What do you think is the meaning of "Child of Three?"

[The Green Bard]

On 4/22/2020 at 11:35 PM, The Map Guy said:

You were actually close! A little bit Star Wars, ASOIAF and Marvel!

Darth Vader = Anakin Skywalker = father to the Luke & Leia twins
Rhaella Targaryen = grandma
Robert Baratheon = hammer ... BUT more like STANNis renLY of STORM's End

Wait so who is the mother. 

[The Green Bard]

On 4/23/2020 at 4:44 AM, Lollygag said:

If we take a step back, we get the following sequence:

1. Dany is named child of three to which Dany responds
2. Like wtf does that mean?
3. She's shown 3s: 3 heads, 3 fires, 3 mounts, 3 treasons, at which point Dany is like
4. Seriously, w.t.f.? to which the Undying respond
5. Good gods are you really this dense? Ok, here's more - at which point Dany is shown more 3s:
   1. Dany is listed of daughter of death. She sees 3. Viserys (shown with his dreams of being king destroyed), Rhaego (the Stallion who Mounts the World destroyed), and Rhaegar (his dreams of love destroyed by death in battle). Destruction and death all. None of these died of old age peacefully in their sleep.
   2. Slayer of 3 lies
   3. Bride of fire, also a 3
6. In the next chapter, Dany concludes the the child of 3 is lots of 3s

So if I am reading this correctly, Are you saying there is some kind of flow form one to the other, so it's possible that there is a fair bit of redundancy from your item 3 to everything under your item 5?

On 4/23/2020 at 4:44 AM, Lollygag said:

n her next chapter, she lists the child of three as being a bunch of stuff that comes in threes.

 

ACOK Daenerys V

The streets grew emptier as they passed through a district given over to gloomy stone warehouses. Aggo went before her and Jhogo behind, leaving Ser Jorah Mormont at her side. Her bell rang softly, and Dany found her thoughts returning to the Palace of Dust once more, as the tongue returns to a space left by a missing tooth. Child of three, they had called her, daughter of death, slayer of lies, bride of fire. So many threes. Three fires, three mounts to ride, three treasons.

I see your point.  It's possible she interprets it correctly right here. 

[Damsel in Distress]

On 4/23/2020 at 8:32 PM, Wolf's Bane said:

There has never been an individual with three dragons.  There is always a first time.  And Daenerys Targaryen is breaking a lot of new ground.  The way her dragons came into the world is unlike any other dragon birth.  She is literally the mother of the dragons. 

This and more.  Child of Storm can be rephrased to say Stormborn.  Child of Three can be changed to Threeborn.  She is born from the deaths of King Aerys II, Prince Rhaegar, and Queen Rhaella.  Death pays for life but she is a person of great importance.  It probably took the deaths of three royals to bring Daenerys into the world.  Also bear in mind, Princess Rhaella, Princess Rhaenys, and Prince Aegon died close to her birth.  It is three deaths either way.  I would also quote @Here's Looking At You, Kid , Lord Commander Hightower, Sers Oswell and Arthur died recently.  That's three, three, and three. 

She has the strength of Aegon, craftiness of Visenya, and the femininity of Rhaenys.  The qualities of three dragons in one. 

[Lollygag]

3 hours ago, The Green Bard said:

So if I am reading this correctly, Are you saying there is some kind of flow form one to the other, so it's possible that there is a fair bit of redundancy from your item 3 to everything under your item 5?

I see your point.  It's possible she interprets it correctly right here. 

I think that's something which should be considered but it doesn't really look like it to me right now. But some are so vague, I won't commit to that. These things tend to have multiple meanings and in Bran's vision and Cersei's "prophesy", there's a time issue, so there might be one here.

[chrisdaw]

On 4/23/2020 at 7:06 AM, ATaleofSalt&Onions said:

It's interesting to me that you could interpret all 3 of the presumed consorts in that vision as fitting the mounts trio.  You can interpret the "mount to bed" line as Daenerys riding Silver to bed, but you could also interpret it as Dany "bedding" Drogo.  And in fact the reference to Drogo in the Bride of Fire section is about her riding Silver.  A Greyjoy husband would make sense as a "mount to dread" and Jon would fit as a "mount to love."

Dany loved Drogo, Drogo loved Dany. There is a strange fan aversion to recognising this. He is her mount to love.

[Aline de Gavrillac]

The fires for life, death, and to love can apply to all.  Take the first fire.  It brought the dragon eggs back to life.  It resulted in the death of a traitor, MMD.   And Daenerys loves the what came out of that fire, her dragon.  The fire brought back something for her to love.  The second and third fires will follow the same pattern. 

[Aline de Gavrillac]

On 4/20/2020 at 10:40 AM, Here's Looking At You, Kid said:

The "Child of Three" is her identity.  

• Child of Three - Daughter of House Targaryen.  The family dynasty was founded by Visenya, Aegon, and Rhaenys.  Three siblings.
• Westeros was forged with the help of three dragons.  Balerion, Vhagar, and Meraxas.
• Her house banner has Three dragons.
• Azor Ahai - Daenerys is Azor Ahai and the number three plays a prominent role in her life as it did the past versions of Azor Ahai.
• Slayer of Lies, Mother of Dragons, Bride of Fire.  She will "slay the lies" of the three Azor Ahai pretenders: Stannis B, Jon Snow, and fAegon.  She is the mother to three dragons.  She will marry three times.
• Three Bloodriders.  
• Third living child of King Aerys II and Queen Rhaella.
• Ruler of Three.  She is predicted to rule three people:  Westerosi, Dothraki, and Ghiscari.  
• Three Sacrifices for her rebirth.  King Viserys III, Khal Drogo, Prince Rhaego I.  Or for those who believe she was born at the Tower of Joy, three KG gave up their lives.  
• Drogon, Viserion, and Rhaegal.  Her three children.  The souls of the three most important men in her life: Drogo, Viserys, and Rheago.  They watch over her as she watches over them.  

"Three heads has the dragon" does not mean multiple dragons.  It is one dragon with three heads.  Daenerys, in her very special case, is the one Dragon (Targaryen) with three very real dragons (Drogon, Viserion, and Rhaegal).

3 Qartheen came to meet her and admire the dragons.  Just like the 3 men in the biblical story of the nativity. 

3 attendants.  Irri, Jhiqi, and Missandei.

 

[ATaleofSalt&Onions]

14 hours ago, chrisdaw said:

Dany loved Drogo, Drogo loved Dany. There is a strange fan aversion to recognising this. He is her mount to love.

I would argue it's Stockholm syndrome more than love, but just from a literary perspective I don't think this is the case. To me, I think there's an implied order to these trios. I don't think the last one mentioned, the "mount to love" is going to come at the beginning of the series, before this passage even happened. And if the "mount to bed" is Silver, then 2/3rds of these are referencing Dany's time with the Dothraki and her relationship with Drogo in the first book? I don't buy that for a second.

[ATaleofSalt&Onions]

23 hours ago, The Green Bard said:

Yes, I've definitely noticed the exact same thing.  That said, I really think GRRM is casting as wide a net as possible, so I prefer to find interpretations that have as little redundancy as possible.  Ergo, to me the mount to dread is almost certainly Drogon, You might be right about the mount to bed being the silver, but that is still very much tied to the Drogo scene in the bride of fire prophecies. 

I wonder it the Mount to Love is a "wooden horse" or a ship when they finally head for Westeros.   

Alternatively, the mount to bed could indicate a plan for a paramour, which became Daario.  Then the one to love would just be the silver. 

It's very fluid, for sure. 

I agree that there's probably supposed to be multiple valid interpretations, even if George ultimately has one in mind. We may not know until the end of the series and even then maybe not.

I'm pretty agnostic on Silver or Drogo as the "mount to bed," it could go either way depending on if these lines are supposed to reference literal animal (or other non-human) mounts or euphemisms for male partners.  It could also be both I suppose.  Perhaps there's intentional parallels with the bride of fire trio but the mounts can also refer to literal mounts.

Drogon as the "mount to dread" makes intuitive sense at first, but my one quibble with it is that the other examples in this line seem to refer to actions done by Daenerys herself - she rides Silver to bed or beds Drogo depending on the interpretation; presumably the "mount to love" is someone or something that she will love, not just something that will loved by other people. Drogon is/will be dreaded by many, but not by Daenerys herself, so I'm not quite convinced of that interpretation, though I do think it's a valid possibility.  Also, if the other mounts are supposed to refer to men (e.g. Drogo and Jon respectively) it'd be weird if the middle one was a literal mount.  And I suppose the opposite could be true, in that if (for example) the "mount to love" is a man, the first two being animals would be odd.

[Darth Sidious]

17 hours ago, chrisdaw said:

Dany loved Drogo, Drogo loved Dany. There is a strange fan aversion to recognising this. He is her mount to love.

This means the order of the triplets as given do not matter.  Random.  Either that or it is going backwards in chronological time.

[chrisdaw]

52 minutes ago, Prince Rhaego's Soul said:

This means the order of the triplets as given do not matter.  Random.  Either that or it is going backwards in chronological time.

The order won't correspond to events, it'll be Drogo love, Euron dread, Jon bed, as per the bride of fire three (in which each of the three are grouped with something symbolic to ride - though there's some poetic license granted concerning riding a wall). The order appears mostly concerned with poeticism, ending every three on love. But, even if you want to assign a reasoning for the order, Dany and Drogo are "prophesied" to reunite.

[The Green Bard]

5 hours ago, ATaleofSalt&Onions said:

I think there's an implied order to these trios. I don't think the last one mentioned, the "mount to love" is going to come at the beginning of the series, before this passage even happened. And if the "mount to bed" is Silver, then 2/3rds of these are referencing Dany's time with the Dothraki and her relationship with Drogo in the first book? I don't buy that for a second.

While I agree that there should not be too many redundant references to her time with the Dothraki, I'll point to a prior page @Son of Man where suggested that to the hive-minded undying ones, the flow of time is not important to them, so the order may not have any real meaning.

[The Green Bard]

2 hours ago, Prince Rhaego's Soul said:

This means the order of the triplets as given do not matter.  Random.  Either that or it is going backwards in chronological time.

I tend to agree, Also see me response in the above post.

[ATaleofSalt&Onions]

29 minutes ago, The Green Bard said:

While I agree that there should not be too many redundant references to her time with the Dothraki, I'll point to a prior page @Son of Man where suggested that to the hive-minded undying ones, the flow of time is not important to them, so the order may not have any real meaning.

Agree to disagree. The fire for life is almost certainly the fire that birthed the dragons. Silver and/or Drogo are IMO by far the best options for mount to bed. I don't think it's a coincidence those are the first parts of the prophecies.

[The Green Bard]

1 minute ago, ATaleofSalt&Onions said:

Agree to disagree. The fire for life is almost certainly the fire that birthed the dragons. Silver and/or Drogo are IMO by far the best options for mount to bed. I don't think it's a coincidence those are the first parts of the prophecies.

Definitely agree that it might end up in order, but I think GRRM may also have left it open for himself to deviate, gardener approach and all.  

[ATaleofSalt&Onions]

2 hours ago, chrisdaw said:

The order won't correspond to events, it'll be Drogo love, Euron dread, Jon bed, as per the bride of fire three (in which each of the three are grouped with something symbolic to ride - though there's some poetic license granted concerning riding a wall). The order appears mostly concerned with poeticism, ending every three on love. But, even if you want to assign a reasoning for the order, Dany and Drogo are "prophesied" to reunite.

The Bride of Fire 3 occurs in the reverse order.  There's also the symbolism of Silver who could also be considered the "mount to bed." The fire for life is also almost certainly the fire that birthed the dragons and the first of the fires to occur. Drogo being the mount to love just doesn't fit IMO, both from reading that scene and in terms of the overall narrative. If there is Jon-Dany romance, I don't think he's just gonna be some guy she beds in contrast to the true love of her life, the 30 year old warlord she was forced to marry when she was 13 (whether or not she later developed feelings for him) in the first book.

[chrisdaw]

12 minutes ago, ATaleofSalt&Onions said:

The Bride of Fire 3 occurs in the reverse order.  There's also the symbolism of Silver who could also be considered the "mount to bed." The fire for life is also almost certainly the fire that birthed the dragons and the first of the fires to occur. Drogo being the mount to love just doesn't fit IMO, both from reading that scene and in terms of the overall narrative. If there is Jon-Dany romance, I don't think he's just gonna be some guy she beds in contrast to the true love of her life, the 30 year old warlord she was forced to marry when she was 13 (whether or not she later developed feelings for him) in the first book.

Drogo is her love. He is thematically her partner. Impulsive, passionate, brave, undefeated, he is like her, they are both fire.

He doesn't build, he doesn't plant trees and he doesn't sit still. Like Dany as she has mostly learnt in Meereen. Like fire their role is to destroy and move on, for others to replenish in the fertile ground they leave behind, hopefully something better than what was before. He rules alone through power, the course Dany chose when she saved Drogo.

He is her sun and stars, she'd never been happier than with him in the Dothraki sea, in the worst of circumstances she hears bells and thinks of him and their being reunited and smiles. She worries about not being cremated to join him in the afterlife. He is, in her eyes, without equal.

Like Jon with Ygritte, Dany's love has come and done, it was Drogo. Jon and Dany will not be about love, that's why it is a mount to bed, she's going to specifically need a Targaryen child. By the time it gets to Jon and Dany things will be heavy into the magic.

The mounts are Drogo/horse, Euron/ship, Jon/Wall. Each a man that will impregnate her, and their symbolic vessel/gift. Drogo is a khal, gave her a horse, and she'll inherit/win a massive khalasar. Euron's a captain, will bring ships to the table and she's going to get a navy out of it.

[The Map Guy]

On 4/26/2020 at 2:29 PM, The Green Bard said:

Wait so who is the mother. 

To the twins?
Natalie Portman ... our future Goddess of Thunder!
https://www.thejc.com/news/the-diary/natalie-portman-to-become-the-goddess-of-thunder-in-upcoming-thor-movie-1.488802

I'm sure this gave GRRM and THORos of Myr A good laugh lol

 

Anyways, enjoy the HotU hunt everyone! But like I said before, I don't think those visions were about Dany.

[Wisconsin]

What do you think is the meaning of "Child of Three?"

The most direct meaning and one that encompass everything already said on this section is destiny.  Daenerys Targaryen is a child of destiny.  I am not referring to predestination.  She has the freedom of choice but she will be required to make choices which will greatly affect the lives of millions.  (Maybe Martin has a little bit of Sartre in him).  She will have to find her own meaning and define her own values.  Stay and free millions from slavery or go to Westeros. 

"Three fires must you light".  I don't think it means it will definitely happen.  She has the power of choice to light the fire or not.  She knows "prophecies are treacherous" and could choose to do something else instead. 

[Jon Fossoway]

First time I read this, I thought that this means that everything will come against or for Dany in groups of threes, which is a fairly nice manner of arranging the plot, for the author I mean.

Anyhoo, been years since I read the saga last time, and I'm currently doing my last read. So me bails out.