Daenerys Was The Key

Daenerys was the Key

Not for him, thought Tyrion, not for the Nine Mages, nor Baelor the Blessed, nor any of the others...till Daenerys.

This quote is from an early draft of ADWD back when it was still combined with AFFC. Just because it didn't make it to the final draft doesn't mean that it's not still true. By the way, the him is Maelys Blackfyre, who, in the early drafts, killed his son in a blood sacrifice to hatch dragon eggs.

After the Dance of the Dragons and the death of the last dragon hatchling, attempts were made by the Targaryens to bring back the dragons. First was sanctioned by Aegon III, who had mages (the nine from the quote) from Essos brought to KL to try to hatch some eggs with their magic; clearly they failed. Baelor the Blessed prayed over his dragon egg for a year to try and make it hatch.

The next recorded attempt was by Aegon V. After Aegon's reforms to better the lives of the smallfolk, the lords began to get restless and unhappy. This, compounded with the Baratheons revolting over Duncan's marriage to Jenny of Oldstones, caused Aegon to attempt to bring back the dragons in order to keep the lords in check. Aegon attempted to hatch the dragons using wildfire and mages at Summerhall, causing the deaths of almost the entire family, with the exception of Aerys, Rhaella, and the newborn Rhaegar. The eggs did not hatch. Aerys the Mad also attempted to use wildfire to hatch eggs, with the same results.

It wasn't until Daenerys Targaryen that dragons were brought back into the world. And it wasn't because of a fire, a blood sacrifice, or a magic ritual, it was because of her. There was plenty of fire at Summerhall and in KL, yet the eggs didn't hatch. Much blood was spilt at Summerhall, much of it king's blood, yet the eggs didn't hatch. The mages used magic rituals and it could be argued Baelor's prayers were an attempt at a ritual, yet the eggs didn't hatch. In the original draft, Maelys burned his son alive, yet the eggs still didn't hatch.

Daenerys is the one component missing from the past attempts, she is the key.

The whole point of the scene in A Game of Thrones where Daenerys hatches the dragons is that she makes up the magic as she goes along; she is someone who really might do anything. (George R. R. Martin)

There it is from the man himself: Dany is the reason the eggs hatched. If it had been anyone else, not Jon Snow nor Young Griff not any other character in ASOIAF, the eggs wouldn't have hatched. She was the key for the ritual to work, she is the Mother of Dragons, and no one else could have replaced her.

I don't get why most of Team Green like Aemond so much. Like, why?

Most of TG stans hate Daemon and Aemond is just a less cool copy of him. Everything that is bad about Daemon, Aemond takes It to the extreme.

–Daemon is cruel and sadistic? Aemond kill every single member of House Strong in a tantrum.

–Daemon is "bad to women"? (Canon Daemon only ever insulted his first wife) Aemond calls women and mothers, weak, he calls Rhaenyra a whore, he takes Alys as the spoils of war.

–Daemon is chaotic and a mad man? Aemond burned the Riverlands in another tantrum.

Even the so called "neutrals" or "team smallfolk" seem to like him despite how many innocent smallfolk he kills.

You can like him, I like villians more than heroes normally, but stop acting as if he is better and right or justified.

https://www.tumblr.com/inmydrcams/709343973220777984/i-cant-help-but-think-that-if-people-really-cared?source=share.

Encontré esto en la etiqueta #anti rhaenicent. Es realmente extraño cómo Rhaenyra siempre es la mala para esta gente. Alicent es siempre la "víctima" y rhaenyra siempre es la "mocosa" para ellos.

Unfortunately I don't know enough Spanish to answer in it, I'm so sorry about that.

Yeah, I actually blocked that poster a while back lmao. I find it interesting that Alicent stans think Rhaenyra is a "spoiled brat" while Alicent is also in a position of massive privilege, and her children are in the same positions Rhaenyra is in during the first episode.

Any complaints about her being "ungrateful" could apply to Alicent. Rhaenyra is upset about how her father doesn't love her as much as he would a son and how her father only made her heir to spite Daemon. Alicent is also upset about how her father doesn't view her as equal to his sons and only uses her as a political pawn. Both are girls who have never wanted for any material thing, their families have power and protection.

A lot of them say Rhaenyra should be grateful for being able to choose her husband, I disagree. Being allowed to pick her husband came with a lot of unspoken and spoken restrictions. The first of which is that the man had to meet her father's expectations, meaning if she had asked to marry Daemon, she would have been refused, even without the brothel incident. She also was still being forced to marry, no matter the choice.

TG stans seem to think that Rhaenyra should have just accepted the fact that she was being forced to marry, as if it's not something she should have a say in. They're obsessed with enforcing modern standards on her until that point (ie she's not feminist enough, she isn't a marxist, etc). Apparently it's wrong for Rhaenyra to want to not be sold by her father in marriage, even if she gets to pick the buyer. That's not actually a privilege, women like Jeyne Arryn, who are able to refuse marriage all together, are the ones with the true privilege.

Rhaenyra is also criticized for not being happy or at least content in her marriage to Laenor. A marriage both she and Laenor were forced into and one neither of them could ever deride satisfaction and happiness from. Laenor is never criticized for being unhappy, but for some reason (misogyny), Rhaenyra is the one who has to live in misery, while Laenor can try to find happiness elsewhere.

Alicent is somehow still a perfect victim, even though she's the second most powerful person in the realm. As queen consort she has more privilege than anyone other than Viserys himself. Yet she is somehow still a perpetual victim, even though she has more power over her life than Rhaenyra. Rhaenyra is privileged, yes, but so are Alicent and her children. Rhaenyra being unhappy being a victim of the patriarchy and actually fighting for her happiness don't make her a "brat".

" The dance of dragons isn't about misogyny"

Literally any character who chooses Aegon over Rhaenyra for ruler : she's a woman and he's a man.

I don't know if my theory is right, but maybe rhaenyra use the word "sons" bc she though/presume that jace will have only male sons like her? I don't know if I explained properly but if u look at hotd daella (aemma's mother) had one daughter and then die in childbirth, with aemma the situation is the same. Alicent's mother had one daughter and uncountable sons, just like alicent. Situations regarding children seem to repeat themselves, so maybe that's why rhaenyra said sons instead of children? Maybe was it a medieval belief? In my opinion it makes sense, otto for example insist on her daughter to be married to the king instead of offering his son for the heir's hand, like he was sure Alicent would have a son or more (like her mother)

That's interesting, yeah I could see that being a thing. It does have some biological sense, though the chromosomes are derived from the father. Without the knowledge of this, women were usually blamed for not having sons historically, this could stretch into ASOIAF.

Maegor for example married his five other wives partially because of Ceryse's perceived infertility. As for the real world, Henry VIII also divorced Catherine of Aragon and ordered the execution of Anne Boleyn because they didn't give him sons. So yeah, it's a real possibility that there was some superstition surrounding women and the gender of their children in Westeros.

But honestly, I just don't think it means that much. I think it's a flaw in the writing definitely, but not a flaw in Rhaenyra. Maybe she thought that Jace would have sons, but I completely believe she didn't care and neither did Jace. The only reason women after the Dance weren't able to inherit the throne were because of the greens starting a fucking civil war over it.

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The horrific attacks against Israeli civilians by Hamas on Oct. 7 were reprehensible. We mustn't lose empathy for those killed, as well as the hostages yet to be returned home safely. They must be released. Said injustices do not (and will never) condone the massive scale of Israel's indiscriminate bombardment of innocent civilians in Gaza. Full stop.

Let us learn from history's mistakes and may we not lose our collective humanity.

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