It's not like GRRM hasn't done this before where people who should know somebody don't.
And don't forget Theon, returning to the Iron Islands after 10 years, and practically no one knowing him aside from his own family. And how many people "knew" Petyr Baelish when he returned to the Fingers? One or two that had been there since the days of his father?
Can you do a quote search on "soft hands"? I swear there is a character like Cat/Cersei/one of the ladies talking about "the soft hands of a maester".
There's quite a few maesters with soft hands
He had been five years at the Citadel, arriving when he was no more than three-and-ten, yet his neck remained as pink as it had been on the day he first arrived from the westerlands. Twice had he believed himself ready. The first time he had gone before Archmaester Vaellyn to demonstrate his knowledge of the heavens. Instead he learned how Vinegar Vaellyn had earned that name. It took Pate two years to summon up the courage to try again. This time he submitted himself to kindly old Archmaester Ebrose, renowned for his soft voice and gentle hands, but Ebrose's sighs had somehow proved just as painful as Vaellyn's barbs.
They sent for me last. The realization made her almost too angry for words. And Pycelle runs off to send a message rather than soil his soft, wrinkled hands. The man is useless. "Find Maester Ballabar," she commanded. "Find Maester Frenken. Any of them." Puckens and Shortear ran to obey. "Where is my brother?"
". . . obsidian," said the other man in the room, a pale, fleshy, pasty-faced young fellow with round shoulders, soft hands, close-set eyes, and food stains on his robes.
"Can you offer any proof of this incest, ser?" Maester Theomore asked, folding his soft hands atop his belly.
The pedestal was a column of black marble three feet taller than Maester Caleotte. The fat little maester hopped up on his toes but still could not quite reach. Areo Hotah was about to go and help him, but Obara Sand moved first. Even without her whip and shield, she had an angry mannish look to her. In place of a gown, she wore men's breeches and a calf-length linen tunic, cinched at the waist with a belt of copper suns. Her brown hair was tied back in a knot. Snatching the skull from the maester's soft pink hands, she placed it up atop the marble column.
A fool's question. Maesters had their uses, but Victarion had nothing but contempt for this Kerwin. With his smooth pink cheeks, soft hands, and brown curls, he looked more girlish than most girls. When first he came aboard the Iron Victory, he had a smirky little smile too, but one night off the Stepstones he had smiled at the wrong man, and Burton Humble had knocked out four of his teeth. Not long after that Kerwin had come creeping to the captain to complain that four of the crew had dragged him belowdecks and used him as a woman. "Here is how you put an end to that," Victarion had told him, slamming a dagger down on the table between them. Kerwin took the blade—too afraid to refuse it, the captain judged—but he had never used it.
Clydas entered pink and blinking, the parchment clutched in one soft hand. "Beg pardon, Lord Commander. I know you must be weary, but I thought you would want to see this at once."
And Varys is repeated said to have soft hands
The man who stepped through the door was plump, perfumed, powdered, and as hairless as an egg. He wore a vest of woven gold thread over a loose gown of purple silk, and on his feet were pointed slippers of soft velvet. "Lady Stark," he said, taking her hand in both of his, "to see you again after so many years is such a joy." His flesh was soft and moist, and his breath smelled of lilacs. "Oh, your poor hands. Have you burned yourself, sweet lady? The fingers are so delicate … Our good Maester Pycelle makes a marvelous salve, shall I send for a jar?"
The eunuch spread his soft hands. "On more than that, I hope, sweet lady. I have great esteem for your husband, our new Hand, and I know we do both love King Robert."
"No. I am what I am. The king makes use of me, but it shames him. A most puissant warrior is our Robert, and such a manly man has little love for sneaks and spies and eunuchs. If a day should come when Cersei whispers, 'Kill that man,' Ilyn Payne will snick my head off in a twinkling, and who will mourn poor Varys then? North or south, they sing no songs for spiders." He reached out and touched Ned with a soft hand. "But you, Lord Stark … I think … no, I know … he would not kill you, not even for his queen, and there may lie our salvation."
Varys gave the king an unctuous smile and laid a soft hand on Ned's sleeve. "I understand your qualms, Lord Eddard, truly I do. It gave me no joy to bring this grievous news to council. It is a terrible thing we contemplate, a vile thing. Yet we who presume to rule must do vile things for the good of the realm, howevermuch it pains us."
Sansa seated herself beside the queen. Cersei smiled again, but that did not make her feel any less anxious. Varys was wringing his soft hands together, Grand Maester Pycelle kept his sleepy eyes on the papers in front of him, but she could feel Littlefinger staring. Something about the way the small man looked at her made Sansa feel as though she had no clothes on. Goose bumps pimpled her skin.
"The poor child," murmured Varys. "A love so true and innocent, Your Grace, it would be cruel to deny it … and yet, what can we do? Her father stands condemned." His soft hands washed each other in a gesture of helpless distress.
"To whom, I wonder?" Tyrion did not trust Varys, though there was no denying his value. He knew things, beyond a doubt. "Why are you so helpful, my lord Varys?" he asked, studying the man's soft hands, the bald powdered face, the slimy little smile.
Varys stood over the brazier, warming his soft hands. "It would appear Renly was murdered most fearfully in the very midst of his army. His throat was opened from ear to ear by a blade that passed through steel and bone as if they were soft cheese."
"Indeed." Varys laid a soft hand on the queen's sleeve. "You have a mother's heart, and I know His Grace loves his little sweetling. Yet kings must learn to put the needs of the realm before their own desires. I say this offer must be made."
Varys caught up with him as he was crossing the yard. "My lord," he said, a little out of breath. "You had best read this at once." He held out a parchment in a soft white hand. "A report from the north."
He stood in a pool of shadow by a bookcase, plump, pale-faced, round-shouldered, clutching a crossbow in soft powdered hands. Silk slippers swaddled his feet.
Then there's some other people
"Sweet Sansa," Queen Cersei said, laying a soft hand on her wrist. "Such a beautiful child. I do hope you know how much Joffrey and I love you."
"That is from the cold, my lord," said Hallyne, a pallid man with soft damp hands and an obsequious manner. He was dressed in striped black-and-scarlet robes trimmed with sable, but the fur looked more than a little patchy and moth-eaten. "As it warms, the substance will flow more easily, like lamp oil."
The smoke was making her eyes burn. She rubbed at them with the heels of her scarred hands. When she looked up at the Mother again, it was her own mother she saw. Lady Minisa Tully had died in childbed, trying to give Lord Hoster a second son. The baby had perished with her, and afterward some of the life had gone out of Father. She was always so calm, Catelyn thought, remembering her mother's soft hands, her warm smile. If she had lived, how different our lives might have been. She wondered what Lady Minisa would make of her eldest daughter, kneeling here before her. I have come so many thousands of leagues, and for what? Who have I served? I have lost my daughters, Robb does not want me, and Bran and Rickon must surely think me a cold and unnatural mother. I was not even with Ned when he died . . .
And I never meant to strike you. Gods be good, am I turning into Cersei? "That was ill done," he said. "On both our parts. Shae, you do not understand." Words he had never meant to speak came tumbling out of him like mummers from a hollow horse. "When I was thirteen, I wed a crofter's daughter. Or so I thought her. I was blind with love for her, and thought she felt the same for me, but my father rubbed my face in the truth. My bride was a whore Jaime had hired to give me my first taste of manhood." And I believed all of it, fool that I was. "To drive the lesson home, Lord Tywin gave my wife to a barracks of his guardsmen to use as they pleased, and commanded me to watch." And to take her one last time, after the rest were done. One last time, with no trace of love or tenderness remaining. "So you will remember her as she truly is," he said, and I should have defied him, but my cock betrayed me, and I did as I was bid. "After he was done with her, my father had the marriage undone. It was as if we had never been wed, the septons said." He squeezed her hand. "Please, let's have no more talk of the Tower of the Hand. You will be in the kitchens only a little while. Once we're done with Stannis, you'll have another manse, and silks as soft as your hands."
Sansa had never seen the sept so crowded, nor so brightly lit; great shafts of rainbow-colored sunlight slanted down through the crystals in the high windows, and candles burned on every side, their little flames twinkling like stars. The Mother's altar and the Warrior's swam in light, but Smith and Crone and Maid and Father had their worshipers as well, and there were even a few flames dancing below the Stranger's half-human face . . . for what was Stannis Baratheon, if not the Stranger come to judge them? Sansa visited each of the Seven in turn, lighting a candle at each altar, and then found herself a place on the benches between a wizened old washerwoman and a boy no older than Rickon, dressed in the fine linen tunic of a knight's son. The old woman's hand was bony and hard with callus, the boy's small and soft, but it was good to have someone to hold on to. The air was hot and heavy, smelling of incense and sweat, crystal-kissed and candle-bright; it made her dizzy to breathe it.
The old woman smelled of rosewater. Why, she's just the littlest bit of a thing. There was nothing the least bit thorny about her. "Kiss me, child," Lady Olenna said, tugging at Sansa's wrist with a soft spotted hand. "It is so kind of you to sup with me and my foolish flock of hens."
Sansa. Catelyn's nails dug into the soft flesh of her palms, so hard did she close her hand.
The back room was even darker. A flickering candle burned on a low table, beside a flagon of wine. The man behind it scarce looked a danger; a short man—though all men were tall to Tyrion—with thinning brown hair, pink cheeks, and a little pot pushing at the bone buttons of his doeskin jerkin. In his soft hands he held a twelve-stringed woodharp more deadly than a longsword.
"Aye, and all the rest," said Dacey. "She had hair like spun gold, that Lynesse. Skin like cream. But her soft hands were never made for axes."
"I am not your sister, Jaime." She raised a pale soft hand and pushed her hood back. "Have you forgotten me?"
"A Braavosi trading galley called at Pentos on her way back from the Jade Sea. The Treasure carried cloves and saffron, jet and jade, scarlet samite, green silk … and the grey death. We slew her oarsmen as they came ashore and burned the ship at anchor, but the rats crept down the oars and paddled to the quay on cold stone feet. The plague took two thousand before it ran its course." Magister Illyrio closed the locket. "I keep her hands in my bedchamber. Her hands that were so soft …"
Lady Tyene smiled at that. Her gown was cream and green, with long lace sleeves, so modest and so innocent that any man who looked at her might think her the most chaste of maids. Areo Hotah knew better. Her soft, pale hands were as deadly as Obara's callused ones, if not more so. He watched her carefully, alert to every little flutter of her fingers.
Daario stroked his gilded mustachio. "Would I steal from my sweet queen? If it were a gift worthy of you, I would have put it into your soft hands myself."
But they all have the same thing in common: they're all people who don't do any "work" for a living. And working we're told repeatedly leaves you with rough hands
Shae's eyes had grown large but he could not read what lay behind them. "My hands won't be soft if I clean ovens and scrape plates all day. Will you still want them touching you when they're all red and raw and cracked from hot water and lye soap?"
The boy claimed to be eighteen, older than Jon, but he was green as summer grass for all that. Satin, they called him, even in the wool and mail and boiled leather of the Night's Watch; the name he'd gotten in the brothel where he'd been born and raised. He was pretty as a girl with his dark eyes, soft skin, and raven's ringlets. Half a year at Castle Black had toughened up his hands, however, and Noye said he was passable with a crossbow. Whether he had the courage to face what was coming, though . . .
A master-at-arms works for a living. Willem Darry shouldn't have soft hands.
Your lordship lost a son at the Red Wedding. I lost four upon the Blackwater. And why? Because the Lannisters stole the throne. Go to King’s Landing and look on Tommen with your own eyes, if you doubt me. A blind man could see it. What does Stannis offer you? Vengeance. Vengeance for my sons and yours, for your husbands and your fathers and your brothers. Vengeance for your murdered lord, your murdered king, your butchered princes. Vengeance!
Sure, but where's the evidence that this happened? Everything we know points to the same story. The cloaked thing is totally consistent with that story. It is also consistent with the idea that it wasn't Rhaella, but so what? Without some reason to believe it wasn't Rhaella, why even consider that possibility? I don't understand the reason why people are questioning this. As far as I can see it stems from noticing that Dany's memories of events several years later are dubious. I really don't see why the events at Dragonstone couldn't be exactly as described and as all the evidence points to, and Dany's memories of later years still be false.
I really don't see why the events at Dragonstone couldn't be exactly as described and as all the evidence points to, and Dany's memories of later years still be false.
...drives me a little nuts. We have penis lances and rose vaginas and ice moons and comet swords and every other crazy-ass metaphorical assignation under the sun, but then we take a close look at some details that may not necessarily fall in line and it gets brushed off with a "you're reading too much into it"? Yes, yes I am going to read too much into it. I personally find it more plausible for GRRM to be bamboozling readers with this 'flight to Dragonstone' play on words than with 90% of the other might-as-well-be-canon theories circulating through cyberspace.
So yeah, events could be exactly as described. Or they could not be. I'm looking into the latter, because why not.
Anyway.
I think a "great bear of a man" fits perfectly well for a former master at arms though, and the high Valyrian thing just is a non-issue. It's a Latin parallel, most nobles would be taught it, and many travellers and traders would pick it up too. It's a common lingua franca. Even the Windblown use it as a company tongue.
Going to respectfully disagree with you here. Did you notice this idea from Rippounet at Westeros pointing out the difference between HIGH Valyrian that Dany knows and the bastard Valyrian of the Free Cities? It's a valid point, IMO. As you said, Valryian is a parallel to Latin, which also had a "classic" dialect spoken only by nobility and scholars, and the "vulgar" dialect spoken by the commoners. The former, of course, eventually became the dead language that was limited to written word, and the latter morphed into the individual Romance languages. Over time the two dialects became quite different, to the point that those who spoke Vulgar Latin were unable to understand its Classic predecessor.
Same with High Valyrian - this is a language of nobility. Dany knows it, Tyrion knows some "taught at his maester's knee", the maesters know it, Young Griff knows it courtesy of Haldon. Even the Tattered Prince knows it, as you said, but he comes from one of the 40 noble Pentoshi families with roots in Old Valyria. As noted in the W post, "low" Valyrian is common to the Free Cities, but it differs from the High and each city has its own version of the low, Tyrosh having possibly the closest approximation to the original.
By all accounts, Dany should know the low Valyrian dialects of the Free Cities....and she does. But she also knows the High dialect, which according to in-universe text is only taught by maesters. The chances of Willem Darry, a master at arms, knowing this dialect well enough to teach it to her are very small. Also, Dany speaks her Valyrian with a Tyroshi accent, NOT a Braavosi one.
Post by freyfamilyreunion on Oct 14, 2015 14:51:07 GMT
I don't have any issues with Rahella leaving King's Landing and going to Dragonstone, but if she did take a midnight flight with Viserys to get there, then my guess is she left the night that Aerys burned his Hand, to avoid being raped by Aerys. If she did become pregnant, then perhaps it was by whoever helped steal her from King's Landing to Dragonstone.
Since Stannis questioned the garrison closely, I assume that a pregnant Rhaella must have been on Dragonstone. So I don't have any issue with her giving birth, but if you look at Rhaella's history of stillbirths and children dying young, my guess is the child either died in childbirth or didn't make the trip from Dragonstone to Braavos. In fact, when Rhaenys's had her miscarriage, didn't another storm rage around Dragonstone?
Dany in my opinion, was a replacement sister for Viserys brought in from Dorne, so Viserys could have a bargaining chip for a marriage union to help procure an army. Dorne agreed to a marriage alliance with Viserys but my guess is the condition was that Viserys had to procure his own army so Dorne would not have to wage war by itself.
Both scenario in this case seems very possible.Rhaella either had a miscarriage or stillbirth and Dany was a replacememt.Or Rhaella left KL for somewhere else at a time not being the one Jamie viewed and Dany has a different father than Aerys.Either or makes a Sealord's Cat. I favor her coming from a Targ of that household because her connection especially to Rhaegar is to solidified for me anyway to ignore.
Well because per Jamie's recollection of what the maids said "the Queen's breasts and thighs looked like they were ravished by a beast." They didn't say anything about her sporting a shinner.And i don't recall anywhere in the text that says Aerys beat Rhaella,sure when her burnt someone he was extremely rough but punching her in the eye....Nah.Lastly,concerning that point even if Aerys used to give Rhaella the "straight to the moon" treatment to save face he would not have put bruises where it would be visible.
Aerys wasn't rational, he was the Mad King. The purpose of this talk about breasts and thighs is to let us know that Aerys was like a wild beast, not just a random wife-beater. I seriously doubt Aerys was too worried about preserving Rhaella's face from bruises in the midst of his insane post-burning sexual frenzy. He was the king, he was mad, and he felt he could get away with anything. It's not like the gold cloaks were going to arrest him for spousal abuse.
Also,all Jamie saw was a figure cloaked and hooded climbing into the royal wheelhouse and he assumed it was the queen.Plus,Rhaella may have left KL without Aery's leave and thus there needed to be a lie told to make people believe she was in KL when she wasn't.
Yes, "may have". Now what's the reason for thinking that is so?
Now we have to look at the author's point and why he did what he did.He could have simply have Jamie see Rhaella absent hood and cloak.He chose to put that there for a reason and that was may have been to point to the possibility that it wasn't the Queen after all.
You missed the "may have" there, I added it in for you. The other possibility is that it was exactly what it seems -- an illustration of Aerys' cruelty. Again, other than the "may have been", what's the actual reason for thinking it wasn't Rhaella?
We don't know what the garrison on Dragonstone saw,how much contact they were allowed to have.Plus someone brought up a good question.Who supposedly was the Maester that delievered Dany on Dragonstone if a delivery on Dragonstone took place?
Rhaella was there for 9 months, it's not exactly likely she was hiding away in isolation all that time and nobody noticed or thought it odd. She also crowned Viserys there, which you'd rather expect lots of people to be in attendance for.
I'd imagine the maester in question was the Dragonstone Maester. It's highly unlikely there wouldn't have been one there. Probably the same one that delivered Aegon there a couple of years earlier.
I really don't see why the events at Dragonstone couldn't be exactly as described and as all the evidence points to, and Dany's memories of later years still be false.
...drives me a little nuts. We have penis lances and rose vaginas and ice moons and comet swords and every other crazy-ass metaphorical assignation under the sun, but then we take a close look at some details that may not necessarily fall in line and it gets brushed off with a "you're reading too much into it"? Yes, yes I am going to read too much into it. I personally find it more plausible for GRRM to be bamboozling readers with this 'flight to Dragonstone' play on words than with 90% of the other might-as-well-be-canon theories circulating through cyberspace.
So yeah, events could be exactly as described. Or they could not be. I'm looking into the latter, because why not.
Right, but 90% of those other theories are BS. I'm all for questioning the orthodoxy, but there are an infinite number of things that could be questioned. Once you've come up with an interesting question, then you look for supporting evidence. So far we have an interesting question, but I see no supporting evidence being given for it.
Going to respectfully disagree with you here. Did you notice this idea from Rippounet at Westeros pointing out the difference between HIGH Valyrian that Dany knows and the bastard Valyrian of the Free Cities? It's a valid point, IMO. (snip)
By all accounts, Dany should know the low Valyrian dialects of the Free Cities....and she does. But she also knows the High dialect, which according to in-universe text is only taught by maesters. The chances of Willem Darry, a master at arms, knowing this dialect well enough to teach it to her are very small. Also, Dany speaks her Valyrian with a Tyroshi accent, NOT a Braavosi one.
I think Rippounet's post overstates the case a little.
High Valyrian is not taught only by Maesters. Missandei speaks it. Some random Tyroshi singer in KL sings songs in it. The Windblown use it as their company tongue. While the free cities talk a bastard Valyrian which as you say parallels the development of Romance languages, the Valyrian spoken in Slaver's bay is still a Ghiscari-coloured version of High Valyrian. Arya speaks some High Valyrian, and she's told by the Kindly Man that she needs to improve it, presumably not at the knees of a Maester.
I'm not sure where the idea that Dany speaks Valyrian with a Tyroshi accent comes from? She speaks the low Valyrian of Tyrosh, unsurprising as she lived there for some time, but that says nothing of her High Valyrian. Nor does it exclude the possibility she talks Braavosi too, though given that's pretty early in AGoT and we know that GRRM originally had Dany and her lemon trees in Tyrosh rather than Braavos, that might be a remnant of the earlier version. Am I missing something?
Final point, Dany has spent a lot of her childhood amongst the rich and wealthy. Darry's household had many servants. Dany and Viserys lived for years after that in the homes of "magisters and archons and merchant princes". Why would it have to be Darry personally teaching Dany, rather than some scholar he hired to do the job, or someone in those later homes of the wealthy?
Since Stannis questioned the garrison closely, I assume that a pregnant Rhaella must have been on Dragonstone. So I don't have any issue with her giving birth, but if you look at Rhaella's history of stillbirths and children dying young, my guess is the child either died in childbirth or didn't make the trip from Dragonstone to Braavos. In fact, when Rhaenys's had her miscarriage, didn't another storm rage around Dragonstone?
This seems like a far more likely possibility than Rhaella not being on Dragonstone. While I'm dubious of fDany theories, it seems vastly more likely that an fDany was substituted for a dead baby, or possibly a miscarried one. fDany theories simply don't need all those extra hoops to be jumped through.
What's the reference to Rhaenys and a miscarriage? That one sounds really interesting.
No man who spent his lifetime in the art of war is going to have soft hands.
If his hands had been soft as old silk, you'd have a point. They were soft as old leather. Leather is tough skin. When it's old and worn and cracked, it gets soft. This idiom is very specifically used to denote skin that is toughened by use and worn soft with age, it fits perfectly well. An aging maester would be less likely to have skin described as soft as old leather than a farmer, fisherman, warrior, or anyone who'd spent a lifetime working hard.
I think people would have seen her, but hypothetically speaking, just who would actually know that it was Rhaella?
Viserys, for a start. Anyone on Dragonstone who'd been to court. The leaders of the garrison and the Targ fleet. The Dragonstone Maester. Any servants who went with her. Probably quite a few people.
No man who spent his lifetime in the art of war is going to have soft hands.
If his hands had been soft as old silk, you'd have a point. They were soft as old leather. Leather is tough skin. When it's old and worn and cracked, it gets soft. This idiom is very specifically used to denote skin that is toughened by use and worn soft with age, it fits perfectly well. An aging maester would be less likely to have skin described as soft as old leather than a farmer, fisherman, warrior, or anyone who'd spent a lifetime working hard.
I think people would have seen her, but hypothetically speaking, just who would actually know that it was Rhaella?
Viserys, for a start. Anyone on Dragonstone who'd been to court. The leaders of the garrison and the Targ fleet. The Dragonstone Maester. Any servants who went with her. Probably quite a few people.
Well then, what do you make of the fact that Willem Darry is never once depicted as having a sword, a spear, a shield, warhammer, mace, great helm, breastplate, pauldron, greaves, or any other equipment you'd expect a master at arms and knight to possess, especially if you're guarding your king and his heir? Rodrik Cassel shaved his signature mutton chops when he went incognito with Catelyn in AGOT and that alone was enough to fool even Ned until he got a closer look, but Cassel never left his sword behind as his job was still to guard Catelyn. And he, like Darry, is an old master at arms and knight. So why does Darry have no arms or armour in any vision or memory of Dany's, even the ones from before he's sick? That doesn't strike you as unusual that all Dany ever remembers is a cane?
Your lordship lost a son at the Red Wedding. I lost four upon the Blackwater. And why? Because the Lannisters stole the throne. Go to King’s Landing and look on Tommen with your own eyes, if you doubt me. A blind man could see it. What does Stannis offer you? Vengeance. Vengeance for my sons and yours, for your husbands and your fathers and your brothers. Vengeance for your murdered lord, your murdered king, your butchered princes. Vengeance!
Well then, what do you make of the fact that Willem Darry is never once depicted as having a sword, a spear, a shield, warhammer, mace, great helm, breastplate, pauldron, greaves, or any other equipment you'd expect a master at arms and knight to possess, especially if you're guarding your king and his heir? Rodrik Cassel shaved his signature mutton chops when he went incognito with Catelyn in AGOT and that alone was enough to fool even Ned until he got a closer look, but Cassel never left his sword behind as his job was still to guard Catelyn. And he, like Darry, is an old master at arms and knight. So why does Darry have no arms or armour in any vision or memory of Dany's, even the ones from before he's sick? That doesn't strike you as unusual that all Dany ever remembers is a cane?
Dany remembers him dimly, as a man who was bed-ridden and half blind. What would he be doing in arms and armour?
Once you've come up with an interesting question, then you look for supporting evidence. So far we have an interesting question, but I see no supporting evidence being given for it.
Actually, the entire point of this thread was to reexamine the existing "supporting evidence" of the Willem Darry/flight to Dragonstone assumption. (In fact, I say that straight away in the very first post.) Upon doing so, I (and others) now find that evidence falling a bit short. Questioning a common interpretation doesn't necessarily require the presentation of a fully develeoped countertheory, although I realize that such is the standard litmus test for anyone deviating from the groupthink at other places, erroneous though that may be. Anyway, point being, if we discuss the inconsistencies and weirdness with the common assumption and explore that a bit more, eventually, maybe, we can either plug the holes or have enough new material to posit a new theory.
High Valyrian is not taught only by Maesters. Missandei speaks it. Some random Tyroshi singer in KL sings songs in it. The Windblown use it as their company tongue. While the free cities talk a bastard Valyrian which as you say parallels the development of Romance languages, the Valyrian spoken in Slaver's bay is still a Ghiscari-coloured version of High Valyrian. Arya speaks some High Valyrian, and she's told by the Kindly Man that she needs to improve it, presumably not at the knees of a Maester.
Ok, to clarify - no Westerosi speaks it, who has not been taught it by a maester. And yes, Missandei speaks it - because she was taught by the Good Masters of Astapor, who as you note speak a Ghiscarified High Valyrian of their conquerors. The Windblown use it as a company tongue because it's the "root" of all the bastard Valyrian dialects coming into the company in the first place - and it's what the Tattered Prince (a former noble of Valyrian origin) speaks as their commander. So yeah, I think it stands to reason that when in Rome, etc. The Tyroshi bard sings his song in High Valyrian because he's Tyroshi and Tyrosh of all the Free Cities has the dialect that is closest to the original High Valyrian. Arya is learning High Valyrian in the HoBaW, and those in the R'hllorist sect also speak it. Rippounet pointed out that High Valyrian is for nobility, maesters, certain religious orders, and "other" exclusive societies such as Faceless Men. We don't see this being spoken by random sellswords or ship captains or landed knights that have 'picked it up'in the course of travel.
I'm not sure where the idea that Dany speaks Valyrian with a Tyroshi accent comes from? She speaks the low Valyrian of Tyrosh, unsurprising as she lived there for some time, but that says nothing of her High Valyrian. Nor does it exclude the possibility she talks Braavosi too, though given that's pretty early in AGoT and we know that GRRM originally had Dany and her lemon trees in Tyrosh rather than Braavos, that might be a remnant of the earlier version. Am I missing something?
Well, her accent was ID'd by the wine merchant in AGOT as such, and she confirmed that "her speech may be Tyroshi". And I'm not sure where the idea that she speaks the low Valyrian of Tyrosh comes from? This isn't referenced anywhere. She clearly understands multiple dialects but we're never told which one she speaks, besides High Valyrian and Valyrian flavored with Tyrosh. And the accent? I am from the US South. Regardless of whether I speak formal Castellano Spanish or the border Spanglish of West Texas, I am speaking it with a southern accent, because that's where I'm from.
Final point, Dany has spent a lot of her childhood amongst the rich and wealthy. Darry's household had many servants. Dany and Viserys lived for years after that in the homes of "magisters and archons and merchant princes". Why would it have to be Darry personally teaching Dany, rather than some scholar he hired to do the job, or someone in those later homes of the wealthy?
They had wandered since then, from Braavos to Myr, from Myr to Tyrosh, and on to Qohor and Volantis and Lys, never staying long in any one place. Her brother would not allow it.
At first the magisters and archons and merchant princes were pleased to welcome the last Targaryens to their homes and tables, but as the years passed and the Usurper continued to sit upon the Iron Throne, doors closed and their lives grew meaner.
While it is true that "at first" they were put up by the wealthy, it seems that they didn't stay anywhere long enough to really engage in concentrated studies. And sure, Darry's household had servants, but I want to also reiterate that Arya begins to learn both Braavosi and High Valyrian in the HoBaW, and Braavosi is difficult for her except for the few words that are the same in High Valyrian - ex: valar morghulis. I'm going to start scanning chapters to see if Dany has any exposure to Braavosi.
On that note, I did run across this in AGOT Chapter 11:
There was no one to talk to. Khal Drogo shouted commands and jests down to his bloodriders, and laughed at their replies, but he scarcely glanced at Dany beside him. They had no common language. Dothraki was incomprehensible to her, and the khal knew only a few words of the bastard Valyrian of the Free Cities, and none at all of the Common Tongue of the Seven Kingdoms.
First observation: she clearly differentiates the "bastard Valyrian". Second observation: she doesn't even mention High Valyrian as a potential option for Drogo. I interpret this as it being so very unlikely that he would know this language that she doesn't consider it as a possibility for shared communication.
Also interesting is that through the rest of Dany's AGOT chapters, she and Viserys only speak to each other in the Common Tongue - even in their private conversations around the Dothraki, who have already been established as having little to no Valyrian. In fact, Dany isn't exposed to Valryian (any form) until she visits the Western Market after Viserys dies.
"Would you care to visit the Western Market?"
Dany stirred. "Yes," she said. "I would like that." The markets came alive when a caravan had come in. You could never tell what treasures the traders might bring this time, and it would be good to hear men speaking Valyrian again, as they did in the Free Cities.
Dany smiled. "My son has his name, but I will try your summerwine," she said in Valyrian, Valyrian as they spoke it in the Free Cities. The words felt strange on her tongue, after so long.
So Dany and Viserys, despite having spent most of their lives in the Free Cities, speak to each other in the Common Tongue instead of any form of Valyrian, and Dany has not spoken Valyrian in quite some time, despite it being her "mother tongue" or whatever. Why didn't she ever speak this with her brother? Even after Dany began teaching the Common Tongue to Drogo, Viserys continued to speak it during his smacktalk. Why? Why didn't he switch to another language only they understood?
Because he doesn't speak it. My guess is that he, like most other Westerosi nobles, can only marginally read it.
You know who probably would speak it? Someone who spent their developing years in Tyrosh, where they speak a very close version of true High Valyrian.
Also of note, during her acquisition of the Unsullied in Astapor, Dany understands the Ghiscari High Valyrian (and the other dialects of Slaver's Bay) "well enough", but Barristan, who does speak some Valyrian, needs Missandei to translate.
Viserys, for a start. Anyone on Dragonstone who'd been to court. The leaders of the garrison and the Targ fleet. The Dragonstone Maester. Any servants who went with her. Probably quite a few people.
Viserys, yes....if they were kept together. I'm sure you know that royals and their children IRL were often kept apart. May not apply here, but just saying. Dragonstone maester, yes...although we've talked about that being fishy already. Servants, not sure who that would be, as she didn't take her own maids with her.
Beyond that, I have a serious question for you: if Rhaella arrived on Dragonstone in some secrecy, "cloaked and hooded", and then assumed some sort of down-low common disguise - say, a washerwoman, or servant, or even a septa - in public areas for the sake of safety, what do you think would be a dead giveaway that this was in fact the Queen of the 7 Kingdoms? How would someone on Dragonstone instantly identify this woman as Rhaella Targaryen?