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| Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen portrayed by Harry Lloyd and Emilia Clarke |
Summary
This chapter is told through the eyes of Daenerys the Targaryen princess. She’s 13 years old and lives with her 21 year old brother, Viserys Targaryen in the free city of Pentos, far away from the main Westeros continent across the Narrow Sea.
They are living in temporary accommodation provided by Magister Illyrio, a wealthy but untrustworthy merchant. We learn that the Targaryens are a deposed house and that Viserys and Danny are the only 2 Targaryens left alive. Dany is about to be sold to a powerful Dothraki barbarian named Khal Drogo as a kind of business deal: The Khal gets a wife while Viserys is promised an army so that he will be powerful enough to take back the Iron Throne, that was usurped by Robert Baratheon, who is now the current King.
We learn more about the sacking of King’s Landing from the Targaryen’s perspective:
The previous King, Mad King Aerys Targaryen, Viserys and Dany’s father, fought back a rebellion from Lord Robert Baratheon with Lord Stark and Lord Lannister coming to his aid. Rhaegar Targaryen, Viserys and Dany’s eldest brother fought valiantly but died in battle. His wife, Princess Elia was also killed and so was her child. The Mad King was eventually slain by a Lannister and he earned the title of Kingslayer. All this happened when Dany wasn’t born yet. She was only born after Viserys and his mother fled King’s Landing. She was born in Dragonstone in a storm (which explains her Stormborn title) her mother died as she came into the world.
The Targaryen heirs lived a traveling life living from city to city to escape assassination and lived on whatever savings they had left from their mother. Now, they’re both poor as anything. Viserys has been given the nickname ’The Beggar King’. Viserys is extremely determined to claim back the Iron Throne at all costs because he feels it is his destiny. We learn the Targaryen sigil is that of the Dragon. We also learn that the Targaryens practice incest in an attempt to preserve their bloodline. It is custom for Targaryen brothers to marry their sisters and also produce children.
Dany is brought before Khal Drogo and his council. She notices the knight Ser Jorah Mormont and learns that he is a fugitive on the run from King Robert.
Dany protests that she doesn’t want to be sold to the Khal but her brother threatens her and tells her this is the only way they’ll get home to Westeros and claim ‘their’ destiny. She makes the decision to man up and go along with the plan.
Analysis
Themes and Topics
-Arranged marriage for political reasons
-Death
-Survival
-The consequences of War
-History from another perspective
-Power, manipulation and control
-Sibling relations
-Incest in an attempt to preserve blood purity
-Fear and lost of innocence
-Customs and culture
-Geography
We zoom to another part of the world: Pentos, which is far away from the main story and are introduced to Daenerys and Viserys Targaryen. They have been living in a wealthy merchant’s, Magister Illyrio’s, home for 6 months.
Dany is 13 years old and is being made beautiful for a special arrangement that her brother has made with the Magister. We learn that it’s for a political reason telling from viserys ’The magister knows that I will not forget my friends when I come into my throne’
If we remember correctly from the previous chapter, the previous king was Mad King Aerys Targaryen. We can therefore deduce that these are his deposed Targaryen heirs.
Dany talks about Magister Ilyrio and notes that he is powerful but also extremely untrustworthy. "He had friends in all of the Nine Free Cities… it was also said that he’d never had a friend he wouldn’t cheerfully sell for the right price." She’s quite good at people reading and knows that "gifts seldom come without a price" after she receives a dress from the Magister to wear.
Dany knows that her brother is an extremely ambitious dreamer but is also fearful of his terrible temper. “she knew better than to question her brother when he wove his webs of dream. His anger was a terrible thing when roused. Viserys called it ‘waking the dragon’.”
To our horror, we witness Viserys sexually abuse Dany, and it probably isn't the first time because she doesn't fight back. “His fingers brushed lightly over her budding breasts and tightened on a nipple. ‘you will not fail me tonight. If you do, it will go hard for you. You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?’ His fingers twisted her, the pinch cruelly hard through the rough fabric of her tunic. ‘Do you?’ he repeated.’ Poor poor Dany. We immediately empathize for this young girl, being taken advantage of her cruel, monstrous jerk of a brother.
Dany doesn’t fight back either because she’s afraid of him. “ ‘No’ Dany said meekly. Her brother smiled. ‘Good’. He touched her hair, almost with affection.’ ‘When they write the history of my reign, sweet sister, they will say that it began tonight’”
Viserys is clearly manipulating his sister just so he can regain power and sit himself on the throne.
Dany wants to escape but she knows she can’t and daydreams looking out of the window. ‘For a moment she wished she could be out there with them, barefoot and breathless and dressed in tatters, with no past and no future and no feast to attend at Khal Drogo’s manse.’
She talks about the stories she’s heard about the great land on the other side which almost sounds like some sort of promised land. We also learn that her brother is clearly obsessed with taking back the Throne and believes its his destiny to do so. ‘Somewhere beyond the sunset, across the narrow sea, lay a land of green hills and flowered plains and great rushing rivers…’ ‘Her brother had a simpler name. ‘Our land’ he called it’ ‘The words were like a prayer with him. If he said them enough, the gods were sure to hear.’ ‘Ours by blood right, taken from us by treachery, but ours still, ours forever. You do not steal from the dragon, on, no. The dragon remembers.’
Dany on the other hand, can’t relate to this promised land he speaks of because she hasn’t seen any of it. She wasn’t born yet. Her brother was 8 when he fled King’s Landing with her pregnant mother who was carrying her.
She relates the tragic story of what happened at King’s Landing according to what her brother had told her. Viserys and his pregnant mother (carrying Dany) fled to Dragonstone on a ship. Her older brother Rhaegar fought the usurper Robert Baratheon and died in battle. King’s Landing was sacked by Robert Baratheon’s men as well as Lord Eddard Stark and the Lannister lord. Rhaegar’s wife, Princess Elia had her son killed in front of her and she too was killed. In another room, her father was slain by the Kingslayer.
Dany says she was born on Dragonstone during a terrible storm. The Targaryen ships were smashed while the storm raged and her mum died giving birth to her. For this ‘her brother Viserys had never forgiven her.’ We could say that Dany’s birth can either be read as ominous or one of victory. Ominous because she was born in a storm, which was tumultuous, scary and dangerous. Her mum died giving birth to her, so she’s viewed as a bad omen. On the other hand, the fact is, she survived the storm and lived, so you could say, she was a fighter.
She goes on to say that she doesn't remember much of Dragonstone because they had to leave quickly to escape Robert Baratheon’s brother’s army. She and her brother were about to be sold to Robert Baratheon but a loyal Targaryen knight, Ser Willem Darry helped them escape to Braavos.
Ser Willem was like a father figure to Dany. ’He called her ’Little Princess’ and sometimes ’My Lady’ and his hands were soft as old leather.’ she spent happier times in Braavos as she describes in reminiscence. ’That was when they lived in Braavos, in the big house with the red door. Dany had her own room there, with a lemon tree outside her window.’ but after Ser Willem died of illness, they had to leave. ’Dany had cried when the red door closed behind them forever.’
As time went by, Dany and her brother were forced to move from various places because Robert Baratheon had hired assassins to try to kill them. They had to live selling their treasures and eventually became poor. Her brother was given the humiliating name of ‘the beggar king’ as whispered in the streets. While Viserys is hell bent on reclaiming the Iron Throne, Dany really just wants to go back to a happier time of preserved innocence ‘All that Daenerys wanted back was the big house with the red door, the lemon tree outside her window, the childhood she had never known.’
We know that perhaps, Dany is kind of a special girl. She can bath in scalding hot water and not burn or flinch. ‘The water was scalding hot, but Daenerys did not flinch or cry out. She liked the heat. It made her feel clean. … her brother had often told her that it was never too hot for a Targaryen. ‘Ours is the house of the dragon’ he would say. ‘the fire is in our blood.’
But now she is going to be sold to a powerful barbarian warlord, instead of the usual Targaryen affair of marriage between brother and had children between each other to keep their bloodline pure. Viserys reasons that ‘theirs was the kings blood, 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.’ but Dany notes that out of desperation, her brother was going to sell her away and she thinks this dishonorable and low. ‘Yet now Viserys schemed to sell her to a stranger, a barbarian.’ .
Hm incest. Incest is always a huge taboo and as crazy as it sounds to the rest of us, it sounds perfectly fine to the Targaryens who are obsessed with keeping blood purity. Let's not judge and respect the Targaryen culture as what it is.
Dany is dolled up to look the absolute best for the Khal and she’s afraid. ‘She felt a sudden chill, and gooseflesh pimpled her bare arms.’ Viserys on the other hand, treats her like a product and has no thought for her feelings ‘Stand there.’ he told her, ‘Turn around. Yes. Good.”
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| Magister Illyrio portrayed by Roger Allam |
We get a better description of Magister Illyrio, who sounds like some sleazy pimp. ‘Beneath loose garments of flame-colored silk, rolls of fat jiggled as he walked. Gemstones glittered on every finger, and his man had oiled his forked yellow beard until it shone like real gold’.
Viserys is so poor, he doesn’t even own his own sword. It’s a borrowed one from Illyrio. ‘He rested his hand on the hilt of the sword that Illyrio had lent him’. He questions that the barbarian Khal Drogo likes his girls so young and Illyrio replies its fine because Dany’s old enough to have children. She’s had her period. And Viserys doesn’t care and finds the barbarian culture weird. It is clear he looks down on them. ‘The savages have queer tastes. Boys, horses, sheep…’
On there way to meet the Khal, Viserys dreams his big dreams of not wanting the Khal’s entire army and saying his usual bragging crap that once he gets his army savages, everyone will bow to him etc. the Magister plays along and flatters him further to stroke his ego. ‘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.’… of course Dany knows this is all bullshit. ‘she mistrusted Illyrio’s sweet words as she mistrusted everything about Illyrio.’ but she knew her brother is an idiot and drank it all in. ‘her brother was nodding eagerly however.’
Its almost comical how Dany describes him ‘I shall kill the usurper myself’ he promised, who had never killed anyone’ She knows he just talks big and does nothing. He's not even skilled in using a sword as she says later 'his fingers toyed with the hilt of his borrowed blade, though Dany knew he had never used a sword in earnest'.
We learn that the magisters of Pentos have been very nice to the Khal so that they won’t trash their city. They gave him an entire 9 towered manse. ‘It had been given to the Khal by the magisters of Pentos, Illyrio told them. The Free Cities were always generous with the horse lords.’ We learn that Magister Illyrio is really a eunuch telling from Viserys muttered insult.
It’s interesting to note that when Illyrio announces Viserys’s presence, he says something familiar. ‘King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the 7 Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm’. This was said by Ned Stark in the first chapter when he killed Gared the deserter. Viserys is clearly not the king but Illyrio announces him as the king. Most likely just to butter his ego. Dany is introduced as ‘Daenerys Stormborn, Princess of Dragonstone.’ he doesn’t even call her a Targaryen.
Dany is very afraid as she’s presented to all these strange foreign men, not only that, she’s the only girl in the room. ‘and realized with a sudden start of fear, that she was the only woman there.’
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| Ser Jorah Mormont portrayed by Iain Glen |
Dany notices that Ser Jorah is a different kind of knight, not the usual armored sort. She finds him fascinating because he comes from the promised land she has never been. ‘Dany found herself looking at the knight curiously. He was an older man, past forty and balding, but still strong and fkit. 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 2 legs. She was still looking at this strange man from the homeland she had never known.’
And then we learn about Khal Drogo, a tall, fierce warrior who is an expert at combat. He has never lost a battle telling from his hair braid being long and uncut. ‘When Dothraki are defeated in combat, they cut off their braids in disgrace… Khal Drogo has never lost a fight. He is Aegon the Dragonlord come again, and you will be his queen.’ says Viserys.
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| Khal Drogo portrayed by Jason Momoa |
She pleads with her brother in fear. ‘I don’t want to be his queen’ she heard herself say in a small, thin voice. ‘please, please Viserys, I don’t want to. I want to go home.’ Poor Dany.
But of course, Viserys doesn’t care. All he cares about is reclaiming the Throne. He even threatens and hurts her out of desperation so she’ll listen to him. ‘How are we to go home, sweet sister? They took our home from us!’ he drew her into the shadows, out of sight, his fingers digging into her skin. ‘how are we to go home?’ he repeated, meaning King’s Landing, and Dragonstone, and all the realm they had lost.’
Poor Dany just wants out of the situation, in her mind, Viserys was an equally lost soul as her. He has no home either. ‘there was no home there for him. Even the big house with the red door had not been home for him.’ Dany cries and doesn’t know how to answer him.
And Viserys, really gives her the cold hard truth, that he really doesn’t give a shit about her and is simply using her to get what he wants. All he cares about is himself. ‘We go home with an army, sweet sister. With Khal Drogo’s army… and if you must wed him and bed him for that, you will. ‘I’d let his whole khalasar (army) fuck you if need be, sweet sister, all forty thousand men…. Be grateful it is only Drogo. In time you may even learn to like him. Now dry your eyes.’
This is actually the first time we see ‘fuck’ in the book and as a reader, you just feel a stab in the heart. This is his sister he’s talking about. He really doesn’t give a shit about her. What an awful monster of a man.
Dany hears this truth and knows that there’s no way out of this deal. But instead of being crushed, she grows up, brushes herself off and agrees to play the game. ’Dany turned and saw that it was true. Magister Illyrio, all smiles and bows, was escorting Khal Drogo over to where they stood. She brushed away unfallen tears with the back of her hand. ’Smile’ Viserys whispered nervously, his hand falling to the hilt of his sword. ’and stand up straight. Let him see you have breasts. Gods know, you have little enough as is.’ Daenerys smiled, and stood up straight.
Chapter Impressions
I really like this chapter. It tells the story from the losers point of view from the deposed Targaryens. It paints them in an incredibly sympathetic light because Dany’s father, eldest brother and his wife were killed, and her mum died giving birth to her. They had to flee their home and she and her brother had to travel about to escape assassination etc. We also understand from Viserys perspective: life, power and everything was snatched from him and it has traumatized him to a degree that he’s obsessed with getting it all back, to the point that he abuses his sister and treats her like an object in order to achieve his goals.
We also see life through poor Dany’s eyes: she’s under so much oppression from her brother, she’s going to be sold to a barbarian against her will but she also knows, she has no choice. She forces herself to grow up, chucks away her innocence and decides to play the game. For a 13 year old girl, that’s a lot to handle and I admire her courage.
Dany is the 2nd female leading character introduced in the book other than Catelyn Stark and we can tell, this girl is going to be awesome. I can't help but root for her.
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