Daenerys is eating a heart. They say it's a horse heart. They also say it is both "raw" and "steaming."
The heart was steaming in the cool evening air when Khal Drogo set it before her, raw and bloody.See? Now, the narration goes on to mention that he literally just carved it out of a stallion - with stone knives, mind you, because steel is forbidden inside Vaes Dothrak - but are horses' innards really so hot that their hearts will steam when you rip them out? Must test.
Anyway, George really gets to indulge his food fetish here. It's a full page from her first bite to her last swallow. Then she screams that a prince rides inside her. Wait, I thought the Dothraki had the whole "rule by the strong" thing going on. Who the hell says that Rhaego is going to be a khal just because Drogo is?
So then the crones make their pronouncements about how great and awesome and so on Rhaego will be. Dany muses about how she'll be forced to join the crones once Drogo dies, and then they (Dany and Drogo) have pregger sex. We learn that stamina isn't Drogo's strong suite. (Actually, for all the dirty f*ckery that goes on in the HBO "version,"* the sex scenes in the books are rather workmanlike. I think the longest passage is when Dany sleeps with one of her handmaidens in the third book. Can't imagine why.)
*I'm coming to the conclusion that the show has gotten progressively worse since, oh, the first season. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there's any full frontal nudity in Season One - yes, there's that Littleprick exposition scene, but even that is restrained compared to any scene involving Oberyn Martell and a brothel in Season Four. It's like they sacrificed their quality control to get some porn stars in there. I like Show!Tywin and Show!Margaery more than their book counterparts, and that's mainly because they're much more fleshed out than they were in the books (if this were that kind of blog, you'd get a topless Natalie Dormer pic on the "fleshed out" line, but note that it's been almost two whole seasons since she got her boobs out and she's managed to hold our interest all the same), and the rest is honestly fast approaching the level of meh. /rant
Drogo has a hall, with the roof rolled up so the moon can come in - HBO you hacks - and everybody's getting drunk on fermented mare's milk, but Dany is convinced there won't be any violent murder here because no steel is permitted. Doctor Who may have generally failed its original "edutainment" mission but one thing the very first serial taught me was that you can kill someone with a stone knife, which, as was mentioned on the very first page of this chapter, they have. Geez, Dany, think outside the box a bit here or you'll never have what it takes to be a queen.
After noting that another Khal has four wives, Dany starts looking for Viserys. Aw. We got a whole five Daenerys pages without waking the dragon. Ser Jorah McAwesomepants tells her that he's gone to find wine and some sellswords. What a fantastic combination. By the way, Jorah's got "a place of respect, if not high honor" at the feast. Not bad for an exile knight in the company of savages. Jorah also mentioned that he threatened to cut off Viserys's hand when Viserys tried to steal Daenerys's dragon eggs. Jorah reminds her how incredibly rare they are, which again begs the question of why Illyrio parted with them so easily - I know AFFC reveals that he is part of a plot to put a Targaryen back on the throne, but ADWD reveals that said plot has more moving parts than most people anticipated.
Jorah comments that the name "Rhaego" will make the Usurper's blood run cold - you know, if the Usurper had more than one chapter to live - and then Viserys comes in to crash the party. He's wearing a sword, the moronic cad. How f*cking ignorant do you have to be not to realize what a bad idea that is? This is like Team Stark and "mayhaps" in the third book, the point where it's evident that this guy is just way too frickin' stupid to live, or to bother caring about.
Viserys threatens to carve Rhaego out of Dany's womb, and the translator is too terrified of being dragged behind Drogo's horse (foreshadowing!) to translate that, so Dany does. It goes about as well as you expect. "Oh, barbarian husband of mine, my psychotic brother wants to kill our unborn child." "Oh, okay, give him his crown then."
And oh boy does he get it.
And they all lived happily ever after.
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