… covering Dany and her bond to her dragons in A Storm of Swords.
In A Clash of Kings, Dany’s dragons went from hatchlings to fledglings, and finally started to fly and breath fire at the end. In a Storm of Swords, the show their power, moving towards being adult dragons. A Storm of Swords.
A Storm of Swords also represents a transitional period in Dany’s bond with her dragons. Our dragon themes, a list with similarities to and differences from our direwolf Bond themes, are in evidence in several interactions between Dany and her dragons. I think that GRRM has made these human / beast bonds similar in many aspects.
First, consider the warg or direwolf bond themes.
- Mirroring mood, personality, and intelligence
- Obedience vs. Independence
- Shadowing / Protecting / Savagery
- healthy fear of the wolves
- Related: the wolves’ innate ability to sense threats
- Belonging to the pack / the instinct to hunt
- Being affectionate when together
- Physical contact enhancing the bond
- Bad things happening when separated
For the most part, this list translates to dragons rather well, but there are some notable differences. The dragon bond or dragon / rider themes are:
- Mirroring personality, moods and intelligence
- Independence vs. Obedience
- Deferential only when it suits them
- Growing out of any prior obedience
- Savagery / Protection
- Fear of the dragons
- Related: the dragons’ ability to sense threats
- Power
- Strength / Superiority / Domination over prey
- COMPLETE lack of fear of humans (also prey)
- Insatiable appetite
- Touch / Affection
- Physical contact enhancing the bond
- Separation
- Bad things happening when they’re separated
Mirroring happens mostly between Dany and Drogon, as we will see in this volume. This makes sense, as they will eventually become a bonded dragon / rider pair. The other 2 remain her children. I will note that even though we have mainly eliminated the pack theme in dragon lore, we will see evidence that the 3 dragons do share some type of telepathic connection in this volume, though I would categorize it under mirroring.
A Storm of Swords – Daenerys I
The highlight of this chapter, to me, is the excitement seeing all three dragons fly for the first time in the story! An undercurrent though, is their savagery, and aggressiveness, foreshadowing their use in war.
Dany is joyful in these first scenes. She loves sailing, and she loves her dragons.
[…] Yet even so, as she stood upon the forecastle watching her dragons chase each other across a cloudless blue sky, Daenerys Targaryen was as happy as she could ever remember being.
[…] The narrow sea was often stormy, and Dany had crossed it half a hundred times as a girl, running from one Free City to the next half a step ahead of the Usurper’s hired knives. […] Once on a voyage to Braavos, as she’d watched the crew wrestle down a great green sail in a rising gale, she had even thought how fine it would be to be a sailor. But when she told her brother, Viserys had twisted her hair until she cried. “You are blood of the dragon,” he had screamed at her. “A dragon, not some smelly fish.”
That last is not as fond a memory. It could foreshadow her shedding of Viserys and the negativity he brought to her life. However, that idea is opposed by her taking up the quest that he failed to achieve, re-conquering the seven kingdoms. I think it clear that she has some Velaryon and some Targaryen in her. Why should she not be a dragon and a fish? Will she break free of his abuse, and become her own woman, or will she be beholden for all her life to what Viserys wants her to be, only a dragon.
Next, we are reminded of the theme from ACoK that the dragons have free will of their own and are not property and should not be caged if you want them to be happy. The same is true of Dany, come to think of it. This should be remembered in ADwD with the caging of her dragons and her bottling up of her own ambitions and nature.
[…] At first Groleo had wanted the dragons caged and Dany had consented to put his fears at ease, but their misery was so palpable that she soon changed her mind and insisted they be freed.
Even Captain Groleo was glad of that, now. There had been one small fire, easily extinguished; against that, Balerion suddenly seemed to have far fewer rats than she’d had before […]. And her crew, once as fearful as they were curious, had begun to take a queer fierce pride in “their” dragons. Every man of them, from captain to cook’s boy, loved to watch the three fly . . . though none so much as Dany.
They are my children, she told herself, and if the maegi spoke truly, they are the only children I am ever like to have.
Next we get further descriptions of Dany’s dragons as they fly ever higher.
Viserion’s scales were the color of fresh cream, his horns, wing bones, and spinal crest a dark gold that flashed bright as metal in the sun. Rhaegal was made of the green of summer and the bronze of fall. They soared above the ships in wide circles, higher and higher, each trying to climb above the other.
That majesty is literally the calm before the storm, a prelude to the violence. Surprise attack seems their modus because, as we see, they like to gain altitude to attack from above. This foreshadows Dany’s attack on Astapor later, and I daresay she did it from the high ground, if you take my meaning.
Dragons always preferred to attack from above, Dany had learned. Should either get between the other and the sun, he would fold his wings and dive screaming, and they would tumble from the sky locked together in a tangled scaly ball, jaws snapping and tails lashing. The first time they had done it, she feared that they meant to kill each other, but it was only sport. No sooner would they splash into the sea than they would break apart and rise again, shrieking and hissing, the salt water steaming off them as their wings clawed at the air. […]
While Rhaegal and Viserion play like the children they are to Dany (though it is a fierce and potentially deadly game), Drogon is off hunting. His separation from the other two is thematic. I believe it represents how Dany’s bond with Drogon is different. As I discussed in our first volume, his is the first egg that she bonds with. I think it is already destined in our authors mind that she will ride him. Thus, he is not portrayed doing childlike things. And, his savagery and ferocity are brought to mind with the act of hunting.
[…] Drogon was aloft as well, though not in sight; he would be miles ahead, or miles behind, hunting.
He was always hungry, her Drogon. Hungry and growing fast. Another year, or perhaps two, and he may be large enough to ride.
And he is even foreshadowed in the passage to be ridden. Dany knows too, not just GRRM.
However, even with their majesty and ferocity, at this size not only can they not be ridden, they are still vulnerable.
But that time was not yet come. Rhaegal and Viserion were the size of small dogs, Drogon only a little larger, and any dog would have out-weighed them; they were all wings and neck and tail, lighter than they looked. […]
We see next that Dany shares feeling with Drogon on the snail’s pace of their sailing. Is Dany mirroring Drogon’s feelings through the bond, or is it just an observation?
“I cannot see Drogon,” said Ser Jorah Mormont as he joined her on the forecastle. “Is he lost again?”
“We are the ones who are lost, ser. Drogon has no taste for this wet creeping, no more than I do.” Bolder than the other two, her black dragon had been the first to try his wings above the water, the first to flutter from ship to ship, the first to lose himself in a passing cloud . . . and the first to kill. The flying fish no sooner broke the surface of the water than they were enveloped in a lance of flame, snatched up, and swallowed. “How big will he grow?” Dany asked curiously. “Do you know?”
Dany gives a lot of weight to the idea that Drogon has his own will in matters, and quite a strong will at that, dare I say, even an opinion.
That passage also hints in another way as to how Drogon may be more special than the other two dragons, from the mention of his size. This is of course an oblique comparison in the comparison to Ghost, Jon Snow’s direwolf. Beyond the passage, the red eyes (mentioned in prior volumes but not here) may be a clue, as they were for Ghost. Continuing that theme in the next passage, the size of dragons remains a focus strengthening the comparison of Drogon and Ghost, largest of their pods.
Speaking of Dany knowing Drogon’s thoughts, we see more evidence of the intellect of dragons when Jorah discusses stories of “wise old dragons.” This is worth taking note, because GRRM is influenced by Tolkien, and we know that Smaug was sentient and able to clearly communicate with Bilbo. I wonder how sentient Drogon is now and moving forward. You’ll recall that I feel like he was communicating with Dany even as an egg. They are intelligent, no doubt, no doubt.
“In the Seven Kingdoms, there are tales of dragons who grew so huge that they could pluck giant krakens from the seas.”
[…]
“It is only a tale, Khaleesi,” said her exile knight. “They talk of wise old dragons living a thousand years as well.”
While Jorah makes light of the ide of wise old dragons, I think our author is hinting it may have been true. The next passage certainly doesn’t discount the idea that they could live that long, anyway.
The exposition on dragons returns to their vulnerability and weaves in a mention of freedom. GRRM is making a thematic statement about people and beasts under oppressive conditions vs. having freedom to thrive. It continues to foreshadow Dany smashing the slave trade. It should also be a clue that she would not ever plan to sell Drogon into bondage, to slavers.
“Well, how long does a dragon live?” She looked up as Viserion swooped low over the ship, his wings beating slowly and stirring the limp sails.
Ser Jorah shrugged. “A dragon’s natural span of days is many times as long as a man’s, or so the songs would have us believe . . . but the dragons the Seven Kingdoms knew best were those of House Targaryen. They were bred for war, and in war they died. It is no easy thing to slay a dragon, but it can be done.”
[…] “Balerion the Black Dread was two hundred years old when he died during the reign of Jaehaerys the Conciliator. He was so large he could swallow an aurochs whole. A dragon never stops growing, Your Grace, so long as he has food and freedom.” […]
“Freedom?” asked Dany, curious. “What do you mean?”
“In King’s Landing, your ancestors raised an immense domed castle for their dragons. The Dragonpit, it is called. […] Yet even so, it was noted that none of the pit dragons ever reached the size of their ancestors. The maesters say it was because of the walls around them, and the great dome above their heads.”
I mean, from META perspective, the maesters really would have a large sample size to make this conclusion, especially since they and their maester conspiracy had all the dragons killed during the dance of the dragons, but they may have been right in this conclusion nonetheless. Ser Barristan then argues with Ser Jorah, but also highlights the death of the dragons, all in war save for Balerion.
“Men are men,” Whitebeard replied. “Dragons are dragons.”
Ser Jorah snorted his disdain. […] “What do you know of dragons, anyway?”
“[…] I served for a time in King’s Landing in the days when King Aerys sat the Iron Throne, and walked beneath the dragonskulls that looked down from the walls of his throne room.”
Dany’s thoughts circle back to the value of the dragons, completing the foreshadowing mentioned earlier. She ponders especially the theme of their protection … but with an undercurrent of power and ferocity.
[…] the Quartheen merchant had coveted her dragons. […]
[…] Thankfully, I have Ser Jorah and my bloodriders. And my dragons, never forget. In time, the dragons would be her most formidable guardians, just as they had been for Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters three hundred years ago. Just now, though, they brought her more danger than protection. In all the world there were but three living dragons, and those were hers; they were a wonder, and a terror, and beyond price.
We then learn that all three dragons can now breathe flame. The scene is consistent with my theory that Drogon is already bonded to Dany in a mutually exclusive dragon-rider bond and the others are her children. The interaction with Rhaegal is affectionate, but in a parent-child manner.
[…] Dany sat crosslegged on her bunk in the captain’s cabin, feeding her dragons […]
[…] She took a chunk of salt pork out of the bowl in her lap and held it up for her dragons to see. All three of them eyed it hungrily. Rhaegal spread green wings and stirred the air, and Viserion’s neck swayed back and forth like a long pale snake’s as he followed the movement of her hand. “Drogon,” Dany said softly, “dracarys.” And she tossed the pork in the air.
Drogon moved quicker than a striking cobra. Flame roared from his mouth, orange and scarlet and black, searing the meat before it began to fall. As his sharp black teeth snapped shut around it, Rhaegal’s head darted close, as if to steal the prize from his brother’s jaws, but Drogon swallowed and screamed, and the smaller green dragon could only hiss in frustration.
“Stop that, Rhaegal,” Dany said in annoyance, giving his head a swat. “You had the last one. I’ll have no greedy dragons.” She smiled at Ser Jorah. “I won’t need to char their meat over a brazier any longer.”
“So I see. Dracarys?”
All three dragons turned their heads at the sound of that word, and Viserion let loose with a blast of pale gold flame that made Ser Jorah take a hasty step backward. Dany giggled. “Be careful with that word, ser, or they’re like to singe your beard off. It means ‘dragonfire’ in High Valyrian. […]
Drogon’s feeding scene is truly savage. Note the language as well. Dragons scream; that is their call. It is meant to be terrible and fearsome.
The next passage seems to indicate Dany and Drogon’s minds are telepathically linked. Drogon hissed with disapproval, which is how Dany felt at Jorah’s suggestion, even as she laughs.
“Khaleesi, has it occurred to you that Whitebeard and Belwas might have been in league with the assassin? It might all have been a ploy to win your trust.”
Her sudden laughter made Drogon hiss, and sent Viserion flapping to his perch above the porthole. “The ploy worked well.”
In subsequent discussion about whether the dragons will bring wealth in Astapor as in Qarth, Dany is upset when she thinks of the maegi who killed Khal Drogo. Again, Drogon mirrors her. Note that the “skin” she references is that of Ilyrio Mopatis, who has also wronged her.
“His skin.” Across the cabin Drogon stirred restlessly, steam rising from his snout. “Mirri Maz Duur betrayed me. I burned her for it.”
A Storm of Swords – Daenerys I
It’s another indication of a mind-mingling bond between Dany and Drogon, like the Starks & direwolves. Note how Drogon is listening to all of Jorah’s counsel, as in ACoK. This is key Dany’s last chapter of ADwD, IMO.
Dany’s Dragon Bonds Volume III, Part II: Power of Dragons, Poverty of Slavers
… focusing on Dany’s time in Astapor, building up to its spectacular conclusion.
A Storm of Swords – Daenerys II
The dragons only have a couple mentions and interactions in this chapter. Their safety is front and center, and her moniker of Mother of Dragons is continued to be contrasted from the idea of slavery, perhaps foreshadowing her being mother to the slaves as well.
First, though, we learn a bit of potential information about kingsblood. The harpy has a woman’s head and torso, a scorpion’s tail, an eagle’s talons, but the wings of a dragon. I do wonder if this amalgam points to the heritage of the Great Empire of the Dawn in the Ghiscari genes. The woman’s head may also symbolize females having special genetic powers.
In the center of the Plaza of Pride stood a red brick fountain whose waters smelled of brimstone, and in the center of the fountain a monstrous harpy made of hammered bronze. Twenty feet tall she reared. She had a woman’s face, with gilded hair, ivory eyes, and pointed ivory teeth. Water gushed yellow from her heavy breasts. But in place of arms she had the wings of a bat or a dragon, her legs were the legs of an eagle, and behind she wore a scorpion’s curled and venomous tail.
Dany doesn’t interact with the dragons much this chapter because they are left on the ship for safety. The mention of dragonslayers ominously reinforces the concern for their safety.
[…] she had locked the dragons belowdecks. It was too dangerous to let them fly freely over the city; the world was all too full of men who would gladly kill them for no better reason than to name themselves dragonslayer.
Barristan then reiterates Dany’s safety concerns, while counseling against purchasing a slave army.
Magister Illyrio can keep you safe while your dragons grow, and send secret envoys across the narrow sea on your behalf, to sound out the high lords for your cause.”
Following that her identity as a dragon is mentioned thrice; the last of these in the coming quote. Her moniker of Mother of Dragons is set in stark contrast to slavery. She doesn’t even want her name associated with a whip. GRRM is very subtle in this.
“Make way!” Jhogo shouted as he rode before her litter. “Make way for the Mother of Dragons!” But when he uncoiled the great silver-handled whip that Dany had given him, and made to crack it in the air, she leaned out and told him nay. “Not in this place, blood of my blood,” she said, in his own tongue. “These bricks have heard too much of the sound of whips.”
We finally get an actual dragon interaction next. When Dany seeks sexual satisfaction, her dragons sense it and stir, even though her handmaiden doesn’t wake until she hears one of the dragons scream out.
Once, so tormented she could not sleep, Dany slid a hand down between her legs, and gasped when she felt how wet she was. Scarce daring to breathe, she moved her fingers back and forth between her lower lips, slowly so as not to wake Irri beside her, until she found one sweet spot and lingered there, touching herself lightly, timidly at first and then faster. Still, the relief she wanted seemed to recede before her, until her dragons stirred, and one screamed out across the cabin, and Irri woke and saw what she was doing.
The dragons stirring and especially one screaming is likely mirroring. Next we find out which dragon specifically is connected to Dany’s mind, directly mirroring her at the moment of orgasm.
Dany knew her face was flushed, but in the darkness Irri surely could not tell. Wordless, the handmaid put a hand on her breast, then bent to take a nipple in her mouth. Her other hand drifted down across the soft curve of belly, through the mound of fine silvery-gold hair, and went to work between Dany’s thighs. It was no more than a few moments until her legs twisted and her breasts heaved and her whole body shuddered. She screamed then. Or perhaps that was Drogon. Irri never said a thing, only curled back up and went back to sleep the instant the thing was done.
Note that this happens when Dany is at her most tired and least in control of her mind. This is similar to the direwolf bonds, where in the early development stages, the bond only presents itself in dreams. Indeed, Jon even consciously fights it, slowing the development of the power further.
To contrast Drogon being subconsciously connected to her most adult of acts, her 2 children continue their juvenile behavior after Dany spent the next day negotiating with the slavers. This time Viserion presented as child to Daenerys, just being needy for her affection. While Viserion (like an untrained puppy) scratched at the door while Dany was gone, Drogon shows anger and bites Irri (please kids, don’t pull a dragon’s tail). Drogon’s anger might also be mirroring Dany’s own anger at the slaver Kraznys.
Behind the carved wooden door of the captain’s cabin, her dragons were restless. Drogon raised his head and screamed, pale smoke venting from his nostrils, and Viserion flapped at her and tried to perch on her shoulder, as he had when he was smaller. “No,” Dany said, trying to shrug him off gently. “You’re too big for that now, sweetling.” But the dragon coiled his white and gold tail around one arm and dug black claws into the fabric of her sleeve, clinging tightly. Helpless, she sank into Groleo’s great leather chair, giggling.
“They have been wild while you were gone, Khaleesi,” Irri told her. “Viserion clawed splinters from the door, do you see? And Drogon made to escape when the slaver men came to see them. When I grabbed his tail to hold him back, he turned and bit me.” She showed Dany the marks of his teeth on her hand.
“Did any of them try to burn their way free?” That was the thing that frightened Dany the most.
“No, Khaleesi. Drogon breathed his fire, but in the empty air. The slaver men feared to come near him.”
She kissed Irri’s hand where Drogon had bitten it. “I’m sorry he hurt you. Dragons are not meant to be locked up in a small ship’s cabin.”
“Dragons are like horses in this,” Irri said. “And riders, too. The horses scream below, Khaleesi, and kick at the wooden walls. I hear them. And Jhiqui says the old women and the little ones scream too, when you are not here. They do not like this water cart. They do not like the black salt sea.”
A Storm of Swords – Daenerys II
Note the continued contrast between dragons and slavery. This reinforces our dragon bond theme of independence. Nobody ever is in control of a dragon. If a dragon obeys it is of its own free will, not by subjugation. The final scenes of House of the Dragon on HBO illustrate this concept well enough. Here, though, the author is using the contrast to set up Dany’s farcical “selling” of a dragon to the slavers of Astapor in her next POV chapter. Martin is foreshadowing the line “a dragon is no slave” from the end of that chapter.
That passage also has a subtle support for my idea that the dragon bond is similar to the direwolf bond if you extended the warging of wolves to the skinchanging other beasts. Irri compares dragons and horses, and this reminds me of Dany’s bond to her silver mare. It also reminds me of Lyanna Stark and her special riding ability, shared it seems with her eldest brother, Brandon.
There are four more mentions of dragons in the chapter, but no interactions, so we won’t cover them in detail. It mainly focuses on Dany’s identity as a dragon and her resignation that she needs to use violence to take back the seven kingdoms. Her dragon’s wrath is now turned toward the slavers and the violence of their training of the unsullied.
A Storm of Swords – Daenerys III
Clearly her plan to attack the slavers was formulated during her time in Astapor, but as we’ve covered, the foreshadowing of it, of a dragon not being a slave, came in Qarth during ACoK.
The concept of dragons comes up a few times in Dany’s final negotiations with the slavers, first, symbolically, with a mention of her crown “three-headed dragon crown.” Dany then stuns the room with her offer of a dragon.
“Give me all,” she said, “and you may have a dragon.”
Some may use this scene as evidence for Dany being a disingenuous cheater in this transaction. Our study of the foreshadowing has given evidence that she clearly does not see a dragon as property, even as she clearly dislikes slavery as far back as her first first POV chapter in AGoT. It’s true that she never intended to leave Drogon behind, and even intended to attack the slavers. However, since the people negotiating with her do consider people and dragons to be property, I consider her actions to be just. Her opponents were the thieves and muderer, and of course, Drogon was the first slave to revolt in this scene.
Barristan’s objection, saying to win the throne with dragons, not slave actually probably made Dany’s decision seem more real to the slavers, helping her to sell the bargain.
Whitebeard stared in shocked disbelief. His hand trembled where it grasped the staff. “No.” He went to one knee before her. “Your Grace, I beg you, win your throne with dragons, not slaves. You must not do this thing—”
Like Ser Barristan, the author keeps us readers in the dark as to Dany’s plans even as we return for a final time to her thoughts on the value of dragons. She ponders how and why the slavers value the dragons.
Note how the “Freehold” was mentioned in the passage below, I wonder is this is our author’s way of subtly including the concept of freedom in this partial view into Dany’s thoughts. Of course it is also a contrast between Dany’s thoughts and those of her Valyrian ancestors, who were also slavers.
[…] there were only three living dragons in all the great wide world. And the Ghiscari lust for dragons. How could they not? Five times had Old Ghis contended with Valyria when the world was young, and five times gone down to bleak defeat. For the Freehold had dragons, and the Empire had none.
In the next passage the slavers press their choice to purchase Drogon, clearly the choice she expected. He is also likely her choice because her connection to Drogon is strong. Even though that connection is not top of her mind, she must feel it, and besides, she knows that he proved himself in Drogon’s Victory in ACoK.
The oldest Grazdan stirred in his seat, and his pearls clacked together softly. “A dragon of our choice,” he said in a thin, hard voice. “The black one is largest and healthiest.“
“His name is Drogon.” She nodded.
“All your goods, save your crown and your queenly raiment, which we will allow you to keep. The three ships. And Drogon.”
Her insisting on specifying Drogon’s name is also a clue that she knows full well that Drogon could never be a slave. It signals her rejection of the practice of stripping the Unsullied of their names. She doesn’t expect this to ever happen to Drogon.
While we won’t cover every dragon mention here, her thoughts turn to her dragons, including a thought of her moniker as Mother of Dragons, signaling she has no intention of shedding the title. Barristan again mentions the value of dragons and Aegon’s use of them in conquering Westeros.
“Yet even queens can err. The Astapori have cheated you, Your Grace. A dragon is worth more than any army. Aegon proved that three hundred years ago, upon the Field of Fire.”
She retorts that she has a few things to prove herself, but the author leaves us unsure of when she clues him in to her plan. Later, next she returns to Drogon and feeds her dragons. The author might oversell his obscuring of Dany’s true intentions here, as her crying doesn’t seem to fit unless it is due to nervousness and fatigue of all the deception. Perhaps she’s worried that Drogon won’t understand? I think Drogon understands just fine.
[…] Dany leaned back into her pillow, and let the litter bear her onward, back to Balerion one last time to set her world in order. And back to Drogon. Her mouth set grimly.
It was a long, dark, windy night that followed. Dany fed her dragons as she always did, but found she had no appetite herself. […]
Her dragon dream that follows, probably means that she is anticipating the coming battle, especially considering that she thinks of Rhaegar later in the chapter. It probably also confirms my point that Drogon understands what’s coming, too, as Drogon is the dragon that shows up in her dragon dreams in AGoT, and is also her future mount. He is probably the dragon in this dream.
That night she dreamt that she was Rhaegar, riding to the Trident. But she was mounted on a dragon, not a horse. When she saw the Usurper’s rebel host across the river they were armored all in ice, but she bathed them in dragonfire and they melted away like dew and turned the Trident into a torrent. Some small part of her knew that she was dreaming, but another part exulted. This is how it was meant to be. The other was a nightmare, and I have only now awakened.
The dream is prophetic about the long night and the others, so it might be partly Quaithe’s doing, especially given that the enigmatic shadowbinder appears after the dream. Howevr, even if the dream is Quaithe’s doing, I think Drogon probably experienced the dream with Dany through the bond, just as the weirwood net was part of Jon’s first wolf dream with Ghost. Quaithe’s mention of dragons sleeping suggests to me that Drogon could be dreaming along with Dany.
“They sleep,” a woman said. “They all sleep.” The voice was very close. “Even dragons must sleep.”
The dragons are a spectacle as they approach the plaza where the exchange will occur. We see another example of the themes from the direwolf series here. Both Viserion and Rhaegal sense danger and act out because of it. Drogon, by contrast, seems calm, but prone. I’ll repeat that I think Drogon is aware of what if coming.
[…] her three dragons […] chained to the platform. Irri and Jhiqui rode with them, to try and keep them calm. Yet Viserion’s tail lashed back and forth, and smoke rose angry from his nostrils. Rhaegal could sense something wrong as well. Thrice he tried to take wing, only to be pulled down by the heavy chain in Jhiqui’s hand. Drogon coiled into a ball, wings and tail tucked tight. Only his eyes remained to tell that he was not asleep.
As she approaches the battle, Dany again thinks of the Trident, Rhaegar and the dragon banner of House Targaryen. I think this is a continuation of the theme of her using the concept of being a dragon for courage. It was entwined with her dreams of Drogon back in AGoT and I think it continues to be a reflection of her bond to Drogon giving Dany strength in this scene.
This courage turns to confidence as she sees the Slavers. She deduces from the scene that they fear the dragons.
[…]Half a dozen mounted lancers rode along the edges of the plaza, keeping back the crowds who had come to watch. The sun flashed blinding bright off the polished copper disks sewn to their cloaks, but she could not help but notice how nervous their horses seemed. They fear the dragons. And well they might.
At the actual exchange, Drogon’s majesty does not fail to entice and distract the slavers. We also see his ferocity.
“And here he waits.” Ser Jorah and Belwas walked beside her to the litter, where Drogon and his brothers lay basking in the sun. Jhiqui unfastened one end of the chain, and handed it down to her. When she gave a yank, the black dragon raised his head, hissing, and unfolded wings of night and scarlet. Kraznys mo Nakloz smiled broadly as their shadow fell across him.
Dany handed the slaver the end of Drogon’s chain. In return he presented her with the whip. The handle was black dragonbone, elaborately carved and inlaid with gold. […]
For courage, Rhaegar comes to her mind a third time as the battle is primed to unfold. As she thinks this the slaver tries to get Drogon to move. I imagine the dragon is still prone and ready to attack.
“It is done,” he agreed, giving the chain a sharp pull to bring Drogon down from the litter.
Dany mounted her silver. She could feel her heart thumping in her chest. She felt desperately afraid. Was this what my brother would have done? She wondered if Prince Rhaegar had been this anxious when he saw the Usurper’s host formed up across the Trident with all their banners floating on the wind.
Dany uses her dragon identity again to address the unsullied. Clearly she’s making a statement here. She is the dragon. I think more than she knows too. Drogon is ready to work in concert with her on this, their second victory. Could it be that their consciousnesses temporarily start to blend?
She stood in her stirrups and raised the harpy’s fingers above her head for all the Unsullied to see. “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!”
She glimpsed old Grazdan turn his grey head sharply. He hears me speak Valyrian. The other slavers were not listening. They crowded around Kraznys and the dragon, shouting advice. Though the Astapori yanked and tugged, Drogon would not budge off the litter. Smoke rose grey from his open jaws, and his long neck curled and straightened as he snapped at the slaver’s face.
Dany finally tells us what she’s been saying since she rejected Xaro’s offer to sell him a dragon in the last book. “A Dragon is no slave.” It’s pretty badass. Drogon uncoils at her command and roasted Kraznys. The black dragon was prepared for this, expecting this, and is clearly of one mind with Dany, mirroring her, knowing exactly who to kill first.
“He will not come,” Kraznys said.
“There is a reason. A dragon is no slave.” And Dany swept the lash down as hard as she could across the slaver’s face. Kraznys screamed and staggered back, the blood running red down his cheeks into his perfumed beard. The harpy’s fingers had torn his features half to pieces with one slash, but she did not pause to contemplate the ruin. “Drogon,” she sang out loudly, sweetly, all her fear forgotten. “Dracarys.”
The black dragon spread his wings and roared.
A lance of swirling dark flame took Kraznys full in the face. His eyes melted and ran down his cheeks, and the oil in his hair and beard burst so fiercely into fire that for an instant the slaver wore a burning crown twice as tall as his head. The sudden stench of charred meat overwhelmed even his perfume, and his wail seemed to drown all other sound.
Drogon’s burning of Kraznys is reminiscent of the Indiana Jones scene where they open the Ark of the covenant, grotesque but satisfying given the target. Unfortunately, when the other dragons are freed, we don’t get any more detail on how they fight. As a consolation, Drogon gratuitously burns Kraznys again, probably mirroring of Dany’s disgust for the slaver. Drogon, it seems, can also hate.
Then the Plaza of Punishment blew apart into blood and chaos. The Good Masters were shrieking, stumbling, shoving one another aside and tripping over the fringes of their tokars in their haste. Drogon flew almost lazily at Kraznys, black wings beating. As he gave the slaver another taste of fire, Irri and Jhiqui unchained Viserion and Rhaegal, and suddenly there were three dragons in the air. […]
A Storm of Swords – Daenerys III
One can assume from Drogon’s example, though, that the other two fight savagely and remorselessly.
That aside, if anything else is clear from re-reading these last two chapters, it is that Drogon and Dany were clearly already bonded and their minds were mingling.
Dany’s Dragon Bonds Volume III, Part III: The Heady Sacking of Slavers
… covering Dany’s defeat of Yunkai.
A Storm of Swords – Daenerys IV
Like in Qarth and Astapor, curiosity over dragons comprises their first mention in this chapter. Dany uses this curiosity to meet with the Yunkish and their sellswords on her terms. It seems that the dragon is sly as well as fearsome. Before the meeting though, she interacts with her advisors and the dragons.
The first interaction shows Drogon and Rheagal sleeping, possibly mirroring Dany’s calm? Viserion, ever nervous, is perched and watching. I do imaging that Drogon is also listening though. I have a feeling that the black dragon is always aware of what is going on in his surroundings.
“Yunkai will have war,” Dany told Whitebeard inside the pavilion. Irri and Jhiqui had covered the floor with carpets while Missandei lit a stick of incense to sweeten the dusty air. Drogon and Rhaegal were asleep atop some cushions, curled about each other, but Viserion perched on the edge of her empty bath. “Missandei, what language will these Yunkai’i speak, Valyrian?”
Later, Viserion moves to Dany’s side, seemingly craving attention, even though it’s well established that he’s too big to perch atop her anymore. Like Viserys, Viserion is immature.
“Wise?” Dany sat crosslegged on a cushion, and Viserion spread his white-and-gold wings and flapped to her side. “We shall see how wise they are,” she said as she scratched the dragon’s scaly head behind the horns.
The only dragon mention when she meets the sellswords is that she uses her moniker, “Mother of Dragons” when angered by the Stormcrow captain Prendahl na Ghezn. With the Yunkish envoy things are different, Dany mislikes him from the start (he’s a slaver), comparing him to Kraznys, even as she recalls Drogon burning off the man’s face.
The man on the white camel named himself Grazdan mo Eraz. Lean and hard, he had a white smile such as Kraznys had worn until Drogon burned off his face. […]
Not long after, he draws her ire, and she uses the “dracarys” command against him. Note that it is Drogon who is obedient to the command, answering with flame. If he partially shares Dany’s mind, that would go a long way toward explaining why he was Johnny-om-the-spot here. He would already be mirroring Dany’s emotions about the man being like Kraznys, who he also burned. The others are not pleased as well, hissing and snapping. They may mirror Dany as well, or possibly Drogon.
“Am I?” Dany shrugged, and said, “Dracarys.”
The dragons answered. Rhaegal hissed and smoked, Viserion snapped, and Drogon spat swirling red-black flame. It touched the drape of Grazdan’s tokar, and the silk caught in half a heartbeat. Golden marks spilled across the carpets as the envoy stumbled over the chest, shouting curses and beating at his arm until Whitebeard flung a flagon of water over him to douse the flames. “You swore I should have safe conduct!” the Yunkish envoy wailed.
“Do all the Yunkai’i whine so over a singed tokar? I shall buy you a new one . . . if you deliver up your slaves within three days. Elsewise, Drogon shall give you a warmer kiss.” She wrinkled her nose. “You’ve soiled yourself. Take your gold and go, and see that the Wise Masters hear my message.”
“[…] Do you think it is so hard to kill a dragon?”
With that ominous reminder of the mortality of a dragons, he makes Dany’s threat personal and her will ironclad.
The next time the dragons come up in the text she has them “all about her” as she gives the command to attack the Second Sons. This is a shrewd show of the trappings of power, but I also think that the courage and the ferocity that she gets from her dragon identity plays into this scene.
Next, when Daario Naharis is brought to her, her identity as a dragon is invoked again by the captain, while simultaneously the dragons are savagely eating the other captains’ decapitated heads. Dany interestingly notes that it doesn’t seem to affect Daario. This is probably a clue to the man’s own savage nature.
“Little.” Daario upended the sack, and the heads of Sallor the Bald and Prendahl na Ghezn spilled out upon her carpets. “My gifts to the dragon queen.”
Viserion sniffed the blood leaking from Prendahl’s neck, and let loose a gout of flame that took the dead man full in the face, blackening and blistering his bloodless cheeks. Drogon and Rhaegal stirred at the smell of roasted meat.
[…]
None other.” If her dragons discomforted Daario Naharis, he hid it well. For all the mind he paid them, they might have been three kittens playing with a mouse.
[…]
She pointed to the lumps of blackened flesh the dragons were consuming, bite by bloody bite. “I would call that proof of his sincerity. Daario Naharis, have your Stormcrows ready to strike the Yunkish rear when my attack begins. Can you get back safely?”
The next interaction is quite deep. She plays with the dragons while waiting for the battle to end. Interestingly, her transformation in embracing her dragon identity is complete. She now uses “wake the dragon” for her own anger. She also pours her heart out to them about her own mortality and that they are the children she’ll never have. Then at the end, she plays directly with Drogon, and in the same paragraph mentions how she will become a rider. He seems to sense her feelings, clear indication of their mind-mingling. The other 2 are not mentioned in the paragraph, clear foreshadowing that he will be her “wings.” The evidence mounts. (pun intended).
When he was gone, Dany threw herself down on her pillows beside her dragons. She had not meant to be so sharp with Ser Jorah, but his endless suspicion had finally woken her dragon.
He will forgive me, she told herself. I am his liege. Dany found herself wondering whether he was right about Daario. She felt very lonely all of a sudden. Mirri Maz Duur had promised that she would never bear a living child. House Targaryen will end with me. That made her sad. “You must be my children,” she told the dragons, “my three fierce children. Arstan says dragons live longer than men, so you will go on after I am dead.”
Drogon looped his neck around to nip at her hand. His teeth were very sharp, but he never broke her skin when they played like this. Dany laughed, and rolled him back and forth until he roared, his tail lashing like a whip. It is longer than it was, she saw, and tomorrow it will be longer still. They grow quickly now, and when they are grown I shall have my wings. Mounted on a dragon, she could lead her own men into battle, as she had in Astapor, but as yet they were still too small to bear her weight.
The next interaction is clear proof that the dragons, like direwolves have a pretty good sense of surrounding danger, sensing approaching horses. The simultaneous aspect of their movements makes me wonder again whether there is a pack bond, similar to the wolves, in these hatchlings. I also wonder if Dany’s immediate understanding that it was horses approaching, is an indication of mind-mingling with Drogon. Belwas, supposedly guarding, did not seem to register the activity so soon, and he was outside, which should make it much easier for him to hear. Did Dany know it was horses because she subconsciously heard with Drogon’s ears (dor dragons even have ears?) or did Drogon hear and recognize it was horses and that is why it popped into her head?
Arstan chuckled. “Robert? Robert liked songs that made him laugh, the bawdier the better. He only sang when he was drunk, and then it was like to be ‘A Cask of Ale’ or ‘Fifty-Four Tuns’ or ‘The Bear and the Maiden Fair.’ Robert was much—”
As one, her dragons lifted their heads and roared.
“Horses!” Dany leapt to her feet, clutching the lion pelt. Outside, she heard Strong Belwas bellow something, and then other voices, and the sounds of many horses. “Irri, go see who . . .”
The tent flap pushed open, and Ser Jorah Mormont entered. He was dusty, and spattered with blood, but otherwise none the worse for battle. The exile knight went to one knee before Dany and said, “Your Grace, I bring you victory. The Stormcrows turned their cloaks, the slaves broke, and the Second Sons were too drunk to fight, just as you said. Two hundred dead, Yunkai’i for the most part. Their slaves threw down their spears and ran, and their sellswords yielded. We have several thousand captives.”
A Storm of Swords – Daenerys IV
The announcement of her victory in Yunkai, in no small measure due to her shrewd uses of power, again accompanies her moniker, “Mother of Dragons.” This could be called wisdom, which is rare in one so young. Could some of this wisdom be the result of having a dragon bonded to her, one from a two-hundred year old egg? Could that egg have been awakened since it left Rhaena Targaryen so long ago? Or did Drogon only wake in the dream in AGOT – Daenerys II?
Dany’s Dragon Bonds Volume III, Part IV: An Avenging Apex Predator Nests atop Pyramids
… covering Dany and her dragons during the siege and conquering of Meereen.
A Storm of Swords – Daenerys V
In Meereen, as before in Yunkai, her dragons are again all around her, lending courage and strength through their bond and her embracing of her dragon identity as she insists on attacking Meereen.
“I must have this city,” she told them, sitting crosslegged on a pile of cushions, her dragons all about her.
Viserion then acts strangely around Brown Ben Plumm at the end of the meeting.
Her captains bowed and left her with her handmaids and her dragons. But as Brown Ben was leaving, Viserion spread his pale white wings and flapped lazily at his head. One of the wings buffeted the sellsword in his face. The white dragon landed awkwardly with one foot on the man’s head and one on his shoulder, shrieked, and flew off again. “He likes you, Ben,” said Dany.
Brown Ben goes on to talk about how he has “a drop of the dragon blood” himself. I suppose it is possible that this might have been the beginning of a dragon-rider bond between Ben and Viserion, though given events to come, I doubt it will come to fruition. As Dany considers her dragon identity and dragon-rider bond with Drogon, directly implying that Drogon will be her mount.
When Brown Ben left, she lay back on her cushions. “If you were grown,” she told Drogon, scratching him between the horns, “I’d fly you over the walls and melt that harpy down to slag.” But it would be years before her dragons were large enough to ride. And when they are, who shall ride them? The dragon has three heads, but I have only one. She thought of Daario. If ever there was a man who could rape a woman with his eyes . . .
Several mentions of “heads of the dragon,” “blood of the dragon,” and other dragon identity follow, as Dany works through how Jorah and Daario fit in her world.
After the attack by Mero, the Mother of Dragons rouses her fury on Jorah and Barristan for their lies. All three dragons mirror her.
I was going to take you home! Her dragons sensed her fury. Viserion roared, and smoke rose grey from his snout. Drogon beat the air with black wings, and Rhaegal twisted his head back and belched flame. I should say the word and burn the two of them. Was there no one she could trust, no one to keep her safe? “Are all the knights of Westeros so false as you two? Get out, before my dragons roast you both. What does roast liar smell like? As foul as Brown Ben’s sewers? Go!”
Drogon, bonded most closely to her, continues the mirroring as she grapples with her decision as to what to do with the
“To hell, to serve King Robert.” Dany felt hot tears on her cheeks. Drogon screamed, lashing his tail back and forth. “The Others can have you both.” Go, go away forever, both of you, the next time I see your faces I’ll have your traitors’ heads off. She could not say the words, though. They betrayed me. But they saved me. But they lied. “You go . . .” My bear, my fierce strong bear, what will I do without him? And the old man, my brother’s friend. “You go . . . go . . .” Where?
Of course the where that she sent them is into Ben’s sewers. Again, a wise decision, especially when they “woke the dragon.” If Drogon is influencing her actions here, it is not driving her to rash decision making.
A Storm of Swords – Daenerys VI
Her conquest complete, and the rigors of rule not yet set in, Dany feels like “a god” after taking up residence atop the great Pyramid of Meereen. Could this be something like the aloofness of her forebears felt. Targaryens infamously argued for the doctrine of Targaryen exceptionalism, which bred an elitism and superiority complex that turned downright nasty in some of her forebears in Westeros. Is this a hint of something to come for her? We must watch for this.
Dany broke her fast under the persimmon tree that grew in the terrace garden, watching her dragons chase each other about the apex of the Great Pyramid where the huge bronze harpy once stood. Meereen had a score of lesser pyramids, but none stood even half as tall. From here she could see the whole city […]. Up here in her garden Dany sometimes felt like a god, living atop the highest mountain in the world.
Also, haughty (by elevation) position is also very much like that of her dragons in normal flight. Might the dragons feel elite up so high, and even influence their riders to think the same way? I Think it possible, and I’ll point at Haggon’s warning to Varamyr about skinchanging birds:
“Some skins you never want to wear, boy. You won’t like what you’d become.” Birds were the worst, to hear him tell it. “Men were not meant to leave the earth. Spend too much time in the clouds and you never want to come back down again.”
A Dance with Dragons – Prologue
I think the concept of a bond to a dragon may be similar, it must be a very foreign to have a dragon’s thoughts influence your mind. And Aegon The Conqueror, to whom Dany compares herself next, had a very special dragon bonded to himself, Balerion the Black Dread. Her identity as a dragon is tied to him in many ways, down to the coloring of their mounts.
Jhiqui helped Missandei bathe her while Irri was laying out her clothes. Today she wore a robe of purple samite and a silver sash, and on her head the three-headed dragon crown the Tourmaline Brotherhood had given her in Qarth. Her slippers were silver as well, with heels so high that she was always half afraid she was about to topple over. When she was dressed, Missandei brought her a polished silver glass so she could see how she looked. Dany stared at herself in silence. Is this the face of a conqueror? So far as she could tell, she still looked like a little girl.
Her dragon identity has always given her confidence before. Now she is questioning herself for not using the dragons.
No one was calling her Daenerys the Conqueror yet, but perhaps they would. Aegon the Conqueror had won Westeros with three dragons, but she had taken Meereen with sewer rats and a wooden cock [a battering ram]
What Dany may be failing to realize is that dragons weren’t used in every battle of Aegon’s war of conquest either. We get another scene where Dany and her dragons wait and the trio roared together at a turning point. The dragons certainly have some more keen senses that humans, and Dany seems very attuned to their perception of the events of the battle. Their reaction also seems to be mirroring. The dragons seem to recognize a favorable outcome to the battle, and the most likely way that happens is by sensing Danys reaction and mood through the bond.
Dany had wanted to lead the attack herself, but to a man her captains said that would be madness, and her captains never agreed on anything. Instead she remained in the rear, sitting atop her silver in a long shirt of mail. She heard the city fall from half a league away, though, when the defenders’ shouts of defiance changed to cries of fear. Her dragons had roared as one in that moment, filling the night with flame. The slaves are rising, she knew at once. My sewer rats have gnawed off their chains.
Next, Dany uses her dragon identity to describe how she had heads of Meereen’s chief slaver families executed in punishment or retribution to how slave children had been executed to break the morale of Dany’s army. She regrets it, and again, this shows wisdom. History shows us that “am ey for an eye” doe not solve problems on a large scale.
She had them nailed to wooden posts around the plaza, each man pointing at the next. The anger was fierce and hot inside her when she gave the command; it made her feel like an avenging dragon. But later, when she passed the men dying on the posts, when she heard their moans and smelled their bowels and blood . . .
Next we get another reminder of The dragons affinity for Ben Plumm. One might also note that Ben also had an affinity for the dragons as well. Looked at in this way, it is not surprising that he abandoned her cause in ADwD when she abandoned her dragons.
[…] These at least she could rely on, or so she hoped . . . and Brown Ben Plumm as well, solid Ben with his grey-white hair and weathered face, so beloved of her dragons. And Daario beside him, glittering in gold. Daario and Ben Plumm, Grey Worm, Irri, Jhiqui, Missandei . . . as she looked at them Dany found herself wondering which of them would betray her next.
The next few dragon mentions are not bond-related. Dany thinks that “the dragon has 3 heads” showing that she believes in that prophecy and is still mentally comparing herself to the conqueror. Then she is addressed several times as Mother of Dragons by the Astapori envoy. This leads to her dragon identity being though of by herself when addressing the betrayal of her Westerosi knights. She uses that identity to bolster her resolve to be strong in her dispensation on them.
[…] Dany shifted uncomfortably on the ebony bench. She dreaded what must come next, yet she knew she had put it off too long already. Yunkai and Astapor, threats of war, marriage proposals, the march west looming over all . . . I need my knights. I need their swords, and I need their counsel. Yet the thought of seeing Jorah Mormont again made her feel as if she’d swallowed a spoonful of flies; angry, agitated, sick. She could almost feel them buzzing round her belly. I am the blood of the dragon. I must be strong. I must have fire in my eyes when I face them, not tears. “Tell Belwas to bring my knights,” Dany commanded, before she could change her mind. “My good knights.”
The courage she draws upon in making the decision to send Jorah away is tied to her dragon identity and perhaps even her bond to the dragons. Drogon clearly is in her mind thereafter. as he reacts strongly, mirroring her mood when he sees her. The independent personality of the others is also on display. Viserion is hinting, while Rhaegal is sleeping by the pool. Notably there is no sign of her bond to them. She even muses that one may not come back some day. I doubt she thought it would be Drogon, although he does come back eventually.
Dany fled from the choice, out onto the terrace. She found Rhaegal asleep beside the pool, a green and bronze coil basking in the sun. Drogon was perched up atop the pyramid, in the place where the huge bronze harpy had stood before she had commanded it to be pulled down. He spread his wings and roared when he spied her. There was no sign of Viserion, but when she went to the parapet and scanned the horizon she saw pale wings in the far distance, sweeping above the river. He is hunting. They grow bolder every day. Yet it still made her anxious when they flew too far away. One day one of them may not return, she thought.
After another mention of her monikers as a dragon, she considers directly her dragon identity as a legacy from Aerys, madness. She is mentally dealing with the idea that she’d be able to unable to protect all her people if she quit Meereen immediately, which certainly does not seem a mad train of thought. She then decides to remain for political reasons, but mostly to allow her dragons to grow. Mother of Dragons indeed.
“Freedom to starve?” asked Dany sharply. “Freedom to die? Am I a dragon, or a harpy?” Am I mad? Do I have the taint?
“A dragon,” Ser Barristan said with certainty. “Meereen is not Westeros, Your Grace.”
“But how can I rule seven kingdoms if I cannot rule a single city?” He had no answer to that. Dany turned away from them, to gaze out over the city once again. “My children need time to heal and learn. My dragons need time to grow and test their wings. And I need the same. I will not let this city go the way of Astapor. I will not let the harpy of Yunkai chain up those I’ve freed all over again.” She turned back to look at their faces. “I will not march.”
She’s nesting.
The Green Bard 