what exactly do we know (or, what can we speculate) so far pertaining to dany's fertility? was Mirri Max Duur ever legit? did she miscarriage at the end of ADWD? also, what do you think is in her future in terms of romance, marriage, and children?
Dany was fertile, pregnant at 14, had a healthy growing child within her; then had a stillbirth when, in labor, she was brought into the tent where Mirri Maz Duur was performing a sorcerous bloodmagic ritual. Mirri claims Dany unconsciously knew the life of her child was the payment to bring Drogo back from death (Dany of course disputes this), so it’s possible that Rhaego would have died whether she was brought into the presence of dark magic or not – but it seems that the magic did transform the baby into something terrible, possibly as an interaction with Targaryen “blood of the dragon”.
(For the record, I recently saw a post suggesting that Mirri caused the stillbirth by giving Dany an abortifacient. I’m sorry, but the context was misread, she had already given birth and the potion matches the description of milk of the poppy.)
In addition to Rhaego’s death, Mirri claimed that it would be impossible for Dany to ever become pregnant or bear a living child. This may have also been a price of the magic, or it may be that there were injuries to her reproductive system during the traumatic birth. (Dany feared there was something visible, so did not allow Hizdahr’s female family members to examine her as customary before Ghiscari weddings.) I don’t believe Mirri was lying, because she had a chance to confess otherwise before she died to spare herself pain and did not, therefore it’s probable she was telling the truth as she saw it. However, whether the truth as Mirri saw it was actually true, or whether she was wrong, or whether a magical miracle would be required to fix Dany’s potential to bear children, we don’t yet know.
But Mirri was wrong about at least one thing – Dany’s womb can quicken. That is, she can become pregnant, as she did miscarry in her last ADWD chapter, likely due to the green berries she ate, which were probably juniper sabina berries or an ASOIAF equivalent. Whether she can give birth to a living child is still in question, however.
Dany’s romantic future in TWOW is not going to be especially nice, unfortunately. Per the House of the Undying prophecies, it may be that Hizdahr ends up nailed to the prow of a Greyjoy ship, or it may be the sad smiling corpse that is her prophesied husband will be a Greyjoy himself. If Euron, I don’t see Dany doing so willingly, and I greatly fear for her. However, I also have confidence she’ll be able to break out of this whammy, however long it lasts, however painful it is for us to read. There’s also the whole Dothraki stallion thing, but that won’t really apply to her romantic life, I think.
In ADOS, things will look up for Dany, romantically at least. Her third prophesied husband is Jon Snow, with prophesied “sweetness”, so that should be nice. I don’t know if children are in her future; if Dany and Jon and Tyrion sacrifice themselves to save the world, it doesn’t seem like there will be enough time for that. (Unless time runs differently in the Others’ lands beyond the curtain of light at the end of the world?) Some do see foreshadowing (or just have hope) for her to have children, and it’s also possible that the trio will survive their sacrifice, so she has endless potential and time in that case. Either way, if a child will come, I do not doubt that a miracle will apply re the question of Dany’s fertility, and Jon’s as well.
So, yeah, things are going to be interesting. Don’t forget, there’s two books to go – two long books – and there could be many changes and concepts we haven’t even dreamed of yet. The HotU prophecies do give us some idea, but there’s very likely many things the prophecies haven’t mentioned. We’ll all have to reassess quite a bit after TWOW comes out, and then we’ll see…
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