The House with the Red Door

[Plain, Simple Tailor]

There has been a lot of talk about what Dany’s former home means. 

“There are no lemon trees in Bravos (aside from the one place where there are)! Dany’s secretly X! Preston Jacobs! Doran!” 

I feel like we are overanalyzing. The house with the red door is in Bravos, Dany is who she thinks she is. 

The house with the red door is there for a reason, though. It wouldn’t be included for no reason. 

The house with the red door is a symbol for Dany’s desire for a home. She is haunted by the memory of having a place where she belonged. The house with the red door isn’t a part of a giant puzzle, it’s a basic symbol for Dany’s constant conflict of not feeling like she truly has a home or a place to belong. 

[chrisdaw]

Yes it is symbolic of her home.

And it represents the dragon's heart from where its the fire comes. When Dany dies she will second life the dragon, her soul will enter the dragon and take its place within its heart and fuel its fire. That is her home, Dany is and was always supposed to be a dragon. The second life is sweeter, and her's as the dragon will be free of worry, responsibility and doubt, driven purely by instinct.

[Euron III Greyjoy]

22 minutes ago, Plain, Simple Tailor said:

“There are no lemon trees in Bravos (aside from the one place where there are)! Dany’s secretly X! Preston Jacobs! Doran!” 

I feel like we are overanalyzing. The house with the red door is in Bravos, Dany is who she thinks she is. 

That's just a side effect of being so long without a new book. If we go another few years without TWoW, I'm sure someone will somehow come up with a theory that Jon Snow is the son of Aerys Targaryen, and Tyene Sand's mother, who is also coincidentally a lost Blackfyre Princess, which makes Jon Snow and Tyene Sand Blackfyre bastards, along with Aegon who is their Blackfyre cousin, so Jon, Aegon, and Tyene are actually the three heads of the (black) dragon. 

[Lady Fevre Dream]

1 hour ago, Plain, Simple Tailor said:

There has been a lot of talk about what Dany’s former home means. 

“There are no lemon trees in Bravos (aside from the one place where there are)! Dany’s secretly X! Preston Jacobs! Doran!” 

I feel like we are overanalyzing. The house with the red door is in Bravos, Dany is who she thinks she is. 

The house with the red door is there for a reason, though. It wouldn’t be included for no reason. 

The house with the red door is a symbol for Dany’s desire for a home. She is haunted by the memory of having a place where she belonged. The house with the red door isn’t a part of a giant puzzle, it’s a basic symbol for Dany’s constant conflict of not feeling like she truly has a home or a place to belong. 

I've always thought it interesting that Dany longs for the house with the red door, for home, and that desire seems destined to perhaps end at or in The Red Keep, the House the Targaryens built.  I also find it odd she never connects the two, it's not as if she doesn't know the name of the KL keep.  I'm guessing, maybe upon seeing it....she might finally realize it is the right color. 

[Targaryen Restoration]

1 hour ago, Plain, Simple Tailor said:

There has been a lot of talk about what Dany’s former home means. 

“There are no lemon trees in Bravos (aside from the one place where there are)! Dany’s secretly X! Preston Jacobs! Doran!” 

I feel like we are overanalyzing. The house with the red door is in Bravos, Dany is who she thinks she is. 

The house with the red door is there for a reason, though. It wouldn’t be included for no reason. 

The house with the red door is a symbol for Dany’s desire for a home. She is haunted by the memory of having a place where she belonged. The house with the red door isn’t a part of a giant puzzle, it’s a basic symbol for Dany’s constant conflict of not feeling like she truly has a home or a place to belong. 

The Red Door to Daenerys is the same as Winterfell is to the Starks.  Daenerys is longing for her childhood where she was carefree and without the burden of fulfilling the wishes of Viserys, Rhaegar, and Drogo.  The Red Door is the simple life of a child.  The Starks remember Winterfell in the same way.  Daenerys is carrying the weight of millions on her shoulders and anybody in that position would be longing for the innocence of her childhood.  It's a fond memory of the innocent days of childhood.  

[Targaryen Restoration]

1 hour ago, Plain, Simple Tailor said:

There has been a lot of talk about what Dany’s former home means. 

“There are no lemon trees in Bravos (aside from the one place where there are)! Dany’s secretly X! Preston Jacobs! Doran!” 

I feel like we are overanalyzing. The house with the red door is in Bravos, Dany is who she thinks she is. 

The house with the red door is there for a reason, though. It wouldn’t be included for no reason. 

The house with the red door is a symbol for Dany’s desire for a home. She is haunted by the memory of having a place where she belonged. The house with the red door isn’t a part of a giant puzzle, it’s a basic symbol for Dany’s constant conflict of not feeling like she truly has a home or a place to belong. 

It is being over analyzed.  The Red Door is the fond memory of childhood innocence.  Now she has the welfare of millions to think about.  Anybody in that situation will long for the freedom of childhood.  She can create a new home for herself but it is not going to be a small house with a red door.  She will have to carve our her own kingdom like her ancestors did.   

[NonoNono]

3 hours ago, Plain, Simple Tailor said:

There has been a lot of talk about what Dany’s former home means. 

“There are no lemon trees in Bravos (aside from the one place where there are)! Dany’s secretly X! Preston Jacobs! Doran!” 

I feel like we are overanalyzing. The house with the red door is in Bravos, Dany is who she thinks she is. 

The house with the red door is there for a reason, though. It wouldn’t be included for no reason. 

The house with the red door is a symbol for Dany’s desire for a home. She is haunted by the memory of having a place where she belonged. The house with the red door isn’t a part of a giant puzzle, it’s a basic symbol for Dany’s constant conflict of not feeling like she truly has a home or a place to belong. 

I think when she does find out where her home is (Winterfell), it will just make it more difficult to accept. She is attached to something she can't have anymore, and it will make it more difficult when she has to chose between the Iron Throne or just being Jon's wife and living a simpler life, giving up on ruling.

[Rose of Red Lake]

If you take her dream where she opens the red door and sees herself in Rhaegar's armor as foreshadowing, I think the red door is an illusion. Everything in that dream suggests war, death, or conquest. I don't think  Rhaegar in the dream = Jon, because Jon isn't really like Rhaegar at all. So Dany fills it instead. She'll believe she has to be the last avenging dragon to fight the usurpers whom she feels are stealing her "home." She'll fight them in the name of her stolen childhood. 

[chrisdaw]

Quote

She was walking down a long hall beneath high stone arches. She could not look behind her, must not look behind her. There was a door ahead of her, tiny with distance, but even from afar, she saw that it was painted red. She walked faster, and her bare feet left bloody footprints on the stone.

Quote

The doors to the Great Hall were set in the mouth of a stone dragon. He told the servants to leave him outside. It would be better to enter alone; he must not appear feeble. Leaning heavily on his cane, Cressen climbed the last few steps and hobbled beneath the gateway teeth. A pair of guardsmen opened the heavy red doors before him, unleashing a sudden blast of noise and light. Cressen stepped down into the dragon's maw.

Quote

The servants' steps were the quickest way down—not grand, but steep and straight and narrow, hidden in the walls. Ser Barristan brought a lantern, lest she fall. Bricks of twenty different colors pressed close around them, fading to grey and black beyond the lantern light. Thrice they passed Unsullied guards, standing as if they had been carved from stone. The only sound was the soft scruff of their feet upon the steps.

At ground level the Great Pyramid of Meereen was a hushed place, full of dust and shadows. Its outer walls were thirty feet thick. Within them, sounds echoed off arches of many-colored bricks, and amongst the stables, stalls, and storerooms. They passed beneath three massive arches, down a torchlit ramp into the vaults beneath the pyramid, past cisterns, dungeons, and torture chambers where slaves had been scourged and skinned and burned with red-hot irons. Finally they came to a pair of huge iron doors with rusted hinges, guarded by Unsullied.

. . .

Dany did not want to talk about the dragons. Farmers still came to her court with burned bones, complaining of missing sheep, though Drogon had not returned to the city. Some reported seeing him north of the river, above the grass of the Dothraki sea. Down in the pit, Viserion had snapped one of his chains; he and Rhaegal grew more savage every day. Once the iron doors had glowed red-hot, her Unsullied told her, and no one dared to touch them for a day. "Astapor is under siege as well."

Same same same. The red door is the inside of a stone dragon, which when Dany's soul enters will come to life, the stone melting by way of her fiery heart, the fire in her blood, the light of her soul. The soul is what feeds the dragon's flame. The pathway to where it belongs is symbolic of the dragon's innards, its mouth, ribs (arches) and throat (hallway). The actual door is the entrance to its heart (why Mel takes the fiery heart symbol for Stannis), the chamber where specifically the soul belongs, where it lives, where the fire goes, where the light needs to be brought. Dany's soul is what will bring it. Pass beneath the shadow of death to touch the light.

And when she does all her fear and doubts will burn away. She will become a dragon, what she was always meant to be. She will be home.

[Wm Portnoy]

9 hours ago, Plain, Simple Tailor said:

There has been a lot of talk about what Dany’s former home means. 

“There are no lemon trees in Bravos (aside from the one place where there are)! Dany’s secretly X! Preston Jacobs! Doran!” 

I feel like we are overanalyzing. The house with the red door is in Bravos, Dany is who she thinks she is. 

The house with the red door is there for a reason, though. It wouldn’t be included for no reason. 

The house with the red door is a symbol for Dany’s desire for a home. She is haunted by the memory of having a place where she belonged. The house with the red door isn’t a part of a giant puzzle, it’s a basic symbol for Dany’s constant conflict of not feeling like she truly has a home or a place to belong. 

Maybe Preston and the youtubers over analyze.  But that's better than the ridiculous story "revisions" being written by the Pro Stark and Anti Daenerys people.  I don't mind Preston.  Nothing wrong with sound analysis.  There is everything wrong with attempting to insert something in the story that isn't there.  

The red door is a concept of what was lost.  This is a coming-of-age story where the heroine chooses to abolish slavery and help millions become free.  The challenge is overwhelming and the responsibility is heavy.  Everybody has their own red door.  A freshman student might think of home and the parents in her dorm room while preparing for an important exam.  Fond memories of parents and the family home is a part of growing up healthy.  Becoming an adult is accepting responsibility and means leaving behind our own "red door."

[Shara]

13 hours ago, Plain, Simple Tailor said:

There has been a lot of talk about what Dany’s former home means. 

“There are no lemon trees in Bravos (aside from the one place where there are)! Dany’s secretly X! Preston Jacobs! Doran!” 

I feel like we are overanalyzing. The house with the red door is in Bravos, Dany is who she thinks she is. 

The house with the red door is there for a reason, though. It wouldn’t be included for no reason. 

The house with the red door is a symbol for Dany’s desire for a home. She is haunted by the memory of having a place where she belonged. The house with the red door isn’t a part of a giant puzzle, it’s a basic symbol for Dany’s constant conflict of not feeling like she truly has a home or a place to belong. 

Absolutely this.

And I think the poster below phrased it beautifully.

3 hours ago, Wm Portnoy said:

The red door is a concept of what was lost.  This is a coming-of-age story where the heroine chooses to abolish slavery and help millions become free.  The challenge is overwhelming and the responsibility is heavy.  Everybody has their own red door.  A freshman student might think of home and the parents in her dorm room while preparing for an important exam.  Fond memories of parents and the family home is a part of growing up healthy.  Becoming an adult is accepting responsibility and means leaving behind our own "red door."

I think there's also an element in Dany's arc of duty vs desire which the red door encapsulates.

She's striving for the IT because that's what she believes she was born to do, but the place where her heart belongs is elsewhere with a simpler life.

[John Suburbs]

Sorry, but the fact is it's just too cold to grow lemons in Braavos. If this were possible, then there would be lemon trees all over the southern half of Westeros and we wouldn't have people in the riverlands saying things like "Lemons? Where do you think you are? Dorne?"

The only way there could be a lemon tree growing in Braavos is if Dany was completely oblivious to the fact that the tree and the house were inside a whoppingly huge greenhouse. Not only would this structure be one of the wonders of the world, we would also have to puzzle out why anyone would put a house inside a greenhouse, or why anyone would want to live there.

So this isn't to say that the house was definitely in Dorne. Any one of the free cities in the disputed lands would work, but it is certainly not as far north as Braavos.

[Megorova]

12 hours ago, Rose of Red Lake said:

If you take her dream where she opens the red door and sees herself in Rhaegar's armor as foreshadowing, I think the red door is an illusion. Everything in that dream suggests war, death, or conquest.

In that dream she saw past (recent) events, what were happening while she was giving birth to Rhaego. At that time she was assisted by Shiera Seastar (who is Quaithe, that's why in that dream Dany saw whispering and smiling stars, because Quaithe's mask is made of starlight, as Dany has noticed in her last chapter in ADWD). Shiera used some sort of magic on Dany, to save her unborn baby. So while Dany was giving birth to Rhaego, she alternately saw thru her own eyes, and thru Rhaego's eyes (even before he was born).

This is what she saw thru Rhaego's eyes, in the moment prior and immediately after his birth:

"She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. "Faster!" the ghosts cried as one, and she screamed and threw herself forward. A great knife of pain ripped down her back, and she felt her skin tear open and smelled the stench of burning blood and saw the shadow of wings. And Daenerys Targaryen flew. ... And saw her brother Rhaegar, mounted on a stallion as black as his armor. Fire glimmered red through the narrow eye slit of his helm. "The last dragon," Ser Jorah's voice whispered faintly. "The last, the last." Dany lifted his polished black visor. The face within was her own. After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars (<- this is Shiera - stars and ghosts, shadows and wings, and even Viserys)." - text in bold is Rhaego's POV, the rest is Dany's POV.

In that dream red door was birth canal, and going thru that red door means being born. So the red door in Dany's fevered dream, and the other red door (in Braavos) are two completely different things.

[The Commentator]

9 hours ago, Wm Portnoy said:

The red door is a concept of what was lost.  This is a coming-of-age story where the heroine chooses to abolish slavery and help millions become free.  The challenge is overwhelming and the responsibility is heavy.  Everybody has their own red door.  A freshman student might think of home and the parents in her dorm room while preparing for an important exam.  Fond memories of parents and the family home is a part of growing up healthy.  Becoming an adult is accepting responsibility and means leaving behind our own "red door."

Yes it's probably nothing more than a symbol and an idea.  She is on the cusp between child and woman.  The red door is the part of her that wants to hold on to that childhood.  It is the memory of the man who saved their lives too.  Willem Darry figure prominently in these memories.  

[Rose of Red Lake]

48 minutes ago, Megorova said:

In that dream red door was birth canal, and going thru that red door means being born. So the red door in Dany's fevered dream, and the other red door (in Braavos) are two completely different things.

I dunno about the Sheira thing. The "whisperings of stars" is pretty ambiguous. Stars are also associated with the death of a khal and his bloodriders, they become stars in the night sky when they die. So I still see death in that dream. 

[Megorova]

40 minutes ago, Rose of Red Lake said:

I dunno about the Sheira thing. The "whisperings of stars" is pretty ambiguous. Stars are also associated with the death of a khal and his bloodriders, they become stars in the night sky when they die. So I still see death in that dream. 

There was many mentioning of stars in that fevered dream. And those "stars" were anthropomorphic - they were looking at Dany, smiling, whispering. It was Shiera, in her starlight mask (though shortly after she appeared there, she took off her mask, and Dany saw Shiera's face, color of her eyes and hair, and that she had Valyrian looks). In that dream Shiera was seen by Dany as stars, great wings, ghosts with swords of pale fire (glass candle in Shiera's hands) and eyes color of jade (green), amethyst (it's a purple gemstone with blue secondary hue), opals (it's a bi-colored stone - blue and green), and tournaline (there are blue, green, and even bi-colored blue-green tourmalines), like mismatched (blue and green) eyes of Shiera Seastar; and even as Viserys (that also was Shiera, she was stimulating Dany's breasts, because it's a method of labor induction, during which mother's body is producing hormone oxytocin, which strengthens contractions during labor).

If you'll read again thru first half of ch. Dany IX in AGOT, keeping in mind, that that is possibly Shiera/Quaithe, then, maybe, you will see, what was really going on there. First Dany gave birth to Rhaego, and then, hours after that, she had that dream, which was a distorted recollection, of what actually had happened before. Probably, when she was in labor, they gave her milk of the poppy, which is basically opium. And, thus, it caused her to have hallucinations, and partial memory loss. That's why she doesn't remember, that her baby was born alive, and was taken away. That dream was not about death, it was Dany's memory about Rhaego's birth. Though, unlike me, other readers will have to wait until next book, to get this revelation from GRRM.

[Rose of Red Lake]

1 minute ago, Megorova said:

eyes of Shiera Seastar; and even as Viserys (that also was Shiera, she was stimulating Dany's breasts, because it's a method of labor induction, during which mother's body is producing hormone oxytocin, which strengthens contractions during labor).

EWWW. Can you just not. 

[HoodedCrow]

Lots of intriguing red door ideas.

I have wondered, being younger than Martin but probably older than many people here, about the lyrics of The Lemon Tree which is on a formerly ubiquitous Peter, Paul and Mary album, which Martin could not have missed. Probably has it!

 

The lyrics I question which might have inspired the lemon symbolism involve this: Lemon tree very pretty for the lemon flower is sweet, but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat. I think it’s about lost love.

it could be about short term love that is too sour to eat long term.

it would fit with Sansa’s experience of Joffrey. But in the end,She finds the way of eating lemons with sugar in cakes. Dany may have that with the loves she has that don’t last. Maybe she will die having had some sweetness that turns sour, by circumstance or death.

 

The red door, fire, may be the beginning and end of her journey but there will be some lemon trees... loves, a child. Success in battle, that doesn’t turn out long term. 

I don’t think Martin would have had these two images by accident!

[Jeeves]

On 3/27/2019 at 5:00 PM, Plain, Simple Tailor said:

There has been a lot of talk about what Dany’s former home means. 

“There are no lemon trees in Bravos (aside from the one place where there are)! Dany’s secretly X! Preston Jacobs! Doran!” 

I feel like we are overanalyzing. The house with the red door is in Bravos, Dany is who she thinks she is. 

The house with the red door is there for a reason, though. It wouldn’t be included for no reason. 

The house with the red door is a symbol for Dany’s desire for a home. She is haunted by the memory of having a place where she belonged. The house with the red door isn’t a part of a giant puzzle, it’s a basic symbol for Dany’s constant conflict of not feeling like she truly has a home or a place to belong. 

 

14 hours ago, Wm Portnoy said:

Maybe Preston and the youtubers over analyze.  But that's better than the ridiculous story "revisions" being written by the Pro Stark and Anti Daenerys people.  I don't mind Preston.  Nothing wrong with sound analysis.  There is everything wrong with attempting to insert something in the story that isn't there.  

The red door is a concept of what was lost.  This is a coming-of-age story where the heroine chooses to abolish slavery and help millions become free.  The challenge is overwhelming and the responsibility is heavy.  Everybody has their own red door.  A freshman student might think of home and the parents in her dorm room while preparing for an important exam.  Fond memories of parents and the family home is a part of growing up healthy.  Becoming an adult is accepting responsibility and means leaving behind our own "red door."

 

10 hours ago, Shara said:

Absolutely this.

And I think the poster below phrased it beautifully.

I think there's also an element in Dany's arc of duty vs desire which the red door encapsulates.

She's striving for the IT because that's what she believes she was born to do, but the place where her heart belongs is elsewhere with a simpler life.

6 hours ago, Megorova said:

In that dream she saw past (recent) events, what were happening while she was giving birth to Rhaego. At that time she was assisted by Shiera Seastar (who is Quaithe, that's why in that dream Dany saw whispering and smiling stars, because Quaithe's mask is made of starlight, as Dany has noticed in her last chapter in ADWD). Shiera used some sort of magic on Dany, to save her unborn baby. So while Dany was giving birth to Rhaego, she alternately saw thru her own eyes, and thru Rhaego's eyes (even before he was born).

This is what she saw thru Rhaego's eyes, in the moment prior and immediately after his birth:

"She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. "Faster!" the ghosts cried as one, and she screamed and threw herself forward. A great knife of pain ripped down her back, and she felt her skin tear open and smelled the stench of burning blood and saw the shadow of wings. And Daenerys Targaryen flew. ... And saw her brother Rhaegar, mounted on a stallion as black as his armor. Fire glimmered red through the narrow eye slit of his helm. "The last dragon," Ser Jorah's voice whispered faintly. "The last, the last." Dany lifted his polished black visor. The face within was her own. After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars (<- this is Shiera - stars and ghosts, shadows and wings, and even Viserys)." - text in bold is Rhaego's POV, the rest is Dany's POV.

In that dream red door was birth canal, and going thru that red door means being born. So the red door in Dany's fevered dream, and the other red door (in Braavos) are two completely different things.

The significance of seeing Rhaegar in armor, lifting the visor, and seeing herself is the proof that Rhaegar was a dud.  Rhaegar was not a dragon and he was not the heir to the throne.  Rhaegar was not the promised prince and for sure he was not Azor Ahai.  Daenerys is.  

[Megorova]

15 hours ago, The First Bloodrider said:

Rhaegar was not the promised prince and for sure he was not Azor Ahai.  Daenerys is.  

Azor Ahai is a warrior with Lightbringer sword. And that's going to be Jon. Dawn sword of Daynes is Azor Ahai's Lightbringer. Jon is next Sword of the Morning. While Dany is just one of three heads of the dragon, and nothing more. Her main purpose was to become Mother of dragons (Rhaego, Drogo, Rhaegel, and Viseryon). She's Mother Mary of ASOIAF, not Azor Ahai, and not the Promised Prince. Melisandre thinks, that Stannis is Azor Ahai and the Promised Prince, because he is the Prince of Dragonstone. But that's just because people don't know, that Jon is Rhaegar's son. Rhaegar was Crown Prince and Prince of Dragonstone, and after him - Elia's Aegon (who was killed by the Mountain), and after him Jon. So Jon is the real Prince of Dragonstone, and thus, also the real Promised Prince.