Episode 158: A STORM OF SWORDS, DAENERYS I: "Setting Sail" Show Notes! (Patreon)

Hello and welcome to the Not A Cast … podcast: the one true chapter-by-chapter podcast going through A Song of Ice and Fire one chapter a week. I’m one of your hosts Jeff better known as BryndenBFish.

And I’m your other host Emmett, better known as PoorQuentyn.

Welcome to the one hundred and fifty-eighth episode of the Not A Cast, titled: “Setting Sail: An Analysis of ASOS, Daenerys I'' in which Dany’s saaaillling away, set an open course for the Slaver’s Bay.

This episode is brought to you by our NotASmallCouncil:

• Hand of the King WolfmanZack
• Grandmaester Timbob, troubleshooter of systems and designer of circuit boards
• Lord Commander of the Kingsguard Mark N.
• Ser Keith J, Master of Whisperers
• Lord Philip the Merciful, Master of Laws
• Archmaester June, Healer of the Lesser Poxes
• Ragged Michael, Warden of the North
• Nelson the Hammer, Prince of Dragonstone
• Scarlett the Other Red Woman and Mistress of Whisperers
• Lord Micah, the Quilled Lion, Warden of the West, Herald of the Golden Tooth, Master of the Banefort and the Kraken’s Bane
• Lord James: the Jim that was Promised
• Lord Jake, Assistant (to the) Hand of the King
• Lady Xena Valyrian
• Ser Jack, Lord of Ser Arthur Dayne and Prince Rhaegar Targaryen's Sad Prophecy Boys Club
• His Grace’s High Inquisitor Frank
• Laurence, Prince of Dorne
• Kelly, Warden of the East and Mistress of (Old) Bay of Crabs
• Steven the Steadfast, Master of Hounds
• The Blue Winter Rose Knight of Highgarden
• Lady Stephanie
• Lord Carlos
• Lord Andrew the Restless, a Priest of the Drowned God
• Ser Sourcedelica
• Sugar Tits Dent the Troglodyte Warrior
• Lord Penchant for Nostalgia
• Queer Alex, Beyonce's Favorite Stan, Herald of Cher, and Bastard of Chromatica, Exalter of Black Lives and Defender of Trans Lives, Rainbow Commander of the Theydes and Gentlethems and the Not A Cast’s Nonbinary Not an Army.
• Haldivar, The Waiter for TWOW
• A-a-ron Damphair Prophet of the Forsaken and High Priest of Euron Crows Eye
• Lieutenant Glenn Lord of H town
• Vanerys of the House Colgaryen, the First of Her Name, Princess of Dragonstone, Mistress of Art, The Overworked, Queen of the Pencils, the Eraser and the First Draft, Queen of Monochrome, Devotee of the Great GOT, Portraitist of the Realm, Lady Realist of the Seven Kingdoms, Blender of Paints, Maker of Drawings and the Michaelangelo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Lord Adam T
• Lady Alexandra of Tarth
• Ser Kristoph Logas, Bloody Scorpion of the Red Field, Defender of the Letter of Kin, and the Wolverine of house Qorgyle
• Lady Elizabeth, Mistress of Horse (Faced Lesbians)
• Ser Josh Snow Bastard Bounty Hunter of the North
• Ser Veyor, Chief of Parties in the Frozen Wastes
• Lord Peter
• The Dead Sheppard Reborn, Preacher of the Poor Fellows
• Marshall Harrison—Absent, shipwrecked in the Jade Sea
• Grave-Robb Stark, the Cadaver King and Horror of Harrenhal
• Olaf, proponent of establishing a feudal, pseudodemocratic system of Great Councils, wherein every count votes
• Ser Tim: The Knight Who Was Guided By Voices
• Lord Nick
• Thucydides, Lord of Plagues
• Ser Jack, Lord of Ser Arthur Dayne and Prince Rhaegar Targaryen’s Sad Prophecy Boys Club
• Lady Anna, The Lovely Castellan
• Pat Yronwood, the bloodroyal and guardian of the Boneway
• Luke, Lord of Lone Leaf & The Pillar of Autumn
• Joe Snow “King of the Metro North and protector of the Tri-State”
• Squire Matt S, future Ser Matt S, the one who will bring balance to the Kingdoms
• Lord Kyle
• Lord Samuel Seaworth
• Ser Max, Lord Commander of the Constitutional Guard
• Lady Ivory Dayne, aspiring noble author in the seven kingdoms, lady of Starfall, wardeness of the south, and patron of freewheeling bisexuals
• Lady Jemisa, She Who Suggests That Coconuts Migrate
• Lord Kristoff of Arendelle, official ice master and deliverer, the valiant pungent reindeer king, keeper of feisty pants, and prince consort to his ginger sweet love Queen Anna (Pronounced Ah-nuh)
• Lord Sir Septon Ruthers
• Ser Grizzly Adams, the King’s Justice, Warden of the Kingswood and Sheriff of the Seven Kingdoms
• Ser Kell, Contractor in Charge of Continually Extending the Small Council Table
• Lord Travis, Mentat Master of Ships and Third Stage Guild Navigator
• Lord Anonymous II
• Lord Tyler, the prince that promises to wait patiently, for the winds of winter
• Lord DB
• Sister Winter, a former High Lady, who joins the small council with a new title:  Sister Winter, Hopeful Romantic & Unrepentant Shipper
• Lord Moncef
• The severed head of a Targaryan prince, rotting on the council walls

Spoiler warning: All published books, 5 novels, 3 Dunk and Egg novellas, histories, interviews, TWOW sample chapters, as well as Game of Thrones the TV show. Anything and everything!

Question

Lord Moncef, a small council patron, asks:

Hi guys! I love your podcast, I love hearing Emmett speak and I love it when Jeff goes into father mode (drugs are bad, I'm right, you're wrong).

I have a question for each of you.

1) Emmett, do you know Rick and Morty? What do you think? Do you think the relationship between Tyrion and Penny could have parallels with the latter?

2) Jeff I noticed that the main character of The Cautioner’s Tale has similarities with Tyrion and Jaime. I'm curious about the kind of emotion you're trying to capture with the story you're writing (I love tornadoes!)

So, thank you Lord Moncef for the question. If you’d like to ask us questions we’ll answer here on the NotACast, we invite you to become a Sworn Sword or higher level patron over at patreon.com/NotACastASOIAF where you can also get show notes, a shirt designed by Sanrixian, access to the NotASlack and bonus episodes like our recent analysis of the 2008 movie Waltz with Bashir! And we’re excited to announce that our next patreon-only episode will be a full analysis of David Lynch’s 1984 classic Dune!

If I’m not mistaken, David Lynch believes this film to be his masterpiece, right? No? Huh. I’ve never seen it! So, it’ll be an experience for me -- especially since I read the book for the first time about a year ago! So, yes, come on by our patreon at patreon.com/NotACastASOIAF, because it’s way cool.

But enough about patreon. When we last checked in with Daenerys Targaryen, she had birthed dragons, walked across a desert waste, stopped by the House of the Undying and nothing else happened. Let’s catch up with Daenerys in this synopsis of ASOS, Daenerys I!

Synopsis

Across the still blue water came the slow steady beat of drums and the soft swish of oars from the galleys. The great cog groaned in their wake, the heavy lines stretched taut between. Balerion's sails hung limp, drooping forlorn from the masts. Yet even so, as she stood upon the forecastle watching her dragons chase each other across a cloudless blue sky, Daenerys Targaryen was as happy as she could ever remember being.

By God, George RR Martin can open an A Storm of Swords chapter on a happy note. It can be done! Someone, HAPPY? Is this ASOIAF? Yes it is.

The Dothraki don’t like the ocean. They call it “poison water” as their horses couldn’t drink it. They think they’re all sailing into hell rather than Pentos. Meanwhile, the handmaids Irri and Jhiqui get seasick and the rest of the khalasar hides below deck with the horses. A sea squall had sent the horses screaming and the Dothraki praying.

But Dany wasn’t scurred. She was born amidst a storm on Dragonstone. She is stormborn, and the Narrow Sea was familiar to her as she crossed it “half a hundred times” while running with Viserys to the different Free Cities. And she loves the sea, the salty smell, the dolphins swimming next to the ship Balerion, the sailors and their stories. She wanted to be a sailor until Viserys abused her and told her that she was the blood of the dragon, not a fish.

He was a fool about that, and so much else, Dany thought. If he had been wiser and more patient, it would be him sailing west to take the throne that was his by rights. Viserys had been stupid and vicious, she had come to realize, yet sometimes she missed him all the same. Not the cruel weak man he had become by the end, but the brother who had sometimes let her creep into his bed, the boy who told her tales of the Seven Kingdoms, and talked of how much better their lives would be once he claimed his crown.

At that moment, Captain Groleo appears, telling Dany that he wishes Balerion was a dragon and could soar, because they’re rowing rather than sailing. They need some wind. Dany likes Groleo, or is impressed that she impressed him and won him over to allowing her dragons to roam free rather than be caged. And Groleo had enjoyed that the dragons had made the rat problem go away. Now everyone was calling the dragons their dragons. So fun.

They are my children, she told herself, and if the maegi spoke truly, they are the only children I am ever like to have.

Viserion's scales were the color of fresh cream, his horns, wing bones, and spinal crest a dark gold that flashed bright as metal in the sun. Rhaegal was made of the green of summer and the bronze of fall. They soared above the ships in wide circles, higher and higher, each trying to climb above the other.

And the dragons liked attacking from above, dive bombing into each other for fun. But not Drogon. Drogon was a lonely hunter and always hungry. That dragon was growing fast. Soon, Drogon would be large enough to ride. But not yet. The dragons were still small, and so Dany was riding a ship.

The ship was nice, but the wind hadn’t moved in six days and nights, and the three ships were rowing slowly through the water. At that moment, Ser Lester, er, Ser Jorah appears and comments that Drogon is lost. No, you dumb fuck, it’s not Drogon who’s lost. It’s us, Dany corrects. Anyways, how big will the dragons grow?

"In the Seven Kingdoms, there are tales of dragons who grew so huge that they could pluck giant krakens from the seas."

Dany laughed. "That would be a wondrous sight to see."

"It is only a tale, Khaleesi," said her exile knight. "They talk of wise old dragons living a thousand years as well."

Thanks for that, Ser Grump of House Buzzkill. Like, seriously, Barristan is about to be the life of the party compared to your Sasquatch-looking ass.

Dany then asks how long the dragons will live, and Jorah says dragons live several times longer than men according to the songs. But the dragons Westeros knows are the war dragons, and those dragons died a lot in war. Not easy, but it can't be done.

In swoops Ser Barristan Sel-I mean ARSTAN WHITEBEARD, A SQUIRE who tells Dany about Balerion the Black Dread dying at age two hundred during Jaehaerys I’s reign. And did you know, Dany, that dragons don’t stop growing so long as they have freedom. Dany asks what B-Arstan means, and he says that the Targaryens put together an immense domed structure called “The Dragonpit” to house the royal dragons. But encased in the structure, those dragons never grew to the size of the old dragons. According to the maesters, it was the walls and dome that kept the dragons small.

"If walls could keep us small, peasants would all be tiny and kings as large as giants," said Ser Jorah. "I've seen huge men born in hovels, and dwarfs who dwelt in castles."

"Men are men," Whitebeard replied. "Dragons are dragons."

Ser Jorah snorted his disdain. "How profound." The exile knight had no love for the old man, he'd made that plain from the first. "What do you know of dragons, anyway?"

Arstan doesn’t know much about dragons, but he was in King’s Landing, and he was in the throne room and saw the dragon skulls looking down. Weird, Arstan. What was a squire doing walking around the throne room?

Anyways, Dany comments that Viserys talked about the skulls and how Robert had put the skulls away. Did Barry Arstan meet her dad? He had that honor. Again, so strange. Weird. Not adding up. Was Aerys a proper gentleman, Dany asks next. Uh, yeah, um, he was pleasant many, often times. But not always? No, he could be a real sick motherfucker when it came to his enemies.

"A wise man never makes an enemy of a king," said Dany. "Did you know my brother Rhaegar as well?"

"It was said that no man ever knew Prince Rhaegar, truly. I had the privilege of seeing him in tourney, though, and often heard him play his harp with its silver strings."

Ser Jorah snorted. "Along with a thousand others at some harvest feast. Next you'll claim you squired for him."

Barney-stan was very much NOT Rhaegar’s squire. That was Myles Mooten and Richard Lonmouth. Rhaegar knighted them. Some random bro named Jon Connington was friends with Rhaegar too, but Rhaegar’s real friend was Arthur Dayne.

Dany knows who Ser Arthur Dayne was and recalls Viserys talking about him as the Sword of the Morning with his white blade and how he was the only knight as good as Rhaegar. Arstan, very much not remembering this other fella by the name of oh, what was his name again, who killed Maelys the Monstrous, says he would not dare question Prince Viserys’ judgment. No, no. He wasn’t a prince. Viserys was king. That is law. Anyways, Jorah the Slavebear Andal once said that Rhaegar was the last dragon. That means he was a kickass warrior who fucked shit up, right? Um, yeah, he was a big strong warrior bro, but um.

"Go on," [Dany] urged. "You may speak freely to me."

"As you command." The old man leaned upon his hardwood staff, his brow furrowed. "A warrior without peer . . . those are fine words, Your Grace, but words win no battles."

"Swords win battles," Ser Jorah said bluntly. "And Prince Rhaegar knew how to use one."

"He did, ser, but . . . I have seen a hundred tournaments and more wars than I would wish, and however strong or fast or skilled a knight may be, there are others who can match him. A man will win one tourney, and fall quickly in the next. A slick spot in the grass may mean defeat, or what you ate for supper the night before. A change in the wind may bring the gift of victory." He glanced at Ser Jorah. "Or a lady's favor knotted round an arm."

Lol, get fucked Jorah, lol.

Jorah gets angry at this, and Dany remembers the sad backstory of Jorah losing Lady Lynesse of House Hightower, and she says Arstan totally didn’t mean any harm. Uh-huh. Anyways, now that that’s cleared up, how about Arstan the Squire talk a bit more about Rhaegar? What was he actually like? I love this part of the chapter a lot; so, I’ll read it in full:

The old man considered a moment. "Able. That above all. Determined, deliberate, dutiful, single-minded. There is a tale told of him . . . but doubtless Ser Jorah knows it as well."

"I would hear it from you."

"As you wish," said Whitebeard. "As a young boy, the Prince of Dragonstone was bookish to a fault. He was reading so early that men said Queen Rhaella must have swallowed some books and a candle whilst he was in her womb. Rhaegar took no interest in the play of other children. The maesters were awed by his wits, but his father's knights would jest sourly that Baelor the Blessed had been born again. Until one day Prince Rhaegar found something in his scrolls that changed him. No one knows what it might have been, only that the boy suddenly appeared early one morning in the yard as the knights were donning their steel. He walked up to Ser Willem Darry, the master-at-arms, and said, 'I will require sword and armor. It seems I must be a warrior.' "

"And he was!" said Dany, delighted.

"He was indeed." Whitebeard bowed. "My pardons, Your Grace. We speak of warriors, and I see that Strong Belwas has arisen. I must attend him."

I may not be a fan of Rhaegar’s, but this makes me feel the romance that GRRM wants to embed into the character of Rhaegar.

Anyways, Belwas is up, and he is hungry. Arstan, go get some goddamn food for Belwas. Dany dismisses Arstan, and Jorah tells Dany that Arstan is a liar and not to listen to him all that closely. To that, Dany replies that she has to listen to everyone: high and low, strong and weak, noble and venal. People might lie, but there may be truth in lies. She read that in a book. Fine, the once and future slaver says, but Arstan is lying. He’s way too old to be a squire and speaks too goodly to serve Belwas. Dany thinks that is weird, especially since Belwas was a pit fighter from the fighting pits of Meereen. Belwas was sent to be her guard by Illyrio. And she did need protection from the usurper or the warlocks or all those Dothraki who wanted her dead. Maybe Xaro was her enemy now too? She hopes not. Jorah saved her from the poisoner and Arstan had saved her from the manticore. Maybe Belwas will save her next.

He was huge enough, with arms like small trees and a great curved arakh so sharp he might have shaved with it, in the unlikely event of hair sprouting on those smooth brown cheeks. Yet he was childlike as well . As a protector, he leaves much to be desired. Thankfully, I have Ser Jorah and my bloodriders. And my dragons, never forget. In time, the dragons would be her most formidable guardians, just as they had been for Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters three hundred years ago. Just now, though, they brought her more danger than protection. In all the world there were but three living dragons, and those were hers; they were a wonder, and a terror, and beyond price.

As she thinks about what to say next, Dany feels the wind picking up, and the sailors start shouting for the wind. Groleo runs around, shouting commands, and Belwas does a little dance which lol, totally forgot about that. Dany shouts that they’re sailing, but Ser GrumpBear wants to know what they’re sailing towards.

All day the wind blew, steady from the east at first, and then in wild gusts. The sun set in a blaze of red. I am still half a world from Westeros, Dany reminded herself, but every hour brings me closer. She tried to imagine what it would feel like, when she first caught sight of the land she was born to rule. It will be as fair a shore as I have ever seen, I know it. How could it be otherwise?

We’ll see about all that eventually. Next week or the week after.

The ships move as Dany hangs out in the captain’s cabin -- Groleo’s cabin until he tells her that queens take the best rooms on the ship. And then a knock comes. In comes Jorah bringing all the cheer of a Cormac McCarthy novel with him. He’s sorry to wake her, but he needs to talk to Dany.

"I was not sleeping, ser. Come and watch." She took a chunk of salt pork out of the bowl in her lap and held it up for her dragons to see. All three of them eyed it hungrily. Rhaegal spread green wings and stirred the air, and Viserion's neck swayed back and forth like a long pale snake's as he followed the movement of her hand. "Drogon," Dany said softly, "dracarys." And she tossed the pork in the air.

Drogon moved quicker than a striking cobra. Flame roared from his mouth, orange and scarlet and black, searing the meat before it began to fall. As his sharp black teeth snapped shut around it, Rhaegal's head darted close, as if to steal the prize from his brother's jaws, but Drogon swallowed and screamed, and the smaller green dragon could only hiss in frustration.

Dany chides Rhaegal for being mean and greedy. But Dany is proud of teaching her dragons how to use dragonfire. That word, Dracarys, Jorah says, and then the dragons belch fire at Jorah. Sadly, Jorah doesn’t catch on fire and/or melt in this moment as he backs away. Dany laughs and tells Jorah to be careful with that word. It means “dragonfire” in High Valyrian.

Good, great, who cares. Jorah needs to talk with Dany. So, Dany dismisses her handmaid Irri. When she’s gone, Dany asks what’s bothering Jorah? Strong Belwas, Arstan Whiteheard and Illyrio Mopatis. Why? Because Dany would be betrayed three times for blood, gold and love. MMD was the first. So, the remaining two traitors are very definitely Barristan and Belwas. Does Jorah remind Dany that even if Robert is dead, his son sits the Iron Throne and will pay his father’s debts?

"This boy Joffrey might want me dead . . . if he recalls that I'm alive. What has that to do with Belwas and Arstan Whitebeard? The old man does not even wear a sword. You've seen that."

"Aye. And I have seen how deftly he handles that staff of his. Recall how he killed that manticore in Qarth? It might as easily have been your throat he crushed."

"Might have been, but was not," she pointed out. "It was a stinging manticore meant to slay me. He saved my life."

"Khaleesi, has it occurred to you that Whitebeard and Belwas might have been in league with the assassin? It might all have been a ploy to win your trust."

Her sudden laughter made Drogon hiss, and sent Viserion flapping to his perch above the porthole. "The ploy worked well."

The Grump Knight doesn’t smile and says it’s all Illyrio: his ships, his captains, his sailors and those two guys are his. But Illyrio protected Dany before, Dany counters. He even wept when he heard Viserys died. But was he weeping for Viserys or for the plans he had with Viserys, Jorah says. And damn, but I have to roll out the “Heartbreaking: the worst person you know just made a really great point” headline all over again for Jorah.

To Dany though, Illyrio is a friend, and his plans don’t need to change. Plus, he’s rich af. True, but he was born a poor kid, and people don’t get rich through being kind. What does Illyrio love more than gold? And hey, wasn’t that one of your prophesied betrayals? Well, Illyrio loves being alive. Dany burned MMD for betraying her. Yeah, but that was when MMD was a prisoner. In Pentos, Illyrio will have all the power, and he’s clever.

"I need clever men about me if I am to win the Iron Throne."

Ser Jorah snorted. "That wineseller who tried to poison you was a clever man as well. Clever men hatch ambitious schemes."

Dany drew her legs up beneath the blanket. "You will protect me. You, and my bloodriders."

That’s nonsense to Jorah. It’s just four dudes, and how trustworthy are Illyrio’s men? Maybe they’re just like Pyat Pree and Xaro Xhoan Daxos.

Dany realizes that Jorah means well (he does not), but she cautions that she can’t distrust everyone just as she can’t trust everyone. She has to conquer Westeros with more than four dudes. True, but if Dany keeps on trusting people, she’ll end up like Rhaegar and Viserys did. This makes Dany angry. She knows she’s being treated like a child. She says that Belwas isn’t a schemer, and Arstan didn’t lie to her. He’s not what he says he is, Jorah responds. But he knew Rhaegar. So did a lot of people.

“Your Grace, in Westeros the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard sits on the small council, and serves the king with his wits as well as his steel. If I am the first of your Queensguard, I pray you, hear me out. I have a plan to put to you."

"What plan? Tell me."

"Illyrio Mopatis wants you back in Pentos, under his roof. Very well, go to him . . . but in your own time, and not alone. Let us see how loyal and obedient these new subjects of yours truly are. Command Groleo to change course for Slaver's Bay."

Dany doesn’t like that plan, thinking that Yunkai, Meereen and Astapor were where bad shit happens. What’s in Slaver’s Bay? An army. She should go to Astapor and buy Unsullied. Uh, why? They’re all palace guards, infantry and obese. Those ones, sure, but that’s not the full story. Has Dany heard the story of the Three Thousand of Qohor?

"No." The coverlet slipped off Dany's shoulder, and she tugged it back into place.

By the way, the coverlet has been slipping on and off throughout this conversation. This is important for reasons we’ll discover by chapter’s end.

Anyways, Jorah launches into a full story of the Three Thousand of Qohor. It’s a long story. It’s a great story. But this synopsis is very long. So, to summarize. The Dothraki attacked Qohor. The Qohorik hired sellswords and the Unsullied. The sellswords fled and the Qohorik got their asses kicked. The next day, the Unsullied showed up and formed up outside of the gates. The Dothraki thought the Unsullied were shit for being infantry, classic cav nonsense, and they charged against them over and over again. And the Dothraki ended up getting their asses kicked, losing 12,000 dudes including Khal Temmo, his bloodriders and their sons. The surviving Dothraki cut off their braids and threw it at the feet of the 600 remaining Unsullied.

"Since that day, the city guard of Qohor has been made up solely of Unsullied, every one of whom carries a tall spear from which hangs a braid of human hair.

"That is what you will find in Astapor, Your Grace. Put ashore there, and continue on to Pentos overland. It will take longer, yes . . . but when you break bread with Magister Illyrio, you will have a thousand swords behind you, not just four."

Dany thinks this is a wise course, but she doesn’t have a lot of money. How’s she going to buy Unsullied? Show them your dragon, um, I mean, dragons Jorah says. And sell Illyrio’s shit or trade it for Unsullied. When Dany counters that this is Illyrio’s shit, Jorah says, yeah, and if he’s the friend Dany thinks he is, he’ll give it up and not care.

Daenerys starts to get excited, but Jorah says there are dangers on sea or land. And it’s possible that Groleo might not obey Dany’s command. But she should figure that out for herself.

"Yes," she decided. "I'll do it!" Dany threw back the coverlets and hopped from the bunk. "I'll see the captain at once, command him to set course for Astapor." She bent over her chest, threw open the lid, and seized the first garment to hand, a pair of loose sandsilk trousers. "Hand me my medallion belt," she commanded Jorah as she pulled the sandsilk up over her hips. "And my vest-" she started to say, turning.

Ser Jorah slid his arms around her.

"Oh," was all Dany had time to say as he pulled her close and pressed his lips down on hers. He smelled of sweat and salt and leather, and the iron studs on his jerkin dug into her naked breasts as he crushed her hard against him. One hand held her by the shoulder while the other slid down her spine to the small of her back, and her mouth opened for his tongue, though she never told it to. His beard is scratchy, she thought, but his mouth is sweet. The Dothraki wore no beards, only long mustaches, and only Khal Drogo had ever kissed her before. He should not be doing this. I am his queen, not his woman.

She is fourteen, Jorah. FOURTEEN, you absolute creep. Jorah gives the, again FOURTEEN year old Dany a long, creepy kiss, and Dany starts to say that Jorah should not have done that, but before she can finish the thought. Jorah says he shouldn’t have waited so long. He should have kissed her through the red wastes, Vaes Tolurru, Qarth everywhere. He wants to creep-kiss Dany all the time. I hate this.

Dany covers herself up and tells Jorah that this wasn’t fitting. She’s his queen. And she’s brave, sweet, beautiful. Jorah starts to call Dany “Daenerys” until Dany corrects him. “Your grace.”

"Your Grace," he conceded, "the dragon has three heads, remember? You have wondered at that, ever since you heard it from the warlocks in the House of Dust. Well, here's your meaning: Balerion, Meraxes, and Vhagar, ridden by Aegon, Rhaenys, and Visenya. The three-headed dragon of House Targaryen-three dragons, and three riders."

"Yes," said Dany, "but my brothers are dead."

"Rhaenys and Visenya were Aegon's wives as well as his sisters. You have no brothers, but you can take husbands. And I tell you truly, Daenerys, there is no man in all the world who will ever be half so true to you as me."

Goooooooooooooooodddddddd I hate Jorah Mormont. If only the dragons got him on the ship. And that is the synopsis for ASOS, Daenerys I! Kind-of feels like George made a significant course-correction for Daenerys Targaryen since ACOK, doesn’t it, Emmett?

Depth

We weren’t...the biggest fans of Dany’s chapters in ACOK; they had some beautiful imagery, especially in HOTU, but were lacking in the plot and character departments. Not so in ASOS, in which her chapters are keyed into her choices and the ripple effects they have on the world around her. It’s a lot like Davos’ story in this book. George starts by stripping it all down in this chapter, exiling Dany at sea like Davos on his rock so he can remind us who she is and what she wants. From here, it’s a perfectly structured crescendo--freeing slaves, conquering cities, it just builds and builds and builds. It’s one of the most viscerally exciting parts of the series, but before you can knock dominoes down, you have to set them all up in a row; that’s this chapter’s job.

Daenerys Targaryen has six total chapters in A Storm of Swords. Six! It doesn’t feel that way, does it? So much happens in every chapter, that you’d be forgiven for not thinking there were ten Dany chapters in ASOS. But it’s only six, and here I think George demonstrates that he can tell one of the most exciting storylines in any book of ASOIAF with a conservation of page-space and a limited number of chapters. How? Dany I starts to show the method of madness. Through Dany I, we get backstory on dragons and Rhaegar setting up Dany’s future role as dragonrider and heir to Rhaegar like we talked about in our Thrones Show episodes. We also get the backstory on the Unsullied and how ferocious they’ll be in the wars to come. Then there’s Illyrio, his machinations and set-ups for future plot payoffs. Finally, the move to Astapor itself: these are all encompassed in one chapter. George goes out of his way to set those dominoes up like you were talking about; so that we can swiftly, efficiently and excitedly progress through five more Dany chapters without taking a breath.

• Life at sea
  • It moves so quickly, but Dany’s story in the book starts with her going nowhere fast. The wind at her back, driving her on to destiny, has vanished. Two of their ships are trading galleys and can be rowed by oarsmen, but the third is a gigantic cog that they have to tow behind them
  • It’s a perfect way to start, fitting into the structure of Dany’s arc. Even as she sets sail for Westeros, part of her is being held back
  • It hints at her decision to sail for Slaver’s Bay instead, and her parallel decision at the end of the book to remain in Slaver’s Bay
  • But this opening also represents Dany’s relationship to her family and to the home she thinks is waiting for her in Westeros
  • It’s all baggage: a big impressive ship that can’t function without momentum, a shark that needs to keep eating or it’ll die
  • After all, Dany renamed these ships in honor of the dragons her ancestor Aegon and his sisters used to conquer Westeros
  • Balerion the Black Dread took full advantage of his size, but the ship named for him is slowing down Dany’s attempt to retake Aegon’s kingdom
  • And yet, Dany thinks that she is as happy as she’s ever been. I think it’s because she’s getting a break from politics and prophecies
  • What makes Dany’s story an effective tragedy is she’s trying so hard to be happy, but the things that are supposed to make her happy don’t
  • We’ll see that at the end of the book, when she thinks that all her victories are slipping between her fingers and transforming into horrors
  • Dany is happiest here, in between. Not leaving anywhere, not arriving anywhere, just being like any other person, enjoying the present moment
  • She’s always loved the sea. She had to keep crossing it ahead of the Usurper’s knives, so the transitional space of the water became home
  • “It made her feel small, but free as well.” That’s a crucial idea for Dany’s story in this book, all about freedom, just like with Jon
  • Dany feels small right now, stuck in the middle of a vast empty space; she doesn’t feel like a queen or a figure of prophecy
  • But she likes it, because it makes her feel free, aware of her own choices--for a moment, there are multiple potential paths
  • By the end of the book, she’ll feel big, like a god on the pyramid above Meereen...but she’s also desperately lonely, and no longer feels free
  • Does she really want the Iron Throne? Or does she want it as a proxy for the feelings of security and peace that she has always been denied?
  • It’s a complicated question for Daenerys, and I think in this chapter, we see her as the figure who is projecting her own personal desires onto the Iron Throne.
  • Similar to Stannis who sees the Iron Throne as a substitute for the lack of love and respect he received from his brothers, Dany sees safety for herself on the throne.
  • That Stannis will never sit the Iron Throne, though, makes it almost like an emotional crutch. He was denied the power due to him, and that’s why he’s so miserable.
  • For Dany, it’s a bit different in that I think she will very briefly get what she thinks she wants, but I don’t think it’ll provide her the happiness she’s seeking!
  • In fact, if the Thrones Show is any indication, and I very much think it is, that feeling of security and peace she’s wanted will end very abruptly and violently within sight of the Iron Throne.
  • This gets at one of the larger thematic sides of ASOIAF: that accumulating power doesn’t make sad feelings go away and doesn’t make you safer.
  • Again, if Dany’s experiences hold true from show to book, it’ll be quite the opposite.
  • I think that conception changes later in the book though when she starts to find out what it means to rule a vast people.
  • For now, though, it’s sun and fun amidst a still sea
  • Dany thinks that as a child, she loved the sea so much she wanted to be a sailor. Who knows, maybe she would have been happier that way!
  • But Viserys, being Viserys, grabbed her hair and screamed in her face that she was a dragon, not some smelly fish. That’s the problem in a nutshell
  • Viserys didn’t believe in freedom, not even for himself. He believed in a rigid power structure in which individuals either fit or failed
  • He associated his name, his very self, with that power structure and his family’s place atop it. What Dany wanted is irrelevant compared to the importance of maintaining the hierarchy. The wildlings believe the state of nature is freedom; Viserys’ animal imagery is about predator v. prey
  • Dany has a conflicted relationship to Viserys, a microcosm of her conflicted relationship to Westeros. She knows he was cruel and vicious
  • Yet she still can’t let go of the idea that the throne was his by rights, and that even though he never reigned, he was still legitimately her king
  • This is partially because Dany believes herself to be Viserys’ heir. If he was no true king, is she a true queen? It’s the same reason she resists learning anything about her father from Barristan
  • But it’s also because she knew Viserys, unlike her father, and he wasn’t cruel and vicious all the time. Dany remembers creeping into his bed, falling asleep as he told her of how much better their lives would become
  • This isn’t to excuse Viserys’ many sins; it’s to remind us that he was Dany’s one link to home and family, and she can only access those things through the tools he gave her. It’s the corruption of that dream she cannot accept, even more than the loss of the throne itself
  • If Viserys was a monster, should I still be following his plan? Viserys scorned the Dothraki; Dany assimilated more easily, but now she’s brought her khalasar out onto the ocean, which they fear. The same question applies to Dany’s dragons. On one hand, they’re part of her, they’re like her children. On the other, they’re dangerous weapons of war
  • Captain Groleo wanted them caged up at first, but Dany shared their misery, and had to let them out--again the theme of freedom
  • And it’s working out! One small fire, no more rats, and best of all, the sailors have grown fond of them. As Dany says, they think of the dragons as theirs now, with pride
  • Compare those positive feelings to Viserys enforcing his dragon pride with violence. It’s clear who has a healthier relationship to the image
  • Even as the dragons play-fight, though, George never lets us forget what effective killers they are. It’s just fish for now--but by ADWD, the dragons will have graduated to eating people instead
  • Dany wants to fly on Drogon; as Groleo says, the ship Balerion can’t match her namesake. What will it take to make Dany’s dreams real?
  • Fire and blood, as she’ll tell the swaying grass at the end of ADWD.
  • These smaller scenes of Dany and her dragons gaining the loyalty of Groleo’s crew are crucial, because they demonstrate Dany’s ability to win friends and influence people.
  • But notice something else here: it’s a contractual relationship in that Dany’s dragons do something for Groleo’s people and help them.
  • They sort-of take care of the rat problem on the ship, and the crew loves her for that.
  • This is a small taste of Dany’s future self in ASOS: she is helping people and gaining loyalty for her help.
  • In this, she demonstrates how different she will be as a ruler and how she will use her assets (her dragons) to demonstrate value to her people.
  • This contrasts with how Viserys conducted himself: focusing on the image of how Dany was supposed to be as a Targaryen.
  • Targaryens are supposed to be ethereal, god-like and royal: not working with their hands like a peasant.
  • What Dany wanted in her background was that she wanted to descend from the clouds to live a life working with her hands.
  • And here, she demonstrates that value to these sailors, that she’ll be a leader who demonstrates care for their needs.
  • You can see why she’s going to be utterly charismatic when she’s doing that on a much larger scale.
• House of the dragon
  • All this talk of Dany’s lizard kids feeds naturally into a discussion of the history of the Targaryen dragons
  • As with her family, all she has to go on are stories. Jorah only knows the legends: dragons can live a thousand years, and grow big enough to pluck krakens from the sea
  • “Arstan Whitebeard” knows more specifics. He says dragons can just keep growing if they have enough food...and freedom, back to that theme
  • “Freedom?” Dany asks. “What do you mean?” She’s asking what it has to do with dragon growth, but the way George writes it there, it’s like she’s asking for a definition of the word freedom--very relevant to Slaver’s Bay!
  • “Arstan” tells Dany about the Dragonpit her ancestors built to house their dragons, who never grew as big as they might on the outside
  • Jorah rolls his eyes, pointing out that humans don’t work that way: giants live in hovels, dwarves live in castles. Throughout ASOS, Jorah takes a materialist view of things, while “Arstan” talks more abstract concerns
  • Regardless of which approach you find more convincing, the implications for Dany’s story are clear. Not only is it difficult to get dragons to behave, but by doing so, you take something special away from them
  • They lose a little of their magic, the otherworldly bond that Dany forged with her children as her ancestors did; they become beasts of burden. As Dany will say in Astapor: “a dragon is no slave.” But if she doesn’t chain them up, how will she prevent them from burning it all down?
  • “Arstan” admits that like Dany vis-a-vis Westeros, he was born too late to see dragons in the flesh. He saw only the skulls in the throne room
  • Even before Dany learns who “Arstan” really is, she realizes that he’s a resource to cultivate--he was there, he knows what really happened
  • Yet he doesn’t give her anything useful. He holds back about her father out of fear. The truth about the Mad King would only infuriate her, and as he’ll admit later, Barristan is testing Dany first to see if she’s like her father
  • Barristan isn’t much of a spy; his feelings are right there on his face. As Jorah says later, Barristan is too old and well-spoken to be Belwas’ squire
  • But Dany doesn’t know enough to interpret his feelings. When Barristan says that Aerys could be very harsh to those he thought his enemies, Dany says only that no one should make enemies of a king
  • She puts the onus on them, as she did with Mirri Maz Duur, insisting that she brought her doom upon herself. Look what you made me do!
  • At the end of this book, she’ll realize that’s not enough--Daario says the slavers brought their doom upon themselves, but Dany insists she needs to learn how to build a better world on the ashes of the old one
  • She lacks enough information on Westeros to achieve that perspective--her enemies are nothing more than “the Usurper’s dogs”
  • This is an angle that shows a complexity to Daenerys: despite that she’ll identify with the common man, she’ll never stop thinking of her father’s enemies as usurpers and usurper’s dogs.
  • It’s a blindspot for Daenerys, but it’s an understandable one. She never knew her father in-person, and she grew up with Viserys’ stories as her only touchstone for who he was.
  • And she has Ser Jorah Mormont as her primary guide to Westeros, and as we’ll find out, he doesn’t have Dany’s interests at heart and will feed that narrative about usurper’s dogs -- despite having served one himself.
  • More than that, people are inclined to think the best of their family. As a teenager, I thought my dad was superhuman -- mostly because I didn’t know my father beyond a six year old’s understanding.
  • She did see her father in the House of the Undying, but it’s not as though she had a picture of him to compare notes on whether this was her dad or not.
  • Still, one aspect of the whole scenario is that Dany isn’t asking why so many people rose up against her father -- at least here.
  • And Barristan isn’t telling her the truth -- at least not yet.
  • It’s the inverse of Stannis who spends a lot of the story wondering why everyone loved Robert and Renly and never loved him
  • But Barristan holds back on Rhaegar as well, and not out of fear. He says that no one really knew the Prince of Dragonstone save a special few
  • Moreover, Barristan cautions Dany against swallowing the stories whole. She thinks of Rhaegar as a legendary warrior; Barristan says that words win no battles. Chance plays the largest role--as Jorah well knows, having won a tourney with a certain lady’s favor tied around his arm
  • There’s an extra layer to this when you know who “Arstan” is. Barristan himself is a legend out of the songs, but these days he’s ashamed of himself, so much so that he’s posing as a mere squire
  • Life changes too quickly to invest so much of yourself in an ironclad image. As Barristan says, that happened to Rhaegar. He was a bookish boy, until he read something that convinced him he had to be a warrior
  • “And so he was!” says Dany, delighted. She wants to believe in this kind of self-actualization--it’s what she experienced with the dragonbirth
  • But she’s going to learn in Slaver’s Bay how hard it can be to cross the gap between who you are and who you want to be. It’s not always as simple as taking a new name like Barristan did--it can be a cage
  • I’ve been struck by your point from when we were covering Season Eight about how Daenerys doesn’t resemble Aerys as much as she resembles Rhaegar.
  • While Daenerys will not be driven to become a warrior by a book but by the injustice she experiences, much of the way Barristan describes Rhaegar could describe Dany’s arc in ASOS.
  • Still, this character of Rhaegar becomes much more intriguing here, and we’re starting to see the dim shape of the man he actually was through someone who actually knew him.
  • And the more we learn about him, the more intriguing he becomes.
  • We know George likes him, because he was bookish to a fault, and the knights in Aerys’ service: the same dudes who stood, saw and did nothing mocked Rhaegar for reading books like a non-jock.
  • What I think is really cool about this dynamic in the meta sense is that while GRRM is starting to build up Rhaegar, he may have taken inspiration from his burgeoning ideas about the Blackfyre Rebellion.
  • If you recall from the players from the First Blackfyre Rebellion, Daeron I Targaryen was bookish when Daemon Blackfyre was a warrior.
  • So, Rhaegar reads as a means of threading between the two Targaryen archetypes from the First Blackfyre Rebellion.
  • In that, he seems like a perfect prince.
  • But as Barristan says, being the perfect prince doesn’t prevent a mishap in a tourney or facing Robert on the Trident.
  • Ultimately, there’s a sadness about Rhaegar deciding that he had to be a warrior instead of staying with his books.
  • He was a kid when he made this decision!
  • It did end up dooming him when he faced Robert, and I can’t imagine becoming a warrior made Rhaegar any happier.
  • Will it be the same for Daenerys to leave the books Jorah Mormont gave her at her wedding to become a conqueror?
• Jorah’s proposal
  • Finally, the wind returns, filling their sails, and they’re on their way...but to what, as Jorah asks? Dany is at the crossroads, and all this talk of freedom and her family has set up the stakes of her choices
  • Jorah comes to visit in her cabin--what was once Groleo’s cabin, like she renamed the ships. Can she keep overwriting everything like this?
  • It’s an intimately written scene, even before Jorah plants one on Dany: she’s naked under the coverlet, Jhiqui is naked as well, there’s a lantern outside. But there’s also a hint of danger, represented by the dragonfire
  • Jorah is coming to her as both adviser and potential lover. Like the scenes  with Mance and Olenna in the last couple chapters, this is a dense conversation, touching on personal, political, and prophetic matters
  • It’s all about the Rule of Three, which has already been prominent in this chapter: three ships, three dragons, three advisors coming up to Dany on the ship (first Groleo, then Jorah, then “Arstan”). It’s everywhere!
  • Which makes sense coming after the House of the Undying, where they described Dany’s past, present, and future in terms of threes
  • But in this scene, Jorah isn’t just pointing out that structure. He’s using it to bolster his arguments. The Undying said you’d have to watch out for traitors, and then these guys pop up? Hmm, very suspicious!
  • Jorah’s argument really doesn’t make sense. First he says that he’s worried about three people--Illyrio, Belwas, “Arstan”
  • Then he says that Belwas and Arstan are two of the traitors. Why? Because Dany already believes MMD was one of them, so Jorah has to go back on his own math, cutting out Illyrio to make it fit
  • This is how prophecy works, George is arguing: an ambiguous image you project yourself into, like the shadow-on-a-wall nature of political power, like the stories of Westeros Dany heard from Viserys as a child
  • Jorah immediately switches from prophecy to politics by reminding Dany that Robert sent hired knives after her. What if these are more of the same? Again, this doesn’t make any sense! Barristan saved her life
  • Well...what if it was a ploy with the assassin to make Dany trust Barristan?? This is ludicrous; Dany is right to laugh
  • That’s not to say Jorah is 100% wrong. He’s objectively correct that “Arstan Whitebeard” is hiding something, and I think he’s also right that Dany can’t trust Illyrio, who wants to control her and her dragons
  • Right! And Jorah might even be inadvertently correct about Barristan and Illyrio as Dany’s betrayals, but not for the reasons that Jorah ascribes to them.
  • But the larger point is how inconsistent and unwieldy prophecy is.
  • If Barristan canonically turns cloak (see page 587 in TWOW), he will also be a betrayal for Daenerys: perhaps one framed as “for blood” if Barristan backs Young Grift for having a better claim to the Iron Throne.
  • Dany will likely think that Illyrio is one of her betrayers when she finds out that he was supporting Young Grift this whole time.
  • Jorah, and I hate to say this, is right that Illyrio didn’t give a shit about Viserys the person.
  • If he wept, he wept for the plans that died with Viserys: i.e. utilizing him in some capacity.
  • And speaking of Illyrio, let’s do a very brief check-in with our friend Magister Illyrio: him of the weeping for Viserys’ and conspiracy with Varys fame.
  • At the meta level as I was talking about before, GRRM had finally figured out this whole Blackfyre thing, and we start to see references to the Blackfyres in ASOS.
  • Additionally, before ASOS was published, GRRM began openly talking about a mercenary company called the “Golden Company” and how they would play a larger role in future volumes of ASOIAF.
  • So, here we can establish that GRRM likely had a Young Grift in mind with all the Blackfyre references here in ASOS.
  • What I’ve been wondering for years now is whether GRRM retconned Illyrio’s motivations for Viserys and Daenerys.
  • Where once George imagined him as an actual supporter of Dany and Viserys, I wonder now whether the retcon of Young Grift was at work.
  • Why I think this is a possibility is the chance that in the reimagined plot, Illyrio plotted for Viserys and the Dothraki to invade Westeros ahead of Young Grift and the Golden Company only for Young Grift to show up to save the day.
  • It’s a theory I go back and forth on, but I like the general gist of how it fits with the Young Grift plot which is going on off-page here in ASOS and comes on-page in ADWD.
  • If prophecy is fickle, a sword without a hilt, etc, it works on the meta level as well as in the actual plot
  • In the plot, the wrinkle in George’s plotting with prophecy is how even if you’re wrong, you’re right, and even if you’re right, you’re wrong.
  • It’s a large part of why I think the “three treasons Dany will know” from the HoTU will never be revealed on-page, because a whole lot of people are going to fit that bill of betraying Daenerys before the end, and Jon at the very end.
  • But Jorah doesn’t know shit. And he sucks. Weird that he would be describing every other potential traitor in Dany’s midst.
  • But as rereaders, we know what’s really going on here. When Jorah describes all these men Dany can’t trust, he’s describing himself
  • He’s the one who spied on her, and he’s the one who used an assassin (the poisoner in Vaes Dothrak) to bind himself closer to her
  • As Barristan will later say, Jorah’s the crow calling the raven black. He’s a hypocrite who tries to make himself look better by projecting his sins onto other people. It’s Ned Stark’s fault I had to go into exile, not my own!
  • So while Jorah is right that Dany has to be careful who she trusts, what he’s hiding is that he’s the least trustworthy of any of them
  • But as Dany says, a ruler who trusts no one is just as bad as a ruler who trusts everyone. She’s describing her father without even realizing it
  • Where should she go instead of Pentos? Jorah, as an unrepentant slave trader, naturally argues that they set sail for Slaver’s Bay
  • We’ve heard a little bit about this place before--this is where Dany and Drogo were initially headed with their Lhazarene slaves
  • She was diverted from that path, first by Mirri Maz Duur and then the journey across the Red Waste to Qarth. Now we’re coming full circle...
  • ...but now she doesn’t want to go. Everything she’s heard about Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen has been “dire and frightening,” in contrast to her idealized view of Westeros. Why abandon heaven to descend into hell?
  • Because, Jorah says, hell is where they forge armies. Specifically, the Unsullied--a fighting force that will become central to Dany’s story
  • Dany has seen individual Unsullied as household guards in the Free Cities. As she will learn at Astapor, the slavers no longer sell them as individuals. Only in hundreds and thousands, to maintain cohesion
  • We’ll have a lot more to say about the hellishness of Astapor when we get there; I mention the unit cohesion of the Unsullied because that’s what Jorah’s story is about--their legend, like those of the dragons
  • While the dragons embody freedom, the Unsullied exemplify discipline. Against thousands of charging Dothraki screamers, they stood firm
  • The Dothraki were more motivated by pride than discipline--so instead of flanking their infantry opponents, they tried to run them down
  • But as long as the Unsullied held, there was no getting past their spears and shields, and the Dothraki died by the thousands
  • In truth, the Unsullied lost a higher % of troops--80% as opposed to the Dothraki’s 66%. But really, no fighting unit should be effective at that point
  • The Unsullied still were, which is why the Dothraki accepted defeat. Dany knows what a big deal it is for them to cut off their braids and bells
  • It’s the ultimate sign of respect. We thought you were nothing but cannon fodder; it turns out you’re better warriors than we are!
  • That legacy has lasted; they still carry braided spears in Qohor to remind them of the immovable object that held back an irresistible force
  • We talked about the potential historical inspiration for Mance and the wildlings last week through the 4th century CE Goths, and now we find George remixing history with a story very clearly lifted from the Spartan defense of Thermopylae from the 5th Century BCE.
  • The Spartan military - like the militaries of most Greek city-states - were heavily armored spear infantry known as hoplites and fought shoulder to shoulder with their fellow soldiers in what’s known as a phalanx formation.
  • At Thermopylae, the Spartans under King Leonidas held a defense against the Persians under Xerxes who had a mixed force comprised of light infantry and cavalry.
  • The details of the Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of Qohor do start to differ though as the Spartans defended a narrow pass while the Unsullied were arrayed outside of the city gates.
  • The Unsullied raising of the shields over their heads from Dothraki arrows is a bit reminiscent of the much-vaunted-but-historically-overstated Roman testudo formation.
  • Regardless, this counter by the Unsullied to the Dothraki’s use of ranged weapons spurred the Dothraki to make repeated cavalry charges against the long spears and hard discipline of the Unsullied, leading to most of their deaths and the salvation of the city of Qohor.
  • Discipline, as Dany will be told later, is mother’s milk for the Unsullied, and their ability to fight as a disciplined unit, not moving from the battlefield until death or victory is the type of fighting force that Daenerys will need for her future enemies in Slaver’s Bay, Essos, Westeros and in the North.
  • And they will be instrumental in giving her the agency so long denied to her.
  • That’s how you get out from under Illyrio’s thumb, says Jorah. Go to him with an army at your back. Dany raises no moral objections yet, because she hasn’t seen Astapor in person. She has a more practical problem
  • How the fuck do we afford this?? The wealth of Qarth slipped through Dany’s fingers. Jorah can only hope they make money as a sideshow again; if they don’t, well, they can just barter with Illyrio’s goods!
  • Jorah frames this as a test of Illyrio’s loyalty, and the loyalties of those he sent: Groleo, Belwas, and “Arstan.” If the cheesemonger won’t put his wealth at your disposal, if his servants won’t change course with you, then they’re not your friends. They just want to control you and your dragons
  • In truth, it’s a test of his own power. Can I get away with this? Can I get you to turn against other people ostensibly on your side?
  • Dany agrees, and is so excited she forgets herself, rising naked in front of him. She explains her plans as she dresses, only to turn right into his arms
  • Dany has known that Jorah’s into her since the City of Bones. In this conversation, she tells herself not to be angry at him because he does all he does for love. Yet it still comes as such a shock to her
  • It’s a total defiance of their roles as queen and knight. Suddenly Jorah has elevated himself to her consort as well as her guardian
  • There’s a giddy thrill to it for her because of the intimacy--she hasn’t been close with someone like this since Drogo died. Her mouth opens…
  • ...and then she pulls back, covering herself up lest her nipples betray her. She doesn’t want to be attracted to Jorah, and she definitely doesn’t want to reconsider their relationship to the extent that he does
  • He’s already calling her Daenerys; she has to remind him to call her Your Grace. He wants to be one of the three heads of the dragon. You can take husbands, Dany; make me one of them, and I will be true to you
  • This is where all the chapter’s different threads--personal, political, prophetic--all come together.  Even as Jorah speaks romantic words out of the songs and stories (I should’ve kissed you before, you were made to be kissed), he’s also angling for his own political power, and saying that putting him in charge would mark the fulfillment of her destiny
  • Little problem with that argument, as you may have noticed if you know how to count to three. How would Jorah handle the other husband?
  • Not well, from what we’ve seen here! As Dany will tell Jorah later in the book: she knows why he’s pushing all other men away from her. It’s so she won’t listen to anyone else and he’ll have no rivals for her affection
  • So the grand designs of prophecy mean nothing more to him than a fig leaf for his jealous fears and desires. The gods demand we hook up!
  • Yet as much as I mock him for that, is there really any other way to approach prophetic visions? It’s not like Dany’s going to meet Jon and then a little lightbulb will go off and a voice will say “you found him”
  • We are all part of patterns that we can’t quite grasp; paranoia is a fact of life, even if you never had sorcerers spell out your destiny in riddles
  • Dany doesn’t know the truth behind “the dragon must have three heads” any more than Jorah does. Her choices are her own, for better or worse
  • That moment when Daenerys believes that all signs of destiny are pointing in her direction, that the Unsullied are the way that she will gain her throne are all undercut by slavebear making his move.
  • In a way, though, that same sense of destiny that Dany felt in that moment was what Jorah Mormont must have felt.
  • That, in no way, justifies a 40something dude making out with a fourteen year old Daenerys.
  • I mean the dude pulls a Littlefinger from AGOT as his mouth tastes sweet. Eating some mint before coming into the room with Dany much, Jorah?
  • But that destiny feeling must have been strong for Jorah.
  • Not-so-sadly, destiny proves just as fickle as prophecy for Jorah as this moment will not last as Dany will spend as much time as possible not being alone with the creep before exiling him for being the treasonous git that he is.
  • For now, though, everyone is reasonably happy or very conflicted, and that’s an interesting note to leave Dany on in her first chapter.
  • The start of the chapter finds Dany with her chill, happy vibes, enjoying the sea and the lightness of existence away from the land.
  • Most of the rest of her arc, though, will find her on blood-soaked land, all airy lightness gone.
  • But there will be a moment towards the end of ADWD when she’ll take to the skies and experience that same lightness -- if only for an instant.

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

In ADWD, Dany will lock her dragons away like Arstan talks about her ancestors doing…

...except Drogon! Instead, she rides him away, as she thinks about doing in this chapter.

Dragons like to attack from above indeed as Krazys mo Nakloz and the Astapori will discover a few chapters hence.

“Dracarys” will pay off big time in Slaver’s Bay.

Dany says that Illyrio values his life more than gold, pointing out that she burned one of her betrayers (Mirri Maaz Durr) before: possibly foreshadowing Dany burning Illyrio for betraying her via Young Grift.

Dany says her Dothraki followers are acting like they’re sailing to hell instead of Pentos, and as it turns out, they’re right; George repeatedly compares Astapor to hell.

Wouldn’t you know it, but at the Battle of Fire in TWOW, Barristan Selmy turns back from wrecking Yunkai’s shit to see that the Unsullied are able to march out of the gates of Meereen to form up in battle order.

Theory/Discussion

What did Rhaegar read that changed his life?

• When did he get in touch with Aemon? Right after this?
• Azor Ahai prophecy? “Warrior of Light”
• Could it have been the Jade Compendium, like the one Aemon gives Jon?

Conclusion

• Thanks for listening!
• Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud, Podbean etc.
• Check out our Patreon at patreon.com/notacastasoiaf
• Follow us on Twitter @NotACastASOIAF, email us at NotACastASOIAF@gmail.com
• Emmett’s social media, Jeff’s social media
• Thank you to our High Lords and Ladies on patreon!
  • Red Rahloo Himself who has renounced his allegiance to the Squishers
  • Lady of a Thousand Words
  • Septon Merrybald, the Shoeless Sage
  • Sister Winter - Lady of the Wolfswood
  • Nessie the Elusive, warden of the Neck, Defender of the North and Keeper of Secrets
  • Ser Thomas the Raven Knight, Lord of Blackwood
  • Ser Way of Course
  • Matt, Warden of the Sanguine Shore
  • Lord Sam K
  • Wisdom Benjicot, Alchemist of Sets and Quanta, Mage of the Arts of Boole and DeMorgan
  • Tibs the Great of House Catnapping
  • Lord J Manderly, Baker of the Frey Pies
  • Septon Merifullheadofhair
  • Lady Silverwing
  • Kaboth the Unfrozen, Lord of the Bricks and Castle Crimson Light
  • Ser Keith of House Corbray, wielder of Lady Forlorn
  • Lord Andrew - Warden of the Dubai Sands
  • Lord Young of the Ghost Woods
  • Lady Meera Reed, Wielder of Dark Sister, slayer of tinfoil
  • Ser Will of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune
  • Lord Clay
  • Ser Small Paul, Guardian of the Stone Haven, Defender of Dunnottar Castle
  • Septon T-Bone, the Low Septon
  • Refined Wrangler of Icy Arachnids
  • Lady Veronica, who has abandoned the the orphans at the Inn at the Crossroads to become the Queen of Memes
  • Lady Danielle of House Lannister
  • Titanium Pirate
  • Lady Joan, Lady-Ranger of the Frost Fangs
  • Cydnii of House Qo, Princess of the Friendly Black Hotties in the Summer Isles
  • Random: Fierce Protector of Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things
  • Sir Lady Jordan Defender of the God's Eye
  • Lord Peter (not Petyr), Drinker of Strongwine and Lord Commander of the Flat Planetos Society
  • Lady of Rainy Afternoons
  • James of House Keene, Lord of the Forest City, Admiral of the Cuyahoga, and Warden of the Western Reserve
  • Lady Ken of House Motown, Goddess of Sips and Wine.
  • Ser Andrew of H-Town
• Join us next week for ASOS Davos II, in which everyone should just listen to Salladhor Saan.