"The woman took a step backward. "You must leave this city soon, Daenerys Tar-garyen, or you will never be permitted to leave it at all."
Dany's wrist still tingled where Quaithe had touched her. "Where would you have me go?" she asked.
"To go north, you must journey south.
To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow" -ACOK -Daenerys III
Working on my HOTU series and re-reading the text ...I've re-read the chapter before Dany enters HOTU ....and it's the chapter with the fire mage and the fire stair and also it's the chapter where Quaithe is telling Dany that misterious text (" to reach north ...etc") for the first time ... and in my head every time I read this bit ...Quaithe has a mask like a mirror ...because the red mask is lacquered...so it's a reflective surface...so I think Quaithe functions ....also...sometimes like a reflection of Dany and her surroundings....like some kind of conscious ...reflecting back at Dany her fears and desires ...
and the septons say we must love our brothers. i will go to my grave thinking of my brother's peach. dear brother, i had hoped you were dead. they're not supposed to have statues, but my father loved them so much he had them done. when we were girls together, we had a private language, she and i. we're not friends, we're brothers. you may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. i have to be as brave as robb. the sound of a door opening, the scream of a rusted iron hinge. it all goes back and back, to our mothers and fathers and theirs before them; we are puppets dancing on the strings of those who came before us, and one day our own children will take up our strings and dance on in our steads
Viserys and Daenerys by @nautieval, beloved oomfie
Just like all my other comm ideas, this has been something I have been sitting on for quite a while now. This one I’ve had on my mind since October, if I remember correctly. The thing is, I am so particular and mindful with the art I commission. Everyone I work with is incredibly talented and I appreciate all of them; I am simply of the opinion that different styles that I have in mind work better with some people and everyone works best with different characters, usually characters that they have a passion for. So I’ve been looking for someone that does Targaryens and depicts child characters in a way that speaks to me. Finally, I found Shep, who also did an infant version of my OC Bael Whitewolf back in January. He did a phenomenal job with that, and I think you all will agree that he did a phenomenal job here as well. Since this piece is portraying children, I love the feel of something more storybook-esque and more vibrant in color. This is perfect, in my opinion. Shep is my mutual on twitter and I adore him so I’m hoping everyone checks out his other work as well.
What’s always bothered me has been the lack of people talking about Viserys and Daenerys’s life before the events of AGOT and how things are from his perspective. This is understandable because there aren’t as many details on it as we get in the main storyline. Viserys also turns out to be an abuser so people do not wish to make excuses for him, I do not blame them. I merely think understanding him is important to who Daenerys becomes as a character and how she has thus far avoided becoming who he became, even when met with great hardship. It is not my belief that Viserys was born “mad” or from some kind of Targaryen curse, I think he broke under pressure and trauma. That does not excuse him, all it means is that is not evidence that Daenerys is l genetically predisposed to madness. I am also of the belief that Viserys loved her and that she did not lack for love as a small child, only the amount of people she could go to for that love. That created an immense trauma bond between the two of them. Further, I don’t think he ever lapsed in love of her, but his abuse of her lapsed any relevancy of that love. He probably did plan on her eventually joining her in Westeros because I don’t think he would fare well being without her for long, but I don’t think he had much of a plan beyond that because he is not a sane person.
It is said Viserys lost joy and his sanity when he sold his mother’s crown in order to keep him and Daenerys fed. I can totally see that. Viserys remembers his family and how they were taken from him, which left him with the responsibility of Daenerys. He had Willam Darry at first, but when he died, he was forced to be a sole caregiver very young (and had had the burden of an emotional and probably to some extent physical caregiver for her even before then). Viserys taught Daenerys what he knew and seemed to take his responsibility somewhat seriously for a time. It was most likely very humiliating and traumatic to have to go from Free City to Free City, begging people to house and feed him and his sister. He’s at the will of these powerful men and they all eventually abandon him and he will have to start over, he’s fully aware of that. Selling Rhaella’s crown to keep Daenerys fed was giving up the memory of his family, he has nothing left (and yet, he agrees to give Daenerys up, whether he thought it would be long term or not, later on). That, to me, was probably the tipping point of him breaking down mentally.
All that to say, here he is, playing with Daenerys the evening after he sold Rhaella’s crown. He’s still at this point making an attempt to shield Daenerys from trauma and keep her happy, but his eyes are empty and in time, he will descend into cruelty and abuse towards her. For now he’s fighting it. She is unaware of what’s going on because she is young, which probably is frustrating to him. By the time she’s his age, she will know much too well the cruelty of the world. They are currently seeking shelter in an abandoned building while they await the next ship to come to port to take them to the next Free City. It was important to me to show he wasn’t all there and that Daenerys is just trying to play and be happy. It shows a childlike ignorance of what is to come, not knowing that this familial love, for what it is, is not to persist for long.
I hope it did not come across that I am romanticizing or excusing Viserys’s actions, that is the furthest thing from my mind. I just think his relationship with Daenerys is fascinating.
Here are some other version for you guys. I did get full render at first, but I preferred it with less detail, I found. I’m sure there will be others that enjoy the full render more. My endless thanks to @nautieval for doing this for me.
‘They’re dogs and he’s a wolf. They know he’s not their kind’
a little doodle inspired by @marwyn 's exceptional post outlining jon & ramsay as foils, as they have been living in my mind rent-free. coloured version coming soon!