In our previous episode on Daenerys Targaryen, we detailed the taking of Meereen and the Queen's
decision to remain with her people in Slavers Bay rather than immediately embark upon reclaiming her
birthright. In ruling this city, the apparent last of the Targaryens would have her mettle
as a ruler severely tested, with her kind nature constantly thwarting her ability to take drastic
and decisive action where it was needed. In this episode, we will discuss the trials,
tribulations, and consequences that followed Daenerys' initial attempt to break the wheel
and conclude the Last of the Targaryens' story until the events of Winds of Winter.
Following their founding as a militia hellbent on deposing Daenerys' rule, the Sons of the
Harpy remained unrelenting, offering a hundred slave girls to anyone who could bring them the
silver-haired head of the city's ruler. This was not the end of their promises, for suffering was
to be dished out to any who supported what the nobles deemed unfair occupation of their city.
As the murders continued apace, Daenerys' kind heart again got in the way as she found
herself unable to harm the hostages she had taken from the city's noble families
to deter the Sons of the Harpies, even if it might stop the attacks.
Instead, she founded three more companies of freedmen: the Stalwart Shields, the Mother's Men,
and the Free Brothers, who were all charged with defending the city from the Harpies.
While most of Meereen's nobility despised her, some of the city's upper crust still
supported her. This faction came to be known as Shavepates, a group who, as we mentioned
in the previous episode, had been targeted by the Sons of the Harpy due to their loyalties.
To display their support for the Queen, these men renounced the Ghiscari culture of old by shaving
their heads and abandoning their traditional hairstyle. Moreover, their leader, Skahaz mo
Kandaq, also served as a counsellor to Daenerys. To further complicate matters in a politically
chaotic city, the Queen's dragons had grown wilder, hunting and slaughtering sheep in the
hinterlands outside of Meereen's walls. Daenerys compensated the shepherds for their losses.
However, when another herder presented the burned bones of his daughter Hazzea, Daenerys' hand was
forced. Viserion and Rhaegal were imprisoned in a pit below the Great Pyramid where they could
do no more harm. Drogon escaped his attempted containment, flying towards the Dothraki Sea.
As the burdens of rule continued to mount upon Daenerys' back, the last scion of Old Valyria was
visited by a vision of Quaithe as she slept, who warned her of more significant dangers to come.
"Soon comes the pale mare, and after her, the others. Kraken and dark flame,
lion and griffin, the sun's son and the mummer's
dragon. Trust none of them. Remember the Undying. Beware the perfumed seneschal."
A merchant prince of Qarth, Xaro Xhoan Daxos, offered Daenerys a solution to
her ongoing problems, proposing to give her thirteen ships, which her people could use to
depart for Westeros immediately. However, she soon as the Queen realized that her freedmen
would have to be left behind, she refused the offer outright. At this point in her reign,
all she had strived to build was on the verge of being toppled. In Yunkai, slavery had resumed,
and the Wise Masters had re-established an army comprised of slave levies and sellswords,
complemented by their allies in New Ghis, who sent the formidable Iron Legions to aid them.
With all this new manpower, they set their sights on restoring the old world order in Astapor.
With an army approaching his gates, King Cleon scrambled to prepare for the onslaught,
with Daenerys predictably offering him no aid. As a result, he was defeated at the Horns of Hazzat,
with his poorly trained and inexperienced new Unsullied scattered and slaughtered during a
wild and uncoordinated retreat to Astapor. Daenerys regretted not lending her aid,
yet Meereen would undoubtedly have fallen to the Harpies in her absence if she had.
Cleon the Great, as he had begun to style himself, was assassinated by his soldiers. His successor,
Cleon the Second, would only survive eight days on the throne before having his throat cut.
He was succeeded by his killer, a former barber known appropriately as King Cutthroat. Cutthroat
subsequently surrendered the city, allowing the besiegers to put most of its population
to the sword, while Cutthroat himself was thrown into a pit where a pack of rabid dogs killed him.
After the sack of Astapor, the Yunkish set their eyes on Meereen and began a march upon the city
along the Coast Road, which placed Daenerys under immense pressure. Galazza Galare, the
high priestess of the town, counseled that to appease the nobles of Slavers' bay,
Daenerys should marry a noble of the city. The gentleman Hizdahr zo Loraq was identified as the
most eligible bachelor. An agreement between the two was quickly hashed out, with Hizdahr being
told that if he could stop the murders committed by the Sons of the Harpy within 90 days, he would
earn the Queens' hand in marriage. This bargain was made against the wishes of Ser Barristan,
who vehemently opposed it. Not long after, Daario Naharis returned to the city, and good tidings
came with the sellsword's homecoming. Negotiations with the Lhazareen had been successful, and the
peaceful shepherd people would now trade with Meereen. When Daenerys asked Daario his opinion on
her arranged marriage, the ever-pragmatic leader of the Stormcrows suggested that the marriage
ceremony should be used as a pretense to bring together the nobility and execute them en masse.
Revolted by his Machiavellian instincts, Daenerys sent his Stormcrows back out
of the city to guard the Kyzai Pass. The situation went from bad to worse for
Daenerys when ships from Qarth, Tolos, and New Ghis blockaded the harbor of Meereen. Lacking a
navy of her own, Daenerys' followers were unable to dislodge the blockade. In slightly gladder
tidings, it seemed as if Hizdahr had managed to put a stop to the murders within the city.
However, this success generated suspicions that Hizdahr was a Son of the Harpy all along.
Meanwhile, Astapori refugees had made their way to the town.
Since many of them were infected with the bloody flu, Daenerys was forced to make
them camp outside the city's walls so they would not contaminate the people within.
Hizdahr's diplomatic efforts continued when he contacted the Yunkai'i, who offered a peace
that required tribute from the Targaryens and an agreement that Yunkai and Astapor
would return to their former status as Slaver cities without her interference: an agreement
contingent upon Daenerys and Hizdahr's marriage. After this, Daario returned to the town again,
bringing news that the Second Sons had defected to Yunkai. The Yunkai'i force now consisted of four
sellsword companies, Tolosi slingers, Qartheen camelry, and six Iron Legions of New Ghis.
With the immense stress of the situation bearing heavily upon her, Daenerys gave in to her
urges and took Daario as her lover. A mere day before her wedding to Hizdahr,
Daario introduced the Mother of Dragons to the Windblown, who had defected to their side.
One man among them revealed himself as Quentyn Martell, a Prince of Dorne.
Quentyn had brought with him a signed wedding pact to marry his sister, the Dornish Princess Arianne,
to Daenerys' brother Viserys. Upon learning Viserys was, in fact, dead,
Quentyn offered his hand in marriage to Daenerys. In an attempt to keep her earlier promises,
Daenerys rejected the proposal out of hand and instead married Hizdahr.
Hizdahr then invited the captains of the Yunkish army into the city to celebrate the peace treaty
and the reopening of the fighting pits, with Meereenese hostages being sent to the Yunkish
camp to ensure the Yunkish captain's safety, with Daenerys despising the entire ordeal.
The Queen attempted to convince Quentyn Martell to return home for his safety
while visiting her dragons before making her way to Daznak's Pit for the festivities.
As the celebrations at the pit commenced, everything went south incredibly quickly.
Wishing for Daenerys to try some of the local cuisines, Hizdahr urged Daenerys to try a
Meereenese delicacy: locusts. These insects were instead consumed by the bottomless pit that was
Belwas, who promptly dropped to his knees and began to evacuate the contents of his stomach,
revealing that the locusts had been poisoned. At that exact moment, Drogon swooped into the
pit to eat the body of a fallen pit fighter, which caused panic in the crowd. One man fired a spear
at the dragon, which prompted Daenerys to rush to his side, mount him, and fly from the arena.
This flight caused many to fear that Daenerys had died, and chaos broke out in the city.
However, she remained very much alive. Drogon had brought her to the Dothraki Sea but would
no longer listen to her commands. As such, she began the long walk back to Meereen.
During his trek, she fell ill, retching and suffering from diarrhea, suffering a fever
dream of Viserys before finally being able to call Drogon to her side. At this point, the Khalasar of
Khal Jhaqo came upon both dragon and rider. Back in Meereen, the chaos that had engulfed
the city resulted in an unlikely alliance between Ser Barristan, Grey Worm, and Skahaz.
Barristan was infuriated by what he deemed to be a plot by Hizdahr to assassinate Daenerys.
However, he did not act against Hizdahr, believing that in the absence of the Queen,
it was not his place to make such decisions. However, the grandfatherly Barristan's anger came
to a boiling point when Bloodbeard, the leader of the Company of the Cat, informed him that one of
the Meereenese hostages had been executed. Barristan, alongside the Brazen Beasts,
reacted by arresting Hizdahr, slaying the massive and imposing pit fighter Khrazz in the process.
Unfortunately, despite Barristan having urged Quentyn to leave the city for his own sake,
the Dornishman attempted to tame one of Daenerys's dragons and was mortally wounded by Dragonfire,
with Rhaegal and Viserion escaping as a result of the Martell Prince's folly.
Faced with enemies on all fronts, Barristan was forced to assume the role of Hand of the Queen.
A council session was then called, where the plan for the city's defense was decided upon.
Matters were complicated when the news was brought to Ser Barristan that the
Yunkish catapults had begun flinging corpses into the town infected with the bloody flux.
Ordinarily, Ser Barristan would have defended the city from behind its stout walls,
yet for this fight, he made the bold choice to ride out and meet the besiegers in the field
rather than watch the pale mare bring Meereen to its knees. As a result, Barristan assembled the
forces available to him. On the evening before the offensive took place, he gave a speech to
the newly anointed knights he had been training in the city up until this point. Then, at the coming
of the Dawn, Barristan ordered the attack. This brings us up to date with the tale of
Daenerys Targaryen at the time of writing. However, we remain hopeful that the Winds
of Winter will bring us to the culmination of the Second Siege of Meereen in due time.
However, this is a story for another day, and the next few videos in this series
will return us to the shores of Westeros and the continued struggle for the Iron Throne.
We are planning to cover the battles of many other fantasy, sci-fi, and space opera universes,
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