A Song of Ice and Fire - A Chapter a day discussion
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07/22/15 - Chapter 3: Daenerys I
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In this chapter we are introduced to Daenerys Targaryen, 13 years old, and her brother Viserys, known as "the beggar king". They live with Magister Illyrio, a dealer who has friends in all of the Nine Free Cities, but he has no problem in selling them for the right price. The brothers live in Pentos now, but it is mention they have live in several different places before, when they scaped the Seven Kingdoms. Before they scaped, they went from King's Landing to Dragonstone.
She had never seen this land her brother said was theirs, this realm beyond the narrow sea. These places he talked of, Casterly Rock and the Eyrie, Highgarden and the Vale of Arryn, Dorne and the Isle of Faces, they were just words to her. Viserys had been a boy of eight when they fled King’s Landing to escape the advancing armies of the Usurper, but Daenerys had been only a quickening in their mother’s womb.
Daenerys was born in Dragonstone, and that night was a big storm. This is why she is also referred as Daenerys Stormborn.
She had been born on Dragonstone nine moons after their flight, while a raging summer storm threatened to rip the island fastness apart. They said that storm was terrible. The Targaryen fleet was smashed while it lay at anchor, and huge stone blocks were ripped from the parapets and sent hurtling into the wild waters of the narrow sea. Her mother had died birthing her, and for that her brother Viserys had never forgiven her.
It was Ser Willem, a man loyal to Dany's family, who took them across the Narrow Sea.
They had run again, just before the Usurper’s
brother set sail with his new-built fleet. By then only Dragonstone itself, the ancient seat of their House, had remained of the Seven Kingdoms that had once been theirs. It would not remain for long. The garrison had been prepared to sell them to the Usurper, but one night Ser Willem Darry and four loyal men had broken into the nursery and stolen them both, along with her wet nurse, and set sail under cover of darkness for the safety of the Braavosian coast.
She remembered Ser Willem dimly, a great grey bear of a man, half-blind, roaring and bellowing orders from his sickbed. The servants had lived in terror of him, but he had always been kind to Dany. He called her “Little Princess” and sometimes “My Lady,” and his hands were soft as old leather.
So, Dany is preparing to meet Khal Drogo, with whom she is supposed to marry, the lider of a khalasar with thousands of men in it. We also learn that she assumed she would marry her brother, because the Targaryens used to marry between them.
She had always assumed that she would wed Viserys when she came of age. For centuries the Targaryens had married brother to sister, since Aegon the Conqueror had taken his sisters to bride. The line must be kept pure, Viserys had told her a thousand times; theirs was the kingsblood, the golden blood of old Valyria, the blood of the dragon. Dragons did not mate with the beasts of the field, and Targaryens did not mingle their blood with that of lesser men. Yet now Viserys schemed to sell her to a stranger, a barbarian.
So, all of this is happening because Viserys wants an army to take the Seven Kingdoms back.
“We won’t need his whole khalasar,” Viserys said. His fingers toyed with the hilt of his borrowed blade, though Dany knew he had never used a sword in earnest. “Ten thousand, that would be enough, I could sweep the Seven Kingdoms with ten thousand Dothraki screamers. The realm will rise for its rightful king. Tyrell, Redwyne, Darry, Greyjoy, they have no more love for the Usurper than I do. The Dornishmen burn to avenge Elia and her children. And the smallfolk will be with us. They cry out for their king.” He looked at Illyrio anxiously. “They do, don’t they?”
“They are your people, and they love you well,” Magister Illyrio said amiably. “In holdfasts all across the realm, men lift secret toasts to your health while women sew
dragon banners and hide them against the day of your return from across the water.” He gave a massive shrug. “Or so my agents tell me.”
Another religion is presented, this one has red priests, and they believe in The Lord of Light. This god will have a big role is the series.
So, Viserys, Dany and Magister Illyrio go to the manse that was given as a gift to Khal Drogo, and we get a description of the Dothraki men that are present:
Moonlight painted the leaves in shades of bone and silver as the guests drifted among them. Many were Dothraki horselords, big men with red-brown skin, their drooping mustachios bound in metal rings, their black hair oiled and braided and hung with bells.
Illyrio tells them about the people that surround the Khal, and so we meet Ser Jorah Mormont, who is a knight who "sold some poachers to a Tyroshi slaver instead of giving them to the Night’s Watch", so he is forced to flee the Seven Kingdoms, given the fact that Robert Baratheon, the Usurper, wanted his head.
Dany found herself looking at the knight curiously. He was an older man, past forty and balding, but still strong and fit. Instead of silks and cottons, he wore wool and leather. His tunic was a dark green, embroidered with the likeness of a black bear standing on two legs.
Dany sees Khal Drogo for the first time, and she describes him:
Khal Drogo was a head taller than the tallest man in the room, yet somehow light on his feet, as graceful as the panther in Illyrio’s menagerie. He was younger than she’d thought, no more than thirty. His skin was the color of polished copper, his thick mustachios bound with gold and bronze rings.
Finally, we can tell at this point how obssesed Viserys is to take his homeland back, and the he would do anything to get it back, even selling his sister and stop the "tradition" that Aegon the Conqueror started.
“We go home with an army, sweet sister. With Khal Drogo’s army, that is how we go home. And if you must wed him and bed him for that, you will.” He smiled at her. “I’d let his whole khalasar fuck you if need be, sweet sister, all forty thousand men, and their horses too if that was what it took to get my army. Be grateful it is only Drogo. In time you may even learn to like him. Now dry your eyes. Illyrio is bringing him over, and he will not see you crying.”
For me, Daenerys is the character that grows the most in the series. While I was reading the books, I would compare who she was at the beginning and who she was at that point, and it amazed me how much she grew as a character. Also, I hate Viserys, I just can't stand him.
Once again, I took notes on the back of an index card:1. Why is Illyrio helping them, when everyone else from the Nine Free Cities seem to have stopped? Also, what exactly does it mean for him to be "the Magister"?
2. I didn't realize red priests were mentioned so soon in ASOIAF, totally didn't catch that my first reading! Also, Illyrio seems to worship the God of Light, uh oh!
3. Who was Ser Willem Darry and where is his house from? Why did he protect the fallen Targaryen dynasty when it seems most other houses in Westeros have forsaken them?
4. At this point, all Dany wants is her big house with the red door back in Braavos. *SPOILERS FOR A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE*(view spoiler)
5. Why does Pentos have no slaves? Most of the Nine Free Cities have slaves except Pentos (and Braavos, for which I know why THEY don't in later reads). Perhaps it's because Pentos is so close to Westeros on the western end of that other body of land that's not shown in the beginning of the book (at least, not my copy), I don't know if it even has a name. This part of the world is so mysterious to me. Even in later reads I still get confused about where everything is.
6. I like how Dany liked the heat: "It made her feel clean." When I am submerged in too much heat I feel sticky and disgusting, lol. But for her I guess it makes complete sense; she is the blood of the dragon, after all.
7. Viserys is a hypocrite for saying Targaryen's should not marry with the beasts of the fields, but now he's marrying his only sister off to a barbarian. He IS desperate, and cruel.
8. Purple is a royal color -- apt for Dany to wear. Nice.
9. I like how kiss-a$$ Illyrio is to Viserys, especially when he says, "Kings lack the caution of common men." He seems not only very rich, but also kind of smart, in my opinion. He knows how to keep Viserys from lashing out and remaining naive, which I think is funny, because it makes Viserys look more like a pathetic person than he lets on. He is called "the beggar king" instead of "tyrant" for a reason.
10. Interesting how Daenerys mistrusts everything about Illyrio. This seems to be very important for future chapters and books. In my first reading I honestly thought Illyrio was an honest, helpful character, but now after my second reading I too am deeply suspicious of him.
*SPOILERS FOR A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE*(view spoiler)
Mod
I'm amazed I didn't realised that the red priests where mentioned this early on. And Illyrio worships the Lord of Light... wow.
This second read left me thinking why would Darry and Illyrio help them. Maybe Darry worked for Illyrio and led Dany and her brother to Pentos at his order? It is difficult to say because they seem to have travel a lot before reaching Pentos.
I didn't remember that Illyrio worshiped the Lord of Light. That's the good thing about rereading a book.Daenerys is my least favorite character. She annoyed me most of the time, but i don't blame her, because I think her childhood was hard and sad and his big brother, Viserys didn't help much with that. But is good to be back to her origin (in the book, I mean) and learn things about her ancestors.
This Daenerys is shy and bullied by his brother, who in this chapter it seems very intimidating. Viserys is a character that interested me from the beginning, and in this chapter, he's rude *SPOILERS FROM A GAME OF THRONES, BOOK 1* (view spoiler) And maybe he thinks the best way to regain his throne will be showing he has power over others.
@Dani it's nothing! I had time to do it, and I read you would be traveling so I thought it would be helpful.I didn't remember about Illyrio neither! It's amazing all the details you miss when you read books for the first time!
I like Daenerys, but the one in the books. She is not my favourite, but I don't dislike her. How they make her in the series, ugh I can't stand her. I watched the first 3 seasons, but I didn't like her at all!
That's interesting, because I like Daenerys a lot! She seems like an underdog, and underdogs fascinate me. She, like other characters in the books, is one of the more dynamic ones who change the most throughout the entire series. I cannot wait to hear more about her adventures in the future books to come!Also, since Illyrio seems to be a "suck-up," it is possible he doesn't really worship the Lord of Light but is only pretending to. I do not know. I still am baffled by this character. I just cannot believe I forgot all about the red priests so early on in book 1!
A helpful map is the following, since the chapter doesn't take place on Westeros: