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Dany somehow knows what molten gold tastes like...


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From the HOTU when Dany drinks shade of the evening:

Dany raised the glass to her lips. The first sip tasted like ink and spoiled meat, foul, but when she swallowed it seemed to come to life within her. She could feel tendrils spreading through her chest, like fingers of fire coiling around her heart, and on her tongue was a taste like honey and anise and cream, like mother’s milk and Drogo’s seed, like red meat and hot blood and molten gold. It was all the tastes she had ever known, and none of them … and then the glass was empty.

So it's pretty obvious that on that list of things Dany has tasted in her life, one of them does not belong. I am pretty sure Dany has in fact tasted honey, anise, cream, milk, Drogo seed, red meat, and hot blood. However, Dany has never tasted molten gold. Or has she? Well, since it is included on the list, I guess she has tasted it before...

Obviously we all know that Viserys, not Dany, is the one who tasted molten gold when Drogo crowned him. So how did Dany taste it too? I am going to guess that Viserys, who was facing death and begging Dany for his life, managed to telepathically link to Dany in some fashion and Dany tasted the molten gold at the same time as Viserys, through her link to Viserys. Thoughts?

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12 minutes ago, 40 Thousand Skeletons said:

From the HOTU when Dany drinks shade of the evening:

Dany raised the glass to her lips. The first sip tasted like ink and spoiled meat, foul, but when she swallowed it seemed to come to life within her. She could feel tendrils spreading through her chest, like fingers of fire coiling around her heart, and on her tongue was a taste like honey and anise and cream, like mother’s milk and Drogo’s seed, like red meat and hot blood and molten gold. It was all the tastes she had ever known, and none of them … and then the glass was empty.

So it's pretty obvious that on that list of things Dany has tasted in her life, one of them does not belong. I am pretty sure Dany has in fact tasted honey, anise, cream, milk, Drogo seed, red meat, and hot blood. However, Dany has never tasted molten gold. Or has she? Well, since it is included on the list, I guess she has tasted it before...

Obviously we all know that Viserys, not Dany, is the one who tasted molten gold when Drogo crowned him. So how did Dany taste it too? I am going to guess that Viserys, who was facing death and begging Dany for his life, managed to telepathically link to Dany in some fashion and Dany tasted the molten gold at the same time as Viserys, through her link to Viserys. Thoughts?

I think it means the price for Dany's power is her brother's death, which is on her hands, and which she imbibes willingly.  She is a kinslayer.

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10 minutes ago, ravenous reader said:

I think it means the price for Dany's power is her brother's death, which is on her hands, and which she imbibes willingly.  She is a kinslayer.

So you are saying she metaphorically "tasted molten gold" by allowing her brother to die? That seems like a bit of a stretch to me, considering everything else on that list she has literally tasted.

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1 minute ago, 40 Thousand Skeletons said:

So you are saying she metaphorically "tasted molten gold" by allowing her brother to die? That seems like a bit of a stretch to me, considering everything else on that list she has literally tasted.

Quote

A Dance with Dragons - Bran III

Then, as he watched, a bearded man forced a captive down onto his knees before the heart tree. A white-haired woman stepped toward them through a drift of dark red leaves, a bronze sickle in her hand.

"No," said Bran, "no, don't," but they could not hear him, no more than his father had. The woman grabbed the captive by the hair, hooked the sickle round his throat, and slashed. And through the mist of centuries the broken boy could only watch as the man's feet drummed against the earth … but as his life flowed out of him in a red tide, Brandon Stark could taste the blood.

Brandon Stark 'literally tasted' the blood?  Please discuss with Dorian Martell or Dorian Martell's Son...;)

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Just now, 40 Thousand Skeletons said:

You actually bring up a great point. Yes, obviously Bran literally tasted blood in that chapter even though he did not drink the blood.

Brandon Stark is who he is because of Brandon Stark's blood...

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Since their line has been inbred since Egg/whats-her-name Blackwood, Viserys and Dany are both half Blackwood. We know very well the effects of Blackwood blood on Bloodraven.

It's been speculated that Sansa without Lady to trigger her warg abilities has led her to be a sort of empath. Perhaps Dany has some degree of warging ability.

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1 minute ago, Lollygag said:

Since their line has been inbred since Egg/whats-her-name Blackwood, Viserys and Dany are both half Blackwood. We know very well the effects of Blackwood blood on Bloodraven.

It's been speculated that Sansa without Lady to trigger her warg abilities has led her to be a sort of empath. Perhaps Dany has some degree of warging ability.

Dany obviously has some ability similar to warging since she can ride a dragon.

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1 minute ago, ravenous reader said:

I think Bran's greenseer power is conferred via that sacrifice, ignominious as it was.  Just instinct.

Ah OK.

But what do you think about Dany tasting molten gold? Your metaphorical explanation, like I said, seems like a stretch. She has literally tasted everything else on that list.

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2 minutes ago, 40 Thousand Skeletons said:

But what do you think about Dany tasting molten gold? Your metaphorical explanation, like I said, seems like a stretch. She has literally tasted everything else on that list.

I'm not a good person to consult on the strictly 'literal.'

LOL

I think she was willing to consume her brother (not so different from Stannis eating the 'peach' of Renly...) hmm... @Universal Sword Donor

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To me, she drank a hallucinogenic substance and so sensory data, feelings, and experiences all overlap and become one. Try having someone tripping on acid or shrooms describe how they are feeling, or how something tastes, and you'll likely get a strange metaphor of a response.

16 minutes ago, ravenous reader said:

I think it means the price for Dany's power is her brother's death, which is on her hands, and which she imbibes willingly.  She is a kinslayer.

Given my reputation of being critical of Daenerys, I surprise even myself by saying I'm inclined to believe she isn't a kinslayer. I believe she should feel guilty for not at least trying to intervene, and her initial remorse was quite lacking. As dissatisfactory as she feels her childhood was, especially due to Viserys' bouts of cruelty, she still owes him her life. Sure, he probably kept her around for purely selfish reasons (i.e., a future bride, a constant companion, a punching bag), but she recalls that there were times that he was decent to her.

But you can't hold her responsible for Drogo's actions. She didn't frame Viserys, provoke him into action, or suggest his punishment should be death. In fact, the rules of Vaes Dothrak and his inability to adapt to them are what did him in. "She knew what a drawn sword meant here, even if her brother did not."

However, I do have to roll my eyes hardcore at how she goes from not being interested in the Iron Throne ("I want to go home...") to trying to convince Drogo to invade at the beginning of the next chapter. Suddenly the house with the red door doesn't have the same appeal it once did, but you could also blame that on the prophecy of the Stallion who Mounts the World.

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1 minute ago, Traverys said:

But you can't hold her responsible for Drogo's actions. She didn't frame Viserys, provoke him into action, or suggest his punishment should be death. In fact, the rules of Vaes Dothrak and his inability to adapt to them are what did him in. "She knew what a drawn sword meant here, even if her brother did not."

My goodness -- the Dany enforcers have done you a number!  You sound like a Dany apologist ;)...

Dany rescued Mirri from rape; it was within her power  to rescue her brother, or at least attempt to do so, but chose not to -- instead, referring to him before he'd died as 'the man who had been her brother.'

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2 minutes ago, Traverys said:

To me, she drank a hallucinogenic substance and so sensory data, feelings, and experiences all overlap and become one. Try having someone tripping on acid or shrooms describe how they are feeling, or how something tastes, and you'll likely get a strange metaphor of a response.

I might be able to buy that, but again Dany did not "experience" molten gold. She experienced her brother's death, but tasting molten gold is a strange metaphor for Viserys dying since it was Viserys who tasted it. And like I said before, everything else on the list is literal, so why would one thing be a metaphor?

Similarly, when Bran eats weirwood paste he first thinks it tastes bitter (which is likely the real taste) but after swallowing it lists off things he has literally tasted: It tasted of honey, of new-fallen snow, of pepper and cinnamon and the last kiss his mother ever gave him.

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33 minutes ago, ravenous reader said:

I'm not a good person to consult on the strictly 'literal.'

LOL

I think she was willing to consume her brother (not so different from Stannis eating the 'peach' of Renly...) hmm... @Universal Sword Donor

Indeed. Much like my brother died because he took the mashed potatoes and gravy, Viserys died because Dany wanted him subsumed.

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