Dany will NOT fight the Others

[Game Of Thrones]

Or it could point to a parallel between Dunk (a big, strong, fiercely loyal hedge knight who was thick as a castle wall) and Victarion (a big, strong, fiercely loyal captain who is thick as a castle wall).

Well, Vic didn't sacrifice maidens or drown maesters for ridiculous reasons....

[Jon's Queen Consort]

I kind of agree. I believe that is obvious that Dany will not physically, by herself, fight the Others since she is not a warrior. Also for various reasons I don't believe that she will fight the Others with dragons, or she will not fight them throughout the war.

[Game Of Thrones]

Or it could point to a parallel between Dunk (a big, strong, fiercely loyal hedge knight who was thick as a castle wall) and Victarion (a big, strong, fiercely loyal captain who is thick as a castle wall).

Well, Dunk didn't sacrifice maidens or drown maesters for ridiculous reasons....

[NorthernXY]

I'm going to chalk this up to the "Dany is crazy crowd" vs "Dany is the PTWP crowd".

The only dragon that will help the North will be the one Bran wargs into. I don't think anyone seriously believes that when BR tells Bran he'll never walk again, but he will fly, he's talking about ravens/crows.

[Mithras]

She took another sip of water, laid her cup aside, blinked and stretched and rose from her chair, her muscles sore and stiff. After gazing into the flames so long, it took her a few moments to adjust to the dimness. Her eyes were dry and tired, but if she rubbed them, it would only make them worse.

Her fire had burned low, she saw. “Devan, more wood. What hour is it?”

“Almost dawn, my lady.”

Dawn. Another day is given us, R’hllor be praised. The terrors of the night recede.

While Mel spent the night looking at the flames and misunderstanding what was going on, she did not realize the passing of time. The dawn was almost come and her fire was burning low. Mel said the fire of Stannis burned too low after fathering two shadow assassins that she dare not force him to father another one without killing him. This is a symbolic way of saying that her death will be close before the Dawn comes.

Mel was sore and stiff when she rose from her chair.

The next morning she [Dany] woke stiff and sore and aching, with ants crawling on her arms and legs and face.

That is exactly what happened to Dany when she slept through the night and the ants coming from the other side of the wall attacked her. Comparing Dany and Mel, this foreshadows that Dany will not understand what is going on (just like the good-intentioned Mel fucks up everything) and she will “sleep” through the Long Night. The coming of the Dawn will take place no thanks to her.

[mormont]

Two people, for different reasons, being stiff and sore does not constitute foreshadowing.

[Mithras]

Not only do we have the dream about fighting an army covered in ice, we have the vision of the blue rose in the wall of ice (i.e.she will go to the Wall and meet Jon) and we have the author saying the major characters will all come to the same place towards the end of the story.

Jon has a dream in which he is armored in black ice. Does that mean he will be an Other? I don't think so because he was fighting with a burning blade. I don't think the "Usurper's Host armored in ice" points to the Others.

Show spoiler

Also the HOTU scene where she goes beyond on the Wall. Love to hear what she would be doing beyond the Wall other than fighting the Others?

Show spoiler

Dying from childbirth. That is clearly the afterlife.

[Kienn]

The ants are more likely the Wildlings. Just as other types of insects represent other groups of people (I.e. wasps are ineffectual lords/ladies at court).

This is also around the time Dany interacts with several kinds of literal insects to foreshadow future interactions with all those groups.

No impact upon whether she fights or ignores the WW IMO

[Suzanna Stormborn]

Two people, for different reasons, being stiff and sore does not constitute foreshadowing.

haha, nice. I completely agree.

[George48]

Here's a small joke:

Dany will not fight the Others, she will just land with the biggest army in the history of Westeros at the end of a A Dream of Sping. She will then see that Westeros is in ruines after the Others were pushed back once more by whoever was alive at that time. Seeing that there is almost nothing left she'll just say. "You know what? Let's not conquer Westeros. It's a silly place" and return to Essos

[Hodor's Dragon]

My interpretation of the ants is that they are ants. They show up because Dany slept on the ground. Dany slept on the ground and got covered with ants to give us a gritty depiction of how low she has been brought, physically, from her recent digs atop the great pyramid, with servants and an army.

Tactile details bring fiction to life. Ants are a great tactile detail. Doesn't it make your skin crawl even to read about somebody waking up covered with ants? Nothing brings sleeping on the ground to life like ants. That's why the ants are there, and while it's not inconceivable that they might pull double duty foreshadowing this, that or the other, it's absolutely impossible to pick out whether a detail like that does or does not foreshadow something and, if so, what. Predictions formed on such a shallow basis aren't worth taking time to analyze.

Just my opinion, but 90%+ of the time spent on this forum discussing what certain language "foreshadows" is a waste of brain power.

[Stannis's Lawyer]

haha, nice. I completely agree.

Not to mention the fact that it's 'sore and stiff' vs. 'stiff and sore', and that these two words aren't exactly the least used words in the English language.

[kimim]

My interpretation of the ants is that they are ants. They show up because Dany slept on the ground. Dany slept on the ground and got covered with ants to give us a gritty depiction of how low she has been brought, physically, from her recent digs atop the great pyramid, with servants and an army.

Tactile details bring fiction to life. Ants are a great tactile detail. Doesn't it make your skin crawl even to read about somebody waking up covered with ants? Nothing brings sleeping on the ground to life like ants. That's why the ants are there, and while it's not inconceivable that they might pull double duty foreshadowing this, that or the other, it's absolutely impossible to pick out whether a detail like that does or does not foreshadow something and, if so, what. Predictions formed on such a shallow basis aren't worth taking time to analyze.

Just my opinion, but 90%+ of the time spent on this forum discussing what certain language "foreshadows" is a waste of brain power.

I'm tempted to go with this but for the fact that the wall ants crawl over reminds Dany of THE wall. Sooo...probably some foreshadowing going on, along with everything you're saying.

[Mithras]

My interpretation of the ants is that they are ants. They show up because Dany slept on the ground. Dany slept on the ground and got covered with ants to give us a gritty depiction of how low she has been brought, physically, from her recent digs atop the great pyramid, with servants and an army.

Tactile details bring fiction to life. Ants are a great tactile detail. Doesn't it make your skin crawl even to read about somebody waking up covered with ants? Nothing brings sleeping on the ground to life like ants. That's why the ants are there, and while it's not inconceivable that they might pull double duty foreshadowing this, that or the other, it's absolutely impossible to pick out whether a detail like that does or does not foreshadow something and, if so, what. Predictions formed on such a shallow basis aren't worth taking time to analyze.

Just my opinion, but 90%+ of the time spent on this forum discussing what certain language "foreshadows" is a waste of brain power.

What about the HotU vision about the woman and the rats? Do rats eat you if you sleep on the ground? Was that vision supposed to teach Dany this?

[MoIaF]

What about the HotU vision about the woman and the rats? Do rats eat you if you sleep on the ground? Was that vision supposed to teach Dany this?

What rats are you referring to? Or do you mean the men with the rattish faces ravishing the woman?

“In one room, a beautiful woman sprawled naked on the floor while four little men crawled over her. They had rattish pointed faces and tiny pink hands, like the servitor who had brought her the glass of shade. One was pumping between her thighs. Another savaged her breasts, worrying at the nipples with his wet red mouth, tearing and chewing…”

[Hodor's Dragon]

What about the HotU vision about the woman and the rats? Do rats eat you if you sleep on the ground? Was that vision supposed to teach Dany this?

A vision in a magical house of warlocks is a different story from an authorial description of mundane physical events. Plus we know that there was something to the HOTU visions because they showed Dany things that readers knew were (or would be) so but Dany did not.

As far as what that particular vision means, are you talking about rat-faced men? I'm not the one to ask; I read an internet interpretation that the woman is Westeros and the men are the 5 kings, but meh, maybe.

Very generally, and I'm not saying there are no exceptions, I'm way more inclined to "analyze" dreams and visions for future story clues than to analyze story events that way.

[The King in Black]

Dude, just give up

[Mithras]

Dany is not AAR. She does not have any investment in the war against the Others. It has been 5 books already and she does not know anything about them. She will be occupied with the Second Dance.

In short, it is not happening.

Oh, before Dany fans swarm the thread and bring the only thing they can use to “prove” that Dany will fight the Others, let me give that myself.

That night she dreamt that she was Rhaegar, riding to the Trident. But she was mounted on a dragon, not a horse. When she saw the Usurper’s rebel host across the river they were armored all in ice, but she bathed them in dragonfire and they melted away like dew and turned the Trident into a torrent.

This is the ONLY piece of “evidence” that can be brought up when arguing that Dany will fight the Others. And it is only when you take this dream at face value. Dreams and prophecies are seldom literal and they might have multiple interpretations. Though Dany fans love to take everything at face value because Dany fulfilled everything about the AAR prophecy at face value.

“The men of the winterlands are made of iron and ice, and even my boldest knights fear to face them.”

A very plausible explanation of Dany’s dream is that Usurper’s host armored in ice is Stannis with the Northmen (described metaphorically as made of ice) following him.

In addition, “melting away” before the dragons is exactly what the Dornish did to defeat Rhaenys. I really don’t see why this dream represents a victory instead of defeat. In the real setting of the dream, Rhaegar was killed by the Usurper.

Another important aspect of this dream is that it is not necessarily a normal prophetic dragon dream. Quaithe is using a glass candle and it is possible to send visions to a person by using glass candles. Dany woke up from this dream in the middle of the night and Quaithe appeared immediately after and told her this:

“Remember. To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.”

If anything, that dream should be related to what Quaithe said afterwards. Rhaegar rode North to the Trident to his death. Quaithe started by warning Dany not to do the same.

Above is the OP without the ants foreshadowing. This is for those who reduce my theory to only ants.

[Mithras]

Two people, for different reasons, being stiff and sore does not constitute foreshadowing.

A vision in a magical house of warlocks is a different story from an authorial description of mundane physical events. Plus we know that there was something to the HOTU visions because they showed Dany things that readers knew were (or would be) so but Dany did not.

As far as what that particular vision means, are you talking about rat-faced men? I'm not the one to ask; I read an internet interpretation that the woman is Westeros and the men are the 5 kings, but meh, maybe.

Very generally, and I'm not saying there are no exceptions, I'm way more inclined to "analyze" dreams and visions for future story clues than to analyze story events that way.

I don't think context matters in the foreshadowing we find in ASOIAF.

[Mithras]

What rats are you referring to? Or do you mean the men with the rattish faces ravishing the woman?

“In one room, a beautiful woman sprawled naked on the floor while four little men crawled over her. They had rattish pointed faces and tiny pink hands, like the servitor who had brought her the glass of shade. One was pumping between her thighs. Another savaged her breasts, worrying at the nipples with his wet red mouth, tearing and chewing…”

Thanks for nitpicking.