Episode 239 – Love and Dragons
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Daenerys returns in this week’s episode, joined by the crew of GOO and a particularly romantic Jorah Mormont. Her men await decisions, and decision-making they receive indeed.
Discussion Topics
Reporting the weather
The prophecy
Young love
The unsullied
Marrying for dragons
Jorah vs. White Beard
Owns of the Chapter
Lonely farewell
No Hodor?
Hodor!
Looking forward to listening at work tomorrow, I’ve really been enjoying GOO lately.
I do think Jorah really loves Dany: for Micah and Kate, see what he does after he’s banished.
Jorah doesn’t seem like a man with a plan at all, he just tries to improvise in order to stay with Dany.
Also, remember in A Clash of Kings, he tells a story about Lynesse Hightower, his second wife. His creepy love for Dany is partly derived from this, at least at the beginning.
I disagree that Jorah’s betrayal was for love, I think it was for gold, at least to start with, as he was being paid by Varys in the hope of winning his pardon. Have listened to the show from the very beginning and love every episode, especially the off season book readings.
At first I was afraid, I was putrefied…
Kaz of the Canals,
But that was not for gold, it was for going home, as you mention yourself.
Jorah saying that no man will ever be half as true to Dany as him, reminds me of Tim Tebow at Florida saying something to the effect that he would work harder than any quarterback had ever worked before after a loss. Jorah and Tebow have a way of insulting lots of other people while making a promise.
I think Jorah is telling Dany not to go to Illyrios for 2 reasons. 1) The reason he told her (to keep her safe, since Illyrio might not be trustworthy), 2) to keep her to himself.
He’d never admit #2, but I think he’s afraid once she isn’t relying on him alone, she’ll find someone else… If she gets To Illyrio’s, and eventually to Westeros, there will be many people currying her favor, working with her and for her, etc. You can see it in how much he distrusts pretty much everyone they run into. Sometimes he’s got good reasons, but I also think he’s a bit jealous/controlling.
Agree with this 100% – I think part of Jorah’s apparent distrust is that he gets such a sense of power and importance from getting to be Dany’s right-hand man, so anyone else with a similar or greater level of knowledge about Westeros than he has (Illyrio, Whitebeard, etc) is a potential threat to his position. Along with that, the fact that since he himself has betrayed her in the past (I don’t believe that he was still doing so by this point), he’s obviously more distrustful of others since he knows better than anyone that it’s a real possibility.
I was surprised that Kate and Micah seem to feel that Jorah still has such ulterior motives. I like him as a character and I think he’s intelligent, but I don’t give him nearly that much credit as far as scheming, and I’ve always accepted at face value the idea that he was only working against Dany because he wanted so badly to be pardoned by Robert, and that his change of heart and feelings for her are real. It’s superficial on another level because, as we know from his last marriage, he puts a lot of weight on physical beauty and social standing, so in that sense Dany is the ultimate upgrade.
Where I think his real commitment comes from here is that she gives him the time of day and treats him with much more esteem than Lynesse probably ever did. It’s a huge ego boost for him, and getting to feel like her extra-special advisor and only link to Westeros after Viserys died only made it a bigger deal for him, especially after losing his claim to Bear Island and being exiled. It’s a big “f*** you” to Lynesse, Ned, and everyone else who’s made him feel inadequate. That would be reason enough for him to be reluctant for her to go ahead and invade Westeros, although I think he ultimately does want her to get there and succeed, so he can potentially marry her, or at least send a message about his worth to the people who knew him before his exile.