Exploring the similarities between Daenerys and Bran

[MoIaF]

NOTE: The OP is a work in progress please return to the main page to see the updates.

We have been discussing in the Dany, the Dragonlord, and the Dragonbond thread the similarities between the bonding of a rider to their dragon and the boding of a warg to his/her wolf. While discussing this we realized that there are many similarities between Dany and Bran and I thought it would be a good idea to explore these similarities.

This isn't a theory thread; at this point it'll be an information gathering thread. I'll note below the points we have already gather and would appreciate anyone examples of further similarities between these two characters. If you could provide book and chapter, that would be great.

I would really appreciate it also if you are going to participate in the thread it is in good faith, there is no need to flame the thread if you don't like the topic. Thank you.

Beginning & End

• The first chapter of AGOT is Brans (Bran I). In it the Stark children (including Jon) received their direwolves.
• The last chapter of AGOT is Danys (Daenerys X). In it she walks into the pyre of fire and hatches her 3 dragons.

Ice and Fire

• Bran II ASOS (he is talking with Meera and Jojen) Hat tip HelenaAndTheMachine

Bran made a face at her. “But you just said you hated them.”

“Why can’t it be both?” Meera reached up to pinch his nose.

“Because they’re different,” he insisted. “Like night and day, or ice and fire.”

“If ice can burn,” said Jojen in his solemn voice, “then love and hate can mate. Mountain or marsh, it makes no matter. The land is one.”

• Dany IV ACOK (The House of The Undying)

“He has a song,” the man replied. “He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.”

The Song

• In Catelyn III (AGOT) while Bran is in his coma, the wolves begin howl Catelyn wants to close the window, but Robb stops her:

Outside the tower, a wolf began to howl. Catelyn trembled, just for a second. Brans. Robb opened the window and let the night air into the stuffy tower room. The howling grew louder. It was a cold and lonely sound, full of melancholy and despair. Don't, she told him. Bran needs to stay warm. He needs to hear them sing, Robb said. Somewhere out in Winterfell, a second wolf began to howl in chorus with the first. Then a third, closer. Shaggydog and Grey Wind, Robb said as their voices rose and fell together. You can tell them apart if you listen close.

• In Dany III (AGOT) she contemplates suicide. After her marriage to Khal Drogo they headed off immediately to Vaes Dothrak. Dany was unaccustomed to that much riding, and Khal Drogo was riding her a night harshly. Life was unbearable until this dream:

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.

Fly or Die

I want to note that both Bran and Dany are forced to fly in order to get away from the ice/cold. They both sense that the ice/cold is their enemy.

• In Bran III (AGOT) we see his dream before he wakes from his coma:

There was nothing below him now but snow and cold and death, a frozen wasteland where jagged blue-white spires of ice waited to embrace him. They flew up at him like spears. He saw the bones of a thousand other dreamers impaled upon their points. He was desperately afraid. Can a man still be brave if hes afraid? he heard his own voice saying, small and far away. And his fathers voice replied to him. That is the only time a man can be brave. Now, Bran, the crow urged. Choose. Fly or die.

Death reached for him, screaming. Bran spread his arms and flew. Wings unseen drank the wind and filled and pulled him upward. The terrible needles of ice receded below him. The sky opened up above. Bran soared. It was better than climbing. It was better than anything. The world grew small beneath him

• In Dany IX (AGOT) before she wakes from her fever after her miscarriage she has this dream:

The last dragon, he whispered, thin as a wisp, and was gone. She felt the dark behind her, and the red door seemed farther away than ever. ... If it caught her she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness. She began to run. ... don't want to wake the dragon She could feel the heat inside her, a terrible burning in her womb. ..

And Daenerys Targaryen flew. wake the dragon 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.

Our Ancestors

Dany IX AGOT

"Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade. Faster, they cried, faster, faster. She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. Faster! the ghosts cried as one, and she screamed and threw herself forward. 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."

Bran VII AGOT

Do you recall your history, Bran? the maester said as they walked. Tell Osha who they were and what they did, if you can. He looked at the passing faces and the tales came back to him. The maester had told him the stories, and Old Nan had made them come alive. That one is Jon Stark. When the sea raiders landed in the east, he drove them out and built the castle at White Harbor . His son was Rickard Stark, not my fathers father but another Rickard, he took the Neck away from the Marsh King and married his daughter.

Theon Starks the real thin one with the long hair and the skinny beard. They called him the Hungry Wolf, because he was always at war. Thats a Brandon, the tall one with the dreamy face, he was Brandon the Shipwright, because he loved the sea. His tomb is empty. He tried to sail west across the Sunset Sea and was never seen again. His son was Brandon the Burner, because he put the torch to all his fathers ships in grief. Theres Rodrik Stark , who won Bear Island in a wrestling match and gave it to the Mormonts.

And thats Torrhen Stark, the King Who Knelt . He was the last King in the North and the first Lord of Winterfell, after he yielded to Aegon the Conqueror. Oh, there , hes Cregan Stark. He fought with Prince Aemon once, and the Dragonknight said hed never faced a finer swordsman. They were almost at the end now, and Bran felt a sadness creeping over him . And theres my grandfather, Lord Rickard, who was beheaded by Mad King Aerys.

His daughter Lyanna and his son Brandon are in the tombs beside him. Not me, another Brandon, my fathers brother. Theyre not supposed to have statues, thats only for the lords and the kings, but my father loved them so much he had them done.

Here both Bran and Dany see their ancestors as they go down long hallways, they are passing them by. This will become very important in their future development. Bran is underground in the crypts when he passes his ancestors and Dany in her dream is running down a long hallways in which will lead her to become a dragon and fly. Both Bran and Dany find themselves in these places (underground and in flight) by the end of ADWD.

Sad, Cold, & Lonely

• I'm going to re-quote Catelyn III (AGOT) to show similarities in the description of the wolfs howl.

Outside the tower, a wolf began to howl. Catelyn trembled, just for a second. Brans. Robb opened the window and let the night air into the stuffy tower room. The howling grew louder. It was a cold and lonely sound, full of melancholy and despair.

• In Dany X (ADWD) she hears the howl of a wolf and describes it:

"Off in the distance, a wolf howled. The sound made her feel sad and lonely, but no less hungry."

Trips & Visions

• In Bran III (ADWD) the three-eyed crow teaches Bran how to use the weirwoods to look into the past. In order to open his green seeing gift he is feed a weirwoods paste.

• In Dany IV (ACOK) she goes to the House of the Undying, there she experiences many vision. In order to be prepared for the visions within she is given a glass of shades of the evening.

Here is a comparison of Dany's experience in the HOTU and Bran's experience in the cave written by poster Jojen:

Dany is told that many enter the House of the Undying, but few leave again. Bloodraven’s cave contains the bones of animals, giants, and children, suggesting that many entered—or were brought—and died there. We don’t know if any escaped.

Dany is told by Pyat Pree, “Leaving and coming, it is the same. Always up.” For Bran, it’s the opposite, at least when entering the cave. When and if he leaves, we could assume it’s by going back up, but perhaps, like Dany, it won’t be the same way he arrived.

Pyat Pree tells her she’ll see “Sights and sounds of days gone by and days to come and day that never were.” She sees her home in Braavos, and later her father. Bran sees the past and perhaps the future through the weirwoods, including his father at Winterfell.

She’s also told that “our little lives are no more than the flicker of a moth’s wing” to the Undying. BR tells Bran that to a weirwood, “seasons pass in the flutter of a moth’s wing.”

Both are treated to music. Dany is welcomed by a “splendor of wizards” and “the most beautiful music she had ever heard.” Bran hears the music of the Children singing with voices “as pure as the winter air.”

As beautiful as the music is, there’s a pervading sense of death and decay in both the House of the Undying and Bloodraven’s cave. The rooms in the House of the Undying are gloomy and faded, and grow darker as Dany proceeds. As Bran descends the dark and shadowy passages beneath the earth, he thinks All the color is gone. At one point, Pyat Pree appears to Dany inside the House and his face turns pale and wormlike. Bran initially mistakes the roots of the weirwood trees to be milk snakes or giant grave worms. Dany passes through a door of ebony and weirwood. For Bran, “the world was black soil and white wood.”

Beyond light and dark, black and white, each place also has one other color associated with it. With the House of the Undying, it’s blue—the leaves of the trees outside (from which Shade of the Evening is produced, which tastes like all the things you've tasted before, and some you haven't) are blue; the Undying themselves are blue shadows; and the heart of the Undying pulses blue. Above Bloodraven’s cave, the wights have icy blue eyes, but the weirwood trees have red leaves, Bloodraven’s eye and his birthmark are red, Bran, Jojen, and Meera eat blood stew, and Bran eats a paste with red veins (of actual blood or only weirwood sap) running through it. The paste seems to taste sort of like Shade of the Evening, of flavors familiar to him. At first its bitter, but then becomes sweet, and reminds Bran of "the last kiss his mother ever gave him."

Red and blue….Fire and ice?

ETA: The wights outside of BR's cave are destroyed by fire. The Undying are also destroyed by fire

Shades of the Evening and Weirwood Paste

• “Dany raised the glass to her lips. The first sip tasted like ink and spoiled meat, foul, but when she swallowed, it seemed to come to life within her. She could feel tendrils spreading through her chest, like fingers of fire coiling around her heart, and on her tongue the taste was like honey and anise and cream, like mother's milk and Drogo's seed, like red meat and hot blood and molten gold. It was like all the tastes she had ever known, and none of them . . . and then the glass was empty.”

• “It had a bitter taste, though not so bitter as the acorn paste. The first spoonful was the hardest to get down. He almost retched it right back up. The second tasted better. The third was almost sweet. The rest he spooned up eagerly. Why had he thought that it was bitter? It tasted of honey, of new-fallen snow, of pepper and cinnamon and the last kiss his mother gave him. The empty bowl slipped from his fingers and clattered on the floor.”

The descriptions of how Dany and Bran experience these drinks is very similar. What at firs tasted bitter and spoiled becomes rich and sweet, like honey. Both of these substances are meant to allow both Dany and Bran to expand their senses in order to understand what they are about to see and experience.

Spiritual Mentors (In Progress):

• Bran's spiritual mentor is Bloodraven

• Dany's spiritual mentor is Quaithe

Bloodraven has been a much more useful mentor to Bran than Quaithe to Dany. I think this is because Bran has been more open to accepting his abilities than Dany has been to accepting and embracing her inner dragon.

Marriage

• Bran III (ADWD) he describes his connection to the weirwood as a marriage:

Will this make me a greenseer?
Your blood makes you a greenseer, said Lord Brynden. This will help awaken your gifts and wed you to the trees.
"Bran did not want to be married to a tree but who else would wed a broken boy like him? A thousand eyes, a hundred skins, wisdom deep as the roots of ancient trees. A greenseer.

• Dany X (AGOT) when she enters the pyre it is described by her as a wedding:

"The flames writhe before her like the women who had danced at her wedding, whirling and singing and spinning their yellow and orange and crimson veils, fearsome to behold, yet lovely, so lovely, alive with heat. Dany opened her arms to them, her skin flushed and glowing. this is a wedding, too, she though."

Through the back door

Brand and Dany are trying to reach their destinations but are noble to because their passage is blocked. However, with the help of others they are shown a "back door" to go through. Note: these are back to back chapters. (Hat Tip: OnionAhaiReborn)

Bran IV (ASOS Chapter 56)

“How did you get through the Wall?” Jojen demanded as Sam struggled to his feet. “Does the well lead to an underground river, is that where you came from? You’re not even wet . . .”

“There’s a gate,” said fat Sam. “A hidden gate, as old as the Wall itself. The Black Gate, he called it.”

Dany V (ASOS Chapter 57)

“Dany had left a trail of corpses behind her when she crossed the red waste. It was a sight she never meant to see again. “No,” she said. “I will not march my people off to die.” My children. “There must be some way into this city.”

“I know a way.” Brown Ben Plumm stroked his speckled grey-and-white beard. “Sewers.”

Becoming the Beast

Daenerys IX AGOT (Chapter 68) - This is in her prophetic dream before she wakes up from her miscarriage. After she becomes a dragon and is able to fly away, she thinks the fallowing:

And Daenerys Targaryen flew. wake the dragon 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.

Bran I ASOS (Chapter 9) - While warged into Summer he thinks the following:

Prince of the green, prince of the wolfswood. He was strong and swift and fierce, and all the lived in the good green world went in fear of him.

In the Dark

Hat tip to Lady of Dragonstonefor finding these passages:

Bran III ASOS

"By night all cloaks are black, Your Grace." - Jojen Reed

Daenerys XI ASOS

"By night, all the doors are black." - Daenerys Targaryen

Lady D. has an excellent interpretation for both of these so I'll just quote it here:

"When Jojen tells Bran that "all cloaks are black," he's giving Bran negative reinforcement at that moment. Bran is hopeful that the men are men of the NW, thinking that they would not harm their group if they came upon them. But Jojen tells Bran that by night it is hard to tell a friend from a foe, which I believe is another recurring theme of the books ("the night is dark and full of terrors").

I'm not so sure about Daenerys' quote, however. She is looking at her city, and she is looking for the house with the red door "but by night, all doors are black." The same theme of "the night is dark and full of terrors."

Worth noting is that while Bran is told this, Daenerys comes to this realization by herself. Also worth noting is that Daenerys associates comfort and positivity with the red door the same way Bran does with the black cloaks/NW/Jon and Benjen - both are symbols of home, a home they've lost. Both Bran and Daenerys are denied this comfort at the moment... the comfort of belonging, perhaps. But while Bran is denied this comfort by external forces, Daenerys is denied this comfort by her own self. Those are just some quick thoughts on this parallel."

*** *** ***

TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN

Here I'll document the contrast between the two characters.

A Royal Throne

We have see throughout he books that ebony and weir wood are used in unison. On the door of the smith who Gendry apprentice under, in the House of the Undying and in the House of Black and White.

Dany III ADWD (Chapter 16)

"She received the merchant prince alone, seated on her bench of polished ebony..."

Barristan II ADWD (Chapter 59)

"Daenerys Targaryen had preferred to hold court from a bench of polished ebony, smooth and simple..."

Bran III ADWD (Chapter 34)

"Under the hill, the broken boy sat upon a weirwood throne, listening to whispers in the dark as ravens walked up and down his arms."

[Kienn]

Nice looking forward to more. Even Arya's blindness-milk has seemed similar to Dany's shade of the evening and Bran's paste.

[Suzanna Stormborn]

I completely agree there are a ton of similarities. Not only between Dany and Bran, but with the 'dragonlords' and the wargs. It seems like in ASOIAF humans who form a bond with their animals (dragon, wolf, cat) are privy to something no one else will ever hear; that animals song. There is a deep bond between the Starks and their wolves, just like Dany and her dragons. I will have to have my books in front of me to gather more information for this thread:)

[Nictarion]

MoIaF

Very interesting. I've honestly never thought of Dany having any similarities to Bran, but this is a good start. I know your doing a re-read on Dany currently, I'll be interested to see if you find more between her and Bran.

[Queen‍‍‍‍‍‍ Alysanne‍‍™]

I've been waiting for a thread like this MOIAF, so happy you made :D

They actually have a lot in common.

I'll also add that they both have spiritual guides, guiding them throughout the story.

[Nictarion]

I'll also add that they both have spiritual guides, guiding them throughout the story.

Good point.

There is that crackpot theory that Quaithe is Sheria Seastar, if true (probably unlikely) the 2 guides would be connected.

[Masha's apron]

I have to say ... respect to the thinking, Noble. I likes it.

[MoIaF]

Thank you everybody!

They really do have more in common than one expects. Once we have all the examples we are able to gather a theory can be developed.

For now, I'm just gathering information. Thank you Queen A. Illl add that to the OP.

[MoIaF]

MoIaF

Very interesting. I've honestly never thought of Dany having any similarities to Bran, but this is a good start. I know your doing a re-read on Dany currently, I'll be interested to see if you find more between her and Bran.

I wasn't really thinking about this until a few weeks ago when it came up in a blog post I was responding to. I might have to go back and see what I missed in the previous Dany chapters. From now on I'm keeping my eyes peeled. :D

[MoIaF]

I've made a couple of additions.

Q. Alysanne I added the spiritual mentor connection.

Also, jentario and Paper Waver brought up in the foreshadowing thread the connection of marriage the two share. Bran to the weirwood tree and Dany to fire. Thanks!

[jentario]

Interesting post!

[Arya kiddin']

This is an awesome post Maester!! :o

It's true that the stories of the supposed champions of ice and fire runs in so much parallel. It would be interesting to note if Jon somehow takes the middle route.

I've been waiting for a thread like this MOIAF, so happy you made :D

They actually have a lot in common.

I'll also add that they both have spiritual guides, guiding them throughout the story.

Yes. Bloodraven and Quaithe. If you believe Quaithe is Shierra, then their daughter Melisandre is guarding Jon, painting a pretty nice picture of balance.

[Suzanna Stormborn]

This is an awesome post Maester!! :o

It's true that the stories of the supposed champions of ice and fire runs in so much parallel. It would be interesting to note if Jon somehow takes the middle route.

Yes. Bloodraven and Quaithe. If you believe Quaithe is Shierra, then their daughter Melisandre is guarding Jon, painting a pretty nice picture of balance.

Wait, what? this is a new one, Mel is the daughter of Shiera Seastar and Bloodraven?? Please give me the link to that thread :)

[OnionAhaiReborn]

“How did you get through the Wall?” Jojen demanded as Sam struggled to his feet. “Does the well lead to an underground river, is that where you came from? You’re not even wet . . .”
“There’s a gate,” said fat Sam. “A hidden gate, as old as the Wall itself. The Black Gate, he called it.”

“Dany had left a trail of corpses behind her when she crossed the red waste. It was a sight she never meant to see again. “No,” she said. “I will not march my people off to die.” My children. “There must be some way into this city.”
“I know a way.” Brown Ben Plumm stroked his speckled grey-and-white beard. “Sewers.”

These passages come from back-to-back chapters. Both Bran and Dany face blocked passage to a place they want to go, and both are told of a 'back door' entrance.

[The Dragon has three heads]

Good pick up.

Both are contenders for fulfilling the ptwp prophecy too.

Not a coincidence.

[Arya kiddin']

Wait, what? this is a new one, Mel is the daughter of Shiera Seastar and Bloodraven?? Please give me the link to that thread :)

Here you go.

[Elan Morin Tedronai]

They both travel with 'large'men too! Hodor and Khal Drogo. Jon as well as he travels with Tormund.

3 heads of the dragon confirmed

Seriously though, good find!

[MoIaF]

Quote

Quote

These passages come from back-to-back chapters. Both Bran and Dany face blocked passage to a place they want to go, and both are told of a 'back door' entrance.

These are great! Thank you OnionAhaiReborn!

I'll add them tonight.

[MoIaF]

Update!

[OberynBA]

I completely agree there are a ton of similarities. Not only between Dany and Bran, but with the 'dragonlords' and the wargs. It seems like in ASOIAF humans who form a bond with their animals (dragon, wolf, cat) are privy to something no one else will ever hear; that animals song. There is a deep bond between the Starks and their wolves, just like Dany and her dragons. I will have to have my books in front of me to gather more information for this thread:)

Lannisters don't have lions as their pets though! (May be because they(Starks & Targeryans) are rebel alliances to ovethrow the empire and Lannisters have a kingdom to rule. I guess that the writer thought the relationship with the animals would add to the nuances of a world building (any world would be worst without animal loving). I also think the choice he made (wolves and dragons and Dog too - no stags or lions) is something to ponder.