Do Dany And Jon Have Any Parallels?

Do Dany and Jon have any parallels?

Yep! They do. In fact, I’d say that they have parallel journeys in many regards. They are both on very strong identity arcs.

While Sansa and Arya’s journeys are more about growing up and holding onto their identities, Dany and Jon’s are more about asserting their identities and discovering them in fact.

What I mean by that is that Dany and Jon begin in a place where their identity isn’t fully formed. They are searching for it, for a home, for a place of belonging. Moreover, they are trying to figure out just who they are and what they want. Over the course of the novels, they come into themselves while many of the other characters actually fall apart in some regards.

Also, they are the two best examples of young leaders and the trials they undergo in the novels. Their stories really illustrate the battle against their inexperience and moving forward (“kill the boy and let the man be born”, “if I look back, I’m lost”.)

I think there’s a reason that both of them truly rise at the end of ASoS and fall at the end of ADWD. What I mean by that is that at the end of ASoS, both Jon and Dany have seemingly found their footing, their leadership. Jon is the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch and Dany has taken residence and rule of Meereen as its queen. Then AFFC is off for both of them. They begin ADWD with confidence and commands and find themselves trapped between a rock and a hard place everywhere they look. For example, Jon’s inner turmoil over the wildlings and letting them in as well as Stannis’ presence at the Wall and evolvement with him/support given to him.

 If I put my seal to this, I will forever be remembered as the lord commander who gave away the Wall, he thought, but if I should refuse … 

Jon Snow read the letter over until the words began to blur and run together. I cannot sign this. I will not sign this.

He almost burned the parchment then and there. Instead he took a sip of ale, the dregs of the half cup that remained from his solitary supper the night before. I have to sign it. They chose me to be their lord commander. The Wall is mine, and the Watch as well. The Night’s Watch takes no part. 

 “Surely the lord commander cannot mean to allow that … that demon through as well?”

“Not gladly.” Jon had not forgotten the heads the Weeping Man had left him, with bloody holes where their eyes had been. Black Jack Bulwer, Hairy Hal, Garth Greyfeather. I cannot avenge them, but I will not forget their names. “But yes, my lord, him as well. We cannot pick and choose amongst the free folk, saying this one may pass, this one may not. Peace means peace for all.”

The Norrey hawked and spat. “As well make peace with wolves and carrion crows.”

“It’s peaceful in my dungeons,” grumbled Old Flint. “Give the Weeping Man to me.”

“How many rangers has the Weeper killed?” asked Othell Yarwyck. “How many women has he raped or killed or stolen?”

“Three of mine own ilk,” said Old Flint. “And he blinds the girls he does not take.”

“When a man takes the black, his crimes are forgiven,” Jon reminded them. “If we want the free folk to fight beside us, we must pardon their past crimes as we would for our own.” 

And then there’s Dany who doesn’t know what to do with her dragons, the pale mare, the refugees from Yunkai, and the fighting pits.

“I hope you have come to show me his work and not to plague me further about the fighting pits.”

He made a deep obeisance. “Your Grace, I fear I must.”

Dany grimaced. Even her own people would give no rest about the matter. Reznak mo Reznak stressed the coin to be made through taxes. The Green Grace said that reopening the pits would please the gods. The Shavepate felt it would win her support against the Sons of the Harpy. “Let them fight,” grunted Strong Belwas, who had once been a champion in the pits.  

“It shall be done, Magnificence,” said Reznak mo Reznak. “What of these Astapori?”

My children. “They are coming here for help. For succor and protection. We cannot turn our backs on them.”

Ser Barristan frowned. “Your Grace, I have known the bloody flux to destroy whole armies when left to spread unchecked. The seneschal is right. We cannot have the Astapori in Meereen.”

Dany looked at him helplessly. It was good that dragons did not cry. “As you say, then. We will keep them outside the walls until this … this curse has run its course. Set up a camp for them beside the river, west of the city. We will send them what food we can. Perhaps we can separate the healthy from the sick.” All of them were looking at her. “Will you make me say it twice? Go and do as I’ve commanded you.” Dany rose, brushed past Brown Ben, and climbed the steps to the sweet solitude of her terrace. 

And by the end, the very people they have attempted to rule, win over, and even trusted have turned on them and made attempts at their lives (with Jon’s being more successful obviously.)

Their journeys parallel each other this way. I guess they will continue to mirror each other as next book sees something of a rise from the ashes for them. It’s always darkest before the dawn and all.

Looking away from general narrative parallels, there’s a few more I’d like to point out:

Both are incredibly stubborn though not beyond listening to advice most times

Both think on the family they never knew quite a bit (Dany with Rhaegar and Aerys especially but all Targaryens to some degree and Jon with his mother)

Both are motivated by a desire to make their previous generation proud (“let it be known that Ned Stark had four sons” and Dany’s desire to fulfill a duty to her unknown family and her ancestors)

Both have desire-driven love affairs (Daario and Ygritte) that distract them from their assumed purpose in some respects

Both had a close relative that made them feel unworthy, unwanted, and guilty of something they had no control over, who’s memory still bothers them long after they are dead and gone (Catelyn and Viserys)

Both begin as outcasts and cannot seem to find a place of belonging (bastard in Winterfell/wildling lover and traitor; Westerosi in Essos/the foreign queen of both the Dothraki and Meereen; lone Targaryen on the run)

They are both haunted by the lover they couldn’t save and blame themselves for their deaths (Khal Drogo and Ygritte)

Both have an affinity and connection to at least one dangerous, legendary creature (dragons and direwolves) complete with dreams that are not merely dreams

Admittedly, this is just all off the top of my head, there are many more to be sure. But I definitely believe that Dany and Jon have many similarities. 

battle couples has gotta be one of my favorite tropes though. The “you got me?” “Yeah, I got you.” The kiss for good luck. Fighting alongside each other for so long they know every strength and weakness. The dichotomy of being fucking terrifying to their enemies, but so soft with each other. When one is in danger and the other goes feral, protects them at any cost. When everything is over and done, it’s all “let me see where you’re hurt,” and washing off the dirt and blood.

Gotta love all those people crying about incest who act as if Dany and Jon having sex is more immoral than 30+ year-old Drogo raping 13 year-old Dany. Incest is wrong because it can cause genetic defects and is often non-consensual (the older person taking advantage of the younger person) but I don't get how consensual relationships between adults of the same age who don't even know they're related is worse than child sexual abuse?

I know … People are so close-minded, and very ignorant about incest in general. Incest simply means sex between people who are related by blood. It is not “non-consensual” by definition. I have read scientific articles about it. Incest causes genetic defects only because it results in homozygosity, which means possessing two identical forms of a gene. In itself homozygosity is not bad (we all are homozygotes for some genes), but it increases the chances of being affected by deleterious (harmful) traits. There are very few practical studies made on the subject (because nowadays people don’t practice incest), most of them are theoretical, but this increase is not enormous. Besides, there is also something called “outbreeding” (the opposite of inbreeding,) which can also have bad consequences on the genes.

But anyway this is a quick scientific explanation (that you didn’t ask for I know I’m sorry) of incest in our real world, and the point I am trying to make is that real incest is nowhere near as dramatic as people think it is. 

Incest in ASOIAF is completely different. Targaryens and Valyrians didn’t suffer from any physical or mental deformitites - not more than those who didn’t practice incest. The Valyrians were, and by far, the most superior, advanced and powerful civilization on Planetos. They rode dragons, tamed volcanoes, built scyscrapers, used magic, and were the driving force for development and evolution in the world. Not to mention they were stunningly beautiful. So clearly inbreeding didn’t affect them in a negative way. The famous “Targaryen madness” that some members of the House displayed was an excess of cruelty, and there are no genes for cruelty. I don’t think it has anything to do with incest but rather with the dragon blood they have in them. Arguably the cruelest person of House Targaryen was Aerion Targaryen (Master Aemon’ elder brother) and he was not inbred at all. Neither his parents nor his four grandparents were related. Yet he still had the “Targaryen madness”. He is the one who drank wildfire because he believed it would transform him into a dragon.

And about the love part, I am so tired of fighting this battle … I don’t see anything wrong with two people loving each other and wanting to be together. One of the reason I ship Jaime and Cersei is because they are the only consensual couple among the main and recurring characters in ASOIAF till now (Jon and Daenerys haven’t yet met). All the other relations are either rape (Daenerys and Khal Drogo), arranged marriages (Catelyn and Eddard), prostitution (Shae and Tyrion), coerced sex (Ygritte and Jon) and so on. People are disgusted by incest although it is based on love and desire, but are fine with rape, arranged marriages, and other forms of abuse … 

Another thing that annoys me to no end about Jon and Daenerys is that fans of House Stark believe that the House didn’t practice incest … lol. Nobody in Westeros practices sibling incest apart from House Targaryen, but cousin marriages and uncle/aunt/niece/nephew marriages occur regularly. People who think they know House Stark are claiming that Jon was raised according to “Stark morals” and is “too honorable” for incest (as if incest is dishonorable), meanwhile here I am clutching my book The World of Ice and Fire in which it is plainly written that at least two Stark men married their nieces, and cousin marriages were regular. I don’t know what they will do on the show (with D&D you can never know, maybe they will even make Daenerys concerned about incest), but book Jon certainly won’t be much disturbed by the fact that she is his aunt.

Anyway. The excuse people use against incest that “children can have genetic defects” is just that, an excuse. A lot of people believe Daenerys is barren and can’t have children - yet the same people are still against Jonerys because “it is incest!”. Why would they be, if they think she can’t have children? Incest is taboo in our world, and they’ve been conditioned to be against it. And very few people are able to look past what they’ve been taught, even in a Fantasy book series.

Daenerys & Jon Snow: ASoIaF Foreshadowing v.2

We know that Dany and Jon share many parallels throughout the series and I’ve noted many of them here. But in this post I’m looking at moments that tie the characters together with more than just parallels.

This first quote is from The House of The Undying. The visions shown to Dany here are believed to pertain to the three men she will marry. The first is a clear reference to khal Drogo, the second is a bit more ambiguous, I believe it is in reference to Hizdahr and that Victarion will tie him to the prow of his ship as Euron has tied Aeron (I predicted this back in 2014). The third is clearly Jon Snow. The blue flower is in reference to Lyanna (Jon’s mother) and the wall of ice is The Wall of ice where Jon serves in the Night’s Watch. 

DAENERYS ACOK

Her silver was trotting through the grass, to a darkling stream beneath a sea of stars. A corpse stood at the prow of a ship, eyes bright in his dead face, grey lips smiling sadly. A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness… . mother of dragons, bride of fire …

~*~*~*~*~

These quotes make a subtle connection between Dany and Val.  Jon as we know is very attracted to Val. He first describes Val’s hair as pale silver; Dany of course has pale silver hair. In fact it is one of the most distinguishing features about her. So the connection here is that Val is a substitute for Dany. Also, note that the moon is mention, which as we know is strongly connected symbolically to Dany throughout the series, ex. “Moon of my Life”.

JON ADWD

The light of the half-moon turned Vals honey-blond hair a pale silver and left her cheeks as white as snow. She took a deep breath. The air tastes sweet.

DAENERYS AGOT

The old woman washed her long, silver-pale hair and gently combed out the snags, all in silence. The girl scrubbed her back and her feet and told her how lucky she was.

~*~*~*~*~

In these quotes we find a connection between a dream lover of Dany and Jon Snow. In her dream/vision Dany’s lover is a comely young man whose face is hidden in shadows. Jon is described by Ygritte as having a sweet face (comely) and in the two additional quotes below we see Jon describe himself as being in the shadows and we see Mel describe his face as hidden in shadows. These descriptions associate the young lover Dany sees with Jon Snow.

DAENERYS ACOK

Lying abed in her narrow bunk, she found herself wondering how it would be to have a man squeezed in beside her in place of her handmaid, and the thought was more exciting than it should have been. Sometimes she would close her eyes and dream of him, but it was never Jorah Mormont she dreamed of; her lover was always younger and more comely, though his face remained a shifting shadow.

JON ASOS

Ygritte helped pull him up. “He’s bleeding like a butchered boar. Look what Orell did t’ his sweet face.”

JON AGOT

Tyrion Lannister had claimed that most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it, but Jon was done with denials. He was who he was; Jon Snow, bastard and oathbreaker, motherless, friendless, and damned. For the rest of his life –however long that might be– he would be condemned to be an outsider, the silent man standing in the shadows who dares not speak his true name

MELISANDRE ADWD

The flames crackled softly, and in their crackling she heard the whispered name Jon Snow. His long face floated before her, limned in tongues of red and orange, appearing and disappearing again, a shadow half-seen behind a fluttering curtain.

~*~*~*~*~

This pair of quotes make an interesting connection between Jon Snow and khal Drogo (the man Dany has loved the most). Dany describes the khal’s face as hiding the thoughts within, while Tyrion describes Jon’s face as giving nothing away (hiding his thoughts).

Like the quote above where Jon describes Val’s hair in the same way as Dany’s hair is described, we see Dany describe Drogo in the same manner as Tyrion describes Jon. Making a connection between Jon to Dany and Dany to Jon and what they are attracted to and who they love.

DAENERYS V AGOT

“The khals face did not often betray the thoughts within.” TYRION II AGOT

“Tyrion notes that Jon has the traditional Stark face in everything but name long, solemn and guarded a face that gives nothing away.”

~*~*~*~*~

Although the timeline is unclear, Jon was stabbed and presumably killed within the same time that Dany found herself alone in the Dothraki sea. Dany hearing the wolf howl could be the author making a connection between Jon’s death and how Dany would feel about it.

If Dany knew who Jon was to her, his death would be incredibly sad but most importantly it would be lonely. Jon of course is Dany’s last living relative, although she does not know this. That this wolf howl brought such strong emotions to Dany is definitely something of interest.

JON ADWD

“Jon fell to his knees. He found the dagger’s hilt and wrenched it free. In the cold night air the wound was smoking. “Ghost,” he whispered. Pain washed over him. Stick them with the pointy end. When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow. He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold … “

DAENERYS ADWD

“Off in the distance, a wolf howled. The sound made her feel sad and lonely, but no less hungry. As the moon rose above the grasslands, Dany slipped at last into a restless sleep.“ 

~*~*~*~*~

This quote is a lot more obvert then the previous ones. Here Dany is pondering what her life would have been like had her family lived. She considers that had her brother’s son Aegon lived he would have become king. 

The interesting part of course is that goes on to ponder that had “her brother’s son” lived they would have married. We know of course that one of her brother’s son still lives and she very well might marry him after all.

DAENERYS ADWD

“A crown should not sit easy on the head. One of her royal forebears had said that, once. Some Aegon, but which one? 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. “

 ~*~*~*~*~

These two quotes work twofold I think. First they note the absolutely yearning that both Dany and Jon have to have a family of their own. This is something that is very important to the two of them. And second, there want of having a child, Jon yearning for a boy and Dany yearning for a girl.

For Jon he believes this has been denied to him by being a bastard (he wouldn’t want to father any other bastards by having children) and also by being a member of the Night’s Watch where he has vowed not to have any children.  And as we know for Dany she believes herself to be barren due in large part to Mirri’s curse/prophecy. This is especially traumatic for Dany as her identity as a mother is very important to her and a large part of who she is.

JON ASOS

“I might someday hold a son of my own blood in my arms. A son was something Jon Snow had never dared dream of, since he decided to live his life on the Wall.”

DAENERYS ADWD

“I will never have a little girl. I was the Mother of Dragons.”

~*~*~*~*~

Here the author winks and nods at us as Jon is wishing for the very same thing Dany has, three dragons. 

JON ADWD

“He might as well wish for another thousand men, and maybe a dragon or three.”

~*~*~*~*~

Finally, this pair of quotes is both a parallel and a connection between Dany and Jon. Both find themselves laying next to the person they love/are attracted to, as Jon ponders his lost of Ghost and Dany wakes from her nightmare not even the presence of these people they care about can drive the deep loneliness that they both feel.

This is also important thematically to Dany and Jon’s arc. As mention above they have a deep yearning for family, most specifically a family of their own. Both have always felt isolated to an extent from everyone else and so it seems that we are being told that something is missing for the two of them, and this perhaps is one another.

JON ASOS

Jon wondered where Ghost was now. Had he gone to Castle Black, or was he was running with some wolfpack in the woods? He had no sense of the direwolf, not even in his dreams. It made him feel as if part of himself had been cut off. Even with Ygritte sleeping beside him, he felt alone. 

DAENERYS ADWD

Beneath her coverlets she tossed and turned, dreaming that Hizdahr was kissing her … but his lips were blue and bruised, and when he thrust himself inside her, his manhood was cold as ice. She sat up with her hair disheveled and the bedclothes atangle. Her captain slept beside her, yet she was alone.

The Snowstorm dynamic I want to see once they meet in the books:

Jon: You should be addicted to shutting the fuck up

Dany: You want to fuck me so bad it makes you look stupid.

(I want them to go from being irritated by each other to being irritated how hot the other is to falling in love).

“On the ADWD cover for Brazil, I put Daenerys at the top of the stairs of the meereenese pyramid. I had undoubtedly been, unconsciously, influenced by the series. And George told me that Daenerys wants equality for everyone, she wants to be at the same level as her people, so I had her climb down to keep it consistent” - Marc Simonetti

Here you can see the original one and other asoiaf art he drew