Ahira's Hangar

Jon
Quote:"I know I want you," he heard himself say, all his vows and all his honor forgotten.

Chapter 25 finds Jon camped in a huge cave with the Wildings, rather near the Wall. He has become sexually intimate with Ygritte in order to save his life, though he feels that doing so has stained his vows and his honor...but somehow, the more he and Ygritte have sex, the more and more these thoughts fade...

He knows that they are bound to try to somehow cross the Wall, so he orders Ghost to return to Castle Black to meet him there. Ghots does leave, but Jon doesn't know if he is going to the Castle or just out hunting...Quote:The wildings called Jon Snow a warg, but if so he was a poor one. He did not know how to put a wolf skin, the way Orrell had with his eagle before he'd died. Once Jon had dreamed that he was Ghost, looking down upon the valley of the Milkwater where Mance Rayder had gathered his people, and that dream had turned out to be true. But he was not dreaming now....

Jon has been questioned by the leader of this wilding expedition, about the wall and its defenders and has told them all he knows (though he exaggerates the number of men available to the Old Bear...

After this interview, he goes in search of Ygritte. She has gone off exploring the cave and the two finally get a bit of privacy, where they engage in some extended sexual activity...Jon asks about her previous partners, especially if Longspear, whom he likes, was one of them. Ygritte's answer immediately puts thoughts of Cersei and Jaime in my mind...Quote:"He's of my village. You know nothing, Jon Snow. A true man steals a woman from afar, t' strengthen the clan. Women who bed brothers or fathers or clan kin offend the gods, and are cursed with weak and sickly children. Even monsters." Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
****Tavern Wench of DOGMA, the Defenders of George Martin's Art****<i>Edited by: Duchess of Malfi  at: 8/22/03 9:04 pm
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Dany

Quote:"I was alone for a long time, Jorah. All alone but for my brother. I was such a small, scared thing. Viserys should have protected me, but instead he hurt me and scared me worse. He shouldn't have done that. He wasn't just my brother, he was my king. Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can't protect themselves?" "Some kings make themselves. Robert did." "He was no true king," Dany said scornfully. "He did no justice. Justice...that's what kings are for."

Dany is in Astapor, negotiating with the slavers, which sickens both herself and Arstan Whitebeard. She has decided to purchase all of the Unsullied, no matter what the cost, down to the boys still in training...but the slavers want a horrible price, everything she owns except for her crown and her clothing -- down to the three ships and everything on them -- and her child, the dragon Drogon...yet, Dany agrees to this terrible price...Quote:The Mother of Dragons has sold her strongest child. Even the thought made her ill.

Dany frees the slave girl Missandei, who wishes to remain in her service. She freely answers all of Dany's questions about the Unsullied, and reveals that her three brothers are among them.

That night Dany has a vision, where she is her brother Rhaegar, leading her troops to the Trident, but mounted on a dragon rather than a horse. The dragon leads them to a great triumph...Quote:This is how it was meant to be. The other was a nightmare.... She then has a vision of Quaithe, who tells her Quote:Remember. To go north you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.

In the morning, Dany and all of her people carry the wealth of the ships into Astapor, including all three dragons in chains. All of the Unsullied, down to the boys, have been assembled in the Plaza of Punishment, the only place large enough in all of the city to hold them all. It is the place where slaves are publicly punished as a warning to other slaves...Dany pays her price, then accepts ownership of her slaves Quote:"IT IS DONE!" she cried at the top of her lungs. "YOU ARE MINE!" She gave the mare her heels and galloped along the first rank, holding the fingers high. "YOU ARE THE DRAGON'S NOW! YOU'RE BOUGHT AND PAID FOR! IT IS DONE! IT IS DONE!"

The slavers try to take Drogon, but he refuses to cooperate with them...Quote:It is time to cross the Trident, Dany thought... When the lead slaver complains that Drogon will not come with him, she responds Quote:"There is a reason. A dragon is no slave." and she attacks the slaver with the whip he gave her in token of her ownership of the Unsullied. She then orders Drogon to make flames. He attacks the slavers, as do the other two dragons when Dany's followers free them from their chains...A battle breaks out between the slavers and Dany's followers, and the Astaporis order the Unsullied to help them, but they stood still, not even looking, waiting for Dany's orders...
Quote:"Unsullied!" Dany galloped before them, her silver-gold braid flying nehind her, her bell chiming with every stride. "Slay the Good Masters, slay the soldiers, slay every man who wears a tokar or holds a whip, but harm no child under twelve, and strike the chains off every slave you see." She raised the harpy's fingers in the air...and then she flung the scourge aside. "Freedom!" she sang out. "Dracarys! Dracarys!" "Dracarys!" they shouted back, the sweetest word she's ever heard. "Dracarys! Dracarys!" And all around them slavers ran and sobbed and begged and died, and the dusty air was filled with spears and fire.


This chapter makes many people think that Dany is immoral, a person who breaks her word, a dirty trickster. Yet, I have always felt that it is perhaps the most moral moment in ASOIAF, and perhaps the most courageous. What is your opinion? Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
****Tavern Wench of DOGMA, the Defenders of George Martin's Art****<i></i>