#mirris

[oananovicov]

"As Daenerys Targaryen rose to her feet, her black hissed, pale smoke venting from its mouth and nostrils. The other two pulled away from her breasts and added their voices to the call, translucent wings unfolding and stirring the air, and for the first time in hundreds of years, the night came alive with the music of dragons."

[ilona-art]

ESO Companion Portraits

[agentrouka-blog]

I find it infinitely fascinating that Dany - even outside a purely Targaryen context - follows the footsteps of her female ancestors and is married far too young, is pregnant with a prophecy baby, and would have likely died giving birth to a deformed stillborn half-dragon fetus. A disposable vessel for a flawed incarnation of war and conquest, given no room for her own desires, her own inherent worth.

And a healer saves her from this fate. She helps her survive the traumatic birth even though she is in conflict with Dany and her people, has been victimized by Dany and her people. Dany is allowed to escape the cycle of birthing a conqueror. Is allowed to escape the cycle of dying for men's ambition.

And then she turns that healer into a vessel for her weapon of war, burns her alive to birth herself a conqueror. Mirri screams in agony to give life to Dany's ambitions. The maternal sacrifice to Dany patriarchical consummation of her body and life.

Dany could have chosen a painful lesson and freedom. She chose to uphold the oppressive cycle, with herself at the top now. The half-human dead child fully replaced by reptiles that will kill for her within a year.

Mother, she calls herself.

[doodlefox2]

oops my hand slipped and accidentally landed on your beautiful rock hard abs

[rise-my-angel]

Why yes literally everything about Mirri Maz Duur is what causes me to call everything Dany does, especially in relation to slavery, into question because what Dany does or does not do to help slaves has always led to her recieving great amounts of power for herself and no one else.

Why was it alright for Dany to encite slaves to rebel against their masters but it wasn't alright for Mirri?

If Dany was sure Mirri did it on purpose why do they both seem to talk around the issue as if one of them is avoiding the truth and which one of them ultimately dies in the most, cruel, horrific of manners before that truth is revealed?

Why should Mirri care about Rhaego when his would be parents are still Mirri's masters/enslavers?

Why if Mirri didn't want to help did she give specific instructions to Drogo and Dany which are explicitly not followed and thus it gets worse naturally?

If Mirri wanted to always do this why did she try and warn Dany that allowing Drogo to die naturally would be a cleaner way, and only did it after her master told her to do it?

If burning Mirri was only about justice why does it seem to match terrifyingly close to the tragedy at Summerhall except she actually doesn't actually suffer ANY of the loses that Aegon did and she ONLY gets exactly what she wanted out of it? Which was dragons.

This isn't a fair execution of a criminal. This is Dany sacrificing her slave in a horrific fashion in order to try and recreate the attempt of reviving Dragons of Summerhall, under the guise of getting vengeance on her own slave who at worst, rebelled against her masters.

Mirri wasn't Dany getting vengeance. Dany used Mirri as an excuse to use blood magic to succeed where Aegon at Summerhall failed.

[saltywinteradult]

oh, d*ny stans. never change.

[blighted-elf]

The Elder Scrolls Online housing - Amaya Lake Lodge 2/?

[visenyaism]

hi mirri asker again. i'll preface this by saying that i think you're one of the best asoiaf writers around and i agree with 95% of your takes lol so please don't take this as me being a hater™

(i'll also add that i believe dany knew rhaego was the price for saving drogo and jorah going to the tent is what fucked up the ritual and left drogo mostly dead)

i just can't reconcile your interpretation of dany as specifically breaking the cycle / being the antithesis to all targaryens who came before her when the very first thing she does upon being given real power is burn her slave alive as a human sacrifice, which (assuming you believe rhaella and/or rhaegar were going to be sacrificed at Summerhall + Valyrians used slaves as blood sacrifices etc) is kinda the most Targ thing you could possibly do

(that also being said i don't think her murdering mirri is a sign of her being super dragon hitler like in the show but more her being a deeply traumatised child who was a slave like five seconds ago lashing out horrifically + acting out her visions)

I think my interpretation of what happened with mirri is pretty much just what you said in that last paragraph. I don’t think she was like calculating this at all. she was a super traumatized 15-year-old who just had a really horrible magically exacerbated stillbirth and was lashing out at the person who she thinks caused it. I don’t think it was an “I will sacrifice her to get dragons back” situation like summerhall. I think she just wanted her dead because she was extremely upset. which isn’t necessarily an ethical use of power but it’s also pretty understandable how someone would get to that point, especially if they are a child. 

I also don’t think that’s antithetical to dany’s role in the narrative as a liberator or a cyclebreaker. she does not always get it right and I think the broader arc of narrative is about how trying to change the world or create a better society can also do a lot of harm because it is dangerous it is an overwhelming task. i think bringing the dragons back is her entry into this stage of being a significant global actor with huge amounts of power and I think it’s a lot more narratively interesting to have that moment be ethically complicated because she killed mirri. magic has a cost as does power even if you intend to use it to help other people. I think that says a lot about who she is and who she’s going to be.

[duchessofferia]

ASOIAF bitches have made an entire genre of literary criticism out of twisting themselves into giant, angry knots over how unfair and misogynistic it is that such a huge swathe of women in this text get murdered or tortured or raped for the purpose of influencing the male characters’ storylines but you make a single inadequately deferential point about how many women of color are made to swallow up huge amounts of graphic, intense suffering for that same purpose in the service of white women and they turn into stupefied, pearl-clutching children who just can’t understand why you’re being so mean to their Stronk Female Lead Who Has Been Through So Much

[atopvisenyashill]

THEY matched each others freak, that’s why Marwyn tried to stop Qyburn from getting expelled from the Maesters, they got freaky next to a corpse in Oldtown

[adoriadreams]

Tysha and Mirri Maz Duur are two characters I feel like the fandom tends to erase the pain of in favor of the POV character (Tyrion and Dany).

Their not really viewed as people but an arc/character development for Dany and Tyrion and the more I think about it the more I hate it.

Tysha was raped and abuse by Tywin, she got no justice, but that's all glossed over in favor of highlighting how unfairly Tywin treats Tyrion and his hatred for his son, and Tyrion's trauma. No doubt the event was traumatic for Tyrion but the way people choose to only focus on Tyrion's trauma while ignoring Tysha is disturbing and disappointing. I have also seen people shipping them and wanting a reunion and for them to marry again but let's not forget Tyrion abused her. He raped her. Yes, Tywin forced him but it still happened and Tysha doesn't deserve to relive that trauma so Tyrion can find peace and redemption.

Mirri was raped, abused and witness the murder and rape of her people but that's all glossed over as well in favor of highlighting Dany coming into power. Beating her first 'Villian' and dealing with her first 'Betrayal'. Mirri did not owe Dany any loyalty because Dany saved her by making Mirri her slave. At the end of the day a slave is still a slave, even if their master is kind. The fact that people villianize Mirri for something they would praise Dany for is telling enough. And the fact that they think Mirri should be ever grateful Dany 'saved' her is disturbing. Also Mirri was still abused even after Dany 'saved' her. The idea that Mirri did something villainous by rebelling( killing Drogo. Still have no proof she actually did it) against her master is the idea that slaves have no right to rebell/desire freedom. The fandom perception around Mirri Maz Duur is disappointing . (Maybe it's the way GRRM wrote it or maybe it's because the fandom is mostly white.)

Justice for Tysha and Mirri Maz Duur.

I rambled alot in this one.

[flying-ham]

It’s interesting that mirri maz duur (whether on purpose or inadvertently) kills rhaego to prevent future suffering he and his khalasar might commit, but ultimately causes the birth of a much more destructive entity. She tells dany that, “The stallion who mounts the world will burn no cities now. His khalasar will trample no nations into dust,” after the stillbirth, believing that rhaego would become a Genghis Khan esque figure in essos. However, it is rhaego’s sacrifice that quickens dany’s eggs, allowing drogon, viserion, and rhaegal to be born. In the end, mirri gives dany far more power than she ever would have had under drogo and rhaego, and far more destructive capabilities.

[doodlefox2]

leila & mirri

[thaliajoy-blog]

Rereading the Dany part of AGOT exclusively has led me to yet unforeseen places of discomfort like the whole Dany & Mirri Maz Duur story even surface level is very tragic & I'm obsessed by what is there what is underneath the surface and what could be in that dynamic (maybe I'll get into it another day) but the tenth Dany pov chapter in the novel is harrowing before the pyre starts because you see the contrast between how Mirri and Drogo are treated and it's distressing. Mirri is tied to a the pyre and whiped so she stops talking. Drogo is washed and clothed lovingly by Daenerys, she even speaks to him, apologizes to him, feels fondly about him, tries to give him a real king's funeral. But it makes sense, tragic sense. Mirri put Dany in an incredibly miserable & and vulnerable place. She murders Drogo & Rhaego. She is more than Dany's ennemy but Dany is not in a position that would make her want to forgive those actions, even based Mirri's trauma that Dany knows all too well about. So it's this fucked up thing where the birth of the dragon is preceded by an hommage by Dany to a man who is very obviously monstrous in GRRM's writing - Mirri murdered a child out of vengeance, but Drogo lead the killing, traumatizing & enslavement of many more children simply because it was in his power. And Dany loves him (and even names a dragon after her - I'm sorry Drogon there's that aside from the fact that your name is pretty stupid my sweet baby), a frightened love born out of the need to not just die from her awful situation as the teenage bride of a warlord. I'm thinking about how like Irri & Jhiqui still see themselves as slaves despite everything Dany does to delegitimize slavery ; in her continued fondness towards Drogo Dany kind of refuses to see her chains and her past victimization.

And it all comes back to Mirri, this monstrous victim, this wise demon, the maegi, the magic teacher, the one who cannot be forgiven. Tied to the pyre. Unwilling witness to Dany's marriage with the fire. This benefits us all to wonder & mourn and ponder about how complex & mindfucked GRRM made this situation (and I kind of love it as it is) rather than to designate one victim & one abuser and rant about how the fandom at large doesn't realize how really innocent one is and how really evil the other is.

Surge of thought on mirri lately brought to you by my obsession with Epic the Musical and how the Horse & the Infant, Just a Man and Ruthlessness kinda fit her I think.

[aegor-bamfsteel]

It may be a HC that will never be confirmed, but I believe that Daenerys's dragon eggs hatched because she sacrificed a live woman on a pyre, who happened to be a slave for "conquest" (like the ones her valyrian ancestors killed by thousands) just as I believe that dragon fetuses are because of experiments to create chimeras. Maybe that's how dragonbind works, giving a life in exchange for claiming a dragon

I think you’re right that dragon binding/hatching/chimeras involve blood sacrifice; a lot of what we know of ASOIAF magic involves it (not just dragons; but the Red priests use blood to create winds and curses; it seems certain people can see the future after ingesting blood; the Children of the Forest allegedly created the Neck and the Broken Arm using a mass blood sacrifice). It’s GRRM’s fantasy way of exploring how certain people gained fantastic power by exploiting, dehumanizing and killing others. Jorah finding Dæny “surrounded by blackened logs and bits of glowing ember and the burnt bones of man and woman and stallion” seems compelling that given dragons are “fire made flesh” all 3 were used to hatch them (and maybe Dány, she’s surrounded by an eggshell of dying fire and dead flesh herself). Then there’s the dragonhorn that needs to be claimed with blood and seems to burn whoever blows it (if what Moqorro is saying is true), which could be evidence that another “fire and flesh” ritual involving human sacrifice is needed to control dragons just as it is to hatch them. Mirri mocked Dány killing the horse for Drogo, saying “by itself the blood means nothing”, was defiant when Dàny had her bound to the pyre and dumping oil on her like kindling, but once Dàny had her bound to the pyre and said “it is not your screams I want, only your life. I remember what you told me. Only death can pay for life” she became afraid. It’s the intentional, agonizing ritual immolation of another person that can bring forth dragons. This kind of mentality is based on dehumanizing others (literally killing them and using their body/spirit to make a weapon) for power, which, you’re right, does overlap with slavery and conquest.