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waitingforwinterwinds · 1 year

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Game of Thrones - 61 DAENERYS VII (pages 641-650)

Dany witnesses the aftermath of a normal Dothraki invasion, and tries to convince herself it's all fine. Mirri Maz Duur joins the party.

The reader was not mentally equipped for this much sexual assault, and got mean about it.

Wounded men moaned and prayed. Jaqqa rhan moved among them, the mercy men with their heavy axes, taking a harvest of heads from the dead and dying alike.

Oh that's interesting. That the Dothraki have a dedicated group to grant mercy kills to the dying, it says a lot about how long they've been doing this as a culture, (the rape, pillage, murder thing) that they've got this group, but it also speaks to the cultural mindset of the Dothraki, that there's no wave of healers, only mercy killings. (Either there are only non Dothraki/Drogo's men being culled right now, or if you can't walk off the battle field on your own, well "sucks to be you.")

The sheep had been dead longest. There seemed to be thousands of them, black with flies, arrow shafts bristling from each carcass. Khal Ogo's riders had done that, Dany knew; no man of Drogo's khalasar would be such fool as to waste his arrow when there were shepherds yet to kill.

...I don't like the way you said that. Why are they killing shepherds? Can't be to take the live stock, the live stock would have to be... you know, alive for that. Swarmed with flies? That's already started to rot. They just gonna take it field to plate wholesale? Nothing for later?

Dany pitied them; she remembered what terror felt like. Mothers stumbled along with blank, dead faces, pulling sobbing children by the hand. There were only a few men among them, cripples and cowards and grandfathers. ... One galloped behind him, lashing him across the buttocksuntil his thoghs ran red with blood. Another snared his ankle with a lash and sent him sprawling. Finally when the boy could only crawl, they grew bored of the sport and put an arrow through his back. ... Ogo's khalasar had been attacking the town when Khal Drogo caught him. She wondered what the lamb men had thought, when they first saw the dust of their horses from atop those cracked-mud walls. Perhaps a few, the younger and more foolish who still believed that the gods heard the prayers of desperate men, took it for deliverance. Across the road, a girl no younger than Dany was sobbing in a high voice as a rider shoved her over a pile of corpses, facedown, and thrust himself inside her, Other riders dismounted to take their turns. That was the sort of deliverance the Dothraki brought the Lamb Men. I am the blood of the dragon, Daenerys Targaryen reminded herself as she turned her face away. She pressed her lips together and hardened her heart and rode toward the gate. ... Slaves, Dany thought. Khal Drogo would drive them downriver to one of the towns on Slaver's Bay. She wanted to cry, but she told herself that she must be strong. This is war, this is what it looks like, this is the price of the Iron Throne. ... Behind them, the girl being raped made a heart rending sound, a long sobbing wail that went on and on and on. Dany's hand clenched hard around the reins, and she turned the silver's head. "Make them stop," she commanded Ser Jorah.

Oh here we are. Damn this chapter is rough.

This is terrifying, and not just for the horrific shit that's happening, but for Dany's reactions and lack there of in places. She still has a limit for what she can tolerate, we see that very clearly when the girl's wailing gets to her, Dany stops the rape, but she's struggling in herself, deliberately trying to ignore people's pain because this is how she's going to get what she wants.

This is the start of a slippery slope, "this is the price of the Iron Throne." Sure. But is it worth it? Because this doesn't stop here, this doesn't stop once you get the Throne, it keeps going.

I do want to point out during her mental self-conditioning, as she's trying to mask her unease and create the hard-hearted dragon self, that her narrative voice refers to her as "Daenerys Targaryen" rather than Dany, which I think is a good way to indicate that there's still a separation between Dany's sense of self and that more "what must be done, must be done" self she's trying to create.

"It pleases me to keep them safe," Dany said, wondering if she had dared too much. "If your warriors would mount these women, let them take them gently and keep them for wives. Give them places in the khalasar and let them bare you sons."

I undersatnd that this is coming from her trauma coping brain, but Dany? Marital rape is still rape. That is still a horrible end for these women.

"Where are the healers?" she demanded. The khalasar had two sorts: barren women and eunuch slaves. The herbwomen deal in potions and spells, the eunuchs in knife, needle and fire. "Why do they not attend the khal?" "The khal sent the hairless men away, khaleesi," old Cohollo assured her. (...) "Many riders are hurt," Khal Drogo said stubbornly. "Let them be healed first. This arrow is no more than the bite of a fly, this little cut only a new scar to boast of to my son."

Ah, there are healers, cool, cool, cool. And two different types, that's fun. (Doesn't quite answer the question of "if you can't walk off the battlefield under your own power, do you get culled?")

... Let Drogo die! Let Drogo die! Let Drogo die!

"Where did you learn your healing, Mirri Maz Duur?" "My mother was godswife before me, and taught me all the songs and spells most pleasing to the Great Shepherd, and how to make the sacred smokes and ointments from leaf and root and berry. When I was younger and more fair, I went in a caravan to Asshai by the Shadow, to learn from their mages. Ships from many lands come to Asshai, so I lingered long to study the healing ways of distant peoples. A moonsinger of the Jogos Nhai gifted me with her birthing songs, a woman of your own riding people taught me the magics of grass and corn and horse, and a maester from the Sunset Lands opened a body for me and showed me all the secrets that hide beneath the skin." Ser Jorah spoke up. "A maester?" "Marwyn, he named himself," the woman replied in Common Tongue.

Mirri Maz Duur, MD.

My goodness though, Mirri might be the most qualified medical personal on... what's this world called? ... The World.

You thought it was GRRM, but it was me, DIO!

Seriously though? Even knowing how this ends for her, I would watch/read a prequel series of Mirri Maz Duur's medical school road trip.

...Is Marwyn the magic researcher maester? ... the wiki says yes.

"She will do no harm." Dany felt she could trust this old, plain-faced woman with her flat nose; she had saved her from the hard hands of her rapers, after all.

... I. That's a bit of a concerning way of thinking. "I saved you so you owe me and won't betray me." Here's the thing: people shouldn't have to owe others for doing the basic human decency, and if they do? that's up the the rescued person to decide, not the 'saviour.'

Furthermore? Mirri probably doesn't know or care that there were two factions of Dothraki invading and raping her and her people, because both of them were there, violating people. From her point of view, for Mirri? Dany saved Mirri from a problem that Dany was part of making.

"Drink neither wine nor milk of the poppy," she cautioned him. "Pain you will have, but you must keep your body strong to fight the poison spirits." "I am khal," Drogo said. "I spit on pain and drink what I like.-"

Great, mix your meds and perish. Take your rapey khalasar with you.

#a song of ice and fire #asoiaf #game of thrones #daenerys targeryan #dany targaryen #a chapter a day reading #rape #rape mentions #got #long post

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