Death in Childbirth and Dany’s Choice

[The Commentator]

On 1/4/2020 at 2:14 PM, Centurion Piso said:

Viserys was a king. He was the heir to King Aerys II and was preferred by him over the erratic Rhaegar.  Viserys became King Viserys III on the day Queen Rhaella crowned him on Dragonstone.  Princess Daenerys, his sister, is his heir and became Queen at his death.  

Viserys was crowned and that is that. The line of succession became his.  Rhaegar's children, even if they had lived, got disinherited. 

[Lyanna<3Rhaegar]

8 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

The slaver arsehole who wanted Drogon

Oh yeah!! Kraznys! How could I have forgotten him! 

[Lyanna<3Rhaegar]

8 minutes ago, Widowmaker 811 said:

Viserys was crowned and that is that. The line of succession became his.  Rhaegar's children, even if they had lived, got disinherited. 

Yeah well then Robert Baratheon took the IT by right of conquest, disinheriting Viserys' line. 

[Rose of Red Lake]

36 minutes ago, Lyanna<3Rhaegar said:

I think something may have happened to Rhaego when Jorah carried Dany into the tent during Mirri's ritual. I don't know why else there would be such a big deal made of no one entering & then Jorah carrying her in there. 

Yeah, possibly...do you think he died then? It’s odd because if he was the price then Miri never intended to kill Dany’s baby it was just a fluke.

41 minutes ago, Lyanna<3Rhaegar said:

Dany is mad about the resurrection not working right but she is mad because Mirri led her to believe he would be alive again, not some comatose zombie. Who wouldn't want to wake our dead/dying loved one if it could be done? Mirri purposefully misled Daenerys, rightfully or no. 

Dany merely said “save him” and Mirri did that, he was alive. I am not even sure she tricked her because the resurrection could have gone wrong even in good faith; there are no gurantees in magic. Mel could have been there to try and it still might fail, with a botched resurrection. Dany focusing all her anger on Mirri and not reflecting on any of it is infuriating.

53 minutes ago, Lyanna<3Rhaegar said:

I don't think it will be the dragons who destroy her. 

I don’t mean literally...

[Alexis-something-Rose]

25 minutes ago, Lyanna<3Rhaegar said:

So it points towards Dany's mental state & such? I can't think of the other person she burned alive... I think it probably takes a special person to be able to burn people alive so I can agree with you on that level. Also though Damn MMD! It's very hard for me to feel sympathy toward her even when she has to experience such anguish because she has caused Daenerys to experience anguish too & Dany's will last much longer than Mirri's did. 

MMD warned Dany about what she was asking of her. She told her not go in the tent, but Jorah took her there. Things might have turned out differently if he hadn't done that. To me, this sounded like something that happened by accident. But we'll never know. I imagine we will be finding out more about MMD since Marwyn knew her. Maybe he'll shed more light on her character.

And if MMD decided to get her vengeance on Drogo for what he did in her village, for being raped repeatedly, for seeing her temple destroyed and people she knew murdered, and if she took out Rhaego because of this stallion who mounts the world business. Murdering a baby is pretty foul, but if the baby grows up to be what we saw in Dany's vision at the HotU, what then? I can understand where she might have been coming from. 

The other person she burned alive was Kraznys mo Nakloz, the slaver who sold her the Unsullied. And whomever else happened to be around when she loosed the dragons.

I found that whole dracarys passage is in ASoS disconcerting. On the one hand I absolutely got what she was doing, and it was something of a triumphant moment. On the other hand, I didn't think it was a good look at all.

[Lyanna<3Rhaegar]

30 minutes ago, Rose of Red Lake said:

Yeah, possibly...do you think he died then? It’s odd because if he was the price then Miri never intended to kill Dany’s baby it was just a fluke.

Yeah, I think he wasn't the price & Mirri never intended to kill the baby. After Mirri says the baby was dead, that it never lived, had been dead for years. Dany says:

 

"My son was alive and strong when Ser Jorah carried me into this tent," she said. "I could feel him kicking, fighting to be born."

"That may be as it may be," answered Mirri Maz Duur, "yet the creature that came forth from your womb was as I said. Death was in that tent, Khaleesi."

And Later:

 

Ser Jorah had killed her son, Dany knew. He had done what he did for love and loyalty, yet he had carried her into a place no living man should go and fed her baby to the darkness. 

 

I think this is  the right of it, she did warn Daenerys not to come into the tent while she was performing her "ceremony" and later:

"This was no god's work," Dany said coldly. If I look back I am lost. "You cheated me. You murdered my child within me."

"The stallion who mounts the world will burn no cities now. His khalasar shall trample no nations into dust."

 

So MMD doesn't really admit to murdering the baby, she just says why she thinks it's good he is dead. It is all still a little confusing though because there are other passages where MMD tells Dany the baby was the price, that she knew it deep down. I think the baby never was the price & MMD says this to make Daenerys feel bad. I think had the baby not been brought into the tent, it would have lived. 

48 minutes ago, Rose of Red Lake said:

Dany merely said “save him” and Mirri did that, he was alive. I am not even sure she tricked her because the resurrection could have gone wrong even in good faith; there are no gurantees in magic. Mel could have been there to try and it still might fail, with a botched resurrection. Dany focusing all her anger on Mirri and not reflecting on any of it is infuriating.

Oh yeah absolutely. Dany is mad because she feels cheated but who can blame her for that? She has just lost her husband, her child, & her entire way of life in one fail swoop. I would have liked for her to reflect on some of it but I get why she didn't/couldn't.

49 minutes ago, Rose of Red Lake said:

I don’t mean literally...

I see what you mean. Dany having the dragons will allow her to go down a path to her own destruction? 

44 minutes ago, Alexis-something-Rose said:

MMD warned Dany about what she was asking of her. She told her not go in the tent, but Jorah took her there. Things might have turned out differently if he hadn't done that. To me, this sounded like something that happened by accident. But we'll never know. I imagine we will be finding out more about MMD since Marwyn knew her. Maybe he'll shed more light on her character

Yeah, this is my take. The baby dying was an accident. I do think probably MMD knew the death of the horse was only going to pay for a "half" life of Drogo & that was her intended revenge. The baby dying was something she didn't mean to cause but was happy to kind of take responsibility for it. 

45 minutes ago, Alexis-something-Rose said:

And if MMD decided to get her vengeance on Drogo for what he did in her village, for being raped repeatedly, for seeing her temple destroyed and people she knew murdered, and if she took out Rhaego because of this stallion who mounts the world business. Murdering a baby is pretty foul, but if the baby grows up to be what we saw in Dany's vision at the HotU, what then? I can understand where she might have been coming from. 

I understand her qualms with Drogo absolutely. I think with Rhaego MMD should & probably does know that prophecy is a sword with no hilt & that just because it is said that the baby will be the stallion that mounts the world doesn't mean that it will turn out just that way. I honestly don't think she meant to kill the baby. 

47 minutes ago, Alexis-something-Rose said:

he other person she burned alive was Kraznys mo Nakloz, the slaver who sold her the Unsullied. And whomever else happened to be around when she loosed the dragons.

Yeah! KBF reminded me, I can't believe I forgot, it's one of my favorite passages. 

 

47 minutes ago, Alexis-something-Rose said:

found that whole dracarys passage is in ASoS disconcerting. On the one hand I absolutely got what she was doing, and it was something of a triumphant moment. On the other hand, I didn't think it was a good look at all.

Haha! Right? Especially considering the Targ history, makes her look a little fire crazy. I was happy when she did it though, that guy was a horrible person - would I feel morally right & vindicated for burning a man alive, no matter the reason? Probably not, but it was great to read. 

[TedBear]

1 hour ago, Alexis-something-Rose said:

Death by fire is pretty terrible, and Dany burned two people alive. Her using the same methods as her father is no bueno in my book. Doesn't matter that I like her.

Well, the main source of her power is dragons, she will surely burn a lot more people than her father.

 

[TedBear]

1 hour ago, Lyanna<3Rhaegar said:

I was happy when she did it though, that guy was a horrible person - would I feel morally right & vindicated for burning a man alive, no matter the reason? Probably not, but it was great to read. 

I think this is the point, we are reading a book, if it were real it would be horrible to see a person being burned alive, but it is not, so I want Dany to go back to Meereen and rain dragon fire on those slaveholders.

 

[Rose of Red Lake]

3 hours ago, Lyanna<3Rhaegar said:

So MMD doesn't really admit to murdering the baby, she just says why she thinks it's good he is dead. It is all still a little confusing though because there are other passages where MMD tells Dany the baby was the price, that she knew it deep down. I think the baby never was the price & MMD says this to make Daenerys feel bad. I think had the baby not been brought into the tent, it would have lived. 

That makes sense to me. It might have only lived for a few hours anyway. What a mess. This disaster happened after Dany’s first experience conquering...and yet it’s full steam ahead again to the next conquest. She just experienced a life changing event but she still has the same goal. I can see why some people would call that determination, but I think it’s scary.

[Lyanna<3Rhaegar]

1 hour ago, Rose of Red Lake said:

That makes sense to me. It might have only lived for a few hours anyway. What a mess. This disaster happened after Dany’s first experience conquering...and yet it’s full steam ahead again to the next conquest. She just experienced a life changing event but she still has the same goal. I can see why some people would call that determination, but I think it’s scary.

Oh I think it's both. Determination isn't always a good thing but she is definitely determined & scary. 

[Lost Melnibonean]

On 1/2/2020 at 7:35 AM, Mithras said:

Part 1: Did Dany sacrifice Rhaego in order to save Drogo?

I start with this important question. Did Dany willingly and selfishly sacrifice her baby for the blood magic ritual so that her husband could live and take her home? Yes? No?

There is no definite answer because Dany avoids facing this question ever since. Is it because she fears the answer? Where does “If I look back I am lost” originate from? What do you think the darkness that chases Dany in her fever dream represents? What about Dany/Rhaegar associations and Quaithe’s role?

Did MMD trick Dany or did Dany leave certain things out in her POV (by which I mean GRRM used his authorial choice to blank out certain train of thought from Dany’s POV)?

This is not as alien as you might think. For example, in Dany’s HotU visions, the text says that Rhaegar died with a woman’s name on his lips. GRRM did not want to write Lyanna for some reason but confirmed in the App that it was her name. Or another example from Dany. Remember the exchange with Kraznys. Dany had made her plans to kill the slavers but she was pretending the whole time and not giving away her real thoughts. GRRM did not want Dany to reveal her plan to the readers before the climactic dracarys moment.

I think Dany’s culpability in Rhaego’s fate is complicated. The truth is probably somewhere in between. Dany is not completely guilty but she is also not completely innocent. In fact, even if her guilt might not as big as MMD’s, Dany is still making and feeling her share of guilt far greater than it actually is and that is what matters for her. After all, she is the mother whereas MMD was just a stranger. While making the deal with MMD, Dany did not pay attention to or willfully ignored certain glaring signs. She tried to convince herself that the horse should be enough. After the disaster, she was so terrified of her own share of guilt that she mentally locked this away and coined that “If I look back I am lost” catchphrase. Because admitting that she selfishly sacrificed her baby for bloodmagic would indeed destroy her at that point of the story and she knows it in her subconscious.

There is a lot to unpack in this dream, which is why I quoted it fully. This fever dream took place after that disaster and before Dany recovered her consciousness. She was not aware of her stillbirth yet but her body and her subconscious was. This is important for understanding this dream.

Dany was racing towards the red door (representing her objective – which is her father’s kingdom, which she associates with her happy childhood’s home, which Drogo was going to give her etc.) and at the same time running away from the darkness with its cold, icy breath at her back. We can already see the origin of “If I look back I am lost” right from the start (“She could not look behind her, must not look behind her”).

I think the darkness that is chasing Dany in this dream; one which she still does not have the courage to face yet; is her sense of guilt in the death of Rhaego. She is terrified of it. Let us move a little forward in this chapter to see the proof:

What is more interesting is that Dany was still lying to herself as a natural and understandable psychological defense mechanism with that “Ser Jorah had killed her son, Dany knew...” part and later with that “You cheated me. You murdered my child within me.” part. She convinced herself that it was the fault of others: Ser Jorah, MMD, anyone other than Dany. When MMD told her that she was lying to herself and she knew the price all along, Dany completed the “If I look back I am lost” defense mechanism and started using it thereafter whenever she faced an inconvenient truth. This whole thing is textbook Cognitive Dissonance. 

One interesting tidbit about the fever dream is that the famous “You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you!” line of Viserys fades throughout the dream and reflects the part which it precedes. “…want to wake the dragon…” matches with the death of Rhaego, as if Dany wanted to wake the dragon (i.e. to acquire power) and sacrificed Rhaego for it. One might draw a similarity to her earlier dreams where she was empowered by the burning of Viserys.

While being abused by Viserys, Dany made a wish and then gave birth to a dragon that killed/ate Viserys, which made her strong. Reading the dream in this order means Dany was completely innocent in the death of her abuser and the empowerment (in the form of a literal dragon) that came with the death of Viserys was a not premeditated. Then, why did she feel guilt for the death of Viserys which surfaced up after so much time in her final chapter of ADwD? What about Dany completely writing off Viserys in her mind even before his death?

When Dany had this thought, Viserys was still very much alive. Perhaps we should read the dream in a different order which explains Dany’s buried sense of guilt and forms a parallel with the case of Rhaego as well. Accordingly, Dany wished to kill/sacrifice Viserys in the first place and then gave birth to a dragon as a result of his death. The deaths of her family members (first Viserys and later Rhaego); for which Dany feels a certain share of guilt; ended up empowering Dany. One can even draw a tangent from here to the daughter of death triplet from the House of the Undying, which entails three visions about the deaths of Viserys, Rhaego and Rhaegar, matching with the three fires Dany must light for life, for death and to love.

Returning to the fever dream, “wake the dragon” matches with Dany growing wings and flying. Next comes “the dragon” which matches with the part where Dany flies and all that live and breathe flee in terror from the shadow of her wings, suggesting the fulfillment of the Stallion That Mounts the World prophecy (and it does not seem like a good thing!). This is where she almost reaches her objective but at the final moment, after opening the final door, she sees Rhaegar as armored for his last battle (where he died as we know) and she realizes that she became Rhaegar, which is a clever way of telegraphing her death by GRRM. This is why he has been associating Dany with Rhaegar in these and the following dream which will come later. She will die at the final moment before reaching her goal, or in other words, the darkness at her back will reach out to her eventually.

Another interesting tidbit from this fever dream which took place while Dany was recovering from stillbirth is that it comes in AGoT which is full of hints about Lyanna and the childbirth fever that killed her.

Yet another tidbit is the mention of “the whisperings of stars”. We can’t tell it from AGoT but starting with ACoK, we will see that this is a clue for the presence of Quaithe as she is using her glass candle to project visions to Dany. For example in ADwD, Dany sees Quaithe in a vision with a mask "made of starlight".

This dream actually follows the fever dream which ended with Dany being equated to Rhaegar at what seems to be the end of her story. The Trident dream above makes the telegraphing of Dany’s death clearer. People are very quick to interpret this dream literally and relate it to the Others. But I don't think that is the case. The darkness, the icy breath that chased Dany in the first dream was about Dany’s culpability in the death of Rhaego.

As for this Trident dream, Dany knows that this is not supposed to be (and that she is dreaming) while she is seeing it. In truth, Rhaegar lost this battle and died. Someone (cough Quaithe cough) is playing with the outcome and twisting the facts! Truth be told, Dany needed to be lied about victory at this moment because this was the night before that fateful day at Astapor. She was going to trick the slavers and take Astapor. She spent the whole night making plans. She rolled the dice for her life. She needed someone to tell her that it will be OK.

To conclude Part 1:

Dany is not completely innocent in the deaths of Viserys and Rhaego (and even Drogo for that matter); or at least that is how she feels. She is burying all this stuff deep into her subconscious. When the story is ready, when she is ready, she will “look back” and confront all this guilt surfacing up. The realization of the full extent of her guilt in the death of Rhaego will prove essential in her final choice.

Part 2: A Tale of Two Daenerys Targaryens

In this part, I will be delving into the stories of the historical Daenerys Targaryens. The gist of the argument is that one does not simply create a historical Targaryen named Daenerys in ASOIAF, which means GRRM wants to draw attention to certain hints towards the current Daenerys.

Before Fire & Blood, Daenerys Targaryen (daughter of Aegon IV) was the First Daenerys and her story was revealed in a very important context that speaks to the present story. In Fire & Blood, we saw that GRRM changed the Targaryen family tree and created another Daenerys Targaryen (daughter of Jaehaerys I) who became the new First Daenerys and her story in my opinion is meant to be an even more direct parallel to Dany.

The First First Daenerys

Let us first look at the lesson to be earned from the Water Gardens by Doran’s words:

Indeed, children suffer the most in any war. Doran is continuing his legacy and trying to teach the lesson he learned from his mother to the next generation of leaders that will rule Dorne after him. But the thing is, the next generation is awful and they don’t have the capacity to learn this valuable lesson. Sand Snakes are violent and hypocritical. They first expressed their desire to kill Tommen and several other Lannisters for revenge. Then in this chapter Doran told them that Cersei had made secret plans to kill Trystane (which objectively came after the mutilation of Myrcella). This put them in a shock. They called it “monstrous” and pointed that Trystane is an innocent boy. The sheer hypocrisy is mind boggling. Do you really believe that these people are capable of understanding what Doran was trying to tell them? Arianne is not that much better than Sandsnakes.

That being said, the most important lesson to be learned from the First Dance of Dragons is this: it takes two to tango. That will be the case for the upcoming Dance of Dragons as well. We won’t have Arianne/fAegon as the dream couple against the evil conqueror Dany; or the evil couple Arianne/fAegon against the savior Dany. Both sides will get their fair share of escalation and atrocities as it happened in the first Dance.

The point of this section is to show that the legacy of the First Daenerys will go into ashes in the upcoming civil war between Dany and Dorne. The First Daenerys (at least in the popular imagination) sacrificed love and personal desires for peace. She realized the importance of protecting all the children, the destructiveness of wars and not waging any war without just cause. The next generation of Dornish leadership will fail at that lesson and Dany will be the one to destroy the Water Gardens and the legacy of her first namesake along with it. This is the parallel and foreshadowing GRRM intended with the First Daenerys backstory which he revealed in ADwD (i.e. the book where he intended to and was supposed to set up the civil war between Dany and fAegon/Dorne).

The Second First Daenerys

As mentioned before, GRRM created another Daenerys Targaryen in Fire & Blood as the daughter of Jaehaerys I.

It is not hard to see that GRRM made this Dany as the perfect, sympathetic princess, only to raise the stakes of the tragedy of her untimely death (resembling a sacrificial lamb in a way). We also see that her gender was the root of some problems. Alysanne argued that Dany should be the first in line because she was the eldest. Jaehaerys argued that her little brother Aemon was the first in line based on standard male-preference primogeniture. It is also interesting that the marriage of Dany and Aemon by which she could still be the queen did not entirely please Alysanne because that would still mean she lost the argument.

Readers are supposed to draw parallels and understand why a marriage between the two sides of the upcoming Dance of Dragons will not be considered as a solution. This namesake of Dany, had she lived, had a significant claim which was likely to be passed over and this would likely have been the cause of the First Quarrel.

However, the most important thing about this Second First Daenerys is her death. She was one of the victims of a plague known as the Shivers. During an especially cruel winter with widespread famine (which looks like the forecast for TWoW/ADoS), this plague hit Westeros. The course of the Shivers is remarkably swift: death can come within a day of the onset of the first chill. First the afflicted will get a chill, then shivering that gets progressively worse, until it is so bad that the teeth chatter and the arms and legs convulse uncontrollably. When the end is near, the lips turn blue and the victim begins to cough up blood. Old and young are most vulnerable, though even men in the prime of life can wake up healthy one morning and be struck dead by the next. In the winter of 59 and 60 AC, no more than one in five of those who caught the Shivers ever recovered.

Because Dany was “the darling of the realm”, her death from the Shivers was most tragic. She died a day and a half after she had first complained of feeling cold. Furthermore, her death from the Shivers struck at the very heart of the Doctrine of Exceptionalism that Jaehaerys had created to validate his marriage to his sister. The popular misconception that “the blood of the dragon does not get sick” (which persisted up until Viserys and Dany) was rooted in the campaign of Jaehaerys to establish this Doctrine of Exceptionalism. This is a symbolic way of saying that the Targaryens are not exceptional and they are not entitled to greatness just because they are Targaryens.

To conclude Part 2:

With the first and especially the second historical Daenerys Targaryen, GRRM intended the readers to draw certain parallels to the current one. GRRM created this extra Daenerys for a reason. If the whole point of her backstory is not to be related to the current Dany, then GRRM could have easily found another Targaryen name for this tragic princess. The tragic (and understandably anticlimactic) death of the Second First Daenerys from the Shivers (as what looks like a direct contradiction to the Doctrine of Exceptionalism) should be a final warning to the readers to reevaluate their expectations about Dany’s endgame.

Part 3: Dany’s Choice

Now, let us address the “understandably anticlimactic” ending for Dany. How the following quora question is framed perfectly encapsulates this reaction to the theory of Dany’s death in childbirth:

Why do many people assume Daenerys will die in childbirth, even though childbirth is a rather inglorious and unheroic death for a character as strong and developed as her? Doesn't childbirth seem like a dull way to write off such a grand character?

And below is Kelsey’s answer (who made similar arguments as Apple Martini here) which saves me from covering a lot of things that I had to in this post:

Had to redact certain parts related to the show.

I believe Dany will die giving birth to a baby in the books. This will involve a choice by her and it will be the culmination of Dany’s (real or perceived) sense of guilt in the death of Rhaego.

“Back to square one” is a powerful way to tell a story if handled well. I don’t mean that the same story at the beginning will be repeated at the end without any point. Rather the characters will find themselves in a similar situation to a key moment in their past. They will be put on a similar test and after their growth throughout their journey; it will be interesting to see how they will react this time. For example, Jaime might find himself once again in a position to make a choice when a mad monarch tries to burn King’s Landing. Jon might find himself at the opposite side of the table when the Wall falls and Jon is forced to lead the survivors to southern kingdoms. In that case, he will be wearing the shoes and the mantle of Mance Rayder against a new Jon and a new Stannis in the south. Same perspective with a different angle.

As for Dany, she might find herself in a dilemma where she has to choose between her baby and her crown. Truth be told, those were her options back in AGoT. Drogo was on the move towards conquering Westeros and fulfilling her wish before he got wounded. Dany had the choice to let Drogo die (and her ambition to retake Westeros with him), flee as Jorah told and try to save her baby. Instead, she chose Drogo and she is still not ready to face whether this choice also involved the willing sacrifice of Rhaego. In the future, if GRRM makes Dany pregnant again and lures her to a choice between her baby and her crown (where she cannot have both), the connection with Rhaego will be very important as in coming to full circle. What will Dany choose this time?

There is also the possible savior aspect in a situation like this. Dany might fully embrace the savior narrative preached by the Red Temple by the end. If GRRM lures Dany to a choice between her baby and her savior claim, whom will Dany choose to save? Will she sacrifice herself to save her baby or will she sacrifice her baby to save the world based on the belief that she is the prophesized savior and she should survive to save everyone (except her baby)?

I don’t want to get much into the “plot mechanics” of how GRRM can build this dilemma. There are not many clues to go and GRRM can freely fill the blanks. The important point is the thematic sense. This should be the ultimate character challenge to Dany and she should be presented with a choice. She should make the decision to sacrifice herself and save her baby in order to come to a full circle and tie her arc in a bittersweet tone. Her realization of the extent of her culpability in Rhaego’s death will prove essential in this decision making process.

A possible way to establish this dilemma is C-section. In the medieval setting, C-section is lethal and it always involves a choice. This is where Dany’s choice comes in to the story. Either they cut the mother open and save the baby or they save the mother by dismembering the baby and pulling it out piece by piece. GRRM planted a similar precedent in Fire & Blood with the last pregnancy of Alyssa Velaryon. GRRM can easily build more direct precedents in the next book. After all, does anyone know with absolute certainty what is going on in the Bloody Isle?

We should not be surprised if GRRM sends Sam to the Bloody Isle in TWoW where he studies a C-section procedure as the mother is presented with a choice; to save herself by sacrificing her baby or to sacrifice herself to save her baby.

Intriguing. That Daenerys will die in childbirth is foreshadowed...

Quote

"When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east," said Mirri Maz Duur. "When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When your womb quickens again, and you bear a living child. Then he will return, and not before."

Daenerys IX, Game 68

The pronoun “he” above, of course, refers to Drogo, whom Daenerys was about to send off into the night lands. Will Drogo return? I don't think so. 

Quentyn son of Prince Doran of House Martell, whose sigil is the sun, rose in the west when he left Dorne, and he set in the east when he was killed in Meereen. Our lovely dragon queen notes in Daenerys X, Dance 71, that the Dothraki Sea is going dry. When she sits among her persimmon trees and lemon trees atop the Great Pyramid of Meereen and looks upon the smaller pyramids, she feels as if she is “atop the highest mountain in the world,” thus comparing the pyramids to mountains. Since then, one such “mountain” has collapsed in ruins, and the dragons have turned two more into smoking lairs.

That leaves us with Daenerys’s womb quickening again, and her bearing a living child. Even if what Daenerys went through on her recent walk about was a miscarriage, that would not satisfy the elements above. A quickening happens when a mother-to-be can feel the fetus moving. However, since the other elements have been satisfied, and since this is a fantasy filled with prophecy and foreshadowing, I would think that Daenerys’s womb will quicken again, and she will bear a living child, and her son will sit the Iron Throne...

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When her son sat the Iron Throne, she would see that he had bloodriders of his own to protect him against treachery in his Kingsguard.

Daenerys IV, Game 36

Her son will be Aegon’s...

Quote

 

Drogo's braid was black as midnight and heavy with scented oil, hung with tiny bells that rang softly as he moved. It swung well past his belt, below even his buttocks, the end of it brushing against the back of his thighs.

"You see how long it is?" Viserys said. "When Dothraki are defeated in combat, they cut off their braids in disgrace, so the world will know their shame. Khal Drogo has never lost a fight. He is Aegon the Dragonlord come again, and you will be his queen."

 

Daenerys I, Game 3

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The dragon has three heads. There are two men in the world who I can trust, if I can find them. I will not be alone then. We will be three against the world, like Aegon and his sisters.

Daenerys VI, Storm 71

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Five Aegons had ruled the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. There would have been a sixth, but the Usurper’s dogs had murdered her brother’s son when he was still a babe at the breast. If he had lived, I might have married him.

Daenerys I, Dance 2

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"I told you, I know our little queen. Let her hear that her brother Rhaegar's murdered son is still alive, that this brave boy has raised the dragon standard of her forebears in Westeros once more, that he is fighting a desperate war to avenge his father and reclaim the Iron Throne for House Targaryen, hard-pressed on every side … and she will fly to your side as fast as wind and water can carry her. You are the last of her line, and this Mother of Dragons, this Breaker of Chains, is above all a rescuer. The girl who drowned the slaver cities in blood rather than leave strangers to their chains can scarcely abandon her own brother's son in his hour of peril. And when she reaches Westeros, and meets you for the first time, you will meet as equals, man and woman, not queen and supplicant. How can she help but love you then, I ask you?"

Tyrion VI, Dance 22

The love won’t last, of course...

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"I will leave you." Varys rose. "I know how weary you must be. I only wished to welcome you, my lord, and tell you how very pleased I am by your arrival. We have dire need of you on the council. Have you seen the comet?"
 
"I'm short, not blind," Tyrion said. Out on the kingsroad, it had seemed to cover half the sky, outshining the crescent moon.
 
"In the streets, they call it the Red Messenger," Varys said. "They say it comes as a herald before a king, to warn of fire and blood to follow." 

Tyrion I, Clash 3

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It was then that pasty, pudgy Teora raised her eyes from the creamcakes on her plate.  "It is dragons."     

"Dragons?"  said her mother.  "Teora, don't be mad."

"I'm not.  They're coming."

"How could you possibly know that?" her sister asked, with a note of scorn in her voice.  "One of your little dreams?"

Teora gave a tiny nod, chin trembling.  "They were dancing.  In my dream.  And everywhere the dragons danced the people died."

 

Arianne I, Winds

And Daenerys will vanquish Aegon...

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“The first head devours the dying, and the reborn emerge from the third. I don't know what the middle head's supposed to do.”

The Ugly Little Girl, Dance 64

Daenerys was the first head. Aegon, red with rust, is revealed to be the second. Jon will be revealed to be the third. Although a dragon is still a dragon whether it is black or red, Aegon is the mummer’s dragon...

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"What is a mummer's dragon, pray?"

"A cloth dragon on poles," Dany explained. "Mummers use them in their follies, to give the heroes something to fight."

 

Daenerys V, Clash 63

And Daenerys will slay the fraud...

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A cloth dragon swayed on poles amidst a cheering crowd. ... mother of dragons, slayer of lies...

Daenerys IV, Clash 48

So, the wee Targlet will live, but Daenerys won’t...

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... three fires must you light ... one for life and one for death and one to love ...

Daenerys IV, Clash 48

The last fire Daenerys will light will be the one that is lit to consume her lifeless body after she dies giving birth to her child, a fire to love.

Drogo will not return to Daenerys, but Daenerys will return to Drogo.

As to the three mounts she must ride, "one to bed and one dread and one to love," most of us suspect the first is her silver with Drogo to the grassy place beside a small stream, and that the second is Drogo’s namesake Drogon. Well, you know what? The third one just might be the smoky stallion Daenerys will ride to join her sun-and-stars in the Night Lands.

[BlackLightning]

I think a death by childbirth is certainly within the realms of possibility for Daenerys.

But the realms of possibility are very broad when it comes to her.

[chrisdaw]

Dany didn't know, but during the ritual and her near death Wake the Dragon experience Dany had a grasp of what was happening and some unformed memories lingered.

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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 …"

In this instance she understands her son's and husband's souls exist in the eggs, and later when she has all her senses she remembers enough to willingly spend the night in a funeral pyre.

That understanding and those memories are enough to produce feelings of guilt, and when Dany is faced with uncomfortable difficult things like guilt she hides rather than facing it, she runs behind "if I turn back I am lost". Hazzea is essentially a rerun.

It is all very orchestrated, GRRM twisting events and language to place culpability on Dany, and for good reason. If Dany willingly paid the price of her dragons, the souls of Drogo and Rhaego, isn't the big question. What matters is if she will do it again, will she willingly give her baby to the fires to raise a dragon from stone, not to win the throne, but to save the world.

[Rose of Red Lake]

Usually the maxim is, give characters what they need, not what they want. Dany may want another child and a house with the red door, but what she needs to be is the mother to her nuclear arsenal, since that is her main responsibility that no one else has. 

Later, she'll need a swift kick in the ass.