13. The more people you love, the weaker you are.-CERSEI LANNISTER

“The Winds of Winter” is the forthcoming sixth installment in George R.R. Martin’s famed “A Song of Ice and Fire” series. Despite the enthusiastic fan fare behind the series, George R.R. Martin has been in the process of writing the book for more than 3 years, and there is no confirmed release date in sight. When fans last had a glimpse inside the world of Westeros, Cersei’s position in Kings Landing had changed dramatically from when we first met her as the reigning Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, alongside her brutish husband King Robert Baratheon.

  In the fifth book “A Dance of Dragons” Cersei power and position started to slip from her grasp, her scheming against Margeary Tyrell backfired. In her attempt to have the new, younger and perhaps even more beautiful Queen framed for adultery and high treason, she is in turn arrested by the High Septon and jailed. Most fans agree that “The Winds of Winter” will complete the demise of Cersei Lannister, despite her lioness pride and prowess, she has too many impending threats and not nearly enough allies. At this point in the series, Cersei must contend with threats from the Tyrells, Aegon VI, the High Septon and of course the outcome of her trial by combat seriously determines whether she lives or dies.

Fans agree that the trial by combat will be the most likely be the end to Cersei, and not because they think her mysterious champion Ser Robert Strong will lose, in fact, he will most likely win, but not before being unmasked. Ser Robert Strong is an unknown knight added to the Kingsguard by King Tommenunder the advisement of Cersei’s only ally Qyburn. In the epilogue of “A Dance of Dragons” Kevan Lannister remembers that Meryn Trant claimed that Ser Robert Strong never ate or drank, and Boros Blount said he had never seen him use the privy.

Most theories claim that Strong is in fact a re-animated undead Mountain, who has now loyally servedthe Lannisters both in life and in death. Fans have seen the inclusion supernatural beings in the “Game of Thrones” series before, and despite having varying origins, these creatures all share one important quality in common—they are all extremely difficult to kill. So like Beric Dondarrion, Lady Stoneheart, and White Walkers, Ser Robert Strong will be difficult to complete in this trial by combat. But the problem still remains that if Ser Robert Strong is exposed as being undead, the whole trial will be invalid.

  If his undead origins were exposed during or after the trial, Cersei would be facing even more serious charges in the laws of the Faith. The former Queen regent would face accusations of breaking sacred lawsagainst necromancy from The Faith, meaning her position and more over the Lannisters rule in Kings Landing would come to an end. The continually growing militant of the Faith would revolt against the Lannisters, rendering their control of the Capital useless. The fall of the Lannisters will most likely lead to the rise of the Tyrells, who have always been viewed in a favorable light by those of the Faith and the common folk. After Cersei’s fall and their relinquishment of the crown, Cersei’s children will most likely not fair well in the Capital under the Tyrell’s rule. Cersei will witness the death of all three of her children.

As for love with his brother,

Like all great twin characters in literature, Cersei and Jaime Lannister are incredibly devoted to each other. Unlike the other greats, they also have a lot of sex – with each other. Yikes. There's not much weirder than twincest, especially once you add in the fact that they have kids.

We would love to add a reality check to this (like we've done with most of the Starks) and tell you how old Cersei and Jaime are, but we don't get that information in this book. We also don't get information about their favorite colors or what songs they like to sing. There's actually a lot of information that we don't get about Cersei and Jaime Lannister, because this book isn't really about them. So if you remember the whole incestuous twins thing – and something tells us you will –, you're all set.

My opinion about Cersei is that Without trying to shoehorn my agenda here, I'll piggyback on Robert being more responsible for Joffrey's sociopath tendencies than most readers currently think.

First and foremost, three of the four concerned people are dead. So any new information will have to come in TWOW. (GRRM hassaid we'll learn even more of Robert's Rebellion in the remaining tomes but alas, we wait.)

But what we can do is infer how Joffrey's upbringing might have gone. He's not the most inventive chap, unless he wrote the Dwarfing of Five Kings himself, so I think a lot of his most debased behavior is mimicry.

• He has his Kingsguard beat Sansa. We can be fairly certain he's seen Robert hit his mother. Cersei, however, has taught him he mustn't hit his queen. Based on his lack of forethought and intelligence, Joff undoubtedly thinks this is a perfectly just workaround.
• Joff's posturing and tough talk is practically him channeling Robert. His cruelty to animals is more twisted than Robert's affinity for hunting and mounted trophies, certainly, but you can see in his behavior equal parts wanting to emulate Robert's prowess for killing, and Cersei's inability for empathy.
• Joff's disdain for, or loathsome behavior towards, his siblings is Robert writ young. Over and over we hear of the lack of brotherly love between the Baratheons. Now, we don't hear of torturing each other's pets or anything, but Stannis does kill his own brother for the throne. We chalk that up to Stannis and his red woman and his coldblooded, rule-obsessed nature, but what do we think Robert would have thought of the whole fiasco? I think Robert would be appalled with Stannis for using shadowspawn, but conclude that Renly had betrayed the laws of succession and thus committed treason.

I belabor the point because I've come to view Robert in a rather poor light. From his lack of remorse towards Elia's children, ordering the assassination of a pregnant Dany, and Sansa and Lady at the Darry, we see through Ned just how monstrous Robert can be.

In fact, I don't think Robert and Tywin, the two most influential people in Cersei's life (imo) are that different. Tywin was willing to break the laws of gods and men, and commit legendary brutalities, to vanquish his enemies. Robert was not above the murder of innocent infants. While he didn't commit the murders himself, he pretty much voiced support of the done deed. In one word: ruthless. Both men. One on the battlefield, the other in the command tent/ solar.

So through Cersei's lens of paranoia, cooled by Tywin's constant scheming and maneuvering, and hardened by the isolation of being Robert's queen, Joff is at the breast and suckling from a variety of sociopathic figures: Robert's ultra escapade of misogyny and brutality, and Tywin's power wielding-obsessed path of control.

Since we see Cersei's mind, it's far too easy to attribute much of the mess that is Joff at her doorstep. But like every human ever, she's also a product of her environment: Tywin's eldest child for 18 years. Robert's wife for 16 years. Two colossal figures she looked up to during her formative years.

This line of thought can lead down the rabbit hole, however. But we know Tywin is not like his father, and Robert fostered with Jon Arryn, a man whose advice he did not always heed.

Sorry for focusing on the men when this was supposed to be about Cersei. I just feel strongly that she is equal parts Tywin's ruthlessness and Robert's brutality, resulting in a toxic mess of a woman trying to control child Kings with no one to depend on but herself.

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12. There are no men like me. There's only me.-JAIME LANNISTER

Jaime Lannister is an arrogant motherfucker. He will cut you with a smile and be satisfied when you’re crawling on your hands and knees, begging for mercy. He is self-absorbed and egotistically vain. He is selfish and fundamentally uncaring, and he doesn’t really give a fuck about anything that is not what he deems important. let me tell you what he thinks is important:

1. His family. (Namely his sister, his brother, his father; marginally, everyone else. Quite marginally.)
2. His duelling abilities.
3. Other people’s fear of him.
4. Pride.

Now, in order.

Family is unquestionably the most important, the fuel of Jaime Lannister’s actions, ever since he was born. He came into the world holding Cersei’s ankle, and loved her more than he loved himself. He loved his little brother when everyone else thought him a monster. He loved his father in his own way, because he had to and it was expected of him, and because the family name is all that matters, and if there is something Tywin taught his children, it’s just that: family comes before everything. Jaime took that quite literally, as we know. [But we’re not here to discuss Jaime and Cersei (SURPRISE! SHOCK!); though one could object how in order to speak of Jaime one can’t avoid talking about his relationship with Cersei, I’ll try and keep it less prominent for this premise, knowing I will have to delve into it further through the post.

This is all good and fair, but Jaime Lannister has to be seen in more than just the light his family casts upon him (or shadow, according to points of view). The more defining characteristic is surely enough his talent with a sword, and the fact that he is (in)famously one of the most talented duellers of the Seven Kingdoms, ever since the golden era of knights such as the Sword of the Morning. He was knighted when he was 15 years old, and even though he was only appointed a Kingsguard because of Aerys’ petty plans of control over Tywin, one cannot argue that the boy he was deserved it. Jaime Lannister had dreams of glory and greatness, and that was an important step. HOWEVER: “He had joined the Kingsguard for love, of course.” Dreams or not, it is impossible to ignore this, and so we take it into consideration for what it is, and that is ultimate proof of Cersei’s grip on Jaime ever since they were very young. Jaime joins the Kingsguard for Cersei, but ultimately their plans don’t work out and Jaime is alone in King’s Landing, with his father and sister long gone, miles away, safe in Casterly Rock, while he is matter-of-factly a pawn, a political hostage of the Mad King. This is undoubtedly the most important moment of Jaime Lannister’s youth, the moment that turned the boy who wanted to be Arthur Dayne into “the Smiling Knight, instead”. When faced with a choice between his vows and his own blood, Jaime chooses family (see point 1) and kills Aerys, becomes the Kingslayer and loses the enchantment of a member of the Kingsguard. He’s always been a killer (he killed, when he was only just a squire), but after Aerys’ murder, he becomes the killer. Everything he did before was erased with the Targaryen’s royal blood that ran down his blade, and suddenly Jaime Lannister became an oathbreaker rather than a knight. But no matter what other people thought, he was a knight still, he thought himself a knight. He protected his family, and that alone was validation enough. He hates the nickname Kingslayer, but he learns to live with it, strong of what he knows, things the smallfolk are not privy to: not everyone knows what really happened in that throne room, but he doesn’t care to tell the tale. He doesn’t care for anything, because in his heart he knows he did what he was meant to do, the right thing.

Which brings us to point three, and that is fear, his (nick)name preceeding him, the aura of terror that surrounds him, because what is scarier than a member of the Kingsguard forsaking every vow he took? What’s scarier than a cold-blooded murder, a man who killed an old man stabbing him in the back, with no ounce of honour or respect or conscience? Someone like Ned Stark would not have been able to live with it, but Jaime Lannister (not unlike Tyrion) makes it his armour, and he basks in that glory, bathes in the fear he sees in other people’s eyes. He can live with a lack of honour, he can live with a shitty reputation, as long as he knows people will take a step back when he walks by: to quote Machiavelli, “It is better to be feared than loved.”

And wow, look at how this premise is flowing, because here we are at point 4, Jaime Lannister’s pride. A consequence of all the previous elements, it’s his biggest flaw (which will eat away at his soul from halfway through “A storm of swords” to the very last drop “A dance with dragons”). As proud as Cersei, as proud as Tyrion, and way more proud than Tyrion, Lancel, Kevan and all the other Lannisters, Jaime fights for pride where honour has failed and left him forever. It’s a matter of overcompensation, a search for balance of sorts. A knight must fight for something: he fights for Cersei, and he fights for Tyrion, but mostly he fights for himself and what he wants to stand for. (Please notice, what he wants to stand for, not simply what he stands for. because what Jaime Lannister wants to be is very different from what he actually is. In his heart he is way more ruthless than he actually is. People often say Tyrion is the good Lannister: as much as I hate that expression, I think it’s wrong, and the most compassionate Lannister is Jaime. If compassionate is even a thing that can ever go together with a Lannister character, which is questionable.)

A STORM OF SWORDS

Undoubtedly Jaime’s book, along with a few others, “A storm of swords” covers the most controversial moment of Jaime’s life. Controversial, because there are too many takes on what really happens in this book, which makes me wonder just how people are reading it, and how some people can be so blatantly blind to the obviousness of his arc. But I digress, I don’t want to be a bitch in this post, I’ll try and keep judgment to a minimum

(Thought, seriously dudes. Seriously. Redemption? Seriously. SERIOUSLY.)

After being captive for a long time, Jaime is freed by Catelyn and put in Brienne’s trusted hands: the goal is exchanging Sansa and Arya for Jaime, taking advantage of Tyrion’s sworn vow. So, for most of the book, Jaime is on a journey of sorts, with a woman who is his antithesis on every level. A knight, just like he is, but one who still believes in the charming fairytale of the spotless, pure knight, everything Jaime forgot a long time ago (if he ever truly believed in it). Jaime’s journey has deep roots in the confrontation with Brienne, because Jaime is truly faced with all that he is not but should have been according to public opinion, and that irks him. He rejects it because he knows it’s all lies, he knows Brienne is living a lie, and he knows she will learn it sooner rather than later, just like he did. But she keeps him safe, she does her duty, and she does it because her vow is the only thing that matters.

Jaime may not understand it, may not accept it, and he might even find it ridiculous, but part of him is amused at how strongly she believes in it. He is much more experienced than her, and he knows things Brienne has never known nor witnessed, he has fought wars in more than one battlefield, words that are not necessarily fought with swords. he’s seen how ugly the world can be, and Brienne has too but not as much as him. He looks at her with the mocking patronizing attitude of a father glancing down at his child while he tells of their first riding lesson. They don’t know how many times they will fall, but he does, because he fell before, and broke a couple of bones in the process. It’s poetic, and it’s heartwarming for a while, until it becomes tragic.

As a friend of mine always says, “It’s all fun and games until someone loses a hand.”

Jaime and Brienne are captured by the Brave Companions, and they amputate Jaime’s fighting hand, thus wounding him in two of the aforementioned characteristics: his duelling abilities and people’s fear of him. Without his sword hand, Jaime loses more than just five fingers. He loses half of what he is. It’s pure mathematic. If you imagine Jaime Lannister as a Vienn diagram, half of it is completely erased. He can’t fight with his left hand and people no longer fear him because he becomes the shadow of what he was.

A very moving excerpt of the book, following the amputation, says:

"Jaime’s walls were gone. They had taken his hand, they had taken his sword hand, and without it he was nothing. The other was no good to him. Since the time he could walk, his left arm had been his shield arm, no more. It was his right hand that made him a knight; his right arm that made him a man.”

And also, a little earlier:

“Let them kill me, he thought, so long as I die fighting, a blade in hand.”

This is just a few of the parts that state how deeply the loss of his hand cuts through Jaime’s being, way beyond the physical pain, which is also unsufferable. Through the festering wound, what he thinks about is the loss of his manhood, the one thing he was good at. The deconstruction of Jaime Lannister’s character starts with this, but it’s only destined to grow worse and worse.

After many misadventures, Jaime Lannister manages reaching King’s Landing, where a grieving sister, a dead son and an imprisoned brother await him. We are towards the end of “A storm of swords”, and even though what Jaime left behind was far from an ideal situation, what he finds upon his return is utter and total devastation; it doesn’t help that he is only half the man he used to be, he is defeated and his slow process of self-loathing is in full swing. He hates himself because he wasn’t there, hates himself because he is not able to protect Cersei and Tyrion, and he is angry because without his sword hand and after such a long absence, people no longer know him, nor fear him. There is nothing left for him, he is no longer a feared murderer, he is just the shamed Kingslayer without a hand.

In King’s Landing, he faces the same fears that had been chipping away at his soul during his way back: he is the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, but how can he hope to be as good as Selmy or Dayne without his hand? He doesn’t tell anyone that his left hand is completely useless, he hides behind smugness and bitter arrogance, that an outsider might mistake for the same old no-fucks-given attitude, but for someone who knows him (and we know him, as readers, because we have been inside his head) is obviously just a shield to keep others from knowing the true capacity of his sense of failure.

Jaime Lannister shows talent, as a Lord Commander. He takes some decisions that are absolutely worthy of the noble knights that came before him, but it’s not enough. He is not a strategist, he is a fighter, and the loss of his hand has made him bitter about everything. Jaime Lannister was sarcastic, ironic funny, witty even, before he fell in the Starks’ hands. In “A storm of swords” he still laughs at people, and he still keeps that unique quality to his thoughts that often make the reader think of his chapters as funny and amusing: little do most people realize, that that humour is not Jaime Lannister as we know, it’s the resigned desperation of a man who has lost everything and laughs about it because it’s the only thing that keeps him from crumbling. You think it funny, I honestly think it tragic and absolutely soul-crushing. But maybe I am biased, because Jaime Lannister and Cersei lannister are my favourite characters. As I said very early in this post, feel free to ignore the ramblings (though, if you’ve come this far, I have a mind that you agree with me, at least in soem capacity.)

Remember when I spoke of maths and diagrams? And remember the four elements I listed as components of Jaime Lannister? Right now we have: family, pride. Two down, two to go.

In King’s Landing, Jaime realizes his family is facing self-destruction. His father disowns him because Jaime is tired of doing his bidding, Cersei is slowly losing her mind to grief and paranoia, and even his little brother is in a small cell accused with kinslaying and kingslaying, and Jaime is not sure where to turn. Because yes, Tyrion and Cersei always turned to him, but it’s also true the opposite: Jaime is only as strong as his family allows him to be. And his family is growing apart, destroying itself, with their own hands. Even Cersei, whom he fought so hard to come back to, grows distant: she is afraid he is no longer the man she needs him to be, that he is changed while in reality she is the one who has changed. And eventually Tyrion turns his back on him too when Jaime confesses that the one thing he allegedly did that had earned him Tyrion’s unquestioned trust was a lie, a plot, a scheme of Tywin’s that’s he’d agreed to. He loses Tyrion, he loses Tywin (at the end of ASOS) and he is fairly sure he is well on his way to losing his sister/lover/reason/everything. Not to mention the stunning revelation that Cersei has been sleeping with other people. (Of course, by now he is too angry and blind to the reasons, and he doesn’t see why she did it, he only sees the betrayal, as is often the case when a person cheats on another.)

A FEAST FOR CROWS

How long can a person go on before he breaks, when the only thing left to him is pride? Add anger to it, and you’ll have a lethal mix that will drastically upset even the strongest characters. It’s maths, really. I will never get tired of repeating this: it’s basilar mathematics. You take away, bit after bit: that’s what deconstruction is, and Jaime’s deconstruction is majestically put in action. It is, probably, the best deconstruction of the whole arc, because it doesn’t include magical elements and stuff. It’s just a game of betrayals and discoveries, a political chess game that Jaime Lannister loses so fucking epically that in the end he is left with nothing but a few angry pawn, and they are nothing.

With Tywin dead and Tyrion gone, the two people that we need to analyse are Jaime and Cersei, obviously. “A feast for crows”, with the introduction of Cersei’s POV alongside Jaime’s, gives us further insight to what really happens in King’s Landing between the two of them. It’s a terrible face off of angry people, a battle of egos that positively roar at each other, each firm on their own beliefs, unwilling to take a step towards each other. They try, once or twice, but it’s feeble, it’s appearance, it’s just to convince themselves that they can keep it together, that they can control it. But they can’t. Cersei is drowning in her deliriums, Jaime is drowning in his depression.

Many people don’t seem to realize that halfway through “A feast for crows” Jaime falls prey of depression. He hides it, he makes a joke and the reader thinks everything is okay, but Jaime has nothing left to live for. It’s very important, when you think of how likely it is, for the fulfillment of the prophecy, that Jaime will end up killing himself after he’s killed Cersei.

"A storm of swords" was easier to write about because I am in the middle of my reread, "A feast for crows" is a bit more foggy because it’s been a while; but it is my favourite book of the series because of all of this. Cersei and Jaime being my favourite characters, this it the book that watches closely as they hurl themselves towards their own downfall, and as a trademark sadist who deeply enjoys as much as she hates her favourite characters’ suffering, it’s hardly difficult to see that it is the turning point for both of them.

Jaime leaves King’s Landing, eventually. One might say he is driven away by his own anger: he leaves on Kingsguard duty, he leaves for the siege of Riverrun (iirc?). the details don’t matter, what matters is that he leaves and during his time away from king’s Landing he thinks, and thinks, and thinks. And he always thinks of the same two things: his sword hand and his sister. The two things he loved the most that are lost to him. And it is with a mixture of nostalgia and anger and desperation that he thinks about it, during the nights where he forces Ser Payne to fight him to train his left hand. He longs for Cersei and he hates her, he hates her so intensely for what she did and for what she has become, for lettng herself be overpowered by the demons inside her head. He hates her because their love is so strong and unhealthy, to the point of obsession.

[Please notice that in the same page, Jaime thinks of Cersei as the “queen of whores” only to later think “I don’t have a wife, I have a sister”. Like, literally a bunch of lines after he calls her a whore he calls her his wife. That’s telling of the confusion and dicotomy that stirs his whole being.]

I like to call Jaime’s mission his “hiatus from King’s Landing”. You know how we bloggers sometimes need to get away from here, go on hiatus for a week, ten days, two weeks? Because people get on our nerves, because we don’t like the way people respond to things, whatever the reason, we get away from it, because sometimes being away helps. That’s exactly what Jaime does. He gets away from Cersei, Tommen, the Tyrells, the Kingsguard, Kevan, everyone, because he is tired and depressed. He will take anything, not to think of what he left behind, of the ghost of the sister he can’t help but love despite her mental downfall.

This is when he also offers to fling Edmure Tully’s baby against Riverrun’s walls, if the Tullys don’t give in, with a nice trebuchet. (Actually I don’t remmeber if this was in AFFC or ADWD, but still. Nice person, huh? I can totally see the redempton there.)

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS

We see little of Jaime during this book, but he does pop up towards the end, in full angry douchebag mode, the same way we left him at the end of “A feast for crows”. Cersei’s cry for help falls on deaf ears, for the same reasons why he left King’s Landing in the first place: he is tired of everything, tired of being looked down on, tired of being pushed away, so much that when she tries to rope him back in he’s the one to tug at the chord instead. The letter burns, and so does Jaime’s anger. it burns bright hot, it stings with betrayal and bitterness and sadness and he can’t bring himself to get over it because he is a man wounded and in despair.

Remember the calculation? Remember the elements? Remember what remained?

Pride.

That’s why he throws the letter in the fire. How many of us are guilty of the same crime? I, for one, can say I totally am. I did disregard people just because they hurt me first. And not because I didn’t love them, but because pride is the worst dormant beast that dwells in the human being, it fuels anger and it makes us do things we will regret more often than not. I will sya this again, Jaime is angry and depressed and everything he was has been destroyed, every single element, until only his pride was left to him, the one thing he could armour himself in to pretend everything was alright. A smug neglect, an arrogant blindfold to all that surrounds him.

And when he follows Brienne, it’s not because he prefers to go with her rather than running to Cersei: it’s because, as I said, he will take anything that will get him away from the terror that awaits in King’s Landing, away from Cersei and all that she has become, away from that duty which he knows fully well he can not sustain without his sword hand. He leaves the camp and he follows Brienne because it’s a way of escaping the bad and the ugly.

A CONCLUSION

I don’t know what will happen to Jaime, but I have my theories. Theories that need Jaime to come back to King’s Landing, or at least meet Cersei one last time, because I am convinced he is the valonqar, according to the very common opinion that the prophecy is always the opposite of what the prophetèe (is it a word?) thinks. Cersei is so sure that Tyrion is the valonqar, therefore it will be Jaime. So I am sure whatever happens with Lady Stoneheart, Jaime will live, because he has a much bigger arc to fulfill. And as I previously stated, when I mentioned Jaime’s depression, it makes sense that he will die eventually, very possibly by his own hand.

We have reached the end of this…essay. It is a fucking essay oh my God, if you actually read all of it I am going to send flowers or something, because it’s really long and I ramble a lot. Anyway yes, this is the end, but I want to close with a simple request.

Stop defining Jaime’s arc as a “path to redemption”. it is not. If we could replace that expression with “path to acceptance” I will sleep better at night, and it will spare me a lot of bitter bile and bad blood.

What is your thoughts about Jamie Lannister?

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11. My mind is my weapon. My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer and I have my mind... and a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone if it is to keep its edge. That’s why I read so much- TYRION LANNISTER(IMP)

Tyrion Lannister is a member of House Lannister and is the third and youngest child of Lord Tywin Lannister and the late Joanna Lannister. His older siblings are Cersei Lannister, the queen of King Robert Baratheon, and Ser Jaime Lannister, a knight of Robert'sKingsguard.

Tyrion is a dwarf; because of this he is sometimes mockingly called the Imp and the Halfman. He is one of the major POV characters in the books

Tyrion was born the third child of Tywin and Joanna Lannister. Joanna died giving birth to him, and as a result his father blamed him for her death and hates him for that and for his deformity. Tyrion finds himself excluded from regular family life, especially by his father and by his sister, who abused him during his childhood.

As a child, Tyrion knew he would never be a knight, and so thought to become the High Septon instead, since that crystal crown added a foot to one's height. When Tyrion was thirteen, he and his brother Jaime rescued a common girl, Tysha, from some bandits, and thoughts of love quickly replaced those of priesthood. While Jaime went after the bandits Tyrion took care of Tysha. To his amazement Tysha liked him, and they eventually made love. Tyrion became so enamoured by her that he bribed a septon and married her in secret. Tysha would sing the Myrish song "The Seasons of My Love". Their happiness lasted only two weeks, however, before Tyrion’s father got news of the wedding. Lord Tywin commanded Jaime to say that Tysha was a prostitute whom Jaime had hired for Tyrion’s benefit. Because the “whore” had presumed to marry a Lannister, Tywin had his entire guard rape Tysha for a silver each and then made Tyrion go last for a gold coin, because a Lannister is worth more.

After his brother’s proposed marriage to Lysa Tully fell through when Aerys named Jaime to the Kingsguard, Tywin offered Tyrion as a replacement, only to be told by Hoster Tully that his daughter required a “whole man”.

When Tyrion became a man at sixteen, he was forbidden from taking a tour of the nine Free Cities as his uncles Gerion and Tygett had done. Instead, Tywin gave him charge of all the cisterns and drains at Casterly Rock.

Lets start from A DANCE WITH DRAGONS page 577 about Tyrion Lannister;

"Prince Aerys (the Mad King)... as a youth, he was taken with a certain lady of Casterly Rock, a cousin of Tywin Lannister. When she and Tywin wed, (Aerys/Mad King) drank too much win at the wedding feast and was heard to say that it was a great pity that the lord's right to the first night had been abolished... the liberties (that Aerys/Mad King) took during the bedding." Ser Barristan to Dany

A FEAST FOR CROWS
Page 533
"The Imp is no longer my brother, if he ever was." Cersei Lannister
Page 503
"... but Tyrion is Tywin's son, not you. I said so once to your father's face, and he would not speak to me for half a year." Aunt Genna to Jaime

A STORM OF SWORDS
Page 880
"You... you are no... no son of mine." Tywin's last words, spoken to his killer Tyrion.
Page 502 
"Aerys had chosen [Jaime] to spite his father, to rob Lord Tywin of his heir."

If this isn't a red herring (and I hope it is) There are a couple of choices:
1.King Aerys was Tyrion's father. 
2.King Aerys was Cersei and Jaime's father.

In favor of Tyrion, he's been interested in dragons since he was a child (GoT). Tywin said that he wasn't his son. Tywin was always cruel to Tyrion. Tyrion's hair is closer to Targaryen bleach blond, than Lannister blond. Tyrion doesn't get the greyscale because (just like Dany) he doesn't get sick.

In favor of Cersei/Jaime, Barristan said that the Aeyrs took "liberties" on Tywin's wedding night... so the older children would be the offspring. Jaime & Cersei seem to have been born to love each other (just as the Targaryen's do) and Cersei's only other attraction was to Rhaeger who would be her half-brother. Cersei gets fascinated with fire.

I'm somewhat surprised at how mis-interpreted some basic human behavior here is. 

The whole "you're no son of mine" is not a hint or whatever, it's just Tywin throwing one last insult at Tyrion, expressing his hate and disgust and dislike of him.

Same with Cersei's comment, she hates Tyrion and she'd love it if he wasn't actually her brother and she'd probably love to believe it but I'm pretty sure deep down she knows he is her brother and she's really pissed off because of that, to be linked in any way whatsoever to this person she hates so much.
Same goes for Tywin. I think both actually "know" that Tyrion is really their son/brother, they just despise him so much they actually try to convince themselves that he's not. That's just human behavior, there's no secret meaning there.

When you write some test in school and you know you suck and you can only have failed it you still try to convine yourself, hold out hope, "maybe it'll still be enough, maybe I'll still make it.", just for an example many should understand.

Martin throws some hints about some things here and there but you CAN over-interpret things.

I'm 100% convinced Tyrion is Tywin's son, only Tywin and Cersei hate him so much and for Tywin him being a dwarf+his wife having died in childbirth is enough to loathe Tyrion, there doesn't have to be some secret reason like him actually being Aerys son or whatever.

Tyrion being interested in dragons also is not some secret hint. Hell, dragons are cool and in that world they actually existed, which child would not be fascinated by them. Only Tyrion, being highborn, actually was able to read more about them than the peasants and watch the dragons' skulls etc.

If Aerys actually had taken Tywin's wife at all and/or before Tywin their whole relationship would have been VASTLY different, Tywin wouldn't have become Hand and he actually might have had Aerys killed some way. There was no way he could have borne such a slight.

As for Cersei being attracted to Rhaegar - by all accounts he was one magnificent man, both in qualities as in looks, probably one of the few men actually looking at least as good or better than Jaime. There doesn't need to be some secret half-brother relationship between Cersei and Rhaegar for her to be attracted to him. 

Also, Rhaegar wasn't the only man she was attracted to. She also said she was attracted to Robert when they were married, him also being quite a hunk apparently. She only grew to hate him when he grunted Lyanna's name during their wedding night.

All three Lannister children feature the Lannister looks and not a bit of Targaryen. Tyrion's paler hair is just designed to even further illustrate how deformed he is compared to his oh so beautiful and perfect siblings.

Overall - I think you read too much into some things and misinterpret others.There are many, many hints in this series and many red herrings - e.g. the new one about Jon Snow - but not absolutely every line has to hint at something secret.  

Why people hate Tyrion Lannister?

Okay, you’re totally allowed to do that.  If I’m honest with myself, I can think of probably fifty reasons off the top of my head that Tyrion might get on your nerves/piss you off/make you want to bash him over the head with a rock.  (I mean, ngl, if you really hate Tyrion Lannister - like, not just dislike him, but actively, aggressively hate him - we’re probably not going to make good fandom friends.  BUT that doesn’t mean I don’t respect your right to do so; we can happily ignore each other!  That’s the great thing about tumblr - all these little sections of fandom that allow you to find people who think similarly.   Or who don’t, when you want a discussion!)  So my issue is not with the fact that people dislike Tyrion, but with the reasons why people dislike him.  (I’ve heard the same thing said about Sansa and Catelyn and other characters, and I agree there 100% as well.  But again, I’m probably biased concerning these two as well.)

So recently I’ve seen it suggested that the reason Tyrion employs prostitutes is that he enjoys having some sort of “sexual domination” over women.  I’m sorry, but, to me, coming to this conclusion seems to imply some purposeful misreading of Tyrion’s character as presented by the text.  We know why Tyrion turns to prostitutes.  It’s because hedoes not believe any woman could ever come to truly love him.  Because he literally believes that paying a woman is the only way she will ever sleep with him willingly.  And there’s no reason for him to think differently; the ‘Tysha incident’ taught him that.  Just last night, I saw someone comment that it seems odd that Tyrion, after suffering the sexual domination of his father, sought out sexual domination of prostitutes.  And yeah - that would be weird.

But that is not what is happening here.  Speaking of pre-ADwD Tyrion (I’m not touching ADwD Tyrion because I’ve already talked about that at length in other posts, and I don’t think I’m capable of discussing the subject briefly), at least, it’s of essential importance to him that all his sexual relations are consensual.  That the women he sleeps with want to sleep with him.  And that is why he turns to prostitutes.  Because, as Tywin taught him so harshly - when Tyrion was only thirteen fucking years old - the only way a woman is going to come to him consensually is for money.

Again, I don’t understand how this could not be clear from the text.  I really don’t.  Because we see what Tyrion does with Shae.  It’s nothing kinky or subversive - actually, it’s pretty vanilla.  He wants her to pretend to love him.  Because that’s the only kind of love he’s ever going to get - the kind that’s bought and paid for.  That’s pretty fucking tragic, to me, at least.

From this point, I’m going to move to another point of contention when it comes to Tyrion: what moves him not to sleep with Sansa on their wedding night.  I think it’s pretty clear given what we’ve just discussed.  He doesn’t sleep with Sansa because Tyrion only wants to sleep with women who want to sleep with him - and Sansa definitely doesn’t.  Again, the other day I saw it said on tumblr that this is an essentially selfish reason; he wants to feel loved, and he can’t if the person he’s sleeping with is obviously repulsed by/terrified of him.  And yes, that’s all true.  BUT.  Isn’t it also true that the fact that he feels there’s something intrinsically wrong with sleeping with a woman who doesn’t want him - even in a society that says it’s her duty to do so - means he has some basic grasp of morality (beyond that dictated to him by Westeros’ misogynistic mindset)?  Why would it even bother him if he didn’t?  (Remember, even in ADwD, he only considers sleeping with women who would rather not sleep with him once he’s made the mental leap to “I’m already such a bad person it’s entirely hopless for me to even try anymore.”  Even then, he thinks of this as something a bad person does.)

To me, twisting the decision Tyrion makes into something entirely selfish is not that much different from saying, “Well, she only stopped that person from being hit by a car because she would have felt guilty if she hadn’t!  Therefore, risking her life to save that person was ultimately a selfish decision.”  Really, by this logic, pretty much any decently moral decision can be made into something selfish.

But, even if it’s accepted that Tyrion did something decent by not touching Sansa because she didn’t want him to, we are then told he’s STILL selfish, because he’s hurt and upset that she doesn’t want to.  Now, please note I’m not denying that Sansa has it worse in this situation, but let’s take a look at Tyrion’s position.  He’s married to a woman who can’t stand the sight of him.  She’s openly told him she’s never going to be able to stand the sight of him (and OF COURSE I can’t blame her, but still).  He’s keeping a concubine in secret.  If his father ever finds out about this concubine, he’ll lose her too, because Tywin forbid him to have her.  (Not that Shae even really loves him, but at least she can bring herself to pretend to.)  So really, he’s been forbidden from ever having a loving relationship.  Of any kind.  I don’t know about you, but I’d be feeling pretty damn sorry for myself too.  And if that’s selfish, I don’t really give a fuck.

Because it sucks.

And finally, I don’t really have a good segue here, but I just want to touch on this because it’s been brought up a lot lately.  (Actually, who am I kidding?  It’s brought up a lot always.)  The idea that Tyrion killed Shae because he was a misogynist.  I’m just going to come right out and say right away that I’m not arguing that Tyrion isn’t a misogynist - because everyone in ASoIaF, even the women, have misogynistic tendencies.  Because THEY LIVE IN A MISOGYNISTIC SOCIETY.  Even the most fair-minded of them have internalized at least some of the bullshit they’ve heard their whole lives.  And I’m also not arguing that Tyrion’s murder of Shae was justified.  (For the record, I’m not really sure murder is ever justified.  So.)

What I am arguing is that the reaction people are expecting Tyrion to have to Shae’s betrayal is completely unrealistic.  Fandom seems to think Tyrion should have confronted Shae that night in Tywin’s bedchambers by saying: “Gee, Shae!  You just implicated me in a murder I didn’t commit while humiliating me via my disability in front of the entire court!  But that’s okay!  Please tell me why you did this.”  And I just wonder: Is there anyone in the world who would have reacted this way?  Really?  Again, I’m not saying killing Shae was the right thing to do!  But he didn’t do it because he was a misogynist.  Or because she’d exercised her “power” as a woman when she testified against him.  He did it because she’d betrayed him.  Really betrayed him.  In a way Bronn never did.

Sure, Bronn didn’t stand for Tyrion, but he also didn’t actively participate in his downfall either.  By testifying against him, Shae pretty much guaranteed that Tyrion would be put to death - and that didn’t really appear to be a source of conflict for her at all.  (I will concede that we don’t know this for sure, as we see this all from Tyrion’s very limited point of view, but remember, that’s how he sees it too.)  So looked at like that, it’s really not that hard to believe that - after losing everything, culminating in the love he thought Jaime had for him, as well as the love he’d tricked himself into believing he shared with Shae - Tyrion might snap and do something horrible.  Horrible, but - in my opinion - not unforgivable.  Because it was motivated by extreme human emotion and instability.  Tyrion’s convincing himself that Shae loved him had far more to do with his issues with his self-worth than it did to do with any internalized misogyny.

(I actually rather think that, had Shae broken down and told Tyrion she did what she did out of fear for her own life - which I personally don’t believe for a second, but it’s a valid theory - Tyrion wouldn’t have hurt her at all.  But that’s entirely speculation.)

I guess what I’m saying here with all of this is that Tyrion fucked up.  Not just in his murder of Shae, but in tons of ways throughout the series.  But to boil all of Tyrion’s flaws down to his misogyny - and to pretty much reduce his character to only that, while simultaneously erasing some important aspects of his disability experience and how that affects his self-worth - is really over-simplifying a character GRRM put a lot of effort (hundreds of pages of it!) into.

When it comes to ASoIaF, you can come up with some pretty solid reasons to dislike any character - that’s kind of the point, I think!  Because you can also come up with some pretty solid reasons to like them.  For me, Tyrion - even with all his flaws - is entirely relatable.  Even when his actions are frustrating and sometimes downright upsetting, I can always see why he acts the way he does.  While I can’t always support his actions, I can always understand them.  And that, my dears, is a feather in GRRM’s metaphorical cap!

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10. I will answer injustice with justice- DAENERYS TARGERYEN(STORMBORN)

This post will give a review (supported with quotes and passages) of the visions Daenerys Targaryen saw in the House of the Undying and speculate what they could mean.

In one room, a beautiful woman sprawled naked on the floor while four little men crawled over her. They had rattish pointed faces and tiny pink hands, like the servitor who had brought her the glass of shade. One was pumping between her thighs. Another savaged her breasts, worrying at the nipples with his wet red mouth, tearing and chewing.

This has been interpreted by many as the war that had been raging in Westeros at the time. The beautiful woman on the floor is Westeros itself, and the “four little men” who are crawling over her are the four kings. (As there were never actually five kings at the War of the Five Kings at the same time, because Balon Greyjoy crowned himself after Renly died.)

Since the House of the Undying shows visions of past, present and future, we cannot know for certain if the fourth “dwarf” represents Balon Greyjoy or Renly Baratheon. The interpretation is up to you.

Farther on she came upon a feast of corpses. Savagely slaughtered, the feasters lay strewn across overturned chairs and hacked trestle tables, asprawl in pools of congealing blood. Some had lost limbs, even heads. Severed hands clutched bloody cups, wooden spoons, roast fowl, heels of bread. in a throne above them sat a dead man with the head of a wolf. He wore an iron crown and held a leg of lamb in one hand as a king might hold a scepter, and his eyes followed Dany with mute appeal.

This is perhaps the most obvious vision/dream GRRM ever granted us. Obviously a foreshadowing of the Red Wedding.

Finally a great pair of bronze doors appeared to her left, grander than the rest. They swung open as she neared, and she had to stop and look. Beyond loomed a cavernous stone hall, the largest she had ever seen. The skulls of dead dragons looked down from its walls. Upon a towering barbed throne sat an old man in rich robes, an old man with dark eyes and long silver-grey hair.“Let him be king over charred bones and cooked meat,” he said to a man below him. “Let him be the king of ashes.”

In A Storm of Swords, Chapter 38, Jaime V [x], Jaime explains Brienne that the Mad King Aerys intended to burn down the city with wildfire when he realised that the war was lost after the Trident. He meant to have the greatest “funeral pyre” of them all. When he says “Let him be the king of ashes,” it’s clear that he’s talking about Robert Baratheon. 

Viserys, was her first thought the next time she paused, but a second glance told her otherwise. The man had her brother’s hair, but he was taller, and his eyes were a dark indigo rather than lilac.“Aegon,” he said to a woman nursing a newborn babe in a great wooden bed. “What better name for a king?”
“Will you make a song for him?” the woman asked. “He has a song,” the man replied. “He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.” He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany’s, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door.

“There must be one more,” he said, though whether he was speaking to her or the woman in the bed she could not say. “The dragon has three heads.” He went to the window seat, picked up a harp, and ran his fingers lightly over its silvery strings. Sweet sadness filled the room as man and wife and babe faded like the morning mist, only the music lingering behind to speed her on her way.

The Targaryen look (so much that Dany thought he was Viserys) of the man, the mention of a harp and the fact that he has a son named Aegon leaves no doubt in the mind that the man is Rhaegar Targaryen. Therefore, the woman is Elia of Dorne.

Rhaegar was quite obsessed with the Prince that was Promised prophecy. At first, because he was born to the tragedy of Summerhall, he thought he was the Prince that was Promised ("I will require a sword and armor. It seems I must be a warrior"), then, for whatever reason, he changed his mind and decided that his son would be the promised hero. (“He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.”)

I do not know why he decided that there “must be three” if he thought Aegon was the hero; was it simply because “the dragon has three heads?” Or is it something more? Daenerys herself heard the number three (as will be explored shortly) quite often in the House of the Undying. It is also good to keep in mind that there are three names and versions about the hero who will fight the others: the Prince That Was Promised, Azor Ahai and the Last Hero. Did he believe that his “daughters” will also aid Aegon in the second War for the Dawn?

(Also, note that Rhaegar named his children Aegon and Rhaenys, and I’m almost certain that if he had another daughter, she would be named Visenya.)

Whatever the reason may be, he was determined that he must have another child. But Elia of Dorne was said to be “delicate and frail,” and probably couldn’t bear more children. Many fans, and I am among them, speculate that this is why he “kidnapped” Lyanna.

But that’s a topic for another meta. Let’s go back to the House of the Undying visions.

The true mystery of the visions start after this (after Daenerys finds the Undying) because every vision we have read before that point have been revealed quite clearly in the books.

… three fires must you light… one for life and one for death and one to love…
… three mounts must you ride… one to bed and one to dread and one to love…
… three treasons will you know… once for blood and once for gold and once for love…

Fires: One of these fires is the funeral pyre Daenerys lit for Drogo, which also helped her birth her dragons. I believe this is the “fire for life,” as the dragons were born directly from that fire. Some believe that it’s the “fire for love” because of Drogo. The interpretation is up to you.

The fire for “death” could very well be the fire Drogon will start shortly after this very point which will lead to destruction of the House of the Undying.

Mounts: The mount “for bed” is generally interpreted as her marriage bed to Drogo.

As far-fetched as it may sound, the mount for “dread” could be the foreshadowing of a very popular fan theory: Daenerys riding her dragons to the Wall against the Others. Or, it could have a simpler answer and mean Daenerys’ flight to Westeros to claim her birthright.

Treasons: Daenerys believes that the treason “for blood” was Mirri Maz Duur. And it probably was. She betrayed Daenerys for her own “blood” (kin, fellow villagers, whatever you want to name it), using blood magic.

Daenerys also believes that she has been betrayed for gold by Jorah when his treachery was revealed by Barristan Selmy, but I do not believe this. Jorah didn’t send reports to King’s Landing for gold, he sent it for a royal pardon so he could go home. I’m sure he was sent some amount of money as well, but that wasn’t his main goal.

Therefore, it still leaves (for certain): fire for love, mount to love, treason for gold and treason for love.

I believe Jorah will be the one who betrays her for love. Daario doesn’t truly love her (though I wouldn’t rule him out for “treason for gold,”) and I cannot think of another candidate who might betray Daenerys in that concept.

Aside from Daario, there is also Ilyrio Mopatis to consider for “gold.” Since he’s working with Varys and Varys is supporting Young Griff, Ilyrio could easily betray Daenerys and her cause.

Does anyone have any ideas about fire for love and mount to love? Feel free to send them.

Viserys screamed as the molten gold ran down his cheeks and filled his mouth. A tall lord with copper skin and silver-gold hair stood beneath the banner of a fiery stallion, a burning city behind him.

The first bit is Viserys’ death and doesn’t need explaining, but the second part is interesting. That description fits Rhaego (Dany and Drogo’s stillborn son) perfectly. Apparently he would have had his mother’s hair and his father’s looks.

This brings in the question if Rhaego was indeed going to be the Stallion Who Mounts the World but was stopped by the maegi… can prophecies be thwarted? By Jojen Reed, who was greendreams, we are led to believe that the foreseen future cannot be altered. Is this simply because greendreams and Mirri Maz Duur’s abilities are different types of magic, or were the crones of Vaes Dothrak were wrong and Rhaego was always destined to die? If he was, why would Daenerys see a vision of someone who was never meant to be?

Rubies flew like drops of blood from the chest of a dying prince, and he sank to his knees in the water and with his last breath murmured a woman’s name.

This is Rhaegar dying in the Trident, but the woman’s name that he murmured has been a topic of debate among the fandom for a while. Let’s see the possibilities:

Lyanna: This is what most fans seem to believe, and it is entirely possible. I personally believe that Rhaegar didn’t love Lyanna or vice versa, it was simply an arrangement of “I need a mother for the third head of the dragon” on Rhaegar’s side and “I want to be free and not marry Robert” on Lyanna’s side. But if you do believe that theirs was a love story, “Lyanna” would be an acceptable thing for Rhaegar to murmur in his last breath.

Elia: Whether because Rhaegar loved Lyanna but still felt ashamed for shaming his wife, or because he only had an arrangement Lyanna but actually truly loved Elia, this option is not so crazy.

Visenya: I did not consider this myself, until I have read this post of nobodysuspectsthebutterfly. As explored above, he was trying to “collect” (if you will) three heads of the dragon, so he likely suspected that Lyanna’s child would be a girl, and he would name her Visenya. (Imagine if this was true and the unborn Jon’s name was Visenya, though. I mean, doesn’t the fandom make fun of him enough already?)

Glowing like sunset, a red sword was raised in the hand of a blue-eyed king who cast no shadow. A cloth dragon swayed on poles amidst a cheering crowd. From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire… mother of dragons, slayer of lies...

The blue-eyed king with no shadow is obviously Stannis, and the red sword is his so-called “Lightbringer.” 

The cloth dragon (also referred as “the mummer’s dragon”) is interpreted as the “Young Griff,” supposedly Aegon Targaryen. This vision is one of the main reasons why I do not believe Aegon is the real deal. “Mummer’s tricks” and “mummer’s farce” are usually used to describe something false and fake in ASOIAF. Furthermore, Varys used to be a mummer, and it could even be interpreted as “Varys’ dragon.”

Daenerys hears the phrase “slayer of lies” when she sees these visions. I think they’re a sign of how Stannis is not the true Azor Ahai, and Young Griff is not the real Aegon.

“From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing…” This could mean two things. One, Melisandre’s claim of Stannis Baratheon being the Azor Ahai reborn, and that she could “wake dragons from the stone.” This would also fit the “slayer of lies” phrase, as Stannis Baratheon is not the Azor Ahai reborn.

Although it’s rather striking that the description is very similar to Winterfell burning, seen through Summer’s eyes: “The smoke and ash clouded his eyes, and in the sky he saw a great winged snake whose roar was a river of flame. He bared his teeth, but then the snake was gone.”

Daenerys could be having a vision of Winterfell burning, but the “slayer of lies” bit wouldn’t make sense in that concept. Unless… Melisandre has been seeing the same vision, but misinterpreted it as “waking the dragons” in Dragonstone. In which case it would be a lie, and she would be sadly wasting her time.

There is another theory; some fans believe that there was a dragon in Winterfell, but that will be explored in another post.

Her silver was trotting through the grass, to a darkling stream beneath a sea of stars.

It could simply be a memory from the past, but given how Daenerys still has two “mounts” to ride (one to love and one to dread), perhaps Silver could be one of them?

A corpse stood at the prow of a ship, eyes bright in his dead face, grey lips smiling sadly.

Some have speculated that this is Maester Aemon. Though I believe it’s Jon Connington or Victarion Greyjoy.

Jon: His eyes are bright and he is smiling because he’s still alive and believes that he’s helping “his silver prince’s” son to regain his birthright. His face is dead, his lips are grey and his smile is sad, because he’s dying of greyscale.

There has been hints that a greyscale epidemic might start in Westeros (through Shireen and Patchface), and if Jon Connington arrives to Seven Kingdoms as well… that can’t be very good.

Victarion: Certain passages in ADWD has suggested that this figure (which was seen again in visions and fires later) is one of Daenerys’ intended “husbands.” The “corpse” description could be a foreshadowing of his fate, and the “bright-eyed, dead-face” state could be a result of Moqorro’s healing, as sorcery always comes with a price.

A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness…. mother of dragons, bride of fire…

This seems like another arrow at R+L=J theory. Blue flower representing Lyanna’s son, Jon, at the Wall.

The “bride of fire” phrase is also used to speculate about a possible Daenerys/Jon endgame.

A little girl ran barefoot toward a big house with a red door.

Daenerys’ childhood, perhaps?

Mirri Maz Duur shrieked in the flames, a dragon bursting from her brow. Behind a silver horse the bloody corpse of a naked man bounced and dragged. A white lion ran through grass taller than a man. Beneath the Mother of Mountains, a line of naked crones crept from a great lake and knelt shivering before her, their grey heads bowed.

 All these seems to be related with her old life in the Dothraki Sea, somehow. The first one is a symbolism of Dany’s dragons being born from the sacrifice. Thne naked man bound to the silver horse is the poisoner who tried to sell Daenerys the poisoned wine, and a white lion is the one Drogo hunted for her. The crones are the old Khaleesis of Vaes Dothrak, paying homeage to her after it was “foretold” that she would give birth to the Stallion Who Mounts the World.

Ten thousand slaves lifted bloodstained hands as she raced by on her silver, riding like the wind. “Mother!” they cried. “Mother, mother!”

This is a clear vision of the future, a foreshadowing of Daenerys’ victory and freeing of the slaves in Yunkai. It was the said slaves who dubbed Daenerys as “mother” in many different tongues and dialects.

The House of the Undying chapter was perhaps one of the richest and fullest (in terms of supernatural and foreshadowing) chapters in all ASOIAF. For every single vision, there are several interpretations, but some of them have more proof than others. 

lets see my comment;

It has nothing to do with being a strong woman. I don't even see her as that strong of a woman. f*ck almost every other woman in this series seems to be at least as strong as her. Catelyn, Cersey, Shea, Arya, Margaery, the older Tyrell woman. 
Daenerys is more of an arrogant, naive child who somehow always wins. She really sticks out like a sore thumb in a world that is otherwise dark and gritty. How many ridiculous mistakes has she made now? How many times would she have died if she were another character? Seriously, lets just count the ridiculously lucky breaks that she got with no effort on her part: Being let into Qarth because of that guy's machinations. Being severely underestimated by the warlocks. Being severely underestimated by the slave owner guy to the point that his actions are idiotic. The mercenary guy betraying his friends for no adequate reason and joining her instead of killing her. Surviving two? assassination attempts through sheer, blind luck. What else? I'm sure I'm missing some.

And what has she actually done? Directly caused her husband's death, (this was back when her stupidity/naivete was still being punished) and now appears to have set out on some misguided quests to end slavery in the world. How was that last scene not incredibly cringe-worthy? She says "you owe me nothing" to the great unwashed masses that she has liberated and then they worship her as mother. Is she the second coming of Christ and thus her incredible streak of luck is due to god's favour? Otherwise her story-line makes no fuckin' sense in a world that's supposed to be realistic and gritty. 

Daenerys is basically the equivalent of putting John McClane in The Godfather trilogy. It makes no fuckin' sense and undermines the tone of all the other stuff going on. Now that she has the inevitable mercenary/love interest who might as well be called "prince charming", I'm really starting to get scared that she might be GRRM's Mary Sue, which would really be a huge downer.
I really, REALLY, hope GRRM is pulling my leg on this one and that she will meet a gruesome fate (or at least some huge setback that teaches her to smarten the f*ck up). On the other hand he might be keeping her as to throw a bone to the people who just want fairytale escapism and cannot handle a realistic, dramatic tale without a "knight in shinning armour" character.

Phew. I think that rant was good for me. Had that stuff pent up for too long.


What are your thoughts?

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