Daenerys enters Vaes Dothrak with Drogo, Ser Jorah, Viserys, Aggo, and Rakharo at the head of the khalasar. Viserys, now universally mocked by the Dothraki after being forced to walk and ride in a cart, is getting very impatient to march onWesteros. Jorah tells Daenerys that Viserys should have remained in Pentos and that Dothraki see the world differently. Viserys sees Daenerys as the price for Drogo’s support, but Drogo sees her as a gift for which he will give a return gift in his own good time. Daenerys points out that Viserys will leave when he has his ten thousand, but Jorah retorts that Viserys is incompetent and could not prevail no matter the size of his army. Daenerys asks how the Dothraki would fare under a competent commander, and Jorah considers. Drogo has forty thousand warriors, as many as Rhaegar had at the Trident, however only a tenth of these were knights. Dothraki fighting from horseback with hit and run attacks would probably be able to defeat a western army in the field, but the Dothraki care little for siegecraft and would never be able to take a castle. AsIrri and Jhiqui help Daenerys off her silver, Cohollo comes over and says that Drogo will ascend the Mother to offer a sacrifice. Daenerys has Doreah invite Viserys to dinner so that she can present him with gifts, fine Dothraki clothing. Viserys arrives and scorns her gifts and threatens her, so she hits him, and he leaves. She curls up with one of her dragon eggs and goes to sleep, confident that the child in her womb will one day be a king.
Quotes…
You do not demand a gift, not of a khal. You do not demand anything of a khal.”
“No one commands the dragon,” Viserys snarled. “I am your king! I should have sent you back her head!”
His fingers dug into her arm painfully and for an instant Dany felt like a child again, quailing in the face of his rage. She reached out with her other hand and grabbed the first thing she touched, the belt she’d hoped to give him, a heavy chain of ornate bronze medallions. She swung it with all her strength.
“Didn’t you learn anything that day in the grass? Leave me now, before I summon my khas to drag you out. And pray that Khal Drogo does not hear of this, or he will cut open your belly and feed you your own entrails.”
by Mel
In the beginning of the series, I feel sorry for Dany, but with each chapter that she is in, I can see her getting stronger and stronger. I love that she stood up to Viserys again, standing up for her people. Jorah warns him again that the Dothraki do things in their own time but Viserys just won’t listen. He is also so hateful towards his little nephew inside Dany’s belly, I sense some jealousy issues there.
I found it very interesting that as Dany is thinking of her son on a throne that she would rather have blood riders protecting him than knights. Really, they didn’t do much for her father or her brother. I like Jorah’s comment that Dothraki could not take a castle but could kick some serious ass in open battle.
I also find myself comparing Dany to Sansa. Sansa’s mind is full of dreams and fairytales, although she has seen a few times that her Prince Charming may just not all that charming. I like a quote I saw once…
Someone should sue Disney for making little girls think that Prince Charming actually exists.
How many of us have had the dissolution of fairy tales and happily ever after?
Dany has grown up in a different world and is smarter for it. I think that is why she is pleasantly surprised when she actually falls in love with Khal Drogo. She has been beat down by Viserys her whole entire life and knows that life is no bed of roses.
Love, love, love that Dany takes the belt to her brother. She’s evolving into the kick ass Dany that I love! As she sleeps with her dragon eggs, she thinks of her child on the throne.
Book to HBO
The single incident borrowed from this chapter is Dany placing the dragon’s egg in a lit brazier. This plays out very differently, however. In the novel, she has Jorah light the brazier and then leaves the egg there for hours, until the ashes are cold, whereas on the show Irri comes to take the heated egg from Daenerys, burning her own hands in the process to reveal that Daenerys is somehow safe against such heat. Daenerys scene with Viserys was a lot more dramatic in the HBO episode, she didn’t just slap him with a belt and threatens him herself instead of threatening Drogo against him.
About Melanie
