Bran III ADWD vs. Dany IV ACOK: Elixir of Truth

Bran III ADWD and Dany IV ACOK are two of the most magical chapters in the entire series. Naturally, given that Bran and Daenerys are the two most magical characters in the novels, both being set up as messianic youthful heroes who will be integral to winning the War for the Dawn, both Bran and Dany have important chapters where they are shown learning or obtaining magical skillsets and learning the truth through visions. 

To start with, we see that both Bran and Daenerys gain knowledge from entities whose powers have greatly weakened: 

The true face of the Last Greenseer is a dying old man whose essence has mostly been absorbed into the weirwood tree, while the true face of The Undying is a rotting, corrupted, swollen heart that barely lives on. These two deteriorating entities provide Bran and Daenerys with the gift of truth: 

Even the imagery and description of the setting invokes a common pattern: 

A weirwood throne for Bran; a set of ebony-and-weirwood, black-and-white doors for Daenerys to walk through. Among this setting, young heroes grapple with dreams long lost to them, yearning for the past, for their childhood, for something they cannot get back (at least, not at the moment: 

This isolation is a price they pay for gaining the truth. 

Another important parallel is that Dany and Bran both consume a bizarre paste to see visions: 

Bran drinks a paste made out of weirwood, while Dany drinks shade-of-the-evening, made out of black-barked trees with blue leaves. A weirwood is red and white, while the grove of trees whose sap makes shade of the evening is black and blue. Red (fire) + white (ice); black (fire) + blue (ice). The colors of these trees invoke the dichotomy of ice and fire. 

Bran and Daenerys have a similar reaction to this peculiar drink: 

Initially finding the paste repulsive, Bran and Daenerys then think the paste is sweet and spicy and nostalgic, reminding them of home and love. And it is after consuming these pastes that Bran and Daenerys both have visions of the past: 

Bran’s power as a greenseer awakens in this chapter, while we get incredibly important prophecies for Dany: the dragon has three heads, slayer of lies, bride of fire, foreshadowing for her becoming the Stallion who Mounts the World, and foreshadowing for her becoming Mhysa. These chapters are structurally parallel in that they both occur at a point where Dany and Bran then awaken to their true destines and in that the setting of each scene is very similar in the set up, despite them being on opposite sides of the world (Bran in the cave of the Three Eyed Raven, beyond the wall, and Daenerys in Qarth, in Essos). 

While the Undying may have been lying about waiting for Dany for a thousand years, the concept of time flowing differently is common between the cave of the Three-Eyed Crow and the House of the Undying. Bran and Daenerys float in and out of visions of the past, present, and future, and it is this ability to traverse time that adds to their status as messianic. 

To complement that last point, there’s also this that Dany is told about the Undying and time, similar to what Bran is told about the trees:

Ice & Fire: The Union that gives Birth to the Messiah

The dichotomy of ice and fire, central to the song of ice and fire, is actually only mentioned in full a few times in the series: 

There are plenty of moments where ice and fire are opposed linguistically, thematically, or symbolically, throughout the series. I’d need pages upon pages to make mention of them. However, the full dichotomy, the full juxtaposition, between ice and fire, primarily only shows up in Bran and Dany’s chapters, with one significant mention in Davos III ASOS, when Davos is interacting with Melisandre. 

This is deliberate. 

To start with, Melisandre sees ice and fire purely as an irreconcilable dichotomy––R’hllor, with the heart of burning fire, stands opposed to the Great Other, with the soul of ice. She is fighting on the side of humanity against the Great Other, but cannot agree with Davos’ nuanced, gray perspective on humanity. For her, the situation is between black and white, good and evil, pain and pleasure, with no in between. She sees life structured between opposites that are always at war. Most notably GRRM mentions the ice and fire dichotomy in such a manner with a character who hails a fake Azor Ahai. Melisandre’s Azor Ahai is not the real Messiah of the series, and so GRRM will have her reify that ice and fire are always in opposition. 

Yet in Bran and Dany chapters, the ice/fire dichotomy is always invoked not as an eternal binary but as two opposing forces that unite to create a greater whole. The first time we see this binary invoked in their chapters, Dany thinks of the force Aegon the Conqueror must have started with as her people construct Drogo’s funeral pyre while two people declare fealty to Brandon Stark (named after Bran the Builder). Aegon the Conqueror and Bran the Builder are two formative figures in the history of the Starks and Targaryens, and Bran and Dany are paralleled with them throughout the series; Bran is named after him and Dany is compared to Aegon by Tyrion and Illyrio. For Dany X AGOT, notice that north/south and ice/fire are the two dichotomies used to construct the third level of the platform of the pyre (third level of the platform, which was third to crack when lighted, after that third crack Dany entered the pyre fully, the third crack so loud it sounded like the breaking of the world, just as Nissa Nissa’s cries of anguish and ecstasy left a crack across the face of the moon – invoking the rule of threes). There is a north/south dichotomy as well. The union of these two dichotomies gives birth to Dany’s dragons, symbolic of North and South (of Westeros, likely) and ice and fire (Stark and Targaryen) uniting to save humanity (the dragons will be a key to winning the war for the Dawn). As for Bran, Meera and Jojen Reed swear an oath to serve and protect him, an oath they swear by ice and fire, bronze and iron, and earth and water. These are dichotomies as well that very likely represent actual elements in the series (different Houses coming together, Greyjoys and the mainlanders, Starks and Targaryens). Moreover, Jojen and Meera’s role is to help Bran realize his destiny as a Messiah, to protect him from harm while they give him passage to the cave of the three-eyed crow, Brynden Rivers, where he will be trained in the greensight, warging, and other important magical skills that will be necessary to win the War for the Dawn.

It’s very intriguing to note that for Bran and Dany, the invocation of this dichotomy for the first time in their chapters is accompanied by people devoting true loyalty to them. For Dany, her Khalasar becomes hers in a way “it was never Drogo’s”; where right before she entered Drogo’s pyre, her Khas refused to become her bloodriders (because according to Dothraki tradition, Khaleesi’s cannot have their own bloodriders), they willingly and enthusiastically took up the mantle after Dany emerged from Drogo’s pyre. For Bran, of course, Meera and Jojen declare their loyalty to him, and indeed follow through for the rest of the books, guiding and protecting him and providing him companionship when he loses his home and safety. Unlike with Stannis, who has to use Melisandre’s shadowbinding magic to kill Cortnay Penrose and Renly Baratheon and obtain the Baratheon bannermen that were not loyal to him and did not want to fight for him, Dany and Bran earn the true, authentic loyalty of people (the Reeds, the Dothraki), and form longlasting bonds with them. This is yet another reason why GRRM has Melisandre seeing ice and fire forever at war, while he has these two forces uniting as one to create something bigger within Bran and Dany’s chapters. 

GRRM’s overarching theme is that humanity has to unite to root out a common enemy and to truly progress. Bran sees ice and fire as opposites, but Jojen points out that opposites can take on each other’s roles or even unite, because the land is one. Dany learns from the vision of Rhaegar that the Prince that was Promised has the song of ice and fire, and that the dragon has three heads. She also drinks from the cup of ice and the cup of fire to learn the truth from the Undying. Like Bran, Dany gains truth from this dichotomy (the visions and prophecies from the Undying) and she learns that the dragon must have three heads, which invokes teamwork, unity, and cooperation. Just as Jojen emphasizes that the land is one, so too does Dany realize that she will have to rely on two other people she trusts and work with them, because she, like Aegon, cannot accomplish everything on her own. The land is one; the dragon has three heads. It’s also interesting to note that the last component of Dany’s bride of fire prophecy mentions a wall of ice, and then right after, she is titled the bride of fire - again, we see that for Dany, ice and fire come together in a literal union (marriage is a union), like Jojen says, “if ice can burn, love and hate can mate”. 

The fact that for Bran and Dany, this dichotomy is accompanied with learning the truth, seeking cooperation, obtaining an important magical skillset or weapon against the Others, and unifying the people, also highlights exactly why Bran and Dany receive the true loyalty of people when this dichotomy is invoked. Drogo’s funeral pyre is laid from ice to fire, and Dany births her dragons. Dany drinks from the cup of ice and the cup of fire, and she learns important truths, after which she leaves Qarth and embarks on an anti-slavery revolt. Meera and Jojen swear fealty to Bran by ice and fire, and they take Bran to Brynden Rivers, where he will learn “to fly” and will be trained in the gift of sight. Dany “dies in the Dothraki Sea and is reborn in blood and fire”, while Bran, who will never walk again, will learn to fly, in the cave he is training in, and both of these events squarely take place after an invocation of the ice and fire dichotomy. What’s interesting to note is that Bran and Dany themselves are representing the dichotomy, Dany with her fire (the dragons and her house emblem), Bran within the cave (”darkness is your mother’s milk” and his house emblem). 

Ice and Fire give birth to the two messianic monarchs that will earn the loyalty of the people, unify the land and the people, and give rise to an endless summer of peace and prosperity for centuries to come. 

Arya and Daenerys Parallels

Wanting to participate in battle, but their age, gender, and importance causes them to be forced to the sidelines:

In addition to this, them both feeling like children for being left behind in battle:

Giggling at how no one is safe from Jon's Arya comparisons.

He does it with Maester Aemon:

With Sam:

With Ygritte:

...

...

...

With a wildling girl:

With Alys Karstark:

...

With men playing in the snow:

And with a literal giant:

Bran isn't much better.

Though he does it to a lesser extent.

But, he does it with Meera:

With Leaf:

...

...

And through his vision, with Lyanna:

Losing skin

I want to talk about this passage right here:

(ADWD, Jon IV)

So Jonsas (of course) love to take this as Jon vs. Daenerys war foreshadowing because in the previous chapter to this one (ADWD Daenerys III/Chapter 16), Dany received a bloody glove as a declaration of war from Xaro. 

Never mind that losing a layer or two of skin from touching something frozen is hardly enough to bloody a glove (let alone bleed), I think there are two far more plausible explanations for the probable significance of the above excerpt.

The first deals with the imminent and ever nearing arrival of the Others. The second has to do with the skin Jon puts in Stannis’s war and the skin he may lose. The first is a take not original to me, it has floating around the ASOIAF, while the second came from something @etherealdany​ pointed out to me :)

The Others

Together with an except from the prologue for ADWD, I think this passage most likely speaks to the ominous and ever-nearing arrival of the Others. This take has floated around for several years and it seem to me that it’s the most plausible:

(ADWD, Prologue)

(ADWD, Jon IV)

In the first excerpt, wildling skinchanger Varamyr wakes up violently somewhere beyond the Wall with people shouting that they need to go, “There are hundreds of them.” I think it’s safe to say this is referring to the Others and the undead, especially when taken into account with everything else said about what it feels like when the Others are present (unnaturally cold temperatures).

Jon and Varamyr both notice the exceptionally cold temperatures and that frost has covered everything (including Varamyr). To Varamyr, he is so cold that his hand has been frozen to the ground. To Jon, the room felt colder than it should despite being under a mountain of ice. Both lose skin to get free from something frozen. 

There are already existing connections between Varamyr and Jon. It is revealed Varamyr sought to steal Ghost from Jon (”Mance should have let me take the direwolf. There would be a second life worthy of a king”) while, when Varamyr is killed, his mind lives on in his own wolf – two things that I believe are clearly pointing to what’s happening next for Jon after this assassination.

I think the above excerpt from Jon IV is speaking to two things specifically – the textual connections between Jon and Varamyr as well as the arrival of the Others.

Throughout ADWD in particular, we are told how cold it gets when Others are present:

(ASOS, Samwell III)

(ADWD, Jon VIII)

(ADWD, Jon XII)

Tormund and Val in particular remind Jon that Jon doesn’t know true cold until the Others are there. Others, who are connected with death, who raise the dead, who turn living breathing human beings into cold living dead.

On this note, Jon’s line to Val (“My tongue is too numb to tell. All I can taste is cold.”) resembles Jon’s very final thought before he dies:

(ADWD, Jon XIII)

I’m certain that the ever-nearing arrival of the Others, Jon’s death, and Dany will all be connected. Not only is fire often linked to life in Jon’s chapters (and in his Night’s Watch vows), but the ADWD Jon VIII passage above has the moonlight turn Val’s blonde hair a pale silver. She says the air tastes sweet. 

I think both of these clearly connect to Dany (who has pale silver gold hair) and her vision (of a blue rose filling the air with sweetness, often linked to Jon). Jon, at this point, cannot taste the sweet because he (unlike Val) does not know true cold. Val can taste the sweet because she’s acclimatized to this cold, she’s lived the harsh life of the free folk, she’s lived a life exposed to the elements and, most importantly, she knows what it feels like when the Others are near. She and Tormund remind Jon that he does not know true cold yet, specifically because Jon does not know how it feels when the Others are present.

However, I expect Jon will know true cold when he is brought back from his death and when the Others come, maybe giving him the ability to appreciate natural cold and taste its sweetness having known both death and the Others. Regardless, I think the discussed excerpt wherein Jon loses some skin and the excerpt of Varamyr in the prologue are certainly connected to each other and the imminent arrival of the Others.

Stannis

@etherealdany made a good point to me about how if there is a connection between the bloody glove Dany receives as a declaration of war from Xaro and Jon losing some skin touching a frozen piece of meet, it’d be about Xaro’s war and Stannis’s war ramping up at this point.

This led me down a thought rabbit hole where I wondered if perhaps this skin-losing excerpt may be speaking to Jon increasingly throwing in his lot with Stannis. Jon is putting in skin in the game, particularly to support Stannis.

Increasingly, over ADWD’s narrative, Jon supports Stannis more and more – even knowing that he must remain neutral:

(ADWD, Jon XII)

And this, when Jon learns Stannis has taken Deepwood Motte and successfully joined the mountain clans to his cause:

(ADWD, Jon VII)

Or this when Alys comes to Jon with news of the Karstarks playing false with Stannis:

(ADWD, Jon X)

Jon’s concern for what Stannis wants to do:

(ADWD, Jon IV)

I know there are Jonsas who want to believe Jon is Pol!Jonning Stannis (LOL), but no. Despite Sam, Bowen Marsh, and Jon’s own internal voice himself  reminding Jon that he must be neutral, that he cannot support Stannis, Jon can’t help but support Stannis. Jon himself thinks:

(ADWD, Jon IV)

In AFFC, Cersei already suspects Jon of supporting Stannis against the Iron Throne and sends assassins to take care of that. Bowen Marsh fears the wrath of the Iron Throne because he fears Jon is doing too much to help Stannis and that may anger the Lannisters, who control the Iron Throne. Sam reminds Jon that they are not Stannis’s men.

Finally, when Ramsay sends the Pink Letter to Jon, he writes:

(ADWD, Jon XIII)

Jon’s “false king”, not a “false king”. From this, it seems Ramsay has the same suspicions over Jon taking a side and supporting Stannis. Because of this, Ramsay demands Jon surrender Stannis’s wife and daughter to him. Jon has put skin in the game, Stannis’s game, and from this letter, it seems he’s lost (if Ramsay’s words are true but I think that’s a lie, especially when GRRM has revealed Stannis will burn Shireen). 

Jon keeps reminding himself to stay neutral and in this topic’s excerpt, when Jon pulls his finger away to lose some skin, he asks himself, “What did you expect?” 

Additionally, Jon’s support of Stannis plays a part in his officer’s mounting dissatisfaction with Jon as Lord Commander, which culminates in the mutiny against Jon. Ramsay supposedly revealing Stannis’s fate and calling him Jon’s king seemingly confirms Bowen’s fears – that Jon was, in truth, supporting Stannis and here is a consequence of that: Ramsay is threatening Jon and the Watch with retaliation if Jon does not meet his demands.

So Jon rallies and decides to go down there and take care of Ramsay Bolton himself, even though Jon is supposed to be a neutral Lord Commander who stays out of this stuff. Shortly after this, Jon is assassinated in a mutiny led by Bowen Marsh. So it seems Jon has lost quite a bit of skin in meddling with the realm’s affairs.

I mean, I think I ended up going way too far in this second interpretation over one little line about Jon receiving an injury that’s tantamount to a paper cut. That said, I think this would be way more plausible than some chapter-order-dependent-Jonsa-theory about how it “foreshadows” a Jon vs. Dany war which would fit in perfectly with their Jonsa fantasies – especially when losing a few layers of skin wouldn’t even result in Jon bloodying his glove XD

But it did make me picture a scenario where Jon goes to war with Dany after he receives a paper cut and sends Dany a startling white sheet of paper with a little smudge of red in the corner as a solemn declaration of war ;) 

Game of Thrones art by the brilliant artist Ted Nasmith. The captions above are from his website on each picture page.

Something I just noticed about A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones:

The Stark children’s direwolves have a pattern in how they were named. Each wolf’s name is analogous to how their owner sees themselves.

Robb’s wolf, Grey Wind, is named after the fact that Robb sees himself as a horseman. He rides into battle, bearing the Stark colors. He’s grey, and he rides like the wind. When they both die in the same day, it shows that Robb has the most accurate and solid identity out of the stark children.

Jon’s wolf, Ghost, is named after the fact that Jon never truly felt like he fit in at winterfell. While the other children were treated like nobles, many people (especially Catelyn) try to ignore his presence. He feels invisible, like a ghost.

Sansa’s wolf, Lady, has a pretty self-explanatory name. At the time of naming her, Sansa thought of herself as a beautiful noble lady, destined to marry a gallant prince. However, that dream was quickly dashed as she got to know Joffrey, and the death of Lady is the symbolic death of Sansa’s simplified noble identity.

Arya’s wolf, Nymeria, is named after a princess of the Rhoynar by the same name. Princess Nymeria is said to be wise, cunning, and skillful, as well as being a warrior. All of these are traits that Arya wants to emulate. When she chases Nymeria away, Arya is in effect giving up on her dream of being a warrior (for now). Unlike Lady, Nymeria is lost, but not dead, showing that Arya is too strong-willed to give up fully, but knows on some level that she can’t truly be herself until she escapes her society (just like Nymeria ran away).

Bran’s wolf, Summer, alludes to the fact that all his life, Bran has been referred to as a “Summer child”. He’s pretty young, and that’s basically his entire identity up to that point. It also showcases Bran’s optimism for the world, and the fact that he doesn’t truly grasp the trials that lay ahead. When Summer dies (in the show), it’s the symbolic end of Bran’s optimism and naivety.

Finally, there’s Rickon’s wolf, Shaggydog. Rickon is very young when he names Shaggydog, and thusly doesn’t have a real grasp of his identity yet. He simply got a dog, saw that he was shaggy, and named him Shaggydog. Additionally, a “shaggy dog” story is one characterized by long-windedness, useless details, and an unexpected/unsatisfying ending. I believe this is Rickon’s perspective on the world, especially when it comes to all the politics going on around him. It’s long, boring, and confusing, with no satisfying or cathartic resolution. Rickon is at an age where he should be building his own personhood by means of absorbing the world around him (shown by him naming Shaggy after what he observes rather than what he feels), but instead he’s in a constant shaggy dog story. This name has a genius double meaning. As for what Shaggydog’s death means in the show, I have no idea. I think the writers kind of stopped caring.

Agreed to most of this but in the books Nymeria didn’t run away. She led her people across the narrow sea and then burned the ships so they knew they couldn’t go back. She helped to integrate her people with the Westerosi. That’s not really escaping her society, that’s more like reshaping it.

Currently wolf-Nymeria is leading a pack of wolves through the Riverlands and keeping her pack (something book!Arya desperaly wants for herself). If we go by all that then Arya may still leave Westeros but not because she’s escaping her society but because she is leading her people somewhere else

When I said that Nymeria ran away, I was talking about the direwolf, not the princess.

Ooh. Got it. My bad. Sorry!

You did point out something interesting about Nymeria the direwolf and Nymeria the Princess being leaders. I suppose then that direwolf Nymeria is embodying the hopes and dreams of a younger Arya, just like princess Nymeria.

As Arya moves down her dark path of revenge and loss of self, the embodiment of what she’s supposed to be is still there, across the narrow sea. Sometimes, she still dreams of what she’s meant to be. A strong, capable leader. A hero to her pack. But instead, she’s just a shell of a girl who would rather be no one then what she’s become.

Well. Yeah. I think it’s what she still hopes for to an extent and it’s also what stops her from being completely No One. She’s kind of bad at it. She has her wolf dreams and she’s connected to the faces she wears. She still says her prayer/list and she has names for the other acolytes. She purposefully didn’t throw away Needle. She learns how to warg and misses the friends she made as Cat. Like if she was No One she wouldn’t have friends or care about Needle or have special names for the different Faceless Men. No One doesn’t have connections.

Arya’s path is dark and it’s going to get darker but I don’t think she’ll lose herself completely in the end. It works as an interesting parallel to Lady Stoneheart too. Arya has tethers to the positive parts of herself. She’s still in there. Lady Stoneheart has tethers too but they fuel her rage. It fits with the Mercy/Mother Merciless thing they got going on.

And don’t forget her commentary on Jon Snow - 

Cersei despises what she considers Catelyn’s weakness in not murdering her husband’s (purported) bastard son as an infant. The unspoken implication is that she, Cersei, who of course is not weak, would have done what she believes Catelyn didn’t have the stomach to do (which, of course, she had already done with Robert’s bastard twins). 

Cersei hated Robert, her physical and sexual abuser and rapist for around 15 years. Cersei saw part of her vengeance against Robert as denying him children of his body, “eat[ing] [his] heirs” while conceiving her own children with her preferred sexual and romantic partner, Jaime. Cersei was also very much aware that her children did not look like Robert and Robert’s biological children did - evidence that could be (and, eventually, was) used to figure out that Jaime, and not Robert, was their biological father. There is no universe where Cersei would not have arranged for more of Robert’s bastards to be killed had she been able to do so. (It’s even possible, although I think probably unlikely, that Cersei saw the murder of Robert’s biological children as some sort of circumvention of Maggy’s prophecy - if she believed that dead children could not count toward Maggy’s quantifications of their respective offspring, then killing them might make it possible to derail part, and thus any part, of the prophecy - although again, I don’t see that as particularly evident in Cersei’s motivations.)

One of the ways that we know that Jon Snow has a learning arc is because quite a few times he factors in and incorporates information he has learned from his mentors - Ned, Jeor, Aemon, Mance etc. - and others like Ygritte and Sam, into his decisions.

When Jon is engaging with Northern politics, for ex. when he is advising Stannis on his campaign to win the North, he refers to his father’s advice and approach.

Or when he recalls Mance’s advice (They follow strength, they follow the man) when dealing with the Freefolk. Or when he recollects words of wisdom from Maester Aemon (Kill the boy) and Ygritte (You know nothing).

Jon is always listening and learning like here for ex:

And then as Lord Commander:

By the end of ADwD, Jon has implemented decisions that Jeor and Qhorin wanted done way back in ACoK

As Lord Commander he is fully able to grasp the food situation with respect to food stores and numbers because he is trained as a steward under Marsh himself:

There’s a reason Jeor Mormont made Jon Snow his steward instead of a ranger. He was being taught to lead instead of being taught just to fight.

house with the red door is the sealord’s palace and dany’s dragons hatched from rhaena’s stolen eggs. what is also interesting is as @adreamofspring​ mentioned, rhaena was the one who started the tradition of putting dragon eggs to baby targaryens’ cradles to make them bond quicker and as @etherealdany​ noticed dany becomes stronger after her second dragon dream. did dany have those eggs since she was born and was separated from them because of illyrio?

I find it interesting that even before, when they were not petrified and all fresh, the eggs stayed unhatched in strangers’ hands. I won’t accept that they didn’t try. Of course whoever bought them would.

So there is something to Valyrians/Targaryens being in possession of them to begin with. There is magic. And it doesn’t work for anyone.

The Dragon Has Three Heads: Class Traitors

Tyrion Lannister is a class traitor to his own family. He kills his abusive father, Tywin, ridding the Realm of one of the most awful and evil Hands it has ever seen. He repeatedly clashes with Cersei and Joffrey throughout his stint as acting Hand of the King in ACOK. Tyrion believes in justice and idealism, even at his lowest points in ADWD. He is the only Lannister who actively pursues a form of justice that goes against his family’s legacy. 

Jon Snow is a traitor to the Northern institution of The Night’s Watch (for which he is killed). He is a traitor both for breaking his vows by becoming actively involved in the politics of the Realm (explicitly breaking his vows to save his sister “Arya”), but he is also a traitor to the ethos that dominates the Wall and the North: namely, the differentiation between the Free Folk, on “one side” of the Wall, and the Northmen, who are part of the Realm. By accepting the Free Folk into the Realm’s fold, Jon has betrayed his own ancestors who’ve fought against the Free Folk. 

Daenerys is a traitor to the Old Valyrian institution of slavery. More specifically, Old Valyria’s hegemony in Essos is one of the “calamities” that led to Old Ghis taking up the institution of slavery as well. Dany’s use of dragonfire to kill slavers and end the institution of slavery is a direct foil to her ancestors using dragonfire to enslave and conquer people. The Braavosi hate and revile the dragonlords because they are the descendants of Valyria’s slaves; yet Dany uses her dragons to usher in an anti-slavery revolution, the likes of which will burn across the continent. 

Dany, Jon, and Tyrion’s “betrayal” of their family or ancestral legacies is in large part what leads to their “deaths”, a metaphoric and spiritual death for Tyrion and Dany, and a physical death for Jon. Yet as we see, these deaths and rebirths are necessary. If we cannot go against our own family legacies, how can we rebuild a better future?

Except Dany, Jon, and Tyrion cut those strings. They suffer as a result of it, quite violently so at times, but they cut those strings of fate and will restitch their own. They are not defined by the legacies of their ancestors or families. 

The show, besides making Daenerys darker and less intelligent than she is in the books, also removed many of Dany’s badass moments and in several moments turned her into a damsel in distress:

And this list is just about the moments where we still had books to compare. But in the later seasons, when there were no more books to adapt, we can still see the same tendency of removing Dany’s badassery and making her more of a damsel in distress. She still doesn’t make her own plans, Tyrion, and later Jon, end up making all of her plans for her. She still doesn’t wear armor, even after she starts going into battle on her dragon. And as we know, Emilia was the one to insist that Dany wouldn’t just stand around helpless after falling from her dragon, that she would try to defend herself by picking up a sword and trying to fight. The original plan from the writers, however, was for Dany to just be a damsel in distress while Jorah saved her.

‘Now two children danced across the godswood, hooting at one another as they dueled with broken branches. The girl was the older and taller of the two. Arya! Bran thought eagerly, as he watched her leap up onto a rock and cut at the boy. But that couldn’t be right. If the girl was Arya, the boy was Bran himself, and he had never worn his hair so long. And Arya never beat me playing swords, the way that girl is beating him . She slashed the boy across his thigh, so hard that his leg went out from under him and he fell into the pool and began to splash and shout. “You be quiet, stupid,” the girl said, tossing her own branch aside. “It’s just water . Do you want Old Nan to hear and run tell Father?” She knelt and pulled her brother from the pool, but before she got him out again, the two of them were gone.’

‘And saw her brother Rhaegar, mounted on a stallion as black as his armor. Fire glimmered red through the narrow eye slit of his helm. “The last dragon,” Ser Jorah’s voice whispered faintly. “The last, the last.” Dany lifted his polished black visor. The face within was her own.

After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars.’

Contrast & Parallels: Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow

-Both of their fathers died before they were born. -Both of their mothers died giving birth to them. -Both were sneak away to a geographically opposite location from the one they were born in order to keep them save from those who would harm them (Jon went from South to North and Dany from West to East). -Both grew up emotionally abused by someone close, Dany by her brother Vuserys and Jon by his stepmother Catelyn (Dany’s abuse was greater of course, Jon’s was more neglect). -All Dany had was her name and her brother, she had no home and no security. Jon did not have a name but he had a family, a home and security. -One was educated by Maester’s and Master at Arms (Jon), the other one was mostly self-thought with some education by her brother (Dany). -Both are methodical but in completely different ways, Jon is more analytical and Dany is more intuitive. -Both are described as highly observant, especially throughout AGOT. -At the beginning of their arcs they both embark on adventures. Jon goes North to the Wall and Dany goes East towards the Dothraki Sea. -Both receive/find their magical companions at the beginning of their arcs. -Both of the magical companions are the alpha’s of their pack. Ghost the wolf is white with red eyes, Drogon the dragon is black with red eyes. -Both have dreams about their animal companions. -Both reluctantly join cultures that are considered barbaric by others. Both are forced into a relationship from a members of these barbaric cultures. Both fall in love with these “barbarians”. Both are indirectly responsible for the deaths of their lover’s. -Both think of these lover’s often well after they have died (especially throughout ADWD). -Both have resided in extreme climates. Dany in the dessert of the Red Waste and the heat of Slaver’s Bay and Jon at the Wall and beyond the Wall. -Currently, one is in the South and one in the North, one is in the East and one is in the West. -Both long for home and the family member’s they didn’t know. -Both encounter abandoned cities in ACOK (back to back chapters Daenerys I & Jon II) described as white cities, Whitetree and Vaes Tolorros. -They both come to leadership at a young age. -Both try to change long standing institutions, Dany is trying to abolish slavery while Jon is trying to change the Night’s Watch -Both are trying to right wrongs committed by their ancestors, Dany is fighting slaver with her dragons, where once upon a time the Valyrians used their dragons to enslave people. Jon is trying to bring the Wldinglings back into Westeros while once upon a time it was the north lead by the Stark’s that left the Wildlings beyond the wall and kept them there. -Both encounter great resistance from the establishment, those who wish to maintain the status quo. -Jon tries to change the system from within (as he is a brother of the Night’s Watch and a Westerosis) Dany tries to change the system as an outsider. -Both face many setbacks and become increasingly frustrated with their roles as leaders. -They are both betrayed by said establishment and face assassination attempts. Dany is able to escape her would be assassins by flying away a top her magical animal companion while Jon’s assassination attempt is successful because he locked away his magical animal companion.

-Both yearn for the child they cannot have, in ASOS Jon lament that he will never have a son and in ADWD Dany laments that she will never have a daughter.

Jon:

“I might someday hold a son of my own blood in my arms. A son was something Jon Snow had never dared dream of, since he decided to live his life on the Wall.” When considering Stannis offer to become Lord of Winterfell, which he rejects.

Dany:

“I will never have a little girl. I was the Mother of Dragons.”

ETA: A few more

-Both have Mormonts as mentors, Jon has Jeor and Dany has Jorah. Also, Jon wields the Mormont family sword Longclaw which once belonged to Jorah -While Jon wants to be like his father Ned, Dany is the opposite, she doesn’t want to be anything like her father Aerys.

-Both have chosen to place duty over love, Jon with Ygritte when he chose the Night’s Watch and the realm over her and the WIldlings and Dany with Daario (problem more lost) when she broke things off with him to marry Hizdhar for the good of Meereen.

From masha-russia:

-Both start their journey in AGOT with a feast. Jon’s first AGOT chapter is during the feast for King Robert. Dany’s first chapter in AGOT is the preparation for her wedding feast to Khal Drogo.

-Daenerys was offered the chance to return to Westeros, but she decied to stay in Meereen to rule and help her people. Jon was offered to be made a Stark of Winterfell, but he refused because he knows he has a duty to the Night’s Watch, and because he feels that as a bastard, he doesn’t have morally the right to be Lord of Winterfell.

- Both want the best for all the sides, and both struggle to be accepted by those they rule. They both turn their attention to the outcasts of the society,to those other people refused: Jon cares for the Wildling, and is the first Lord Commander in history to make peace with them and allow them to cross the Wall; while Daenerys releases thousands of enslaved people and does everything she can to keep them alive.

- Both think of their family they never knew: Jon quite a lot of his mother, and Daenerys of Rhaegar and Aerys, and her ancestors.

-Daenerys feels the need to carry her Targaryen lineage and fulfill the duty to her House, Jon also want to impress his adoptive father Eddard.

Jon:

“He was no true Stark, had never been one … but he could die like one. Let them say that Eddard Stark had fathered four sons, not three. “

Dany:

“Remember who you are, Daenerys,” the stars whispered in a woman’s voice. “The dragons know. Do you?”

Daenerys Targaryen + Reincarnation

Chapters of A Song of Ice & Fire - A Storm of Swords - Jon X      Bastard children were born from lust and lies, men said; their nature was wanton and treacherous. Once Jon had meant to prove them wrong, to show his lord father that he could be as good and true a son as Robb. I made a botch of that. Robb had become a hero king; if Jon was remembered at all, it would be as a turncloak, an oathbreaker, and a murderer. He was glad that Lord Eddard was not alive to see his shame.

Arya and Dany: not leaving their people behind

A good leader should always prioritize the good of their people and while those two girls are so young and often not even in a position of power (Dany in AGOT, Arya in all the books) they still don’t abandon their own. Arya and Daenerys prefer to even risk their lives if that means saving their people/pack.

Please keep in mind that I wanted to write a short meta so I decided against putting all the instances of them not leaving people behind. I’ll only offer two examples per girl to validate  my opinion (and one day when I’ll have more time hopefully I’ll write a longer meta)

Remember little Weasel? The small girl  - much younger than even Arya- that kept following Yoren’s group? When Ser Amory Lorch  attacked Yoren and his men the girl was lost in the fire and due to her panic she didn’t cooperate even when Arya tried to save her. Arya’s friends adviced her to leave the little girl behind and I can see their reasoning: they were all scared kids and having a much younger child with them wouldn’t only slow them down but could also give them away to their enemies if the little kid screamed the wrong time.

However, Arya decided that the life of a young kid she barely knew was worth saving (and imo she was right, that was the moral thing to do) and even when the small girl didn’t cooperate Arya kept pulling her along to their escape and away from the Lannister soldiers.

When Arya and her friends escape Harrenhal, they are slowing her down. Which is understandable because unlike her, they didn’t spend their childhood riding horses and ponies (they belong to an entirely different and poorer class). And what does the noble lady of House Stark does? Does she abandons those “nobodies” - according to the classist  westerosi ideology- in order to save her noble ass? Of course not! She continues to stay by their side and she considers them her pack. It doesn’t matter that they belong in a different social class, Arya never paid attention to such superficial things. All that matters is that those two are people who are friends to her, who care about her and she cares about them in return.

Let’s move on Dany:

This passage always makes me emotional (and angry at the tv series for doing Doreah so dirty!). After Khal Drogo died, Dany took her khalasar to pass the Red Waste, in order to search for a safe place. In that unwelcoming dessert even necessicites weren’t guaranteed and mercy in the eyes of plenty was seen as a luxury they couldn’t afford. Not for Dany, though. 

Dany nursed Doreah and keep comforting her until the latter died. Doreah was Dany’s handmaid and for the classist ideology that was dominant both in Westeros and in the East was unimportant compared to the lady she served. Especially since Dany was no ordinary lady but a Khaleesi having her own khalasar and three dragons. But that’s not how Dany considered things. For Dany, Doreah was her first friend, her “pack” (borrowing this word from Arya’s quote I posted above) and therefore she was worth nursing and having someone to hold her hand until the very end.

When Daenerys orders her army to free the slaves and kill the slavers in Astapor she changes the status quo of the city. However, plenty freemen who were former slaves decide to folllow her to Yunkai instead of staying in their city. Those people aren’t soldiers and can’t offer much to her campaign. The wisest political choice would be to leave them behind as Ser Jorah and Dany’s bloodriders think. But Dany isn’t only a politician or a conqueror. She’s also a Mhysa and that’s the primary role. Being a mother to her people,caring for their well being and looking after them. So, she decides that she won’t leave them behind if they want to join her.