Asoiaf Parallels - Tumblr Posts
Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow are somehow very much the image of their forebear Aegon V "Egg" Targaryen.
Egg is called the "Unlikely" for a reason. He was the youngest son of the youngest son, the trueborn grandson of Daeron II furthest from succession, yet he managed to become king. Daenerys likewise is a girl and an exiled, dispossessed royal with no lands, wealth or swords to her name at the start of the series, and by the end of the first book, lost her khal with seemingly nothing left. Yet, she manages to hatch dragon eggs and build an entire kingdom and army from the ground up. She is the exiled prince played straight. Jon is the supposed bastard son of Eddard Stark who joins the Night's Watch, yet he manages to rise to Lord Commander and could possibly become a king by the end of the series.
Jon and Dany both can relate to Egg with regards to relationships with his brothers. Daenerys had to deal with a half-mad abusive older brother in the form of Viserys while Egg was terrorized by his own half-mad sibling Aerion, and in the end, both their fraternal bullies ended up dying by fire. Jon had a good relationship with Egg's brother Maester Aemon, his fellow black brother who counsels him like he did Egg to the point he gives him the same advice of "kill the boy."
In "The Mystery Knight," the dragon egg at Whitewalls is believed to hatch a living dragon but it refers to Egg's maturation as he is unveiled as the Targaryen prince while Daenerys hatches living dragons eggs which connects to her maturation and rise.
(Note: Daenerys and Egg make their egg hatching attempts after having tragically lost their sons and spouses.)
Connections are also found with physical transformation and taking on a new humble identity as a disguise under which the young prince learns about the trials of those less priveleged. Daenerys goes bald after hatching her dragon eggs, signifying her transformation from a weak, frightened girl to a "true Targaryen" just as Egg shaved off his hair to signify his transformation from Prince Aegon to Egg, squire to the hedge knight Dunk.
Aegon took on the guise of Egg as the squire to the common born hedge knight Dunk as he stayed away from royal court traveling the countryside. Daenerys grew up away from royal court in Essos always traveling from place to place while Jon (unwittingly) hides his Targaryen identity posing as Ned Stark's bastard son and rode with wildlings, associated with the smallfolk of the Night's Watch. Both Egg's descendants' views were impacted by their upbringing as Egg's was. Egg's years among the smallfolk gave him more sympathy towards them or as he was called "half a peasant" just as Jon was called "half a wildling" for having ridden with the wildlings and his upbringing as a bastard gave him more sympathy towards the marginalized along with good teachers. Daenerys's past as abused childhood growing up in poverty who sold into marriage made her sympathetic towards the slaves and children, the most marginalized and least protected members of society.
"Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can't protect themselves?" -ASOS, Daenerys III "I am the shield that guards the realms of men. Those are the words. So tell me, my lord—what are these wildlings, if not men?" -ADWD, Jon XI
Put into leadership roles as Jon is elected as Lord Commander and Dany becomes queen as Egg was elected King at the Great Council, the two show solidarity with the downtrodden as Egg did.
They face frustration in pushing through needed popular changes in face of reactionary opposition up to and including rebellions. Daenerys liberates slaves and supports their rights against the slavocracy, but faces opposition in the form of the Harpy and the Yunkish coalition as Egg supported the rights of smallfolk and faced opposition in the form of rebellions by the lords. Jon pushes for reforms such as naming a former prostitute as his squire and allying with the wildlings, but faces opposition in the form of Marsh's faction.
Daenerys and Jon are Egg's spiritual successors as they try to make the world a better place, and deal with realities of ruling and leadership.
Thinking about the thematic connection between the Doom of Valyria and the Storming of the Dragonpit.
It is always the injustice done to the innocents that ultimately leads to the dying of the dragons.
Now, the only vestige of Valyria that remains is Volantis, the corruption festering out from within it's black-walled heart.
One looked toward the Long Bridge and the black-walled heart of Old Volantis across the river.
.
Inside the Black Walls, Volantenes of the Old Blood still keep court in ancient palaces, attended by armies of slaves. Outside, the foreigners, freedmen, and lowborn of a hundred nations may be found. Seafarers and traders swarm the city’s markets and harbors, together with slaves almost beyond count. It is said that in Volantis, there are five slaves for every free man—a disproportion in numbers matched only by the ancient Ghiscari cities of Slaver’s Bay.
.
The heart of Old Volantis is the city-within-the-city—an immense labyrinth of ancient palaces, courtyards, towers, temples, cloisters, bridges, and cellars, all contained within the great oval of the Black Walls raised by the Freehold of Valyria in the first flush of its youthful expansion. Two hundred feet tall, and so thick that six four-horse chariots can race along their battlements side by side (as they do each year to celebrate the founding of the city), these seamless walls of fused black dragonstone, harder than steel or diamond, stand in mute testimony to Volantis’s origins as a military outpost. Only those who can trace their ancestry back to Old Valyria are allowed to dwell within the Black Walls; no slave, freedman, or foreigner is permitted to set foot within without the express invitation of a scion of the Old Blood.
Though there is also Daenerys, the last of the Valyrian Dragonlords, who has brought the dragons back and uses them for the purpose of helping the innocents.
“Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves?”
I think it is only fitting that she sets her sights on Volantis at long last.
“Should you reach your queen, give her a message from the slaves of Old Volantis.” She touched the faded scar upon her wrinkled cheek, where her tears had been cut away. “Tell her we are waiting. Tell her to come soon.”
It will be another wrong Daenerys can set to right.
A long stone table filled this room. Above it floated a human heart, swollen and blue with corruption, yet still alive. It beat, a deep ponderous throb of sound, and each pulse sent out a wash of indigo light. The figures around the table were no more than blue shadows. As Dany walked to the empty chair at the foot of the table, they did not stir, nor speak, nor turn to face her. There was no sound but the slow, deep beat of the rotting heart. [...] Then indigo turned to orange, and whispers turned to screams. Her heart was pounding, racing, the hands and mouths were gone, heat washed over her skin, and Dany blinked at a sudden glare. Perched above her, the dragon spread his wings and tore at the terrible dark heart, ripping the rotten flesh to ribbons, and when his head snapped forward, fire flew from his open jaws, bright and hot. She could hear the shrieks of the Undying as they burned, their high thin papery voices crying out in tongues long dead. Their flesh was crumbling parchment, their bones dry wood soaked in tallow. They danced as the flames consumed them; they staggered and writhed and spun and raised blazing hands on high, their fingers bright as torches.
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ice and fire
HELAENA TARGARYEN // ELIA MARTELL
"The High Septon once told me that as we sin, so do we suffer. If that's true, Lord Eddard, tell me...why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones?"