Winning the Game of Thrones: The Host of Characters and their Agendas by Valerie Frankel Page B
Authors: Valerie Frankel
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Targaryens, he likely doesn’t care about preserving a real Targaryen prince when any silver-haired baby would do.
After decades of scheming, Illyrio brokers the marriage between Daenerys and Drogo and gives them the dragon eggs, which he says he obtained from the Shadow Lands. Their hatching was not predicted by anyone – it’s that shocking and unprecedented for the people of Martin’s world. There are seers and prophecies around, certainly, but it’s unclear how well red priests could see the future before Daenerys’s dragon hatching brought magic back to the world. Most likely, Illyrio gave Daenerys the eggs because they were an expensive, purposeless status symbol. In Daenerys’s thoughts, she explains, “It was a truly magnificent gift, though she knew that Illyrio could afford to be lavish. He had collected a fortune in horses and slaves for his part in selling her to Khal Drogo.” Certainly destiny may have taken a hand, but there’s no real indicator Illyrio gave her the eggs with a purpose.
The gift might also be interpreted as “Look, I’m honoring you and calling you a true Targaryen, heir to these eggs…then secretly sending you off to die.” Illyrio later explains that Daenerys wasn’t expected to survive – a thirteen-year-old sheltered, naive princess wed to the powerful khal and hauled into the desert? Little surprise Illyrio thought that. The scheme of marrying her off would eliminate Daenerys – as they think, an untutored maiden with Targaryen blood. She could not inherit in her own right, and the Dothraki would have no interest in conquering Westeros. The throne would be left for Aegon.
Having the Dothraki honor the egotistical and mad Viserys enough to give him a Dothraki army and sail across the sea they loathe so much is a far-fetched plan compared with setting Viserys up to be overbearingly arrogant until they kill him – which is exactly what happens. Illyrio tells Viserys Khal Drogo will give him an army, and then sends the unhinged, bratty king off with the Dothraki without even giving him a courtesy lesson. Viserys, like his sister, was set up to die.
If Varys and Illyrio wanted the Targaryen siblings killed, Illyrio could have simply poisoned their dinner. A more likely and complex plot is that Daenerys’s wedding was arranged to frighten Westeros and begin the panic and civil war that in fact resulted. Sending the Targaryen heirs off with the Dothraki, and reporting Daenerys’s marriage and pregnancy to King Robert, as Varys does, gives Robert an excuse to send assassins and spiral into paranoia as Aerys once did. In the discussion, Varys urges Robert to send an assassin and tells Ned that leaders must do “vile things” to preserve their realms. Of course, the hapless assassin inflames the conflict further.
Around this time, Varys meets Illyrio beneath the Red Keep and Arya overhears the following fragments of conversation. (Martin has confirmed that the book characters she doesn’t recognize are these two, and they appear as themselves on the show).
Varys: “I warn you, the wolf and lion will soon be at each other’s throats, whether we will it or no.”
Illyrio: “What good is war now? We are not ready. Delay.”
…
[Illyrio suggests stalling by killing Eddard Stark.]
“If one Hand can die, why not a second…You have danced the dance before.”
“Before is not now, and this Hand is not the other.”
“Nonetheless, we must have time. The princess is with child. The khal will not bestir himself until his son is born. You know how they are, these savages.”
“If he does not bestir himself soon, it may be too late. This is no longer a game for two players if it ever was. Stannis Baratheon and Lysa Arryn have fled beyond my reach, and the whispers say they are gathering swords about them.” (I:343-344)
Varys goes on to list other families like the Tyrells who are scheming for power, and then asks for
After decades of scheming, Illyrio brokers the marriage between Daenerys and Drogo and gives them the dragon eggs, which he says he obtained from the Shadow Lands. Their hatching was not predicted by anyone – it’s that shocking and unprecedented for the people of Martin’s world. There are seers and prophecies around, certainly, but it’s unclear how well red priests could see the future before Daenerys’s dragon hatching brought magic back to the world. Most likely, Illyrio gave Daenerys the eggs because they were an expensive, purposeless status symbol. In Daenerys’s thoughts, she explains, “It was a truly magnificent gift, though she knew that Illyrio could afford to be lavish. He had collected a fortune in horses and slaves for his part in selling her to Khal Drogo.” Certainly destiny may have taken a hand, but there’s no real indicator Illyrio gave her the eggs with a purpose.
The gift might also be interpreted as “Look, I’m honoring you and calling you a true Targaryen, heir to these eggs…then secretly sending you off to die.” Illyrio later explains that Daenerys wasn’t expected to survive – a thirteen-year-old sheltered, naive princess wed to the powerful khal and hauled into the desert? Little surprise Illyrio thought that. The scheme of marrying her off would eliminate Daenerys – as they think, an untutored maiden with Targaryen blood. She could not inherit in her own right, and the Dothraki would have no interest in conquering Westeros. The throne would be left for Aegon.
Having the Dothraki honor the egotistical and mad Viserys enough to give him a Dothraki army and sail across the sea they loathe so much is a far-fetched plan compared with setting Viserys up to be overbearingly arrogant until they kill him – which is exactly what happens. Illyrio tells Viserys Khal Drogo will give him an army, and then sends the unhinged, bratty king off with the Dothraki without even giving him a courtesy lesson. Viserys, like his sister, was set up to die.
If Varys and Illyrio wanted the Targaryen siblings killed, Illyrio could have simply poisoned their dinner. A more likely and complex plot is that Daenerys’s wedding was arranged to frighten Westeros and begin the panic and civil war that in fact resulted. Sending the Targaryen heirs off with the Dothraki, and reporting Daenerys’s marriage and pregnancy to King Robert, as Varys does, gives Robert an excuse to send assassins and spiral into paranoia as Aerys once did. In the discussion, Varys urges Robert to send an assassin and tells Ned that leaders must do “vile things” to preserve their realms. Of course, the hapless assassin inflames the conflict further.
Around this time, Varys meets Illyrio beneath the Red Keep and Arya overhears the following fragments of conversation. (Martin has confirmed that the book characters she doesn’t recognize are these two, and they appear as themselves on the show).
Varys: “I warn you, the wolf and lion will soon be at each other’s throats, whether we will it or no.”
Illyrio: “What good is war now? We are not ready. Delay.”
…
[Illyrio suggests stalling by killing Eddard Stark.]
“If one Hand can die, why not a second…You have danced the dance before.”
“Before is not now, and this Hand is not the other.”
“Nonetheless, we must have time. The princess is with child. The khal will not bestir himself until his son is born. You know how they are, these savages.”
“If he does not bestir himself soon, it may be too late. This is no longer a game for two players if it ever was. Stannis Baratheon and Lysa Arryn have fled beyond my reach, and the whispers say they are gathering swords about them.” (I:343-344)
Varys goes on to list other families like the Tyrells who are scheming for power, and then asks for
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