Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Daenerys makes for Westeros, so what comes next?

Potential Spoilers Below


Ok so Daenerys is on her way to Westeros with the entire Dothraki horde, almost 8,000 Unsullied, the Ironborn loyal to Asha/Yara and Theon Greyjoy, plus the Martell and Tyrell alliance.  Jon is King in the North and Cersei rules Kings Landing.  If this were the last 10 minutes of a movie Dany’s forces would overwhelm the resistance she meets when her ships land.  She would marry Jon Snow and together they would go to the Iron Islands and drown Euron and Yara would become the first woman to sit the Seastone Chair.  They would then take the Iron Throne from Cersei and send her soul to burn in the seven hells.  But this is Game of Thrones and anyone looking for this to happen hasn’t been paying attention.

Daenerys crosses the Narrow Sea
Dothraki Horde
Unsullied
Asha and Theon

House Martell
House Tyrell
Queen Cersei
Euron

If Daenerys were even allowed to make it to Westeros under these circumstances who could stand against her?  The answer is simple, no one!  So in a show where victory is constantly being fed through the meat grinder of defeat what is the more realistic outcome?  For those of you familiar with my theory on The Game of Thrones or ASOIAF you know that I believe that it is almost synonymous with The Wheel of Time (TWOT).  And just like in TWOT the events throughout the ages repeat themselves over and over again.  I guess the old adage is true:  “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

So what happened in the past that may give us a glimpse into what may perchance happen in the future?  Right now I am mixing both the books and the TV show together to get to where I am going.  We are also going to look back to the war between the Children of the Forest (COTF) and the First Men.  We will take a look at the Doom of Valyria.  Finally we will look at the last excerpt from the Winds of Winter titled “The Forsaken” giving us another clue.

Children of the Forest
OK first we will take a look at some events that took place in TWOT that tie back to ASOIAF.  There was a problem with the weather where it was just the opposite in that it should have been winter but it never came.  It turned out that there was a powerful bowl-shaped ter’angreal known as the “Bowl of the Winds” that could control the weather.  The Dark One had enough influence on the world that he caused a constant heat with no precipitation triggering the failure of crops and vegetation.  When the Bowl was finally found within days of using it winter finally came. 

Bowl of the Winds
Representation of the Dark One
There were also Aes Sedai who served the Dark One during the War of Power called the “Forsaken”.  The Dark One promised them immortality to rule the World Forever at his side.  They called themselves the “Chosen”.  The Prophecies concerning the Dragon Reborn were well documented and known by almost everyone.  The Forsaken also had what were called Prophecies of the Shadow which they kept close to the vest but they promised that the world would be destroyed and remade in the Dark One’s image.

The Forsaken
“But some twelve thousand years ago, the First Men appeared from the east, crossing the Broken Arm of Dorne before it was broken. They came with bronze swords and great leathern shields, riding horses. No horse had ever been seen on this side of the narrow sea. No doubt the children were as frightened by the horses as the First Men were by the faces in the trees. As the First Men carved out holdfasts and farms, they cut down the faces and gave them to the fire. Horror-struck, the children went to war. The old songs say that the greenseers used dark magics to make the seas rise and sweep away the land, shattering the Arm, but it was too late to close the door. The wars went on until the earth ran red with blood of men and children both, but more children than men, for men were bigger and stronger, and wood and stone and obsidian make a poor match for bronze. Finally the wise of both races prevailed, and the chiefs and heroes of the First Men met the greenseers and wood dancers amidst the weirwood groves of a small island in the great lake called Gods Eye.”


“The one thing that can be said for certain is that it was a cataclysm such as the world had never seen. The ancient, mighty Freehold—home to dragons and to sorcerers of unrivaled skill—was shattered and destroyed within hours. It was written that every hill for five hundred miles split asunder to fill the air with ash and smoke and fire so hot and hungry that even the dragons in the sky were engulfed and consumed. Great rents opened in the earth, swallowing palaces, temples, and entire towns. Lakes boiled or turned to acid, mountains burst, fiery fountains spewed molten rock a thousand feet into the air, and red clouds rained down dragonglass and the black blood of demons. To the north, the ground splintered and collapsed and fell in on itself, and an angry sea came boiling in.

“The proudest city in all the world was gone in an instant, the fabled empire vanished in a day. The Lands of the Long Summer—once the most fertile in all the world—were scorched and drowned and blighted, and the toll in blood would not be fully realized for a century to come.”


The Breaking of the Arm of Dorne and the Doom of Valyria to me at least seem to be have been caused by the same thing or device.  If you are a book reader you know that they have technological devices that are out of place with the setting of the series but none the less they exist.  After reading TWOT I have theorized that there is a “Bowl of the Winds” type device in the ASOIAF universe that causes the unnatural seasons that can’t be reliably predicted based upon the planets revolution around their sun. By now they should have been able to work it out but yet they don’t seem to know until it is upon them.  I have written about this before and believe that we have seen it in the Land of Always Winter.  Is this yet another reason why the Others are able to bring the cold with them when they appear?

The Land of Always Winter


To me this looks like a larger form of the Bowl of the Winds

The following comes from the latest excerpt “The Forsaken”:  “The bleeding star bestowed the end,” he said to Aeron. “These are the last days, when the world shall be broken and remade, and new gods shall be born from the graves and charnel pits.” Then Euron lifted a great horn to his lips and blew, and dragons and krakens and sphinxes came at his command and bowed before him. 

Again this reminds me of the Prophecies of the Shadow from TWOT.  Is Euron taking up the mantle of The Forsaken/The Chosen?  In TWOT certain people have the gift of foretelling which shows them things that are going to be.  In ASOIAF greenseers and “Shade of the Evening” seem to perform a similar purpose.  And Euron has been drinking so much of it that his lips have turned blue as stated in the following excerpt:  “When Euron came again, his hair was swept straight back from his brow and his lips were so blue they were almost black. He had put aside his driftwood crown. In its place he wore an iron crown whose points were made from the teeth of sharks.”

Also in the books Euron came into possession of a sorcerous dragon horn with valyrian glyphs that is said to control dragons.  Dany herself confirms the use of a horn to control dragons after flying off on Drogon and not being able to control him: 

Dragon horn
“She would sooner have returned to Meereen on dragon’s wings, to be sure. But that was a desire Drogon did not seem to share.

The dragonlords of old Valyria had controlled their mounts with binding spells and sorcerous horns. Daenerys made do with a word and a whip.”

In TWOT there is a device called the Domination Band that could be used to control the Dragon Reborn

The Dragon Reborn
So here is what I see happening in light of what I have just discussed.  The Targaryen’s were just one family in Valyria at the time of the Doom.  All but a handful of the Valyrians and their dragons perished in the Doom.  With this said I will say that either the Others or Euron use the weather controlling device and lay waste to three quarters  or more of Dany’s fleet on her way to Westeros.  Whether this is brought about by causing storms at sea or objects to fall from the sky it awaits to be seen.  I also see Euron using the dragon horn and perhaps stealing Drogon or at least one of her dragons from her as he said the following in the Forsaken excerpt: 

Drogon
“Why am I here?” Aeron croaked at him. His lips were crusty with scabs, his voice hard. “Where are we sailing?”

“South. For conquest, plunder, dragons.”


If Drogon is indeed stolen then she won’t have a dragon to ride as a dragon rider can only ride one dragon per Dany’s own words:

“One of them. All I know of dragons is what my brother told me when I was a girl, and some I read in books, but it is said that even Aegon the Conqueror never dared mount Vhagar or Meraxes, nor did his sisters ride Balerion the Black Dread. Dragons live longer than men, some for hundreds of years, so Balerion had other riders after Aegon died … but no rider ever flew two dragons.

Aegon the Conqueror
Balerion the Black Dread
If this is the case then Dany would then be in a mad scramble to find other dragon riders loyal to her – can you say Tyrion.  This to me seems like it may come to be as she loses her greatest advantage – Air Power.  No dragon to ride, Drogon your biggest dragon in the hands of the enemy and most of your troops drowned at sea.  Now someone comes along and has to tell her the real danger is coming from north of the Wall; the Others.  A cartoon bubble pops up above her head “Can someone tell me why the hell did I cross the Narrow Sea again?”  Now she is basically in the same boat as everyone else.  She needs alliances now just like everybody else.

Tyrion

Air superiority

By the way I have never been on the Dany marrying Jon Snow bandwagon.  In her own words Dany said the following:

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.”

Viserys
I think she was right about marrying her brother.  She just got the brother wrong.  I believe that Tyrion is a Targaryen and also her brother; she will eventually end up marrying him IMO.





My Take: Daenerys will you marry me?
Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.

2 comments:

  1. I think your theory holds more weight in the books, as there is plenty of time for that to play out properly. With a roughly 13-15 hours of showtime left, I doubt they go this route as it will not do it justice. There are too many loose-ends to tie up. I mean, in the show, Sam finally got to Oldtown. I doubt the show will have him train to be a maester, and they will have a character expedite that process to allow Sam to return to Jon. Also, there is Cersei's impending death, the Mountain meeting his doom, Littelfinger and his saga. There's just too much to wrap up in 15 hours and do everything justice.

    I do believe it was you that theorized that the maesters played a role in the demise of the dragons. I see that happening again, only this time, two of the three are killed: Rhaego and Visceron. I believe that in the show and possibly the book, Bran will permanently warg into Drogon (combining several theories I've come across here) and will be Jon's dragon to fight the Others.

    I also don't think Dany will marry as she is barren now. This leads me to believe that at the conclusion, no one will sit on the Iron Throne. But Tyrion will sit at the head of the Counsel of the Westerosi Republic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Most of the articles on this blog are written from the books perspective. Since season 6 has come along we have learned a few things that are forthcoming to the books so I just incorporated them.

      I think Jon is going to raise dragons from stone also when Melisandre dies triggering the Azor Ahai prophecy.

      As far as anyone sitting the Iron Throne I still think this will be Sansa.

      “Aye. Queen you shall be…until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear.”

      Delete