Sylvia Plath, From The Unabridged Journals

Incorrect Game of Thrones Quotes [10/?] (insp)

Tormund: Who is your favorite person?

Jon: Dany.

Tormund: Okay, who do you trust most?

Jon: Dany.

Tormund: Well, what's your favorite thing to do?!

Jon: ...Dany.

Tormund: What about your favorite thing to eat. It can't be Daenerys!

Jon: And yet.

Sleeping At Last

For a man of slight stature, he takes up so much space in her bed. And his feet are like blocks of ice. He will rub them against her leg just to make her shriek and squirm away, because even as she pouts at him, inwardly, she's smiling, and she can't hold it back for long. And these antics inevitably lead to far more intimate pursuits.

She's been sleeping with him for a fortnight. She has never felt so loved. And not just that, but respected and revered. They have so much in common. Had fate not brought them here, they would never have realized. In the end, all they've ever wanted is home. She thinks, or hopes at least, that they have found it in each other.

She wants to please him; not to survive, as she had done with her husband, but because she has opened for him a world of possibilities he probably never considered with his repressed Northern upbringing. Whatever she's suggested, he's been game. And he is insatiable.

But she thinks her favorite moments are these, after they've coupled, their heartbeats slowing, their bodies naked and perspiring, their limbs entwined. He doesn't talk after fucking. He just holds her. Sometimes they fall asleep. Sometimes, it's just a quick respite, then they have each other again. He's good at it. Her other lovers were more experienced, but he actually cares about her pleasure. She could do little else for the rest of her life, but this, lying in his arms, trying to imagine where they are on the map, and what would happen if the ship changed course, and carried them off to the ends of the world. She honestly wouldn't mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He's never been an easy sleeper, but he is with her. The mattress is too soft. The blankets are too hot. Sometimes she kicks him in her sleep. Sometimes she talks while she dreams. He'll take it all.

He never thought he'd share a bed with anyone. He's slept beside a woman before, on hard, wet ground under furs, shivering and praying to his gods that he wouldn't freeze to death. Even then, he didn't forget what his purpose was, nor his place in the world.

With her, it's easy to forget. Maybe that's dangerous. But he doesn't care. He loves her. It's not infatuation or lust. It's beyond anything he ever imagined. And the more unbelievable thing is that she loves him back. She hasn't said so in words, but her body says plenty.

Her bed is his fortress of sheets and blankets and cushions. He is at peace there, because the troubles of the outside world can't reach him. There is no one else, only them.

He loves to lay with her. He usually wakes before she does. She's so lovely in her sleep, her mussed hair fanned over pillows and his chest, her long lashes kissing her cheeks, her pliant body curled into his. It makes him feel protective, but also safe himself. And it makes him wish they could stay that way forever, that this ship will sail the sea for the rest of their days, and if the sea reaches an end, then perhaps they could sail amongst the stars, and someone else can save the world for once.

He never wants to leave.

I dreamed about you continually last night, in all kinds of places and confusions.

Ted Hughes, from ‘Letters of Ted Hughes’ ⁠— Sylvia Plath, 18th October 1956

Christa Wolf, Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays

We look up at the same stars, and see such different things.

Jon: *picks up a piece of paper* What’s this?

Daenerys: My to-do list.

Jon: it just has my name on it…

Daenerys: And?

🌹

The prophecies in the House of the Undying correspond with the three phases of Dany’s life: 

Phase 1: Marriage to Drogo, her time on the Dothraki sea (daughter of death, a fire for life, a mount to bed, a treason for blood) 

Phase 2: Her antislavery campaign (slayer of lies, a fire for death, a mount to dread, a treason for gold) 

Phase 3: A dream of spring, which will only come after defeating the Others (bride of fire, a fire to love, a mount to love, a treason for love) 

Three fires: 

A fire for life––Drogo’s funeral pyre gives rise to her three living dragons 

A fire for death––Dany kills Kraznys with Drogon’s dragon fire and initiates her anti-slavery revolution 

A fire for love––yet to be revealed 

Three mounts: 

A mount to bed––she rides the Silver to her wedding night with Drogo 

A mount to dread––Drogon, who is “Balerion the Black Dread” come again, whom she rides at the end of ADWD, before she explicitly rejects the false peace with the Meereneese slavers 

A mount for love––yet to be revealed 

Three treasons (under my interpretation of Dany as the treasonous agent/subject, not the object being betrayed): 

A treason for blood––Dany betrays Mirri’s own use of blood magic by using blood magic to birth her dragons as well as executing Mirri to avenge her own blood (her unborn son)

A treason for gold––Dany negotiated a business deal with Kraznys whereby she’d purchase his Unsullied in return for one of her dragons but betrays him by starting an antislavery revolution, which also leads her to overseeing the former slaves redistributing the wealth of the slaveowners in Yunkai and conquering Meereen to free slaves and feed her freedmen 

A treason for love––yet to be revealed 

Within her daughter of death, slayer of lies, and bride of fire prophecies, the correspondence is a little shakier, but still holds true: 

Death of Viserys happens with the Dothraki––> leads to her becoming the scion of House Targaryen and Queen Regnant 

Death of Rhaego––> she is the Stallion that will Mount the World, not Rhaego, and though his death also happens when she’s with the Dothraki, it is she who will free slaves, unite the Dothraki into one horde, and invade Westeros, not Rhaego 

Death of Rhaegar––> she is Azor Ahai, the Prince that was Promised, the last dragon, and hers is the song of ice and fire; neither Rhaegar nor his firstborn will fulfill the prophecy 

She slays the lie of Stannis being Azor Ahai while she’s still with the Dothraki, because that’s when she births her dragons

She slays the lie of Aegon, the Mummer’s Dragon, by being “Aegon the Conqueror with Teats” as she conquers Slaver’s Bay 

She will slay the lie of Euron being a dragon-rider/user of dragons when he uses his dragonbinder to steal a dragon 

She marries Drogo (with the Dothraki), then marries Hizdahr (when she’s in Slaver’s Bay, Meereen specifically; this is also when Victarion and Euron want to marry her), and she will marry… a certain someone, later on 

Also, each of her prophetic dreams against fighting the Others corresponds with each part of her arc: 

She has her first one when she’s having fever dreams after miscarrying Rhaego 

She has her second one before she kills Kraznys and frees The Unsullied in Astapor 

I wonder, then, when she will have her third one 

Finally, it’s fascinating that each of her three prophecies ends with love. Not with blood, gold, dread, treason, or death; but with love. It’s so poetic that GRRM ends each of these life-defining prophecies with love. Dany is the embodiment of love. Her life is an emblem of love. And it’s like GRRM is telling us that this girl who is so loving and selfless and has been so bereft of love and care for so long, that her life is leading up to this great love and has been the whole time.

this dragon queen who wears her name is a true targaryen.