I Draw These Parallels In My Fics - Tumblr Posts
Masterpost Targaryen/Stark parallels and contrasts in AGOT
This post is a list of the parallels/contrast I found during the reread in AGOT alone (I’ll do one for each books).
The first one I found was the Direwolves and the dragons being born which bookends a game of thrones. the Direwolves were born in the snow/ice while the dragons were born the sand/fire, all of them are born of the dead, only death can pay for life is probably illustrated there with both species.
Viserys says: “the dragon remembers” in the first Dany chapter about the stolen throne by Robert and the rebellion which later parallels with “The north remembers” when talking about the red wedding and the death of (some of) the Starks.
the Starks and Dany both have anti slavery values: We can see it in Dany’s chapter’s (this feels obvious) but also with Ned when he said that about Jorah “so the slaver has become a spy,’ Ned said with distaste. He handed the letter back ‘I would rather he became a corpse’ (I cheered)“ which is followed by Arya “he should have killed the masters”.
The description of the traits of blood of the dragon and the wolf blood are actually extremely similar : reckless and passionate and a bit chaotic and independant.
The way they talk about the dragon skulls (which are Targaryen thing) as if they are still alive and watching in King’s landing and the way they talk about the dead men in a crypts (which is a Stark thing) as if they were alive and watching in Winterfell.
The parallels/contrast between Viserys and Ned’s death. Both of them dies a traitor’s death by execution but only one of them is guilty.
I think that’s a stretch but Dany plunge her entire body into the fire to create life and Jon plunging his hand into the fire to save a life might be put in here.
Cat’s quote which makes the Targaryens and the Stark direct parallel explicit : “if you lose, there is no hope for us. They say there is naught but stone at the Heart of Casterly Rock,Remember the fate of Rhaegar’s children”.Two houses seemingly destroyed by Tywin Lannister with horrifying means with secret heirs and children still alive all over the world with magical creature maybe able to change the outcome of the war for the dawn.
The parallel/contrast between Rhaenys and Arya, two little girls who got Balerion the Cat and the first victims of Tywin, (the parallel is done by Varys), Arya being the one saved by Jon’s gift (who is technically both of theirs brothers) and her knowledge of the tunnels created by the Targaryens (and she feels protected by the dragon’s skulls).
Robb being crowned king and the next chapter Dany getting the symbol of her queenship and essentially being crown queen in her own right with the birth of the dragons a chapter away from each other
There are a lot of Fire (for Targaryens) and Ice (For the Starks) symbolisms, although some characters from said house are associated with other elements (Arya and water, which is what happen when Fire melt ice so this feel relevant to her character in general but this isn’t about that) :
In the first Dany chapter again: her brother had often said that it was never too hot for a Targaryen. “ours is the house of the dragon” he would say, “The fire is in our blood”
In the Second Cat chapter:: Ned could never abide the heat, the Starks were made for the cold: “Even now, he was a Stark of Winterfell, rage and grief froze hard inside him” which links the Stark explicitely with the cold.
I might do a seperate post on Dany and Arya’s arcs specifically (in the entire series) paralleling each other sometimes.We’ll see.