Dragon Mirror Magics

Fattest Leech Ice OthersFattest Leech Not Immune to fire

This is a quick and dirty post. Have fun.





The red-fire-dragon Targaryens are the parallel-opposite to the blue-ice-dragon White Walkers. If there is a question about one dragon motive that is yet to be revealed in text, chances are GRRM has already shown us an answer via a point made about the other extreme dragon. Both dragons are what I have noticed in Martinworld as basic analogies to the oppressive extremes of Corporate/production/work until you die Ice Dragons, and then the over-arching oppressive hand of government that is the Red Dragons. If you want more Martin works on the matter, the stories I recommend reading that include this very distinct theme are, but not limited to:

This essay is a companion piece to the short post Sowing Red Dragons which explains how and why Dany is THE dragonbinder and the horn is hers to blow.

Daenerys created magic fire because she figured out the “recipe” along her early path in A Game of Thrones. The fire was magically built and therefore that is why Daenerys did not burn in this one-time magical event.

[speaking on POV’s] “Some characters are easier to write and some harder, however. Dany and Bran have always been toughest, maybe because they are heaviest on the magical elements… also, Bran is the youngest of POV kids, and very restricted as well because of his legs.”–GRRM

It was this info I had been talking about for a while on the Westeros.org forum + this blog that finally brought the picture to a whole. Dany has been relearning the steps to hatching (un)dead dragons that her Targaryen family has tried many times over and failed. Even Melisandre only has parts of her magic ingredients available to her, that is, until Mel and Selyse has to burn Shireen, which will then let the ice dragon into the world. Daenerys’ genetic memory is strongest in her and the old Valyrian line comes down to this one female dragon to become the Mhysa-Mother to be worshiped.

  • A Game of Thrones – Daenerys IX (as she identifies herself)




  • A Game of Thrones – Daenerys VI

    “No. He cannot have my son.” She would not weep, she decided. She would not shiver with fear. The Usurper has woken the dragon now, she told herself … and her eyes went to the dragon’s eggs resting in their nest of dark velvet. The shifting lamplight limned their stony scales, and shimmering motes of jade and scarlet and gold swam in the air around them, like courtiers around a king.




  • A Dance with Dragons – Melisandre I



  • Dany has been learning along the way and burning Viserys was an ingredient in un-burning Daenerys. Waking the last Dragon.

That is why Dany is the Unburnt. It’s not that she is immune to fire (as George specifies), but that the fire was magic and created by her. She figured out the “recipe” and methods and birthing songs which allowed her to bring dragons back into the realms of men. To be clear, I am using the term “recipe” loosely. I am sure there is no bonafide, written cookbook that Dany stumbled upon. GRRM’s story With Morning comes Mistfall pretty much tells us there are many things that are current and future mysteries without an answer he will reveal.

  • Only Kids are Afraid of the Dark, for one of the earliest examples of a blood and fire religion and bringing demon/dragons into the realms of men.


And after them came her handmaids, and then the others, all the Dothraki, men and women and children, and Dany had only to look at their eyes to know that they were hers now, today and tomorrow and forever, hers as they had never been Drogo’s.




Daenerys being the Unburnt will also later allow her to blow the horn Dragonbinder without being burnt, which will sow/sew her three heads together for a “new” banner in her image. The short post Sowing Red Dragons explains. Also adding that this fiery Dragonbinder analysis and speculation is the counter-horn discussion to what and who will be The Horn of Winter. That short and brain crushingly fun post can be found here.

Back to that oh-so-special cold that flays before it kills… this is also why in-story reader are repeatedly told and shown how the White Walkers bring their own type of cold. It is a ‘magic’ cold.



Remember the three-fold reveal that GRRM’s editor, Anne Groell, talks about?:

Q: Anne, although you’re the envy of many a GRRM fan, do you ever wish you didn’t have to edit the books so that you could be surprised by them all at once along with the rest of us?

Anne: No. As above, he doesn’t tell me a lot. He feels I am most effective at my job if I am surprised along with everyone else. And it is easier to tell when he’s overplaying a hand and revealing things too early if you don’t actually know going in what will happen. That said, now that I’ve realized his three-fold revelation strategy, I see it in play almost every time. The first, subtle hint for the really astute readers, followed later by the more blatant hint for the less attentive, followed by just spelling it out for everyone else. It’s a brilliant strategy, and highly effective.

*Sidenote: I am aware that there is a green dragon and that is Cersei/the Lannisters who are corrupting the green-tree rule of Westeros that “belongs” to the trees-nature-free folk hippies. Greenseeing means Enlightenment. While that is a related topic, it is not in the same realm as these two dragons being discussed here and now. Additionally, the same applies to the Frey’s who are the “Others” of the Riverlands as they sit in their Twin castles, etc…


Inhuman 1 Fattest LeechFattest Leech Inhuman Others

The Targaryens and the ice dragon Others are the only characters referred to as “inhumanly beautiful” in some manner. Both the Others and the Targaryens are from an “old dynasty”, and these dynasties include details such as genetic manipulation (carryover from SciFi mad scientists) and incest, which I have long talked about as a Downfall of a Dynasty in Martinworld.

How these dynasties came about is certainly up to tons of fandom suspicion, speculation, and various essays, but today we are talking about what the end result of this long ago genetic tampering created. Hint: Bloodmages have always been involved and it is only the fire elementals that claim, “Only death can pay for life.” The parallel opposite to that being a northern/tree idea of sacrificing oneself to allow the next generation to grow; Bran and his weirwood paste.

Another thing we do know is George says that both the Ice Others and Daenerys are the “greater and more dangerous threats” to Westeros, and that is what the title of the series means; A Song of Ice and Fire translates to A Battle of Ice Dragons and then Fire Dragons. The video below has GRRM’s words on the matter.

A short list of dragon-dragon parallels. I am sure more will be added as they are all remembered:

  • Both D/dragons come from liminal– mirror- shadow places. This has been extremely consistent throughout all of Martinworld works, which includes ASOIAF. The animalian dragons and Valyrians have genetic backgrounds in Asshai-by-the-Shadow (The Glass Flower), and the White Walkers first appear from the shadows in the liminal-shadow space between the trees. This is what the mirror represents, the thin space between the realms.
    • A Game of Thrones – Bran III


  • Both command the un-dead. The White Walkers use wights for their battle army, the red fire dragon uses her three un-dead dragons. They are ‘nuclear weapons’ as GRRM has repeatedly mentioned.
  • Getting ‘blood on the mirrors’ allows the Skinner-dragon to enter the realms of men. This comes from The Skin Trade (quoted here). In ASOIAF this comes from Mirri Maz Durr (Mirror Maze Door) being a burned bloodmage used to birth/berth dragons, as well as Melisandre will burn Shireen which allows the ice dragon through the largest mirror in Westeros, the wall.
  • Both dragons rely on incest to populate their dynasties. The White Walkers have Craster and the Targaryens first had each other, but since Dany doesn’t have Viserys or Rhaegar (and hasn’t met Aegon 6 yet), she has Kraznys (the Craster of Essos).
  • However, in Martinworld Incest brings a Downfall of Dynasties. Both the ice and fire dragons are going to die away after the Dancing is done.
  • Kraznys deals in making children warriors called Unsullied that Dany uses her old Valyrian blood to take with fire, just as Craster gives baby boys to the ice dragon and Craster has received ‘the bite’.
  • Both create weapons and armor using spells and bloodmagic: Valyrian steel and the “chameleon cloth” armor and swords the White Walkers create that we see in the prologue of A Game of Thrones.
  • Both dragons bring a magical imbalance to the seasons. One being a deep winter Long Night, the other a dangerous summer that never ends.
  • This is why many times in the story readers are given and shown how the White Walkers bring their own type of cold. A cold that is not like other cold. A cold that makes it hurt to breathe and snaps regular steel. Why in the AGOT prologue, the wall can be warm and weeping, but the area where the White Walkers are is beyond normal cold.
  • Both want rule over Westeros, and that is a reason why in the dragons’ eyes Bran is a tree that must be burnt, because Bran’s tree-rule is the only ‘legitimate’ one.
    • *Note: this is also why GRRM made it so Bran cannot have children. The old dynasty way will die as a new way of society emerges. Balance. Greenseeing means Enlightenment.
    • This is also where I again strongly recommend other Martin stories such as Armageddon Rag and Fevre Dream as two of many examples of final tree balance brought to the world.

This A Song of Ice and Fire story is a long-telling how BOTH of these extreme-fire elements have been rising. The Qarth legend about dragons coming from the moon is just that, an in-world myth to give readers some foreshadowing. Martin does this in almost all of his stories where he uses a celestial object/event to reflect the story; the ship the Eclipse is one such other example. There is truth in the tale, but it is not to be swallowed whole. It is an allegory.

“Good horror stories make us look at our reflections in dark distorting mirrors, where we glimpse things that disturb us, things that we did not really want to look at. Horror looks into the shadows of the human soul, at the fears and rages that live within us all.”–GRRM

I am proposing that there was never an actual second moon, but rather when in-story we get a mirror reflection of a moon and it is blooded, that is when a dragon will enter, which is connected to Bran and why is is watching the phases of the moon in his final ADWD chapter. This is something I mentioned other places as well. When you get “blood on the mirrors” a portal/doorway opens, and there is a birth/berth of dragons. This is the liminal space between realms. A sensitive threshold. This call for ‘king’s blood‘ and ‘only death pays for life‘ is only spoken by the fire elementals in ASIOAF.

  • A Game of Thrones – Prologue




    The pale sword came shivering through the air.

  • A Dance with Dragons – Daenerys IX

    In the smoldering red pits of Drogon’s eyes, Dany saw her own reflection. How small she looked, how weak and frail and scared. I cannot let him see my fear. She scrabbled in the sand, pushing against the pitmaster’s corpse, and her fingers brushed against the handle of his whip. Touching it made her feel braver. The leather was warm, alive. Drogon roared again, the sound so loud that she almost dropped the whip. His teeth snapped at her.

  • A Dance with Dragons – Tyrion VIII

    Finally he gave it up and made his way up top for a breath of night air. The Selaesori Qhoran had furled her big striped sail for the night, and her decks were all but deserted. One of the mates was on the sterncastle, and amidships Moqorro sat by his brazier, where a few small flames still danced amongst the embers.

    Only the brightest stars were visible, all to the west. A dull red glow lit the sky to the northeast, the color of a blood bruise. Tyrion had never seen a bigger moon. Monstrous, swollen, it looked as if it had swallowed the sun and woken with a fever. Its twin, floating on the sea beyond the ship, shimmered red with every wave. “What hour is this?” he asked Moqorro. “That cannot be sunrise unless the east has moved. Why is the sky red?”

    “The sky is always red above Valyria, Hugor Hill.”

Getting blood on the mirrors calls the Skinner-dragon in The Skin Trade (George R.R. Martin).

The White Walker-Others for how long? Since before the start of the series is all we know for sure as of ADWD. The rise of the red dragons in Westeros has been on a gradual build for ~400 years when the Targaryens fled Valyria and took residence on an island rock they called Dragonstone before turning their gaze west again to conquer Westeros (via merge with a fiery religion). Could the true north also have had a mini-Doom that happened at Hardhome? Plenty of discussion in ADWD about Hardhome and its fires and ashen rain. Both the invasion by Daenerys and the invasion by the Whote Walkers will come from the east, just watch.

  • A Dance with Dragons – Jon IX

    You should hear what Cotter says of you. “I am sorry for that, but I fear Your Grace will find conditions at the Nightfort even less to your liking. We speak of a fortress, not a palace. A grim place, and cold. Whereas Eastwatch—”

    “Eastwatch is not safe.” The queen put a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “This is the king’s true heir. Shireen will one day sit the Iron Throne and rule the Seven Kingdoms. She must be kept from harm, and Eastwatch is where the attack will come. This Nightfort is the place my husband has chosen for our seat, and there we shall abide. We—oh!”

    An enormous shadow emerged from behind the shell of the Lord Commander’s Tower. Princess Shireen gave a shriek, and three of the queen’s knights gasped in harmony. Another swore. “Seven save us,” he said, quite forgetting his new red god in his shock.

This is where I highly recommend the Martin story The Glass Flower that shows the proto-Dany, Cyrain of Lilith and Ash, and her “siege perilous” war table (among several additional Dany/White Walker details), something that GRRM has also added to Dragonstone, also called the artifact.

  • The Glass Flower

But I do not defeat easily. That is my pride, my last and only pride; it is not much to face the darkness with, but it is something. When the end comes, I will meet it raging.

The White was like me in that. It was a frog from a pond beyond ours, a place lost in the grey where our little lights have not yet shone on the dark waters. Whatever sort of creature it might have been, whatever burdens of history and evolution it carried in its genes, it was nonetheless my kin. Both of us were angry mayflies, moving restlessly from star to star because we, alone among our fellows, knew how short our day. Both of us found a destiny of sorts in these swamps of Croan’dhenni.

The White came utterly alone to this place, set down its little starship (I have seen the remains: a toy, that ship, a trinket, but with lines that are utterly alien to me, and deliciously chilling), and, exploring, found something.

…Whatever I am, The White was the first.

But again, this mirror image of the two dragons seems rather intentional, but as GRRM tends to write his characters, not even the villains are wholly dark. Martin even tried to give the super dark villain from Fevre Dream, Damon Julian (another Dany protoype) a sympathetic backstory when he mourns for his former plantation partner.

” I don’t believe in black and white characters. I don’t want to write the band of heroes on one side and the orcs on the other side but that’s not to say that that all characters are equally gray, you know some are very dark gray and some are some are mostly white but they still  have occasional flaws in them. You know, I’ve always been fascinated by human beings and all their complexity and even human beings who do appalling things. You know the question is, “why?” Why are they do appalling things and it’s interesting to get inside the head and see why you know some of my viewpoint characters are have done some incredibly reprehensible things.” –George R.R. Martin

He then goes on to describe how villains are not born, but made. They are the result of their experiences. Things happen to a character along the way that brings them to junctures where they have to make decisions for themselves… which brings consequences. Video source.

  • A Dance with Dragons – Daenerys X



    “Fire and Blood,” Daenerys told the swaying grass.

Also, remember that everything that happens in a Daenerys POV chapter comes from the same unreliable narrator that every other character does, including Sansa. Daenerys is not an exception to this rule and not everything that happens from her perspective is the “truth”. It is a simple writers trick to make an antagonist seem relatable and sympathetic as they transition into villain.

And I do believe that readers should be questioning more often what series of events created the White Walkers? Why and how do they ride between the realms of men?

Dancing Dragons, Fighting Dragons

GRRM has had it planned since his 1993 outline that there will be anther Dance of Dragons. This is related to the title of the series A Song (battle) of Ice (dragons) and (then) Fire (dragons). This is history repeating with a twist, as there was a Dance before between the Blacks and the Greens. But like that previous Dance, it wasn’t one battle and done, but rather it went on as a complicated and layered fight for the throne.

This is what the White Walkers want, this is what Daenerys wants. The throne. Rule. Bow or burn. Ozymandias, just like the “throne” the ship Fevre Dream became in the story Fevre Dream. Something I talk about and have the direct GRRM quotes for in Greenseeing Means Enlightenment. Daenerys will help take down the usurping ice dragon, but it is the after when readers should really be worried. Whoever else stands in her way will also be burnt because there can be only one.

  • The Steel Andal Invasion
  • Bakkalon the Pale Child and Flames
  • A Storm of Swords – Daenerys II


    Blood and fire, thought Dany. The words of House Targaryen. She had known them all her life. “The blood of my enemies I will shed gladly. The blood of innocents is another matter. Eight thousand Unsullied they would offer me. Eight thousand dead babes. Eight thousand strangled dogs.”

    “Your Grace,” said Jorah Mormont, “I saw King’s Landing after the Sack. Babes were butchered that day as well, and old men, and children at play. More women were raped than you can count. There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs. The scent of blood is all it takes to wake him. Yet I have never heard of these Unsullied raping, nor putting a city to the sword, nor even plundering, save at the express command of those who lead them. Brick they may be, as you say, but if you buy them henceforth the only dogs they’ll kill are those you want dead. And you do have some dogs you want dead, as I recall.”

This is why Westeros, if not Planetos as a whole, needs a Watcher on the walls. Someone to guard the realms of men.

Dragonstone Simonetti Fattest Leech
Dragonstone and Valyrian architecture. Note the “maw” into the gullet. Art by Marc Simonetti.

What’s next?

That is up to you.



Additionally, if you want a voice other than my own, I recommend reading an essay from Sweet Sun Ray titled Bran Stark- Serwyn Mirror Reversed over on her blog here.


Header picture Royalty Free Fire burning Yin Yang with black background vector image.


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