Archmaester Drew Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 Why did Illyrio give Daenerys the dragon eggs? It seems like a lavish gift if she and Viserys were not expected to return... Thoughts? :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balerion the kitten Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 This was something I thought was strange too but now I don't think there's anything unusual.It made sense for the plot line to have daenerys receive them as gifts (rather than the original plot where she happened to find them). Illyrio is a rich dude and he earned a lot of money from slaves and horses he received from drogo due to his part in arranging the marriage.If he thought the eggs could hatch he would never have given them away but kept them instead for aegon.But he didn't. All he saw valuable from the eggs was money and he had plenty to spare to aegon, cause illyrio is a rich dude. It was an appropriate gift to give to a targaryen princess. And it had to look like he was on their side.Edit - to sum up he didn't really need them. What he earned from drogo for his part in the wedding would more or less make up for the worth of the eggs. And the eggs aren't going to prove Aegon's legitimacy, the only value they would have is the money they could be sold for and illyrio has plenty of money to spare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blind Beth the Cat Lady Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 If you want a really long answer: http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/129074-illyrios-fingers/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Viserys Targaryen IV Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 Because money was no object and they were essentially just 3 pretty rocks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Melnibonean Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 Cause it was more plausible than having her trip over them in the Dothraki Sea as The George originally intended. Check the 1993 letter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Varys Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 We don't know yet. He and Varys may have known or suspected that Dany may do something with them. I'm not sure they considered it to be very likely, but they are ideally positioned to know a lot about prophecies and essentially everything about what Rhaegar believed about prophecies. Suffice to say that we should assume that Illyrio did not give all the dragon eggs he had to Daenerys. If that's the case, if he had - say, six or seven - giving three of them to Daenerys wouldn't matter all that much - whether they hatched or not, as he other eggs for Aegon. If he only had three eggs it makes no sense for him to give them away as dragon eggs would certainly lend credibility to Aegon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bright Blue Eyes Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 Because in the end, they were just money and Illyrio has more than enough money. Furthermore, Drogo would expect wedding gifts somewhere in that price category. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Lannister Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 Because otherwise we wouldn't have a story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BitsOfBrains Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 I think Ilyrio expected Drogo to try and eat them, choke, and die leaving Viserys in charge of the Khalasar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Joe the Unknighted Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 Illyrio is a very rich man who gives lavish gifts. What better to give to a Targaryen Princess on her wedding day than Dragon Eggs. Varys and Illyrio do not believe in superstition and don't put any stock in magic or prophesy. Varys and Illyrio had no expectation that the eggs would hatch. They were just ornaments to Illyrio that he could buy more of. He gave Dany three shiny rocks because it would be too dangerous to give them to Aegon and Illyrio gives lavish gifts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Melnibonean Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 There is absolutely no mystery here. This was The George's initial plan...Over across the narrow sea, Daenerys Targaryen will discover that her new husband, the Dothraki Khal Drogo, has little interest in invading the Seven Kingdoms, much to her brother's frustration. When Viserys presses his claims past the point of tact or wisdom, Khal Drogo will finally grow annoyed and kill him out of hand, eliminating the Targaryen pretender and leaving Daenerys as the last of her line. Danerys [sic] will bide her time, but she will not forget. When the moment is right, she will kill her husband to avenger her brother, and then flee with a trusted friend into the wilderness beyond Vaes Dothrak. There, hunted by [unclear] of her life, she stumbles on a [something about dragon eggs] a young dragon will give Daenerys [unclear] bend [unclear[ to her will. Then she begins to plan for her invasion of the Seven Kingdoms.http://www.businessinsider.com/game-of-thrones-was-supposed-to-be-a-trilogy-2015-2Having Illyrio give the eggs was a more plausible deux ex machina than having the mother o' dragons stumble over them in the Dothraki Sea. Illyrio was a trader in dragon bone, inter alia, with dealings in Asshai. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Jennings Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 He never thought the eggs would hatch, for him those were only calcified stones. If he knew the eggs would hatch he would've never given them to Dany. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Seed Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 No one ever imagined that they could be hatched so they made a perfect gift for a Targ.Kind of like giving someone a family heirloom or some antiques that were in the family but disappeared long ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Varys Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 LM, Illyrio may have begun as a deus ex machina there, but the original outline did also only contain one dragon, suggesting that George made some core changes early on after writing that outline. Illyrio became the source for the dragon eggs when George began to wonder/decide why the hell this merchant guy had arranged the marriage between Daenerys and Khal Drogo - and that resulted in the design of the whole Aegon plan which was already there in AGoT when it was finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinoiserie Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 If GRRM was only looking for a better deus ex machina where Dany would get the eggs from I think he just have had them to be Targaryen heirlooms that were taken from Drangonstone when Viserys and Dany fled. They would not need to have any financial value. Illyrio might have his reasons to give them away we will see. Deus ex machina does seem to be most likely and it is not badly handled but there could be more to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSovereignGrave Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 If GRRM was only looking for a better deus ex machina where Dany would get the eggs from I think he just have had them to be Targaryen heirlooms that were taken from Drangonstone when Viserys and Dany fled. They would not need to have any financial value.Illyrio might have his reasons to give them away we will see. Deus ex machina does seem to be most likely and it is not badly handled but there could be more to it. But there's no way that dragon eggs wouldn't have any kind of value (they are still dragon eggs after all, even if they "can't" hatch anymore). And remember, the Targaryens were forced to sell their valuable possessions to survive, since the novelty of having some Targaryens around only lasts for so long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nights Kings Queen Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Never thought of the possibility that there might be more of a meaning to the gifts. Although now mentioned I think it was simply the best course for the plot to take Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Melnibonean Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 LM, Illyrio may have begun as a deus ex machina there, but the original outline did also only contain one dragon, suggesting that George made some core changes early on after writing that outline. Illyrio became the source for the dragon eggs when George began to wonder/decide why the hell this merchant guy had arranged the marriage between Daenerys and Khal Drogo - and that resulted in the design of the whole Aegon plan which was already there in AGoT when it was finished.I have no doubt that Aegon and the dancing as what wss redacted from the 1993 letter. That conflict has been one the three pillars of this saga from the get go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mother of The Others Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 at some point the answer to these questions boils down to.... "you've gotta have events in your novel ! " And this was a good, solid event that fired our imaginations. Better to include it than not, even if its inclusion doesn't always make perfect sense to us in hindsight. Someone handing you a dragon egg is awesome. The giver cements himself as one intriguing SOB. He's in the know and has connections and he's using his finances for something besides financial gain, he has a stake in wanting the world to be a certain way, and to remember who its ruling family rightly is. which brings us back to the... intrigue. The real answer: you need a lot of heat to hatch dragon eggs and Illryio saw that Daenerys was hot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mother of The Others Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 at some point the answer to these questions boils down to.... "you've gotta have events in your novel ! " And this was a good, solid event that fired our imaginations. Better to include it than not, even if its inclusion doesn't always make perfect sense to us in hindsight. Someone handing you a dragon egg is awesome. The giver cements himself as one intriguing SOB. He's in the know and has connections and he's using his finances for something besides financial gain, he has a stake in wanting the world to be a certain way, and to remember who its ruling family rightly is. which brings us back to the... intrigue. The real answer: you need a lot of heat to hatch dragon eggs and Illryio saw that Daenerys was hot. So which of these did you like more, the first or the second? Sometimes I like it more the 2nd time around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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