(f)Dany

Yup just keeping an eye on Illyrio and the Targ twins.

Ashara's voice?

Well if you assume that Quaithe=Ashara, then yes seeing as it's Quaithe who's talking to her.



Not for sure obviously, but I'm fairly confident that Dany's initially from Dorne. People can harp on Lemongate all they want, but the lemons=Dorne clues have gotten more with each passing book, not less.

Actually, that is exactly what I was thinking, not that Quaithe=Ashara, but that a woman of stars IS the answer.




Ah I hear ya. I was just and    at the possibility that I had missed such an overt clue.

Well I think there's a certain subtlety to most of it in that if you were to just read Dany's story, it all works fine. It's when you see Braavos from Sam and Arya's perspective that hey, that's not the Braavos that Dany described. It's when Ned, Jaime, Catelyn, etc., meet Darrys that hey, none of them are great bears of men. Nor would Darry have ever had soft hands if he were a master-at-arms. Or when Tycho tells Jon that Braavosi don't joke around about dragonlords, and Arya learns the story of Braavos' founding that you realize that Braavos makes no sense for the Targaryens to have hid in. Or when Illyrio tells Tyrion a bunch of history about Dany and Viserys. Or all the characters talking about where lemon trees actually grow which isn't Braavos. Etc.

The subtlety is there so long as you read Dany's story on its own. Which I'm sure a lot of fans do due to the very nature of the books themselves being split apart into multiple POVs who all have separate stories. They see Jaime's story as Jaime's story for instance. Oh it intersects with Brienne's and Catelyn's and Tyrion's etc., but it's "Jaime's story". The thing is though, this is all still ASOIAF. They are not separate stories. There is no real "Jaime's story" anymore than there is a "Dany's story". It's all own Song of Ice and Fire. The fact that Dany's alone from almost all our other characters tends to make some see her as separate but she's not. There are tons of elements found all over the other POVs that can help us understand Dany's story.

So I'd say it's subtle if you fall for the trap of reading Dany's story as Dany's story, instead of as a part of ASOIAF. If you read Dany's story actually together with everything else as all being the same story, then I agree it's not that subtle. You need to cross reference various pieces, pull things out of this POV's chapter, and that one's chapter, but it all eventually lines up pretty clearly IMO that there's way too many things not right and that something is up.



Well I know I've mentioned this before in the past, but I'd say it has a lot to do with people being convinced of other theories that rather rely on Dany being Aerys and Rhaella's daughter. Primarily speaking of course of RLJ and their head canon regarding it. That if Dany isn't Dany well then you might have to completely throw out everything about RLJ. Or at least change some ideas about it. Which of course meets a lot of resistance among the fandom.

But I truly believe if you were to go over the story, look through the characters, you'll find far and away more support that Dany's the one who needs to be explained here, not Jon. We're told "who" Dany's parents are so we accept that, while seeing that Jon's mother gets a lot of speculation (so long as you first ignore Eddard and Edric saying it's Wylla) and assume there's more of a mystery in regards to Jon than there is with Dany. Dany's mystery just doesn't have anybody coming straight out and challenging you to truly sit back and say "Hey wait a minute..." you have to first learn all the various pieces that prove that Dany's story needs to be explained better.



Exactly. They're becoming more apparent and overt. Alayne told us that the Vale imports their lemons from Dorne, and the Vale happens to have places that are the exact same latitude as Braavos. If the Vale can't grow lemons, which really we already knew based of Sharna saying that the Riverlands can't, then Braavos can't either. And then there's the Mercy chapter that straight up just has two guardsmen talking about where you could find citrus trees and the other calls him an idiot for never realizing that Braavos is north of King's Landing, not south where all that stuff is.

The hints are getting more and more, and they're being more overt too. The time is coming for Martin to pull out whatever "it" is that explains all this. But it's most assuredly not a mistake, and not insignificant. He wouldn't be putting the effort he is into this and keeping it in our minds with each book if it wasn't something.

Well I've heard some argue that it's actually GRRM poking fun at himself for not knowing where Braavos was when he first created the world, but that doesn't make much sense. If he'd first envisioned Braavos elsewhere, and with a different climate, he'd have described Braavos differently when he first did it with Arya/Sam over a decade after he first told us that Dany was in Braavos. The fact that he kept Braavos where he put it, gave it the climate that he did, and kept Dany being from Braavos proves IMO that it's meant to not make sense. It's an intentional error that's meant to be revealed come AFFC when he has characters actually visit Braavos.

And that as to the purpose of the guardsmen, that if after 6 books and a decade after he described Braavos in AFFC, if you're still sitting here saying that Dany lived in Braavos you need some Lannister guardsman telling you that you're an idiot because Braavos is too far north. He gave the clues 10 years ago it's time to now start saying "C'mon guys"



Well that would be pretty cool now wouldn't it? After all, while Dany doesn't see anybody else, at the same time, where else should a maid be but be there but be unseen? That's her job after all.