Two extremely cool things I noticed in Daenerys X

[Adam Targaryen]

I noticed two extremely cool things while reading Daenerys X a couple of weeks ago:

 

 

1.

Regarding the theory about Valyrian hips and the need to walk or sit in a certain way in order to ride dragons: 

 

In Daenerys X (A Dance with Dragons), when Dany has ridden on Drogon a couple of days ago and is walking in the Dothraki sea, she specifically has blisters on both her pinky toes and giggles to herself, thinking that it is because of the way she walks. 

...

”She was very tired, and fresh blisters had appeared on both her feet, including a matched set upon her pinky toes. It must be from the way I walk, she thought, giggling.”

...

One probably has to walk with wide strides and one’s hips and legs arched out to both sides, like a real-world cowboy or a Dothraki, in order to get blisters on one’s pinky toes. One is putting the weight on the outer sides of the feet. And it makes sense, both because Daenerys is Valyrian and because she has learned to arch her hips and legs like that while riding with the Dothraki.

 

So either Daenerys has walked with a certain wide gait all her life, from being Valyrian, or she learned to do it with the Dothraki, and if she learned it from them, maybe she was predisposed to be able to do it because of her Valyrian genes. Or she is just walking in a certain way for some other reason of course, but it makes sense that it would be connected to riding dragons since she has just ridden on Drogon in this chapter.

 

...

2.

Another thing from Daenerys X (A Dance with Dragons), which I also noticed now while reading it:

 

The ants crawling over the stone wall to bite Daenerys in her sleep is clear foreshadowing of the wights coming over the Wall to invade Westeros, as the continent is ”sleeping".

...

”The next morning she woke stiff and sore and aching, with ants crawling on her arms and legs and face. When she realized what they were, she kicked aside the stalks of dry brown grass that had served as her bed and blanket and struggled to her feet. She had bites all over her, little red bumps, itchy and inflamed. Where did all the ants come from? Dany brushed them from her arms and legs and belly. She ran a hand across her stubbly scalp where her hair had burned away, and felt more ants on her head, and one crawling down the back of her neck. She knocked them off and crushed them under her bare feet. There were so many... 

It turned out that their anthill was on the other side of her wall. She wondered how the ants had managed to climb over it and find her. To them these tumbledown stones must loom as huge as the Wall of Westeros. The biggest wall in all the world, her brother Viserys used to say, as proud as if he’d built it himself.”

...

This metaphor/foreshadowing is extremely clear and obvious. A beautiful woman (such as Daenerys) lying down and being attacked by small creatures biting at her has been used as a metaphor for Westeros before, in Daenerys’ House of the Undying vision. There it was dwarves, representing the kings of Westeros in the War of the Five Kings. Now it’s ants, representing the wights of the Others in the second Long Night. Also, this time it is Daenerys herself who is this woman - Dany herself is Westeros - which probably means that while she was not in Westeros nor affected at all during the War of the Five Kings, she will be in Westeros and probably even rule over it during the new Long Night. 

 

(Two extra things:

The dry brown grass could represent the wildlings, since they are a sort of link to the Others and might in some way be ”responsible”. The ants are coming to Dany via the grass and the wights will come to the Seven Kingdoms via the wildlings.

Also, the ants climbing over Daenerys’ stubbly scalp after her hair has been burned away by Drogon could represent the wights making it all the way to King’s Landing after it has been burned by Daenerys herself/Drogon. If Daenerys is Westeros, then her scorched head is the scorched capital - King’s Landing. One ant even makes it to the back of her head, which is her most vulnerable part, which might mean that a wight or Other will make it to the most vulnerable/vital part of King’s Landing before Westeros wakes up and defeats them.)

 

...

 

What do you guys think?

[divica]

1 hour ago, Adam Targaryen said:

Regarding the theory about Valyrian hips and the need to walk or sit in a certain way in order to ride dragons:

I am sorry but this is interesting?

[Adam Targaryen]

On 11/23/2019 at 12:02 AM, divica said:

I am sorry but this is interesting?

Yes, I think so. (Would you like to know why?)

[emily11luna]

On 11/23/2019 at 9:07 PM, Adam Targaryen said:

Yes, I think so. (Would you like to know why?)

Yes?

[Adam Targaryen]

On 11/25/2019 at 11:59 PM, emily11luna said:

Yes?

I guess that your question mark is meant to indicate a slightly doubtful view of my rationality/"behaviour" in not explaining why until I'm asked, and not a doubtful view towards your own will to know.

So: I mostly think that the theory about Valyrians having a special hip shape and that one needs Valyrian hips in order to ride on dragons is a very random theory without a strong foundation, mostly based on Tyrion's crooked legs and supposing that he's a Targaryen (unless I am forgetting some other example about why Valyrians would have special hips).

BUT in the text which I showed above is an extremely random thing about Daenerys' pinky toes getting blisters. She thinks to herself that it could be because of the way she walks. And this whole thing is so strange and specific that it seems to be a good, strong foundation for the theory of Valyrian hips and dragon-riding. Thus Daenerys X gives "evidence" or credence to this theory. Specifically the fact that she thinks about it and "comments" it makes it seem like it could be important. When characters notice random things that seem trivial and consciously think about them, it can often be something important in hindsight (in contrast to if her blisters had only been mentioned by the narrator and she hadn't thought about it herself).

Because she thinks that her blisters have something to do with the way she walks, then she probably thinks this because she does in fact walk in a certain way and not normally. The most logical thing which combines her blisters with her gait is that she gets blisters on her pinky toes because she applies more pressure on them than she does on the rest of the foot. This happens when one walks bow-legged with wide strides, putting the pressure and weight on the outsides of the feet, like a cowboy or a Dothraki.

This type of gait can either come from riding an animal (such as a horse or a dragon) very often or a genetical condition. The Valyrian hips theory says that it is genetical but it could be genetical AND behavioural, since Daenerys gets used to riding horses in AGOT and later rides Drogon in ADWD. (There can of course be other ways in which she walks strangely, or maybe she walks with that bow-legged gait because she is tired, or maybe it has nothing to do with riding dragons and everything to do with her Dothraki horse riding, so yeah, it's absolutely not necessarily related to Valyrians but yeah.)

If the Valyrian hips theory is true, I think it's a very interesting aspect of the Valyrians' genetical traits and something which at least I have probably never read about before in a fantasy story - a fictive race of people having a certain strange hip shape. It also seems to make them even more superhuman, superior and elevated than other humans, since the normal human hip structure/pelvis is already specifically broad and bent out towards the sides into a broad, elegant hip shape in comparison with a chimpanzee's narrow hip bones/pelvis, and the Valyrians' hips/pelvis would then be the further stage in the human evolution. It also makes sense to have wider hips for humans in the future since we currently have a problem with human babies almost having too big heads to be born naturally.

 

So the Valyrian hip theory is interesting because it makes the Valyrians even cooler and stranger, elevates them further into some sort of futuristic superhuman people, gives them an aspect which is very random and at least in my experience seldom used as a signifying feature of a people in fiction AND means that other people may not be able to ride dragons bareback (which could be important for Daenerys' dragons in the next books).

[BlackLightning]

The ants and the wall? Oooh great effing point. Don't know how I missed that but there it is. And it's plain as day.