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Is the dusky woman a dragonseed?


Shi Qiang

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On 18/03/2018 at 10:32 PM, Aline de Gavrillac said:

In my opinion, those eggs predate Old Valyria.  This fits the theme of rebirth.  

It is an interesting idea. But I think the eggs coming from Illyrio as a Blackfyre descendant holds more likelihood. It has been hinted the line of dragons themselves might be an important factor is controlling them, that blood magic was involved in their taming. So she needed eggs that came from Targaryen dragons. 

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24 minutes ago, The Weirwoods Eyes said:

It is an interesting idea. But I think the eggs coming from Illyrio as a Blackfyre descendant holds more likelihood. It has been hinted the line of dragons themselves might be an important factor is controlling them, that blood magic was involved in their taming. So she needed eggs that came from Targaryen dragons. 

Exactly. Not even Valyrian dragons would have worked. It had to Targaryen dragons specifically. Because that is the bloodline that is tied to her family.

That's the working theory about the need for inbreeding within Dragonlord families, in order to maintain the strength of their bond with dragon lineage bound to them by blood.

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26 minutes ago, The Weirwoods Eyes said:

The reason he has to lie is that he does not want to reveal that he is a Blackfyre descendant and that he and Varys are plotting to usurp the IT from the Targaryen line.  We don't yet know why he gave those eggs to Dany. But he could hardly say here are some Dragon eggs which were taken by my ancestors, By the way we're using reverse psychology to send your brother with you into the Dothraki sea as he's such an irritating little shit we feel sure your new husband will end up killing him. Enjoy! 

I believe the eggs are what Illyrio said they are since there is no hint in the text that he lied on that point, but the speculation among readers that they might come from a more recent Targaryen cache is intriguing. If the speculation is accurate, the reason for the lie would not be to cover his Aegon tracks, but to keep King Viserys III from claiming them as his rightful property, I think. 

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On 18.3.2018 at 7:21 PM, Free Northman Reborn said:

Anyway, it was her Faceless Man magic that reacted to Moqorro's Fire magic when the two laid eyes on each other. Maybe he could see through her glamour. But, since he is not really serving Victarrion, he kept it to himself.

Faceless Men do not use glamors, they use something much more powerful. At least to change their faces. They know how to use glamors, too.

Moqorro's visions of the future are more accurate and precise than anything we have seen so far. Even if he didn't know who and what the dusky woman was from looking at her, he would know because he saw what she and Victarion would do in the future if he didn't show up to change that. There is a reason why this man threw himself into the see to be found by the Ironborn the way he was. You don't do something madly dangerous like that without a very, very good reason.

If the dusky woman is a Faceless Woman she would have lost her tongue to Euron, most likely. He is the one who likes to cut tongues out. We have no indication that the average Faceless Woman actually literally gives up her tongue. That would be stupidity considering that mutes are less effective assassins and infiltrators as people who can talk. And last time I looked the waif could still speak, too.

As to the dragon eggs:

The best hint we have is that Dany's eggs are (some of) the eggs Aerys II discovered on Dragonstone after Duskendale and failed to hatch. Those eggs weren't destroyed and they are thus, presumably, still around, unlike older eggs which might have been lost at Summerhall or during some other tragedy. Yet we have no reason to assume that Kings Robert, Joffrey, and Tommen had any Targaryen dragon eggs, nor did Stannis and Melisandre find and try to hatch any such eggs on Dragonstone (and they apparently looked for eggs in ASoS when they searched the caverns beneath the Dragonmount).

And we have it confirmed in the Epilogue that Loras' men didn't find any dragon eggs on Dragonstone, either, despite the fact that they looked for them.

Varys could have stolen them during the Sack, and Illyrio could have later given (some of) them to Daenerys. If he only gave her some of them the other egg(s) will most definitely go to Aegon - and would likely already be with him in one or two of those chests.

Illyrio would not only withhold the information of the true origin of Dany's dragon eggs from Viserys III to prevent him from claiming his rightful property - it would also arouse suspicion if Illyrio told Viserys that he had somehow acquired valuable property of King Aerys II years ago. Illyrio obviously has no interest in telling Viserys III about his true agenda or ulterior motives. Viserys believes Illyrio helps him because he sees profit in it. That's it. He doesn't suspect that the man may have his own agenda in all that.

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1 hour ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

Exactly. Not even Valyrian dragons would have worked. It had to Targaryen dragons specifically. Because that is the bloodline that is tied to her family.

That's the working theory about the need for inbreeding within Dragonlord families, in order to maintain the strength of their bond with dragon lineage bound to them by blood.

While that makes for a nice theory there is no textual evidence supporting this. The blood of the dragon is the blood of the dragon. There is as of yet no reason to believe that a dragonlord of House Belaerys, say, cannot claim a dragon of House Targaryen and vice versa.

It may be fitting from a story-telling point of view that Dany's dragons come from Targaryen dragon eggs, making them descendants of Balerion, Vhagar (and Meraxes), but it is actually pretty clear that the author originally didn't have something like that in mind. The original outline has Dany chance on dragon eggs in the Dothraki sea, which would mean that she would have just hatched some random dragon eggs.

I don't think her dragon eggs are from Asshai but that's not the same as the claim that she couldn't have hatched dragon eggs from Asshai.

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The Targaryens kings of old were promiscuous.  I am absolutely sure there are many people alive today who have a little bit of Targaryen blood.  The dusky woman could have a little dragon dna in her blood. 

The dragons' reaction to the horn is unpredictable no matter the ancestry of the dusky woman.  There are a lot of unknowns.  What gives me hope that the horn will not work ( I don't want the horn to work, obviously because I am on Team Daenerys) is Moqorro's attitude.  A red priest of R'hllor is not going to accept the Drowned God.  Moqorro will do what he can to make sure the dragons do not bond with Victarion and the dusky woman. 

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9 hours ago, The Weirwoods Eyes said:

It is an interesting idea. But I think the eggs coming from Illyrio as a Blackfyre descendant holds more likelihood. It has been hinted the line of dragons themselves might be an important factor is controlling them, that blood magic was involved in their taming. So she needed eggs that came from Targaryen dragons. 

That might hold true for most of the Valyrians but you have to remember that Dany is very special.  She's not your average Valyrian nobility.  I don't think it takes special blood to hatch dragons naturally, if truth be told.  The wild dragons hatched naturally.  The dragons on Dragonstone hatched naturally without assistance from the Targs.  Dany achieved the impossible and hatched dragons from the equivalent of egg fossils.  I will even say it's not a hatching but a resurrection. 

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On 21/03/2018 at 10:02 PM, Mon ami said:

That might hold true for most of the Valyrians but you have to remember that Dany is very special.  She's not your average Valyrian nobility.  I don't think it takes special blood to hatch dragons naturally, if truth be told.  The wild dragons hatched naturally.  The dragons on Dragonstone hatched naturally without assistance from the Targs.  Dany achieved the impossible and hatched dragons from the equivalent of egg fossils.  I will even say it's not a hatching but a resurrection. 

But are they fossils? I mean we don't know enough about fresh dragon eggs to say if they are normally hard like stone or not do we? 

Personally I think the Targaryens are tied to a particular strain of dragon DNA. This is hinted at throughout the books and whilst SHe found random eggs in the original version what we have here is the definitive version. ANd the author has laid clues that the blood of the dragon matters. Yes Dragons hatch naturally on Dragonstone etc. But Dany is hatching them sans volcanic caves. She has to have that little Je ne sais qoui. But I think she also has to have the DNA that sings to that particular line of Dragon biology. 

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23 minutes ago, The Weirwoods Eyes said:

But are they fossils? I mean we don't know enough about fresh dragon eggs to say if they are normally hard like stone or not do we? 

Personally I think the Targaryens are tied to a particular strain of dragon DNA. This is hinted at throughout the books and whilst SHe found random eggs in the original version what we have here is the definitive version. ANd the author has laid clues that the blood of the dragon matters. Yes Dragons hatch naturally on Dragonstone etc. But Dany is hatching them sans volcanic caves. She has to have that little Je ne sais qoui. But I think she also has to have the DNA that sings to that particular line of Dragon biology. 

The right blood is not required to hatch dragons. Dragons hatch on their own in nature, without any blood involved. The right blood is required to bond a dragon to you.

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1 hour ago, The Weirwoods Eyes said:

But are they fossils? I mean we don't know enough about fresh dragon eggs to say if they are normally hard like stone or not do we?

Exactly! None of the people in the stories have ever seen what they know to be 'fresh' dragon eggs. I've long wondered about Dany's eggs..... everyone assumes they are yonks old because they resemble stone. But one thing we do know about real fossils is that they do not retain their natural colour once they become mineralised. Dany's eggs are brightly coloured, and that has always left me with the suspicion they are not fossils. And that opens up some tempting rabbitholes.....

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5 hours ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

The right blood is not required to hatch dragons. Dragons hatch on their own in nature, without any blood involved. The right blood is required to bond a dragon to you.

The dragons who hatch on Dragonstone do so in a kind of volcanic nursery. Danaerys was hatching dragons without the assistance of their natural conditions. She begins to feel the presense of the dragons on the lead up to the hatching. She feels teh eggs warmth and has those dreams etc. It very much seems as though the dragons awaken in responce to her. 

It seems that there are two ways in which dragons hatch.Their natural way; within a volcanic cave. And then, there is another way which involves a Targaryen. And seems more magical. 

Rhaena Targaryen hatches Morning in the vale. 

And it seems that sleeping with the eggs might be important. The eggs are placed in the childrens cradles, and Rhaena is said to have prayed nightly for her eggs to hatch. Implying a nighttime ritual. 

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She touched one, the largest of the three, running her hand lightly over the shell. Black-and-scarlet, she thought, like the dragon in my dream. The stone felt strangely warm beneath her fingers … or was she still dreaming? She pulled her hand back nervously.

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As she let the door flap close behind her, Dany saw a finger of dusty red light reach out to touch her dragon's eggs across the tent. For an instant a thousand droplets of scarlet flame swam before her eyes. She blinked, and they were gone.

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She put her palm against the black egg, fingers spread gently across the curve of the shell. The stone was warm. Almost hot. "

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She was suddenly very tired. "Share the food among yourselves, and send some to Ser Jorah, if you would." After a moment she added, "Please, bring me one of the dragon's eggs."

Irri fetched the egg with the deep green shell, bronze flecks shining amid its scales as she turned it in her small hands. Dany curled up on her side, pulling the sandsilk cloak across her and cradling the egg in the hollow between her swollen belly and small, tender breasts. She liked to hold them. They were so beautiful, and sometimes just being close to them made her feel stronger, braver, as if somehow she were drawing strength from the stone dragons locked inside.

She was lying there, holding the egg, when she felt the child move within her … as if he were reaching out, brother to brother, blood to blood. "You are the dragon," Dany whispered to him, "the true dragon. I know it. I know it." And she smiled, and went to sleep dreaming of home.

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Was it madness that seized her then, born of fear? Or some strange wisdom buried in her blood? Dany could not have said. She heard her own voice saying, "Ser Jorah, light the brazier."

He bowed. "As you command."

When the coals were afire, Dany sent Ser Jorah from her. She had to be alone to do what she must do. This is madness, she told herself as she lifted the black-and-scarlet egg from the velvet. It will only crack and burn, and it's so beautiful, Ser Jorah will call me a fool if I ruin it, and yet, and yet …

Cradling the egg with both hands, she carried it to the fire and pushed it down amongst the burning coals. The black scales seemed to glow as they drank the heat. Flames licked against the stone with small red tongues. Dany placed the other two eggs beside the black one in the fire. As she stepped back from the brazier, the breath trembled in her throat.

 

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"Yes, Khaleesi." Quick as that Jhiqui was gone, bolting from the tent, shouting. Dany needed … something … someone … what? It was important, she knew. It was the only thing in the world that mattered. She rolled onto her side and got an elbow under her, fighting the blanket tangled about her legs. It was so hard to move. The world swam dizzily. I have to …

They found her on the carpet, crawling toward her dragon eggs. Ser Jorah Mormont lifted her in his arms and carried her back to her sleeping silks, while she struggled feebly against him. Over his shoulder she saw her three handmaids, Jhogo with his little wisp of mustache, and the flat broad face of Mirri Maz Duur. "I must," she tried to tell them, "I have to …"

"… sleep, Princess," Ser Jorah said.

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"Bring me … egg … dragon's egg … please …" Her lashes turned to lead, and she was too weary to hold them up.

When she woke the third time, a shaft of golden sunlight was pouring through the smoke hole of the tent, and her arms were wrapped around a dragon's egg. It was the pale one, its scales the color of butter cream, veined with whorls of gold and bronze, and Dany could feel the heat of it. Beneath her bedsilks, a fine sheen of perspiration covered her bare skin. Dragondew, she thought. Her fingers trailed lightly across the surface of the shell, tracing the wisps of gold, and deep in the stone she felt something twist and stretch in response. It did not frighten her. All her fear was gone, burned away.

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Ser Jorah and Mirri Maz Duur entered a few moments later, and found Dany standing over the other dragon's eggs, the two still in their chest. It seemed to her that they felt as hot as the one she had slept with, which was passing strange.

If you read these quotes you can see that Dany repeatedly desires her eggs when she is sleepy, or becomes sleepy whilst holding them, and she sleeps with them too. She dreams of the Drogon and feels a pull to holding the eggs, she has a mad urge to place them in a fire too, that doesn't work but when she makes a much bigger hotter fire for Drogo she again feels an urge to put the eggs in it and this time they hatch. 

Obvioulsy the dragons on Dragonstone are exposed to extreme heat in the hatcheries and the dragons born there seem to require claiming and those who are not or cannot be claimed becomes wild dragons. But the Targaryens also place eggs in cradles and these eggs also hatch. It is more hit and miss it seems but the dragons who hatch almost always bond strongly to the Targaryen who slept with their egg. 

At some point perhaps the child begins dreaming of the dragon inside the egg just like Dany does? Maybe just like with Dany the dragon begins communicating subconciously that it needs heat to hatch. ? If a dragon egg which has slept with a Targaryen for some time begins urging that Targaryen to pop it into the volcanic hatchery that egg might then hatch and produce a dragon already bonded to that Targaryen?  

Prayers are also an interesting element. Rhaena prays nightly for the eggs to hatch. Baelor prayes over dragon eggs. But Danaerys never prays. Maybe the praying is simply because the Targaryen converted to the seven, and the usual blind faith means they give prayer a go? It certainly does not seem necesary and would of course require real actual gods to work. And there are unlikely to be any real gods in the story. Prayers are sometimes spells though imo. So perhaps there are some words that can be said to help? We can only guess at this though. As Dany never prays, she only sleeps with and in proximity to the eggs. As even when she does not sleep with them they are close by as she is living in a tent. 

Not all Targaryens eggs hatched and that fits with the idea that not all Targaryens possess that certain something required. Dany has it. 

But equally if one of her dragons went wild, flipped sex and laid some eggs in a volcano and never saw a human being Targaryen or otherwise ever again. Those eggs still mighthatch.  

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5 hours ago, Rufus Snow said:

Exactly! None of the people in the stories have ever seen what they know to be 'fresh' dragon eggs. I've long wondered about Dany's eggs..... everyone assumes they are yonks old because they resemble stone. But one thing we do know about real fossils is that they do not retain their natural colour once they become mineralised. Dany's eggs are brightly coloured, and that has always left me with the suspicion they are not fossils. And that opens up some tempting rabbitholes.....

yes. totally agree. 

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On 24.3.2018 at 0:20 PM, The Weirwoods Eyes said:

But are they fossils?

There is no talk about fossils or fossilization in this context. Illyrio claims that age turned the dragon eggs to stone, but he does not claim that somebody dug them up at a place where they had the chance to naturally fossilize.

Perhaps dragon eggs are turned to stone by time, perhaps not. But nobody ever claimed any dragon eggs fossilized.

On 24.3.2018 at 0:20 PM, The Weirwoods Eyes said:

I mean we don't know enough about fresh dragon eggs to say if they are normally hard like stone or not do we? 

That is true. Egg himself owned a reasonably fresh dragon egg, one from the last clutch of five eggs the last dragon produced in 152 AC. Butterwell's dragon egg looks exactly like Dany's eggs, never mind the fact that nobody said it was thousands of years old and 'had turned to stone'. Egg doesn't point out that this egg looks different from his egg (at that time only 59 years old) when Dunk describes Butterwell's egg to him in TMK.

Which makes it actually pretty likely that (reasonably) fresh dragon eggs look and feel exactly like Dany's eggs.

On 24.3.2018 at 0:20 PM, The Weirwoods Eyes said:

Personally I think the Targaryens are tied to a particular strain of dragon DNA. This is hinted at throughout the books and whilst SHe found random eggs in the original version what we have here is the definitive version. ANd the author has laid clues that the blood of the dragon matters. Yes Dragons hatch naturally on Dragonstone etc. But Dany is hatching them sans volcanic caves. She has to have that little Je ne sais qoui. But I think she also has to have the DNA that sings to that particular line of Dragon biology. 

There is no indication that the dragonlords of Valyria only bonded with a singular dragon bloodline. They are the blood of the dragon, and not the blood of a specific dragon.

It is an interesting speculation that the constant sibling incest led to a specific dragonlord bloodline to be very tied with a particular dragon bloodline, but that's just that - a speculation. For one, we don't know how long exclusive sibling incest (or close kin marriage among family members who are all descended from sibling incest parents) was actually practiced in a given dragonlord family before they had to intermarry with a more distant cousin who was also descended from other dragonlord ancestors (simply because they lacked a purer-blooded relative, or for political reasons).

The modern Targaryens might be descended from multiple dragonlord families due to Viserys II's marriage to Larra Rogare. Even if there was n dragonlord branch of House Rogare back in Old Valyria (which I find actually pretty likely) then the chances are very high that the Rogares of Lys are descended from multiple (legitimate and illegitimate) dragonlord descendants. They are Lyseni with an impeccable bloodline, and the blood of the dragon still runs very strong in Lys.

In addition, we don't know whether the Valyrian dragonlord families all acquired their blood of the dragon all by themselves, in special rituals involving their own (future) dragons. There could have been just one great spell/ritual, and all the forty dragonlord families might be descended from a single first dragonlord couple.

They they would all be bound to the same dragons.

Not to mention that we have no idea whether dragon-stealing was a thing or not. A dragonless member of House Targaryen could easily enough have stolen a riderless dragon from, say, House Belaerys by simply claiming it the way Aemond Targaryen and the dragonseeds claimed their dragons.

There is also no evidence that the dragon hatcheries on Dragonstone were volcanic caves, or that volcanic caves/activity played any role in egg-hatching or dragon procreation in general. It seems as if dragons like to live near volcanoes and thrive in that environment, but that doesn't mean they can only hatch in such regions.

In fact, the dragon Morning seems to have hatched in the Vale of Arryn (or at least not on Dragonstone). Shrykos and Morghul also seem to have hatched in KL,and Tessarion, too, perhaps. Seasmoke is also not that likely to have hatched on Dragonstone, if the dragon hatched from an egg given to Laenor. Corlys and Rhaenys would have resided on Driftmark after 92 AC, not on Dragonstone (where they may have lived while Rhaenys' father Aemon was still alive and Prince of Dragonstone).

On 24.3.2018 at 0:45 PM, Free Northman Reborn said:

The right blood is not required to hatch dragons. Dragons hatch on their own in nature, without any blood involved. The right blood is required to bond a dragon to you.

It is pretty clear that Dany could only hatch her dragons because she had the blood of the dragon. That's what made her figure out that she could hatch those eggs in the first place.

There is no evidence that there are various 'bloods of the dragon', only the blood of the dragon. Which sort of implies you can bond with any riderless dragon (assuming the dragon accepts you) if you have the blood of the dragon.

On 24.3.2018 at 2:07 PM, Rufus Snow said:

Exactly! None of the people in the stories have ever seen what they know to be 'fresh' dragon eggs. I've long wondered about Dany's eggs..... everyone assumes they are yonks old because they resemble stone. But one thing we do know about real fossils is that they do not retain their natural colour once they become mineralised. Dany's eggs are brightly coloured, and that has always left me with the suspicion they are not fossils. And that opens up some tempting rabbitholes.....

See above - Dany's eggs look exactly like Butterwell's egg from TMK and they also seem to resemble Egg's egg which is only 59 years old at the time.

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3 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

There is no talk about fossils or fossilization in this context. Illyrio claims that age turned the dragon eggs to stone, but he does not claim that somebody dug them up at a place where they had the chance to naturally fossilize.

Perhaps dragon eggs are turned to stone by time, perhaps not. But nobody ever claimed any dragon eggs fossilized.

This is a totally pointless semantic quibble - the generally accepted concept of fossilization is 'turned to stone by time' - that people in Westeros don't use the word 'fossilized' does not mean that is not the concept they held :rolleyes:

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39 minutes ago, Rufus Snow said:

This is a totally pointless semantic quibble - the generally accepted concept of fossilization is 'turned to stone by time' - that people in Westeros don't use the word 'fossilized' does not mean that is not the concept they held :rolleyes:

LOL, no fossilization implies that the dragon eggs were not, say, kept in some drawer in Asshai for a thousand years or so. Because nothing would fossilize if it was kept in that way (nor would anything fossilize as completely as the dragon eggs if they completely turned to stone in only a few millennia).

There is no implication that Illyrio's dragon eggs were dug up by some expedition (which would have allowed them to fossilize the way biological matter can when covered by sediment), nor is there any indication that the eggs Aerys II found on Dragonstone (which may turn out to be the eggs Illyrio gave Dany) were there under conditions where they could fossilize (or long enough to go through a proper process of fossilization).

The Valyrian dragons lived on Dragonstone for only a couple of hundred years - hardly enough for any dragon egg to fossilize.

Aerys' people most likely thoroughly searched the caverns beneath the Dragonmount, the former hatcheries, and lairs of the Targaryens when their king wanted them to find him some dragon eggs. There are no archaeologists in Westeros.

We are talking about the words of some fat cheesemonger who doesn't have a concept of fossilization, so don't pretend he does.

Dragon eggs could turn to stone after a sufficient amount of time. Since they are magical artifacts with completely arbitrary properties this could happen without having anything to do with fossilization.

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On 25/03/2018 at 9:44 PM, Lord Varys said:

snip

I've told you before Lord Varys. I no longer wish to interact with you. I struggled with simply having you blocked as It hides too much from me on the forum. Such as the thread on TSoTD. But I did say that I don't want to discuss things with you any more. Note: you are the ONLY person I've ever felt the need to do this with on here.  

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10 minutes ago, The Weirwoods Eyes said:

I've told you before Lord Varys. I no longer wish to interact with you. I struggled with simply having you blocked as It hides too much from me on the forum. Such as the thread on TSoTD. But I did say that I don't want to discuss things with you any more. Note: you are the ONLY person I've ever felt the need to do this with on here.  

I do not address people here, I address opinions. I don't care whether the person who has written something reads or reacts to something I have to say about it. Others will (or not).

I don't even recall why you don't want to read my stuff, nor do I care to remember it. But I daresay that this thread isn't the place for you to complain (to me of all people) that you can't properly ignore me.

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It's quite hard to ignore someone when they quote you! It also is pretty reasonable to assume when a person quotes you they are addressing their post to you and expecting a response. 

The fact you can't work this out, and think I am in the wrong for reminding you that I have asked you not to interact with me is a really good example of why I said I'm stopping interacting with you.  Please don't reply. Or I will consider reporting. I can't make it clearer that I don't wish to discuss things with you anymore. I spent months away from the forum because you make it so difficult for me to enjoy being here. 

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