Daenerys will Burn Mereen.

[DaveRoid]

I will like to bring the forum attention to this topic from r/asoiaf

http://www.reddit.co...plant_no_trees/

You are the blood of the dragon. Dragons plant no trees. Remember that. Remember who you are, what you were made to be. Remember your words.

Remember who you are, Daenerys. The dragons know. Do you?

Why did they give the dragon’s eggs to you? They should have been mine. If I'd had a dragon, I would have taught the world the meaning of our words.

-The Dreams and Hallucinations of Daenerys Targaryen upon the Dothraki Sea at the end of A Dance With Dragons

In many ways, the theme of A Dance With Dragons is self-discovery. Bran learns about his powers as a greenseer and a warg. Jon Snow discovers his ability to lead and rule and plot. Arya's plot hinges around her holding tight to her identity. Theon remembers his name. Cersei gets a lesson in humility. All of our leading characters make large leaps towards self-understanding and an acceptance of their identities.

For Daenerys Targaryen, this lesson comes late- in the very last non-epilogue chapter of the book, in fact. Throughout her character development so far, Daenerys has had some key phrases that are very telling about her understanding of herself: "If I look back, I am lost." "I am the Mother of Dragons." "I am only a young girl." But all of those things are lies, and in this last chapter, Daenerys is forced to confront those lies and comes to understand the truth about herself.

At the beginning of the chapter, our heroine is still in denial. She realizes that riding Drogon is the only time in her life that she's ever felt whole(her words), but insists to herself that she has more important responsibilities- she is a mother, after all:

It was time, though. A girl might spend her life at play, but she was a woman grown, a queen, a wife, a mother to thousands. Her children had need of her. Drogon had bent before the whip, and so must she. She had to don her crown again and return to her ebon bench and the arms of her noble husband.

This is, of course, delusion. Dragons don't bend before the whip, neither must the blood of the dragon. We'll return to that momentarily.

If I look back, I am lost.

So goes the internal monologue of Daenerys Targaryen for pages and pages. Yet, here, in the Dothraki Sea, she begins to look back. She remembers her time with Drogo, and then with Viserys, and it brings another memory: Quaithe's warning that to go forward, she must go back. Remember who you are, Daenerys Targaryen. The dragons know. Do you? Not yet.

Then she dreams of her dead brother Viserys, and he tells her that she betrayed him, and that he would have taught the world the meaning of the Targaryen words, Fire and Blood. This is obviously untrue, Viserys was an incompetent fool who got the death that was coming to him. But Daenerys has this dream for a reason. She is awakening to her true self.

“I am the blood of the dragon,” she told the grass, aloud.

Once,

the grass whispered back,

until you chained your dragons in the dark.

“Drogon killed a little girl. Her name was … her name …” Dany could not recall the child’s name. That made her so sad that she would have cried if all her tears had not been burned away. “I will never have a little girl. I was the Mother of Dragons.”

Aye,

the grass said,

but you turned against your children.

Her name is Hazzea, and I know that because this is the first time Daenerys has forgotten it. Why would she forget a name that burns her with guilt?

After this forgetting, she comes to a realization:

Meereen was not her home, and never would be. It was a city of strange men with strange gods and stranger hair, of slavers wrapped in fringed tokars, where grace was earned through whoring, butchery was art, and dog was a delicacy. Meereen would always be the Harpy’s city, and Daenerys could not be a harpy.

And then the waking hallucination of Jorah Mormont tells her the same, that Meereen was never her home. Daenerys responds, "I am alone and lost." She looked back, now she is lost. But is it Daenerys Targaryen the Dragon who is lost, or is it the Mother?

You took Meereen,

he told her,

yet still you lingered.

“To be a queen.”

You are a queen,

her bear said.

In Westeros.

“It is such a long way,” she complained. “I was tired, Jorah. I was weary of war. I wanted to rest, to laugh, to plant trees and see them grow. I am only a young girl.”

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,”

Daenerys told the swaying grass.

Half a page later...

She called until her voice was hoarse … and Drogon came, snorting plumes of smoke. The grass bowed down before him. 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. Her whip was gone, so she used her hands and feet and turned him north by east, the way the scout had gone. Drogon went willingly enough; perhaps he smelled the rider’s fear.

This is not the girl who killed her husband and walked into his funeral pyre. This isn't the young woman who frees slaves and plays ruler. This is a Dragon Queen, who knows her name and her words, and who can call and ride dragons without a whip, without a horn, without any assistance. This is the magic of Old Valyria, which always used either blood or fire(and Daenerys Targaryen is soaked in her own blood).

My conclusion is this: Daenerys, through her ordeal on the Dothraki Sea, has come to accept herself as what she truly is: the last Targaryen. Not the Mother of Dragons, not just a young girl, not a queen who must learn to rule. She is a Targaryen who knows her words, which is even more important than knowing her name.

Meereen and Yunkai will burn.

My Assessment of the text:

Kill the girl and let the dragon be born.

All credit due to the excellent author and I couldn't agree with him more here. Discuss your opinion of this theory.

[Nezzer]

I hope she burns Meereen, but I want her to burn with it. Can't stand Dany anymore.

[cooper56]

I hope she burns Meereen, but I want her to burn with it. Can't stand Dany anymore.

Why do so many people hate dany her i dont think shes done anything that bad.

[Nezzer]

Why do so many people hate dany her i dont think shes done anything that bad.

Daario and Meereen happened.

[KOM]

If she leaves any people/allies in Mereen, she won't burn it. Given the size of her 'horde' I'm not sure it's possible for everybody to go on ships or migrate over Essos. But she may very well burn Yunkai.

Anything that gives a fierier and bloodier Dany I'm on board with.

[TheMysteriousOne]

Daario and Meereen happened.

People who dislike Daenerys because of her sex life need to reevaluate their reasons for hating her. Seriously.

[cooper56]

Daario and Meereen happened.

Even if i dont agree with the choices i see why it happened and it fit her arc of where i think she'ss going.

[Nictarion]

People who dislike Daenerys because of her sex life need to reevaluate their reasons for hating her. Seriously.

:agree:

[Nezzer]

People who dislike Daenerys because of her sex life need to reevaluate their reasons for hating her. Seriously.

If only there was a single page where she isn't thinking about Bozo the Clown... But no, all she does in ADwD is think about the most stupid and boring haracter in the entire story. And she proved that she can't rule a single city, but still wants to conquer all of Westeros. I'd rather have Ramsay as king.

[Nictarion]

If only there was a single page where she isn't thinking about Bozo the Clown... But no, all she does in ADwD is think about the most stupid and boring haracter in the entire story. And she proved that she can't rule a single city, but still wants to conquer all of Westeros. I'd rather have Ramsay as king.

:bang: The scary thing is, with the level of hate directed towards her, I don't know if this is a joke,

[Lion of Judah]

I hope she burns Meereen, but I want her to burn with it. Can't stand Dany anymore.

:idea: Don't read her chapters and problem solved.

[DaveRoid]

Stay on topic folks! :)

[Nezzer]

:bang:

At least Ramsay is an interesting character :closedeyes:

[JonCon's Red Beard]

Daario and Meereen happened.

Well, she could burn Daario instead.

OT, I think Dany is too many things and she herself has no clear what she is or what she wants to be: she knows she wants the IT back, but what about her? She calls and thinks of herself as Queen, Mother, Dragon, Conquerer, Women, Wife, Daughter, Leader, Lover... but she's not really being good at any of them completely. Her "I'm the blood of the Dragon" mantra that many people hate is only her own way to push herself when she's low, because if she does look back, at all the bad things, she's really lost. She has no more options that move on.

She's not going to burn Meereen, but she's going to be a bit more ruthless and less a negotiator and more a conquerer.

[TheMysteriousOne]

If only there was a single page where she isn't thinking about Bozo the Clown... But no, all she does in ADwD is think about the most stupid and boring haracter in the entire story. And she proved that she can't rule a single city, but still wants to conquer all of Westeros. I'd rather have Ramsay as king.

She barely ever thinks about Daario in ADWD, unless they are together or she is expecting him.

[Florina Laufeyson]

People who dislike Daenerys because of her sex life need to reevaluate their reasons for hating her. Seriously.

Indeed.

I could see her torching the place after trying to get things back on track and failing. But i personally dont think she will have to burn it down herself. I think Rhaegal is gonna do it for her.

[DaveRoid]

OT, I think Dany is too many things and she herself has no clear what she is or what she wants to be: she knows she wants the IT back, but what about her? She calls and thinks of herself as Queen, Mother, Dragon, Conquerer, Women, Wife, Daughter, Leader, Lover... but she's not really being good at any of them completely. Her "I'm the blood of the Dragon" mantra that many people hate is only her own way to push herself when she's low, because if she does look back, at all the bad things, she's really lost. She has no more options that move on.

Umm did you read the OP, some of those exact points are brought up in it.

She is looking back now. And planting tree's seem to be out of question.

[Nictarion]

At least Ramsay is an interesting character :closedeyes:

And so is Daenerys.

[Lord Freypie]

I don't think she'll burn Mereen, just the slaver class she spared so far.

Then the Shavepate and his brazen beasts can rule Mereen while the rest of Dany forces move to Westeros.

[Frey Pentos]

Good article. I'm personally really looking forward to reading her pov's in the next book. Think the Dosh Khaleen will have a large part to play in Dany maybe coming to understand that she and her dragons are an instrument of war and need to get to Westeros asap.