles scented with orange and ginger are also burning, the scent of them soothing. What draws her attention above all else, though, is the vase of winter roses that have been set upon the corner of her desk. The roses are freshly cut, she notices. The petals of some have yet to bloom open.

Moone dashes ahead of her as Laira closes the door behind her. The direwolf makes for the door that joins her own rooms with Hal’s, nosing at the slightly ajar partition. When the door swings entirely open, Moone dashes through with a happy sounding yap. Taking one of the winter roses from the vase, Laira follows behind Moone, taking in the scent of the rose as she walks.

“The roses are lovely,” Laira calls as she enters her husband’s own rooms. She smiles when she catches sight of him. He has bent to offer Moone his own bit of affection, scratching beneath her chin and her stomach where she is flopped down at his feet.

“I thought you might enjoy them,” Hal tells her, looking up from his direwolf companion. He spares a final pat to the wolf’s stomach before standing and stepping towards his wife. “Your travels went well, I gather,” he says. As he speaks, he reaches for her, drawing her into his embrace. His mouth sets itself briefly against the crown of her head, pressing a kiss into her silver hair.

“You know me too well,” the Princess tells him, smiling at the way he reaches for her and draws her so effortlessly into him. She goes willingly, form all but melting into his hold. His hold is strong, arms secure around her.

For the first time in over a fortnight, she feels tension abandon her shoulders and the length of her spine. The peace that surrounds her is instantaneous, a sudden wave of utter contentment.

“I have always thought such a trait to be a positive one,” Hal murmurs, his voice teasing. He spares another kiss to the top of her head, breathing in the scent of her hair. He can smell cinnamon and a hint of smoke. “I am glad you are back,” he admits, fingers tracing up the column of her spine. “I never like it when you are away for long periods.”

Not without him.

She breathes a sigh of understanding, head nestled against the line of his shoulder. He smells of the training yard... of leather, horse, and a hint of pine. Those scents have been favorites of hers for some time now.

“Nor do I enjoy being away,” the Princess says. Things are always better when he is with her. Such a thing she had come to realize long ago. “It seems we are quite the pair, you and I,” she goes on, hints of amusement hanging to the edge of her statement.

“I have always thought so,” Hal says, hand reaching for the rose in her hold. He takes it from her, leaning back until he can thread the flower into one of the braids along the side of her head. The rose comes to rest just behind her ear, the blue blooms bright against her olive complexion and the silver color of her hair. “Why such an observation now?” he asks.

“Your sister made mention that your mood has not been as it typically is,” she admits. There is no admonishment in her tone. Instead, there is understanding. “Daenerys made a similar observation of my own mood while I was staying in Sunspear.”

Laira had gone to Dorne to see to her sister, to offer comfort after the unfortunate loss that she had faced. Still, after so long, home had called to her.

Hal chuckles in response, pulling her all the more against him. “I’ve waited all these years for you to admit we’re made for each other,” he teases. “And, there are far worse things that could be said of us.”

“If I have not made such a thing most clear by now, then I have failed in my duties as your wife,” Laira says. Though her words are all jest, the princess can see the way her husband’s gaze softens as he looks at her.

“You know such a thing to be untrue,” he reminds, hand skirting around her side until his palm is pressed softly to her middle.

“I do,” she assures, her own palm settling atop his.

“I did not ask how Daenerys is faring,” Hal murmurs. His thumb ghosts over her silk covered stomach, gaze darting to quickly examine where his touch lingers.

“Better than I expected,” she admits. Though the loss had come upon Daenerys in the beginning weeks of development, Laira knew that it had greatly pained her sister and her favorites. “She was in better spirits when I departed this morning.”

“Good,” he says, thumb still sweeping across her.

“I did not mention anything to her,” Laira continues, sensing the question before Hal has the opportunity to voice it. “It was not the right time.” Of that, she knew that he would agree. “And,” she hesitates, “it is still so early.”

In the coming weeks, once Daenerys had healed more than she had and Laira was certain of matters, she might send a raven to Sunspear revealing her own pregnancy. But, for then, she and her husband were the only ones who needed to know.

[theusurpersdog]

Waking The Dragon

Due to. . .recent events. . .I think it’s important to go back through George RR Martin’s books and really understand what he was trying to say with Daenerys Targaryen. She occupies the same space in the narrative that Jon Snow does, where she’s just stereotypical enough, just fantasy trope enough, that people take for granted who her character is and what she represents. But, like Jon, if you read her chapters with an open mind, you’ll notice all of these great subversions and character traits that you miss the first time.

Breaking down the journey she takes in A Game of Thrones, GRRM lays a lot of tracks for where the story will take her. . .

The Outsider

The first thing about Daenerys is that she is instantly an outsider. GRRM loves writing outsiders, and a huge amount of the POV’s in book one are introduced as an outsider in some way; Jon being a bastard in a society driven by status, Arya as a tomboy in a patriarchal society, Sansa as someone who doesn’t fit with her family, Tyrion as a dwarf in an ableist society, and so on. Daenerys takes this concept to its extreme; not only is she an outsider within her own world, she is an outsider within the narrative. All the POVs we’ll have in this book were the victors of Robert’s Rebellion. They may have lost things (like Ned losing Lyanna) but Robert’s Rebellion worked for them in a way that they either ended up better off than before, or received some form of justice for the wrongs they’d suffered. 

But Daenerys lost. She was supposed to be a Princess, to grow up in the Red Keep with an entire kingdom at her feet. Instead, we are introduced to a young girl who hasn’t truly known a home her whole life, a girl who thinks she was chased around a continent by assassins out to take her life. We know, because we’ve lived inside Eddard Stark’s head, that Daenerys’ family was unequivocally on the wrong side of Robert’s Rebellion, but suddenly we understand that even in a just war, innocent people will get ruined.

So, with Daenerys being the lone Targaryen POV we have, it creates a sort of dissonance where she is portrayed as sympathetic, yet is the natural enemy to the Starks who are our heroes. When her brother Viserys tells her these awful stories of “the Usurper and his dogs”, we know she’s being lied to because we know Eddard Stark, but yet we have to sympathize with this child who was supposed to have everything and, instead, was left with nothing. Like Tyrion, we as a reader don’t quite know how to feel about her, because she is the antagonist of our heroes, but when you see things from her perspective suddenly this black and white war turns into a hundred different shades of grey.

The House With The Red Door

Moving from what her existence means to the narrative, we begin to understand what Robert’s Rebellion did to her as a person. The first we see of her, she is feeling a dress so soft it scares her, as her brother Viserys tells her she must look like a princess:

A Princess, Dany thought. She had forgotten what that was like. Perhaps she had never really known.

For the first time in her life, she’s starting to get a real taste of what she lost as a child, and she’s scared. It becomes clear that Viserys is an abuser in her life, and seeing him so fevered is terrifying. For the first time in his life, he’s been given a clear path to reclaim the Seven Kingdoms and the Iron Throne that by rights should be his. Viserys was old enough to remember Dragonstone and King’s Landing and the throne he lost; these are all tangible things that he can remember, that he knows someone stole from him.

But Daenerys doesn’t have that connection to Westeros. She wasn’t even born when her mother retreated to Dragonstone, and just a baby when Willem Darry smuggled her and her brother to Essos. Home is a very loose concept that Daenerys can never firmly grasp because she never truly had one. She understands that she was never allowed to just be a child, but she can’t place where it all went wrong. Viserys has this clear line, when he was 8 and a Prince and had everything; then suddenly everyone he knew was dead and he had nothing. Daenerys doesn’t have that; all she has is this memory of a house with a red door.

This house with the red door is so important to her, because it is the closest she has ever gotten to home; the one place she can look back on and feel like she had what she was supposed to:

She remembered Ser Willem dimly, a great grey bear of a man, half-blind, roaring and bellowing orders from his sickbed. The servants had lived in terror of him, but he had always been kind to Dany. He called her “Little Princess” and sometime “My Lady,”. . . That was when they lived in Braavos, in the big house with the red door. Dany had her own room there, with a lemon tree outside her window.

Yet, Daenerys knows that wasn’t really her home, just the closest she has come. Her character will chase that feeling, of being safe and in control and having things, for the rest of the books. The house with the red door works so well as a writing device from GRRM, because it is this vague idea of a thing; from the beginning it is clear that Daenerys herself doesn’t really understand why this house with a red door appeals so much to her, so she can never get that feeling back. From the start, Daenerys is chasing this thing that we know she can never have. What she does when she realizes that, is a question for later books.

But what, from a Doylist perspective, is this house with a red door supposed to be? Daenerys thinks it is home, but the symbolism of this house is childhood and innocence. The things Daenerys remembers fondly about it are important; Ser Willem calling her “princess”, the lemon tree, having her own room. The first is very important, because being a princess is what Viserys has filled her head with – it’s the childhood Daenerys knows she was owed by blood. The lemon tree is a bit more complicated; A Dance With Dragons will really start breaking down Daenerys and trees and all the imagery that goes with her arc, but trees is what Dany wants to want. To watch the lemon tree grow, is to spend years in the same place. And trees also need peace to grow; you have to love and care for a lemon tree. Having her own room also means that Daenerys was well off. Safe, comfortable, and well-off princesses have their own room with a lemon tree outside. So while the house with the red door represents childhood and innocence, I also think it’s important to recognize that it also represents Dany’s longing for her life of royalty. She doesn’t have the same murderous vengeance as Viserys, but she has that same passion for what was taken from her; a sort of blinding desire that gets in the way of seeing things clearly, especially when it comes to understanding that the Iron Throne wasn’t stolen from her family – they murdered it away chasing dragons.

Speaking of Daenerys’ connection to home, there is some interesting symbolism at play when Daenerys visits the markets. Daenerys loves the sights and smells of the Eastern market, the excitement of trying and seeing new things, experiencing something foreign. But she turns toward the Western market because it smells of home. When she was younger and went to the bazaar with Viserys, they hardly ever had enough money to buy anything but a certain type of sausage that Daenerys remembers fondly. She finds it again with her handmaidens and khas:

“They taste different than I remember,” Dany said after her first few bites.

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

“Oh,” Dany felt disappointed

Something is lost on the Dothraki sea, and home will never be the same again.

She Forgot To Be Afraid

The header has a hopeful sound to it, and the tail end of Dany’s first chapters do as well, but the first part of her story is incredibly bleak. Fear is such a heavy element in Dany’s story, partially because it really sets up the decisions she’ll make in her final chapters, but mostly because it is the reason for her character growth. Once Dany finds her place and begins leading as a Khaleesi, we start to see her true personality come out and she is a person again. But for the first few chapters, Dany has almost none of the character traits that later define her, because fear has suppressed them. Living under Viserys as she grew up, constantly dancing around his “dragon”, she had no space to be the bold, fierce, avenging girl she ends A Game of Thrones as. A couple of her traits really shine through in these first chapters, like how much more intelligent and perceptive she is compared to Viserys and some of the adults around her, because her others characteristics have been put on hold; but it’s really just tragic to read about Dany’s life up to this point. Viserys has lied to her (unintentionally, since he is delusional, but…) and made her think she’s only been one step ahead of assassins her whole life, and then turned around and abused her for things out of her control (like her mother Rhaella dying in childbirth, or how he sold their mother’s crown to feed her):

His fingers brushed lightly over her budding breasts and tightened on a nipple. “You will not fail me tonight. If you do, it will go hard for you. You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?” His fingers twisted her, the pinch cruelly hard through the rough fabric of her tunic

“We go home with an army, sweet sister. With Khal Drogo’s army, that is how we go home. And if you must wed him and bed him for that, you will.” He smiled at her. “I’d let his whole khalasar fuck you if need be, sweet sister, all forty thousand men, and their horses too if that was what it took to get my army. Be grateful it is only Drogo.

The picture this paints of what Viserys has been like to Daenerys for years now is shocking (later books will also elaborate that Viserys tried to rape her in the days after this, but Ilyrio’s men stopped him). And like I said earlier, the way Dany has to avoid waking his dragon consumes all of her mental energy. Between trying not to anger him, and longing for days before he became so cruel, there simply isn’t anymore left Dany can give.

The Blood of the Dragon

From the very first chapter, Viserys introduces us to a core concept of GRRM’s world, and for lack of a better name, I’d call it Targaryen entitlement. Even after Viserys dies demanding he be crowned in A Game of Thrones, we aren’t even close to understanding the full reach of Targaryens overstepping in the name of themselves. Fire and Blood Volume I shows us that Aegon conquered a whole continent to get his relative a girl, whether she wanted him or no. That’s the kind of history standing behind Viserys when he threatens Dany with Drogo’s khalasar.

But for now, Viserys is our look inside what led to the implosion of the Targaryen dynasty, and it’s not pretty:

The dragon does not beg

You do not command the dragon

The dragon speaks as he likes

The dragon is not mocked

And Daenerys’ inner monologue gives some context as to why “the dragon” sees himself as so far above the rest:

Dragons did not mate with the beasts of the field, and Targaryens did not mingle their blood with that of lesser men.

Later books and the extended canon will elaborate on this concept further, as we learn the Targaryens are quite literally the blood of the dragon (which is why their severe inbreeding leads to dragon/human hybrid babies); but the important thing here is that Viserys views himself as a God amongst men, a majestic beast unfit to mingle with the sheep. This god complex gives us an understanding of why the Targaryens act the way they do, though; when you’re so high above everyone else, their lives start to matter less and less.

The idea that Targaryens are inherently better than everyone else, drives Viserys as much as his own victimization does:

Ours by blood right. . .You do not steal from the dragon, oh, no. The dragon remembers

Viserys’ language is filled with quotes like this. While he does talk of getting revenge for his brother Rhaegar, or killing the usurper who sits on his father’s throne, an equal amount of his anger is focused on being a dragon. Not only did the Usurper take what belonged to him, but he dared to think himself equal to a dragon.

And Daenerys does not seem particularly interested in either of these things:

“Please, please, Viserys, I don’t want to, I want to go home.”. . .Dany had only meant their rooms in Illyrio’s estate, no true home surely, though all they had, but her brother did not want to hear that. There was no home there for him. Even the big house with the red door had not been home for him.

From the beginning, Dany has found strength in being Daenerys Targaryen, but not in the way Viserys did. She is empowered by it because it gives her a sense of identity; even though she doesn’t have a real home or real friends or anybody, she knows who she is. Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen is not meaningless, she is important; and Dany needs that to hold onto. Her last name cost her so much, but it’s also what keeps her going.

Once her relationship with Viserys starts to fall apart, Daenerys’ relationship to being a Targaryen starts to change. When Daenerys embraces the khalasar, she suddenly becomes very powerful; as long as Khal Drogo is alive, all the men must follow her commands or risk their Khal’s wrath. And being Khaleesi also gives Daenerys a certain sense of place; it’s never going to be home to her, but she belongs there much more than she’s ever belonged anywhere else. She fully begins to embrace their customs by dressing as they do, learning to speak Dothraki, and respecting their sacred beliefs. For the first time in many years she feels comfortable, and she can’t understand why Viserys won’t at least try and join her. The more Dany finds a place for herself, the more determined Viserys is to demean and reject the Dothraki. Where Dany is enjoying their travels to Vaes Dothrak and wouldn’t mind staying with the Dothraki for any number of days before sailing to Westeros, Viserys pushes and pushes to get what he bought with Dany’s marriage. He has no interest in living with the Dothraki, much less wearing their clothes and speaking their language. This divide between them finally allows Dany to see Viserys for what he truly is:

He was a pitiful thing. He had always been a pitiful thing. Why had she never seen that before? There was a hollow place inside her where her fear had been.

And seeing him for the pitiful man he’s always been starts to reshape how Daenerys sees herself. Like almost everyone from Westeros, Daenerys believes very strongly in two things: hereditary monarchy and the divine right of the Targaryen dynasty. Yet she sees Viserys, who by both those measures is the rightful King of the Seven Kingdoms, and understands he doesn’t deserve it:

Jorah pulled up his horse and looked at her. “Truth now. Would you want to see Viserys sit a throne?”

Dany thought about that. “He would not be a very good king, would he?”

“My brother will never take back the Seven Kingdoms,” Dany said. She had known that for a long time, she realized. She had known it all her life. Only she had never let herself say the words, even in a whisper, but now she said them for Jorah Mormont and all the world to hear.

Ser Jorah gave her a measuring look. "You think not."

“He could not lead an army even if my lord husband gave him one,” Dany said. “He has no coin and the only knight who follows him reviles him as less than a snake. The Dothraki make mock of his weakness. He will never take us home”.

Before I continue, there is one thing I want to emphasize – Daenerys never gives up on her brother. David Benioff and Dan Weiss trying to paint his death as a moral turning point for Daenerys is simply not true. She does put him in his place, like when she takes his horse away from him, but those are not bad things; he physically abuses her, and she removes him from her space by having him at the back of the khalasar. It was a logical and reasonable punishment for his behavior, especially because as Khaleesi she could have had him killed for it. Up until he tries to cut her child out of her, Dany never considers harming him and tries very hard to make him see reason. Even though she feels incredibly close to her dragon eggs, she offers them to Viserys as a last chance to make him happy and to save his life.

While she didn’t give up on him as her brother, she did give up on him as her King:

When her son sat the Iron Throne, she would see that he had bloodriders of his own to protect him against treachery in his Kingsguard.

I wish GRRM spent more time elaborating on this quote of Dany’s, because it’s fairly revolutionary. We know from being in Dany’s head that she has no intention of harming or killing Viserys; and yet, she sees her son sitting on the Iron Throne. Does she just assume he will do something stupid to get him killed on the way? Or has she removed him from the line of succession because he’s a vicious idiot? I’d like to know more on what Dany’s head space is at that moment.

It becomes very clear what her thoughts are once he dies, though:

He was no dragon, Dany thought, curiously calm. Fire cannot kill a dragon

Because Daenerys believes in the monarchy and in the divine right of Targaryens, she has to find a way to square Viserys being the “rightful” King and also being a monster she won’t put on the Iron Throne. And the concept of being a “dragon” is how she does it. Viserys constantly called himself one, and Ser Jorah Mormont said her brother Rhaegar was the last dragon, and once Viserys dies Dany realizes she is the dragon. Of course, everyone else was using “the dragon” in more metaphorical terms, but it becomes clear a little later in the story that Daenerys is much more literally a dragon. Viserys’ death is the first time we see Daenerys fully commit to who she is, the blood of the dragon. She rejects Viserys’ version of her family and starts seeing herself and her son as the future of House Targaryen.

Part of her really starting to embrace herself as being the blood of the dragon, is because she wants to go home to Westeros:

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

Before, when it was Viserys forcing Westeros on her, she never wanted it. But being Khaleesi, Dany realizes that she does want what her family lost:

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

This is where some of Daenerys less charming qualities are coming out, as far as why and how she wants to take back the Seven Kingdoms. Wanting power or having it are not inherently bad things, but the problems start to show in how Daenerys wants to gain it. Her urge to conquer Westeros is explicitly tied to being Daenerys Targaryen; she wants to reclaim it in the name of “kings and conquerors”. There is no way to remove Daenerys from the long history of abuses Westeros had to suffer under Kings like Aegon the Conqueror, Maegor the Cruel, Aegon the Unworthy, The Mad King Aerys, etc, because Daenerys is coming for the Iron Throne in their name. She’s not just related to them, they are what drive her forward. Later books, and especially A Dance with Dragons, will dive much more into what Fire & Blood means to Westeros and Dany, but even in A Game of Thrones there is attention brought to the bloody history of House Targaryen. This passage also starts drawing attention to the two different people she is; there is Dany, who is a young girl eager for home and love and happiness and belonging, then there is Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, of the blood of Aegon the Conqueror and Maegor the Cruel and old Valyria before them, the dragon’s daughter.

Daughter of Dragons, Bride of Dragons, Mother of Dragons

Beyond Daenerys’ familial connection to her house, there is a strong magical link to Daenerys and her dragons. Even though they aren’t born until the final chapter, A Game of Thrones really highlights the connection she has to them. She receives her three eggs as a gift at her wedding to Khal Drogo:

Dany gasped. They were the most beautiful things she had ever seen, each different than the others, patterned in such rich colors that at first she thought they were crusted with jewels

Right after this, Khal Drogo gifts her Dany’s silver, which she rides and for the first time isn’t afraid. There is a connection drawn between Dany receiving her dragon eggs, and then receiving a mount she finally feels comfortable on. For now, Dany will have to ride her silver, but soon her dragons will be her mount.

The parallels between Daenerys and her dragons are already very clear as well. When she first gets her eggs, they are beautiful but seemingly dead; hard and lifeless stone nobody expects to hatch. Similarly, Daenerys is overlooked by those around her in favor of her brother Viserys, and she’s seemingly dormant. She doesn’t have any ambitions to cross the Narrow Sea and take back the Iron Throne, and nobody is investing in her future. But instantly Daenerys feels something within the hard stone, and keeps them with her almost always.

When she’s at her lowest of lows on the Dothraki sea, at the height of Drogo’s abuse and her feeling lost and unloved, it’s the dragons that bring her back from the edge:

Yet when she slept that night, she dreamt the dragon dream again. Viserys was not in it this time. There was only her and the dragon. Its scales were black as night, wet and slick with blood. Her blood, Dany sensed. Its eyes were pools of molten magma, and when it opened its mouth, the flame came roaring out in a hot jet. She could hear it singing to her. She opened her arms to the fire, embraced it, let it swallow her whole, let it cleanse her and temper her and scour her clean. She could feel her flesh sear and blacken and slough away, could feel her blood boil and turn to steam, and yet there was no pain. She felt strong and new and fierce.

After that dream, her chaffed thighs start to heal and she can ride her silver much better than before. Mentally she also finds a new strength and is able to keep going, which leads to her embracing the Dothraki. She is able to draw actual strength from the eggs, and in return they also find strength in her:

She touched one, the largest of the three, running her hand lightly over the shell. Black-and-scarlet, she thought, like the dragon in my dream. The stone felt strangely warm beneath her fingers. . . or was she still dreaming? She pulled her hand back nervously.

As Dany starts to come into her own, her dragon eggs begin heating up. Both her and her dragons are starting to wake up. And as the book continues, Dany begins associating herself with dragons and as a dragon more and more; first when Viserys dies, then when Robert sends assassins after her, and again when she is claiming the Lhazareen women as her slaves:

The Usurper has woken the dragon now

“The dragon feeds on horse and sheep alike.”

As she grows more comfortable being the dragon, her eggs slowly get closer and closer to coming alive and Daenerys feels called to them:

Cradling the egg with both hands, she carried it to the fire and pushed it down amongst the burning coals. The black scales seemed to glow as they drank the heat. Flames licked against the stone with small red tongues. Dany placed the other two eggs beside the black one in the fire. As she stepped back from the brazier, the breath trembled in her throat.

Daenerys also has dreams of literally becoming a dragon:

A great knife of pain ripped down her back, and she felt her skin tear open and smelled the stench of burning blood and saw the shadow of wings. And Daenerys Targaryen flew. The door loomed before her, the red door, so close, so close, the hall was a blur around her, the cold receding behind. And now the stone was gone and she flew across the Dothraki sea, high and higher, the green rippling beneath, and all that lived and breathed fled in terror from the shadow of her wings

Daenerys being pregnant with her son also offers a lot of insight into what her future is as the last dragon. All of the prophecies and foreshadowing surrounding Rhaego are actually about Daenerys, and it’s the start of her destiny being intertwined with the beautiful horror of dragons:

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

“As swift as the wind he rides, and behind him his khalasar covers the earth, men without number, with arakhs shining in their hands like blades of razor grass. Fierce as a storm this prince will be. His enemies will tremble before him, and their wives will weep tears of blood and rend their flesh in grief. The bells in his hair will sing his coming, and the milk men in the stone tents will fear his name.”

The first quote really affirms Daenerys’ role in the story as the true dragon, the last dragon. In A Game of Thrones, as well as in A Storm of Swords and A Dance with Dragons, Daenerys has dreams of turning into Rhaegar; while fandom argues what this means and there is plenty of different meanings it could have, I personally believe the foreshadowing is that Daenerys is the last dragon. Many times in the story that role is given to Rhaegar, but we see with Daenerys that she is more a dragon than he ever was.

The second quote is the prophecy given to Daenerys by the Dosh Khaleen in Vaes Dothrak, where they name her son The Stallion Who Mounts The World. This prophecy is obviously about Daenerys; the Dosh Khaleen assumed the future they were seeing belonged to her son, but they were actually seeing Daenerys’ own future. Rhaego dying makes it quite clear, but the prophecy referring to the Stallion Who Mounts the World as “fierce as a storm” really seals the deal; after all she is Daenerys Stormborn, named after the storm that destroyed her family’s fleet. This prophecy is extremely ominous, with lines like “His enemies will tremble before him, and their wives will weep tears of blood and rend their flesh in grief” and “milk men in the stone tents will fear his name”; this does not sound like Daenerys is going to be liberating Westeros (the “stone tents” is a reference to castles). The name this “prince” is given, The Stallion Who Mounts The World, is also very similar to another prophecy of Martin’s – the rape of Westeros Daenerys sees in the House of the Undying. The language used to describe how the Stallion comes to mount the world is bloody and violent; wives crying for their husbands, men living in fear, etc. It’s a very concerning look into the future.

If I Look Back I Am Lost

A lot of people had problems with Game of Thrones’ depiction of Daenerys in s8, based on the idea that her dark turn came out of nowhere. And in no way am I defending the show’s characterization of her, or the portrayal of her dark turn, but a lot of that criticism has gotten carried over to Daenerys as she stands in GRRM’s books, which is simply not true. Daenerys has struggled with darkness her entire arc, and it really comes to the forefront in her last several A Game of Thrones chapters.

The Dothraki raid of the Lhazareen village is a huge turning point for Daenerys. Once Robert attempts to have her assassinated, Dany is finally able to convince Khal Drogo to sail across the Narrow Sea and take the Iron Throne for her and her son. To do this, the Khalasar attack a peaceful village and a rival khalasar, and it’s Dany’s first real look at what her war for the Iron Throne will be like:

Dothraki hooves had torn the earth and trampled the rye and lentils into the ground, while arakhs and arrows had sown a terrible new crop and watered it with blood.

Daenerys see’s Khal Drogo’s men herding a young boy, teasing him until they get bored of the game and cut his head off. The men are also raping women atop piles of their dead people, and it’s sickening to her:

It was different with the townsfolk. Dany pitied them; she remembered what terror felt like.

As she continues to walk through the Dothraki’s destruction, she tries to steel herself to the horrors around her:

I am the blood of the dragon, Daenerys Targaryen reminded herself as she turned her face away. She pressed her lips together and hardened her heart and rode on toward the gate.

But as she realizes their captives will be sold into slavery, she breaks:

Slaves, Dany thought. Khal Drogo would drive them downriver to one of the towns on Slaver’s Bay. She wanted to cry, but she told herself that she must be strong. This is war, this is what it looks like, this is the price of the Iron Throne.

Notice what GRRM calls her here; in the first quote when she is able to harden her heart and ride forward she is “Daenerys Targaryen”, but in the second when she almost begins to cry GRRM softens and calls her “Dany”. I’ll get into it more below, but Daenerys is constantly at odds with herself and those are the two versions of her. Remember when I said the lemon tree is what Dany wants to want? There is a part of her that craves that simplicity, but life keeps pushing and pulling her towards that other part of her, the blood of the dragon, the seed of kings and conquerors, the part of her that is Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen.

But in this moment, Daenerys Targaryen loses. Dany, the part of her that remembers what it’s like to be terrified, to be a slave, decides to turn back:

Behind them, the girl being raped made a heartrending sound, a long sobbing wail that went on and on and on. Dany’s hand clenched hard around the reins, and she turned the silver’s head. “Make them stop,” she commanded Ser Jorah.

Notice how this passage starts: Behind them. Daenerys has to look back to save Eroeh. By the end of this book, Daenerys has made “If I look back I am lost” into her life philosophy, and it’s heartbreaking. Her last couple of chapters tell the story of a good-hearted person trying to help people and fix the mistake she’s made, yet when it all goes south she learns all the wrong lessons.

When Daenerys tries to claim these women to save them, she does it with all the naivety of a 14yo girl. We shouldn’t expect her to know what to do in these situations; she’s a young girl and she has a very simple understanding of what’s right and what’s wrong, and more importantly she has a very simple understanding of what is and isn’t a slave.

One of the women she saves in this town is Mirri Maz Duur:

They passed other women being raped. Each time Dany reined up, sent her khas to make an end to it, and claimed the victim as slave. One of them, a thick-bodied, flat-nosed woman of forty years, blessed Dany haltingly in the Common Tongue.

Mirri is the only woman who says thank you to Dany, whereas the others are terrified that Dany has spared them for something worse. So, when Mirri speaks up that she can help Khal Drogo, Dany stands up for her against the Dothraki and allows her to help him. The mental processes of Mirri Maz Duur are still actually very unclear, and I know a lot of people argue over when she decided what she was going to do and even what she actually did. But to me, it seems heavily implied that Mirri’s original efforts were made in good faith. Khal Drogo falls ill because he disregards every single one of Mirri’s instructions by ripping her poultice off, smearing his wound in mud, and drinking wine and milk of the poppy heavily. When Dany calls Mirri to look at him again, she instantly knows Drogo has ignored her:

“He has been dulling the hurt with milk of the poppy.”

“Yes,” Dany admitted.

“I made him a poultice of firepod and sting-me-not and bound it in a lambskin.”

“It burned, he said. He tore it off. The herbwomen made him a new one, wet and soothing.”

“It burned, yes. There is great healing magic in fire, even your hairless men know that.”

Mirri seems very genuine here, and lays out that Drogo ignored everything she told him. It doesn’t make logical sense that she could have done this to him, considering he ripped her poultice off almost immediately and preceded to do all the things she told him not to. I think Mirri made a genuine attempt to help Drogo, either altruistically or as an attempt to gain favor with her new master (Dany), and then is completely ignored, which seems to upset her. What also upsets her, is that Dany owns her:

“You do not ask a slave,” Mirri replied sharply, “you tell her.”

As we progress further, I really want to encourage readers to remember Mirri’s perspective in this story. I won’t dive too deep into her motivations, because this is about Dany and Mirri really deserves a meta of her own, but understanding her is key to understanding what GRRM is trying to say at the climax of Dany’s arc. Remember that Dany threw the first punch between them, and while Dany did try to help Mirri, Mirri tried equally to help Dany and Drogo and had her efforts thrown back in her face.

And while Mirri Maz Duur is entirely misleading at points, she never lies to Dany and she tries to talk Dany out of it:

Mirri Maz Duur sat back on her heels and studied Daenerys through eyes as black as night. “There is a spell.” Her voice was quiet, scarcely more than a whisper. “But it is hard, lady, and dark. Some would say that death is cleaner. I learned the way in Asshai, and paid dear for the lesson. My teacher was a bloodmage from the Shadow Lands.”

The first time Dany thinks to herself “If I look back I am lost”, is when Mirri tells her she knew that the price to pay was Rhaego and did it anyway. I’ve seen it argued that this is unclear or false, but I completely disagree. This quote here is evidence enough:

“Death?” Dany wrapped her arms around herself protectively, rocked back and forth on her heels. “My death?” She told herself she would die for him, if she must. She was the blood of the dragon, she would not be afraid.

Dany dying for Drogo would certainly lead to Rhaego’s death as well, since the sacrifice needs to happen before the night is done and Dany has no thoughts of going into labor. This quote makes it even clearer:

“No,” Mirri Maz Duur promised. “Not your death, Khaleesi.”

Dany trembled with relief. “Do it.”

She agrees before Mirri tells her what the sacrifice is. Dany would have given up anything in that moment to save Khal Drogo.

Like I said earlier, she is still a very young girl here and doesn’t have any reason to be able to handle the weight that’s been placed on her. But she gets incredibly focused on Drogo once he falls sick, and her care and compassion for anyone else seems to disappear:

Eroeh stared fearfully at Drogo where he lay. “He dies,” she whispered.

Dany slapped her.

Eroeh is the girl Daenerys saw gang raped atop a pile of corpses, the girl who’s wails turned Dany around.

After everything goes so horribly wrong, when Drogo’s men turn against her and Jorah brings her into the tent with Mirri and she loses Rhaego and Drogo and wakes up with nothing, Mirri tells her this:

“I spoke for you,” she said, anguished. “I saved you.”

“Saved me?” The Lhazareen woman spat. “Three riders had taken me, not as a man takes a woman but from behind, as a dog takes a bitch. The fourth was in me when you rode past. How then did you save me? I saw my god’s house burn, where I had healed good men beyond counting. My home they burned as well, and in the street I saw piles of heads. I saw the head of a baker who made my bread. I saw the head of a boy I had saved from deadeye fever, only three moons past. I heard children crying as the riders drove them off with their whips. Tell me again what you saved.”

“Your life.”

Mirri Maz Duur laughed cruelly. “Look to your khal and see what life is worth, when all the rest is gone.”

Mirri obviously makes some morally dubious decisions, but there is a lot of truth in what she tells Daenerys. What Dany viewed as saving, Mirri sees as a pitiful gesture; the damage was already done before Dany changed her mind, and she didn’t see or understand that. If Daenerys was in a more understanding mindset, Mirri has a great lesson to teach her about how you treat people, especially your slaves (because yes, Mirri is Dany’s slave).

That’s not the lesson Dany learns though, she learns If I look back I am lost; which is a callback to a passage from her earlier chapters:

Behind them the great horde might tear the earth and muddy the rivers and send up clouds of choking dust, but the fields ahead of them were always green and verdant

Deciding not to look back is a decision Dany makes so she doesn’t have to face the reality of her choices and mistakes. Everything is okay if she doesn’t turn back, if she doesn’t see the way her actions sow a crop of blood in the soil. But like I said, Dany’s best moments come when she looks behind her. If she didn’t look back for Eroeh, she would have left women to be raped and sold into slavery. Especially when we get to A Storm of Swords and A Dance with Dragons, it’s just so clear that looking back is essential to Dany’s morality. She tries not to through those books, but she can’t stop herself. Yet every time she does, she hates it. She hates that she saved Mirri Maz Duur and cost herself so much in the process. That’s why she tells herself If I look back I am lost, to remember to never look back again.

Waking the Dragon

This is the climax of Dany’s arc in A Game of Thrones; everything in her chapters is leading her to the moment she steps into Drogo’s funeral pyre. From her first chapter, she dreams of her dragons:

There are no more dragons, Dany thought, staring at her brother, though she did not dare say it aloud.

Yet that night she dreamt of one. Viserys was hitting her, hurting her. She was naked, clumsy with fear. She ran from him, but her body seemed thick and ungainly. He struck her again. She stumbled and fell. “You woke the dragon,” he screamed as he kicked her. “You woke the dragon, you woke the dragon.” Her thighs were slick with blood. She closed her eyes and whimpered. As if in answer, there was a hideous ripping sound and the crackling of some great fire. When she looked again, Viserys was gone, great columns of flame rose all around, and in the midst of them was the dragon. It turned its great head slowly. When its molten eyes found hers, she woke, shaking and covered with a fine sheen of sweat. She had never been so afraid. . .

Her next dream has a much more positive feel, but carries the same language:

She opened her arms to the fire, embraced it, let it swallow her whole, let it cleanse her and temper her and scour her clean. She could feel her flesh sear and blacken and slough away, could feel her blood boil and turn to steam

This dream really reminds me of GRRM’s inspiration for his title, Fire and Ice by Robert Frost:

Some say the world will end in fire/Some say in ice/From what I’ve tasted of desire/I hold with those who favor fire

When Dany is in Mirri’s tent, her dreams start to take on a very ominous tone:

A great knife of pain ripped down her back, and she felt her skin tear open and smelled the stench of burning blood and saw the shadow of wings. And Daenerys Targaryen flew. The door loomed before her, the red door, so close, so close, the hall was a blur around her, the cold receding behind. And now the stone was gone and she flew across the Dothraki sea, high and higher, the green rippling beneath, and all that lived and breathed fled in terror from the shadow of her wings

…

She woke to the taste of ashes.

The progression of her dreams tell an interesting story. At first, when Daenerys wants no part of Viserys’ dreams or the Seven Kingdoms, the dragon in her dream terrifies her and she wakes more scared than she’s ever been. But when the dream comes to her on the Dothraki sea, after she’s received her eggs as a wedding gift, she embraces the dragon in her dream; lets the fire mold and shape her, burn away her fear and hurt. And when she’s fever dreaming in Mirri’s tent, she takes the next step and becomes the dragon; flying over Westeros, chasing the red door. As Dany progresses through A Game of Thrones, she slowly embraces the dragon until she is ready to hatch them in her final chapter.

What’s most interesting is the framing of what that means. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we are introduced to the concept of “waking the dragon” through Viserys’ threats to Daenerys. From the first chapter, we’re meant to understand that waking the dragon is really bad for Daenerys. She tries her hardest not to wake the dragon, because something very bad will happen to her if she does. And her first dream of the dragon from her second chapter feeds into this narrative; the dragon seeks to burn her.

In her second dream, she is much more comfortable standing before the dragon; but it’s important to realize that nothing has changed in the structure of the dream. Her dragon still wants to burn her, but now she finds strength in that; let this dragon burn away her weakness and temper her strength. She’s starting to grow closer to her eggs, and also more comfortable with her heritage. Being with the Dothraki stripped her of everything except herself, and she’s starting to fall back on that for strength.

A lot of time passes before she has her last and final dream before hatching her dragons, and the tone has now changed. She isn’t standing before the dragon; she is the dragon. In her dream, she hears Viserys saying “You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?” and as she dreams it slowly falls away until all she hears is “wake the dragon”. Through her travels on the Dothraki Sea, she’s gone from a scared girl cowering before the dragon, to the one flying overhead, making every living thing tremble in fear.

She has gone from Dany to Daenerys Targaryen.

And this isn’t supposed to be a good thing. Like I said, it’s not a coincidence that we’re introduced to “waking the dragon” as something Dany should fear. The imagery of her dreams is very clear; Dany is burned away, and in the ashes rises Daenerys Targaryen, Queen and Conqueror.

The most ominous and foreboding part of how Daenerys wakes the dragons, is of course the sacrifice she makes to hatch them. It’s pretty clear in the text, but confirmed by GRRM in interviews, that Daenerys is able to walk into the fire unscathed and hatch her dragons because of blood magic. She has already lost Drogo and Rhaego permanently at this point, so I don’t take issue with using their deaths towards saving herself, but the sacrifice of Mirri is entirely different. I want to establish that Daenerys knows what she is doing when she chooses to burn Mirri:

“I remember what you told me. Only death can pay for life.”

I’ve seen many people who argue that Daenerys would eventually turn dark use this quote as one of the first signs:

“You will not hear me scream,” Mirri responded as the oil dripped from her hair and soaked her clothing.

“I will,” Dany said

But to me, the end of that sentence is much more frightening:

“but it is not your screams I want, only your life.”

Daenerys understands that Mirri’s death is paying for her dragons, and that’s why she does it. I would understand, I would be less worried for Dany, if her killing Mirri was a rash decision made out of grief, exhaustion, pure rage; but it’s not. It’s a cold, rational, calm decision; she thinks about it, understands it, and then burns Mirri alive.

Remember when I said Mirri had a valuable lesson to teach Daenerys, and Daenerys learned all the wrong things? This is what she learned, that only death can pay for life. Instead of hearing Mirri’s critique on what Dany was complicit in, Daenerys takes it to heart that death should not be meaningless; not in the way that life is precious and therefore should be preserved, but in the way that she should get something out of it – in this case dragons.

I also want to call attention to what Mirri is to Daenerys. A lot of Daenerys’ more adamant defenders will call back to the same argument every time: Daenerys kills slavers. Killing bad men, even if in brutal fashion, cannot just suddenly change into killing the innocent and oppressed. But remember, Mirri is where it all started; yes Daenerys was in some way involved in the brutality that befell the Lhazareen people, but it is clear she didn’t have a full understanding of what she was asking when she said she wanted to take the Iron Throne, and turned back on her decision to try and help the girls. Burning Mirri Maz Duur is the first death that is the direct result of Daenerys’ choice (Viserys’ death was the result of his choices). And who was Mirri to Daenerys?

Her slave.

This decision also highlights a certain capacity for cruelty. I previously mentioned that Daenerys slaps Eroeh, the girl she saw gang raped only days prior, and again she shows something similar with Mirri:

“I am tired of the maegi’s braying,” Dany told Jhogo. He took his whip to her, and after that the godswife kept silent.

I understand that Mirri has taken Rhaego from Daenerys, but it shows a certain tunnel vision Daenerys has that she cannot understanding that much more was taken from Mirri before the maegi resorted in blood magic.

This kind of tunnel vision Daenerys is something she has through all the books, Daznak’s Pit being the clearest example, and A Game of Thrones is no different. The simultaneous horror and beauty of Daenerys’ blaze is breathtaking. Something horrific is taking place; the horse murdered for Drogo is burning, Mirri Maz Duur is screaming, Jorah and the Dothraki are shouting and crying. Yet the language is beautiful:

Huge orange gouts of fire unfurled their banners in that hellish wind, the logs hissing and cracking, glowing cinders rising on the smoke to float away into the dark like so many newborn fireflies

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

The flames were so beautiful, the loveliest things she had ever seen, each on a sorcerer robed in yellow and orange and scarlet, swirling long smoky cloaks. She saw crimson firelions and great yellow serpents and unicorns made of pale blue flame

You can almost forget the horror of Mirri burning, because the flames are just so beautiful to Daenerys. The flames are described like dancers, floating and swirling and captivating her; everything else doesn’t matter anymore, only the flames. Yet GRRM doesn’t let us fully forget:

The pyre roared in the deepening dusk like some great beast, drowning out the fainter sound of Mirri Maz Duur’s screaming

She heard the screams of frightened horses, and the voices of the Dothraki raised in shouts of fear and terror, and Ser Jorah calling her name and cursing. No, she wanted to shout to him, no, my good knight, do not fear for me. The fire is mine. I am Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons, don’t you see? Don’t you SEE?

I’m not trying to say that Daenerys is a bad person now. She still has so many redeeming qualities; she still cares deeply for people, fights against slavery, wants to help her people. In lesser fiction, character arcs on a graph are a straight line headed up or down, but GRRM is writing a masterpiece. He has no interest in clean arcs because real people are not one note; if you plotted a real person’s choices out on a graph, it would be a series of small ups and downs while still trending one direction, there could even be massive rises or falls because real people slip and regress as they fall into old habits. Daenerys is on a path leading to a dark turn, but she still has many highs left to go. The speech she gives to the Dothraki before she lights Drogo’s pyre is evidence of this; she looks out and sees her people, those rejected by the khalasar that left her. The old, the children, the women, the sick or crippled; and she embraces them. Daenerys is fiercely loyal to this group of people who still stood by her after everyone else left her. And she sets them free; Daenerys’ new khalasar will not be built on the backs of slaves.

But the dragons call to her, and she can’t say no to them. She is the blood of the dragon, and the fire is in her. Daenerys wants many things, like peace and home and trees, but all of those things fall away when she sees the glory and bane of her house. When she stands in the pyre, everything else falls away; the roaring and cracking of the fire and her dragons hatching drowns out the screams and shrieks and cries. The fire dances in her eyes and pulls her forward. Her dragons are beautiful and terrible, awe inspiring and fear inducing. They will always be both, just as Daenerys herself has always had both callings inside her, and it is very fitting that her A Game of Thrones arc should end here

For the first time in hundreds of years, the night came alive with the music of dragons.

[fe8meta]

I would’ve preferred it if Lyon’s problems with Ephraim weren’t portrayed to stem exclusively from jealousy of his fighting skills but also because Ephraim is kind of really irresponsible and a bit of a jerk. Lyon is dedicated to being a thoughtful prince, and his father is ill. Ephraim just wants to do whatever he wants, and his thoughtless comments must’ve hurt Lyon in some way.

The final boss conversation Ephraim has with Lyon, I love the implication that even after everything, Lyon isn’t truly capable of violence. All he’s done is manipulate others into inflicting violence. He was never one for fighting.

I’m going to segue into an answer for the second ask, even if they were intended as two separate asks, so may as well combine them.

I’m guessing you may have read “Innes and Lyon as Mirror Characters”, which has gotten some renewed traction lately. If you didn’t (or need a refresher), I wrote this particular section:

[Ephraim] effectively says, right in front of Lyon’s face, that he’d rather dump all his responsibilities on Eirika and become a mercenary. To rub salt into the wound, he then jokes that King Fado would “likely outlive us all.” Lyon touches on his own father’s failing health caused by the pressure and duties of his station right afterwards, perhaps in response to the jest.Eirika gives him a touch of condolences, then tells Ephraim that he should be more like Lyon. Ephraim, for his part, doesn’t even seem to acknowledge Lyon’s small admission of plight* and dismisses Eirika’s comment as criticism before once again telling her that she should take his place as future king.

*I don’t think Ephraim did this on purpose or out of malicious intent; he could simply have been oblivious or wasn’t sure how to respond. But it doesn’t change his reaction.

One of the joys of analyzing FE8 is wondering “Am I reading too much into it, or was this done deliberately?” But I do think part of Lyon’s problems with Ephraim were his irresponsibility and (unintentionally) insensitive personality.

It’s just that Lyon, insecure as he is, doesn’t want to actually say that (it would betray a weakness of heart, after all—a weakness he claims no longer exists inside him). He instead puts on bravado and makes it all about fighting skills, or deflecting it as jealousy of Ephraim and Eirika’s skills.

And maybe Ephraim realizes this. His character arc was about coming to terms with the station he was born into, and how no amount of disregard for it will change the fact that his actions have consequences – not just for himself, but everyone around him and everyone who’s lower on the social chain, even if he might never meet them face-to-face.

This war matures all the other royals, too:

Joshua cleans up his act after he realizes that his disappearance had a hand in his mother’s death.

Innes gets over his intense one-sided rivalry with Ephraim for the sake of their combined victory, allowing Ephraim to act as the commander-in-chief of the Demon King expedition and even handing over Frelia’s Sacred Twins.

Tana grows from a sheltered princess always itching for action to someone who fearlessly confronts her enemies… with words, enough to convince Cormag to switch sides.

L’Arachel goes from a self-centered princess doing good works for fame and recognition (and because her parents did it too), to someone genuinely devoted to putting an end to the source of her childhood grief and providing emotional support to Eirika and Ephraim.

So then you get to Lyon, and he’s still talking about how he lost to Eirika that one time. Which is, by the time of the final battle, about two years after it happened and a year since the war began (see Time Elapsed).

When he took the Sacred Stone, he trapped Ephraim in a spell first. And even though he had a wide open opportunity to cut into the heart of his opposition’s core, to kill Ephraim right then and there and throw the forces against him into chaos and despair… does he do that? No.

Instead, he goads Ephraim into fighting him here, at this final battle. Tells him that in 10 days’ time, he’d finish the spell that would truly turn him into the Demon King (not completely wrong, at that), and implores Ephraim to stop him. Except, y’know, so many words of his are fed to him by the Demon King, that not even he knows himself anymore.

He’s still the same Lyon of two years ago. The war has not, in fact, changed him; and even during the war, as you said, it’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work. He hides behind the guise of his father and sullies his father’s name (the one he worked so hard to live up to), transforming him into a war-mongering conqueror who threw the continent into turmoil—not even for conquest, too; just to destroy their Sacred Stones, after which he let the countries to fall to ruin.

He has Selena go fetch Myrrh’s Dragonstone, perhaps fully aware that Ephraim would be confronting her there. It leads to her demise when she refuses to compromise her duty, and for what? Nothing, really, besides weakening Grado’s own forces and causing pointless bloodshed.

You see the Lyon of the twins’ memories, the Lyon who spoke so excitedly about how he’d saved the life of a burn victim and used the power of Time Shear to prevent a disaster before it could occur, but didn’t care if nobody credited him for his achievements.

Then you compare it to the Lyon that masterminded the war, who intends to change the world and stop a tragedy… by causing tragedy upon tragedy and turning the continent into a sea of red. The Lyon that hid behind wave after wave of soldiers, behind his father’s reanimated corpse, then created this mask of “The Demon King who devoured his soul” once Vigarde is gone.

When you compare him to the pacifistic Eirika, who took up arms because she needed to do something to stop this war even if it went against her nature, Lyon’s claims that he’s grown strong enough to defeat Ephraim becomes pathetic, really.

Ephraim wasn’t really wrong when he says in Chapter 18, “Lyon was… My friend was kind and caring… He was a good person… But you… You are not that person!”

In that respect, I would modify the statement “Lyon isn’t capable of violence.” He’s incapable of direct violence where he gets his hands dirty. But he is fully capable of instigating violence, which is still violence. He just doesn’t want to sully his pride and his name with this war. It’s not so much that “he was never one for fighting,” but rather that he was never one to accept the consequences of fighting—such as the possibility of losing, or the possibility that he’d spiral the continent into chaos.

I think one of the brilliant parts of FE8 is how, despite its short length, there are a lot of different interpretations to be made about its characters. There is just so much to get into with the topic of Lyon and how many of his actions are his, and how many are the Demon King’s. And, even if they’re the Demon King’s, that doesn’t fully relieve Lyon of responsibility, does it?

(I have a huge meta write-up about Fomortiis in the works… for like, two years now. There is just so much meat to delve into.)