Dany somehow knows what molten gold tastes like...

[Seams]

9 hours ago, Traverys said:

To me, she drank a hallucinogenic substance and so sensory data, feelings, and experiences all overlap and become one. Try having someone tripping on acid or shrooms describe how they are feeling, or how something tastes, and you'll likely get a strange metaphor of a response.

I agree.

There is also a literary purpose at work. When GRRM wants to tip us off that something magical is happening, he might combine the five senses in an unconventional way. For instance, just before Ghost prompts Jon Snow to leave the safety of the old ruined ring fort at the Fist of the First Men, to find the buried obsidian cache, Dywen says there is a smell of cold in the air, and Jon knows exactly what he means and recalls the attack by the wight in Mormont's bedchamber. Then he finds the dragonglass. Another example might be Jon hearing the silent wolf pup that becomes Ghost: we later learn that Ghost makes no sounds, but Jon was able to hear him.

One pattern I've noticed in GRRM's prose is that, when he gives us a list, we should pay special attention to the last thing on the list. So the "taste of molten gold" may have other meanings, beyond the somewhat obvious hint that Dany's beverage is magical.

9 hours ago, 40 Thousand Skeletons said:

I might be able to buy that, but again Dany did not "experience" molten gold. She experienced her brother's death, but tasting molten gold is a strange metaphor for Viserys dying since it was Viserys who tasted it. And like I said before, everything else on the list is literal, so why would one thing be a metaphor?

Similarly, when Bran eats weirwood paste he first thinks it tastes bitter (which is likely the real taste) but after swallowing it lists off things he has literally tasted: It tasted of honey, of new-fallen snow, of pepper and cinnamon and the last kiss his mother ever gave him.

The Bran list is an excellent comparison to the list of tastes for Dany. But can you really taste a mother's kiss? She didn't French kiss him with bubble gum in her mouth, we can surmise, so it was probably more a sensation of touch and of emotional bonding than something that he experienced through his tastebuds. Maybe the metaphors of the molten gold and the mother's kiss are more similar than we might perceive on first reading: Bran is one of the Stark kids who looks like his mother, so he would have auburn hair, right? Kissed by fire, a little bit? So "mother's kiss" on top of his head would describe his hair color but could also allude to the death by heat inflicted on Viserys.

I suppose you could argue that a "kissed by fire" hair color is more like the first kiss his mother ever gave him, though, not the last.

Other thoughts:

The taste of gold, molten or otherwise, should probably be considered alongside the widespread joke that Tywin Lannister shits gold. The examples cited earlier in the thread of people biting coins are probably also relevant.

In some dragon lore and legend, dragons were thought to eat gold and precious gems. We know that Dany's dragons eat meat, but maybe this reference to the taste of molten gold is just an acknowledgement that Dany is really and truly a dragon, and she has awoken.

I suspect we will know more about the wine called Arbor Gold when the books take the action to the Reach and other western lands. So far, I have seen a consensus that serving Arbor Gold to a guest signals that the host is lying to that person. Maybe this molten gold is part of the Arbor Gold symbolism.

The molten gold poured on the head of Viserys comes from the medallions on a belt worn by Khal Drogo. Belts in the books are usually used as a place to carry swords (and daggers) or messages. Arya carries a dead pigeon in her belt while wandering around King's Landing before Yorin finds her, hoping to sell it to a pot shop. I haven't done a systematic analysis of belts, so there may be a deeper meaning I haven't discerned. But the swords and messages function could be significant: swords and words are both used to win wars, according to Tywin. We see destruction of both swords and books at key moments in the books - what does it mean to destroy a belt? I wish I knew. The only wordplay possibility I've come up with for belt is the German word "lebt" which is a form of the verb Leben, meaning "to live."

[zandru]

I've only read the first page of responses, so I don't know if this has been covered, but -

What we think of as "taste" is closely related to our sense of smell. How something literally tastes is a combination of senses from the taste buds plus smell input. In fact, smell really is a dominant component of taste - when you temporarily lose your sense of smell, as with bad sinus infections, allergies, colds, etc, nothing tastes right.

Dany has on at least one occasion smelled molten gold. So in drinking the warlocks' potion, she can recall what she smelled and match it to what she's at that moment tasting.

Now, the metaphorical meanings are, as you're all discussing, the actual important parts. But the physical component is simple enough.

[zandru]

14 minutes ago, Seams said:

Dywen says there is a smell of cold in the air,

If you've ever been in a place where it gets REALLY cold, like 20 below zero or thereabouts, you wouldn't need to speculate on what cold "smells" like. Again, nothing mystical or metaphysical. And again, the metaphorical interpretation is an important part - but the physical is simple enough.

[LynnS]

12 hours ago, 40 Thousand Skeletons said:

From the HOTU when Dany drinks shade of the evening:

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 was a taste 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 all the tastes she had ever known, and none of them … and then the glass was empty.

So it's pretty obvious that on that list of things Dany has tasted in her life, one of them does not belong. I am pretty sure Dany has in fact tasted honey, anise, cream, milk, Drogo seed, red meat, and hot blood. However, Dany has never tasted molten gold. Or has she? Well, since it is included on the list, I guess she has tasted it before...

Obviously we all know that Viserys, not Dany, is the one who tasted molten gold when Drogo crowned him. So how did Dany taste it too? I am going to guess that Viserys, who was facing death and begging Dany for his life, managed to telepathically link to Dany in some fashion and Dany tasted the molten gold at the same time as Viserys, through her link to Viserys. Thoughts?

That's an interesting observation!  My guess is that when she experienced her "wake the dragon" dream; she sees the 'last dragon' and then she herself is transformed into a dragon; her back splits with a crack, she sprouts wings and flies.  This seems very much like direwolf warg dreams when the dreamer uses the senses of the direwolf, smell, taste, hearing etc.  It seems to me that Dany has bonded with a real dragon, perhaps the last dragon as yet unseen.  The memory of tasting gold could come from the dream.

Or it could be as simple as a childhood memory when she was given something gold and stuck it in her mouth.

[ravenous reader]

1 hour ago, Seams said:

Maybe the metaphors of the molten gold and the mother's kiss are more similar than we might perceive on first reading: Bran is one of the Stark kids who looks like his mother, so he would have auburn hair, right? Kissed by fire, a little bit? So "mother's kiss" on top of his head would describe his hair color but could also allude to the death by heat inflicted on Viserys.

In a perverse mirror inversion, Dany's 'anointing by fire' of her brother was also 'the last kiss she ever gave him'!  One might say it's a pretty 'shitty anointing' (wordplay I know @Pain killer Jane would love ) in keeping with the 'shitting gold' analogy. The symbolism hints at the 'shitty' underpinnings of 'Azor Ahai' or 'Lightbringer' -- since both Dany and Bran are AA/LB archetypes, and their power is seized at the expense of another.

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I suppose you could argue that a "kissed by fire" hair color is more like the first kiss his mother ever gave him, though, not the last.

Other thoughts:

The taste of gold, molten or otherwise, should probably be considered alongside the widespread joke that Tywin Lannister shits gold. The examples cited earlier in the thread of people biting coins are probably also relevant.

One might say Viserys suffered a 'gold poisoning', in conjunction with the symbolism of 'biting a coin' which was the dirty trick Arya used in her first faceless man assassination (and perhaps also 'the alchemist').

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In some dragon lore and legend, dragons were thought to eat gold and precious gems. We know that Dany's dragons eat meat, but maybe this reference to the taste of molten gold is just an acknowledgement that Dany is really and truly a dragon, and she has awoken.

Yes, AA/LB awoken at the expense of another who is sacrificed, hence the 'golden echo.'  The 'fire of the gods' bought at the expense of someone else's fire going out.

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I suspect we will know more about the wine called Arbor Gold when the books take the action to the Reach and other western lands. So far, I have seen a consensus that serving Arbor Gold to a guest signals that the host is lying to that person. Maybe this molten gold is part of the Arbor Gold symbolism.

For sure -- deception is part of it.

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The molten gold poured on the head of Viserys comes from the medallions on a belt worn by Khal Drogo. Belts in the books are usually used as a place to carry swords (and daggers) or messages. Arya carries a dead pigeon in her belt while wandering around King's Landing before Yorin finds her, hoping to sell it to a pot shop. I haven't done a systematic analysis of belts, so there may be a deeper meaning I haven't discerned. But the swords and messages function could be significant: swords and words are both used to win wars, according to Tywin. We see destruction of both swords and books at key moments in the books - what does it mean to destroy a belt? I wish I knew. The only wordplay possibility I've come up with for belt is the German word "lebt" which is a form of the verb Leben, meaning "to live."

Destroying a belt has the consequence of unleashing something, potentially catastrophic.  I happen to believe it has something to do with LmL's 'moon meteor' theory.  A greenseer unleashing the golden fire from the earth -- the Doom -- or the sky -- the Long Night.

What is Drogo in his essence?  He's a successful hunter (well, was, until he met Daenerys who bested him!).  Besides having acquired his power by 'hunting humans,' as it were -- with each kill 'adding another notch on his belt' (or bell on his ponytail) -- he's always hunting the 'hrakkar' for example, which in Dothraki, besides meaning white lion (with which btw there is considerable lore attached regarding falling celestial bodies and anointed ones), has the additional meaning of lightning strike or sword.  Anyway, so he's a hunter, and his belt is a hunter's belt with many notches representing kills...which brings us to a famous hunter, whose belt also happens to be located in the stars...

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KJV Bible Job 38

17 Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?

18 Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all.

19 Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof,

20 That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof?

21 Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great?

22 Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail,

23 Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?

24 By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?

25 Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;

26 To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;

27 To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?

28 Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?

29 Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?

30 The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.

31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?

By 'loosening the bands of Orion' -- 'Orion's Belt' -- in order to kiss both themselves and another with fire, Dany and Bran have seized the power of a god.  And there is an accusation therein.

[ravenous reader]

54 minutes ago, LynnS said:

That's an interesting observation!  My guess is that when she experienced her "wake the dragon" dream; she sees the 'last dragon' and then she herself is transformed into a dragon; her back splits with a crack, she sprouts wings and flies.  This seems very much like direwolf warg dreams when the dreamer uses the senses of the direwolf, smell, taste, hearing etc.  It seems to me that Dany has bonded with a real dragon, perhaps the last dragon as yet unseen.  The memory of tasting gold could come from the dream.

Or it could be as simple as a childhood memory when she was given something gold and stuck it in her mouth.

I really like this theory Lynn!

As you point out, the wargs frequently taste blood in their mouths during 'wolf dreams,' so logically a dragonrider/binder might taste something fiery in her/his mouth during an analogous 'dragon dream', since dragons as 'fire made flesh' have fire in their mouths as well.  It's a pity that there are no striking 'gold' features associated with that particular dragon, who is described like Drogo as having red and black flame (although its eyes are 'molten magma').  Of the dragons with which we are acquainted, only Viserion -- like Viserys her brother -- is marked by gold (as well as orange and red) flame.  

It's interesting to note that in the moment she's acquiring the wisdom of the gods in the House of the Undying, the last taste left in her mouth would be the taste of her brother's death ('molten gold').

 It's the taste of guilt -- so wrapped up in sweetness, the 'bitter' of the 'bittersweet' experience is almost forgotten -- almost, but not quite.  As the last word left on the tip of her tongue, in a sense, Viserys has the last word symbolically.  In GRRM's world, people do not usually get away with murdering their brother -- even by proxy assassin and 'helpless' abstention -- just look at what happened to Will in the Prologue (I think the three brothers in the Prologue can also be mapped onto the three dragon siblings).  On the other hand, GRRM does coddle Dany, so maybe she'll escape the taint of all this golden symbolism, while other incidental kinslayers are felled mercilessly!

[Pain killer Jane]

13 hours ago, 40 Thousand Skeletons said:

Ah OK.

But what do you think about Dany tasting molten gold? Your metaphorical explanation, like I said, seems like a stretch. She has literally tasted everything else on that list.

I don't know if @ravenous reader answered but this reference here seems to connect to the the hot blood and molten gold.

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For centuries the Targaryens had married brother to sister, since Aegon the Conqueror had taken his sisters to bride. The line must be kept pure, Viserys had told her a thousand times; theirs was the kingsblood, the golden blood of old Valyria, the blood of the dragon. 

- Dany I, aGoT

And Viserys is the one here saying that blood is gold.

There is also this in Arya's chapter

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"The others?"

Yoren spat. "Sellswords and freeriders and like trash. That inn was full o' them, and I saw them take the scent. The scent of blood or the scent of gold, they smell the same in the end. 

-Arya III,aGoT

 

[hiemal]

Taste and smell are closely linked. Could be she is extrapolating one sense from another.

As RR pointed out, Bran "tastes" blood spilled to a weirwood he is using- perhaps Dany is psychically linking with fire itself and "tasting" her own sacrifice?

[Pain killer Jane]

12 hours ago, snow is the man said:

So what was she supposed to do? That's like saying clydas killed jon by giving him that letter which led to bowen marsh killing him

Robb answered that. The man that kept watch when the Karstarks went in to kill the two boys. He hung everyone else and made him watch and then hung him last. In our rl, accomplices due get charged and bystanders as well there is a law against that as well. 

[Pain killer Jane]

12 hours ago, Traverys said:

She wrote him off as soon as he put the sword to her belly: “this man who had once been her brother.”

I think it's the beginning of a long pattern of behavior that ends up overlooked in favor of her dragons and freeing slaves. Let's not forget two chapters after this one she comes to terms with the fact she has to enslave and sell defenseless people to fund her invasion. This is her first instance of "the ends justify the means" that is pervasive throughout her arcs, disguised/hidden under "moments of awesome." In this first instance it's her trying to stop them from raping the women. Very nice of her, but she's certainly not suggesting they should stop enslaving them all to sell. 

I tend to think that the first time was when she punished Viserys when he came yelling at her and turned him into the the Sore Foot King. She wanted to teach him respect by humiliating him. 

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He lay on the ground, sucking in air noisily, red-faced and sobbing. He was a pitiful thing. He had always been a pitiful thing. Why had she never seen that before? There was a hollow place inside her where her fear had been.

"Take his horse," Dany commanded Ser Jorah. Viserys gaped at her. He could not believe what he was hearing; nor could Dany quite believe what she was saying. Yet the words came. "Let my brother walk behind us back to the khalasar." Among the Dothraki, the man who does not ride was no man at all, the lowest of the low, without honor or pride. "Let everyone see him as he is."

There is a vicious streak in her born from her fear. Although it is interesting that this is a worse insult than Drogo giving him a cart the next time and begs Jorah not to tell him any differently. 

[40 Thousand Skeletons]

6 hours ago, weirwoodface said:

I will repeat what someone else said ... she drank a powerful hallucinogenic substance, so all bets are off here. To those of you who are not acquainted with the effects of substances such as LSD, mushrooms and the like: basically what these substances do is take a tractor to your subconscious, dredging up memories and emotions buried and not-so-buried. At the same time, your senses are disrupted, sometimes to a large degree.

Dany actually tasted molten gold, but under the influence of shade of the evening, the profound impact of her brother's death came back to her, manifested in a psychedelic sensory experience of tasting what killed him. Was it a true taste, that is did she really taste how molten gold taste? That's impossible to answer and kind of beside the point anyway. The passage is meant to show us the things that had been buried deep in her mind, that the drink ripped up to the forefront.

I'll say it again. The fact that she is taking powerful drugs would be a reasonable explanation, except that the rest of that list seems to be literally true - things she has actually tasted - and not some sort of drug-induced metaphorical recollection of past experiences. And we do have a character in the story who has literally tasted molten gold. And Dany just so happened to be standing a few feet away when this tasting occurred. And this just so happens to be a story where people can communicate with each other telepathically. And being injured/on-drugs/facing-death like broken-wrist/drunk/about-to-die Viserys was just so happens to heighten telepathic abilities.

[40 Thousand Skeletons]

4 hours ago, Seams said:

One pattern I've noticed in GRRM's prose is that, when he gives us a list, we should pay special attention to the last thing on the list. So the "taste of molten gold" may have other meanings, beyond the somewhat obvious hint that Dany's beverage is magical.

The Bran list is an excellent comparison to the list of tastes for Dany. But can you really taste a mother's kiss? She didn't French kiss him with bubble gum in her mouth, we can surmise, so it was probably more a sensation of touch and of emotional bonding than something that he experienced through his tastebuds. Maybe the metaphors of the molten gold and the mother's kiss are more similar than we might perceive on first reading: Bran is one of the Stark kids who looks like his mother, so he would have auburn hair, right? Kissed by fire, a little bit? So "mother's kiss" on top of his head would describe his hair color but could also allude to the death by heat inflicted on Viserys.

Ironically I am pointing out a great reason to pay special attention to the last thing on the list and no one thinks I'm right  

Can you really taste a mother's kiss? I guess not strongly, but it is at least something literally touching your lips, if not your tongue. And it is also something Bran has experienced directly. It is certainly more in line with literal tastes than molten gold, which you should generally not touch with any part of your body. If Dany only remembers molten gold killing Viserys from her pov, she didn't really experience it in the same way that Bran has experienced kissing his mother, and it strikes me as odd that it would be included on a list of first-hand memories.

[Pain killer Jane]

I think OP you were on the right track of the molten gold. I think because it is paired with blood. We should think of gold tasting metallic. And the most common metal tasted is iron. I tend to think of gold not as gold but as Iron Pyrite. So the association of substituting gold for blood should be viewed as Fool's Gold. 

[40 Thousand Skeletons]

4 hours ago, zandru said:

I've only read the first page of responses, so I don't know if this has been covered, but -

What we think of as "taste" is closely related to our sense of smell. How something literally tastes is a combination of senses from the taste buds plus smell input. In fact, smell really is a dominant component of taste - when you temporarily lose your sense of smell, as with bad sinus infections, allergies, colds, etc, nothing tastes right.

Dany has on at least one occasion smelled molten gold. So in drinking the warlocks' potion, she can recall what she smelled and match it to what she's at that moment tasting.

Now, the metaphorical meanings are, as you're all discussing, the actual important parts. But the physical component is simple enough.

This is a good point. Perhaps she is simply remembering the smell of molten gold. However, if I were Dany, my memory of that event would be much more strongly linked to the smell of Viserys and his clothes burning. Have you ever smelled burning hair? It's like the worst thing in the world. And again, Dany may have smelled it, but Viserys actually did taste molten gold.

[40 Thousand Skeletons]

3 minutes ago, Pain killer Jane said:

I think OP you were on the right track of the molten gold. I think because it is paired with blood. We should think of gold tasting metallic. And the most common metal tasted is iron. I tend to think of gold not as gold but as Iron Pyrite. So the association of substituting gold for blood should be viewed as Fool's Gold. 

LOL I think I was on the right track because Viserys has literally tasted molten gold and this is a story with telepathy in it, and at least Dany is a known telepath of some sort (confirmed because she can ride a dragon).

But you guys can go ahead and keep coming up with more convoluted metaphorical explanations  

Not to sound like a dick, but really? Not a single person buys my amazing insight into this matter?  

[Pain killer Jane]

3 hours ago, ravenous reader said:

In a perverse mirror inversion, Dany's 'anointing by fire' of her brother was also 'the last kiss she ever gave him'!  One might say it's a pretty 'shitty anointing' (wordplay I know @Pain killer Jane would love ) in keeping with the 'shitting gold' analogy. The symbolism hints at the 'shitty' underpinnings of 'Azor Ahai' or 'Lightbringer' -- since both Dany and Bran are AA/LB archetypes, and their power is seized at the expense of another.

Yup. I do like it. I guess everything just turns to shit in the end. 

[Lollygag]

If Dany really has some kind of ability to ~link up~ with others in some capacity, then there should be a few other instances in the text.

Maybe the following is one, maybe it isn't, but it's quite curious all the same. Mirri says no living man must look upon them, yet Mirri is supposedly living and I assume that she's looking on them herself.

Later we see Dany seeing the wolf and the man aflame, but others can't see and she doesn't understand why. The scene is extremely emotional for Dany, and involves the fates of both Drago and Rhaego. We know that Rhaego is the sacrifice, so possibly she could see because of her connection to Rhaego or Drago who were both a part of the ceremony? Why did Mirri tell Dany that no must enter lest they see the dead dance, yet it turns out no one but Dany could see them anyhow?

AGOT Daenerys VIII

"I will stay," Dany said. "The man took me under the stars and gave life to the child inside me. I will not leave him."

"You must. Once I begin to sing, no one must enter this tent. My song will wake powers old and dark. The dead will dance here this night. No living man must look on them."

Dany bowed her head, helpless. "No one will enter." She bent over the tub, over Drogo in his bath of blood, and kissed him lightly on the brow. "Bring him back to me," she whispered to Mirri Maz Duur before she fled.

…

No, Dany wanted to say, no, not that, you mustn't, but when she opened her mouth, a long wail of pain escaped, and the sweat broke over her skin. What was wrong with them, couldn't they see? Inside the tent the shapes were dancing, circling the brazier and the bloody bath, dark against the sandsilk, and some did not look human. She glimpsed the shadow of a great wolf, and another like a man wreathed in flames.

"The Lamb Woman knows the secrets of the birthing bed," Irri said. "She said so, I heard her."

"Yes," Doreah agreed, "I heard her too."

No, she shouted, or perhaps she only thought it, for no whisper of sound escaped her lips. She was being carried. Her eyes opened to gaze up at a flat dead sky, black and bleak and starless. Please, no. The sound of Mirri Maz Duur's voice grew louder, until it filled the world. The shapes! she screamed. The dancers!

Ser Jorah carried her inside the tent.

[Pain killer Jane]

18 minutes ago, 40 Thousand Skeletons said:

LOL I think I was on the right track because Viserys has literally tasted molten gold and this is a story with telepathy in it, and at least Dany is a known telepath of some sort (confirmed because she can ride a dragon).

But you guys can go ahead and keep coming up with more convoluted metaphorical explanations  

Not to sound like a dick, but really? Not a single person buys my amazing insight into this matter?  

This is the way I see it. We know that burning kingsblood confers power. I suspect that a douche bag sacrificed a lucky (powerful) woman with kissed by fire her and was given powers. We know that when a greenseer dies a little bit of them can be left in their animal and can affect a later greenseer as in the case of Orelle and Varamyr. Dany is greenseer-esque in that she has a bond with Drogon. If Viserys reached out to Drogon or Rheago at the moment of his death then we can say that she came upon the taste of molten gold in that fashion like Varmyr's hatred for Jon via Orelle. 

[LynnS]

9 minutes ago, 40 Thousand Skeletons said:

LOL I think I was on the right track because Viserys has literally tasted molten gold and this is a story with telepathy in it, and at least Dany is a known telepath of some sort (confirmed because she can ride a dragon).

But you guys can go ahead and keep coming up with more convoluted metaphorical explanations  

Not to sound like a dick, but really? Not a single person buys my amazing insight into this matter?  

Well, you've asked an interesting question.  LOL.

I do think there is something to visions, dreams and state of mind.  Whether that is drug induced, hypnotically induced (staring into a fire), a coma state or dream state... the mind experiences an altered state.  I think you are suggesting synesthesia induced by drugs:

- a sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color.

 

  

[hiemal]

17 minutes ago, 40 Thousand Skeletons said:

LOL I think I was on the right track because Viserys has literally tasted molten gold and this is a story with telepathy in it, and at least Dany is a known telepath of some sort (confirmed because she can ride a dragon).

But you guys can go ahead and keep coming up with more convoluted metaphorical explanations  

Not to sound like a dick, but really? Not a single person buys my amazing insight into this matter?  

if Viserys' soul is part of the dragonbirth magic she could be getting her impressions directly from Viserion, perhaps?