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Episode 172: A STORM OF SWORDS, DAENERYS II: "Legion, Part 1" SHOW NOTES!

Added 2022-01-31 15:00:07 +0000 UTC

Hello and welcome to the Not A Cast … podcast: the one true chapter-by-chapter podcast going through A Song of Ice and Fire one chapter a week. I’m one of your hosts Jeff better known as BryndenBFish.

And I’m your other host Emmett, better known as PoorQuentyn.

Welcome to the one hundred and seventy-second episode of the Not A Cast, titled: “Legion, Part 1: An Analysis of ASOS, Daenerys II,” in which Daenerys visits gothic, gonzo hell in the form of Astapor.

This episode is brought to you by our NotASmallCouncil:

Spoiler warning: All published books, 5 novels, 3 Dunk and Egg novellas, histories, interviews, TWOW sample chapters, as well as Game of Thrones the TV show. Anything and everything!

Question

James of House Keene, Lord of the Forest City, Admiral of the Cuyahoga, and Warden of the Western Reserve, a small council patron, asks:

We all know Martin created Davos Seaworth as a way to give us a POV in Stannis’ camp without giving us a Stannis POV. I suspect Martin created Areoh Hotah for the same purpose except for Doran Martell. I think it’s interesting that Martin only has two non-Westerosi POV characters: Areo Hotah and Melisandre. Do you think Hotah was made to provide both a non-Westerosi perspective AND a POV in Doran Martell, or is there some other reason why we have Areo instead of Doran himself? Perhaps Doran knows something Martin doesn’t want the audience to know (yet)?

So, thank you James for the question. If you’d like to ask us questions we must answer here on the NotACast pod-cast, we invite you to become a Sworn Sword or higher-level patron over at patreon.com/NotACastASOIAF where you can also get show notes, merch, access to the NotASlack and shout-outs at the start and end of every episode and also bonus episodes: like our upcoming review of our favorite (and least favorite) things we watched or read in 2021!

Yes! That episode was a lot of fun. And we continue to inch closer to achieving our goal of 950 total patrons. When we get to 950 total patrons, we’ll start our analyses on Theon’s TWOW sample chapter. As of the recording of this episode, we have 923 total patrons and are a mere 27 patrons shy of achieving our goal. So, if you like what you hear on our regular episodes, want to listen to our massive library of bonus episodes and help us achieve our goals, consider becoming a patron by going to patreon.com/NotACastASOIAF and signing up today!

But enough about patreon. When we last checked in with Daenerys Targaryen, she decided that Illyrio Mopatis could wait. She needed an army first. Let’s find out about that army and the hellscape that produces them in this synopsis of ASOS, Daenerys II, Part 1!

Synopsis

In the center of the Plaza of Pride stood a red brick fountain whose waters smelled of brimstone, and in the center of the fountain a monstrous harpy made of hammered bronze. Twenty feet tall she reared. She had a woman's face, with gilded hair, ivory eyes, and pointed ivory teeth. Water gushed yellow from her heavy breasts. But in place of arms she had the wings of a bat or a dragon, her legs were the legs of an eagle, and behind she wore a scorpion's curled and venomous tail.

I have the strangest feeling of being in a desert, gothic hell for some reason.

Dany knows the statue is the Harpy of Ghis. Old Ghis was an empire that fell five thousand years before under the onslaught of the Valyrian Empire who destroyed the empire so badly that the Ghiscari language was mostly forgotten. So, the people spoke a bastardized version of High Valyrian. That didn’t mean that the symbols of Old Ghis were gone though. The Harpy of Old Ghis had a thunderbolt in its claws. This harpy had chains. This is Astapor.

"Tell the Westerosi whore to lower her eyes," the slaver Kraznys mo Nakloz complained to the slave girl who spoke for him. "I deal in meat, not metal. The bronze is not for sale. Tell her to look at the soldiers. Even the dim purple eyes of a sunset savage can see how magnificent my creatures are, surely."

Kraznys spoke High Valyrian in a Ghiscari growl, and Dany understands him -- even if she pretends she doesn’t. Thus, a slave girl from Naath translates. She asks if the Unsullied are magnificent. They might be okay, Dany replies. But she needs to know about their training. The slave girl translates this to Kraznys as Dany trying to talk the price down. In response, Kraznys asks the slave girl if the Westerosi are so ignorant. Everyone knows about the Unsullied who master spear, shield and short sword. But Kraznys wants these questions to end. It’s hot out here.

Dany agrees with Kraznys on it being hot as the sun bakes the plaza and slave girls fan Dany and Kraznys. But there was something weird about the Unsullied:

If the Unsullied felt the heat, however, they gave no hint of it. They could be made of brick themselves, the way they stand there. A thousand had been marched out of their barracks for her inspection; drawn up in ten ranks of one hundred before the fountain and its great bronze harpy, they stood stiffly at attention, their stony eyes fixed straight ahead. They wore nought but white linen clouts knotted about their loins, and conical bronze helms topped with a sharpened spike a foot tall. Kraznys had commanded them to lay down their spears and shields, and doff their swordbelts and quilted tunics, so the Queen of Westeros might better inspect the lean hardness of their bodies.
"They are chosen young, for size and speed and strength," the slave told her. "They begin their training at five. Every day they train from dawn to dusk, until they have mastered the shortsword, the shield, and the three spears. The training is most rigorous, Your Grace. Only one boy in three survives it. This is well known. Among the Unsullied it is said that on the day they win their spiked cap, the worst is done with, for no duty that will ever fall to them could be as hard as their training."

That is, um, something.

Kraznys then tells Dany that the Unsullied before her have been standing immobile for a day and a night with no food or water. They will do their duty until their death. That’s courage according to Kraznys. But it’s madness per Barri- um, Arstan. He taps his staff hard against the bricks, signaling his anger. He didn’t want to be there, had advised her not to buy a slave army or visit Astapor. Dany brought him so that she would have opposing counsel from both Arstan and Jorah who wanted to purchase the Unsullied. She left her dragons back in her ships in order to protect them from would-be dragonslayers.

When Kraznys is informed of what the “smelly old man” said, he informs them that the Unsullied standing day and night without food and water is discipline, obedience.

"Sheep are obedient," said Arstan when the words had been translated. He had some Valyrian as well, though not so much as Dany, but like her he was feigning ignorance.
Kraznys mo Nakloz showed his big white teeth when that was rendered back to him. "A word from me and these sheep would spill his stinking old bowels on the bricks," he said, "but do not say that. Tell them that these creatures are more dogs than sheep. Do they eat dogs or horse in these Seven Kingdoms?"
"They prefer pigs and cows, your worship."
"Beef. Pfag. Food for unwashed savages."

Dany ignores them and proceeds to inspect the line of slave soldiers, noticing that there were Dothraki, Lhazarene, Free Cities men, Qartheen, Summer Islanders, others she doesn’t know and even Ghiscari in the ranks. The Ghiscari sell their own. They were tall and short, between the ages of fourteen to twenty. But they weren’t men per se. They were a unit, and they were eunuchs.

Dany asks why the Unsullied are castrated as men with dicks are stronger, etc. According to Kraznys, they were cut to make them absolutely obedient, loyal and fearless. Barristan says all men fear death. But Kraznys insults Barristan in Ghiscari and then tells the girl to say that the Unsullied are not men. Death and maiming mean nothing to them either. To demonstrate this, he whips an Unsullied across the cheek and asks if he wants another lashing. But before this can happen, Dany says she’s seen how strong the Unsullied are and how they suffer pain bravely.

Kraznys chuckled when he heard her words in Valyrian. "Tell this ignorant whore of a westerner that courage has nothing to do with it."
"The Good Master says that was not courage, Your Grace."
"Tell her to open those slut's eyes of hers."
"He begs you attend this carefully, Your Grace."

Kraznys moves to the next eunuch in line and demands his sword. The Unsullied soldier kneels and offers his sword. Kraznys commands him to stand, and then he cuts from his belly up to his ribs and then saws the blade back and forth across the nipple. In horror, Dany demands to know what Kraznys is doing, but Kraznys tells her to shut up. Men don’t need nipples, eunuchs definitely don’t need nipples. And then the nipple hangs from a thread of skin, and then Kraznys slashes and sends the flesh to the ground.

Kraznys turned back to Dany. "They feel no pain, you see."
"How can that be?" she demanded through the scribe.

The reason is the wine of courage: a potion made of nightshade, bloodfly larva, black lotus root and other secret ingredients. The Unsullied drink it with every meal, and it makes them fearless. It makes them feel less fear, less pain. So, the Unsullied can never be tortured or give up information. As for the castration, Kraznys has more information to convey:

"In Yunkai and Meereen, eunuchs are often made by removing a boy's testicles, but leaving the penis. Such a creature is infertile, yet often still capable of erection. Only trouble can come of this. We remove the penis as well, leaving nothing. The Unsullied are the purest creatures on the earth." He gave Dany and Arstan another of his broad white smiles. "I have heard that in the Sunset Kingdoms men take solemn vows to keep chaste and father no children, but live only for their duty. Is it not so?"
"It is," Arstan said, when the question was put. "There are many such orders. The maesters of the Citadel, the septons and septas who serve the Seven, the silent sisters of the dead, the Kingsguard and the Night's Watch . . . "
"Poor things," growled the slaver, after the translation. "Men were not made to live thus. Their days are a torment of temptation, any fool must see, and no doubt most succumb to their baser selves. Not so our Unsullied. They are wed to their swords in a way that your Sworn Brothers cannot hope to match. No woman can ever tempt them, nor any man."

Arstan says that there are other means of temptation, but Kraznys objects, saying that the Unsullied have no interests outside of duty. They don’t even have names. They own nothing outside of their short sword. To demonstrate this, Kraznys turns to an Unsullied and asks his name. Red Flea today, Black Rat yesterday, Brown Flear the day before that, and he isn’t sure what the name was four days ago. They have disks that are tossed into a pile, and a name is chosen at random each new day.

Barry the Arstan says that’s madness to have to remember a new name every day, but Kraznys says that’s how they maintain their discipline. If they can’t do that, they’re culled in training. And there are other requirements too:

"Those who cannot are culled in training, along with those who cannot run all day in full pack, scale a mountain in the black of night, walk across a bed of coals, or slay an infant."
Dany's mouth surely twisted at that. Did he see, or is he blind as well as cruel? She turned away quickly, trying to keep her face a mask until she heard the translation. Only then did she allow herself to say, "Whose infants do they slay?"
"To win his spiked cap, an Unsullied must go to the slave marts with a silver mark, find some wailing newborn, and kill it before its mother's eyes. In this way, we make certain that there is no weakness left in them."

Shocked, Dany asks if she heard correctly. She did. But the coin is not for the mother. It’s for the child’s mother. The Unsullied cannot steal. But then there’s the other killing they have to do: they are given a puppy when they are castrated, and at the end of the year, they have to strangle it. If they can’t do that, they’re killed and fed to the dogs as a lesson.

Arstan Whitebeard tapped the end of his staff on the bricks as he listened to that. Tap tap tap. Slow and steady. Tap tap tap. Dany saw him turn his eyes away, as if he could not bear to look at Kraznys any longer.
"The Good Master has said that these eunuchs cannot be tempted with coin or flesh," Dany told the girl, "but if some enemy of mine should offer them freedom for betraying me . . . "
"They would kill him out of hand and bring her his head, tell her that," the slaver answered. "Other slaves may steal and hoard up silver in hopes of buying freedom, but an Unsullied would not take it if the little mare offered it as a gift. They have no life outside their duty. They are soldiers, and that is all."

Dany says she needs soldiers. How many does she need? How many does Astapor have for sale? Eight thousand are available now. They sell them by the thousand or the hundred. They used to sell by ten, but that was an unsound investment as the Unsullied intermingled with other slaves and grew out of their soldierly habits. And sure, Dany could get slave soldiers from Yunkai and Meereen, but they are not quality soldiers like the Unsullied.

“Tell her they are like Valyrian steel, folded over and over and hammered for years on end, until they are stronger and more resilient than any metal on earth."

As for officers, Dany must appoint officers over them. And the Unsullied come sold with sword, shield, spear, sandals, quilted tunic and spiked caps. Any other armor must be provided by the owner.

Dany doesn’t have any more questions; so, she asks Arstan what she should do. Tell them no, he says. Dany asks why, knowing that Kraznys will get that translated later on.

"My queen," said Arstan, "there have been no slaves in the Seven Kingdoms for thousands of years. The old gods and the new alike hold slavery to be an abomination. Evil. If you should land in Westeros at the head of a slave army, many good men will oppose you for no other reason than that. You will do great harm to your cause, and to the honor of your House."
"Yet I must have some army," Dany said. "The boy Joffrey will not give me the Iron Throne for asking politely."
"When the day comes that you raise your banners, half of Westeros will be with you," Whitebeard promised. "Your brother Rhaegar is still remembered, with great love."
"And my father?" Dany said.

Ah, well, um, Aerys is remembered. He made Westeros peaceful. But maybe Dany should just go to Illyrio and hang out for a while to let her dragons grow while sending secret messages across the Narrow Sea to grab up loyal lords? Like the ones who abandoned Aerys for Robert? Dany counters. Yeah, but those lords may want a return of dragons. Oh they may? She turns back to Kraznys and the slave girl and says she needs to consider.

The slaver shrugged. "Tell her to consider quickly. There are many other buyers. Only three days past I showed these same Unsullied to a corsair king who hopes to buy them all."
"The corsair wanted only a hundred, your worship," Dany heard the slave girl say.
He poked her with the end of the whip. "Corsairs are all liars. He'll buy them all. Tell her that, girl."
Dany knew she would take more than a hundred, if she took any at all. "Remind your Good Master of who I am. Remind him that I am Daenerys Stormborn, Mother of Dragons, the Unburnt, trueborn queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. My blood is the blood of Aegon the Conqueror, and of old Valyria before him."

But Dany’s words don’t move Kraznys. Old Ghis ruled a massive empire when Valyrians were fucking sheep. They are the sons of the harpy. Anyways, Kraznys is tired and bored of trying to convince and bribe Dany. He’d be happy to serve as a guide to Astapor for Dany or to sex her. He’ll also feed her dog brains, a stew of octopus and unborn puppy.

"Tell her how pretty the pyramids are at night," the slaver growled. "Tell her I will lick honey off her breasts, or allow her to lick honey off mine if she prefers."
"Astapor is most beautiful at dusk, Your Grace," said the slave girl. "The Good Masters light silk lanterns on every terrace, so all the pyramids glow with colored lights. Pleasure barges ply the Worm, playing soft music and calling at the little islands for food and wine and other delights."
"Ask her if she wishes to view our fighting pits," Kraznys added. "Douquor's Pit has a fine folly scheduled for the evening. A bear and three small boys. One boy will be rolled in honey, one in blood, and one in rotting fish, and she may wager on which the bear will eat first."
Tap tap tap, Dany heard. Arstan Whitebeard's face was still, but his staff beat out his rage. Tap tap tap. She made herself smile. "I have my own bear on Balerion," she told the translator, "and he may well eat me if I do not return to him."

It’s hard not to quote so much of the dialogue in this chapter, because it’s so truly gonzo.

Anyways, Kraznys engages in casual misogyny about how Jorah will be the one making the decision instead of Dany, and Dany says that she’s heading out to think about everything she’s learned.

She gave her arm to Arstan Whitebeard, to lead her back across the plaza to her litter. Aggo and Jhogo fell in to either side of them, walking with the bowlegged swagger all the horselords affected when forced to dismount and stride the earth like common mortals.

And that is the synopsis of ASOS, Daenerys II, Part One. Well, this is quite the chapter in many, many ways. And it’s all setting the foundation for everything that’s coming for Daenerys Targaryen’s story for the remainder of the published books. What did you think, ser?

Depth

A Storm of Swords isn’t much for new settings. Most of the book focuses on deepening the drama in places we’ve already been–King’s Landing, Castle Black, Dragonstone, Harrenhal, Riverrun, the Twins. The major exception is Slaver’s Bay, a location George teased in book one and now unveils in book three, so it can basically take over the story in book five. But before it becomes the Meereenese Knot full of multiple POVs and subplots, and before real-world events changed its meaning for the author and audience alike, Slaver’s Bay is a hellish gauntlet for Daenerys Targaryen, one that throws the possibilities and pitfalls of her overall rise to power into sharp relief. In Qarth, she was more or less drifting. That changes now, as she’s forced to choose how she will interact with the world around her–what she will create, and what she will leave behind.

She starts making those big decisions in her next chapter, and they start coming one after another in a dizzying rise to power. This chapter is more about setting the stage, and it does so with hideous precision. This is a different kind of horror than Sam’s opening chapter, which was about pure chaos, Sam’s POV breaking down in the face of the undead. This chapter explores a distinct structure: Astapor, the infernal machine, a temple to human misery. In order to ground what Dany does next, George has to chill you to the bone while also setting your heart on fire, and he does both.

Yeah, it really feels like George is priming the reader to want Dany to burn this fucking city to the ground. Astapor is horror like you said. But it’s less the cold, uncaring, supernatural horror seen north of the Wall. It’s a hot horror where people subject other people to inhuman practices. It’s body horror as brought about by torture. It’s psychological horror of the depths that humans will go when their entire society is addicted to misery. Slaver’s Bay is truly the worst place on Planetos. Given what we find out about Yunkai and Meereen in later ASOS/ADWD chapters, it’s hard to argue that Astapor might be the worst city of them all. We want this city to burn. But should we? We’ll unpack all that especially in Daenerys III. But for now, let’s zero in on the city of Astapor itself in the context of the rest of Slaver’s Bay and its own internal identity and reputation.

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

Daenerys pretending not to understand the slavers pays off in the most dramatic way imaginable in her next chapter.

The staff that Barristan holds here will be vital for when he intercepts Mero of Braavos’ attempt to murder Dany outside of Yunkai.

Theory/Discussion

Who might that “corsair king” be?

Conclusion


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