The Valyrian Diaspora
Oct. 12th, 2022 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timegoddessroseWaiting for a furniture delivery, so have some off the cuff Targaryen feelings.
[HOTD SPOILERS UP TO AND INCLUDING S1X08]
I said at the outset of House of the Dragon that one of my primary focuses is the Targaryens (and by extension the Velaryons) as fundementally a people of diaspora. And although flaws have crept their way into HotD, it remains true that the show is consistently nailing this (for me) most important aspect.
Daemon and Rhaenyra returning to King's Landing to find the Red Keep stripped of Targaryen (Valyrian) heraldry, erasing that ancient history with the religion of the Andals. Literally painting over the last remnants of Old Valyria with the Faith of the Seven. The feeling of loss and erasure of something more than just this one family's ancestry, but a whole culture. The lack of appreciation or understanding on the part of the Hightowers because it isn't their history, it's not important to them.
This drives at the heart of an element of Game of Thrones that went largely unexplored; that non-Targ kings and queens will happily appropriate Targaryen symbols of power (not least of the which the Iron Throne itself) in order to bolster the perception of legitimacy for their own claims, or believing these symbols will protect them, but without true understanding or reverence for what any of these things mean (Cersei thinking the Red Keep will protect her from Dany, never clocking that she's cowering inside the house Dany's family built).
Perhaps the most poignant example is Aegon the Conqueror's dagger. A prophecy of the utmost importance for Westeros' survival hidden within the blade using the last of the Valyrian pyromancers' magic, held sacred and passed from king to heir, until (through the Dance of the Dragons) its significance is lost. Eventually, this dagger ends up disused, discarded, thrown into the corner of some armory somewhere to be plucked up at random to be used as a murder weapon, starting yet another war. The prophecy in the blade is never uncovered despite its use by a Stark who does not understand its meaning to end the Long Night.
There is a deep and soulful sadness embedded at the core of the story of House Targaryen. At rock bottom, they are a lost and homeless people trying desperately to rebuild their home on stranger shores. They conquer, they build, they destroy, they burn for home, but home is forever denied them. I am perpetually uninterested in the question of whether this Targaryen or that Targaryen was right/wrong, good/evil. I don't find moral absolutism to be at all the most compelling thing about them (which is not me excusing any particular Targ for any particular actions). What I am interested in, is the many ways that the Valyrian diaspora expresses itself through them; all the failed attempts at returning to a lost home.
Anyway. The Targaryens make me very sad.
[HOTD SPOILERS UP TO AND INCLUDING S1X08]
I said at the outset of House of the Dragon that one of my primary focuses is the Targaryens (and by extension the Velaryons) as fundementally a people of diaspora. And although flaws have crept their way into HotD, it remains true that the show is consistently nailing this (for me) most important aspect.
Daemon and Rhaenyra returning to King's Landing to find the Red Keep stripped of Targaryen (Valyrian) heraldry, erasing that ancient history with the religion of the Andals. Literally painting over the last remnants of Old Valyria with the Faith of the Seven. The feeling of loss and erasure of something more than just this one family's ancestry, but a whole culture. The lack of appreciation or understanding on the part of the Hightowers because it isn't their history, it's not important to them.
This drives at the heart of an element of Game of Thrones that went largely unexplored; that non-Targ kings and queens will happily appropriate Targaryen symbols of power (not least of the which the Iron Throne itself) in order to bolster the perception of legitimacy for their own claims, or believing these symbols will protect them, but without true understanding or reverence for what any of these things mean (Cersei thinking the Red Keep will protect her from Dany, never clocking that she's cowering inside the house Dany's family built).
Perhaps the most poignant example is Aegon the Conqueror's dagger. A prophecy of the utmost importance for Westeros' survival hidden within the blade using the last of the Valyrian pyromancers' magic, held sacred and passed from king to heir, until (through the Dance of the Dragons) its significance is lost. Eventually, this dagger ends up disused, discarded, thrown into the corner of some armory somewhere to be plucked up at random to be used as a murder weapon, starting yet another war. The prophecy in the blade is never uncovered despite its use by a Stark who does not understand its meaning to end the Long Night.
There is a deep and soulful sadness embedded at the core of the story of House Targaryen. At rock bottom, they are a lost and homeless people trying desperately to rebuild their home on stranger shores. They conquer, they build, they destroy, they burn for home, but home is forever denied them. I am perpetually uninterested in the question of whether this Targaryen or that Targaryen was right/wrong, good/evil. I don't find moral absolutism to be at all the most compelling thing about them (which is not me excusing any particular Targ for any particular actions). What I am interested in, is the many ways that the Valyrian diaspora expresses itself through them; all the failed attempts at returning to a lost home.
Anyway. The Targaryens make me very sad.
