How Daenerys will die

[TyrionTLannister]

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“Here and now,” Ser Jorah agreed. “You ought to see it when it blooms, all dark red flowers from horizon to horizon, like a sea of blood. Come the dry season, and the world turns the color of old bronze. And this is only hranna, child. There are a hundred kinds of grass out there, grasses as yellow as lemon and as dark as indigo, blue grasses and orange grasses and grasses like rainbows. Down in the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai, they say there are oceans of ghost grass, taller than a man on horseback with stalks as pale as milkglass. It murders all other grass and glows in the dark with the spirits of the damned. The Dothraki claim that someday ghost grass will cover the entire world, and then all life will end.” That thought gave Dany the shivers. “I don’t want to talk about that now,” she said. “It’s so beautiful here, I don’t want to think about everything dying.” “As you will, Khaleesi,” Ser Jorah said respectfully. - AGOT Daenerys

Jorah is clearly describing the Others in this scene. Dany gets the "shivers", obviously alluding to the Others and possibly her manner of death. When she expresses her wish to not talk about everything dying, Jorah says, "as you will". This could be taken to mean that she will die as well. Now, I know it actually means "as you wish", but GRRM might have subtly inserted a clue as to her ultimate fate at the same time. 

In the same chapter, just two pages later, there is this:

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Day followed day, and night followed night, until Dany knew she could not endure a moment longer. She would kill herself rather than go on, she decided one night... Yet when she slept that night, she dreamt the dragon dream again. Viserys was not in it this time. There was only her and the dragon. Its scales were black as night, wet and slick with blood. Her blood, Dany sensed. Its eyes were pools of molten magma, and when it opened its mouth, the flame came roaring out in a hot jet. She could hear it singing to her. She opened her arms to the fire, embraced it, let it swallow her whole, let it cleanse her and temper her and scour her clean. She could feel her flesh sear and blacken and slough away, could feel her blood boil and turn to steam, and yet there was no pain. She felt strong and new and fierce. And the next day, strangely, she did not seem to hurt quite so much. It was as if the gods had heard her and taken pity. Even her handmaids noticed the change. “Khaleesi, “ Jhiqui said, “what is wrong? Are you sick?” - AGOT Daenerys

I think this means that after a period of great suffering and loss, Dany will embrace death at the hands of an undead Drogon. At some point, Dany will go beyond the Wall and face the Others. She will decimate them with Drogon, but eventually Drogon will be killed and resurrected as a wight, or somehow become an ice dragon, who will breathe ice(?) and kill her. "There was no pain" because when you freeze you don't feel any pain towards the end. Fire cannot kill a dragon, but ice can. It would be oddly fitting for Dany to be killed by her own weapon, wouldn't it?

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Ten thousand slaves lifted bloodstained hands as she raced by on her silver, riding like the wind. “Mother!” they cried. “Mother, mother!” They were reaching for her, touching her, tugging at her cloak, the hem of her skirt, her foot, her leg, her breast. They wanted her, needed her, the fire, the life, and Dany gasped and opened her arms to give herself to them... - ACOK Daenerys

Since Dany is Drogon's mother, this vision could represent her embracing death at the hands of Drogon. The wording evokes her dream of getting burned by Drogon (she "opened her arms"), so both scenes could be foreshadowing the same event. 

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The red door was so far ahead of her, and she could feel the icy breath behind, sweeping up on her. If it caught her she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness. She began to run. - AGOT Daenerys

 This lends credence to my theory that an undead Drogon's ice-fires will kill Dany.                    

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She could feel the heat inside her, a terrible burning in her womb. Her son was tall and proud, with Drogo’s copper skin and her own silver-gold hair, violet eyes shaped like almonds. And he smiled for her and began to lift his hand toward hers, but when he opened his mouth the fire poured out. She saw his heart burning through his chest, and in an instant he was gone, consumed like a moth by a candle, turned to ash. She wept for her child, the promise of a sweet mouth on her breast, but her tears turned to steam as they touched her skin. - AGOT Daenerys

Drogon is also her son, and he's probably the stallion who mounts the world instead of Rhaego, so Rhaego could be a stand-in for Drogon in this scene. 

There's also the scene in which Dany meets the Undying:

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Her own heart was beating in unison to the one that floated before her, blue and corrupt... Then indigo turned to orange, and whispers turned to screams. Her heart was pounding, racing, the hands and mouths were gone, heat washed over her skin, and Dany blinked at a sudden glare. Perched above her, the dragon spread his wings and tore at the terrible dark heart, ripping the rotten flesh to ribbons, and when his head snapped forward, fire flew from his open jaws, bright and hot. She could hear the shrieks of the Undying as they burned, their high thin papery voices crying out in tongues long dead. Their flesh was crumbling parchment, their bones dry wood soaked in tallow. They danced as the flames consumed them; they staggered and writhed and spun and raised blazing hands on high, their fingers bright as torches. Dany pushed herself to her feet and bulled through them. They were light as air, no more than husks, and they fell at a touch. The whole room was ablaze by the time she reached the door. “Drogon,” she called, and he flew to her through the fire. - ACOK Daenerys

An association is created between her heart and the floating blue heart that Drogon tears to pieces, which could mean Drogon will similarly end her life. Drogon setting fire to the Undying evokes Drogon burning Dany herself. 

Such an event would fulfill Mirri Maz Duur's prophecy about Drogo returning, either in Drogo(n) returning from the dead, or in Dany seeing Drogo again in the afterlife. 

[khal drogon]

No the second quote says she finally gives into "fire". Let it embrace her. It describes her blood boiling and rising into steam. I don't see how that will mean she will give herself into a freezing death. I see no ice symbolism there. Also in her dreams she is a dragon running away from an icy breath while emperors with the flaming swords urge her to escape and she finally flies away.

The blue heart of the Undying is actually a symbol for her destroying the heart of winter. In her dreams she is always the black and red dragon which is Drogon in real life. 

I am curious what makes you think Drogon will become an undead also an ice-dragon. There is no foreshadowing for that in the books.

But you are right about the first point though. It really means Dany will die and Martin is very cryptic about it. But she will not die by the ice breath of a wight Drogon.

[Jon's Queen Consort]

There is a theory that she will die giving birth to Tyrion's daughter. I like this theory.

 

[khal drogon]

9 minutes ago, Jon's Queen Consort said:

There is a theory that she will die giving birth to Tyrion's daughter. I liked that theory.

 

That is even more ridiculous. It's a poorly constructed theory that fails to make sense even after making some mental gymnastics. Why would Tyrion impregnate her?

[Jon's Queen Consort]

4 minutes ago, khal drogon said:

That is even more ridiculous. It's a poorly constructed theory that fails to make sense even after making some mental gymnastics. Why would Tyrion impregnate her?

That is your opinion. 

I find it way better that the rest of the theories about Dany being the winner in the end.

[Greywater-Watch]

44 minutes ago, TyrionTLannister said:

When she expresses her wish to not talk about everything dying, Jorah says, "as you will". This could be taken to mean that she will die as well. Now, I know it actually means "as you wish", but GRRM might have subtly inserted a clue as to her ultimate fate at the same time.

 

45 minutes ago, TyrionTLannister said:

I think this means that after a period of great suffering and loss, Dany will embrace death at the hands of an undead Drogon. At some point, Dany will go beyond the Wall and face the Others. She will decimate them with Drogon, but eventually Drogon will be killed and resurrected as a wight, or somehow become an ice dragon, who will breathe ice(?) and kill her. "There was no pain" because when you freeze you don't feel any pain towards the end. Fire cannot kill a dragon, but ice can. It would be oddly fitting for Dany to be killed by her own weapon, wouldn't it?

 

46 minutes ago, TyrionTLannister said:

Since Dany is Drogon's mother, this vision could represent her embracing death at the hands of Drogon. The wording evokes her dream of getting burned by Drogon (she "opened her arms"), so both scenes could be foreshadowing the same event. 

 

47 minutes ago, TyrionTLannister said:

An association is created between her heart and the floating blue heart that Drogon tears to pieces, which could mean Drogon will similarly end her life. Drogon setting fire to the Undying evokes Drogon burning Dany herself. 

Such an event would fulfill Mirri Maz Duur's prophecy about Drogo returning, either in Drogo(n) returning from the dead, or in Dany seeing Drogo again in the afterlife. 

Do you believe in what you halluzinate?

[TyrionTLannister]

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No the second quote says she finally gives into "fire". Let it embrace her. It describes her blood boiling and rising into steam. I don't see how that will mean she will give herself into a freezing death. I see no ice symbolism there.

Please excuse the typos. My keyboard isn't working properly, and writing this is a struggle. 

It's mentioned that she doesn't feel any pain. That's what happen when you freeZe. There's your ice symbolism.

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I am curious what makes you think Drogon will become an undead also an ice-dragon. There is no foreshadowing for that in the books

There is evidence that the white walkers will kill Dany, and there's evidence that drogon will. The only way to reconcile the two is by having drogon be in thrall to the white walkers and kill Dany. 

If you believe that the fate of the dragons will reflect that of their namesakes, then keep in mind that Khal drogo was wounded in battle and was only kept alive as a shell of his former self by dark magic, like I think drogon will be.

[Jon's Queen Consort]

10 minutes ago, Greywater-Watch said:

Do you believe in what you halluzinate?

That seems like personal attack and that isn't cool.

[khal drogon]

15 minutes ago, TyrionTLannister said:

Please excuse the typos. My keyboard isn't working properly, and writing this is a struggle. 

It's mentioned that she doesn't feel any pain. That's what happen when you freeZe. There's your ice symbolism.

This is false. You will feel pain even if you freeze.

 

15 minutes ago, TyrionTLannister said:

There is evidence that the white walkers will kill Dany, and there's evidence that drogon will. The only way to reconcile the two is by having drogon be in thrall to the white walkers and kill Dany. 

Where is the evidence that he will become an ice dragon?

15 minutes ago, TyrionTLannister said:

If you believe that the fate of the dragons will reflect that of their namesakes, then keep in mind that Khal drogo was wounded in battle and was only kept alive as a shell of his former self by dark magic, like I think drogon will be.

I have read far crazier theories. I wish to be open minded about the idea of a wight dragon but Drogon doesn't make sense. He is the red and black dragon, the colors of House Targaryen and the embodiment of Fire and Blood. The Blue heart and the undying are the clear parallels of the Others which is destroyed by Drogon with "fire". I don't think the dragon's fates will reflect their namesakes. If it really reflect their namesakes it is Dany who will kill Drogon because she also killed Drogo. 

[TyrionTLannister]

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There is a theory that she will die giving birth to Tyrion's daughter. I like this theory.

It's an interesting theory, but I don't think Dany would ever have a romantic relationship with Tyrion of all people, although I could see Tyrion falling in love with her. I strongly suspect she will give birth to Jon's son, but die shortly afterwards. 

[TyrionTLannister]

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This is false. You will feel pain even if you freeze.

Not according to Gared:

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"It was the cold,” Gared said with iron certainty. “I saw men freeze last winter, and the one before, when I was half a boy. Everyone talks about snows forty foot deep, and how the ice wind comes howling out of the north, but the real enemy is the cold. It steals up on you quieter than Will, and at first you shiver and your teeth chatter and you stamp your feet and dream of mulled wine and nice hot fires. It burns, it does. Nothing burns like the cold. But only for a while. Then it gets inside you and starts to fill you up, and after a while you don’t have the strength to fight it. It’s easier just to sit down or go to sleep. They say you don’t feel any pain toward the end. First you go weak and drowsy, and everything starts to fade, and then it’s like sinking into a sea of warm milk. Peaceful, like.” - AGOT Prologue

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Where is the evidence that he will become an ice dragon?

I mean, there's evidence that he will kill Dany. I've provided it in my original post.

[Jon's Queen Consort]

4 minutes ago, TyrionTLannister said:

It's an interesting theory, but I don't think Dany would ever have a romantic relationship with Tyrion of all people, although I could see Tyrion falling in love with her. I strongly suspect she will give birth to Jon's son, but die shortly afterwards. 

Even if someone say that her dying giving birth to Tyrion's daughter have just a few foreshadowings, her dying giving birth to Jon's child has even less which is none.

[TyrionTLannister]

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Even if someone say that her dying giving birth to Tyrion's daughter have just a few foreshadowings, her dying giving birth to Jon's child has even less which is none.

I meant that an undead Drogon would kill her sometime after she gave birth to Jon's son. And it isn't strictly true that there's no evidence, but I'd rather not get into it in this thread. 

[khal drogon]

2 minutes ago, TyrionTLannister said:

Not according to Gared:

 

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"It was the cold,” Gared said with iron certainty. “I saw men freeze last winter, and the one before, when I was half a boy. Everyone talks about snows forty foot deep, and how the ice wind comes howling out of the north, but the real enemy is the cold. It steals up on you quieter than Will, and at first you shiver and your teeth chatter and you stamp your feet and dream of mulled wine and nice hot fires. It burns, it does. Nothing burns like the cold. But only for a while. Then it gets inside you and starts to fill you up, and after a while you don’t have the strength to fight it. It’s easier just to sit down or go to sleep. They say you don’t feel any pain toward the end. First you go weak and drowsy, and everything starts to fade, and then it’s like sinking into a sea of warm milk. Peaceful, like.” - AGOT Prologue

He also says it burns(there your ice symbolism falls apart) and the painlessness is only at the end indicating death. In her dream Dany feels no pain even during the process and she is embracing "fire" not "ice". Ice doesn't turn blood into steam. Sorry I see no connection.

10 minutes ago, TyrionTLannister said:

I mean, there's evidence that he will kill Dany. I've provided it in my original post.

But is there evidence that he will breathe ice? 

[bent branch]

If Dany dies, it will be because she sacrifices herself to save the world. The idea of Dany dying in childbirth is uninspired to say the least.

[Jon's Queen Consort]

18 minutes ago, TyrionTLannister said:

I meant that an undead Drogon would kill her sometime after she gave birth to Jon's son. And it isn't strictly true that there's no evidence, but I'd rather not get into it in this thread. 

Still, her dying giving birth to Tyrion's daughter has more foreshadowings than that.

[HouseFossoway]

Daenerys is clearly going war crazy by the end of ADWD and will end up being the main antagonist of the series. She'll probably be killed either by Jorah who has seen what a monster she has become, or by herself when she realizes what a monster she has become.

[Leticia Stark]

I don't think she'll die tbh

[ravenous reader]

2 hours ago, TyrionTLannister said:

She opened her arms to the fire, embraced it, let it swallow her whole, let it cleanse her and temper her and scour her clean. She could feel her flesh sear and blacken and slough away, could feel her blood boil and turn to steam, and yet there was no pain.

So your premise rests on her not feeling any pain in the fire?  Why would she feel pain?  She's a dragon; she's immune to fire!

2 hours ago, TyrionTLannister said:

Ten thousand slaves lifted bloodstained hands as she raced by on her silver, riding like the wind. “Mother!” they cried. “Mother, mother!” They were reaching for her, touching her, tugging at her cloak, the hem of her skirt, her foot, her leg, her breast. They wanted her, needed her, the fire, the life, and Dany gasped and opened her arms to give herself to them... - ACOK Daenerys

Good catch.  This is a strong passage in support of your argument that Dany will somehow succumb to the Others, although I don't necessarily believe it will be at the hands of Drogon.  

Old Nan tells us the Others and their thralls the wights are attracted to the fire of the living the way the slaves are drawn to Dany-- and what is a wight but a thrall, i.e. a servant or slave?!  

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A Game of Thrones - Bran IV

"Well," Bran said reluctantly, "yes, only …"

Old Nan nodded. "In that darkness, the Others came for the first time," she said as her needles went click click click. "They were cold things, dead things, that hated iron and fire and the touch of the sun, and every creature with hot blood in its veins. They swept over holdfasts and cities and kingdoms, felled heroes and armies by the score, riding their pale dead horses and leading hosts of the slain. All the swords of men could not stay their advance, and even maidens and suckling babes found no pity in them. They hunted the maids through frozen forests, and fed their dead servants on the flesh of human children."

A Game of Thrones - Bran IV

Her voice had dropped very low, almost to a whisper, and Bran found himself leaning forward to listen.

"Now these were the days before the Andals came, and long before the women fled across the narrow sea from the cities of the Rhoyne, and the hundred kingdoms of those times were the kingdoms of the First Men, who had taken these lands from the children of the forest. Yet here and there in the fastness of the woods the children still lived in their wooden cities and hollow hills, and the faces in the trees kept watch. So as cold and death filled the earth, the last hero determined to seek out the children, in the hopes that their ancient magics could win back what the armies of men had lost. He set out into the dead lands with a sword, a horse, a dog, and a dozen companions. For years he searched, until he despaired of ever finding the children of the forest in their secret cities. One by one his friends died, and his horse, and finally even his dog, and his sword froze so hard the blade snapped when he tried to use it. And the Others smelled the hot blood in him, and came silent on his trail, stalking him with packs of pale white spiders big as hounds—"

The door opened with a bang, and Bran's heart leapt up into his mouth in sudden fear, but it was only Maester Luwin, with Hodor looming in the stairway behind him. "Hodor!" the stableboy announced, as was his custom, smiling hugely at them all.

Note, the Others are described as hunting in packs like wolves -- 'pale white' shadows big as 'hounds' (like Ghost/s) who like direwolves have a keen sense of smell, which is interesting in light of your suggestion on your other thread that Bran is the 'Great Other' or 'Great Wolf' who stands against the figure wreathed in fire.

The 'ten thousand bloodstained hands' hungrily clutching at Dany are reminiscent of the bloodstained 'hands' of the weirwood trees, whom I suspect of having a relationship to the Others.  Like the Others, the trees demand human sacrifice, hence why their hands are 'bloodstained': 

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A Game of Thrones - Catelyn I

For her sake, Ned had built a small sept where she might sing to the seven faces of god, but the blood of the First Men still flowed in the veins of the Starks, and his own gods were the old ones, the nameless, faceless gods of the greenwood they shared with the vanished children of the forest.

At the center of the grove an ancient weirwood brooded over a small pool where the waters were black and cold. "The heart tree," Ned called it. The weirwood's bark was white as bone, its leaves dark red, like a thousand bloodstained hands. A face had been carved in the trunk of the great tree, its features long and melancholy, the deep-cut eyes red with dried sap and strangely watchful. They were old, those eyes; older than Winterfell itself. They had seen Brandon the Builder set the first stone, if the tales were true; they had watched the castle's granite walls rise around them. It was said that the children of the forest had carved the faces in the trees during the dawn centuries before the coming of the First Men across the narrow sea.

The scene of disembodied hands reaching, touching, tugging at Dany's body parts and clothes is similar to multiple scenes in which GRRM personifies the trees, as early as the prologue:

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A Game of Thrones - Prologue

Royce took it for acquiescence and turned away. "Lead on," he said to Will.

Will threaded their way through a thicket, then started up the slope to the low ridge where he had found his vantage point under a sentinel tree. Under the thin crust of snow, the ground was damp and muddy, slick footing, with rocks and hidden roots to trip you up. Will made no sound as he climbed. Behind him, he heard the soft metallic slither of the lordling's ringmail, the rustle of leaves, and muttered curses as reaching branches grabbed at his longsword and tugged on his splendid sable cloak.

Later, Ser Waymar rises as a wight and grabs Will with his bloodstained hands:

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A Game of Thrones - Prologue

The right eye was open. The pupil burned blue. It saw.

The broken sword fell from nerveless fingers. Will closed his eyes to pray. Long, elegant hands brushed his cheek, then tightened around his throat. They were gloved in the finest moleskin and sticky with blood, yet the touch was icy cold.

In the same chapter, Will's death at the hands of the wight is foreshadowed when he similarly feels the sticky touch of the sentinel against his cheek.  The sticky touch of bloodstained hands is linked to the trees, providing a link between the Others and the trees:

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A Game of Thrones - Prologue

"Will, where are you?" Ser Waymar called up. "Can you see anything?" He was turning in a slow circle, suddenly wary, his sword in hand. He must have felt them, as Will felt them. There was nothing to see. "Answer me! Why is it so cold?"

It was cold. Shivering, Will clung more tightly to his perch. His face pressed hard against the trunk of the sentinel. He could feel the sweet, sticky sap on his cheek.

A shadow emerged from the dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce. Tall, it was, and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seemed to change color as it moved; here it was white as new-fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns ran like moonlight on water with every step it took.

...

 

Ser Waymar met him bravely. "Dance with me then." He lifted his sword high over his head, defiant. His hands trembled from the weight of it, or perhaps from the cold. Yet in that moment, Will thought, he was a boy no longer, but a man of the Night's Watch.

The Other halted. Will saw its eyes; blue, deeper and bluer than any human eyes, a blue that burned like ice. They fixed on the longsword trembling on high, watched the moonlight running cold along the metal. For a heartbeat he dared to hope.

They emerged silently from the shadows, twins to the first. Three of them … four … five … Ser Waymar may have felt the cold that came with them, but he never saw them, never heard them. Will had to call out. It was his duty. And his death, if he did. He shivered, and hugged the tree, and kept the silence.

Note that there is a further echo of his death besides the reference to the sticky touch on his cheek.  Critically, the appearance of the Others tends to extinguish the wind and leave people breathless and unable to speak -- compare to Dany in your example losing her breath and 'gasping'.  This makes sense considering that 'words are wind,' so without wind -- i.e. without breath -- there are no words (unless one has a conduit to the supernatural like Bran...notably, Bran speaks to Theon via the heart tree on a 'windless night').  Will's inability to sound the alarm, the words 'freezing in his throat,' echoes his death at the hands of the wight who strangles/suffocates him.

Further examples:

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A Game of Thrones - PrologueThe Others m
The Others made no sound.Will saw movement from the corner of his eye. Pale shapes gliding through the wood. He turned his head, glimpsed a white shadow in the darkness. Then it was gone. Branches stirred gently in the wind, scratching at one another with wooden fingers. Will opened his mouth to call down a warning, and the words seemed to freeze in his throat. Perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps it had only been a bird, a reflection on the snow, some trick of the moonlight. What had he seen, after all?

A Game of Thrones - Prologue

A shadow emerged from the dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce. Tall, it was, and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seemed to change color as it moved; here it was white as new-fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns ran like moonlight on water with every step it took.

Will heard the breath go out of Ser Waymar Royce in a long hiss. "Come no farther," the lordling warned. His voice cracked like a boy's. He threw the long sable cloak back over his shoulders, to free his arms for battle, and took his sword in both hands. The wind had stopped. It was very cold.

In summary, it's possible that Dany might end up riding into the 'nightlands' with an 'undead Drogon'...making Dany the 'Great Mother' as Bran is the 'Great Brother'!

The only thing that gives me pause is why Drogon would ever turn on Dany.  I can't imagine him harming her.  That would be like Ghost killing Jon.

[LordImp]

2 hours ago, Jon's Queen Consort said:

There is a theory that she will die giving birth to Tyrion's daughter. I like this theory.

 

I think she dies in childbirth , but i think Jon is the father of her child.