Latest Posts by ssnowstorm - Page 2

Emily Dickinson, from a letter to Abiah Root (August 1851)

EMILIA CLARKE  +  Swords

it's honestly so annoying when people bring up the original casting for daenerys because it always seems like implicit shade towards emilia.

"tamnzin would have been great bringing book dany to live" "tamzin would have been great at showing book dany's personality " ...well, guess what? SO WOULD HAVE BEEN EMILIA IF THEY HAD LET HER! the issue with show daenerys is not the the actress didn't have the acting skills to portray her accurately, is that d&d didn't want to portray that version of daenerys. emilia's daenerys is how these two stupid men wrote her to be so i hate to tell you this but *the* book dany was never going to bless our screens, not even with tamzin

Daenerys Appreciation Month - Elements

Making this gifset made me realize how much Daenerys is connected to all the four elements. I’ve never really thought about it before, but all the classical elements are strongly present in, and are important to, her narrative. 

Earth 

Daenerys quickly connects to it during her journey with the Dothraki.

The green swallowed her up. The air was rich with the scents of earth and grass, mixed with the smell of horseflesh and Dany’s sweat and the oil in her hair. Dothraki smells. They seemed to belong here. Dany breathed it all in, laughing. She had a sudden urge to feel the ground beneath her, to curl her toes in that thick black soil.

And when Viserys comes to berate her for what he considers an unrefined look and behavior, Daenerys doesn’t feel ashamed. On the contrary, she feels a part of nature around her. 

She was barefoot, with oiled hair, wearing Dothraki riding leathers and a painted vest given her as a bride gift. She looked as though she belonged here.

Daenerys is the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, and will be the leader of the greatest of Khalasars. And although the Dothraki do not represent Earth per se, their nomadic style of life, their customs and culture, their usual environment - the Dothraki Sea - could be seen as attributes of it. 

Later, while in Meereen, Daenerys loves to spend the little free time she has in the garden of her terrace, and once even sleeps on the grass, preferring nature to the comfortable bed in her apartments. 

The pale pink light of dawn found her still out on her terrace, asleep upon the grass beneath a blanket of fine dew.

Water 

She carries water in her name. Daenerys Stormborn, as she was born during the fiercest tempest in history. She also spent her first few years in Braavos - a city of the Hundred Isles, built among canals and a lagoon - and following Willem Darry’s death, all of Daenerys childhood and early adolescence was spent on ships, traveling in between the Free Cities. 

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.

Her love for water is greatly felt in this quote:

She loved the sea. She liked the sharp salty smell of the air, and the vastness of horizons bounded only by a vault of azure sky above. It made her feel small, but free as well. She liked the dolphins that sometimes swam along beside Balerion, slicing through the waves like silvery spears, and the flying fish they glimpsed now and again. She even liked the sailors, with all their songs and stories. 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.

Air 

Before her dragons, came her silver. 

The silver horse leapt the flames as if she had wings. When she pulled up before Magister Illyrio, she said, “Tell Khal Drogo that he has given me the wind.”

She raced by on her silver, riding like the wind.

And then came Viserion, Drogon and Rhaegal. Though even before they hatched, Daenerys has been dreaming of flying.

A great knife of pain ripped down her back, and she felt her skin tear open and smelled the stench of burning blood and saw the shadow of wings. And Daenerys Targaryen flew.

Flying, she thought. I had wings, I was flying. But it was only a dream.

With the birth of her dragons, Daenerys’s dream of flying became very real and only a matter of time until it came true, and she impatiently waited for this moment.

If I had wings, I would want to fly too, Dany thought.

Another year, or perhaps two, and he may be large enough to ride. Then I shall have no need of ships to cross the great salt sea.

“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.

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.

They are all three growing. Soon they will be large enough to bear my weight. Then she would fly as Aegon the Conqueror had flown, up and up, until Meereen was so small that she could blot it out with her thumb.

If I were a dragon, I could fly to Westeros, she thought.

And finally when the moment came for her to reach the sky, Dany was exulting: 

Her heart felt as if it were about to burst. Yes, she thought, yes, now, now, do it, do it, take me, take me, FLY!

As she says herself, on Drogon’s back, Daenerys feels whole. She loves flying. 

Hers had been a lonely sojourn, and for most of it she had been hurt and hungry … yet despite it all she had been strangely happy here. A few aches, an empty belly, chills by night … what does it matter when you can fly? I would do it all again.

Up and up and up he’d borne her, high above the pyramids and pits, his wings outstretched to catch the warm air rising from the city’s sun baked bricks. If I fall and die, it will still have been worth it, she had thought.

And in her dreams at night, it is in the air that she finds happiness and peace.

She dreamed. All her cares fell away from her, and all her pains as well, and she seemed to float upward into the sky. She was flying once again, spinning, laughing, dancing, as the stars wheeled around her and whispered secrets in her ear.

Daenerys embodies this famous quote perfectly:

“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”

And her eyes were turned skyward long before she tasted flight.

Fire

The most obvious of the elements associated to Daenerys, and she has it in her blood.

The water was scalding hot, but Daenerys did not flinch or cry out. She liked the heat. It made her feel clean.

The fire is mine. I am Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons, don’t you see? Don’t you SEE? 

I don’t know if this has some kind of literary significance, but the fact that Daenerys connects so strongly in her soul with all the four basic elements is pretty amazing.

i am making your place between the breaths / as the flame is to snow, first love to last

Henry Miller, from a letter to Anaïs Nin, featured in “A Literate Passion: Letters of Anaïs Nin & Henry Miller, 1932-1953″

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 end.

♔ Daenerys Targaryen ♔ | DAENERYS TARGARYEN APPRECIATION MONTH | Day 3: Personality traits. | #danymonth2021

Fierce, Brave, Courageous

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. - Daenerys VI, ASoS

They are not strong, she told herself, so I must be their strength. I must show no fear, no weakness, no doubt. However frightened my heart, when they look upon my face they must see only Drogo's queen. She felt older than her fourteen years. If ever she had truly been a girl, that time was done. - Daenerys I, ADwD

"Let them come. In me they shall find a sterner foe than Cleon. I would sooner perish fighting than return my children to bondage." - Daenerys IV, ADwD

Humorous, Playful, Witty

"Who? The Pureborn? They have water in their veins. The Spicers? There are curds between their ears. And the Undying are all dead. You should have taken me to husband. I am almost certain that I asked you for your hand. Begged you, even." "Only half a hundred times," Dany teased. "You gave up too easily, my lord. For I must marry, all agree.". - Daenerys III, ADwD

"Perhaps," said Dany, with a coy look. "Though young girls have been known to be fickle. I may still want a magic sword." Hizdahr laughed - Daenerys IV, ADwD

Dany laughed. The Dornish prince flushed red, whilst her own court and counselors gave her puzzled looks. "Radiance?" said Skahaz Shavepate, in the Ghiscari tongue. "Why do you laugh?" "They call him frog," she said, "and we have just learned why. In the Seven Kingdoms there are children's tales of frogs who turn into enchanted princes when kissed by their true love." Smiling at the Dornish knights, she switched back to the Common Tongue. "Tell me, Prince Quentyn, are you enchanted?" - Daenerys VII, ADwD

Intelligent, Cunning, Attentive

You speak of sacking cities. Answer me this, ser—why have the Dothraki never sacked this city?" She pointed. "Look at the walls. You can see where they've begun to crumble. There, and there. Do you see any guards on those towers? I don't. Are they hiding, ser? I saw these sons of the harpy today, all their proud highborn warriors. They dressed in linen skirts, and the fiercest thing about them was their hair. Even a modest khalasar could crack this Astapor like a nut and spill out the rotted meat inside. So tell me, why is that ugly harpy not sitting beside the godsway in Vaes Dothrak among the other stolen gods?"

"You have a dragon's eye, Khaleesi, that's plain to see."

"I wanted an answer, not a compliment.""There are two reasons. Astapor's brave defenders are so much chaff, it's true. Old names and fat purses who dress up as Ghiscari scourges to pretend they still rule a vast empire. Every one is a high officer. On feast days they fight mock wars in the pits to demonstrate what brilliant commanders they are, but it's the eunuchs who do the dying. All the same, any enemy wanting to sack Astapor would have to know that they'd be facing Unsullied. The slavers would turn out the whole garrison in the city's defense. The Dothraki have not ridden against Unsullied since they left their braids at the gates of Qohor."

"And the second reason?" Dany asked.

"Who would attack Astapor?" Ser Jorah asked. "Meereen and Yunkai are rivals but not enemies, the Doom destroyed Valyria, the folk of the eastern hinterlands are all Ghiscari, and beyond the hills lies Lhazar. The Lamb Men, as your Dothraki call them, a notably unwarlike people.""Yes," she agreed, "but north of the slave cities is the Dothraki sea, and two dozen mighty khals who like nothing more than sacking cities and carrying off their people into slavery."

"Carrying them off where? What good are slaves once you've killed the slavers? Valyria is no more, Qarth lies beyond the red waste, and the Nine Free Cities are thousands of leagues to the west. And you may be sure the sons of the harpy give lavishly to every passing khal, just as the magisters do in Pentos and Norvos and Myr. They know that if they feast the horselords and give them gifts, they will soon ride on. It's cheaper than fighting, and a deal more certain."

Cheaper than fighting, Dany thought. Yes, it might be. If only it could be that easy for her. How pleasant it would be to sail to King's Landing with her dragons, and pay the boy Joffrey a chest of gold to make him go away. - Daenerys II, ASoS

Dany considered. The slaver host seemed small compared to her own numbers, but the sellswords were ahorse. She'd ridden too long with Dothraki not to have a healthy respect for what mounted warriors could do to foot. The Unsullied could withstand their charge, but my freedmen will be slaughtered. "The slavers like to talk," she said. "Send word that I will hear them this evening in my tent. And invite the captains of the sellsword companies to call on me as well. But not together. The Stormcrows at midday, the Second Sons two hours later.""As you wish," Ser Jorah said. "But if they do not come—""They'll come. They will be curious to see the dragons and hear what I might have to say, and the clever ones will see it for a chance to gauge my strength." She wheeled her silver mare about. "I'll await them in my pavilion."- Daenerys IV, ASoS

"Then who, if not Unsullied? Dothraki would be even worse." Dothraki fought from horseback. Mounted men were of more use in open fields and hills than in the narrow streets and alleys of the city. Beyond Meereen's walls of many-colored brick, Dany's rule was tenuous at best. Thousands of slaves still toiled on vast estates in the hills, growing wheat and olives, herding sheep and goats, and mining salt and copper. Meereen's storehouses held ample supplies of grain, oil, olives, dried fruit, and salted meat, but the stores were dwindling. So Dany had dispatched her tiny khalasar to subdue the hinterlands, under the command of her three bloodriders, whilst Brown Ben Plumm took his Second Sons south to guard against Yunkish incursions. The most crucial task of all she had entrusted to Daario Naharis, glib-tongued Daario with his gold tooth and trident beard, smiling his wicked smile through purple whiskers. Beyond the eastern hills was a range of rounded sandstone mountains, the Khyzai Pass, and Lhazar. If Daario could convince the Lhazarene to reopen the overland trade routes, grains could be brought down the river or over the hills at need … but the Lamb Men had no reason to love Meereen. "When the Stormcrows return from Lhazar, perhaps I can use them in the streets," she told Ser Barristan, "but until then I have only the Unsullied." - Daenerys I, ADwD

Selfless

My people are bleeding. Dying. A queen belongs not to herself, but to the realm. Marriage or carnage, those are my choices. A wedding or a war." - Daenerys IV, ADwD

She thought of Stalwart Shield, of Missandei's brother, of the woman Rylona Rhee, who had played the harp so beautifully. No marriage would ever bring them back to life, but if a husband could help end the slaughter, then she owed it to her dead to marry. - Daenerys IV, ADwD

She would rather have drifted in the fragrant pool all day, eating iced fruit off silver trays and dreaming of a house with a red door, but a queen belongs to her people, not to herself. - Daenerys IX, ADwD

Motherly, Compassionate, Empathic

Behind them, the girl being raped made a heartrending 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. - Daenerys VII, AGoT

"They will not mind us keeping their gold safe, then. There is nothing to buy in the hills.""They are afraid for their children," Reznak said. Yes, Daenerys thought, and so am I. "We must keep them safe as well. - Daenerys II, ADwD

… but Daenerys Targaryen had other children, tens of thousands who had hailed her as their mother when she broke their chains. - Daenerys II, ADwD

Inspiring

On the morning of the third day, the city gates swung open and a line of slaves began to emerge. Dany mounted her silver to greet them. As they passed, little Missandei told them that they owed their freedom to Daenerys Stormborn, the Unburnt, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and Mother of Dragons. "Mhysa!" a brown-skinned man shouted out at her. He had a child on his shoulder, a little girl, and she screamed the same word in her thin voice. "Mhysa! Mhysa!"Dany looked at Missandei. "What are they shouting?" "It is Ghiscari, the old pure tongue. It means 'Mother.'" Dany felt a lightness in her chest. I will never bear a living child, she remembered. Her hand trembled as she raised it. Perhaps she smiled. She must have, because the man grinned and shouted again, and others took up the cry. "Mhysa!" they called. "Mhysa! MHYSA!" They were all smiling at her, reaching for her, kneeling before her. "Maela," some called her, while others cried "Aelalla" or "Qathei" or "Tato," but whatever the tongue it all meant the same thing. Mother. They are calling me Mother. The chant grew, spread, swelled. It swelled so loud that it frightened her horse, and the mare backed and shook her head and lashed her silver-grey tail. It swelled until it seemed to shake the yellow walls of Yunkai. More slaves were streaming from the gates every moment, and as they came they took up the call. They were running toward her now, pushing, stumbling, wanting to touch her hand, to stroke her horse's mane, to kiss her feet. Her poor bloodriders could not keep them all away, and even Strong Belwas grunted and growled in dismay. Ser Jorah urged her to go, but Dany remembered a dream she had dreamed in the House of the Undying. "They will not hurt me," she told him. "They are my children, Jorah." She laughed, put her heels into her horse, and rode to them, the bells in her hair ringing sweet victory. She trotted, then cantered, then broke into a gallop, her braid streaming behind. The freed slaves parted before her. "Mother," they called from a hundred throats, a thousand, ten thousand. "Mother," they sang, their fingers brushing her legs as she flew by. "Mother, Mother, Mother!" - Daenerys IV, ASoS

Should you reach your queen, give her a message from the slaves of Old Volantis.” She touched the faded scar upon her wrinkled cheek, where her tears had been cut away. “Tell her we are waiting. Tell her to come soon.” - Tyrion VII, ADwD

"Quiet!" Reznak mo Reznak was pleading. "Please! I will answer if you will only …" "Is it true?" a freedwoman shouted. "Is our mother dead?" "No, no, no," Reznak screeched. "Queen Daenerys will return to Meereen in her own time in all her might and majesty. Until such time, His Worship King Hizdahr shall—" Discarded Knight, ADwD

Self-aware

"You have brought freedom as well," Missandei pointed out. "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." - Daenerys VI, ASoS

Unburied dead lay everywhere. [...] Their eyes followed her. Those who had the strength called out. "Mother … please, Mother … bless you, Mother …" Bless me, Dany thought bitterly. Your city is gone to ash and bone, your people are dying all around you. I have no shelter for you, no medicine, no hope. Only stale bread and wormy meat, hard cheese, a little milk. Bless me, bless me. What kind of mother has no milk to feed her children? - Daenerys VI, ADwD

"Magnificence, the people of Meereen have come to celebrate our union. You heard them cheering you. Do not cast away their love." "It was my floppy ears they cheered, not me. Take me from this abbatoir, husband." - Daenerys IX, ADwD

Humble, Practical & Adaptable

"Half a year gone, that man could scarcely wake fire from dragonglass. He had some small skill with powders and wildfire, sufficient to entrance a crowd while his cutpurses did their work. He could walk across hot coals and make burning roses bloom in the air, but he could no more aspire to climb the fiery ladder than a common fisherman could hope to catch a kraken in his nets." Dany looked uneasily at where the ladder had stood. Even the smoke was gone now, and the crowd was breaking up, each man going about his business. In a moment more than a few would find their purses flat and empty. "And now?" "And now his powers grow, Khaleesi. And you are the cause of it.""Me?" She laughed. "How could that be?" - Daenerys III, ACoK

Look at you. Look at you!" Dany did not need to look. She was barefoot, with oiled hair, wearing Dothraki riding leathers and a painted vest given her as a bride gift. She looked as though she belonged here. - Daenerys III, AGoT

I regret if we caused you alarm. If truth be told, we were not certain, we expected someone more . . . more . . .""Regal?" Dany laughed. She had no dragon with her, and her raiment was hardly queenly - Daenerys V, ACoK

"You must excuse me, ser. The petitioners will soon be at my gates. I must don my floppy ears and become their queen again. Summon Reznak and the Shavepate, I'll see them when I'm dressed." - Daenerys I, ADwD

Afterward, as Jhiqui was patting Daenerys dry, Irri approached with her tokar. Dany envied the Dothraki maids their loose sandsilk trousers and painted vests. They would be much cooler than her in her tokar, with its heavy fringe of baby pearls. - Daenerys VII, ADwD

🌹

Christa Wolf, Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays

1.01 | 8.06

daenerys targaryen never had a bad track “he is fire made flesh and so am i” BANGER. “a dragon is no slave” SLAPS. “dragons die. but so do dragonslayers” SEXY. “i am the calamity that will change these slavers back into people” ICONIC. “it is time to cross the trident” BEAUTIFUL. “i must have fire in my eyes when i face them, not tears” EXQUISITE. “yes, now, now, do it, do it, take me, take me, FLY!” WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY. don't even GET ME STARTED on “the fire is mine. i am daenerys stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons”

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

Emily Brontë — Wuthering Heights

Dany: An evil witch told me I can’t have kids

Jon(pointing at his pants): okay but have you tried this?

Shipwreck

Sailor!Jon and merm!Dany AU 

Love comes in at the eyes. (2/2)

“I am homesick for a place I am not sure even exists. One where my heart is full. My body loved. And my soul understood.”

— Melissa Cox

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

jaenerys???

(insp.)

Jon Snow: ONLY 👅 I 👅 CAN 👅 CONVINCE 👅DAENERYS 👅 TO 👅 HELP 👅 US 👅

tender…

Simone de Beauvoir, from a letter to Jean-Paul Sartre (Paris, Monday, 3 July 1939)

GAME OF THRONES + ART

Fallen Angel — ALEXANDRE CABANEL Napoleon Crossing the Alps — JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID The Soul of the Rose — JOHN WILLIAM WATERHOUSE Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog — CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH Priestess of Delphi — JOHN COLLIER The Birth of Venus — SANDRO BOTTICELLI Judith Slaying Holofernes — ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI Circe Invidiosa — JOHN WILLIAM WATERHOUSE Saint George and the Dragon — GUSTAVE MOREAU Death and Life — GUSTAV KLIMT

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.

We’re fucked

an another modern au piece, which was inspired by @emilia_clarke‘s last photo on instagram. gotta love these two ❄🔥