Half Wildling, Half Warg

Do you think her betrayal of Dæny was justified? I’m unsure how to answer this question, because a betrayal is “breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals.” A contract implies agreement on both sides for the benefit of both. Dæny first meets Mirri when she is being raped when Drogo’s Khalasar sacks the Lhazareen village, burned homes and temples, raped women, and tortured boys for sport. Between them and Ogo’s khalasar, there may’ve been 10000 captives. The end goal of this sacking was to fund Rhaego’s ascension to the Iron Throne, as the gold from selling them would buy them ships and sailors. So if Dæny had not been khaleesi and carrying Drogo’s child, it’s possible Mirri wouldn’t have been raped, enslaved, forced to march miles with little food, and beaten. It is repeatedly emphasized that Mirri is her slave by Drogo (“You do not ask a slave, you tell her” “these ones belong to my khaleesi), by Dæny (“she would be walking…in the long column of slaves”), by Mirri herself (“You do not ask a slave. You tell her.) As Mirri is Dæny’s slave, she didn’t enter into a relationship with her willingly, nor did she have a choice on whether to trust her. As for the mutual benefit, while the supposed benefit of Mirri’s healing for Dæny is a healthy Drogo and safety delivered Rhaego, thus ensuring the future of a Dothraki invasion of Westeros, the success of her healing for Mirri is…her freedom, which, as already stated, would likely not have been violated had Dæny not been around in the first place (nor, to my understanding, is it Dæny’s ability to give, as personal liberty is an inalienable right). Hardly an equal exchange, as if Mirri had the capability of making such a trade in the first place. By the definition of betrayal—which supposes two people with agency working together for mutual benefit—Mirri did not betray Dæny, since due to her slave status she didn’t have the agency to refuse the relationship, nor was the exchange fair. Dæny decided to trust Mirri because she “saved” her from being raped (though she was still beaten, forced to march, and repeatedly threatened with death, which certainly made her decision to throw her life away easier), and just assumed Mirri would be grateful for her life. That’s hardly Mirri’s fault.

Perhaps a better question would be: Do slaves have the right to rebel against their masters? Some Dæny fans claim that while Mirri was justified killing Drogo, Rhaego was innocent and Dæny had saved her twice, so she was wrong to harm them. So a slave rebelling against a cruel master is justified, but not against a kinder one, and certainly not their child. However, it seems Dæny disagrees:

A boy came, younger than Dæny, slight and scarred, dressed up in a frayed grey tokar trailing silver fringe. His voice broke when he told of how two of his father's household slaves had risen up the night the gate broke. One had slain his father, the other his elder brother. Both had raped his mother before killing her as well. The boy had escaped with no more than the scar upon his face, but one of the murderers was still living in his father's house, and the other had joined the queen's soldiers as one of the Mother's Men. He wanted them both hanged.

I am queen over a city built on dust and death. Dæny had no choice but to deny him. She had declared a blanket pardon for all crimes committed during the sack. Nor would she punish slaves for rising up against their masters. —Dæny I ADWD

All right, so during the sack two slaves rose up against their master, killed him and his wife and oldest son, tried to kill his ~15 year old oldest son scarring him for life, and this teenager wants them hanged. It’s often remarked with the “house was lost when she abandoned it” case that Dæny had resolved her own claim to the Iron Throne as void, but in this case, she says that slaves killing their master’s family but leaving one young member alive to pursue punishment are not to be harmed. By her own logic, Mirri was justified in harming Drogo’s family (from the man to the wife to the children), no matter how Dæny may’ve treated her because she was a slave and thus could use any means necessary to free herself.

Was she responsible for Rhaego’s death? Let’s ask Dæny: “Ser Jorah had killed her son, Dany knew. He had done what he did for love and loyalty, yet he had carried her into a place no living man should go and fed her baby to the darkness. He knew it too…” —AGOT Dæny IX. This wouldn’t be the first time Mirri gave medical advice, she was ignored, things got worse, and she was blamed for what went wrong by the people who didn’t listen to her. She told Drogo to keep the firepod/sting-me-not poultice on for 10 days and say special prayers, he tore it off before then because it itched, his conditioned worsened so he couldn’t be saved through usual medical means, Mirri gets beaten for making the poultice. Mirri warned Dæny that no living person could enter that tent once she was doing her spells, but then Jorah carries Dæny in, and it seems babies are particularly vulnerable to shadow magic, so Rhaego dies, but then Mirri gets blamed for it. When Dæny accuses Mirri of killing her son, she doesn’t deny it, but nor does she confirm it, just saying she prevented future harm. She knew from the repeated beatings and death threats that she was a dead woman once she failed to bring back Drogo (though she’d still have a miserable life no matter what happened) and maybe mocking Dæny would give her a quick death done in anger rather than slow torture like that of the wineseller. Tbh I can’t trust what we know from prior Targaryen stillbirths (Maegor‘s wives and Visenya II having defects, including wings and a tail), as it’s possible some sorcery was involved, but I don’t think we need to. Mirri said don’t go in the tent because death is there, Jorah brings Dæny in when she goes into labor, and all three end up harmed by whatever was in there. The situation is ambiguous, but there’s enough evidence to claim that Mirri didn’t intentionally kill Rhaego, but went along with it because she had nothing to lose.