The second season of a Game of Thrones has ended and I am taking the opportunity of the long train ride to Brighton from Newcastle via Kings Cross and Victoria to finish my reading of Clash of Kings and commence the writing of my final piece. Because I have delayed doing so for several weeks I will recap the main story and recent developments.
I begin with Daenerys Targaryen because her story and role is separate from the other characters and families, because there are important differences between the book account and the Television series and most of all because she is adorable. As previously mentioned Daenerys has lived her life in exile away from her homeland and was married off at a tender age by her brother to the leader of a tribe of nomadic warriors with a view to gaining their support for an assault on the mainland to regain the throne of his ancestors. (420-429 508-516 and 637-647)
Her treacherous brother has died as had her husband who she came to love. For her wedding she was given the last three dragon eggs known to exist, a gesture, as they were considered only to be symbols of the land of the Dragons which her family once ruled. However driven by her sense of destiny she had entered the funeral pyre of her husband with the eggs and emerged unscathed and with the eggs hatched. Although she was deserted by the majority of her husbands kinsmen she had become known as the Queen of Dragons as she made her way to the coast in the hope of finding a fleet and soldiers to commence her attempt to regain the family’s former power. She was assisted bv one loyal knight from her people Ser Jorah Mormont, once Lord of Bear Island and some hundred of the men and their families of her husband former huge army in their tens of thousands, and they come to a great coastal three walled fortified city and port full of merchants from the known world who between them controlled several thousand ships.
She and her followers had only been allowed into the city because of the intervention of one of its leaders, a wealthy merchant who only as the book ends discloses that he controls over 800 ships.
His reason for interceding on her behalf and the provision of hospitality in his palace is the hope of acquiring one of the fledgling dragons so he can take sole control of the city presently managed by a Council of the wealthy elders. He puts on a banquet so the establishment can meet her but their interest is only the dragons. He tries various ways to persuade her to marry and in the book but not in the TV series it is revealed that although he claims to have no interest in the dragons upon marriage the couple can ask one thing of each other which cannot be refused and she is warned he will ask for a single dragon. She says she will give him a third of the dragons if he provides her with a third of the ships of the world.
She decides to apply to the City Council for assistance and uses her available gold to make application and bribe the various officials and interests to gain the audience before them. They have no interest other than to have another opportunity to view the dragons arguing that she has provided no evidence of support in her homeland or evidence that they will be repaid for the expenditure she asks of them. From her arrival she has also been courted by Pyat Pree a warlock of the city of Quarth. A kind of undead shape shifting being with blue lips. He offers her sanctuary and support and after the refusal of the city elders to help and that of her host Xaro Xhoan Daxos, she decides to accept the offer to visit.
There is a different approach taken in the TV series as following a fire at the palace she finds all three dragons stolen and taken to tall decaying tower of the warlocks. In the book she visits with one of dragons in her shoulder. In the book she is greeted at base by Pyat Pree or his image and is advised that on entry she must always go up than down and always take the first door on the right( although as she needs to work out subsequently this is also the last door on the left. She is also warned against being side tracked by the delights she will be shown and offered.
In the TV series the main delight she encounters is to see her husband and her child and to be begged by him to stay with them as he insists he is real. However she realises she has a greater mission even if this not a delusion. In the book she briefly looks into various rooms to see what they reveal but does not enter, after having been given a drink which tastes like ink and bad meat to enable her to see what others do not. In the TV series she is captured in the same room as her dragons are kept chained and told they will stay there for eternity so the warlock can use the power of dragons to control the city and from there the rest of the world.
However she uses the powers of the dragons to burn and destroy the warloch, the power used for the first time in their still fledgling status. In the book she uses the fire power of the dragon on her shoulder to destroy the warlocks who she eventually meets. In the TV series she finds out that Xaro Daxos was in league with the warlock to gain control of the dragons after she had refused his offer of marriage if she abandons her plan to go back to her homeland. She finds that the great vault in in Palace and she imprisons him inside the vault before taking his gold to buy ships to continue her mission. In the book there is an attempt on her life as she attempts to bargain for at least one ship and this encounter brings her in contact with emissaries from the homeland who tell her the King is dead and that four individuals have declared themselves King and make war with each other. In both instance we are given the impression that at last is about to go to her family’s homeland to add a Queen to the three remaining Kings in pursuit of establishing themselves permanently in control.
I begin with Daenerys Targaryen because her story and role is separate from the other characters and families, because there are important differences between the book account and the Television series and most of all because she is adorable. As previously mentioned Daenerys has lived her life in exile away from her homeland and was married off at a tender age by her brother to the leader of a tribe of nomadic warriors with a view to gaining their support for an assault on the mainland to regain the throne of his ancestors. (420-429 508-516 and 637-647)
Her treacherous brother has died as had her husband who she came to love. For her wedding she was given the last three dragon eggs known to exist, a gesture, as they were considered only to be symbols of the land of the Dragons which her family once ruled. However driven by her sense of destiny she had entered the funeral pyre of her husband with the eggs and emerged unscathed and with the eggs hatched. Although she was deserted by the majority of her husbands kinsmen she had become known as the Queen of Dragons as she made her way to the coast in the hope of finding a fleet and soldiers to commence her attempt to regain the family’s former power. She was assisted bv one loyal knight from her people Ser Jorah Mormont, once Lord of Bear Island and some hundred of the men and their families of her husband former huge army in their tens of thousands, and they come to a great coastal three walled fortified city and port full of merchants from the known world who between them controlled several thousand ships.
She and her followers had only been allowed into the city because of the intervention of one of its leaders, a wealthy merchant who only as the book ends discloses that he controls over 800 ships.
His reason for interceding on her behalf and the provision of hospitality in his palace is the hope of acquiring one of the fledgling dragons so he can take sole control of the city presently managed by a Council of the wealthy elders. He puts on a banquet so the establishment can meet her but their interest is only the dragons. He tries various ways to persuade her to marry and in the book but not in the TV series it is revealed that although he claims to have no interest in the dragons upon marriage the couple can ask one thing of each other which cannot be refused and she is warned he will ask for a single dragon. She says she will give him a third of the dragons if he provides her with a third of the ships of the world.
She decides to apply to the City Council for assistance and uses her available gold to make application and bribe the various officials and interests to gain the audience before them. They have no interest other than to have another opportunity to view the dragons arguing that she has provided no evidence of support in her homeland or evidence that they will be repaid for the expenditure she asks of them. From her arrival she has also been courted by Pyat Pree a warlock of the city of Quarth. A kind of undead shape shifting being with blue lips. He offers her sanctuary and support and after the refusal of the city elders to help and that of her host Xaro Xhoan Daxos, she decides to accept the offer to visit.
There is a different approach taken in the TV series as following a fire at the palace she finds all three dragons stolen and taken to tall decaying tower of the warlocks. In the book she visits with one of dragons in her shoulder. In the book she is greeted at base by Pyat Pree or his image and is advised that on entry she must always go up than down and always take the first door on the right( although as she needs to work out subsequently this is also the last door on the left. She is also warned against being side tracked by the delights she will be shown and offered.
In the TV series the main delight she encounters is to see her husband and her child and to be begged by him to stay with them as he insists he is real. However she realises she has a greater mission even if this not a delusion. In the book she briefly looks into various rooms to see what they reveal but does not enter, after having been given a drink which tastes like ink and bad meat to enable her to see what others do not. In the TV series she is captured in the same room as her dragons are kept chained and told they will stay there for eternity so the warlock can use the power of dragons to control the city and from there the rest of the world.
However she uses the powers of the dragons to burn and destroy the warloch, the power used for the first time in their still fledgling status. In the book she uses the fire power of the dragon on her shoulder to destroy the warlocks who she eventually meets. In the TV series she finds out that Xaro Daxos was in league with the warlock to gain control of the dragons after she had refused his offer of marriage if she abandons her plan to go back to her homeland. She finds that the great vault in in Palace and she imprisons him inside the vault before taking his gold to buy ships to continue her mission. In the book there is an attempt on her life as she attempts to bargain for at least one ship and this encounter brings her in contact with emissaries from the homeland who tell her the King is dead and that four individuals have declared themselves King and make war with each other. In both instance we are given the impression that at last is about to go to her family’s homeland to add a Queen to the three remaining Kings in pursuit of establishing themselves permanently in control.
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