Understanding MMD - a re-examination of her intentions

[sweetsunray]

No, this is not just a thread to discuss whether MMD was guilty or not of what Dany accused her of, but assumes MMD as innocent of what Dany accuses her of and kills her for, as all evidence points to everyone else making bad decisions or respond with violence.

It also assumes that MMD spoke the truth at all times and never intended harm or to revenge herself. It relies purely on rational evidence of events and key conversation by MMD, and it leads to an insight what MMDs true intent was at the time she began the ritual of blood magic.

 

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"Who are you?" Dany asked her.

"I am named Mirri Maz Duur. I am godswife of this temple." [...]"I am a healer," Mirri Maz Duur said.

[...] "Where did you learn your healing, Mirri Maz Duur?"

"My mother was godswife before me, and taught me all the songs and spells most pleasing to the Great Shepherd, and how to make the sacred smokes and ointments from leaf and root and berry. When I was younger and more fair, I went in caravan to Asshai by the Shadow, to learn from their mages. Ships from many lands come to Asshai, so I lingered long to study the healing ways of distant peoples. A moonsinger of the Jogos Nhai gifted me with her birthing songs, a woman of your own riding people taught me the magics of grass and corn and horse, and a maester from the Sunset Lands opened a body for me and showed me all the secrets that hide beneath the skin." (aGoT, Dany VII)

 

 

A person who journeyed that far and was that willing to learn so many various way to heal people fits the person whose calling is indeed healing. They'd heal anyone for the challenge alone of it, without letting their own moral judgment interfere. A professional doctor, surgeon gains pride in peforming their profession to the best of their abilities and it counts for more than any personal sentiment towards a patient. This is enough motivation for MMD to feel compelled to heal Drogo. It's not something she does to ingratiate herself or save her own hide. Anyone who ever ended up in a profession that gives them the feeling that it is their calling, that it is what they were born to do on this world will recognize how much this would be true, and how they would still remain professional even if their patient, pupil, student, defendant was someone who hurt or harmed them.

 

But apart from being a healer, she also calls herself "godswife". This is a remarkable title and may have a literal meaning: wife to god. At the very least this implies deep spiritual feelings or beliefs.

 

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"Why should you want to help my khal?"

"All men are one flock, or so we are taught," replied Mirri Maz Duur. "The Great Shepherd sent me to earth to heal his lambs, wherever I might find them." (aGoT, Dany VII)

 

 

Initially she explains her people's teachings. Her "or so we are taught" may be seen as her not potentially believing that all men are one flock, that she may indeed harbor personal feelings of animosity towards Drogo, but then she says "my god sent me to earth to heal". These are the words of someone whose profession is indeed something they experience as their calling. Especially the last sentence is not one befitting a lie, but a thoroughly felt belief and convicition about themselves.

All of her actions in treating Drogo and her warning on side symptoms and what not to do befit the typical behaviour of a doctor we visit: take this medicine; you may feel xyz; don't mix it with alcohol. I will not quote that text here. But of course Drogo is a stubborn, bad patient who's squamish about the itching/burning disinfectant applied on his wound and treats his pain with milk of the poppy, against direct order of his doctor, and he has soothing mud pasted on his wound instead, earning himself a Darwin award. He ends up falling from his horse with sepsis, while his chest displays signs of wet gangrene.

MMD rides off together with the khalasar with pride and confidence

 

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Khal Drogo laughed. "Moon of my life, you do not ask a slave, you tell her. She will do as you command." He jumped down from the altar. "Come, my blood. The stallions call, this place is ashes. It is time to ride."

Haggo followed the khal from the temple, but Qotho lingered long enough to favor Mirri Maz Duur with a stare. "Remember, maegi, as the khal fares, so shall you."

"As you say, rider," the woman answered him, gathering up her jars and bottles. "The Great Shepherd guards the flock." (aGoT, Dany VII)

 

 

We are told how haggard MMD is by now. She limps, has blisters and bleeding feet and has hollow under her eyes. And yet, despite her personal ailments and the bloodriders reacting in shock when they see Drogo's wounds, MMD only has eyes for Drogo and makes a doctor's observation - the wound has festered.

 

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Mirri Maz Duur entered, bowing low. Days on the march, trailing behind the khalasar, had left her limping and haggard, with blistered and bleeding feet and hollows under her eyes. Behind her came Qotho and Haggo, carrying the godswife's chest between them. When the bloodriders caught sight of Drogo's wound, the chest slipped from Haggo's fingers and crashed to the floor of the tent, and Qotho swore an oath so foul it seared the air.

Mirri Maz Duur studied Drogo, her face still and dead. "The wound has festered." (aGoT, Dany VIII)

 

This is not the response of someone who expected the wound to have festered. She left her village with pride, not caring for Qotho's threats, because she knew her healing would indeed heal Drogo. Despite a beating from Haggo and threats to kill her by Qotho, and her being weary whether Dany will still have faith in her, MMD inspects Drogo to figure out how her patient's wound unexpectedly festered.

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[MMD] went to Drogo burning on his mat, and gazed long at his wound. "Ask or tell, it makes no matter. He is beyond a healer's skills." The khal's eyes were closed. She opened one with her fingers. "He has been dulling the hurt with milk of the poppy."

"Yes," Dany admitted.

"I made him a poultice of firepod and sting-me-not and bound it in a lambskin."

"It burned, he said. He tore it off. The herbwomen made him a new one, wet and soothing."

"It burned, yes. There is great healing magic in fire, even your hairless men know that."

"Make him another poultice," Dany begged. "This time I will make certain he wears it."

"The time for that is past, my lady," Mirri said. "All I can do now is ease the dark road before him, so he might ride painless to the night lands. He will be gone by morning." (aGoT, Dany VIII)

 

 

After this, we get Dany's anguish "why me?" and panic in her thoughts. But this is not about Dany's POV. We can construct MMDs POV in the same moment. Both we the readers as well as MMD have been told what is about to happen to MMD.

 

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"This is your work, maegi," Qotho said. Haggo laid his fist across Mirri's cheek with a meaty smack that drove her to the ground. Then he kicked her where she lay. [...] Qotho pulled Haggo away, saying, "Kicks are too merciful for a maegi. Take her outside. We will stake her to the earth, to be the mount of every passing man. And when they are done with her, the dogs will use her as well. Weasels will tear out her entrails and carrion crows feast upon her eyes. The flies off the river shall lay their eggs in her womb and drink pus from the ruins of her breasts …" He dug iron-hard fingers into the soft, wobbly flesh under the godswife's arm and hauled her to her feet. (aGoT, Dany VIII)

Qotho wants to stake her to the earth have her raped multiple times and then leave her for death.

That MMD has her own fate on her mind after this is made clear in this quote

 

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Dany turned back to Mirri Maz Duur. The woman's eyes were wary. "So you have saved me once more."

"And now you must save him," Dany said. "Please …"

"You do not ask a slave," Mirri replied sharply, "you tell her." (aGoT, Dany VIII)

 

 

MMD refers to the moment when Drogo told Dany that MMD was her slave who'd do what she's told, and this is also the moment when Qotho promised MMD that whatever befell Drogo would be her fate as well. So, when she examines Drogo closer and concludes he will be dead by the morning, and so will she. She was raped multiple times, saw her village and people destroyed and killed, attempted to heal her enemy, suffered beatings and miles of walking, and then his own stupidity condemned them both. What we have here is a woman mentally working through the fate she must embrace now: her own death.

 

At this point Dany begs MMD to save him, to use magic.

 

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Mirri Maz Duur sat back on her heels and studied Daenerys through eyes as black as night. "There is a spell." Her voice was quiet, scarcely more than a whisper. "But it is hard, lady, and dark. Some would say that death is cleaner. I learned the way in Asshai, and paid dear for the lesson. My teacher was a bloodmage from the Shadow Lands." (aGoT, Dany VIII)

MMD admits to knowing a spell, but also warns that the result may be worse than death. In the next chapter we learn that Drogo was indeed healed physically, but that he ends up quite catatonic. In other words, MMD knows what the result will be - a living physically mindless man.

At this point, upon reread many readers believe MMD saw her chance to con Dany into agreeing to a ritual that would result in Dany's unborn child dying, for she says only death can pay for life.

 

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"There is a price," the godswife warned her.

"You'll have gold, horses, whatever you like."

"It is not a matter of gold or horses. This is bloodmagic, lady. Only death may pay for life."

"Death?" Dany wrapped her arms around herself protectively, rocked back and forth on her heels. "My death?" She told herself she would die for him, if she must. She was the blood of the dragon, she would not be afraid. Her brother Rhaegar had died for the woman he loved.

"No," Mirri Maz Duur promised. "Not your death, Khaleesi."

Dany trembled with relief. "Do it." (aGoT, Dany VIII)

 

 

Except it makes no sense that MMD would send Dany outside of the tent.

 

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Braziers were lit. Mirri Maz Duur tossed a red powder onto the coals. It gave the smoke a spicy scent, a pleasant enough smell, yet Eroeh fled sobbing, and Dany was filled with fear. But she had gone too far to turn back now. She sent her handmaids away. "Go with them, Silver Lady," Mirri Maz Duur told her.

"I will stay," Dany said. "The man took me under the stars and gave life to the child inside me. I will not leave him."

"You must. Once I begin to sing, no one must enter this tent. My song will wake powers old and dark. The dead will dance here this night. No living man must look on them." (aGoT, Dany VIII)

 

 

MMD sending Dany out of the tent is the clearest evidence that MMD had no intention whatsoever to harm Rhaego. And the fact that MMD did indeed heal Drogo, even if he was never his old self, shows that MMD also had no intention to kill Drogo. So, if MMD had no intention to kill Dany, nor her unborn child, or Drogo, then who did MMD expect to die. Clearly, she knew it wouldn't be the horse, for she assures Dany later that was a lie that Dany told herself, and in fact Dany ordered MMD to do the spell believing it would be the death of a human being, way before Drogo's horse was brought in.

Readers who accept MMD had no intention to harm Rhaego, then speculate that MMD believed that the magic would bring someone inside her tent whose life would be taken. But MMD specifically decreed that nobody should enter the tent. I do not think that she believed any such thing. The answer is clear whose death would pay for Drogo's life in MMDs mind. With Dany gone out of the tent, only MMD and Drogo were the ones left inside the tent. MMD intended to sacrifice her own life to heal Drogo. And the line after Dany orders MMD to do it while trembling in relief it won't be her death fits such a logical conclusion.

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The maegi nodded solemnly. "As you speak, so it shall be done. Call your servants."

And this makes the most sense: she eyed Dany warily after Dany saved her from Qotho and Haggo (once more). She studies Dany when she pleads for MMD to use magic to save Drogo. And she has a professional pride about healing people. If she does nothing, MMD won't just be killed, but raped and left to die a slow painful death. If she "saves" Drogo from death in this way, she knows the result may not entirely please Dany and then Dany will give her up to Qotho anyway. MMD is tired, worn out, likely lost faith in the Great Shepherd, was mentally preparing herself to die, but she can keep Drogo from dying, do what she's good at (heal), save Dany in that way and escape torture, rape and further personal pain (physical and mental). 

So, seeing a way to still accomplish her professional passion (to heal) and escape her present life in death, MMD proceeds to do the ritual. Except it doesn't go as MMD planned. While MMD performs her ritual, mayhem and chaos ensues outside of the tent with the Dothraki attempting to kill Dany by stoning her. The Dothrakis' goal is thwarted by Jorah and he carries Dany inside the tent looking for MMD, because the violent actions by the Dothraki towards Dany caused her to go into early labour.

And MMD does what she always does, like any doctor would: she tries to help Dany in delivering her child, inside that tent where death reigns.

Death has several potential people whose life it can take: MMD, Jorah, Dany and the child being born.

 

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He turned his face away. His eyes were haunted. "They say the child was …"

She waited, but Ser Jorah could not say it. His face grew dark with shame. He looked half a corpse himself.

"Monstrous," Mirri Maz Duur finished for him. The knight was a powerful man, yet Dany understood in that moment that the maegi was stronger, and crueler, and infinitely more dangerous. "Twisted. I drew him forth myself. He was scaled like a lizard, blind, with the stub of a tail and small leather wings like the wings of a bat. When I touched him, the flesh sloughed off the bone, and inside he was full of graveworms and the stink of corruption. He had been dead for years."

Darkness, Dany thought. The terrible darkness sweeping up behind to devour her. If she looked back she was lost. "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."

"Only shadows," Ser Jorah husked, but Dany could hear the doubt in his voice. "I saw, maegi. I saw you, alone, dancing with the shadows."

"The grave casts long shadows, Iron Lord," Mirri said. "Long and dark, and in the end no light can hold them back."

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. He knew it too; the grey face, the hollow eyes, the limp. "The shadows have touched you too, Ser Jorah," she told him. (aGoT, Dany IX)

 

 

Death touched Jorah when he entered. It also reached for Dany, per her dream where she feels the cold reaching for her, before she runs and races, and then feels her child's life being burned from her womb. It seems completely reasonable that if given the chance, the dead would reach for the lifeforce with the hypothetical longest life, and that would have been Rhaego.

And then we come to MMD's replies to Dany's accusations, which are often taken as a "confession", because MMD does not "deny" the accusations.

 

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Dany gestured at Ser Jorah and the others. "Leave us. I would speak with this maegi alone." Mormont and the Dothraki withdrew. "You knew," Dany said when they were gone. She ached, inside and out, but her fury gave her strength. "You knew what I was buying, and you knew the price, and yet you let me pay it."

"It was wrong of them to burn my temple," the heavy, flat-nosed woman said placidly. "That angered the Great Shepherd."

"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."

"I spoke for you," she said, anguished. "I saved you."

"Saved me?" The Lhazareen woman spat. "Three riders had taken me, not as a man takes a woman but from behind, as a dog takes a bitch. The fourth was in me when you rode past. How then did you save me? I saw my god's house burn, where I had healed good men beyond counting. My home they burned as well, and in the street I saw piles of heads. I saw the head of a baker who made my bread. I saw the head of a boy I had saved from deadeye fever, only three moons past. I heard children crying as the riders drove them off with their whips. Tell me again what you saved."

"Your life."

Mirri Maz Duur laughed cruelly. "Look to your khal and see what life is worth, when all the rest is gone."

Dany called out for the men of her khas and bid them take Mirri Maz Duur and bind her hand and foot, but the maegi smiled at her as they carried her off, as if they shared a secret. A word, and Dany could have her head off … yet then what would she have? A head? If life was worthless, what was death?

 

 

For sure, MMD is cruel and harsh in this scene, not because she confesses to "killing Qotho, Haggo," and all the others or even Rhaego. No matter who you believe MMD to be, there has been a tremendous change in her attitude. Because the events as they happened, and MMDs prior actiosn rule out MMD from having murderuos intentions or even having murdered anyone as Dany puts it, what then explains MMDs attitude here?

Let's take a step back to MMDs intent: she wanted to die, she embraced coming death, and she attempted to heal, save and birth Drogo, Dany and Rhaego. But it all resulted in

1. The Dothraki who threatened to rape and kill her dead, not by her hand, but Jorah's and others.
2. MMD surviving
3. Rhaego being born years dead and looking like a half dragon, a monster.
4. And all that while MMD was gong through a faith crisis

When events unfold as they do, because of what other people do, and those events save your from basically committing suicide, people tend to believe some higher force intervened. For MMD it would have been as if finally her god, the Great Shepherd, intervened on her behalf, intervened on the world's behalf by ensuring the monstrous looking baby would end up dead. George chose to call MMDs people the Lhazareen, which certainly reminds anyone of us who knows even a bit of the bible of Lhazarus, the dead man whom Jesus resurrected. MMDs god, the Great Shepherd, also reminds us of a god to shepherds like the Jews in the Old Testament. MMD refers to people as lambs and flock, which is not just a Christian concept, but Abrahamic. In the Old Testament, Abraham was ordered to sacrifice the son he wanted so badly for so long with his wife, but just as he was about to do the deed, fate intervened and he could sacrifice a lamb instead. MMDs story is a twist on this.

And when people believe their god intervened, killed the monstrous and wicked and saves you from certain death, they become arrogant. This explains MMDs later cruel attitude perfectly. MMD became a zealot, utterly convinced that her god (her husband) would protect her and that her god does not count the Dothraki amongst his flock, but as enemies and evil. More, zealots with a calling, may end up believing they are their god's tool.

And those "hindsight" beliefs explain MMDs answers to Dany's accusations perfectly: MMD believes the Dothraki did anger her god and therefore in his divine unfathomable ways managed to kill them, and her god through her willingness to sacrifice her own life murdered the Stallion who Mounts the World. And with MMD feeling as if her god rejects the Dothraki as his flock, MMD can finally allow herself to indulge in her anger, resentment and pain over what happened to her and her village. Or as @The Fattest Leech would say, MMD became a woman who's ready to beat her plowshares into a sword.

And these type of beliefs, born out of evidence in hindsight, explain how MMD would go to her death with such a conviction:

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Bound hand and foot, Mirri Maz Duur watched from the dust with disquiet in her black eyes. "It is not enough to kill a horse," she told Dany. "By itself, the blood is nothing. You do not have the words to make a spell, nor the wisdom to find them. Do you think bloodmagic is a game for children? You call me maegi as if it were a curse, but all it means is wise. You are a child, with a child's ignorance. Whatever you mean to do, it will not work. Loose me from these bonds and I will help you." [...] As she climbed down off the pyre, she noticed Mirri Maz Duur watching her. "You are mad," the godswife said hoarsely.

"Is it so far from madness to wisdom?" Dany asked. "Ser Jorah, take this maegi and bind her to the pyre." [...]The godswife did not cry out as they dragged her to Khal Drogo's pyre and staked her down amidst his treasures. Dany poured the oil over the woman's head herself. "I thank you, Mirri Maz Duur," she said, "for the lessons you have taught me."

"You will not hear me scream," Mirri responded as the oil dripped from her hair and soaked her clothing.

"I will," Dany said, "but it is not your screams I want, only your life. I remember what you told me. Only death can pay for life." Mirri Maz Duur opened her mouth, but made no reply. As she stepped away, Dany saw that the contempt was gone from the maegi's flat black eyes; in its place was something that might have been fear. [...] Mirri Maz Duur began to sing in a shrill, ululating voice. [...] The fires swept over Mirri Maz Duur. Her song grew louder, shriller … then she gasped, again and again, and her song became a shuddering wail, thin and high and full of agony. (aGoT, Dany X)

 

 

MMD does not behave as someone seeking vengeance, but as "superior", as untouchable, as no harm can come to her, not unlike the early Christians who believed their god will save them - a righteous zealot. That was what made her cruel, dangerous and stronger than Jorah. But MMD did not become such a zealot until after events played out as they did, when instead of her dying, Dany's monstrous child died. She undoubtedly expects her god to save her again, while she's burning. It's not until the Great Shepherd does not save her from the flames, that she finally wails in agony.

CONCLUSION:

MMD is factually innocent of murdering Rhaego and had no intention to kill him. Worn out, losing her faith and realizing that no matter what she would end up dead - either because Drogo died, or because Qotho and other Dothraki would dislike what Drogo would end up being, or from exhaustion - MMD decided to take the short way out. She intended to give up her own life, alone, to the shadows from beyond the grave. But things turned out differently, and the results, turned MMD into an arrogant, dangerous zealot who's convinced her god rescued her and killed her enemies and would do so again. She ended up believing herself to be more powerful than she actually is, and invincible. But she was wrong. There was no Great Shepherd. She wasn't his tool. Death and the magic made its own choices, as did the Dothraki prior to that leading to Dany being carried into the tent. MMD wasn't dangerous prior or during the blood magic ritual. She became dangerous because of its outcome. 

[SeanF]

That's a fascinating theory.  However, I do think "There is a spell but,,,,," is a classic device to lead your nark on, while also being able to tell her later "You should have checked the small print".  

I do think that some will other than the wills of Mirri Maz Duur and Daenerys is at work here, call it the Great Shepherd, R'hllor etc. .  IMHO, Mirri and Daenerys were meant to do what they did, and dragons were meant to be hatched, in the same way that Bilbo Baggins was meant to find the One Ring.

[Ygrain]

An interesting take. I mostly agree - Mirri's initial treatment of Drogo was definitely genuine, her advice was sound and he totally deserves the Darwin award for disobeying his doctor. At this point, though, the full shock of what happened to her village as well as her own trauma may not have set fully in yet. It is only later - after the toil of the journey which Dany the "saviour" hadn't done a thing to make easier for her - and under the bloodriders's threats that the bitterness spills out. Also, Mirri has apparently learned some background information from the other slaves, like about the Stallion, and thus, by extension, about Dany's role in the attack on the village, which hardly endeared her to Mirri. I never stopped to consider whose death was supposed to pay for Drogo's life but I find your reasoning plausible, Mirri definitely had nothing to lose by her suicide. The twist that brought Dany into the tent and the death of Rhaego really must have seemed like divine intervention to her, offering a sacrifical "lamb" while destroying a threat to the world, no wonder she acted so haughtily afterwards and as if not caring for her own fate any more.

[Nowy Tends]

Very interesting and very plausible.

[Lyanna<3Rhaegar]

Very nice, well thought out theory. 

There are small details I would possibly contest but on the whole it's the only theory I've seen, that answers the question of whose death was to pay for Drogo's life, logically. 

Well done 

[Frey family reunion]

Never thought about Mirri planning on sacrificing herself in the blood magic ritual, it's an interesting take.  The one thing that gives me pause is what was happening with Dany and her child outside the tent.  Was Dany merely experiencing labor pains, or was Dany's stress level from the battle taking place around her helping induce labor or perhaps a miscarriage, or was Rhaego reacting to the blood magic ritual?  Dany herself seems to correlate what was happening around her or to her and her child with the ritual even though at the time she had not entered the tent.  

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Qotho screamed taunts at him, calling him a craven, a milk man, a eunuch in an iron suit.  "You die now!" he promised, arakh shivering through the red twilight.  Inside Dany's womb, her son kicked wildly.

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The Dothraki were shouting, Mirri Maz Duur wailing inside the tent like nothing human, Quaro pleading for water as he died.  Dany cried out for help, but no one heard.

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Someone threw a stone, and when Dany looked, her shoulder was torn and bloody.  "No," she wept, "no, please, stop it, it's too high, the price is too high."  More stones came flying.  She tried to crawl towards the tent, but  Cohollo caught her.  Fingers in her hair, he pulled her head back and she felt the cold touch of his knife at her throat.  "My baby," she screamed, and perhaps the gods heard, for quick as that Cohollo was dead.  Aggo's arrow took him under the arm, to pierce his lungs and heart.

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She tried to rise, and agony seized her and squeezed her like a giant's fist.  The breath went out of her; it was all she could do to gasp.  The sound of Mirri Maz Duur's voice was like a funeral dirge.  Inside the tent, the shadows whirled.

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Another pain grasped her, and Dany bit back a scream.  It felt as if her son had a knife in each hand, as if he were hacking at her to cut her way out.

 

[Megorova]

Mirri was Quaithe's disciple.

Quaithe is Shiera Seastar. She was summoned by MMD to Drogo's tent, when Dany was giving birth to Rhaego.

This is Shiera/Quaithe (AGOT, Dany IX):

- Wings shadowed her fever dreams.

- the stars smiled down on them, stars in a daylight sky

- but suddenly the stars were gone, and across the blue sky swept the great wings, and the world took flame.

- Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade. “Faster,” they cried, “faster, faster.” She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. “Faster!” the ghosts cried as one

- After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars.

And this is from ADWD (Dany's last chapter):

- She was flying once again, spinning, laughing, dancing, as the stars wheeled around her and whispered secrets in her ear. “To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward, you must go back. To touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.”

“Quaithe?” Dany called. “Where are you, Quaithe?”

Then she saw. Her mask is made of starlight.

So all those stars in AGOT Dany IX was Quaithe/Shiera.

Mirri said that one of her teachers was a shadowbinder from Asshai. And then, when Jorah saw Mirri in Drogo's tent, dancing with shadows and performing magic ritual, Shiera Seastar/Quaithe was also there. So how likely is it, that Shiera wasn't Mirri's ex-teacher and appeared in Drogo's tent by coincidence? I think that it's totally impossible, the more likely conclusion is that Shiera was summoned there by Mirri, because in the past she was Mirri's teacher.

First of all - Rhaego is alive. Second - Mirri didn't completely healed Drogo because the blood ritual, that was supposed to save him, was disrupted by Jorah. Afterwards Mirri did what she could to save him, but most likely it was already too late to restore him to normal condition. Or there's a possibility that after what happened between Dany, Rhaego and Shiera, Mirri knew that to wake the dragons/to hatch dragon eggs a living sacrifice will be necessary. Thus she not only willingly sacrificed her life, and was burned alive, she also stoped Drogo's healing process and made him to remain in catatonic state, because she thought that that way it will be easier for Dany to kill/sacrifice Drogo. The ritual needed three lives. One is Mirri, the second is Drogo, and the third is a stallion killed by Aggo and placed under the funeral pyre:

AGOT, Dany X: - When the fire died at last and the ground became cool enough to walk upon, Ser Jorah Mormont found her amidst the ashes, surrounded by blackened logs and bits of glowing ember and the burnt bones of man and woman and stallion.

After Rhaego's birth Quaithe remained with Dany, and gave her instructions what needs to be done to hatch her dragon eggs, that's how Dany knew what to do. She forgot what actually happened, either because MMD gave her opium (milk of the poppy), or because it was some aftereffect of the magic that was performed on Dany and Rhaego, so the memory of what actually happened was replaced by a convoluted fevered dream full of symbolical elements.

For example, Shiera Seastar, when she took off her red wooden mask-made-of-starlight, and her black cape, and Dany saw her silver-gold hair that became partially platinum-white (she's over 115 years old, so even though she was using blood magic to stay young and beautiful, she did aged a bit, and some of her hair became white), and her mismatched blue green eyes, what she remembered afterwards were ghosts in faded raiment of kings (Quaithe's mask is red, and her cape is black. Red and black are traditional colors of Targaryen court, and Targaryens are kings of the past, thus Dany saw Quaithe's attire as faded rainment of kings), Valyrian glass candle in her hands as swords of pale fire. Opal is a multicolored stone with greens and blues mixed together. The most common colors of jade are blue and green. Secondary hue of amethysts is blue. There are blue tourmalines, and green tourmalines, and even bi-colored blue-green or green-blue tourmalines.

I'm flabbergasted by inability of other readers to see what I see. So I'll quote Dany, AGOT X: "Don’t you SEE?"

What readers think about those events near the end of AGOT is completely different from what was actually happening. Rhaego will return in TWOW, he was kidnapped by Dothraki, and that is the treason for blood, NOT Drogo's death, and it isn't Mirri who was a traitor.

[kissdbyfire]

8 minutes ago, Megorova said:

Mirri said that one of her teachers was a shadowbinder from Asshai. And then, when Jorah saw Mirri in Drogo's tent, dancing with shadows and performing magic ritual, Shiera Seastar/Quaithe was also there. So how likely is it, that Shiera wasn't Mirri's ex-teacher and appeared in Drogo's tent by coincidence? I think that it's totally impossible,

I haven’t even read the OP yet, but... what? Where’s the evidence? And for that matter, where’s the evidence that Shiera is Quaithe? And that’s on top of being the 3EC as well...

8 minutes ago, Megorova said:

I'm flabbergasted by inability of other readers to see what I see. So I'll quote Dany, AGOT X: "Don’t you SEE?" 

I guarantee you, you’re not nearly as flabbergasted as I am by your uncanny ability to see things that simply aren’t there. Like, at all. 

[Megorova]

4 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

Where’s the evidence? And for that matter, where’s the evidence that Shiera is Quaithe?

It's all here:

Spoiler

She dreamed. All her cares fell away from her, and all her pains as well, and she seemed to float upward into the sky. She was flying once again, spinning, laughing, dancing, as the stars wheeled around her and whispered secrets in her ear. “To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward, you must go back. To touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.”

“Quaithe?” Dany called. “Where are you, Quaithe?”

Then she saw. Her mask is made of starlight.

“Remember who you are, Daenerys,” the stars whispered in a woman’s voice. “The dragons know. Do you?”

and here:

Spoiler

Spoiler

Wings shadowed her fever dreams.

“You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you!”

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.

“You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you!” She saw sunlight on the Dothraki sea, the living plain, rich with the smells of earth and death. Wind stirred the grasses, and they rippled like water. Drogo held her in strong arms, and his hand stroked her sex and opened her and woke that sweet wetness that was his alone, and the stars smiled down on them, stars in a daylight sky. “Home,” she whispered as he entered her and filled her with his seed, but suddenly the stars were gone, and across the blue sky swept the great wings, and the world took flame.

“…don’t want to wake the dragon, do you!”

Ser Jorah’s face was drawn and sorrowful. “Rhaegar was the last dragon,” he told her. He warmed translucent hands over a glowing brazier where stone eggs smouldered red as coals. One moment he was there and the next he was fading, his flesh colorless, less substantial than the wind. “The last dragon,” he whispered, thin as a wisp, and was gone. She felt the dark behind her, and the red door seemed farther away than ever.

“…don’t want to wake the dragon, do you!”

Viserys stood before her, screaming. “The dragon does not beg, slut. You do not command the dragon. I am the dragon, and I will be crowned.” The molten gold trickled down his face like wax, burning deep channels in his flesh. “I am the dragon and I will be crowned!” he shrieked, and his fingers snapped like snakes, biting at her nipples, pinching, twisting, even as his eyes burst and ran like jelly down seared and blackened cheeks.

“…don’t want to wake the dragon…”

The red door was so far ahead of her, and she could feel the icy breath behind, sweeping up on her. If it caught her she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness. She began to run.

“…don’t want to wake the dragon…”

She could feel the heat inside her, a terrible burning in her womb. Her son was tall and proud, with Drogo’s copper skin and her own silver-gold hair, violet eyes shaped like almonds. And he smiled for her and began to lift his hand toward hers, but when he opened his mouth the fire poured out. She saw his heart burning through his chest, and in an instant he was gone, consumed like a moth by a candle, turned to ash. She wept for her child, the promise of a sweet mouth on her breast, but her tears turned to steam as they touched her skin.

“…want to wake the dragon…”

Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade. “Faster,” they cried, “faster, faster.” 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.

“…wake the dragon…”

The door loomed before her, the red door, so close, so close, the hall was a blur around her, the cold receding behind. And now the stone was gone and she flew across the Dothraki sea, high and higher, the green rippling beneath, and all that lived and breathed fled in terror from the shadow of her wings. She could smell home, she could see it, there, just beyond that door, green fields and great stone houses and arms to keep her warm, there. She threw open the door.

“…the dragon…”

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.

In ADWD, in Dany's last chapter, when Quaithe was communicating with her thru glass candle, Dany saw that Quaithe's mask is made of starlight, and before she noticed that mask, she saw Quaithe as whispering stars. Thus whispering and smiling stars in AGOT were also Quaithe. And because it looks like whoever was communicating with Dany during Rhaego's birth, was using Valyrian glass candle, that Dany saw as swords of pale fire, and those "ghosts" had eyes colored like opals, jades, amethysts and tourmalines, and those stones are blue-green, and the only character who has mismatched blue-green eyes is Shiera Seastar, then it's the evidence that Quaithe/stars in Dany's dreams is Shiera Seastar.

18 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

I guarantee you, you’re not nearly as flabbergasted as I am by your uncanny ability to see things that simply aren’t there. Like, at all. 

It is there, you just don't see it.

[Lord Varys]

16 hours ago, sweetsunray said:

It also assumes that MMD spoke the truth at all times and never intended harm or to revenge herself. It relies purely on rational evidence of events and key conversation by MMD, and it leads to an insight what MMDs true intent was at the time she began the ritual of blood magic.

This is just not a position anyone should take who really tries to understand the character. It is especially difficult to take this approach with her character who is confirmed to be capable of deception and misdirection, but in general it makes no sense to assume in a work of fiction like ASoIaF to take anyone's words (or even the thoughts of the POV characters) as 'the truth'.

[Lyanna<3Rhaegar]

2 hours ago, Frey family reunion said:

Never thought about Mirri planning on sacrificing herself in the blood magic ritual, it's an interesting take.  The one thing that gives me pause is what was happening with Dany and her child outside the tent.  Was Dany merely experiencing labor pains, or was Dany's stress level from the battle taking place around her helping induce labor or perhaps a miscarriage, or was Rhaego reacting to the blood magic ritual?  Dany herself seems to correlate what was happening around her or to her and her child with the ritual even though at the time she had not entered the tent.  

 

This is a good point. My biggest contention with this theory was that I don't really buy the reason presented for why MMD allowed Dany to believe she was responsible for Rhaego's & others deaths when the truth would hurt Dany much more - that it was her & Jorah's fault that Rhaego was brought into the tent.

You bring up some points that call this into question even more IMO. 

On the other hand, as I said, it does seem to answer some questions that previously have not been answered satisfactorily, to me at least. 

If Mirri intended all along for Rhaego to be the death to pay for Drogo's life then why send Dany out of the tent & warn her of coming back in during the ritual? 

If she just expected for the magic or whatever to pick a person then it shouldn't matter who was inside or outside of the tent, and it clearly did. 

I think Mirri, being the sacrifice, answers those questions. But, it does make me wonder why she is seemingly unharmed by the spell? She was inside the tent the longest & has suffered no lasting effects, when Jorah, Dany, & Rhaego all seemingly did. So maybe she is immune to her own spell? That brings us right back to square one then; Who was the intended sacrifice for Drogo's life? 

[Megorova]

30 minutes ago, Lyanna<3Rhaegar said:

Who was the intended sacrifice for Drogo's life? 

The horse!!!

THIS horse ->

" “Bring his horse,” Mirri Maz Duur commanded, and so it was done. Jhogo led the great red stallion into the tent. When the animal caught the scent of death, he screamed and reared, rolling his eyes. It took three men to subdue him.

“What do you mean to do?” Dany asked her.

“We need the blood,” Mirri answered. “That is the way.”

Jhogo edged back, his hand on his arakh. He was a youth of sixteen years, whip-thin, fearless, quick to laugh, with the faint shadow of his first mustachio on his upper lip. He fell to his knees before her. “Khaleesi,” he pleaded, “you must not do this thing. Let me kill this maegi.”

“Kill her and you kill your khal,” Dany said.

“This is bloodmagic,” he said. “It is forbidden.”

“I am khaleesi, and I say it is not forbidden. In Vaes Dothrak, Khal Drogo slew a stallion and I ate his heart, to give our son strength and courage. This is the same. The same.”

The stallion kicked and reared as Rakharo, Quaro, and Aggo pulled him close to the tub where the khal floated like one already dead, pus and blood seeping from his wound to stain the bathwaters. Mirri Maz Duur chanted words in a tongue that Dany did not know, and a knife appeared in her hand. Dany never saw where it came from. It looked old; hammered red bronze, leaf-shaped, its blade covered with ancient glyphs. The maegi drew it across the stallion’s throat, under the noble head, and the horse screamed and shuddered as the blood poured out of him in a red rush. He would have collapsed, but the men of her khas held him up. “Strength of the mount, go into the rider,” Mirri sang as horse blood swirled into the waters of Drogo’s bath. “Strength of the beast, go into the man.” "

[Ygrain]

3 hours ago, Megorova said:

I'm flabbergasted by inability of other readers to see what I see

That usually means that the flabbergasted person is seeing things and not making a convincing case. 

[Lyanna<3Rhaegar]

9 minutes ago, Megorova said:

The horse!!!

THIS horse ->

" “Bring his horse,” Mirri Maz Duur commanded, and so it was done. Jhogo led the great red stallion into the tent. When the animal caught the scent of death, he screamed and reared, rolling his eyes. It took three men to subdue him.

“What do you mean to do?” Dany asked her.

“We need the blood,” Mirri answered. “That is the way.”

Jhogo edged back, his hand on his arakh. He was a youth of sixteen years, whip-thin, fearless, quick to laugh, with the faint shadow of his first mustachio on his upper lip. He fell to his knees before her. “Khaleesi,” he pleaded, “you must not do this thing. Let me kill this maegi.”

“Kill her and you kill your khal,” Dany said.

“This is bloodmagic,” he said. “It is forbidden.”

“I am khaleesi, and I say it is not forbidden. In Vaes Dothrak, Khal Drogo slew a stallion and I ate his heart, to give our son strength and courage. This is the same. The same.”

The stallion kicked and reared as Rakharo, Quaro, and Aggo pulled him close to the tub where the khal floated like one already dead, pus and blood seeping from his wound to stain the bathwaters. Mirri Maz Duur chanted words in a tongue that Dany did not know, and a knife appeared in her hand. Dany never saw where it came from. It looked old; hammered red bronze, leaf-shaped, its blade covered with ancient glyphs. The maegi drew it across the stallion’s throat, under the noble head, and the horse screamed and shuddered as the blood poured out of him in a red rush. He would have collapsed, but the men of her khas held him up. “Strength of the mount, go into the rider,” Mirri sang as horse blood swirled into the waters of Drogo’s bath. “Strength of the beast, go into the man.” "

But Mirri specifically tells Dany it is not the horse's death that pays for Drogo's life. Besides that, if all that needs to be done is an animal sacrificed to save a human life what makes this 'dirtier' than death? 

 

"No," she pleaded. "Save him, and I will free you, I swear it. You must know a way... some magic, some..."

            Mirri Maz Duur sat back on her heels and studied Daenerys through eyes as black as night. "There is a spell." Her voice was quiet, scarcely more than a whisper. "But it is hard, lady, and dark. Some would say that death is cleaner. I learned the way in Asshai, and paid dear for the lesson. My teacher was a bloodmage from the Shadow Lands." 

Doesn't it seem silly to talk about how hard it is, that death may be cleaner, the "dear" price MMD paid for the lesson, if the only price Dany has to pay is Drogo's horse? 

 

"There is a price," the godswife warned her. 

        "You'll have gold, horses, whatever you like.
        "It is not a matter of gold or horses. This is bloodmagic, lady. Only death may pay for life."

        "Death?" ....."My death?"

        ...."No, Mirri Maz Duur promised. "Not your death, Khaleesi." 

          Dany trembled with relief. "Do it."

          The maegi nodded solemly. "As you speak, so it shall be done. Call your servants."

 

She is warning her of the price - there is no need to warn someone of the price they will pay if the price is relatively nothing - A horse. A good & decent horse, certainly but who would not pay a horses life to bring back their loved one on the brink of death & call it a good deal? 

 

"You warned me that only death could pay for life. I thought you meant the horse."

                  "No," Mirri Maz Durr said. "That was a lie you told yourself. You knew the price." 

 

 

 

[SeanF]

20 minutes ago, Lyanna<3Rhaegar said:

But Mirri specifically tells Dany it is not the horse's death that pays for Drogo's life. Besides that, if all that needs to be done is an animal sacrificed to save a human life what makes this 'dirtier' than death? 

 

"No," she pleaded. "Save him, and I will free you, I swear it. You must know a way... some magic, some..."

            Mirri Maz Duur sat back on her heels and studied Daenerys through eyes as black as night. "There is a spell." Her voice was quiet, scarcely more than a whisper. "But it is hard, lady, and dark. Some would say that death is cleaner. I learned the way in Asshai, and paid dear for the lesson. My teacher was a bloodmage from the Shadow Lands." 

Doesn't it seem silly to talk about how hard it is, that death may be cleaner, the "dear" price MMD paid for the lesson, if the only price Dany has to pay is Drogo's horse? 

 

"There is a price," the godswife warned her. 

        "You'll have gold, horses, whatever you like.
        "It is not a matter of gold or horses. This is bloodmagic, lady. Only death may pay for life."

        "Death?" ....."My death?"

        ...."No, Mirri Maz Duur promised. "Not your death, Khaleesi." 

          Dany trembled with relief. "Do it."

          The maegi nodded solemly. "As you speak, so it shall be done. Call your servants."

 

She is warning her of the price - there is no need to warn someone of the price they will pay if the price is relatively nothing - A horse. A good & decent horse, certainly but who would not pay a horses life to bring back their loved one on the brink of death & call it a good deal? 

 

"You warned me that only death could pay for life. I thought you meant the horse."

                  "No," Mirri Maz Durr said. "That was a lie you told yourself. You knew the price." 

 

 

 

Ah well, "the price" is very vague.

I wonder if Daenerys finished up giving *something* a claim on her own soul.

[Moiraine Sedai]

The OP placed a lot of limitations, boundaries, and assumptions to the point that this is not really a theory, but rather a biased opinion. The "assumptions" asked of the reader fundamentally changes the written story. Mirri may not have cared to continue living but there are far easier and less painful ways to commit suicide.  Mirri was not fully sane but she had to know the death would be painful with the Dothraki. Suicide is easy. MMD wanted revenge. She was a bitter woman. Her main intent was not suicide. It was revenge with the understanding of getting executed. Dying is the unavoidable consequence of her revenge. It's the price to hit back.  

MMD was full of tricks and mischief. It was easier to murder the baby, harder to make him sprout wings. A poultice! Drogo's wound should have been sewn and kept clean. The materials she chose are suspicious.  She claimed responsibility for the crimes and she got executed. Daenerys turned the tables on her. Instead of making her weak and helpless, Daenerys chose to fight back and take control of her circumstance. MMD never dreamed those eggs would actually hatch.  

[Lyanna<3Rhaegar]

17 minutes ago, SeanF said:

Ah well, "the price" is very vague.

I wonder if Daenerys finished up giving *something* a claim on her own soul.

Yeah it is very vague. I'm not positive what the price it, it just seems a horse is not a price worthy of a persons life. 

[kissdbyfire]

10 minutes ago, Lyanna<3Rhaegar said:

Yeah it is very vague. I'm not positive what the price it, it just seems a horse is not a price worthy of a persons life. 

Well... I know some horses that I would rather save over some humans. That said, I agree. If a horse’s life could resurrect a human being, planetos wouldn’t have a single horse left. 

[SeanF]

35 minutes ago, Lyanna<3Rhaegar said:

Yeah it is very vague. I'm not positive what the price it, it just seems a horse is not a price worthy of a persons life. 

I get pissed off with the very strained attempts to portray Daenerys as a monster of evil and hypocrisy.  And, ultimately, that's the route that Dumb and Dumber went down.

But, I could certainly see her as a Faust-type character.

[Lyanna<3Rhaegar]

53 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

Well... I know some horses that I would rather save over some humans. That said, I agree. If a horse’s life could resurrect a human being, planetos wouldn’t have a single horse left. 

Haha well yeah, me too. Some dogs too. But yeah, that's what I mean.