I think show-Shae is not playing anyone, just surviving.
Jon got burned pretty badly by a mundane lantern fire.
Fair point, but its just a suggestion as to how magical blood can be demonstrated.
GRRM has said that the Targaryen blood does not confer any sort of fire immunity and that Dany’s survival of the dragon birth fire was a one-time thing, so, Jon getting burned by the lantern doesn’t rule him out.
Really? That’s inconsistent with the show, at least, where there were several suggestions that she was immune to extreme heat (her not being hurt by a scalding bath, her comment when Viserys dies, etc.) Did the books not have those hints?
It doesn’t seem inconsistent to me – the only time Dany actually resisted fire, both in the books and in the show, was in the funeral pyre with the dragon eggs (and that was a one time, magic thing). She may think that means she is immune to fire, and she may be tough enough for a scalding water, but that doesn’t mean she is immune to fire permanently.
I can see your point. But the source material they’re working with is significantly different. Books 4-5 just pale in comparison to books 1-3. Even though they are adding and subtracting, the shows are still rooted in the basic story lines of the latter books. Thus far anyway–maybe Cersei will marry Lancel and the two of them will rule brilliantly.
That said, there were plenty of changes in seasons 1-4 that I wasn’t crazy about, the change in Shae’s character being one of them. And the first two shows of season 5 were okay but not great.
Well of course Targaryen blood in general doesn’t confer fire immunity (Aegon V, ie, “Egg” in the D&E stories, died in a massive fire at Summerhall), but Dany herself may be different, as in being the actual Azor Ahai reborn.
Though, anyway, the point I was trying to make is that in a magical world, there may be ways to demonstrate that Jon is the blood of Rheagar.
It doesn’t change anything with regards to the iron throne, but really whoever ends up on the throne is going to be pretty inconsequential to the story. The real struggle is the fight between humanity and the ice walkers, fighting for the throne is a distraction. When you start thinking of it that way you realize Jon is one of the major players, specially now as Lord Commander. Think about it, Dany has three dragons but she can only ride one into battle.
Was going to throw this into the TV show thread, but I don’t know if the video is spoiler-y or not—I mean, how could it be, it’s last season? But still…and I don’t care to ruin anything for them.
Anyway, one of the VFX houses put out a “Making of Season 4,” little video about their VFX work for GoT. I came about it when I was trying to look up just how tall the Titan was. Looked interesting. I get that most of the objects were CGI, but I didn’t realize that some of the terrain features were too.
GRRM said specifically that Dany isn’t fireproof. Now, that was probably like 12 years ago, he might have changed his mind. Show Dany might be different too. Your point about Jon still stands, although I don’t know if we have any indication what that test might be?
Who ever ends up on the iron throne won’t get to be king because they rule lawyered their way into it. If Jon ends up on the throne it will be because he won it, not because of some “Rhaegar you ARE the father” Maury bit.
It doesn’t have to be Jon ending up on the Throne. Proof of the Targaryen blood could be useful for all manner of things - riding one of the dragons, marrying Dany due to the tradition of Targaryens marrying each other, etc.
Anyway, wrt to Dany walking into the fire being a “one time thing” - GRRM has at the very least made Dany very fire resistant as in the chapter in Dance where Drogon lands in the fighting pit he roars in Dany’s face, “his breath hot enough to blister skin” - she has minor burns, but not nearly as bad as others would have had. I believe her hair gets burnt away again from Drogon’s hot breath in the fighting pit.
Yes, and Selmy or someone mentions that she was on fire when she took off.
I’m not sure I buy into the idea that anyone will “end up on the throne”. But if someone does, it could certainly be some from column A and some from column B. Someone who wins a bunch of battles but also has at least some argument towards enough of a claim to allow others to bend their knee with the appearance of honor intact, etc.
Good point. Let us not forget that Robert Baratheon got the throne over Jon Arryn after the rebellion partially due to Robert having a better claim (his grandfather married a Targaryen). Of course, it was Robert avenging his fiance being abducted as well.
What’s interesting to me is that there seems to be two real major plot arcs that tie all the characters together - humanity vs the Others, and whoever gets to take the Iron Throne. We have quite a few characters who seem to be involved in the former (Jon, Dany, Bran) and quite a few who seem like they only exist for the latter (Cersei, the Martells, the Tyrells, the Iron Islanders). The second plot also feels much more interesting (to me at least), it wouldn’t surprise me if GRRM is having trouble figuring out how to make the two storylines work together satisfactorily.
Has anyone read the Accursed Kings series? GRRM cites it as a major influence.
I read the first one (The Iron King, IIRC) and enjoyed it. But it was translated from French, and I found the dialogue odd at times. Lots of court intrigue and treachery, not much adventure, though.
That’s easy. The ones fighting for the throne will continue wiping each other out.
Stannis is kind of a tie together of those two plots, so I wonder if his role will be even more expanded? Or at the very least, even if Dany takes care of King’s Landing, she’ll have to deal with Stannis in the North.