DAENERYS TARGARYEN APPRECIATION 2018HOME: That Was When They Lived In Braavos, In The Big House With

DAENERYS TARGARYEN APPRECIATION 2018 HOME: That was when they lived in Braavos, in the big house with the red door. Dany had her own room there, with a lemon tree outside her window. After Ser Willem had died, the servants had stolen what little money they had left, and soon after they had been put out of the big house. Dany had cried when the red door closed behind them forever.

All that Daenerys wanted back was the big house with the red door, the lemon tree outside her window, the childhood she had never known.

I haven’t read the books but I always see those 2 quotes “ghost wolf big as mountains” and “in the distance a wolf howled, it made her feel sad and lonely but no less hungry.” Why do Sansa and Dany both hear Jon die? Why not just Dany or just Sansa? Why both? Why either of them at all? How come Arya and Bran don’t hear it? Especially bc Sansa has no connection with animals or warging.

Oh no, no, anon. The howl Sansa hears happens an entire book before Jon’s death. In other words…

Sansa did not hear Ghost howl.

How am I so certain? Ghost doesn’t howl.:

Benjen: A very quiet wolf.Jon: He’s not like the others. He never makes a sound. That’s why I named him Ghost. That, and because he’s white. The others are all dark, grey or black.

Ghost sat on his haunches watching, silent as ever. Will he howl for me when I’m dead, as Bran’s wolf howled when he fell?

He found Ghost atop the hill, as he thought he might. The white wolf never howled.

Ghost doesn’t howl. He’s silent. Sansa heard the howl in A Feast for Crows, which is one full book before Jon dies in A Dance with Dragons. And that is important. Because Ghost does not howl on his own, it is implied that he howled for Jon upon his death, probably because Jon warged into him with his last moments on earth:

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.

Yet… Daenerys did hear Ghost howl.

I know, I know, Ghost doesn’t howl. Not on his own, anyway… What Daenerys heard was likely a plea from a dying skinchanger. And oh, is this a fun tale! One of my favorites.

First of all, the timing matches up. Twenty-five pages after Jon is killed, Daenerys hears a wolf howl that made her feel sad and lonely.

At the time, Daenerys is in the Dothraki Sea, a world away from Jon. There aren’t really wolves native to the area, so we can rule those out.

Out in the plains, Daenerys is having trouble finding food. What she does find are some strange green berries that end up giving her some trippy visions and a very graphic depiction of a loose bowel movement (poor Dany).

These two symptoms paired together sound a lot like a drug here on earth, Ayahuasca:

“The psychedelic effects of ayahuasca include visual and auditory stimulation, the mixing of sensory modalities, and psychological introspection that may lead to great elation, fear, or illumination. Its purgative properties are important (known as la purga or “the purge”). The intense vomiting and occasional diarrhea it induces…“

The psychoactive ingredient in Ayahuasca is dimethyltryptamine (DMT):

“Rick Strassman has theorised that the human pineal gland is capable of producing the hallucinogen N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) under certain circumstances. In 2013 he and other researchers first reported DMT in the pineal gland microdialysate of rodents.”

…The pineal gland.

“The pineal gland represents a kind of atrophied photoreceptor.In the epithalamus of some species of amphibians and reptiles, it is linked to a light-sensing organ, known as the parietal eye, which is also called the pineal eye or third eye.”

Through the use of these berries (which seem to have a lot in common with Ayahuasca), Daenerys might’ve ’opened her third eye’.

Bran Stark gives us an important clue about third eyes:

“Here in the chill damp darkness of the tomb his third eye had finally opened. He could reach Summer whenever he wanted, and once he had even touched Ghost and talked to Jon.”

What makes this so intriguing is that, like Bran, Daenerys is also a skinchanger. It’s subtle, but the proof is there in the first book:

“The slightest pressure with her legs, the lightest touch on the reins, and the filly responded. She sent it into a gallop, and now the Dothraki were hooting and laughing and shouting at her as they jumped out of her way. A daring she had never known filled Daenerys then, and she gave the filly her head. The silver horse leapt the flames as if she had wings.”

From the Wiki:

“An untrained skinchanger may unconsciously enter the mind of an animal.”

and

“The interaction between the skinchanger’s and animal’s minds influence both personalities.”

Dany suddenly found a ‘daring she had never known’, likely from bonding with her horse.

Lastly… (and this is my favorite part)

This is a controversial theory, but the berries she ate might’ve caused a miscarriage:

“As she splashed her face, she saw fresh blood on her thighs. The ragged hem of her undertunic was stained with it. The sight of so much red frightened her. Moon blood, it’s only my moon blood, but she did not remember ever having such a heavy flow.”

And remember…

“Only death can pay for life.”

In summary: Jon dies. He wargs into Ghost. He howls as a plea for help. Daenerys hears his howl. And with her miscarriage, might’ve provided the death that will pay for Jon’s life.

If, like me, you’d like to believe that Dany and Ghost share a connection, then perhaps Jon and Drogon do, too (after all, the name Drogon in Tolkien languages translates to ‘male wolf’).

These two dark-colored dragons (Drogon and Jon) were both just stabbed. A distraught Drogon conveniently takes Daenerys right to the berries that might’ve opened up a psychic connection between Jon and Daenerys…

Anyway. This theory is way too fun so it probably can’t be true. *sighs*

hello! do you have any theories considering Dany's childhood? like the house w the red door, the lemon trees that don't exist in braavos, etc?

I have no beliefs about Dany’s childhood other than what’s stated in the text, and find the “alternative” theories that certain people have suggested frankly ridiculous. It is known to many that Daenerys was born in a storm on Dragonstone before the Targaryen children escaped to Braavos with Willem Darry, where they lived until he died of illness, and then wandered the Free Cities afterwards. There are records. People talk about it, Stannis among others. Her identity is not in doubt.

Oh, I suppose I might have an extrapolation from the text that the house with the red door was near the Sealord’s Palace, in the district of Braavos where trees grow in the courts and gardens of the mighty. And it could be possible that the lemon tree was a gift from Oberyn Martell to the Targaryens for the betrothal contract between Viserys and Arianne. But that’s about it for my theories of any type. Please follow my links, hope that helps, and if you have any further questions just let me know.

All that Daenerys wanted back was the big house with the red door, the lemon tree outside her window, the childhood she had never known.

— AGoT, Daenerys I 

Hi there! Love your blog

I don’t believe in lemongate. This post here is very good and has many links that explain many of the evidences against the theory that Dany’s origins are somehow a lie. But to summarize, there are records of Dany’s birth, people know about it. And Viserys himself was 8 years old. This is young, but not too young that he wouldn’t remember his sister being born.

Maybe you could try to say that Rhaella gave birth to a stillborn and somehow someone brought a new baby to take the place of her child. But why would anyone do that? The Targaryens were being hunted. If Rhaella gave birth to a stillborn, wouldn’t it be better to simply tell the truth, that the child died? Why bring another random kid to pretend to be Rhaella’s child, only so that this kid can be hunted for being a Targaryen? And if the theory about Ashara and Ned being Dany’s parents was somehow true, why would Ned or Ashara or anyone want to have their kid pose as a Targaryen kid that was being hunted down exactly because she was a Targaryen? And wouldn’t Viserys remember if he had waited for a new baby to travel the distance to join them? Because if Rhaella had a stillborn, they wouldn’t immediately have a new baby ready to replace her dead baby. They would have to wait for someone to send this kid to them to replace Rhaella’s baby. And Viserys would remember having to wait for a baby to arrive after his mother’s death. So yeah, I don’t really think it makes sense. Besides, it’s not true that trees don’t grow in Braavos:

Trees did not grow on Braavos, save in the courts and gardens of the mighty. - Samwell III, AFFC

Trees grow in the gardens of the mighty. So most likely, Dany lived there, and the big “mystery” about the house with the red door is probably going to be revealed when we find out someone powerful in Braavos has some connections to the Targaryens. Maybe even the Sealord, because the Sealord was a witness of the marriage pact between Arianne and Viserys. So maybe, the Sealord will have some interest in Dany.

Finally, I just don’t see any narrative purpose in having Dany not be Aerys and Rhaella’s child. How is this important to the story? So, Dany is not Aerys’s daughter. So what happens? Does she find out and gives up on her claim? But if the point of the story is for Dany to give up on her claim, wouldn’t it make more sense for it to be Dany’s choice to do it for the greater good, and not something that happens just because Dany’s not the heir anymore? And if Dany is portrayed as a good person because she gave up her claim in favor of someone else who has the right blood, wouldn’t this just endorse the narrative that blood is the most important thing in a ruler? Why would GRRM write something like that? And if Dany is a bastard, what does this add to the narrative? It shows that anyone can rise despite being a bastard? But we already have that story with Jon Snow. And with Dany as well. Because she rose from nothing, whether she’s a trueborn princess or a bastard, Dany’s achievements are her own, they don’t change if her parentage changes. And what happens to Dany’s concerns that she might be mad like her father? With this theory, her concerns can conveniently go away and you lose all of her internal struggle about it. You lose the theme of children not having to be like their parents, because in this case, Dany would no longer be Aerys child, so if she’s not mad, people will simply say that it’s because she’s not Aerys’ daughter, and not because “children are not their parents”. So this theory undermines one of the themes in her story. The only other thing I can think is that maybe this could cause political conflict if someone can prove that Dany is not Aerys’ daughter (which is very unlikely to be proved). But I just don’t see anything that I would consider to be really meaningful in the idea that Dany is not who she thinks she is, and I also think it’s redundant, because we already have a secret parentage with Jon. The fandom has a ton of secret parentage theories, but I don’t think that every single character has to fit into some kind of big conspiracy of baby exchange or secret parentages, I tend to think those theories are all really far-fetched and unnecessary.

hold on hold on hold on i am thinking SO many thoughts right now