Fire & Blood

In these chapters, the growing power base of commoners overwhelmed the traditional power structure. The ability of the smallfolk to claim power was the result of the failure of nobles and royalty to acknowledge the needs of commoners and the hypocrisy of powerful people. The revolt of the smallfolk in King’s Landing resulted in anarchy. It was left to outsiders—northern Cregan Stark and women—to restore order. Stark was initially able to be a force for order because he believed in the power of oaths. The women who assumed power did so through flexible thinking and pragmatism. Despite the reliance of Westeros on women to make the peace, Westerosi society still looked at women, especially commoners, as sources of disorder and illegitimacy.

The Shepherd’s ability to stir the smallfolk worked in part because of the economic interests of the smallfolk, who tired of being taxed. Their needs did not align with those of the crown, which needed taxes to rule, wage war, and maintain the Dragonpit. The tax on children born out of wedlock hit merchants and the smallfolk. Worse still, the tax got into private matters that were usually beneath the notice of nobles and rulers. When the Shepherd’s lambs attacked the dragons and Dragonpit, they attacked the control the Targaryens had over their economic, political, and personal wellbeing.

There were also clear military consequences of the attack. The dragons were not just money sinks or symbols of power. They were weapons. The second Battle of Tumbleton substantially diminished the total number of dragons, making both the Blacks and Greens less powerful. With their loss, Rhaenyra’s ability to maintain power through force also diminished. She died by dragon fire administered by her half-brother, an ironic end that allows Martin to show the cost of losing the symbolic and military power of the dragons. Martin shows little faith that the smallfolk will be better rulers than the Targaryens and noble houses. Their killing of Joffrey was anarchy underwritten by violence. When a form of commoner rule finally emerged with the three “false” kings, society fragmented. The three kings handed down edicts that were mostly unenforceable, and the multiplying kings divided the city into sections.

The nobles and the Targaryens were unprepared for this new form of anarchic, commoner power. Their reliance on intrigue, displays of wealth, and politicking seemed more sophisticated, but relying solely on them made the houses and the Targaryens fragile when faced with populist revolt. The earnestness of a house like the Starks looks almost naïve next to what Hightowers like Alicent and Otto practiced, but when Cregan came to King’s Landing, he came with his Northern values and his wolves.

The northmen’s ethics were based on absolute commitment to oaths of loyalty and sacrifice for family; the wolves were willing to use violence in the service of those oaths, but they were also a disciplined force that unquestioningly followed Stark because of their oaths. Cregan’s prosecution of Greens, Blacks, lords, and their underlings for their role in the assassination of Aegon II was straightforward because he viewed oath-keeping as something uniting every level of Westerosi society. Cregan may have been too naïve to thrive in King’s Landing, however, and he left as soon as powers in the capital returned to politics as usual.

Women exercised power to avert the threat of Cregan’s overly narrow commitment to war against oath breakers to restore order. Women like Alysanne Blackwood and Lady Samantha used charm, sexual allure, and common sense to bring peace. Alysanne negotiated win-win outcomes because she was a good political thinker and understood desire. She knew alienating the Velaryons would create more disorder, and she knew that Cregan was attracted to her; she used this knowledge to prevent more war and get what she wanted personally. She was also a pragmatist. When she settled the wolves in Riverrun, she avoided upheaval in two states and used her understanding of the importance of marriage in a patriarchal society to help the widows of Riverrun. Martin does not imply that women get their power only through “soft,” interpersonal skills, though. He describes Alysanne Blackwood as a warrior and rider, while Johanna Lannister is depicted as a ruthless fighter who wars against the Iron Islanders throughout most of the book.

One of the major forms of disorder was natural—the Winter Shivers, which gave noble women more power when so many noblemen died. As evidence of this, Gyldayn is able to find an entire source, When Women Ruled: Ladies of the Aftermath, on women. His research documents how women’s pragmatism and resilience helped the country get through the pandemic.

The treatment of Alys Rivers shows the limits of how far Westeros would go in allowing women to exercise power, especially if those women were commoners. Like many women, Alys Rivers was accused of being a witch because she violated gender norms by being sexually alluring despite being middle-aged or elderly. Seen from another perspective, Alys took control of Harrenhal, which Daemon and other nobles know is strategically important because of its location, and mobilized enough of a fighting force to frighten off the crown’s forces, exploiting men’s distrust of female power. While being a witch and having a dragon were supernatural advantages, her ability to use violence and displays of power allowed her to face down the Targaryens. Ultimately, powerful women and powerful commoners were only able to flourish during periods of disorder. Their exercise of power was sometimes taken as a sign of disorder.

Although the war technically ended in these chapters, the narrative will explore its emotional aftereffects. For example, Jaehaera’s later life and death show the cost of the Dance of the Dragons to the generation of children who survived it.