Where is Daenerys going?

[The Bastard of Walton]

Hoefully by the end of WOW she will be at least in Pentos!

[Zman1863]

She will make it eventually. As others have said, the series is about Westeros. I think GRRM has said that he has never had a purely Essos chapter in the series because he considers it a Westeros based saga. I can't see the point of spending all this time with Dany if she was never going to get there. Ultimately, her climax of confusion in ADWD will lead to clarity or purpose.

I do worry that her arriving at the end of WoW or the beginning of aDoS will make the final part of the story seem rushed compared to the slow pace of the rest.

[WardenOfTheNerds]

Why would she go to Westeros or take care of her dragons? She is happily wed in Meereen, pls let her stay there and die.

[Ded As Ned]

...I do worry that her arriving at the end of WoW or the beginning of aDoS will make the final part of the story seem rushed compared to the slow pace of the rest.

Nah, over the next 4 or 5 books it won't seem rushed at all I'm sure. :smoking:

[Suzanna Stormborn]

She is about to blast her old Kahl foe's in the face with dragon fire, then take over the khalasar and head to Vaes Dothrak for some prophecy fulfilling something or other and then back to Mereen with another horde to add to the battle. She will be a khaleesi again.

[GeorgeIAF]

where the whores go :)) jk

[mister_white_walker]

I would actually love it if the next book was devotedly completely to her travels, something akin to "Oh, The Places You'll Go".

[Jaehaerys Targaryen]

Dany leapt onto his back. She stank of blood and sweat and fear, but none of that mattered. “To go forward I must go back,” she said. Her bare legs tightened around the dragon’s neck. She kicked him, and Drogon threw himself into the sky. A Dance with Dragons Last chapter, Daenerys.

She refers to the last part of the prophesy:

"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"

Now she is heading to Vaes Dothrak and she would be recognized as "the Grand Khaleeshi" of Vaes Dothrak.

Behind a silver horse the bloody corpse of a naked man bounced and dragged. A white lion ran through grass taller than a man. Beneath the Mother of Mountains, a line of naked crones crept from a great lake and knelt shivering before her, their grey heads bowed. A Clash of Kings, Daenerys, Chapter IV

[Thousand Islands]

Check out this early synopsis of Feast for Crows (2002):

"Continuing the most ambitious and imaginative epic fantasy since The Lord of the Rings The action in Book Four of A Song of Ice and Fire begins the day after the end of A STORM OF SWORDS. While the remaining northern lords war endlessly with each other and the ironmen of the isles attack the Dreadfort, Sansa becomes a skilled player in the game of thrones with Littlefinger as her mentor, Arya a skilled assassin, and Bran a magician and shapeshifter of great power. All seek to gain revenge for the death of their parents and Robb Stark, whose head was cut off and replaced with the head of his direwolf. Valar morghulis. All men must die, and wolves, too. Danerys trains her growing dragons and learns from Barristan the secrets of her father, her brother Rhaegar, and other matters that will culminate at Starfell. And Jon Snow is the nine-hundredth-and-ninety-eighth lord commander of the Night's Watch. The Wall is his. The night is dark, and he has King Stannis to face. The cold wind is rising, and still there are inhuman powers gathering in the north. "

She is going to Starfall. Most likely to get Dawn (aka: Lightbringer).

Not sure if this description is legitimate, but if it is...

[Pentosian]

Check out this early synopsis of Feast for Crows (2002):

"Continuing the most ambitious and imaginative epic fantasy since The Lord of the Rings The action in Book Four of A Song of Ice and Fire begins the day after the end of A STORM OF SWORDS. While the remaining northern lords war endlessly with each other and the ironmen of the isles attack the Dreadfort, Sansa becomes a skilled player in the game of thrones with Littlefinger as her mentor, Arya a skilled assassin, and Bran a magician and shapeshifter of great power. All seek to gain revenge for the death of their parents and Robb Stark, whose head was cut off and replaced with the head of his direwolf. Valar morghulis. All men must die, and wolves, too. Danerys trains her growing dragons and learns from Barristan the secrets of her father, her brother Rhaegar, and other matters that will culminate at Starfell. And Jon Snow is the nine-hundredth-and-ninety-eighth lord commander of the Night's Watch. The Wall is his. The night is dark, and he has King Stannis to face. The cold wind is rising, and still there are inhuman powers gathering in the north. "

She is going to Starfall. Most likely to get Dawn (aka: Lightbringer).

Not sure if this description is legitimate, but if it is...

It seems that this is not written by GRRM as he states in http://grrm.livejournal.com/330542.html?thread=18064430

His exact words are:

grrm

Jul. 31st, 2013 07:38 pm (UTC)

Re: interesting comment...

I have nothing to do with those plot synopses on Amazon and like places. Have no idea who makes this stuff up, or what they base it on.

[Firiel Hiren]

Quaithe tells her:

"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"

Here is a shadow:

Arya's description of entering Braavos AFFC pg 95:

"Wind and wave had the Titans Daughter hard in hand now, driving her swiftly toward the channel. Her double bank of oars stroked smoothly, lashing the sea to white foam as the Titan s shadow fell upon them. For a moment it seemed as though they must surely smash up against the stones beneath his legs. Huddled by Denyo at the prow, Arya could taste salt where the spray had touched her face. She had to look straight up to see the Titans head. The Braavosi feed him on the juicy pink flesh of little highborn girls, she heard Old Nan say again, but she was not a little girl, and she would not be frightened of a stupid statue.

Even so, she kept one hand on Needle as they slipped between his legs. More arrow slits dotted the insides of those great stone thighs, and when Arya craned her neck around to watch the crow s nest slip through with a good ten yards to spare, she spied murder holes beneath the Titan s armored skirts, and pale faces staring down at them from behind the iron bars.

And then they were past.

The shadow lifted, the pineclad ridges fell away to either side, the winds dwindled, and they found themselves moving through a great lagoon.

and light:

Here Arya describes what she saw immediately after entering the lagoon but it isn't described until page 98:

Sealords, said Yorko. The Isle of the Gods is farther on. See? Six bridges down, on the right bank. That is the Temple of the Moonsingers.

It was one of those that Arya had spied from the lagoon, a mighty mass of snowwhite marble topped by a huge silvered dome whose milk glass windows showed all the phases of the moon. A pair of marble maidens flanked its gates, tall as the Sealords, supporting a crescent-shaped lintel.

Beyond it stood another temple, a red stone edifice as stern as any fortress. Atop its great square tower a fire blazed in an iron brazier twenty feet across, whilst smaller fires flanked its brazen doors. The red priests love their fires, Yorko told her. The Lord of Light is their god, red Rhllor.

The choice of Moonsingers or Lord of Light?

and then one more possibility:

A little bit after that description on the same page and much like in the House of the undying, there seems to be another option on the right:

"A small canal covered walls, and there he swung them right. They passed through a tunnel and out again into the light. More shrines loomed up to either side. I never knew there were so many gods, Arya said. Yorko grunted. They went around a bend and beneath another bridge. On their left appeared a rocky knoll with a windowless temple of dark grey stone at its top. A flight of stone steps led from its doors down to a covered dock. Yorko backed the oars, and the boat bumped gently against stone pilings. He grasped an iron ring set to hold them for a moment. Here I leave you. The dock was shadowed, the steps steep. The temple s black tile roof came to a sharp peak, like the houses along the canals.

So the House of Black and White may be a third destination. I think she should visit all three but I definitely think she's headed to Braavos.

[PatrickStormborn]

I think the shadow she needs to pass beneath is most likely the shadow of the Mother of Mountains.

[Bambi]

I think the shadow is Asshai, and she is going to go past Asshai to Westeros around the world, just like Cristopher Colombus did.

[Daemon I Blackfyre]

She might as well go to f*** herself. I have had it with her.

If she doesn't come back to Mereen and then immediately set off to Westeros, I'll be rooting for ®Aegon and the Golden company. More so if he marries Arianne.

[Boltons Bastard]

I think the shadow is Asshai, and she is going to go past Asshai to Westeros around the world, just like Cristopher Colombus did.

I agree with this. It makes the most sense. Riddles usually do have fairly straight-forward responses and I think if she goes east through the "Shadow Lands beyond Asshai" then she would eventually end up crossing the Sunset Sea, and the light could well prove to be the "Lonely Light" island that Damphair mentions, which is the westernmost region of Westeros. The Shadow Lands are also mentioned by Ilyrio when he explains where the dragons eggs come from, and Asshai itself is said to contain much dragonlore. Quaithe stated that Dany would find "the truth" in Asshai also.

Much of that route makes sense next to Quaithe's exact words.

"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".

[ejhawman]

I think she will have to pass Volantis, freeing slaves on the way.

Vaes Dothrak is more problematic. It seems a long digression. I worry that if Martin has Dany confront the crones there, he might not have enough space to fit Dany's arrival at Pentos, or Braavos, or wherever he wants her staging point to be, by the end of the book.

So we would have to look at ADOS. What, exactly, will she have to do in Westeros? Just fight the Others? Maybe she could end TWOW setting out on the way to Pentos, then start ADOS arriving in Pentos and spending a few chapters taking the city. Then prepare to cross, pick up Arya, cross the sea, and fight the Others, and die.

At some point in all of that, her story is bound to feel rushed. Martin has given us enough foreshadowing to give her too much to do. It would work if there weren't so many other POVs whose stories are equally important. It may indicate he will be forced to go for the 8-book plan instead of ending things in ADOS.

[Dire Dragon]

"To go forward, you must go back."

I think The Mother of Dragons will return to Vaes Dothrak to become the most powerful member of the dosh khaleen and eventually rise to a position the Dothraki have never seen. In my 3rd time through AGOT I almost dropped the book when Vaes Dothrak was said to be big enough to house all the Dothraki khalasars at one time. I don't think it's a coincidence that all the khalasars can be united in a single place, I think it's a contingency plan. So far, Dany has seen Vaes Dothrak as a retirement home that she doesn't want to be stuck in. But Vaes Dothrak has to have another purpose. I think Dany can unite all the khalasars and turn the Dothraki into a group with a purpose and focus it has never had. From there? Westeros?

I am also on a re-read and was struck by this. So I think she will unite all the khalasars. Also GRRM stated in a recent interview that the Dothraki will feature prominently in the next book.

But I'm a bit baffled as to what will happen after she has the grand khalsar to end all khalasars. I don't think there are enough ships to get to Westeros.

Also, on re-read, I find her thinking of the khalasar as her home a lot and Westeros as place she never knew. I am imagining a world where she returns to Westeros, but only briefly to deal some dragon based havoc on the army of the Others (possibly led by the second ice king- Stannis or Jon Snow). Then she returns to the Dothraki plains.

Perhaps she even returns to Valyria.

[ApKing06]

I am also on a re-read and was struck by this. So I think she will unite all the khalasars. Also GRRM stated in a recent interview that the Dothraki will feature prominently in the next book.

But I'm a bit baffled as to what will happen after she has the grand khalsar to end all khalasars. I don't think there are enough ships to get to Westeros.

Also, on re-read, I find her thinking of the khalasar as her home a lot and Westeros as place she never knew. I am imagining a world where she returns to Westeros, but only briefly to deal some dragon based havoc on the army of the Others (possibly led by the second ice king- Stannis or Jon Snow). Then she returns to the Dothraki plains.

Perhaps she even returns to Valyria.

Either willingly or unwillingly, Couldnt the Fleet from Volantis and Victarions fleet help out with the amount of ships that are needed?

[Dire Dragon]

Either willingly or unwillingly, Couldnt the Fleet from Volantis and Victarions fleet help out with the amount of ships that are needed?

It was my understanding that it was full. I think (but feel free to correct me) that 100 ships could carry her army at the time she was in mereen, but she turned that down to rule. (aka kill time and get bogged down)

I think Khal Drogo had 100,000 in his army (40, 000 warriors), but the grand khalsar would be more. We know Khal Drogo had the largest, but we don't know how many other are out there. Anyhow a guess of 500,000 to a million seems reasonable and at 100 warriors and horses (a large ship) per ship you need 5000 ships to take a half million people and horses.

It just sounds too unwieldy to transport.

Quick query: How large were those ships that Cersei ordered that got stolen?

[Red Rollo]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this already, but I'm just going to blurt it out anyway. I think that when Quaithe tells Dany “to touch the light, you have to pass under the shadow”, that "light" is probably in reference to the Lonely Light, a far western Iron Island, eight days sail northwest of Great Wyk. The "shadow" in the quote, of course, refers to the Shadowlands of Asshai.

This makes me strongly believe that Dany is going to need to go east and circumnavigate the world to arrive on the west coast of Westeros. Maybe 1 or 2 of Victarion's men are from the Lonely Light and have possibly heard tales of a mystical land even further west across the sunset sea than their home island, and Tyrion, the Thinker he is, reader of histories and travelogues, will put 2 and 2 together and advise Dany to set her sites on the rising sun.

There you have it: Prophesy tied to actuality. First over to Vaes Dothrak to deal with the crones. Then, back down to Meereen to defeat the Volantine fleet, with Moqorro inciting the slave sailors to revolt. Then, Mercifully, sail eastward to Asshai/Lonely Light/Westeros on said fleet. Since the Lonely Light is norttwest of the Iron Island proper, it seems possible that Dany and co. will make landfall in Westeros on or around Bear Island, home of none other than one Ser Jorah Mormont.

All this ties in with GRRM's interview about requiring Tyrion/Victarion/Jorah to all be in Meereen together. Finally, landing where she does, so near the wall, Dany may feel compelled to battle the Others before heading to KL, etc. If she i able to save the realm in such a way, perhaps she'll become queen by popular acclaim. North to go south, after all. I'm not one to believe that prophesy is determinative, but this just seems to fit so nicely, that, maybe, on this one occasion, I'll advocate listening to ol' Quaithe.