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The Dragon's Mercy: The Violent Future Path of Daenerys Targaryen


BryndenBFish

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Hey everyone,



Been doing a fair amount of reading, analyzing and writing on Daenerys Targaryen recently and where I think her arc will take her in TWOW. I have a new essay on the blog which clocks in at around 8K words in which I talk about two of the thematic impulses in Dany's ADWD arc that will carry over to TWOW. Here's some of the topics covered:



  • Dany's antagonistic visions of motherhood
  • Prophecy in ASOIAF generally and what it generally means for the characters involved
  • Dany's relationship with prophecy
  • How Dany's mother of dragons persona and new embrace of dangerous, fickle prophetic vision culminates in her final chapter in ADWD.

Part 1 focuses on the thematic side, but I plan to take the essay series next to where Dany's arc will actually take her come TWOW. Anyways, I invite comment and discussion, and I love a good debate.



Here's the link for a more in-depth look at the bulleted topics. Thanks for reading!


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Dude, I still need to read your thesis on the Battle of Fire. I skimmed through this and it looks just as promising as your other work. That being said, it's going to take me a while to get through it.



Thanks though! Your work is always very thought provoking and, for me, convincing. Thank you.


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Great read. Your thoughts on the importance of the (mis)interpretation of prophecies as being key in character development was especially thought provoking.

See for me, it's not about the misinterpretation/interpretation of prophecy, but rather what the prophecies mean to the individual characters both at an individual level and a meta one. Do they lead characters towards morally good paths or do they lead characters down morally dark paths? With Daenerys, we have her following an incredibly ambiguous prophetic vision given to her by a questionable actor (Quaithe). It sets Dany towards a violent future where she combines her mother of dragons instincts with a feeling of prophetic inspiration. I'm of a mind that this prophetic inspiration will be the cause of a lot of suffering of the people of Essos, and that we'll see a ton of warfare and death of the innocents come TWOW in Dany's arc, but all that's to be described in part 2. :)

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See for me, it's not about the misinterpretation/interpretation of prophecy, but rather what the prophecies mean to the individual characters both at an individual level and a meta one. Do they lead characters towards morally good paths or do they lead characters down morally dark paths? With Daenerys, we have her following an incredibly ambiguous prophetic vision given to her by a questionable actor (Quaithe). It sets Dany towards a violent future where she combines her mother of dragons instincts with a feeling of prophetic inspiration. I'm of a mind that this prophetic inspiration will be the cause of a lot of suffering of the people of Essos, and that we'll see a ton of warfare and death of the innocents come TWOW in Dany's arc, but all that's to be described in part 2. :)

That's what I mean. ;) (Mis)interpretation on the part of the characters. It's not so much about the real or imagined meaning behind the prophecies, but what the characters make of them and how their decision making is influenced. At that point it's really about exploring the feelings and impulses of the characters, which makes for such an interesting story.

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I am going to enjoy this! I liked your essays on the Battle of Fire and the Battle of Ice. Your essays are really complex and your argumentation for why you speculate and predict things the way you do is more or less realistic and based on textual evidence without putting too much weight on every single word. Keep it up! :)


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Interesting essay. I enjoy your blog immensely.



I agree that at the end of ADWD Daenerys is in full Aegon the Conquerer mode.



While that does imply short term aggressiveness and violence, it is not guaranteed that she will end the books in "Dragon" mode, she could easily change back to "Mhysa" mode.



In fact rescuing Westeros from the White Walkers is a very "Mhysa" thing to do. It is also possible when she gets to Westeros there will be nothing left to conquer. Westeros will be exhausted by war, what will Westerosi lords do when they see a Targaryen with (possibly 3) dragons behind her. Given the reputation and the lore of dragons in this world, it is possible Westerosi lords will just say "F**k this" and lay down their weapons. "Sorry Aegon, you rescued us with crazy Cersei, but you know, she has real dragons."



It is possible that Daenerys seeing the destruction war has wrought on Westeros by pretenders of the throne, she could easily switch to Mhysa mode again. Help out destroying the White Walkers and actually planting trees.



That is what makes Daenerys so interesting, she has two sides to her.


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It could be a short-term transition from mhysa to mother of dragons, but while this transition is fraught with violent overtones, there's actually a sense of 'righting injustices' that permeates the mother of dragons ideal. Consider Astapor -- Daenerys violently ended a society that she viewed as utterly corrupted by the practice of slavery, and she did so through dragonfire and the liberation of slaves, those who came to be her children. So, I think that Daenerys will still retain a stark sense of justice and injustice to her. But i believe that her method of adjudicating these matters will be violent in nature as opposed to the peaceful ways that she attempted to rule Meereen in ADWD.



It's very possible that she'll return to the mhysa by the end of the story (if she survives to the end of the story), but I do wonder whether Martin will move Daenerys towards a more consequentialist political and ethical morality -- one found in how Myles Toyne described how Tywin Lannister would have conducted himself at the Battle of the Bells.





"Tywin Lannister himself could have done no more," he had insisted one night to Blackheart, during his first year of exile.


"There is where you’re wrong," Myles Toyne had replied. "Lord Tywin would not have bothered with a search. He would have burned that town and every living creature in it. Men and boys, babes at the breast, noble knights and holy septons, pigs and whores, rats and rebels, he would have burned them all. When the fires guttered out and only ash and cinders remained, he would have sent his men in to find the bones of Robert Baratheon. Later, when Stark and Tully turned up with their host, he would have offered pardons to the both of them, and they would have accepted and turned for home with their tails between their legs." (ADWD, The Griffin Reborn)




To me, this would be a much more compelling direction that GRRM could take Daenerys -- especially given the endless fan-debates on whether Tywin Lannister's conduct was a long-term good for the realm. (Personally, I think that Tywin was a war criminal and contributed to the long-term destruction of the realm, but that's neither here/there for a discussion on Daenerys.)


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See for me, it's not about the misinterpretation/interpretation of prophecy, but rather what the prophecies mean to the individual characters both at an individual level and a meta one. Do they lead characters towards morally good paths or do they lead characters down morally dark paths? With Daenerys, we have her following an incredibly ambiguous prophetic vision given to her by a questionable actor (Quaithe). It sets Dany towards a violent future where she combines her mother of dragons instincts with a feeling of prophetic inspiration. I'm of a mind that this prophetic inspiration will be the cause of a lot of suffering of the people of Essos, and that we'll see a ton of warfare and death of the innocents come TWOW in Dany's arc, but all that's to be described in part 2. :)

Yes I too enjoyed the part about prophesies. Having spent time trying to figure them out, it's really interesting to actually step back and consider their impact in-universe.

Dany's links to prophesies are particularly interesting, as you point out, she called herself 'mother of dragons' before stepping into the pyre. This underlines her confidence in not only being able to birth the dragons, but to live through the process - in a sense her mother of dragons muttering was prophetic. It's no surprise prophesies further continue to play a role in her arc.

Look forward to Pt2.

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Yes I too enjoyed the part about prophesies. Having spent time trying to figure them out, it's really interesting to actually step back and consider their impact in-universe.

Dany's links too prophesies are particularly interesting, as you point out, she called herself 'mother of dragons' before stepping into the pyre. This underlines her confidence in not only being able to birth the dragons, but to live through the process - in a sense her mother of dragons muttering was prophetic. It's no surprise prophesies further continue to play a role in her arc.

Look forward to Pt2.

If you guys ever do an episode on prophecies, I highly suggest reading Under the Bleeding Star and having Stefan Sasse on as a guest! It's really interesting how prophecy seems to drive good characters towards morally gray/dark areas. I may be overstating the case, but I don't know of too many examples where characters in-universe haven't committed (or nearly-committed in the case of Stannis and Edric Storm) ethically questionable acts on account of prophetic vision/magic. Maybe Bran, but I withhold judgment on Bran until we see more of is interactions with Bloodraven come TWOW.

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  • 2 months later...

Part 2: Reborn on the Dothraki Sea is now up. In this part, the focus shifts from ADWD to speculation on Dany's arc in TWOW. Looking at foreshadowing and clues from the first 5 books and interviews with GRRM, the focus shifts to the Dothraki Sea and Dany's coming Dothraki arc in TWOW. Here's the blurb:





The dragon’s mercy can be broadly defined as Daenerys fulfilling her emotional need to visit vengeance upon those who have harmed innocents. But before you agree that this is good or even admirable, the dragon’s mercy has parameters that go beyond the mere protection of innocents. Torturing the wineseller could perhaps be justified in a moral sense, but torturing his daughters while their father looks on? That’s less justifiable. It’s these moral and pragmatic shortcuts to achieve her ends and fulfill a personal emotional need that define the dragon’s mercy. But it’s these shortcuts that have villainous overtones. Do heroes allow innocents to be tortured? It’s a question that Martin at least seems to want us to ask.



So, when at the end of A Dance with Dragons, Daenerys re-embraces her mother of dragons identity, she’s also inherently embracing a mindset of the dragon’s mercy too. Worse, she’s wrapped her avenging dragon persona in a prophetic vision of destiny. Gone are the days when Dany made peace with her enemies. Gone still further is the willingness to make compromises to safeguard innocents. Instead, in The Winds of Winter, we will find that Daenerys Targaryen will bring the dragon’s mercy to Essos. Meereenese, Yunkish, Volantene and Pentoshi will feel the heat of the dragon’s mercy as Daenerys Targaryen burns her way across Essos. But first, she will bring fire and blood to the Dothraki.




Thanks for reading! Any criticism, comments or discussion is highly welcome!


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Hey everyone,

Been doing a fair amount of reading, analyzing and writing on Daenerys Targaryen recently and where I think her arc will take her in TWOW. I have a new essay on the blog which clocks in at around 8K words in which I talk about two of the thematic impulses in Dany's ADWD arc that will carry over to TWOW. Here's some of the topics covered:

  • Dany's antagonistic visions of motherhood
  • Prophecy in ASOIAF generally and what it generally means for the characters involved
  • Dany's relationship with prophecy
  • How Dany's mother of dragons persona and new embrace of dangerous, fickle prophetic vision culminates in her final chapter in ADWD.
Part 1 focuses on the thematic side, but I plan to take the essay series next to where Dany's arc will actually take her come TWOW. Anyways, I invite comment and discussion, and I love a good debate.

Here's the link for a more in-depth look at the bulleted topics. Thanks for reading!

I just read your article and it was very insightful on Dany's arc.I understand she wants to safeguard the innocents, but as a reader, I don't like Dany(like you said) because she is no different like Tywin and even her father, when she sacked Astapor or crucifying the masters without due process.

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I just read your article and it was very insightful on Dany's arc.I understand she wants to safeguard the innocents, but as a reader, I don't like Dany(like you said) because she is no different like Tywin and even her father, when she sacked Astapor or crucifying the masters without due process.

I disagree. Daenerys has not acted like Tywin Lannister. Tywin's over-arching ambition is to secure the legacy of House Lannister. To achieve that, he orders the deaths of tends of thousands of innocents. So, the motivation factor just isn't there. More importantly, though the crucifixion of the 163 Great Masters was a war crime, it was not systemic the way that Tywin's chevauchee of the Riverlands & his conduct with the Reynes & Tarbecks was.

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I disagree. Daenerys has not acted like Tywin Lannister. Tywin's over-arching ambition is to secure the legacy of House Lannister. To achieve that, he orders the deaths of tends of thousands of innocents. So, the motivation factor just isn't there. More importantly, though the crucifixion of the 163 Great Masters was a war crime, it was not systemic the way that Tywin's chevauchee of the Riverlands & his conduct with the Reynes & Tarbecks was.

She's only 16; give her a few years. Or a harsh winter.

Actually, while I think there's more to Tywin's story yet to be told (specifically, the reasons he raised his children the way he did, and prophecies he believed or not), we know enough of it already to know he saw the fall of House Lannister around Dany's age, struggled with respecting his father, and therefore struggled with the same sort of leadership issues Dany's struggling with now. (His advice to Tytos was only after years of seeing his dad disrespected). Of course, Dany didn't witness the fall of House Targaryen (and was lied to about some details of it by Viserys) — she just lived it — but she's got that same struggle going on about how to rule, and the same House pride that is ultimately what drives her. In their teens, they both resolved to restore their House name to a former grandeur, and to gain the Iron Throne, which they both feel is a "right". (Tywin in a more "might makes right" way, but only because he witnessed something Dany didn't: crazy Targ, which made the whole "dragon blood" thing seem more like a curse than a blessing.)

I am very curious if Tywin did some of what he did because of prophecies instead of being evil personified. If so, that may parallel his story to Dany's even more.

Also, you note that Dany's made some sacrifices on her journey so far; isn't it fair to say that Tywin also made some (plausibly very-unsavory) sacrifices to attain his ultimate goal? So I think the Tywin/Dany comparison is completely valid, even though Twyin wasn't born in a prophetic time (though he may have set House Lannister up for it), and the Lannisters don't have particularly special powers that we're aware of.

(Enjoyed your blog post. Thanks!)

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My feeling about Dany and prophecies has always been that



1) Dany is smart but not very intellectual. She doesn't understand the phrophecies, doesn't trust them, and wishes Quaithe would stop bothering her. She may be like Rhaegar in some ways, but obsession with scriptures, books, and prophecies is not one of those ways.



2) The only thing Dany believes in is herself. This is a pretty standard Targaryen/Valyrian stance. Dany's arc is much more about cycles of suppressing/understanding/embracing her own Dragon blood than it is about understanding/interpreting/embracing prophecy. As she develops, her main challenge will be reconciling her righteous anger with her straight-up wordless dragon fury with her desire to make the world a better place. In fact, Aegon the Conqueror himself had the goal of making the world a better place and, arguably, did so--if the World Book can be believed. He killed thousands of people, but thousands of people were killing each other anyway in endless wars between the kingdoms. By uniting them, he actually saved lives in the long term. Whether you think that's justified or not will probably predict whether you think Dany's future actions are justified or not.



3) Dany actually does not have a relationship with prophecies as such, and Quaithe is not really affecting her character development at all. Prophecies are for the audience, not her. Besides, Quaithe is probably rocking it Melisandre-style and only half understands what she herself is even saying. And obviously her prophecies do have objective truth yet the things she sees can change--i.e. the Gryphon and the Mummer's Dragon *were* headed towards her but aren't anymore. That's nothing to do with Dany's belief or interpretation since she has no idea WTF it might mean.


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Danaerys Targaryen. Here's what I half-think half-hope happens next:



Dany gives Jhaqo the old "Dracarys" and he, as promised, dies screaming.She then proceeds to tell her new khalasar that they will know riches and glory beyond anything a dothraki khalasar has ever seen, and they follow their new khaleesi. She hops on Drogon, guides her khalasar back to Meereen, and they free every slave, kill every master in the city, and discover that the Shavepate is the real harpy.



Victario shows up at this point, tries to bind a dragon and gets served the same feast of fire she gives Jhaqo. She then rallies the ironborn fleet to their side.



She decides that she cannot leave slaver's bay while slaves are still around;so her and her mega army storms the bay with the ironborn's fleet, and leaves every master a heaping pile of bubbling flesh and every stone charred and broken before leaving with all of their slaves. At some point on her bloody quest she receives another cryptic vision from Quaithe about this "go east to go west" business, so she decides to actually do it. On her way she visits the house she grew up in in ASSHAI (wait, what?). She actually grew up in a field surrounded village in Asshai with a lemon tree growing outside it (because we know there ain't no fields or lemon trees in Braavos), picks up some more followers there, and storms Westeros from the west, bringing Quaithe along with her.



And when Aegon sits the IT by the end of the series, she parks her booty down on Dragonstone while eating grapes off Drogon's back.



I'm very excited to read your piece, but decided I wanted to write this first. Easily one of my favourite characters in all of fiction.


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  • 2 weeks later...

Roasting Jhaqo and getting his khalassar is too cheesy for my taste and George does better than that. I think Drogon will leave Dany because the sun has almost set and this is when Drogon returns to his lair. Dany will be taken to VD to be tried by the crones. Jhaqo will not dare touch Dany because he is not the authority to decide whether she is guilty or innocent of the charges (blood magic, drawing blood in VD etc.). Even a khal can meet a horrible end if he kills/rapes one of dosh khaleen.



It is mentioned how Drogon frequented the place and was feeding Jhaqo’s horses, which are his most precious holdings. Those 50 warriors were expecting Drogon. They were prepared to face Drogon and kill him if they can. If a fight breaks up, killing an unarmored Dany with an arrow is not hard for 50 Dothraki.


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Roasting Jhaqo and getting his khalassar is too cheesy for my taste and George does better than that. I think Drogon will leave Dany because the sun has almost set and this is when Drogon returns to his lair. Dany will be taken to VD to be tried by the crones. Jhaqo will not dare touch Dany because he is not the authority to decide whether she is guilty or innocent of the charges (blood magic, drawing blood in VD etc.). Even a khal can meet a horrible end if he kills/rapes one of dosh khaleen.

It is mentioned how Drogon frequented the place and was feeding Jhaqo’s horses, which are his most precious holdings. Those 50 warriors were expecting Drogon. They were prepared to face Drogon and kill him if they can. If a fight breaks up, killing an unarmored Dany with an arrow is not hard for 50 Dothraki.

50 warriors can't do anything to a dragon on the loose. It may also be less than easy to aim your arrows through a firestorm (how many will even stay to try?). And what if Dany stands behind Drogon or under his wing? btw Jon Snow survived getting hit by many arrows...

It's also good to remember that GRRM hasn't shown just how powerful the dragons are... yet.

I hate your scenario where Drogon just leaves Dany in the middle of her enemies and flies off. It makes no sense, it's been established that the dragons have a sort of emotional/mental link to their riders. And Dany hates Khal Jhago's guts. Not to mention going to VD would take Dany even further into the middle of nowhere, away from any chances of doing interesting stuff, interacting with our loved characters or returning to Mereen/Westeros.

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  • 2 months later...


Hello everyone! It's been a while since I've published an essay on Daenerys in The Winds of Winter. But today I'm happy to present The Dragon's Mercy, the Violent Future Path of Daenerys Targaryen Part 3: Blood for Blood.



I started writing this one back in May 2014; so I'm pretty psyched about it. As it's been a good long while since I've published anything from this series, here's the first few parts and a short recap:


  • Part 1: Children and Prophecy: Setting the thematic stage for Dany's torn conception of motherhood and her struggle over the veracity and power of magic and prophecy.
  • Part 2: Reborn on the Dothraki Sea Dany's early TWOW Dothraki arc, its thematic implications on the Dothraki Sea and Vaes Dothrak and what it will mean for her mother of dragons persona.

Today's part shifts the focus from the great grasslands of the Dothraki Sea towards the city of Meereen and covers the following:


  • The State of Meereen and the consequences of the Battle of Fire
  • The thematic role of the Ironborn in Dany's arc in TWOW
  • Marwyn's impact and how magic will shape Dany going forward
  • Moqorro's coming temptation of Daenerys to R'hllor and the sacrifice of innocent life to the red god.
  • The fate of the child hostages in Meereen
  • The final fate of Meereen

In part 4, I'll go into detail on Dany's coming fire and blood Dothraki-style conquest of Essos, and I'm considering a part 5 shorter essay on what Dany's entry into Westeros may look like.


Thanks to everyone for reading, but I want to give an incredibly warm shout-out and thanks to /u/nfriel who edited the shit out of this essay and made it into something worth sharing with you all. So, thanks to /u/nfriel , and if you haven't had a chance yet, do yourself a favor and read the first few essays of her series starting with A Bride for a Prince.



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Was thinking about Dany's fate recently and also how the Faceless Men tie in to the big picture.



Wouldn't it be ironic if the Queen of Dragons, whose mission has been to abolish slavery, is murdered by the Faceless Men who are looking to protect the world from (Valyrian) slavery?



I believe the Faceless Men are plotting to get rid of the dragons. After all, they were founded by slaves in the pre-Doom mines who killed their Valyrian masters. Dictatorship by Dragon has not exactly been kind to the world. Tyrion explains in one chapter that the only surviving copy of "The Death of Dragons" by Septon Barth resides in the locked vaults of the Citadel. Jaqen D'Hagar's mission could be to retrieve that book to learn the secrets of killing dragons. He'd previously got himself locked up in the Black Cells at Kings Landing to infiltrate the Nightswatch — perhaps to explore the Library at Castle Black — that plan went awry when the Black-Brothers-to-be got in the way of the Lannisters' burning and pillaging.




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