Question: game of thrones... Dany/ jorah/ asshai

[The Wight Krow]

After the assassination attempt Drogo vows to take westoros for dany... yet heads to lhazareen where we know shit hits the fan and drogo is on his death bed...

While in the tent jorah enters and tells dany that they need to leave before drogo dies... He suggests to go to asshai "Asshai, I would say. It lies far to the south, at the end of the known world. We will find a Ship take us back to pentos."

Here's where I'm confused

The map I'm looking at asshai is way way way way to the east and a bit south from where they currently are... It would be so much faster to take a short trip to slavers bay to take a ship... Instead they take the longest trip across the red waste and end up in qarth...

So what's the deal? Does he not know where he is exactly? Am I looking at a bad map? what's jorahs deal with asshai? He mentions it several times.. Obviously wants her to go there..Am I all backwards?

Help me out

[The Wight Krow]

Anyone?

[Beanis Buttershield]

After reviewing the map, I've got the same questions as you. :dunno:

After some research on other sites and forums, a common answer I've found is simply GRRM made an error, but I hate assuming GRRM didn't polish all the edges as he usually does.

My best guess is that there is another player in Asshai who will be revealed in the next books. Jorah and Illyrio both want Dany to go to Asshai, but we have no concrete reason to know why. It will probably be revealed in time.

[The Wight Krow]

Yea I was thinking he wrote this before he completed the map of essos... It happens but I was hoping for a holy shit answer...

Thanks for the reply

[H0X0]

Eh.. Maybe if Illirio's long game was to back (f)Aegon Blackflame/whatever, he sent Daenerys and Viserys off to die on the Dothraki sea. And gave Jorah the mission of getting the eggs to Ashai to have them hatched after the last true Targarians are dead.

Not great, but this is the only thing I can figure.

[The Wight Krow]

Yea I remember watching something about illyrio and varys sending dany and viserys off to die in the dothraki sea... This would mean jorah is still not fully committed to dany... Which he leaves us to believe that he is once he stops the poisoner... Which is even more confusing why he saved her if he is apart of illyrios plan still

😖😖 frustrated

[H0X0]

Yea I remember watching something about illyrio and varys sending dany and viserys off to die in the dothraki sea... This would mean jorah is still not fully committed to dany... Which he leaves us to believe that he is once he stops the poisoner... Which is even more confusing why he saved her if he is apart of illyrios plan still

😖😖 frustrated

Was there just for the eggs then he falls in wuv...

It could really be grrm hadn't worked that far ahead.

[A spoon of knife and fork]

So I always thought Jorah meant them to go to asshai because he wanted to keep her as far away from anyone else she knows as possible (for her safety, ostensibly). Maybe the idea of getting a boat to pentos later was just a way of convincing her (assuming she wouldn't have known geography well enough to know that going to asshai and later pentos is rather silly).

[Beanis Buttershield]

So I did some more research on Asshai hoping to find a clue about the city itself or the shadowbinders that make it famous.

But still very little..

I thought Quaithe's riddle might provide some insight but she only talks in riddles and "you must go the wrong way to go the right way" is the only significant thing which I interpreted as "you must go to Asshai to be ready for the inevitable fight in the West."

I'm starting to think there is/was some conspiracy to get Dany to Asshai to rob her of her dragons, use her blood for a spell, or some other black magic reason that would give the "servants of the light" a reason to not be servants any longer.

Oh, look at that. A tin foil hat just appeared on my head. :stunned:

[Northbound3.0]

It may be a mistake on Martin's part. However, I'd offer up; that going to Slaver's Bay would be a bit more dangerous than going to Asshai.

[The Wight Krow]

It may be a mistake on Martin's part. However, I'd offer up; that going to Slaver's Bay would be a bit more dangerous than going to Asshai.

I agree it would be dangerous... But I still find it odd

[D150]

Jorah is working for Illyrio. He needs to wake dragons, and for that he needs 3 things. Dragon eggs, "Dragon" blood, and Dragon/dark/fire magic. He has the eggs and Dany, but needs the magic which will be found in Asshai. Here the plan was probably to sacrifice Dany and wake the dragons for his own benefit/ for (f)Aegon's benefit.

Maybe this is another clue as to why Aegon is fake, and why Illyrio entertain's Dany at all. Maybe can not use Aegon to wake Dragons, because he is not a dragon. Now if a partial blackfyre's can also wake dragons, maybe he expected the "blood" party to die in the ritual.

Regardless, summary is that Illyrio wanted to sacrifice and use Dany to wake Dragons using Asshai's Shadow magic.

[aryagonnakill#2]

IMO it is a combination of 2 things. First that Jorah is not fully familiar with the map, admitting to Dany soon thereafter that he does not really know the way to Qarth, only that its beyond the red waste. 2nd is that Jorah states that if they go to Slavers Bay directly they may run into a Khalasar that would kill the dragons and take Dany back to the Dosh Khaleen. I think it is said that 1 of the khalasars that split of Drogos went that way.

[The Wight Krow]

So do we buy the fact that jorah is Danys man once the dragons are hatched and he doesn't need to go to asshai any more.

Or do we think he is still in cahoots with illyrio up until the end of dance

[house of dayne]

I think you are assuming jorah had a good map and a good understanding of where he was. asshai is a legendary land to the east

, a place he felt she needed to be...slavers bay, possibly more familiar to jorah, was a less attractive or exotic option...jorah has is own reasons for exile and perhaps his own motivations to drift eastward to the edge of the world..

[Mithras]

Jorah was thinking with his balls.

[EastTymor]

There could be something more, but the book provides a perfectly plausible answer: Jorah fears that any other route would be unsafe.

Ser Jorah gave a bitter laugh."Khaleesi or queen, that command is beyond your power. Save your tears, child. Weep for him tomorrow, or a year from now. We do not have time for grief. We must go, and quickly, before he dies."

Dany was lost. "Go? Where should we go?"

"Asshai, I would say. It lies further to the south, at the end of the known world, yet men say it is a great port. We will find a ship to take us back to Pentos. It will be a hard journey, make no mistake. Do you trust your khas? Will they come with us?"

"Khal Drogo commanded them to keep me safe," Dany replied uncertainly, "but if he dies . . ." She touched the swell of her belly. "I don't understand. Why should we flee? I am khaleesi. I carry Drogo's heir. He will be khal after Drogo . . ."

Ser Jorah frowned. "Princess, hear me. The Dothraki will not follow a suckling babe. Drogo's strength was what they bowed to, and only that. When he is gone, Jhaqo and Pono and the other kos will fight for his place, and this khlasar will devour itself. The winner will want no more rivals. The boy will be taken from your breast the moment he is born. They will give him to the dogs. . ."

A Clash of Kings reveals he was right to be afraid:

She dare not turn north onto the vast ocean of grass they called the Dothraki sea. The first khalasar they met would swallow up their ragged band, slaying the warriors and slaving the rest. The lands of the Lamb Men south of the river were likewise closed to them. They were too few to defend themselves even against that unwarlike folk, and the Lhazareen had small reason to love them. She might have struck downriver for the ports at Mereen and Yunkai and Astaor, but Rakharo warned her that Pono's khalasar had ridden that way, driving thousands of captives before them to sell in the flesh marts tha festered like open sores on the shores of Slaver's Bay.

[TheSovereignGrave]

I assumed he was worried about assassins, and so wanted to get Daenerys as far from Westeros as possible. And since Asshai is the eastern end of the known world, that's where he'd choose.