Braavos - Tumblr Posts
I don't think I've ever wanted two charecters to interact more than I yearn for an (impossible) meeting between Oberyn Martell and Arya Stark.
Might sound strange, but a headcanon I have for Arya Stark is that she's a phenomenonal haggler. Anything this girl buys, the price is coming down. This girl knows the going price of everything in Braavos, and verbally rips into any one with the Trade Tongue if they try to upcharge her, thinking her a clueless traveler. And when she returns to Westeros? You bet nobody is upcharging her there either, she's not paying a penny more than she would in Braavos. Arya Stark gets some of the best Trade deals Winterfell has ever seen, simply because she wears these people down. A piece of Arya Stark will always be a fiery oyster seller, and the North has never economically benefitted more.
Bellegere Otherys (The Black Pearl of Braavos)
The mummers off the Ship showed her how a hero stands, and taught her speeches from The Song of the Rhoyne, ...
@insomniarama
This is 100% The Netherlands and I love Braavos for it.
I wish the only kind of hagel (hail) there was hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles).
Those were the days that Cat loved best.
Yess! It is gut wrenching when they say goodbye. I wanted so much more.
Having Arya from Sam's point of view in feast is so fun and refreshing. We are finally getting a point of view on her. She is so quintessentially Arya in this chapter too.
She is kind and helpful to someone who was being bullied because she stand up for people and because he is part of the brother of the night watch. She gives him food freely, helps him out and gives him tips to survive in Braavos just because of that while also intimidating two older and bigger boys.
(also the mental image of this teeny tiny little girl going up against two of them and making them back off is really awesome).
But it's also frustrating. I wanted them to talk more so much. That's the lost little sister of his best friend and neither of them knows this.
Arya's bravosi entourage - the kids
@laurellerual your work is so beautiful and inspiring! A truly lovely picture ❤️
Denyo, Salty, Brea, Talea, the Waif and Daena!!!
"Ask for Merry. Meralyn is her true name, but everyone calls her Merry, and she is." Merry bought a dozen oysters every time Cat came by the brothel and shared them with her girls. She had a good heart, everyone agreed. "That, and the biggest pair of teats in all of Braavos," Merry herself was fond of boasting.
Cat Of The Canals, A Feast for Crows
Shivering, she sat up in bed and ran a hand across her scalp. Stubble bristled against her palm. I need to shave before Izembaro sees. Mercy, I’m Mercy, and tonight I’ll be raped and murdered. Her true name was Mercedene, but Mercy was all anyone ever called her… Except in dreams. She took a breath to quiet the howling in her heart, trying to remember more of what she’d dreamt, but most of it had gone already.
Mercy, The Winds of Winter sample chapter
Nice little parallel here, I'd never picked up on it untill now.
Ever stopped to think this might be the author waving at us telling us Arya is indeed merciful in nature (same as Meralyn is indeed a merry person)?
Arya in the colorful clothes of Braavos as Cat of the Canal my beloved.
The mental image of Arya in bright colors with the purple cloak brings me joy, The people she meets from all over the known world, her friendship with the sex workers and the girls and the cats and just Braavos and their secrets, shared and otherwise are just great to read.
Genuinely, I love Braavos for Arya. In a lot of ways, I feel like the city was made for her or at least as a reflection of her in a city.
Cat knew the Braavosi words for mussels and cockles and clams, but along the Ragman's Harbor she cried her wares in the trade tongue, the language of the wharves and docks and sailor's taverns, a coarse jumble of words and phrases from a dozen languages, accompanied by hand signs and gestures, most of them insulting. Those were the ones that Cat liked best. Any man who bothered her was apt to see the fig, or hear himself described as an ass's pizzle or a camel's cunt. "Maybe I never saw a camel," she would tell them, "but I know a camel's cunt when I smell one." Once in a great while that would make somebody angry, but when it did she had her finger knife. She kept it very sharp, and knew how to use it too. Red Roggo showed her one afternoon at the Happy Port, while he was waiting for Lanna to come free. He taught her how to hide it up her sleeve and slip it out when she had need of it, and how to slice a purse so smooth and quick the coins would all be spent before their owner ever missed them. That was good to know, even the kindly man agreed; especially at night, when the bravos and roof rats were abroad.
Favourite Chapter: AFFC - Cat of the Canals
Mercy by ManonNhym
make me choose: high-bouncing lover asked: favourite of the free cities → Braavos
The youngest of the Nine Free Cities, Braavos is also the wealthiest, and in all likelihood the most powerful. Originally founded by escaped slaves, its humble beginnings were rooted in nothing more than a desire to be free.
The house with the red door in Braavos
@lovinhistorywithswords asked:
Hi Butterfly! @racefortheironthrone pointed me your way for this question. Why do you think the “house with the red door” is in Braavos? And where is it in the city?
Interesting question. The “house with the red door”, the house where Dany lived her earliest childhood, is in Braavos because that’s where Ser Willem Darry fled with the Targaryen children after their escape from Dragonstone. So the real question here is, why did Darry choose Braavos?
Per the map of the Narrow Sea, the Free City of Pentos looks a lot closer to Dragonstone than Braavos does, right? So why does it seem that Darry went out of his way?
Well, there’s more to it than just a simple glance at the map. The text of the book is illuminating:
She had been born on Dragonstone nine moons after their flight, while a raging summer storm threatened to rip the island fastness apart. They said that storm was terrible. The Targaryen fleet was smashed while it lay at anchor, and huge stone blocks were ripped from the parapets and sent hurtling into the wild waters of the narrow sea. Her mother had died birthing her, and for that her brother Viserys had never forgiven her. She did not remember Dragonstone either. They had run again, just before the Usurper’s brother set sail with his new-built fleet. By then only Dragonstone itself, the ancient seat of their House, had remained of the Seven Kingdoms that had once been theirs. It would not remain for long. The garrison had been prepared to sell them to the Usurper, but one night Ser Willem Darry and four loyal men had broken into the nursery and stolen them both, along with her wet nurse, and set sail under cover of darkness for the safety of the Braavosian coast.
–AGOT, Daenerys I
So, first of all, we see that that Stannis’s fleet was coming up from Storm’s End. Willem Darry surely thought he couldn’t trust traveling south when a fleet that might intercept them was right there in the south. Secondly, we see that Darry’s ship didn’t land in Braavos itself, but the Braavosian Coastlands, which are a lot closer to Dragonstone, just about equidistant to Pentos. Thirdly, geography is much more complicated than what you see on the map – it involves weather as well:
The storms that blow up the narrow sea are infamous throughout the Seven Kingdoms, and in the Nine Free Cities as well. Though they may arise in any season, seafarers say that the worst of them come each autumn, forming in the warm waters of the Summer Sea south of the Stepstones, then roaring north across those bleak and stony islands.
–The World of Ice and Fire
The prevailing winds in the Narrow Sea come from the south and blow north. There had just been a “raging summer storm” at Dragonstone, and the weather was probably still very unsettled. So, a small ship (with sails, not a galley with oars) traveling across the Narrow Sea would probably find it more difficult to go south-east – better to make use of the winds and go north-east instead, up to Braavosi territory, and eventually to the city of Braavos.
And lastly, there’s politics. The spymaster Varys had come from Pentos, and Varys had just been pardoned by Robert and was now on his side. Willem Darry might not have been as politically astute as some, but he almost certainly believed that with Varys’s connections in Pentos, it wouldn’t be safe to take the Targaryen children there. (The fact that Dany and Viserys eventually ended up in Pentos… well, they had long since lost Darry’s guidance, since he had died years before.)
So, that’s why Braavos. As for where the house with the red door might be in the city:
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.
–AGOT, Daenerys I
Trees did not grow on Braavos, save in the courts and gardens of the mighty.
–AFFC, Samwell III
This is not a contradiction (or some ~conspiracy~ that Dany’s beliefs about her childhood are a lie, as some crack theorists would have it). No, what it tells us is that this “big” house, with a lemon tree in its courtyard or garden, was in a neighborhood where the mighty of Braavos live.
Now, you can see the northeasternmost part of the city is where the Sealord’s Palace is, near the Purple Harbor where only Braavosi can dock. (It’s much nicer and cleaner and richer than the Ragman’s Harbor in the west.) The northeast of Braavos is also where the Iron Bank is located, and on the map there are many palaces and large houses with courtyards depicted in that area of the city. Also, we know that the Sealord was a witness to the secret betrothal contract between Viserys and Arianne Martell (arranged by Willem Darry and Oberyn Martell).
So I think it’s very likely that the house with the red door was located in the northeast of the city, probably not very far from the Sealord’s Palace. It might have been in some other wealthy neighborhood (near the palaces of the Prestayns or Antaryons maybe), but I’d still give odds on the northeast. But hopefully we’ll get an exact location of the house with the red door before the series is over, and then we can know for sure. :)
What she says: “I’m fine.”
What she means: “If Daenerys spent the first few years of her life in Braavos, learned to speak there, and assumedly learned Valyrian there… why does she speak with a Tyroshi accent???? Did she really grow up in Braavos?? Or does she remember growing up there when she actually grew up in Tyrosh??? Why????????????”
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.
dany remembers a lemon tree near the house with the red door in braavos
arya notices that there are no trees in bravos
sam mentions that the exception is courts and gardens
there’s the sealord palace in braavos and as depicted on the map it has greenery
dany describes house with the red doors as having ‘wooden beams with carved animal faces adorning them’
“The Sealord’s Palace contains the Sealord’s menagerie.”
elissa farman stole three of rhaena’s dragon eggs and sold them to the sealord….
house with the red door is the sealord’s palace and dany’s dragons hatched from rhaena’s stolen eggs. what is also interesting is as @adreamofspring mentioned, rhaena was the one who started the tradition of putting dragon eggs to baby targaryens’ cradles to make them bond quicker and as @etherealdany noticed dany becomes stronger after her second dragon dream. did dany have those eggs since she was born and was separated from them because of illyrio?
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐉𝐄𝐖𝐄𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐒
𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑏𝑠𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑟𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑦𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑔𝑖𝑟𝑙 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝐵𝑟𝑎𝑎𝑣𝑜𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑦 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑠 𝑝𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠. 𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑢𝑝𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑢𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛（𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑜𝑖𝑙 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑟）𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑠ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑎𝑚𝑒？𝑂𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑔𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟？
𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑒 𝐴𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒 (2006）𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑄𝑢𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒 (2023）
Stay tuned…..
xoxo,
xxCocoiixx
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐉𝐄𝐖𝐄𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐒
𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑏𝑠𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑟𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑦𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑔𝑖𝑟𝑙 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝐵𝑟𝑎𝑎𝑣𝑜𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑦 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑠 𝑝𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠． 𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑢𝑝𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑢𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛（𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑜𝑖𝑙 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑟）𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑠ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑎𝑚𝑒？𝑂𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑔𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟？
𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑒 𝐴𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒 （2006） 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑄𝑢𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒 （2023）
Stay tuned……
xoxo,
xxCocoiixx
𝑇𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑎 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑎𝑡 𝑚𝑦 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔， 𝑚𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑦 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝐻𝑂𝑇𝐷 𝑓𝑎𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑐