AGOT Reread- Daenerys

[Barba]

Daenerys VIII

Introduced: Eroeh* (Lhazareen slave girl of Dany’s).

First Mentioned: Pono (former Ko, later takes part of Drogo’s khalasar and becomes Khal).

Khal Drogo, near catatonic from an infection on his chest, falls from his saddle. 'A Khal who cannot ride is no khal', it is said amongst the Dothraki. Dany takes Drogo into her tent and sends for Mirri Maz Duur. She tells the godswife that Drogo had not followed her suggestions and had the poultice removed because it itched. Mirri tells Dany that the Khal is beyond help. When Dany pleads with her to do something, Drogo’s bloodriders will not hear of it and want the lamb woman dead. Mirri tells Daenerys that there is a spell that she paid dearly to learn from a bloodmage in Asshai, but that death was cleaner. Dany will not hear of it, and even when Mirri warns her that only death can pay for life, Dany is oblivious and commands her to use the spell on Drogo. They lead in the khal’s horse and slit its throat, and then Mirri bids them all to leave the tent. Outside, Drogo’s bloodriders come to put an end to this madness. Dany’s khas and Jorah defeat the 3 bloodriders, losing Quaro in the fight and Jorah is injured badly. As the fight is occurring, Dany starts to go into labor. Her handmaids remember that Mirri is also a midwife, and despite Dany’s protest and the frightening shadows dancing in the tent with Mirri, Jorah brings Dany across the threshold. No living man must look on them, was Mirri Maz Duur’s warning to Dany about the dead that would dance in the tent during the spellcasting.

[The Adequate Jon]

I never noticed before, but at the end of the chapter, Dany realizes that MMD is killing her baby and wants her bloodriders to stop MMD, but they don't understand what Dany wants.

[Starkess]

I don't think she realizes that MMD is killing her baby, but she does know that MMD warned her to stay out of the tent and that death would be in the tent, so Dany doesn't want to go in, which her bloodriders and Jorah fail to understand.

[The Adequate Jon]

Yeah, I read it again and it's unclear. Dany thinks (I'm paraphrasing) Don't they realize what is happening? and The price is too high, but she may be referring to the fact that everyone is killing each other.

[The Adequate Jon]

Daenerys (IX)

Dany is having a fever dream about her brother Viserys, and her unborn son Rhaego. In the dream Rhaego was a man grown and had the eyes and hair color of the Targaryens, but the copper skin of the Dothraki, and in the end he disappears in a burst of light. Dany had been asleep for weeks, recovering from her miscarriage. When she awakens, she learns of the fate of her unborn son. She summons Mirri Maz Duur and Ser Jorah, and the maegi tells Dany that her son was monstrous, a demon child, dead for years. When Dany says the child was alive in her womb, Mirri responds that death was in that tent. Ser Jorah insists that there were only shadows in the tent, but Mirri tells him that the grave casts long shadows. They lead her to Khal Drogo, really a zombie now. His khalasar had left, with Ko Pono and Ko Jhaqo now Khals, leaving Dany only some 100 Dothraki all of them either old, sickly or children. The slave girl Eroeh was killed, and Dany avows she will bring vengeance upon the two new Khals. When Dany asks Mirri when Drogo will be himself again, she replies with an impossibility, and Dany knows that Drogo is lost to her. Dany accuses the maegi of not warning her of the price of the bloodmagic used on Drogo, and Mirri tells her that it was wrong what the Dothraki did to her temple and her people. Dany has the maegi bound and dragged off. That night, she suffocates Drogo with her pillow knowing that he was not really alive.

[The Adequate Jon]

This is one of the few dreams that doesn't foreshadow future events. Correct me if I missed something.

Dany vows to make Pono and Jhaqo beg for mercy. I wonder if that will ever happen. At the end of ASOS, the other Dothraki Khalesars don't seem very important anymore.

[Maester Yobjascz]

Hmmm... I wonder if one of those two khals will pay a visit to Mereen at some point...

[Barba]

I'm kinda late. Thoughts on:

Dany VII

Khal Drogo said they belonged south of the river bend. The grass of the Dothraki sea was not meant for sheep.

this can help os with Map. Only we don't know wich river it is.

Would Drogo have been healed if he had followed MMD's directions about wine and not removing the poultice?

If yes, would MMD have betrayed Dany at some other point in the future?

No and Yes. Check the last line in the chapter

Haggo followed the khal from the temple, but Qotho lingered long enough to favor Mirri Maz Duur with a stare. “Remember, maegi, as the khal fares, so shall you.â€

“As you say, rider,†the woman answered him, gathering up her jars and bottles. “The Great Shepherd guards the flock.â€

She seems like she dosen't really care about the threat. She consider herself a savior of her people. I think she made healing stuff that iches on purpose, hoping that Drogo won't be able to stand it. I think she wanted to kill Drogo and his son.

Dany IX

“The shadows have touched you too, Ser Jorah,†she told him. The knight made no reply.

Do you think this can have some something to do with further events in the series?

[The Adequate Jon]

Daenerys (X)

Dany is planning a funeral pyre for Khal Drogo as is the Dothraki way, but her subjects are wary about her intentions. Mirri Maz Duur tells Dany she is a child, and whatever she plans will not work. Ser Jorah pleads with her to flee, that she need not do what she intends. Dany assures him that she is not planning on sacrificing her life in her husband’s pyre. Dany tells her gathered people that they are her khalasar and she will be their queen. When she asks the 3 warriors of her khas to take oath as her bloodriders, they will not commit and tell her she must be brought to join the dosh khaleen. Ser Jorah takes the oath and becomes the first of her Queensguard. Dany brings her dragon eggs to be placed at Drogo’s side, despite Jorah’s protests that they could sell the eggs and live wealthy in freedom. Dany has Mirri bound to the funeral pyre and lights it. She tells the maegi what Mirri told her, that only death can pay for life. Jhogo spots the blood red comet for the first time, taken by Dany as a good omen. The maegi screams as the flames engulf her, and soon after Dany walks into the blaze as Jorah and her khas plead with her not to. Dany, for an instant, glimpses Drogo on his horse, and then a cracking sound, like a stone shattering, is heard. As the fire dies, Jorah finds Dany alive, unburnt except for her hair, nursing 3 baby dragons. Ser Jorah and her khas swear their oaths before the mother of dragons. And for the first time in hundreds of years, the night came alive with the music of dragons.

[The Adequate Jon]

It's probably an understatement, but this is a really well-written chapter. You just get sucked into the whole scene with all of the imagery of the fire, MMD's wailing, the eggs cracking open.... Wow!

[The Man Who]

This is probably the wrong place to post this, but with the whole maegi trying to 'save' Drogo thing, did anyone else get a sense that what she actually did was transfer the person from one body to another.

So basically the horse was killed to save Drogo, but in my mind the horse's mind was transferred into Drogo, which saved Drogo's body, but left it in a state where he was essentially a horse in a man's body. I don't remember exactly how he was described but one of the things they mentioned was that he wouldn't walk anywhere on his own, but could be led, which struck me as being similar to the way a horse would.

Then the second transferral was, to me, Rhaego being swapped with the dragon(s?). The 'monstrous' baby that Dany birthed sounded a lot like a dead baby dragon which had been stuck in an egg for hundreds or thousands of years. And also Rhaego dying meant he was hardly a candidate for being the Stallion which mounts the world, whereas if he is the dragons, he would be.

[The Adequate Jon]

Wow! That's a cool theory.

[you_fool]

I wouldn't bring this up, since this is a re-read, but Oba did challenge 'Dany bashers'.

You can claim sympathy for her character, but you can't exactly claim sympathy for her cause. Unless of course you believe fully that the two are the same.

That's when I stopped caring for her, because originally it was Visery's cause that she didn't care much for. She didn't care for the royalty or anything, was happy as Drogo's wife, and when things go bad she decides to pick up that 'cause'.

I realise i may be pulling this from a bit too far back and it may of been covered anyway, but this needs addressing...

Danny doesn't just "pick up that cause" she realises she has a responsibility to the people she is meant to rule, and that continues right through. She starts wishing for nothing special, but after Drogo's death she realises that the people in the Khal will be worse off if she leaves, and that she needs to assume command. She then realises (possibly incorrectly based on her brothers lies) that she also has a responsibility to the people of Westoros. She then takes up a cause which she knows is against waht she really wants but she needs to do to ensure that her people are not mistreated.

Long live Queen Daenerys

[sbmcmanus]

Daenerys (VII)

Introduced: Mirri Maz Duur* (Lhazareen godswife, a maegi with knowledge of bloodmagic);

Mago (a warrior in the khas of Ko Jhaqo).

First Mentioned: Jhaqo (former Ko, later takes part of Drogo's khalasar and becomes Khal).

Drogo's khalasar moves through the village of the Lamb Men, or Lhazareen, whom Khal Ogo's army was marauding. Drogo had defeated Khal Ogo and enslaved thousands who would be sold to provide gold for the ships Drogo's khalasar would need to cross the poison sea. Amidst the devastation of the village, Dany finds men raping the Lhazareen women. She has her khas stop them and takes the women as servants. When she orders Ser Jorah to help, he tells her she is truly her brother's sister (meaning Rhaegar). When Dany finds Drogo wounded, Mirri Maz Duur, a healer and godswife of the lamb men, offers to aid him. Drogo's bloodriders mistrust her and name her maegi, but Dany is adamant that she can help. Mirri Maz Duur brings Drogo into the remains of her temple, and wants the bloodriders and Dany to leave while she applies her healing arts, but Dany refuses. The godswife applies a plaster of leaves to the chest wound and tells Drogo not to drink wine and not to remove the poultice. When Dany learns that Mirri is also a midwife, she asks the maegi to help her when she gives birth. Drogo tells her 'you don't ask a slave, you command them'.

There are a couple of strong hints in this chapter about Rhaegar and Lyanna that I hadn't noticed on first reading.

First, as noted above, Ser Jorah describes Daenerys' refusal to tolerate rape as a sign that she is like Rhaegar. How are we to reconcile this with Robert Baratheon's story that Rheagar dragged Lyanna away to Dorne to rape her? This observation by Jorah about Rhaegar, who has no reason to delude himself (unlike the proud Robert), supports the notion that Lyanna and Rhaegar were having a consensual affair.

Second, toward the end Daenerys asks Mirri Maz Duur if she can delivery babies, to which MMD replies "I know every secret of the bloody bed". Given Ned's memories of finding Lyanna in a bed of blood, this seems a clear hint that Lyanna died in childbirth.

[RemitMan]

For Daenerys I:

For a chapter where not a whole lot happens, we sure do get a boatload of important information. We are introduced to Daenerys, probably the most important person of the entire series. We are told many important things about the events and timeline that led to the destruction of the Targaryens and the victory of Robert. Groups and concepts such as the red priests, the Unsullied, and Free Cities that become key to the story are introduced in passing. And finally we establish the humble and frightened girl that becomes the Mother of Dragons.

Also. There is a fat red priest at the party. Are many of the red priests fat, or could this be Thoros? What would that mean if Thoros was at this party? He couldn’t have stayed long to make it back in time to welcome the king and company back from the north.

http://asoiaf.ovrnite.com/2011/01/09/a-game-of-thrones-daenerys-i/

[Stark Swordsman]

Symbolism in Dany VIII:

Towards the end of the chapter she sees the shadows on the walls of the tent as she's being carried in. She mentions two specific ones: a great wolf and a man wreathed in flames. Some possible meanings:

1) It's two Westeros king claimants: Robb and Stannis. However, I find this unlikely because it's too limited; why not have allusions to the others.

2) It's the future at the wall: Jon and Stannis.

3) It's an R+L hint; no one said the wolf was male.

4) It's Rickard and Brandon's trial. I like this the best because the shadows are supposed to be gruesome and pertain to death.

[ghost the direwolf]

I wouldn't bring this up, since this is a re-read, but Oba did challenge 'Dany bashers'.

You can claim sympathy for her character, but you can't exactly claim sympathy for her cause. Unless of course you believe fully that the two are the same.

That's when I stopped caring for her, because originally it was Visery's cause that she didn't care much for. She didn't care for the royalty or anything, was happy as Drogo's wife, and when things go bad she decides to pick up that 'cause'.

Thank Good At least someone who fell the same about Dany as I. Amen!

[manitot]

Dany IX

"The shadows have touched you too, Ser Jorah, she told him. The knight made no reply."

Do you think this can have some something to do with further events in the series?

I've been wondering about this too, especially after reading Dany's last chapter in ADWD and where she ended up. Have no idea what it could mean though...

[Ladywhiskers]

This chapter seems to be setting Dany up for her downfall in her next couple of chapters. There seems to be a common theme here about whether the new characters we meet can be trusted. In this case MMD shouldn't be trusted. In Brienne's chapters, she doesn't fully trust Dyk Crabb? but it turns out he IS trustworthy. We're still waiting to find out about Marwyn, Aurane Waters, and probably others. Would Drogo have been healed if he had followed MMD's directions about wine and not removing the poultice? If yes, would MMD have betrayed Dany at some other point in the future?

I don't think he would have gotten better. I think she put something in the poultice that made it more itchy and irritating, and possibly poisonous. I think she took the opportunity to get even with Drogo immediately--she didn't know if she'd get another chance.

[Ladywhiskers]

from Daenerys I in AGOT:

"She had been born on Dragonstone nine moons after their flight, while a raging summer storm threatened to rip the island fastness apart"

So I would say that's roughly nine months after they fled KL which happened if my memory serves me correctly somewhere during the rebellion. Aerys was fond of burning people and did so on a regular basis. Taking in to account that Rhaella was sent to Dragonstone during the rebellion it's safe to say Daenerys wasn't conceived when Ned's father was killed, but most likely some weeks or months after. Remember also the rebellion started when Jon Arryn raised his banners after Aerys demanded the heads of Ned and Robert, which happened after he'd already killed Lord Rickard and Brandon, and it would've taken at least a few weeks before Jon Arryn learned off it and banners were raised.

I've always wondered about this one. The problem with it referring to Lyanna Stark is that in all the Dany chapters sofar she completely despises the Starks. Had her brother been in love with one of them, surely she would have at least had a thought about Lyanna once when thinking about Starks.

Yes, because siblings always know everything about one another's love lives, especially siblings who've never met.

Danaerys only knows what Viserys and others have told her. And just because Rhaegar seems to have loved Lyanna Stark and crowned her queen of love and beauty and abducted her and died fighting for her on the trident, is no reason for Danaerys to change her feelings about the Starks. The Starks become even more wrong for waging a war against true love. Why did they have to come with an army? To her, the Starks are just a bunch of traitors who killed her brother, and Lyanna is a kind of Helen of Troy. She doesn't want to make distinction between, say, Ned Stark, and Gregor Clegane, because if she does that, then she has to consider the culpability of Aerys and Rhaegar, and that would be disloyal.

In an honor culture, she's stuck needing to avenge her parents, siblings, niece, and nephew. So she's not going to spare a thought for any "if onlys" about Lyanna Stark.