Jeff Claburn

Maybe so, but American audiences definitely did not buy it. The show was still widely popular with fans through the first four episodes of the last season, then approval for the final season plummeted to just 30% based entirely on the last two episodes which made Dany mad and evil. Dany is largely inspired by Abraham Lincoln, who based his entire political career around freezing and eventually ending slavery, and who is directly responsible for freeing tens of millions of American's ancestors from horrific conditions as slaves, and also the most lauded American leader except possibly George Washington. So it definitely went over like a lead balloon with audiences. If that was the problem they were solving, then I would argue that the cure was much worse than the disease. I think in the books Bran won't disconnect from his humanity; instead he will walk out on Bloodraven against his wishes to go back and be a Stark, and he will fly the Green dragon to be a knight like he always wanted. He will lead the defense of Winterfell, Kings Landing, and the God's Eye from the Others and their army of the dead from dragon back while Jon and Dany are off in the far, far North with Jaime and Breanne attacking the heart of winter to stop the Others at their source. Then there will be a good story for why people like him and want him as king. As it was, Dan and Dave gave no reason why the people or the viewers should want the weirdo Bran as king compared to Dany or Jon or for that matter Sansa or Tyrion or a random lord. If they weren't going to give us the reason for Bran to be king, they should have made Jon or Danny or Jon and Danny king and queen and left Bran's kingship for the books! It was a terrible decision to fixate on a few of Martin's end points (but not all) but refuse Martin's desperate pleas to do at least ten seasons and include certain characters like Mother Merciless and (f)Aegon that Martin believed were necessary to get there! They should have written their own endings and ignored Martins if they were doing eight seasons, or listened to the damn author and do what he asked.

What caused Dany to lose her sanity in the show? Bad writing. If George Martin intends for this to happen in the books—and that’s a big if—then he almost certainly has in mind that the Targaryen dragons are like the demon runeswords used by royal Melnibone in the classic fantasy series by Michael Morecock, Elric of Melnibone. They slowly transform the personality of their wielder as they are possessed and used in the tradition of the One Ring (but with no Sauron). The Melnibone The Targaryen’s and Valyrian’s are clearly inspired by the Melnibone, who live on their own island, ride dragons, use magic, and have longer lives than normal human beings. They are a debauched ancient race who worship the Lords of Chaos and make widespread and horrific use of human slaves, similar to how the Freehold of Valyria ran a massive slave empire that included forcing slaves to work in horrific conditions in their geothermal mines and to serve as test subjects for magical experiments. Elric of Melnibone was born an albino with pale white hair and white skin, similar to the platinum-blonde hair that George Martin has given to the Targaryen’s. But unlike the other members of his race, he has a conscience that makes him value human lives and not want to use and abuse slaves. Elric’s conscience is similar to how Daenerys has great empathy for slaves, children, and common folk and tries to protect and free them wherever she goes. In her time with the Dothraki, she was Khal Drogo’s conscience pushing him to prohibit the raping of women. In her time on Slaver’s Bay, she decides to break the wheel of slavery throughout the world. The Runeswords of the Royal Melnibone But Elric’s curse is his runesword, Stormbringer. The runeswords were forged from demons in order to allow royal Melnibone to defeat the Gods of Chaos who are a threat to the entire Universe. Nonetheless, they are still evil. Elric gets forced into wielding Stormbringer to defend himself against his evil cousin who is wielding its sister blade and tries to kill Elric. Elric is merciful and spares his cousin, just as Daenerys is merciful. But he finds that once he has the sword he can’t get rid of it. This is similar to Dany chaining up her dragons but being unable to chain up Drogon and having Quentin Martell release the other two despite her best intentions. Stormbringer makes Elric powerful. Elric is born with medical conditions that make him weak unless he consumes magical herbs and potions regularly. Stormbringer frees him from dependence on these “drugs” to remain healthy and strong. It makes him powerful in battle, able to defeat magical beasts. Indeed, every time Elric kills a magical beast or person with Stormbringer, the sword sucks their soul and Elric gets stronger and more powerful. But Stormbringer gives Elric bloodlust. The sword craves for blood and souls and it makes Elric crave battle as well. Sometimes the sword will fly out of his hand to kill people that Elric wishes to spare. The longer he uses the sword, the more violent and unstable Elric gradually becomes. The Targaryens and their Dragons George Martin’s idea seems to be that Targaryen’s have a magical connection with dragons similar to how the Starks have a magical connection with wolves. But the influence goes both ways. Targaryens can ride and control dragons because of their magical blood bond. But riding and controlling dragons also influences Targaryens to take on the personalities of dragons. You see this in the backstory character arc we hear for Mad King Aerys. He was charming and popular when young, if arrogant, something like Jamie Lannister. As he grew older, he started to become obsessed with gold and kept increasing taxes on the realm so as to accumulate a horde of gold in the royal treasury, similar to a dragon’s horde. This lead Denys Darklyn, Lord of Duskendale, to kidnap and imprison him, demanding that he agree to permanently roll back taxes as the condition for his release. Instead, Ser Barristan Selmy of the Kings Guard managed to scale the castle walls, sneak in and rescue King Aerys. But after that he was never the same. He became paranoid, violent, and obsessed with fire. He grew his nails long into claws. He wanted to eat burnt flesh as his primary diet and enjoyed seeing his enemies burned alive. He had been becoming somewhat more dragon-like over the course of his life, but the trauma at Duskendale sent him over the edge to being more dragon than human in personality. Now that Dany is bonded with Drogon and riding him—and captive of the Dothraki—the idea seems to be that she too is going to start to slowly have this transformation. Moreover, if the Dothraki chain her up and treat her badly on the trip back to Vos Dothrak—which seems likely—she will be traumatized like the Mad King, start to become paranoid and fearful of being chained up again, and desireous of burning her captors in order to get freedom, which will probably happen with Drogon burning the khals to free her. The dragons are effectively Lightbringer to Dany as Stormbringer was to Elric. The more she is forced by circumstances to fly them in battle, the idea seems to be the more they are going to infect her with bloodlust and firelust. Eventually, in Elric’s story, the Lords of Chaos come in an attempt to take over and destroy the world, similar to the Others. Elric is able to use Stormbringer and give several of its twinblades to his relatives to defeat, kill, and utterly destroy these Chaos Lords. So it will be with Dany and the Others. But the process leaves Elric scarred and transformed in character. Elric is a Frodo that doesn’t get to go to Valinor across the sea and heal his wounds; instead, Stormbringer flies from his hand and kills him on the last page of the story. Should Daenerys Stormborn be Elric 'Stormbringer'? I for one hope that George Martin changes his mind and finds a more unique storyline for Dany that is not a redux of Elric of Melnibone’s story! This arc for a fantasy hero becoming a dark antihero works much worse in the case of Dany because she was raised without mother or father by an abusive older brother and sold into marital slavery against her will at age 13. Elric by contrast grew up in the capital as the heir to the empire and inherited his throne. Elric was much more the master of his own fate. Indeed, one of the Elric novels is entitled Sailor on the Seas of Fate. Elric was the ultimate entitled royal scion who sacrificed himself for the greater good, becoming a tragic anti-hero, but got to enjoy so many benefits of privilege along the way, as the emperor of the most powerful kingdom in the world. He even had the most gorgeous and powerful woman in Melnibone, his cousin, completely dedicated to him. Elric is not Dany—a champion for readers who grew up physically and sexually abused, and for women who grew up with dominating males in their family, and for women trying to break into professions dominated by men. Furthermore, Cersei Lannister—especially in her many chapters in A Feast for Crows—has already embodied the fairy tale/fantasy archetype(s) of the Evil Queen (Snow White) and the mistreated young woman who becomes the Wicked Witch (Maleficent, Wicked). If that wasn’t enough, we’ve also gotten the Unfaithful Queen who helps murder her husband (Clytemnestra in Agamemnon, Gertrude in Hamlet)—in the form of the Lysa Arryn poising Robert Arryn and Cersei ordering Robert drugged on the boar hunt to get him killed. Add in the Medea figure—the Scorned Wife who turns Child Killer—in the form of Cersei ordering Robert’s bastards killed and Lysa almost throwing Sansa out the moon door. These wicked witch/queen tropes are all rather tired to begin with. Do we really need them to repeat yet again at the end of the story? We have also gotten to see Cersei, Lysa, and for some Catelyn as embodiments of the historical queen figure whom male historians (parroting popular conspiracy theories) blamed for everything that went wrong in their countries. For example, Catherine De Medici who became Queen Dowager in France and Livia who the Roman historians preposterously accused of poisoning a dozen better men to put her son Tiberius in the emperor's chair (when it was really just Augustus naming the most successful living Roman general as his heir for the third time). In our story, Cat and Lysa start a civil war which Ned has already started preparing for just a little too soon (by arresting and putting Tyrion on trial), leading to Ned’s death as well as Robb’s and so many others. Then Cersei is just a terrible queen when she gains power, both for the realm and the Lannister’s. I have always argued that Dany can’t have the same end as the show because George Martin is simply not that sexist a writer, when it comes to it. The theme of this fantasy epic can’t be women are too emotional to lead—and when they try, they ruin everything! I just don’t believe that’s the story George Martin wants to tell. Rushed Ending or Bad Ending? The biggest problem with the show is that Dan and Dave did not want to do more than seven seasons of the show, and only begrudgingly did an eighth. George Martin by contrast wanted the show to run for 12–13 seasons and begged Dan & Dave as well as HBO for a minimum of ten seasons in order to be able to complete the story properly. The rushed ending left no time to show a slow, gradual change in Dany’s personality brought on by circumstances beyond her control, as happened to Elric in the later part of his story. Instead of her being a tragic hero sacrificing herself and her soul to save humanity, Dan and Dave made her suddenly turn into a psychopath. It simply wasn’t explained. Nor it is a satisfying end for her character arc in any case.

Yes, I agree that there is a lot of mermen symbolism with the Manderly's--even more than the Tully's as a House--and that Wylla is also a little mermaid figure. It could well be that this is a set up for Arya to play Wylla later in the series at some point, I hope with Wylla's permission rather than having to wear her face after death. The Manderly's certainly seem to have big roles still to play. I agree that Arya will be placed with a courtesan primarily to learn about exerting influence, flirting, using her femininity and sexuality to advantage, as well as listening as opposed to talking (since Arya is already a great talker). And I do think they will take her voice. I am not suggesting that Justin is trying to buy her virginity because he knows she is Arya, rather that he goes to see one of the famous courtesan's because he has money, has heard that buying a virgin is a big thing in Braavos, and Arya is the newest girl there so he tries to buy her.

Here is a Q&A I put up on my Quora Space, A Theory of Ice & Fire, in honor of my kids enjoying the new Little Mermaid this weekend (Sorry I thought I was posting this here but accidently posted it under the World Tab, and didn't know how to move it here. This version is slightly revised and edited as well but substantially the same.) In honor of The Little Mermaid, do you think the House of Black and White is going to take Arya's voice like Ursula takes Ariel's? Yes I do! There are actually little mermaid references through much of Arya’s storyline—particularly once she comes to Braavos—and futhermore having been made “the Blind Girl” previously as part of her training, and having just practiced using her voice in her role as Mercy as an actress at the Gate theater in her spoiled Winds of Winter chapter, it makes a lot of sense for her voice to be taken next while she is placed with either the Merling Queen or the Black Pearl. Arya is the Little Mermaid of the House Tully Mermaids Sansa Stark looks like Ariel from the Little Mermaid with her red hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. So does Sansa and Arya’s mother Catelyn. Arya does not, because she has the grey eyes, long face, and brown hair of the Starks. But physical appearance aside, Arya and Sansa have the same Tully blood as Catelyn. The Tully sigil is a fish on a background of red and blue waves. Their castle Riverrun lies on the Red Fork of the Trident River. Their great uncle Brendon Blackfish escapes Riverrun by swimming under the river gate and down the river past the besieging Frey’s and Lannister’s. Even their uncle Edmure is nicknamed the floppy fish for an unfortunate incident when he was too drunk to get things up. But there are some ways that Arya is closest to the Little Mermaid. She is literally the youngest Tully girl, the younger sister of Sansa, with Catelyn as their mother and Lysa as their aunt. Arya is the one who feels like she doesn’t fit in with the other women in her family and their friends, similar to how the Little Mermaid Ariel is the one who doesn’t fit in with her five older sisters and the other mermaids. In Hans Christian Andersen’s original, the six mermaid princesses share a garden under the sea, and the Little Mermaid chooses to grow red flowers and one ash tree in hers. She loves flowers more than anything and the one ash tree she plants and raises is next to a marble statue of a man and grows up next to and around the statute as though they are lovers. In ASOIAF, our Arya loves flowers. Fans often forget that because Arya is so associated with running off exploring and her love of fencing, chasing cats, and Tomboy tendencies. But it’s overlooked that whenever she goes off on her adventures on the trip from Winterfell to Kings Landing she is looking for flowers, which we are told she adores. She knows the name of every flower in the North, we are told. Ash trees have a role in Norse and Celtic mythology which is the inspiration for the weirwoods; Yggdrasil, the World Tree, is an immense ash tree that runs through the cosmos including the nine worlds. Odin (also Woden or Othin) the chief God acquires magical powers, wisdom, and the use of runes by allowing himself to be blinded in one eye and hung on Yggrasil for nine days and nights. Arya is associated with the weirwoods and ash trees throughout the story. One of her most important encounters with Jaqen occurs right in front of the weirwood (symbolic ash tree) in Harrenhal. This is where Jaqen offers her three death wishes when Arya is at a point of dispair. And of course Arya’s name is close to Ariel’s name. They both start with “Ar” then have the ‘i/y’ sound. The only difference is in the ending. But at times through the story Aria drops the ending and goes only by Arry when she is with Hot Pie and other Night’s Watch teens. Ariel’s name actually means lion (‘ari’) of God (‘el’)—which isn’t particularly associated with mermaids or the sea—but Ariel is given the most beautiful voice in the sea and the world by Hans Christian Andersen. So by changing her name from Ariel to Aria/Arya actually makes the name closer to our conception of the Little Maid Character with the beautiful voice. But note that if a character such as Jaqen or Jon is ever ordered to kill her, “Ari” means lion so this would be plunging a dagger in the heart of a water girl (a Tully), and a lion girl (Arry), and a Nissa Nissa wife/sister figure all wrapped into one. That is all three stages of the forging of Lightbringer by Azor Ahai story wrapped into one killing! This will happen near the conclusion of A Dream of Spring, probably ordered by Daenerys, and be the final moral dilemma faced by either Jaqen or Jon in the story. Braavos Hans Christian Andersen was born in Denmark and lived his whole life in this continental European country North of Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland. It’s when Arya leaves Westeros and gets to Braavos, in Northwestern Essos, that George Martin really goes crazy with references to Andersen’s most famous creation, the Little Mermaid. Most of these involve the world famous courtesans of Braavos, and specifically two of them: the Black Pearl and the Merling Queen (emphasis added unless indicated): “Or would you sooner be a courtesan? Speak the word, and we will send you to the Black Pearl or the Daughter of the Dusk…and great lords will beggar themselves for your maiden’s blood.” —The Kindly Man, Arya II, AFFC “Before you drink the cold cup, you must offer up all you are to Him of Many Faces. Your Body. Your soul. Yourself. If you cannot bring yourself to do that, you must leave this place.” —The Kindly Man, Arya II, AFFC (emphasis in original) “The courtesans of Braavos were famous around the world… As she pushed her barrow along the canals, Cat would sometimes see one of them floating by, on her way to a tryst with some lover. Every courtesan had her own barge, and servants to pole her to her trysts. The Poetess always had a book to hand, the Moonshadow only wore white and silver, and the Merling Queen was never seen without her Mermaids, four young maidens at the blush of their first flowering who held her train and brushed her hair. —Cat of the Canals, Arya III, AFFC “‘I sold three cockles to a courtesan,’ Cat told the sailors. ‘She called me as she was stepping off her barge.’...’Which one was this now? The queen of cockles, was it?’ ‘The Black Pearl,’ she told them. Merry claimed the Black Pearl was the most famous courtesan of all. ‘She’s descended from dragons, that one,’ the woman had told Cat. ‘The first Black Pearl was a pirate queen. A Westerosi Prince took her for a lover and got a daughter on her, who grew up to be a courtesan.’” —Cat of the Canals, Arya III, AFFC “Cat told the kindly man about the Black Pearl too. ‘Her true name is Bellegere Otherys,’ she informed him. It was one of the three things she had learned. ‘It is,’ the priest said softly. ‘Her mother was Bellanora, but the first Black Pearl was a Bellegere as well.’” —Cat of the Canals & the Kindly Man, Arya III, AFFC “The Merling Queen has chosen a new mermaid to take the place of the one that drowned. She is the daughter of a Prestayn serving maid, thirteen and penniless, but lovely.” —The Blind Girl, Arya I, ADWD “The Sealord had never visited the Gate, but Izembaro named a box for him anyway, the largest and most opulent in the house. ‘That must be the Westerosi envoy. Have you ever seen such clothes on an old man? And look, he’s brought the Black Pearl!’...The woman with him could not have been more than a third his age. She was so lovely that the lamps seemed to burn brighter when she passed. She had dressed in a low-cut gown of pale yellow silk, startling against the light brown of her skin. Her black hair was bound up in a net of spun gold, and a jet-and-gold necklace brushed against the top of her full breasts. As they watched, she leaned close to the envoy and whispered something in his ear that made him laugh.” —Mercy, WOW So like it or not, there are a lot of suggestions that the House of Black and White is closely connected to the courtesans of Braavos, and even more foreshadowing that Arya is going to be placed either as one of the Merling Queen’s 13-year-old mermaids or else as an assistant to the Black Pearl, who has appeared more than any other person in Arya’s chapters not to have had more than minor interactions with her. We should expect that Arya will be placed, to listen and learn, as a mermaid assistant to the Merling Queen. After serving as a mermaid for the Merling Queen, Arya’s voice will be taken if it wasn’t already—just as her sight was taken before—this time in order to increase her powers of nonverbal communication, flirting, and listening, and she will be moved to the Black Pearl. Ser Justin Massey’s Rendezvous with his Destiny Arya’s placement as a mute virgin beauty with the Black Pearl will happen just in time for Ser Justin Massey to arrive in Braavos as Stannis Baratheon’s representative and agent empowered by Stannis and the Iron Bank of Braavos to hire mercenary companies to fight for Stannis in Westeros. Ser Justin Massey was a squire to Robert Barratheon and reportedly acquired his fondness for girls (read prostitutes) from Robert. When Jon believed that Arya was the girl (Alys Karstark) fleeing north to the wall, he feared that Stannis would force Arya to marry Ser Justin Massey. Then Ser Justin Massey accompanied Stannis most of the way to Winterfell, hitting on Ashara Greyjoy once she was captured and propositioning her to marriage (for her claim to the Lordship of the Iron Isles). Now that Stannis has sent Ser Justin Massey back north with Tycho Nestoris and Jeyne Poole—the Bolton’s fake Arya—to cross the narrow sea as his agent, Ser Justin Massey is finally fated for his long foreshadowed rendezvous with Arya. Ser Justin Massey will come to the Black Pearl with a small fortune (that is not his) seeking to buy Arya’s virginity, but receive an unexpected response from our heroine. In the original Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, Ariel has the chance to save herself by stabbing a prince in the heart—similar to how Azor Ahai purportedly stabbed his wife Nissa Nissa in the heart. The Little Mermaid declines to do so, and jumps back into the water where she turns into sea foam. Ser Justin Massey’s fate at the hands of our Little Mermaid Arya will not be so sweet.

Here is what I just published on my Quora Space, "A Theory of Ice & Fire": In honor of The Little Mermaid, do you think the House of Black and White is going to take Arya's voice like Ursula takes Ariel's? Yes I do! There are actually little mermaid references through much of Arya’s storyline—particularly once she comes to Braavos—and futhermore having lost her sense of sight previously as part of her training, and having used her voice in her role as Mercy acting at the Gate theater in her spoiled Winds of Winter chapter, it makes a lot of sense for her voice to be taken next while she is placed with either the Merling Queen or the Black Pearl. Arya is the Little Mermaid of the House Tully Mermaids Sansa Stark looks like Ariel from the Little Mermaid with her red hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. So does Sansa and Arya’s mother Catelyn. Arya does not, because she has the grey eyes, long face, and brown hair of the Starks. But physical appearance aside, Arya and Sansa have the same Tully blood as Catelyn. The Tully sigil is a fish on a background of red and blue waves. Their castle Riverrun lies on the Red Fork of the Trident River. Their Uncle Brendon Blackfish escapes Riverrun by swimming under the river gate and down the river past the besieging Frey’s and Lannister’s. But there are some ways that Arya is closest to the Little Mermaid. She is literally the youngest Tully girl, the younger sister of Sansa, with Catelyn as their mother and Lysa as their aunt. Arya is the one who feels like she doesn’t fit in with the other women in her family and their friends, similar to how the Little Mermaid Ariel is the one who doesn’t fit in with her five older sisters and the other mermaids. In Hans Christian Andersen’s original, the six mermaid princesses share a garden under the sea, and the Little Mermaid chooses to grow red flowers and one ash tree in hers. She loves flowers more than anything and the one ash tree she plants and raises is next to a marble statue of a man and grows up next to and around the statute as though they are lovers. In ASOIAF, our Arya loves flowers. Fans often forget that because Arya is so associated with running off exploring and her love of fencing, chasing cats, and Tomboy tendencies. But it’s overlooked that whenever she goes off on her adventures on the trip from Winterfell to Kings Landing she is looking for flowers, which we are told she adores. She knows the name of every flower in the North, we are told. Ash trees have a role in Norse and Celtic mythology which is the inspiration for the weirwoods; Yggdrasil, the World Tree, is an immense ash tree that runs through the cosmos including the nine worlds. Odin (also Woden or Othin) the chief God acquires magical powers, wisdom, and the use of runes by allowing himself to be blinded in one eye and hung on Yggrasil for nine days and nights. Arya is associated with the weirwoods and ash trees throughout the story. One of her most important encounters with Jaqen occurs right in front of the weirwood (symbolic ash tree) in Harrenhal. This is where Jaqen offers her three death wishes when Arya is at a point of dispair. And of course Arya’s name is close to Ariel’s name. They both start with “Ar” then have the ‘i/y’ sound. The only difference is in the ending. But at times through the story Aria drops the ending and goes only by Arry when she is with Hot Pie and other Night’s Watch teens. Ariel’s name actually means lion (‘ari’) of God (‘el’)—which isn’t particularly associated with mermaids or the sea—but Ariel is given the most beautiful voice in the sea and the world by Hans Christian Andersen. So by changing her name from Ariel to Aria/Arya actually makes the name closer to our conception of the Little Maid Character with the beautiful voice. But note that if a character such as Jaqen or Jon is ever ordered to kill her, “Ari” means lion so this would be plunging a dagger in the heart of a water girl (a Tully), and a lion girl (Arry), and a Nissa Nissa wife/sister figure all wrapped into one. That is all three stages of the forging of Lightbringer by Azor Ahai story wrapped into one killing! This will happen near the conclusion of A Dream of Spring, probably ordered by Daenerys, and be the final moral dilemma faced by either Jaqen or Jon in the story. Braavos Hans Christian Andersen was born in Denmark and lived his whole life in this continental European country North of Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland. It’s when Arya leaves Westeros and gets to Braavos, in Northwestern Essos, that George Martin really goes crazy with references to Andersen’s most famous creation, the Little Mermaid. Most of these involve the world famous courtesans of Braavos, and specifically two of them: the Black Pearl and the Merling Queen (emphasis added unless indicated): “Or would you sooner be a courtesan? Speak the word, and we will send you to the Black Pearl or the Daughter of the Dusk…and great lords will beggar themselves for your maiden’s blood.” —The Kindly Man, Arya II, AFFC “Before you drink the cold cup, you must offer up all you are to Him of Many Faces. Your Body. Your soul. Yourself. If you cannot bring yourself to do that, you must leave this place.” —The Kindly Man, Arya II, AFFC (emphasis in original) “The courtesans of Braavos were famous around the world… As she pushed her barrow along the canals, Cat would sometimes see one of them floating by, on her way to a tryst with some lover. Every courtesan had her own barge, and servants to pole her to her trysts. The Poetess always had a book to hand, the Moonshadow only wore white and silver, and the Merling Queen was never seen without her Mermaids, four young maidens at the blush of their first flowering who held her train and brushed her hair. —Cat of the Canals, Arya III, AFFC “‘I sold three cockles to a courtesan,’ Cat told the sailors. ‘She called me as she was stepping off her barge.’...’Which one was this now? The queen of cockles, was it?’ ‘The Black Pearl,’ she told them. Merry claimed the Black Pearl was the most famous courtesan of all. ‘She’s descended from dragons, that one,’ the woman had told Cat. ‘The first Black Pearl was a pirate queen. A Westerosi Prince took her for a lover and got a daughter on her, who grew up to be a courtesan.’” —Cat of the Canals, Arya III, AFFC “Cat told the kindly man about the Black Pearl too. ‘Her true name is Bellegere Otherys,’ she informed him. It was one of the three things she had learned. ‘It is,’ the priest said softly. ‘Her mother was Bellanora, but the first Black Pearl was a Bellegere as well.’” —Cat of the Canals & the Kindly Man, Arya III, AFFC “The Merling Queen has chosen a new mermaid to take the place of the one that drowned. She is the daughter of a Prestayn serving maid, thirteen and penniless, but lovely.” —The Blind Girl, Arya I, ADWD “The Sealord had never visited the Gate, but Izembaro named a box for him anyway, the largest and most opulent in the house. ‘That must be the Westerosi envoy. Have you ever seen such clothes on an old man? And look, he’s brought the Black Pearl!’...The woman with him could not have been more than a third his age. She was so lovely that the lamps seemed to burn brighter when she passed. She had dressed in a low-cut gown of pale yellow silk, startling against the light brown of her skin. Her black hair was bound up in a net of spun gold, and a jet-and-gold necklace brushed against the top of her full breasts. As they watched, she leaned close to the envoy and whispered something in his ear that made him laugh.” —Mercy, WOW So like it or not, there are a lot of suggestions that the House of Black and White is closely connected to the courtesans of Braavos, and even more foreshadowing that Arya is going to be placed either as one of the Merling Queen’s 13-year-old mermaids or else as an assistant to the Black Pearl, who has appeared more than any other person in Arya’s chapters not to have had more than minor interactions with her. We should expect that Arya will be placed, to listen and learn, as a mermaid assistant to the Merling Queen. After serving as a mermaid for the Merling Queen, Arya’s voice will be taken—just as her sight was taken before (to increase her powers of nonverbal communication and flirting)—and she will be moved to be the single assistant to the Black Pearl. Ser Justin Massey’s Rendezvous with his Destiny Arya’s placement as a mute virgin beauty with the Black Pearl will happen just in time for Ser Justin Massey to arrive in Braavos as Stannis Baratheon’s representative and agent empowered by Stannis and the Iron Bank of Braavos to hire mercenary companies to fight for Stannis in Westeros. Ser Justin Massey was a squire to Robert Barratheon and reportedly acquired his fondness for girls (read prostitutes) from Robert. When Jon believed that Arya was the girl (Alys Karstark) fleeing north to the wall, he feared that Stannis would force Arya to marry Ser Justin Massey. Then Ser Justin Massey accompanied Stannis most of the way to Winterfell, hitting on Ashara Greyjoy once she was captured and propositioning her to marriage (for her claim to the Lordship of the Iron Isles). Now that Stannis has sent Ser Justin Massey back north with Tycho Nestoris and Jeyne Poole—the Bolton’s fake Arya—to cross the narrow sea as his agent, Ser Justin Massey is finally fated for his long foreshadowed rendezvous with Arya. Ser Justin Massey will come to the Black Pearl with a small fortune (that is not his) seeking to buy Arya’s virginity, but receive an unexpected response from our heroine. In the original Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, Ariel has the chance to save herself by stabbing a prince in the heart—similar to how Azor Ahai purportedly stabbed his wife Nissa Nissa in the heart. The Little Mermaid declines to do so, and jumps back into the water where she turns into sea foam. Ser Justin Massey’s fate at the hands of our Little Mermaid Arya will not be so sweet. Azor Ahai as Aria Rhoza (‘Arya the Rose’) One final interesting thing regarding names is that the letters of Azor Ahai can be rearranged the into “Aria Rhoza” or “Arya the Red Rose.” This ties back into Hans Christian Anderson’s story of the Little Mermaid Ariel who raises red flowers in her undersea garden. Perhaps the name Azor Ahai is an ancient prophecy, garbled by time, regarding our Arya the Red Rose, counterpart to Jon Snow the Blue Rose.

I think you misunderstand. I had written a much longer post starting to explain the issue but my computer froze and it got lost when I had to go pick up my kids. By the problem with Dany I don't the problem with her, I mean the problems with her story line. I read that Martin had won the Nebula Award for "Blood of the Dragon"--all Dany's collected chapters in a Game of Thrones--and so that is the first thing I read. Dany for me has always been the heart and soul of the story. She is the one who grew up with an abusive older brother, and no parents, who was sold into marital slavery at age 13 in a frankly horrific culture. Yet she has shown herself to be the most compassionate person in the story. The problem with Dany is that I then read that George Martin says that the fan theorist who gets it is the one who wrote about how Dany learned all the wrong lessons in Meeren because the peace was working and she gave up on it. That line of analysis does seem to lead toward what happened in the TV show. But that is not the story I read. There was no working peace in Meeren. Hizdar ordered her dragon (and baby) Drogon to be killed without asking her, which was tantamount to treason and a direct negation of her authority and her power based. And for nothing by Meerenese standards: Martin showed us that the Meerense love follies and planned to set lions on Tyrion and Penny while they were performing, until Dany stopped it. Martin showed us that the Meerenese like to tie up slave children coated in honey and blood and milk to see which of them a bear will eat as spectacle. Then a boar mortally wounds a female gladiator--right after an apparent assasination attempt on the queen in front of Hizdar, and Hizdar's response is to ignore his Queen and order Dany's dragon to be killed. How is this the peace working? There is no way Dany or her people could possibly allow Hizdar to stay in power or share authority with him after that. Yet I read this long Reddit post that Dany was the one in the wrong here and that George Martin says that reddit post got it right! Another problem with Dany: We know that the dragons are necessary to save all humanity from the Others. We've always known that. We also know that Robert Baratheon has been a truly terrible, selfish king who bankrupted a wealthy realm after he killed Dany's family. We know the Lannisters have since taken over and Tywin and Joffrey and Cersei are all monsters, and now Cersei is destroying the country. So how is it bad for Dany to protect the dragons that we know are necessary to save the world as well as to remove the coterie that took over the realm and has run it horribly into the ground? Yet when I try to say positive things about Dany on Reddit and Quora, what I have run into is all these people who say Robb was great for rebelling against the Lannisters while Dany is evil for plotting to rebel against them, for hatching and not killing her dragons, for liberating all the slaves in Slavor's Bay (because it is bloody and destabalizing to do so). Another problem with Dany: As far as I can tell, Cersei is an accumulation of every old trope and calumny used against intelligent and powerful women who have been involved in politics or government for 2,000 years. Livia exerted some influence on her husband Augustus, so Roman historians fifty years later accused her of poisoning something like 20 different people and ruining the early Roman Republic. They blamed Livia for every mistake actually made by Augustus and Tiberius and other men! Women who would have a role in government, right up to the present moment, have been accused of being conniving plotters with evil schemes (like Hillary Clinton). Of only caring about their own kids and not the welfare of the realm (another accusation lodged at Livia and so many ever since). Of being too emotional to make good decisions or rational judgements or stick to courses of action. Of being cruel and petty. Of listening to cute younger handsome men and ignoring wise old men. Of cheating on their husbands and partners and sleeping with every handsome man at court. All of these calumnies against women and more, Cersei actually does. So I took it all along we were setting up a contrast where Cersei shows the false image but Dany shows how strong, assertive, intelligent women really can rule and do so more compassionately and carefully than so many overly warlike and ego-obsessed and closed minded male rulers and politicians. If so, I have been down with that story and I thought I was enjoying it. Then we got what happened in the show. But it's not just that the show was badly written, then all these other theorists have come forward supporting the argument that Dan and Dave are getting Dany right, they just rushed things over one and half seasons that should have taken three to five. And the things I have read, the hints from George, don't seem to be that they butchered Dany, but more along the lines that it's hard to change course in the middle of a series when you've planned things all along. In other words, that this was George's plan for Dany all along. He hated the way it happened in the show, but not that it happened, only the way it was done. This is the problem with the Dany storyline, and I apologize if I phrased it misleadingly. I love George's writing on most aspects of the story, but it seems like he has headed Dany off a cliff that really is going to be hard to escape misogyny and telling what is frankly the celebration of 2,000 years of the worst tropes rather than anything interesting or trope-shattering when it comes to her storyline.

Thank you for admitting me to the Forum! I have been sharing my theories with close friends for more than ten years, starting with Jamie & Cersei are half-Targaryen, R+L=J, and Arya=Odysseus. Some of my theories most people agree with now, but others are still debated or haven't been discussed. For example, I think George Martin is telling the Beauty and the Beast story three successive times with Sansa, first as Sansa and Sandor, then as Sansa and Tyrion, and next it will be Sansa and Jon Snow. I have written about this theory at some length recently on three Quora Spaces I created, "A Theory of Ice and Fire" and "A Sansa Space" and "Aragorn and Rhaegar's Sons." But please, I beg you, do not bombard me with Jonsa hate. It took me five years theorizing on my own before I started looking at the forums, and more than five years after that before I finally decided this year as my New Year’s resolution to become part of the open debate. But my very first experience posting on Reddit was getting flamed out by Jonsa haters. (I should probably say that all my theories are book-based and extensively considered, though anyone is welcome to disagree with them respectfully.) If anyone has prior posts to point me to, and ideas to share, I am currently working on a multipart series, "The Problem with Dany." My overall thesis is that Daenerys's storyline is the one aspect of ASOIAF that really has the potential to turn off large numbers of passionate book fans, divide the fandom, and even spoil the series for lots of people. No one thinks George Martin is going to tell her story in the ham-fisted way that the show did. That's not the issue. But there are really complex issues that I want to explore as to why I think George has written himself into trouble with her storyline.