DAENERYS APPRECIATION MONTH 2022 Day 4: House TargaryenThe Ghosts Of Targaryen Kings Guiding Dany During

DAENERYS APPRECIATION MONTH 2022 ↳ Day 4: House Targaryen The ghosts of Targaryen kings guiding Dany during her visions in the House of the Undying, making her embrace her heritage to later bring back the dragons which parallels Viserys passing Aegon’s prophecy to Rhaenyra. The prophecy is passed from king to heir, making Dany the heir of all the Targaryen kings.

“…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 lack of reading comprehension in the ASOIAF fandom really is astonishing. I’m yet again seeing posts saying that Dany blamed Elia for Rhaegar’s treatment of her, saying that Dany called Elia an unsatisfactory wife, and ffs, you people need to learn how to read:

“But that was the tourney when he crowned Lyanna Stark as queen of love and beauty!” said Dany. “Princess Elia was there, his wife, and yet my brother gave the crown to the Stark girl, and later stole her away from her betrothed. How could he do that? Did the Dornish woman treat him so ill?”

“It is not for such as me to say what might have been in your brother’s heart, Your Grace. The Princess Elia was a good and gracious lady, though her health was ever delicate.”

Dany pulled the lion pelt tighter about her shoulders. “Viserys said once that it was my fault, for being born too late.” She had denied it hotly, she remembered, going so far as to tell Viserys that it was his fault for not being born a girl. He beat her cruelly for that insolence. “If I had been born more timely, he said, Rhaegar would have married me instead of Elia, and it would all have come out different. If Rhaegar had been happy in his wife, he would not have needed the Stark girl.” - Daenerys IV ASOS

Dany asks if Elia treated Rhaegar badly, for him to have crowned another woman in her place. This is only natural, you know? Dany has only ever heard good things about Rhaegar, so of course she can’t understand why would Rhaegar treat Elia like that. She even asks “how could he do that?”. She clearly doesn’t agree. And as soon as Barristan explains things to Dany, Dany does not dispute him. She DOES NOT try to blame Elia. She says nothing against what Barristan says. And no, her answer is not calling Elia an unsatisfactory wife. Let’s quote her answer again:

Dany pulled the lion pelt tighter about her shoulders. “Viserys said once that it was my fault, for being born too late.” She had denied it hotly, she remembered, going so far as to tell Viserys that it was his fault for not being born a girl. He beat her cruelly for that insolence. “If I had been born more timely, he said, Rhaegar would have married me instead of Elia, and it would all have come out different. If Rhaegar had been happy in his wife, he would not have needed the Stark girl.” - Daenerys IV ASOS

He said.

H-e s-a-i-d.

He said.

He said.

HE SAID.

HE SAID.

HE SAID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Was that clear enough? Dany is not saying “I think if Rhaegar married me instead of Elia he would have been happy because I am better than Elia and Elia was a bad wife”. She is telling Barristan what VISERYS used to say to her. I don’t know how that is a difficult thing to understand.

DAENERYS APPRECIATION MONTH 2022 ↳ Day 3: The Dothraki → Irri and Jhiqui

“Khalakka dothrae mr'anha!” she proclaimed in her best Dothraki. A prince rides inside me! She had practiced the phrase for days with her handmaid Jhiqui. *** She kissed Irri’s hand where Drogon had bitten it. “I’m sorry he hurt you. Dragons are not meant to be locked up in a small ship’s cabin.” *** When Doreah looked longingly at a fertility charm at a magician’s booth, Dany took that too and gave it to the handmaid, thinking that now she should find something for Irri and Jhiqui as well. *** Distantly, as from far away, Dany heard her handmaid Jhiqui sobbing in fear, pleading that she dared not translate, that the khal would bind her and drag her behind his horse all the way up the Mother of Mountains. She put her arm around the girl. “Don’t be afraid,” she said. “I shall tell him.” *** As the world darkened, Dany settled in and closed her eyes, but sleep refused to come. The night was cold, the ground hard, her belly empty. She found herself thinking of Meereen, of Daario, her love, and Hizdahr, her husband, of Irri and Jhiqui and sweet Missandei, Ser Barristan and Reznak and Skahaz Shavepate. Do they fear me dead? I flew off on a dragon’s back. Will they think he ate me?

This is gonna be pretty much a joint meta with @sunny12th. We have been discussing how Feast and Dance are in obvious conversation with each other, and how Dance explores many of the thematic concepts and questions that Feast proposes. One of the key thematic statements of Feast that we believe Dany’s story is in conversation with is:

Above him, all the windows had gone black, and he could see the faint light of distant stars. The sun had set for good and all. The stench of death was growing stronger, despite the scented candles. The smell reminded Jaime Lannister of the pass below the Golden Tooth, where he had won a glorious victory in the first days of the war. On the morning after the battle, the crows had feasted on victors and vanquished alike, as once they had feasted on Rhaegar Targaryen after the Trident. How much can a crown be worth, when a crow can dine upon a king? There were crows circling the seven towers and great dome of Baelor's Sept even now, Jaime suspected, their black wings beating against the night air as they searched for a way inside. Every crow in the Seven Kingdoms should pay homage to you, Father. From Castamere to the Blackwater, you fed them well. That notion pleased Lord Tywin; his smile widened further. Bloody hell, he's grinning like a bridegroom at his bedding.

We know that Dany already had a very significant dream that parallels this exact event. She was in Rhaegar’s shoes. Her trauma and fears are packaged in TLN imagery. She came out victorious against death. She succeeded where Rhaegar had failed. What did she have? A Dragon. I’ll come back to this.

A main thing that AFfC quote is referring to is an equality that is inherent to life. With or without crowns, despite all man-constructed hierarchies and systems, all people are equal in death. So why shouldn’t we thrive to make them equal in life? A fight for equality is obviously a very integral theme in Dany’s story. George believes that a leader should be viscerally aware of this kind of egalitarianism. Power is a responsibility, not something that gives you privilege and allows you to feast on others. This is also why Dany’s approaches are juxtaposed so overtly with Cersei’s. A Feast for Crows is primarily exploring the devastation that the Westerosi regimes have brought on. Rulers do not recognize equality, and even if they do, it is done in a way that is selfish (Robert complaining about the responsibility the crown gives him, despite acknowledging that it did not make him different). Yet, all are a feast for the crows right now. A crown made no difference. Aerys, Robert, and Joffrey’s crown’s did nothing to prevent their deaths, and the same goes for Tywin’s invisible crown. A crown also becomes a death sentence to many children. It distances Robb from his real self, Greywind, and brings his doom. Jaime & Cersei’s children are destined to die due to their crowns. All that Westeros brought on with their crowns is a great feast for crows.

We also know that Dany already came to a conclusion about what a “crown”, on a more metaphorical level, means:

“He shouldn't have done that. He wasn't just my brother, he was my king. Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can't protect themselves?"

"Some kings make themselves. Robert did."

"He was no true king," Dany said scornfully. "He did no justice. Justice. That's what kings are for."

Later, Dany is made to believe that her physical crown is symbol of this very responsibility. But that supposed symbol is what destroyed and will destroy the lives of the children forced to wear it in Westeros. The crown weighs her down, oppresses her, it is a symbol of the burden of the false peace that she is sacrificing her very ideology for.

Irri fetched her crown, wrought in the shape of the three-headed dragon of her House. Its coils were gold, its wings silver, its three heads ivory, onyx, and jade. Dany's neck and shoulders would be stiff and sore from the weight of it before the day was done. A crown should not sit easy on the head.

Her children had need of her. Drogon had bent before the whip, and so must she. She had to don her crown again and return to her ebon bench and the arms of her noble husband.

By midday Daenerys was feeling the weight of the crown upon her head, and the hardness of the bench beneath her. With so many still waiting on her pleasure, she did not stop to eat.

While her sense of responsibility is being exploited and skewed, the nobles are feasting on the lives of slaves, on Dany’s ideology, and on her as a person:

So Daenerys sat silent through the meal, wrapped in a vermilion tokar and black thoughts, speaking only when spoken to, brooding on the men and women being bought and sold outside her walls, even as they feasted here within the city.

Here is Sunny’s part getting into more depth about just how Dany’s crown functions and gets deconstructed as a symbol with some of my added thoughts: Dany's crown is a visual representation of her three dragons, but it doesn't empower her at all. It actually feels wrong because Dany's dragons came from stone, and they're being captured in stone again as her crown. Likewise, Dany is slowly being entrapped by the crown. Symbolically, the crown is meant to represent Dany as a Queen. That's why she doesn't sell it. She does not want to be a Beggar Queen like Viserys but, really, her dragons (alive, made of fire and blood) are all she needs. The crown is her dragons made stone again. It's heavy, and physically hurts Dany, but she continues to wear it. Dany would've been killed regardless of her crown (floppy ears). She acknowledges this when she remembers that one of her forbears had said "the crown should not sit easy." Rhaegar was killed regardless of his status, Rhaegar's son was killed, and Dany knows she will be killed too if her Usurpers have the chance. Similarly, Aegon the Conqueror had the Iron Throne made because a king should not sit comfortably. Dany with her ebony bench is also aware of this despite not apparently knowing Aegon I said that. Dany is Aegon I's heir in a lot of ways, like how she is Rhaegar's heir. Cersei doesn't see the Iron Throne for how uncomfortable it is (in a literal practical sense) or how uncomfortable it should make her. She only sees the power (and freedom she never had) it represents, not the responsibility. Dany knows there's power in being a queen, but it's the responsibility that draws her to stay in Meereen. But her sense of responsibility gets used against her. Dany wears a veil and a tokar to the fighting pits, when drogon reappears, and both of these are cast off. She's not wearing the floppy ears anymore and it's just her and the dragon again, like in her old dragon dreams. Her crown is her dragons made stone again, just how they are locked away in caves. It represents responsibility, but a warped kind that pushes her into a false peace. Her dragons, brought to life from stone, are the responsibility and power to burn down the subjugating institutions. The dragons are Dany’s real self. Right after Dany thinks about Rhaegar being killed and how the crown should not sit comfortably, she thinks about how the Masters of Meereen freed their slaves only to "hire" them as servants and pay them unlivable wages. Slavery is technically abolished, but inequality and servitude still thrive in Meereen. Her crown, stone dragons (cold and unalive), can't bring her ideology to life. What is a crown worth if the person under it lacks the strength or will to use it to protect their people? Dany's crown is a mockery of her real power (living dragons) and she wears it to build a false peace for the masterclass, and they are not her people, they are not the weak that must be protected at all costs. They, and the institutions they represent, are the ones preying on the weak.

So what is a crown’s worth? If she wants to attempt to achieve the things that she was meant for: to protect the weak, to fight death, it will not be with dragons made of cold stone, but dragons made of fire & blood.

Fire is not just destruction. Blood is not just about bloodshed. Fire burns bright and gives light. Blood flows through your veins. The Others “hate every creature with hot blood in its veins.”

Daenerys Stormborn aka Child of Storm + tv tropes  → BORN DURING A STORM (insp.)

A baby is born while a storm rages outside. […] This trope is used to mark a character as special as it’s a dramatic and exciting start to their life, and may foreshadow an eventful and fast-paced life to match their birth — indeed, a woman might give birth during the Big Storm Episode for no reason other than Rule of Drama. This is doubly so if the storm is supernatural in nature. The child may also be given a weather-related name to match. This also juxtaposes the death and destruction caused by severe storms with the birth of new life.

jonsa but make it cersei x tyrion: they are actually the siblings they love the most, not jaime, whose entire purpose is giving ✨foreshadowing✨ to the hidden cersei x tyrion epic love story, so hidden no one can see it; but also tyrion falls in love with tysha bc he’s trying to suppress the feelings he has for cersei as he realizes the soft feminine queen is out of his league, you know, the beauty and the beast and all that; and despite tywin abusing tyrion his personality is actually what tyrion seeks in women which is why cersei being tywin 2.0 only confirms tyrsei is real.