0:02 where is the house with the red door
0:04 that Dany is always thinking about does
0:06 it mean anything for the plot of A Song
0:09 of Ice and Fire and what's going on with
0:11 that lemon tree hi everyone this is
0:13 Robert welcome to indeep geek on this
0:15 channel we dive deep into Georgia ra
0:17 Martin's World Of Ice And Fire as well
0:19 as other great fantasy worlds like the
0:21 Lord of the Rings and The
0:24 Witcher one of the most striking things
0:26 about daenerys's life and backstory is
0:29 that she doesn't really have a home her
0:31 family's an cestal home of valyria is no
0:33 more she has never even set foot on the
0:35 mainland of the land she claims
0:38 queenship of Westeros she was adopted
0:40 into the Dothraki culture but has turned
0:41 her back on where they say she should be
0:44 now among the do khen at vas dothrak and
0:46 at the current point in the story she
0:49 has even exiled from the city she rules
0:52 Marine in her mind the closest thing she
0:54 has to somewhere that feels like home is
0:57 where she spent the first six years of
0:59 her life a house with a red door and
1:02 with a lemon tree outside her window
1:04 what she has been told and what she
1:06 clearly believes to be the case is that
1:08 this house was in braavos the story
1:10 we're told is that after escaping
1:12 Dragonstone as a newborn child with her
1:15 brother viseris Sir William Dar arys
1:17 II's Master at Arms took the two of them
1:20 to Bravos where they stayed in Exile in
1:22 apparent peace and comfort until sir
1:24 Willam died we get various descriptions
1:26 of their house there through Danny's
1:28 memories it was a large Stone House with
1:30 wooden Rafters and and carved animal
1:34 faces it smelt of scented oils Dany had
1:36 her own room through the window of which
1:38 she could see fields and there was a
1:41 lemon tree growing outside her window it
1:44 sounds lovely however at this point
1:46 their servants revolted stealing their
1:48 jewels and money they were cast out of
1:50 their home in braavos and spent the next
1:52 few years wandering from City to city
1:54 with viseris pedling the last of their
1:56 riches in increasingly desperate
1:58 attempts to Rally some any support for
2:01 his claim to the iron Throne such was
2:02 their life during this period that
2:06 viseris became known as the beggar King
2:08 eventually they ended up enjoying the
2:11 hospitality of ayio mapatis in pentos
2:12 which is where we pick up with them in a
2:15 Game of Thrones so that's the story we
2:18 are told probably more importantly it's
2:20 the story that viseris told Dany about
2:22 her childhood and that Danny herself
2:25 believes and remembers it seems very
2:28 plausible as a riches to rag story
2:30 explains vas's embittered nature and his
2:33 rather toxic relationship with Dany and
2:35 nothing Dany ever experiences seems to
2:37 contradict this explanation of what
2:39 happened when she was a child so why
2:43 does some people doubt its veracity well
2:45 most of the doubts surround the presence
2:47 of that lemon tree I mentioned earlier
2:48 because there are several times in the
2:50 story we are told not just that there
2:53 are no lemon trees in Bravos but no
2:57 trees at all for example Aya thinks this
3:01 braavos devoid of grass and trees they
3:04 have no trees she realized Bravos is all
3:08 Stone a gray City in a green sea there
3:11 are no trees here and as if to Ram the
3:13 point home we overhear a couple of
3:15 conversations where someone is roundly
3:17 mocked for thinking that there might be
3:20 lemons growing in braavos the idea isn't
3:23 just ignorant it's laughable so many
3:25 people have taken that as the end of the
3:27 matter there are no trees in braavos and
3:30 in particular no lemon trees so the
3:32 house with the red door must be
3:35 somewhere else which in turn leads to
3:37 even bigger issues because it would mean
3:39 that Danny's whole childhood was a lie
3:41 and viseras had kept on lying to her as
3:43 she grew up so she didn't know where she
3:45 spent her childhood where could they
3:47 have been that could have been such a
3:49 secret does this call into question
3:52 other things we think we know about her
3:54 so whether a lemon tree could be growing
3:57 in Bravos may sound like quite a niche
3:58 question but it's actually quite
4:01 important and to add to the mystery many
4:03 years ago George Aram Martin himself did
4:05 admit that there was more going on there
4:08 than meets the eye he was asked this on
4:09 an online
4:12 Forum Dany remembers a lemon tree
4:13 outside the house with the red door in
4:16 Bravos but citrus trees shouldn't really
4:19 grow in bra's cold foggy climate is this
4:21 discrepancy significant does it point to
4:24 Future Revelations about Danny's past to
4:27 which George Oram Martin replied very
4:30 perceptive of you yes it does point to
4:34 well that would be telling so the lemon
4:36 tree growing in Bravos is deliberately
4:39 anachronistic and does suggest something
4:41 bigger in the plot which leads us to two
4:44 broad possible conclusions either Dany
4:47 was not in braavos as she thought or she
4:49 was and that lemonry is deliberately
4:51 there to point to something else I have
4:53 seen some cogent arguments that perhaps
4:56 Dany was in fact in Oldtown they
4:58 certainly have stone houses and Fields
5:00 there and that would tie the high Towers
5:02 into the main plot they've been
5:04 mysteriously quiet so far in A Song of
5:06 Ice and Fire but this and other
5:08 arguments I've seen that perhaps the
5:10 house was in Dawn actually raise even
5:13 more questions like if they were being
5:15 sheltered in secret in Westeros by a
5:17 sympathetic house why did the servants
5:20 Rob them like that and then why were
5:22 they sarily thrown out onto the streets
5:25 after just five or six years we can't
5:27 really imagine Leighton Hightower or
5:29 Doran Martell doing that and if it was
5:32 Doren when he sent Quentin to Dany years
5:34 later why didn't he tell Quentin that he
5:37 had been Sheltering Dany back then it
5:39 would help wi her trust to know that or
5:40 if he thought she'd blame him for
5:42 throwing them out Quentin should be
5:45 forewarned of that too it makes no sense
5:48 no oam's razor here still points to
5:51 Bravos as long as there is a reasonable
5:53 explanation for that lemon tree and
5:56 thankfully I think there is one because
5:58 we are not here looking for Orchards of
6:00 lemon trees just somewhere in the city
6:03 that a lemon tree could conceivably grow
6:06 but most people wouldn't see although
6:08 the lived experience of most of bros'
6:11 citizens is that of there being no trees
6:13 anywhere there are actually trees in
6:15 Bravos it's just that they are hidden
6:17 away in the private Gardens of the super
6:19 rich so most people don't see them this
6:21 is what Sam thinks on the subject when
6:24 he visits braavos Sam's probably read a
6:28 book on it trees did not grow on Bravos
6:30 save in the courts and Gardens of the
6:33 mighty so trees are there in The Gardens
6:35 of the mighty it's just that most people
6:38 don't get to see them but what about the
6:41 climate well in our world lemon trees
6:43 aren't exactly common in C the climates
6:45 but they can grow in temperatures down
6:49 to about 10° C or so that's about 50°
6:52 fahit Bravos is no Tropical Paradise but
6:55 it's also not exactly the Frozen North
6:57 being at about the same latitude as the
6:59 Northern parts of the veil of Arin when
7:02 a gets there during the Autumn it is a
7:05 bit chilly but not freezing Aya seems
7:07 not to wear much to bed for example and
7:09 the water she leaves out overnight is a
7:11 bit cold but not frozen and when Dany
7:14 was there years earlier it was spring or
7:17 summer so a lot warmer we know that the
7:20 rich get fresh water piped direct to
7:22 their houses in braavos so there isn't
7:23 the concern about whether they need to
7:25 use that nasty brackish water from the
7:27 canals and I'd expect there were
7:29 gardeners there to tender things so
7:31 there's no point of principle reason why
7:33 a single Lemon Tree in a sunny well-
7:36 tended spot couldn't grow there it just
7:38 may not have been ideal conditions for
7:40 it and it will probably die when winter
7:43 comes and we even have further evidence
7:45 in the lands of ice and fire for those
7:48 who don't know that's a book of maps of
7:50 Westeros and Os fully authorized and
7:52 signed off by George ARA Martin himself
7:54 it contains among many other things a
7:57 map of Bravos which shows one place in
8:00 particular where there are large Stone
8:04 houses trees and Fields the sea Lord's
8:07 Palace which when you think about it
8:09 makes a lot of sense viseris and Dany
8:11 were clearly somewhere they felt safe
8:13 from potential assassins sent by Robert
8:15 barathan where safer than the residence
8:17 of the head of state of the most
8:19 powerful and technologically advanced
8:22 city state in OS Bravos has a long
8:24 history of political engagement with
8:26 Westeros so it makes sense of them to
8:29 offer a refuge to the last targaryens
8:30 while waiting to see what happens in
8:33 Westeros who knew back then Robert
8:35 baratheon's Reign was still young and
8:38 may yet fail why not shelter them for a
8:41 bit just in case also we're told a lot
8:43 that braavosi politics can be brutal and
8:45 the sealord changed in violent and
8:48 sudden shifts of power perhaps this
8:49 happened at the end of the time when
8:51 viseris and Danny were there the
8:53 servants stealing their things could be
8:55 the old sea Lord's employees taking what
8:57 they could before they themselves fled a
8:59 new Sea Lord arriving would probably
9:01 take take a different political position
9:02 particularly as sometime around then the
9:05 iron bank of braavos began to support
9:07 the barathan regime with significant
9:09 loans so casting them out at that point
9:12 again makes sense added to which the
9:15 decor Danny remembers does fit with what
9:17 we know of the Sea Lord style the
9:19 carvings of animals fits with the fact
9:21 that he has a rare Menagerie in his
9:23 grounds and the many faces matches up to
9:25 the sty of his pleasure barge which is
9:28 covered with painted faces we're told
9:30 and there are more anec bits of evidence
9:33 too it's a stone house which almost all
9:35 houses in Bravos are albeit with wooden
9:37 Rafters which is the kind of
9:39 ostentatious show of wealth you would
9:41 expect from the Sea Lord I could go on
9:44 so if there is no particular reason to
9:46 doubt that the house with the red door
9:48 was in braavos why did georgea Martin
9:50 say that the lemon tree points to
9:53 something and why have Dany think about
9:56 it so very much because she does at my
9:58 count she thinks of that house with the
10:00 red door on at least a dozen different
10:02 occasions usually
10:05 longingly two reasons I think both of
10:07 which are very important first up the
10:09 lemon tree establishes the link between
10:12 Dawn Daenerys and Bravos we're told so
10:14 many times that lemon trees are from
10:17 dawn so where else might that one have
10:20 come from well it turns out there is a
10:22 bit of a backstory to this in A Dance
10:24 with Dragons Dany receives a visitor the
10:26 day before she is due to be married
10:29 Quentin Martell Quentin was there to to
10:31 suggest a marriage between himself and
10:33 Danny and took as evidence of house
10:35 Martell's good intentions a copy of an
10:37 agreement that was made years earlier to
10:40 marry viseris the king in Exile at the
10:42 time remember to Arianne Martell
10:44 Quentin's sister that agreement
10:47 obviously lapsed with viserys's death so
10:50 Doran was trying again with Quentin and
10:52 Daenerys Dany politely declines the
10:54 offer the important thing here is
10:56 actually not so much the contract itself
10:58 but who witnessed it because although
11:00 the contract could have been made by
11:02 representatives of the families and to
11:04 be clear neither viseris nor Arianne
11:07 knew anything about it it was signed on
11:09 their behalf by Sir William Darry and
11:11 oberin Martell the witness had to be
11:14 there in person and the witness was the
11:17 Sea Lord of Bravos and as Sir William
11:19 Darry was bedridden through most of this
11:21 period and the Sea Lord tends to stay in
11:23 Bravos that places the signning of that
11:26 agreement and Sir Willam Darry and
11:28 therefore the targaryan children in the
11:30 sea Lord's Palace in
11:32 Bravos think about this for a moment
11:34 from the sea Lord's perspective the
11:36 recently deposed king of Westeros comes
11:39 to you seeking protection and probably
11:41 can pay a reasonable sum for it not only
11:43 that but their protector a respected
11:46 West Rosy Noble William Darry is
11:48 convinced that there's a way back to
11:50 Power for the targaryens he can tie in
11:52 Dawn one of the Seven Kingdoms into a
11:55 plot to put them back onto the throne in
11:56 the place of the usurper Robert
11:59 Baratheon of course it came to nothing
12:01 nothing Robert barathan secured his Rule
12:03 and the Targaryen children started to
12:05 run out of money so Willam Darry died
12:07 and the targaryens were thrown out onto
12:09 the street braavosi politics can be a
12:12 Cutthroat business in this context the
12:15 lemonry becomes a clear hint that Dawn
12:19 is linked to Daenerys and Bravos perhaps
12:21 Obin even brought a sapling over from
12:23 dawn as a gift when he traveled there to
12:25 get the marriage PCT signed a lot of the
12:28 Winds of Winter will focus on who Dawn
12:30 will support for the iron throne and we
12:32 should probably be paying attention to
12:35 who Bravos might support as well if as
12:37 seems likely viseris and Danny were cast
12:39 out of the sea Lord's Palace because of
12:41 a violent change in administration then
12:44 what if that political party came back
12:46 into Power it's beyond the scope of this
12:48 video but there are hints that things
12:50 are about to change politically in
12:53 Bravos Bravos will have heard the rumors
12:55 that Dany now has dragons and she's
12:58 using them to get rid of slavery how
13:00 will they react the first Lord of
13:03 braavos is anti-slavery and they fought
13:06 Wars over the issue so might they even
13:08 consider joining forces with her as I
13:10 said the implications of that lemonry
13:13 are quite far-reaching but the second
13:14 important Point here about that house
13:17 with the red door is not about politics
13:19 and War but what it tells us about
13:21 dany's character something that we don't
13:24 often see or think about because Above
13:26 All Else the house with the red door and
13:30 the lemonry outside represents a safe
13:33 place to Dany security home a chance to
13:36 be who she is not on the run from a man
13:38 she never met but who killed her father
13:39 and brother and not trying to be the
13:41 queen of a city whose culture she
13:44 doesn't truly understand a chance to run
13:47 around Barefoot and just enjoy life in
13:49 daenerys's short life she has been
13:51 constantly on the run from people trying
13:53 to kill her because of her surname or
13:55 because they want to take her dragons or
13:57 because they disagree with her stance on
13:59 slavery or anyone of a number of other
14:01 reasons we've lived with her through
14:03 several assassination attempts
14:06 rebellions Wars starvation you name it
14:09 she has never been truly safe except for
14:12 those few short years in Bravos that was
14:15 when she was and felt safe that was when
14:17 she could be free of cares that was when
14:20 she could be truly herself free from all
14:22 these prophecies responsibilities Wars
14:24 assassins and people trying to
14:27 manipulate her or use her A Dance with
14:29 Dragons shows us the battle that is
14:33 going on within Dany part of her is this
14:35 great warrior Queen we see she conquers
14:37 cities or threatens to raise them to the
14:39 ground she crucifies her enemies and
14:41 defies civilizations that have lasted
14:44 for Millennia we keep getting this
14:46 imagery of her as aegon the Conqueror
14:49 invading Westeros with her three dragons
14:52 but deep inside she also craves the
14:54 lemon tree and the house with the red
14:56 door she thinks of it or Longs for it
14:59 again and again it represents hope home
15:02 security safety Dany only had that as a
15:05 child for a few short years before life
15:07 brutally interfered there's no wonder
15:10 really that she Longs for it now this
15:12 need for a simple Safe Life is something
15:15 we don't often look for in Daenerys the
15:17 small child trapped within but it's
15:21 probably her most core desire to be safe
15:23 and loved and protected she had that
15:26 briefly with car Drogo which is why she
15:28 Longs for that as well and she imagines
15:31 being with Dario in the house with the
15:33 red door for the same reason and it's
15:35 something we should bear in mind for the
15:37 end game of A Song of Ice and Fire Dany
15:39 isn't just about conquering and death
15:43 Above All She craves love and peace and
15:46 safety even if she doesn't know it about
15:49 herself what do you think do you agree
15:51 let me know in the comments below if
15:53 you'd like more videos like this diving
15:55 into A Song of Ice and Fire there's a
15:56 playlist appearing now on the left of
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16:00 thank you there's a link to my patreon
16:03 on the right of your screen thanks for
16:04 watching that's all for this time I'll
