“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.”
Synopsis: On a ship heading to Pentos, Dany talks to Arstan about dragons and dragons, gets sexually harassed by Jorah, and decides to go to Astapor instead.
SPOILER WARNING: This chapter analysis, and all following, will contain spoilers for all Song of Ice and Fire novels and Game of Thrones episodes. Caveat lector.
Political Analysis:
As I said last time, the transition between ACOK and ASOS is an odd one for Daenerys. This entire chapter, for example, hinges on Dany trying to choose whether to go to Pentos or to Astapor, which you think would be the perfect way to end a character arc as opposed to how one would normally begin an arc.
Regardless of any editing weirdness, a number of important themes are established here that need to be assessed, so let’s get into it.
A Minor Theme on Culture Shock
Starting from the most minor to the most major themes of the chapter, let’s start with the ongoing theme of culture shock and cultural that has been such an enduring part of Dany’s storyline since the very beginning. Now, we haven’t even yet been introduced to the third major culture that Dany will have to interact with – that will have to wait for next chapter – but at the same time, we do see the power of cultural dislocation:
“Her Dothraki called the sea the poison water, distrusting any liquid that their horses could not drink. On the day the three ships had lifted anchor at Quarth, you would have thought they were sailing to hell instead of Pentos. Her brave young bloodriders had stared off at the dwindling coastline with huge white eyes, each of the three determined to show no fear before the other two, while her handmaids Irri and Jhiqui clutched the rail desperately and retched over the side at every little swell. The rest of Dany’s tiny khalasar remained below decks, preferring the company of their nervous horses to the terrifying landless world about the ships. When a sudden squall had enveloped them six days into the voyage, she heard them through the hatches; the horses kicking and screaming, the riders praying in thin quavery voices each time Balerion heaved or swayed.”
In the past, we’ve seen Dany wrestling with culture shock when she was out of her element while among the Dothraki. Here are the Dothraki are wrestling with the existential terror of experiencing the inverse of their cultural worldview – the vast expanse of the ocean echoing the broad plains of the Dothraki Sea but without the personal individual freedom of movement dear to the heart of the nomadic horse warrior, the claustophobia and nausea of being trapped below decks in a cramped ship during a storm, amplified by the disdain and contempt that the Dothraki have for walls and other permanent structures. By contrast, Dany is very much in her element: “no squall could frighten Dany, though. Daenerys Stormborn, she was called…Dany had crossed [the Narrow Sea] half a hundred times as a girl…she loved the sea.”
The question for the future is whether, once the ships finally make landfall in whichever harbor Dany chooses, will she adapt to her new climate with the same ease that she does on board ship, or flounder like her khalasar?
A Discussion of Dracology
The first major theme of the chapter, however, is the behavior and nature of dragons. Up until now, Dany’s dragons have been symbols and signifiers, portents and miracles, but too small for the most part to do anything on their own (save for Drogon’s intervention at the HOTU). Now that the dragons are growing, they are starting to become real characters like the Starks’ direwolves are characters, in that they have distinct personalities and can act on their own:
“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.”
“Dragons always preferred to attack from above, Dany had learned. Should either get between the other and the sun, he would fold his wings and dive screaming, and they would tumble from the sky locked together in a tangled scaly ball, jaws snapping and tails lashing. The first time they had done it, she feared that they meant to kill each other, but it was only sport. No sooner would they splash into the sea than they would break apart and rise again, shrieking and hissing, the salt water steaming off them as their wings clawed at the air. Drogon was aloft as well, though not in sight; he would be miles ahead, or miles behind, hunting.”
“He was always hungry, her Drogon. Hungry and growing fast. Another year, or perhaps two, and he may be large enough to ride. Then I shall have no need of ships to cross the great salt sea.”
“But that time was not yet come. Rhaegal and Viserion were the size of small dogs, Drogon only a little larger, and any dog would have out-weighed them; they were all wings and neck and tail, lighter than they looked. And so Daenerys Targaryen must rely on wood and wind and canvas to bear her home.”
When it comes to the behavior patterns of the dragons, GRRM does an interesting job of borrowing from the behavior patterns of immature predators (the play-fighting especially reminds me of David Attenborough documentaries of lion cubs, for example) while reasoning from first principles to find the distinctively draconic elements. The preference for advantage from height, for example, probably owes more to WWI and WWII fighter pilot movies than it does to the behavior of any species. Likewise, the idea that dragons are always hungry and constantly growing (more on this in a second) is likely borrowed from the Western mythological and folk-lore of dragons as representative of greed and pride, rather than any principle of biology.
At the same time, the chapter does a nice job setting up the tension with regards to the dragons: Dany’s dragons aren’t big enough yet to get Dany home in either a physical or personal sense, so the question becomes will Dany and her dragons make it intact from now to then, and what kind of makeshifts will be needed in the meantime? The other nice thing that the growing issue is a nice setup to get Jorah and Ser Barristan into the conversation:
“How big will he grow?” Dany asked curiously. “Do you know?”
“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.”
“Well, how long does a dragon live?” She looked up as Viserion swooped low over the ship, his wings beating slowly and stirring the limp sails.
Ser Jorah shrugged. “A dragon’s natural span of days is many times as long as a man’s, or so the songs would have us believe…but the dragons the Seven Kingdoms knew best were those of House Targaryen. They were bred for war, and in war they died. It is no easy thing to slay a dragon, but it can be done.”
The squire Whitebeard, standing by the figurehead with one lean hand curled about his tall hardwood staff, turned toward them and said, “Balerion the Black Dread was two hundred years old when he died during the reign of Jaehaerys the Conciliator. He was so large he could swallow an aurochs whole. A dragon never stops growing, Your Grace, so long as he has food and freedom.”
“In King’s Landing, your ancestors raised an immense domed castle for their dragons. The Dragonpit, it is called. It still stands atop the Hill of Rhaenys, though all in ruins now. That was where the royal dragons dwelt in days of yore, and a cavernous dwelling it was, with iron doors so wide that thirty knights could ride through them abreast. Yet even so, it was noted that none of the pit dragons ever reached the size of their ancestors. The maesters say it was because of the walls around them, and the great dome above their heads.”
Right off the bat, we have a sharp contrast between Ser Jorah, who only has folklore (which even he is pretty dismissive of) and is somewhat lacking in imagination and Ser Barristan, who is already showing way too much specific knowledge about the Targaryens for his own good, which works as a nice catalyst for their rivalry. At the same time, this conversation sets up an interesting connection between “food and freedom,” which will take on far more significance in ADWD when the dragons’ feeding habits will lead Dany to eventually shackle her own children, unable to solve the same conundrum of how to balance power and control that her ancestors so often wrestled with.
As we’ll see later, there’s also a suggestion that, as goes her dragons, so goes Dany – as her dragons are growing in size and power, so Dany will increase in power and authority, from the leader of a tiny band of exiles and oddballs, to the queen at the head of an army, building an empire of liberation. And once Dany puts her dragons in chains, so too will she find her freedom of action constrained…
A Discussion of the Other Kind of Dragons
Naturally, the trio goes from discussing the dragons to the House that took them as its symbol and its chief source of authority. It’s a conversation that comes in two parts, increasingly revealing information both about the two main subjects (Aerys II and Crown Prince Rhaegar) and the story-teller, because one thing that has to be said about Ser Barristan Selmy is that he’s a godawful spy, who couldn’t go an entire week before he opens his big Targ fanboy mouth and starts sharing way more information about the royal family than a mere squire would ever know:
“Yet I served for a time in King’s Landing in the days when King Aerys sat the Iron Throne, and walked beneath the dragonskulls that looked down from the walls of his throne room.”
…She beckoned Whitebeard closer. “Did you ever meet my royal father?” King Aerys II had died before his daughter was born.
“I had that great honor, Your Grace.”
“Did you find him good and gentle?”
Whitebeard did his best to hide his feelings, but they were there, plain on his face. “His Grace was…often pleasant.”
“Often?” Dany smiled. “But not always?”
“He could be very harsh to those he thought his enemies.”
“A wise man never makes an enemy of a king,” said Dany.
This is the beginning of an ongoing conversation that Dany and Ser Barristan will continue right through ADWD, in which Dany’s “family feeling” wars with Barristan’s eye-witness accounts. As we can see from this conversation, we can see that Dany has conjured in her imagination an image of her father as an idealized monarch – partially due to her brother’s propaganda and her tendency to dismiss stories ot the contrary as the Usurper’s lies, but also partly out of a desire to believe that the father she has never known (but did see once) was not a monster. Indeed, I would argue that Dany’s attitude towards Aerys II now and later is much like her attitude towards her brother – seeing his flaws to some extent (“Viserys had been stupid and vicious…[a] cruel weak man”) but wishing he had been “wiser and more patient,” unable to forget “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 the same time, on a re-read, this exchange is far more sgnificant to Ser Barristan’s mission than it first appears. Consider that Selmy decided to remain in disguise because he “wanted to watch you for a time before pledging you my sword. To make certain that you were not…mad.” In his first real conversation with this unknown Targaryen, he carefully, discretely alludes to the idea that Aerys II was a paranoid tyrant, and Dany’s first response is to approve of his style of government. No wonder that Ser Barristan kept his mouth shut as to his true identity; perhaps he’s not a completely hopeless spy after all.
The tension ratchets up even further when the conversation moves on from Aerys the King to Rhaegar, his son and the Crown Prince of the Targaryen line. Here again, the thrust of the conversation is the pagantry and glamour of House Targaryen as opposed to the more complicated reality:
“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…”Your Grace,” said Whitebeard, “the Prince of Dragonstone was a most puissant warrior, but…”
“…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…”
“…what was he truly like?”
The old man considered a moment. “Able. That above all. Determined, deliberate, dutiful, single-minded. There is a tale told of him…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.'”
This conversation is fascinating for a number of reasons. First, it’s interesting that Dany’s image of Rhaegar is still that of “her brother Rhaegar battling the Usurper in the bloody waters of the Trident and dying for the woman he loved,” which is how Viserys told the story, rather than the emo Byronic hero with his silver harp that Dany saw at the House of the Undying. Second, while Ser Barristan’s martial excellence is at the center of the conversation – hence his verbal fencing about Ser Jorah’s jousting – it’s clear that what he admired about Rhaegar had nothing to do with martial excellence. This seems like a case of the different perspective of a master as opposed to an amateur; Dany views swordsmanship as something special because she doesn’t understand it, Ser Barristan knows it inside and out and knows how much is owed to chance, that “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.” Thus, he pegs Jorah Mormont as a one-hit-wonder, a man who felt genuine inspiration only the once and then ruined his life in part by trying to recapture it.
Instead, what Ser Barristan values is character, as we might expect from someone who probably grew up idolizing Ser Duncan the Tall. And what he admires about Rhaegar is that he wasn’t a natural warrior, but someone who made himself into one because he was “Able. That above all. Determined, deliberate, dutiful, single-minded.” This brings us to the mystery of Rhaegar Targaryen, who we have only glimpsed in fractured and incompatible glances: abductor and possible rapist, sober-minded political reformer, doomed romantic hero, or prophecy-obsessed fanatic? After all these years and five books, I feel like we are no closer to really understanding what motives drove Rhaegar and what internal conflicts he wrestled with. All I think we can say is that GRRM is a romantic…
Good Rulership
Given that this blog is largely focused on the history and politics of ASOIAF, it was rather gratifying that this conversation about Aerys and Rhaegar leads to an ongoing debate between Dany and Jorah Mormont about how to be a good ruler:
“A queen must listen to all,” she reminded him. “The highborn and the low, the strong and the weak, the noble and the venal. One voice may speak you false, but in many there is always truth to be found.” She had read that in a book.
“Hear my voice then, Your Grace,” the exile said. “This Arstan Whitebeard is playing you false. He is too old to be a squire, and too well spoken to be serving that oaf of a eunuch.”
As the image above suggests, Dany’s theory of how to be a good ruler pulls straight from some of the best. While much of Richard Neustadt’s theories of the presidency centered around the necessity to persuade and bargain as opposed to merely command, the ways to maneuver in a system with shared powers, and how to use the various “softer” sources of power to improve one’s bargaining position, he was also very interested in information. In his briefing memos to JFK during the presidential transition of 1960, Neustadt pointed to FDR as a positive example of a president who “disliked to be tied to any single source of information or advice on anything. Even if the source should be a trusted aide, he preferred, when and where he could, to have alternative sources.” By maintaining a diversity of information, a president could avoid being captured by any one part of the bureaucracy, and would be able to engage in bargaining with Congress and his own government from a position of superior knowledge.
By contrast, Jorah advises a suspicious and defensive approach to information, treating everyone around her as a potential enemy. Now it’s hard to say how much of this is what Jorah actually believes is best for a ruler and how much of this has to do with Mormont’s desire to monopolize Dany so that he is both the only adviser she trusts and a default candidate for romantic partner (more on this later). It speaks volumes about Daenerys’ capacity as a ruler than she initially sees the flaw in Jorah’s approach:
“It seems to me that a queen who trusts no one is as foolish as a queen who trusts everyone. Every man I take into my service is a risk, I understand that, but how am I to win the Seven Kingdoms without such risks?”
If Neustadt were there in the room (and wouldn’t that be an interesting AU?), I would imagine he would be nodding vigorously. While it’s true that a president’s advisers, Federal bureaucrats, Congressional supporters, and allies in their political party will all have their own agendas, will provide the ruler with carefully curated information, and will try to “capture” the president if they can manage it, it’s also true that a president cannot accomplish anything by pulling back and trying to maintain distance – rather, a successful leader works to offset these inevitable downsides so that they can continue to make use of these indispensible institutions while still preserving their independence.
Jorah and Paranoia
And as both the daughter of Aerys II and the recipients of the prophecies of the House of the Undying, Dany has even more reasons than most to beware of the appeal of paranoia. Not only will she have a lot of power to throw around not too long from now, but she has to be very careful that she doesn’t get so caught up trying to figure out who’s prophecied to betray her that she ignores the very real threats around her, or mistakes one for the other:
“The Usurper on his Iron Throne had offered land and lordship to any man who killed her. One attempt had been made already, with a cup of poisoned wine. The closer she came to Westeros, the more likely another attack became. Back in Qarth, the warlock Pyat Pree had sent a Sorrowful Man after her to avenge the Undying she’d burned in their House of Dust. Warlocks never forgot a wrong, it was said, and the Sorrowful Men never failed to kill. Most of the Dothraki would be against her as well. Khal Drogo’s kos led khalasars of their own now, and none of them would hesitate to attack her own little band on sight, to slay and slave her people and drag Dany herself back to Vaes Dothrak to take her proper place among the withered crones of the dosh khaleen. She hoped that Xaro Xhoan Daxos was not an enemy, but the Quartheen merchant had coveted her dragons. And there was Quaithe of the Shadow, that strange woman in the red lacquer mask with all her cryptic counsel. Was she an enemy too, or only a dangerous friend? Dany could not say.”
This is what makes Jorah such a dangerous adviser to Dany, because it’s not as if she doesn’t have she doesn’t have enemies and that prophecy weighing down on her, and here he is, encouraging her worst instincts. Indeed, I would argue that Jorah is especially dangerous, because he keeps pointing out additional potential enemies to worry about, which runs the risk that Dany’s attention will be directed in the wrong direction, trying to root out hidden enemies, and ignoring the real threats.
At the same time, because Dany does have a lot of enemies in the world, it’s not like he’s always wrong either. Take this conversation as an example:
“We are on our way once more.”
“Yes,” he said, “but to what, my queen?”
“…Sit, good sir, and tell me what is troubling you.”
“Three things.” Ser Jorah sat. “Strong Belwas. This Arstan Whitebeard. And Illyrio Mopatis, who sent them….the warlocks in Qarth told you that you would be betrayed three times…”
“Once for blood and once for gold and once for love.” Dany was not like to forget. “Mirri Maz Duur was the first.”
“Which means two traitors yet remain…and now these two appear. I find that troubling, yes…I have seen how deftly he handles that staff of his. Recall how he killed that manticore in Qarth…has it occured 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…”
“These are Illyrio’s ships, Illyrio’s captains, Illyrio’s sailors…and Strong Belwas and Arstan are his men as well, not yours…he was not born wealthy. In the world as I have seen it, no man grows rich by kindness. The warlocks said the second treason would be for gold? What does Illyrio Mopatis love more than gold?”
From a re-reader’s perspective, we know that Jorah is actually two-thirds wrong here. Ser Barristan’s loyalty runs bone-deep, and both he and Belwas will save her life and risk their lives for her again and again. As Dany will call out in the future, Jorah is speaking her largely from a jealous, possessive desire to drive away any other man who might replace him either as an adviser or romantic partner; when Dany thinks that “he does all he does for love,” she’s more right than she knows, and as a woman destinied to suffer betrayal for love, that should worry her deeply.
However, he’s not entirely wrong about Illyrio. As we have seen in the past, Illyrio’s self-interested support for Dany has been a double-edged blade indeed, depending on her position in his protean conspiracy. When it suits his interests to have her protected, as he did in Pentos and by sending Jorah with her across the Dothraki Sea, and by sending Barristan and Belwas, he will do so. However, Illyrio is perfectly comfortable with putting her at (calculated) risk, as we saw with the wine-seller in Vaes Dothrak, and he was perfectly comfortable with the idea that she might die on the Dothraki Sea – because his primary interest is “Aegon.” As long as Dany can be of use to Aegon – as a bride to boost his standing as a Targaryen, as a source of dragons, or whatever – then Illyrio will protect the asset he wants to make use of. But if she steps outside that relatively narrow lane, I have no doubt that Illyrio would have her assassinated in a heartbeat.
On the other hand, Ser Barristan Selmy would probably the worst possible person in the world to give that order to, so Jorah’s still full of it.
Jorah’s Plan
Once he’s gotten Dany questioning the loyalties of everyone around her, Jorah finally broaches his plan. And you really do have to hand it to him in a “you magnificent bastard” way, because it’s one of those plans that works in so many different ways:
“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…it is Astapor I’d set my sails for. In Astapor you can buy Unsullied…put ashore there, and continue on to Pentos overland. It will take longer yes…but when you break bread with Magister Illyrio, you iwill have a thousand swords behind you, not just four.”
“…What use are wealthy friends if they will not put their wealth at your disposal, my queen? If Magister Illyrio would deny you, he is only Xaro Xhoan Daxos with four chins. And if he is sincere in his devotion to your cause, he will not begrudge you three shiploads of trade goods. What better use for his tiger skins than to buy you the beginnings of an army.”
First, let’s consider Illyrio: not only does this plan keep him physically separate from Dany, but it also begins to drive a wedge between them, by encouraging Dany to “test” their relationship through various actions that go against Illyrio’s interests, and potentially alienating Illyrio in the process. As we see later in ADWD, this change of direction has a huge impact on Illyrio and the Golden Company, requiring the latter to march to Volantis as opposed to staying in the Disputed Lands.
Second, let’s consider Jorah: primarily, this plan benefits him by maintaining his monopoly over Dany. Not only is it a test of whether she’ll take his side in a conflict, but it also sets up Jorah to potentially claim a good deal of credit for her invasion by being the one to acquire her army. (It also plays into his backstory and worldview : Jorah the exile banished for selling slaves goes right back into his old line of work, which already signifies that Mormont isn’t long for Dany’s company.) However, the most crucial thing we learn about this plan is how it relates to his larger ambitions, because just like Illyrio, Jorah has an agenda that doesn’t always track with Dany’s:
“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…
“Your Grace…the dragon has three heads…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.”
Many authors better than me at analysis of gender have pointed out how intensely creepy Jorah’s behavior is here. First, in a very Trumpian fashion, he’s making sexual advances on someone without their consent (indeed, once Dany has a second to think about it, she very much disapproves of his actions) or even their foreknowledge. Second, there’s the age issue: Jorah’s in his mid-40s, Dany is only 15. Third, there’s the whole obsession with his second wife.
What hasn’t been talked about as much is Jorah’s vaulting ambition in this moment. Jorah doesn’t kiss Dany solely because he’s in love with her/obsessed with her; he’s doing it to bootstrap himself from exiled knight to King of Westeros. And while he claims that he’s just going to be one of two Kings Consort, look at the way that he’s trying to get her to distrust everyone else and only trust him (“no man in all the world who will ever be half so true to you as me“). To me, this is scarily reminiscent of Daemon Targaryen’s svengali-like relationship with Rhaenrya during the Dance, and if Jorah had gotten his way on this, it would have been incredibly damaging to Dany’s cause when she got to Westeros (more on this in a bit).
Historical Analysis:
Dany I is also the first chapter where we really get introduced to the idea of the Unsullied, when they stop being the fat eunuchs with the pointy hats and become the Three Thousand of Qohor. So I thought I’d address the legend of the Three Thousand here instead of in the main body, because it’s easier to talk about their place in Westerosi history and their similarities to real-world history in one place:
“Do you know the tale of the Three Thousand of Qohor?”
“It was four hundred years ago or more, when the Dothraki first rode out of the east, sacking and burning every town and city in their path. The khal who led them was named Temmo. His khalasar was not so big as Drogo’s, but it was big enough. Fifty thousand, at the least. Half of them braided warriors with bells ringing in their hair.”
“The Qohorik knew he was coming. They strengthened their walls, doubled the size of their own guard, and hired two free companies besides, the Bright Banners and the Second Sons. And almost as an afterthought, they sent a man to Astapor to buy three thousand Unsullied. It was a long march back to Qohor, however, and as they approached they saw the smoke and dust and heard the distant din of battle.”
“By the time the Unsullied reached the city the sun had set. Crows and wolves were feasting beneath the walls on what remained of the Qohorik heavy horse. The Bright Banners and Second Sons had fled, as sellswords are wont to do in the face of hopeless odds. With dark falling, the Dothraki had retired to their own camps to drink and dance and feast, but none doubted that they would return on the morrow to smash the city gates, storm the walls, and rape, loot, and slave as they pleased.”
“But when dawn broke and Temmo and his bloodriders led their khalasar out of camp, they found three thousand Unsullied drawn up before the gates with the Black Goat standard flying over their heads. So small a force could easily have been flanked, but you know Dothraki. These were men on foot, and men on foot are fit only to be ridden down.”
“The Dothraki charged. The Unsullied locked their shields, lowered their spears, and stood firm. Against twenty thousand screamers with bells in their hair, they stood firm.”
“Eighteen times the Dothraki charged, and broke themselves on those shields and spears like waves on a rocky shore. Thrice Temmo sent his archers wheeling past and arrows fell like rain upon the Three Thousand, but the Unsullied merely lifted their shields above their heads until the squall had passed. In the end only six hundred of them remained . . . but more than twelve thousand Dothraki lay dead upon that field, including Khal Temmo, his bloodriders, his kos, and all his sons. On the morning of the fourth day, the new khal led the survivors past the city gates in a stately procession. One by one, each man cut off his braid and threw it down before the feet of the Three Thousand.”
This event was a major turning point in Essosi history for many reasons. First, it stopped the advance of the Dothraki, so the Free Cities of the western coast did not meet the same fate that the great empires of the Sarnori and the Qaathi did and were able to keep developing as civilizations and cultures. As a result, Westeros would continue to exist in a world in which there were highly developed city-states to their east, and thus we get trade and cultural exchange, and the War for the Stepstones, and the Three Daughters’ involvement in the Dance of the Dragons, the Blackfyre exiles morphing into the Golden Company, and on and on.
Second, it established the reputation of the Unsullied in what must have been very early in their development. Remember, the Valyrians had destroyed Old Ghis five thousands years prior, and we learn from the WOIAF that “after the Doom came to Valyria, the cities of Slaver’s Bay were able to throw off the last of the Valyrian shackles, ruling themselves in truth rather than playing at it. And what remained of the Ghiscari swiftly reestablished their trade in slaves—though where once they won them by conquest, now they purchased and bred them.” The Battle of Qohor, therefore, established the socioeconomic status quo we know today: the Dothraki raid for slaves and sell them to Slaver’s Bay, Astapor trains them and sells them to Qohor and Volantis and the other slave cities, and as a result the Dothraki are kept in check as tribute-takers and raiders rather than conquerors.
But what about our own history? Well, I’m going to hold back somewhat, because Dany’s going to spend a couple chapters in Astapor and I don’t want to run out of material on historical slave-soldiers before we even get there. Instead, I want to talk about Thermopylae, or how we think of Thermopylae. For centuries, and indeed to the present, the story of Thermopylae has been told as the Spartans vs. the Persians, the stoic self-sacrificing Leonidas saving Western Civilization from the “Asiatic despotism” of the Persians. And when you let Frank Miller and Zach Snyder get their hands on it, the pre-existing cultural essentialism, exaltation of warrior culture, and only slightly subtextual homoeroticism of the original gets taken up to eleventy-stupid:
Now, there are many problems with this myth: the denigration of the great world-civilization of the Persians, the systematic erasure of everyone else who fought and died at Thermopylae, the reality that Leonidas got his ass kicked because he didn’t bother to put scouts up on the hills, the fact that the supposedly-degenerate Athenians were the ones who actually won the war by beating the Persians at Salamis. But most of all, I think the problem comes with identifying the Spartans as somehow emblematic of Greek democracy, which in reality the Spartans despised and tried to stamp out wherever they could. Because the Spartans were anti-democratic aristocrats who ruled over one of the most brutal slave societies that ever existed, and thought that democracy gave helots ideas about being people. Which is why I want to make a plug for a great corrective to the Frank Miller/Zach Znyder narrative, the incredible graphic novel Three by Kieron Gillen, which is the story of three helots trying to make their way to freedom while being hunted by a bunch of blood-thirsty slavecatchers.
What If?
I’d like to focus on two main hypotheticals for this chapter:
- Dany headed to Pentos? If Dany didn’t listen to Jorah, Essos changes (or rather doesn’t change) rather dramatically. In the cities of Slaver’s Bay, the Masters continue to be masters and the slaves continue to suffer. In Volantis, the elephants remain in power and the city doesn’t go to war in the east. The economy of Essos isn’t roiled up, Free Companies remain in the Disputed Lands rather than travelling to the east, and huge numbers of butterflies start beating their wings.
- But for Dany personally, I think this means she comes face to face with Aegon very quickly, with Illyrio pushing hard for them to marry, and at the very least, for Aegon to be “tested” with one of Dany’s dragons, with the Golden Company being held out as a carrot to get her to sign on the line.
- Dany married Jorah? This one is a bit harder to assess, because it remains in the more nebulous realm of interpersonal dynamics. For one thing, it’s quite possible that even with a marriage, Dany’s reaction to the relevation about Jorah’s spying could easily see him exiled (or perhaps killed if the intensification of the betrayal is enough) as per OTL. But if Jorah makes it to Westeros, it would be a huge problem politically. Jorah is a penniless exile slaver from a minor house of the North; he’s not going to be bringing any allies with him, and given his paranoia and controlling nature, he’s going to cause diplomatic crises if he thinks that Oberyn Martell is being too charming or something like that.
Book vs. Show:
Dany’s Season 3 plot is one of her better ones, certainly. And this chapter’s scenes are done very well – the CGI of her dragons improved immensely from Season 2, showing dragons cavorting and fighting over fish. And overall, I thought Emelia Clarke and Ian Glen do a great job in their short scene. However, I do think there’s something lost by not having Ser Barristan in the scene to clash with Jorah, and by having Jorah’s arguments for the Unsullied be both grounded in realpolitik as opposed to self-interest, and eliminating the connection with Illyrio.
Race for the Iron Throne 
Doran Martell says that Daenerys is most vulnerable by sea, but since the dragons have no problem with flying over water or even getting wet, it seems that’s not the case. In fact, she’s most dangerous at sea. Any fleet attacking her would quickly get burned down to the waterline.
GRRM makes a point of mentioning that the dragons are very light weight for their size, which suggests that even when they’re much bigger they probably would not be able to carry much of a load. Maybe one or two people is their maximum.
Attacking from above may be the preference of fighter pilots, but it’s also characteristic of raptors, isn’t it? The attacker has the sun at its back and gravity on its side. Dragon attack patterns may owe more to the example of hawks than of humans.
Eating constantly and growing rapidly may be due to the fact that they’re young and GRRM needed them to grow up before the story ended, rather than to legendary draconic qualities of greed. The direwolves grew very rapidly as well, for similar reasons.
The constant eating may also be due to their need for flight. To put it in perspective, a vulture may eat 20% of their body weight at each meal to get the energy needed to fly, or the equivalent of one average-sized man eating 320 hamburgers in one sitting.
As for growth, crocodiles are indeterminate growers like dragons that can live to be as old as 100, yet they grow the most during the first decade of their lives.
To watch constant eating leading to extremely rapid growth, rear a few caterpillars. If the dragons grew at the same sort of rate they would be many miles long by this stage of the books.
I’m not denying growth and maturation (humans’ metabolic rate peaks during late teens and early twenties after all), but to point out that can fly tend to have exceptionally large appetites due to the energy expended by flight.
I can’t find that quote from Doran. Source?
ADWD – The Watcher – final page or so.
“Easy enough to hide a young dragon in a big cog’s hold, though. Daenerys is most vulnerable at sea. If I were her, I would keep myself and my intentions hidden as long as I could, so I might take King’s Landing unawares.”
From “The Watcher”, as Zonaria says.
1. Agreed on the Spartans, Snyder had them opposed to being “Persian slaves” despite the majority of the Spartan population being slaves. If it had been more accurate, Leonidas wouldn’t have been killing a (mutant) wolf, but an unarmed helot.
2. Something tells me Jorah won’t leave Essos alive.
3. Dany didn’t seem to notice that Barristan said Aerys could be very harsh to, not his enemies, but “those he thought his enemies.” That kind of phrase should invite questions such as “Were there those he thought his enemies who actually weren’t?”
4. One thought I have is, what if Barristan knew of R+L=J somehow before he left King’s Landing, and went to meet Jon instead?
Crackpot
5. “‘Well, how long does a dragon live?’ She looked up as Viserion swooped low over the ship, his wings beating slowly and stirring the limp sails.”
Viserion’s name is mentioned right after she asks about a dragon’s lifespan. I think that’s a hint that Viserion isn’t going to survive the series. As to cause of death, well, a ship and sails are mentioned. Do we know of anyone who has a sailing ship for a sigil? If Tyrion is Viserion’s rider, there is one guy who likely didn’t forget the Tyrion’s wildfire scheme killed four of his eldest sons.
A little extra hint from WOIAF regarding the name of a hero form the Stormlands: Davos the Dragonslayer.
1. Yep and what’s especially ironic about this phrase is the fact that slavery was mostly outlawed throughout the Achaemenid period. Even at times when it resurfaced, slaves were still treated far better than they were in the Greek city states.
2. I don’t know about that since in the show he will be returning to Dany’s side in the next season (somehow curing himself of Greyscale).
3. Yeah that has always bothered me as well. But then Dany herself has always been a very suspicious person by nature. Though she is not close to being as bat shit paranoid as her father, she herself constantly suspects people of having ulterior motives and possibly scheming against her. So from a certain point of view she may have thought her dad was being prudent.
4. I seriously doubt it since he is now a member of the Night’s Watch. There is really no point in seeking out Jon since any potential claim he had on the Iron Throne had being forfeited when he took his vows. Even if he wanted to there’s no way he could be of any help to him unless he joins the Night’s Watch himself.
5. Well that would be very interesting. Though I suspect one of Dany’s enemies may beat him to it. Personally I think Viserion is the only one among Dany’s dragons who won’t get a rider and will not being accompanying Dany when she invades Westeros.
I’ve long assumed Viserion is not long for the world, perhaps pretty soon. I don’t think there will be three riders as I don’t think following prophecy closely makes for good drama and don’t think Tyrion is suddenly going to switch from being a secondary character to a main one.
1. Yeppers.
2. We shall see.
3. Yeah, she missed that.
4. That’s too big of a change for a What If, at least the ways I do it.
5. Maybe.
Another what if: what if Euron had found Daenerys instead of Pyat Pree? That would have changed a few things.
That what-if falls into the “Too Depressing To Think About” category, surely.
Found her when?
Presumably when she was sailing to Astapor.
That… would be horrible. Imagine if he learned how to take over the body of a dragon.
Right. Pree and the other warlocks were pursuing her. They might have been a few days or weeks behind. If Euron had been a bit earlier or taken a slightly different course, he could have found Daenerys instead. Of course, with Jorah, Barristan, and Belwas on board, they would have made a fight of it.
While Jorah is ultimately wrong about Barristan you are selling him short by criticising him so hardly. Jorah had no idea of Barristan’s true identity and so of his true charcater and loyaty but correctly came to the conclusion that there was somthing wrong about him and his knowledge. Jorah’s theories are not that out there even if they are motivated for the wrong reasons.
Sure, Jorah could tell he wasn’t who he said he was – although that should have been obvious. But I think the wrong reasons are pretty bloody important.
Fantastic analysis as always Steve. I especially enjoy your take on the interpersonal dynamics and how much the Great Noble Sparta thing is a total crock.
Ot but imho Frank Miller has a LOT to answer for.
Also wanna say how much I love the actor who plays Selmy. He’s *exactly* how you picture Selmy in the books.
Agree that if Dany *had* gone to Pentos at that point, fAegon and Illyrio would have been in a much better bargaining position.
also interesting to reference the dragonpit since we know we’ll be seeing it next season. I for one cannot *wait*.
Frank Miller apparently didn’t make accuracy his goal. His portrayal of the Persians is offensive. The Spartans also come off as a celebration of hyper-masculinity.
Also, when you make the side composed of people of different races and nationalities the bad guys and the good guys the entirely white Spartans, what kind of message does that send to audience?
I always pictured Bernard Hill playing King Theoden in LOTR as Barristan in my head. Hell, both ficitonal characters are blue-eyed blondes with Theoden slaying the leader of the Haradrim whose device was a black serpent on a red field fighting for Gondor while Barristan slew Maelys whose device was a black dragon a red field fighting for Westeros.
Dany would have met Aegon, and they would have landed with every Targaryen loyalist running to them, and the war would be wrapped up in one book.
Except the Lannisters and Tyrells would still be entrenched on the Iron Throne. Whatever loyalist forces the Targaryen side could bring to bear along with the Golden Company may still not have been enough to make a difference. Of course they do have dragons but even now after so much time has passed they are not really that big. I do wonder what Illyrio’s plan was after obtaining Dany and her dragons. Were they just going to wait a couple of years for Dany’s dragons to grow big and strong, while marrying Dany off to her long lost ‘nephew’ and keeping her locked inside a gilded cage? Because in this scenario they won’t have any Dothraki or Unsullied troops. Only ten thousand Golden Company men, plus Dorne and a few Crownland houses. Which means there would still be a huge disparity between them and the Lannister/Tyrell alliance.
The Lannister-Tyrell alliance would probably be still picking itself apart with Varys’ ‘assistance’ when necessary. Illyrio wouldn’t publicly put Dany and Aegon at the head of the Gold Company too soon.
Well the whole reason Illyrio went to the trouble of getting Dany hitched to Drogo was so they could have 10,000 extra Dothraki warriors to bolster the Golden Company. Because lets face it, ten thousand soldiers no matter how good they are isn’t enough to conquer all of Westeros. Of course depending on how deep Illyrio’s pockets are, he could always enlist more sellsword companies to the Targaryen banner.
But the Reach is home to a number of Targaryen loyalists as well as Peake’s “friends in the Reach.” A portion of the Reach would side with Dany and Aegon. Dany’s dragons wouldn’t make anyone of those people hesitate to join her.The Lannisters’ power was crippled by Robb, hence their reliance on the Tyrells. Doran wouldn’t hesitate to join. Even Dunk admits in TMK that everyone in the realm would flock to the prince with dragons.
The Lannisters and Tyrells still can boast a very large combined force and the dragons are too young to actually use yet. Also they’d be the first target and if they die the restoration loses symbolic power.
But as Barristan said, it is very difficult to slay a dragon in the sky. Even on the ground, the dragons have proven difficult to slay as Drogon demonstrated at Daznak’s Pit, dispatching the spearmen and pitmaster sent against him. Also, despite being young, Drogon managed to inflict casualties up to “two hundred fourteen slain, three times as many burned or wounded.” It would be difficult to kill all three.
In terms of what kind of message, see here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/11/07/why-the-wests-far-right-and-trump-supporters-are-still-obsessed-with-an-ancient-battle/
Great article Steve. Thanks.
True even with dragons there’d be a disparity between the GC and the Lannister/Tyrell alliance…but the Lannister/Tyrell alliance has been rapidly disintegrating. The Tyrell’s are also gonna be preoccupied with the Iron Born invasion as well. Not to mention there was always plans for turncoats in the Reach and for the GC to get an assist from Dorne.
I wonder what Left-Wing Laconophilia such as the kind voiced tentatively by Rousseau and Saint-Just has in this idea-space of Spartan historiography.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconophilia
At a brief (and probably at least somewhat ill-informed since it’s brief) glance, for Rousseau it was the Spartan ideal of discouraging arts and sciences, which he blamed for the decline of civilizations.
Thanks! Glad you liked it.
You never disappoint, Steve 🙂
Unfortunately, I’ve noticed 2 blunders.
“the Unsullied raid for slaves and sell them to Slaver’s Bay”
“If Dany didn’t listen to Pentos, Essos changes”
Blunders is a harsh word for a typo.
Never go in against the Internet when Spelling is on the line!
Sorry. English is not my first language, and I forgot the word “Typo”.
Dany’s ASOS story is probably the post child for doing a lot in relatively little space (something that GRRM has decidedly had problems with in later books). It’s remarkable how much happens in only six chapters. The show got the better part of two seasons out of these events.
Very very true.
I’m really fascinated with how fandom views Jorah. When Storm of Swords was published, I’m not sure Jorah’s behavior would have been seen (or meant to be) as boorish as it is now. Martin wrote it when Clinton was in the White House and while it’s good that we are rightly complaining about Trump’s behavior toward women, we weren’t that good about it in the 90s. Sexual harassment was usually something to be laughed at in sit-coms or was a weapon women would use against men. There were a lot of Dany/Jorah fan-ships – in part, I’m sure, to Iain Glen’s portrayal of Jorah. But now there’s a lot more of the attitude suggested in this essay about his predatoral behavior. It’ll be interesting to see how Martin ends Jorah’s run and how he ends up being viewed.
I agree. The discourse in fandom has changed enormously since 2000. Still far from perfect and there were people fighting the good fight back then, but it’s a clear sign of progress.
I have mixed feelings about Ian Glen’s portrayal of Jorah. He’s a great actor and very handsome, and I like watching him become Jorah on screen, but I feel that his portrayal significantly alters the dynamic between him and Dany. His much more respectful attitude leaves me rather confused as to what I should think of him. Show-Jorah is probably how book-Jorah thinks of himself.
Glen could play a less sympathetic Jorah without a problem. The writing of the character is different, which is the root.
The Show considerably softens Jorah, but it did the same to Tywin who is the most raging misogynist in the books. By removing Tysha, you are whitewashing Tywin. And let’s not forget how they staged Jaime/Cersei. I think TV in general is a little behind in terms of attitudes.
In the books, Jorah was always a creep…and a possessive Nice Guy. That’s always been GRRM’s intent on how he should be seen. The show just altered that and made Jorah into the Patron Saint of Unrequited Love.
Please let’s not delve again into these arguments about “whitewashed” or, shudder, “grandfatherly” Tywin that started rearing their head back in Season 2. Just because he’s not a carbon copy of book!Tywin doesn’t mean he’s somehow softened in the show.
I am sorry, but the plain reality is he is softened in the show. You can make several comparisons, such as the presentation of his death where in the books it’s made clear that he was unpopular with the people.
I don’t know if book Jorah is a creep exactly. He’s deeply flawed, as are most of the characters. His paranoia isn’t necessarily wrong for their position, it just happens to be specifically wrong when applied to Barrister Selmy.
I would say that Jorah is one more of the many characters who have a romantic ideal that shatters on contact with reality. In his case, the idea that he can get a do over on his life by falling in love with a princess and that if he loves her enough, she’ll love him back. (OK, that’s textbook Nice Guy, but I’m not sure creep applies in ye olden times)
Dany tells him she’s not interested, and he doesn’t care.
No she doesn’t. She tells him he shouldn’t have. She tells him it isn’t fitting. She doesn’t tell him she’s not interested. He kisses her once, she does not push him away, he lets go, and (I believe) never tries it again. It also isn’t really true that she’s not interested. She has mixed feelings about him. She keeps telling herself he shouldn’t have done it, but it’s clear she can’t stop thinking about it.
He’s also completely devoted to her, and his loyalty does not depend on whether she fulfills his hopes, either romantic or political. He consistently offers her sound advice; better than Barristan’s. He’s willing to die for her. Jorah gets a lot of hate, but he’s no villain.
Specifically: “I do not desire you, Jorah Mormont.” Word for word.
What do you mean by “he doesn’t care?”. He doesn’t stop being in love with her, but doesn’t he back off?
“Thus he pegs Jorah as a One-hit-wonder, who felt genuine inspiration only the once and then ruined his life trying to recapture it”
Sounds like another slaver psychopath villain, also formed on an island, who also spent his exile in Essos. Only… Euron does have an spectacular if particularly horrifying style.
It also sounds like another pimper psychopath villain, also formed on a territory very much related to water, who also hates Ned Stark’s guts so much that he doesn’t stop to consider how blatantly obvious it is, in fat, in private, he doesn’t even call him “Lord”, he simply calls him “Stark”, which seems demeaning, and he means that demeaning. But Littlefinger also has an style of his own.
I don’t know what’s causing the rogue blockquote, trying to find it in the html.
Fixed it. Some weird interaction between the placement of justify-text tags and blockquote tags, I think.
Kieron Gillen’s THREE is indeed quite good, but I want to give a bigger shout out to CREATION by Gore Vidal. A novel that puts Persia at the center of the Axial Age and properly puts Greece as the minor-backwater it was in the context of the 4th Century BCE.
I am waiting for the movie about the Graeco-Persian wars that points out that Greece repeatedly attacked Persian colonies and that when Themistocles was ostracized by Athens he spent his retirement as a satrap for Persia, all out of the goodness of their heart.
A very good novel, although Vidal has his own biases.
What are Vidal’s biases? I have just finished reading Creation but don’t have a great deal of knowledge about that period.
I don’t think Steve is referring to Vidal’s political biases in CREATION per se, but his views on American politics.
Creation is a novel, a literary work and Vidal is quite careful to make sure that the views in the book aren’t a mouthpiece of his own. Like the narrator Cyrus Spitama is, not exactly a homophobe per se, but certainly some who views heterosexuality as normal which Vidal certainly didn’t.
If the Dothraki can be defeated by disciplined infantry, why do we see relatively little evidence for their use across the rest of Essos?
There are probably multiple reasons.
The first is that the city-states don’t really want to destroy the Dothraki. There are certainly times when the Dothraki cause serious devastation to towns and cities, but they’re also an important part of the economy.
Second could be cost and numbers. I don’t think there are that many Unsullied in the world and it cost Dany a dragon to buy up all that were available in Astapor (now exactly how many Unsullied a dragon can buy is another question).
After that I’d bet that most khals have learned to be a bit more tactically flexible than Temmo. It was just as much his stubbornness as Unsullied discipline that cost him the battle and his life.
Well, keep in mind we’ve only seen western Essos. I would argue that it’s a hangover from the days of Old Valyria, where relying on large infantry armies a la Ghis was a good way to get yourself roasted alive, whereas with cavalry, you could try to do a hit-and-run.
Eleventy-stupid indeed. Great work! Now, what on earth is there to write about in Bran I?
You could talk about how Bran’s story becomes painfully stretched thin at this point, I suppose.
Excellent as always. A few things to note:
The height preference may indeed come from fighter pilots – but not necessarily. There are connections with real animal behavior. Just look at cats. They will get angry if another cat climbs to a place higher than their own, unless the higher cat’s predominance on the territory has already been established.
For the always eating, always growing, again, symbolism is the more likely explanation. But on a first read, I wondered whether GRRM was borrowing from old beliefs about dinosaur growth – the ones that were popular when paleontology still thought of dinosaurs as mostly scaly, cold blooded, and with a slow but incessant growth. Incidentally those views were more popular in the 60s and 70s, and while in the 80s people began to realize that dinosaur metabolism had to be pretty active, the image of the always growing scaly dragon stuck for a while longer.
Keep up the great stuff.
I always took the “constantly eating, constantly growing” thing to be a narrative necessity. The dragons have to go from hatchlings to creatures that Dany and friends can ride into battle within the space of her lifetime/a finite number of books. So you have to posit a weird growth curve where they grow to fighting size very quickly and then level off while always growing as long as they have food and freedom.
Fantastic work as always maester Steven. Since we’re now diving into the topic of the Unsullied I wonder if you have ever read The Ten Thousand by Paul Kearny, and if you have: what is your opinion of his depiction of phalanx-warfare?
[…] iron-clad rule. Salladhor Saan has boosted a cargo belonging to Illyrio Mopatis, but so has Daenerys Targaryen, and Illyrio himself treats laws banning slavery as more of a suggestion. And indeed, Salladhor […]
[…] mark in the duel, and to give the man his due he almost succeeds when Brienne almost falls, echoing Ser Barristan’s philosophy about the nature of chance in martial […]
[…] dragons are thematically associated with freedom. (For good and for ill, as we shall see.) In the last chapter, we are told that “a dragon never stops growing, Your Grace, so long as he has food and […]
Late to the game here, but excellent post as always. I’m a member of a public library organized ASOIAF book club, and I hope you’ll be happy to hear that we’ve referenced your analyses extensively on our second read through of the series. We’re about to start ASOS again, so luckily we’ll have your essays to reference for another meeting or two.
As far as this chapter is concerned, one of the interesting things I noticed is that Jorah’s suspicion of Barristan’s loyalty is very much influenced by his own deception of Dany. He specifically mentions that Arstan and Belwas could have been in league with the Sorrowful Man, foiling the assassination attempt to gain her trust.
This is precisely what happened way back in Daenerys VI of AGOT, where Jorah, acting on the intel from Illyrio’s letter, foils the wineseller’s clumsy assassination attempt, cementing Dany’s and Drogo’s trust for him.
While I don’t think Jorah’s suspicions are true, he does know that it’s a strategy that has worked against Dany in the past.
Dear Mr. Walker~
A public library reading club for ASOIAF??? Sigh, I don’t imagine this anywhere in FLA–where is yours??
[…] knight, he never got the chance to joust in the most famous tourney of his generation, where the emotional high of being named to the Kingsguard could well have propelled him to victory. It’s as if Ser Barristan had been sent off the field at Blackhaven rather than being […]
Selmy like Pycelle are from another time. They are competent in their roles but they are really not that use to cloak and dagger business.
This chapter is also the start of Selmy’s problem relationship with Dany. He hides the truth from her. The truth she needs to hear. Any time he talks about her family he will go on carefully until there “blowback,” then he will clam up. This makes him unable to be the advisor she really needs, and leave open a position for Tyrion to take. Who will be completely honest with her, get her to march to reclaim her throne, and destroy her enemies…with much destruction in that path.