If JD won't hook up then who do you think is the younger and comely lover Dany was dreaming about? There's also the mystery man who was cold a ice. Two quotes hinting at a mysterious man for Dany seems like too much of a coincidence.
To answer the first part of your question, letâs look at the passage you referenced.
What Dany wanted she could not begin to say, but Jorah's kiss had woken something in her, something that had been sleeping since Khal Drogo died. Lying abed in her narrow bunk, she found herself wondering how it would be to have a man squeezed in beside her in place of her handmaid, and the thought was more exciting than it should have been. Sometimes she would close her eyes and dream of him, but it was never Jorah Mormont she dreamed of; her lover was always younger and more comely, though his face remained a shifting shadow.
âA Storm of Swords - Daenerys II
The passage is about wish fulfillment on Danyâs part. Sheâs lonely and wants someone to love and lay beside her at night. Sheâs looking for someone to take the place of Khal Drogo. But sheâs a young girl and she doesnât want someone like Jorah whoâs old enough to be her father. Young girls dream of men closer to their age who are comely and daring and adventurous. She very liked Sansa in this instance.
Danyâs wish fulfillment is not about any specific person as is suggested by the shifting shadow, but more her thoughts on the ideal partner. The passage is also a set up for the introduction of Daario as a couple of chapters later, the shadow comes into focus with his arrival on the scene.
Daario is as unlike Jorah, and as similar to Khal Drogo as itâs possible to be without him actually being Drogo. Young and comely? â
a warrior and leader of men? â
Dark and dangerous? â
He even wields an arakh like Drogo.
Daario personifies the type of man that interests Dany. So, while Dany may not have literally dreamt of him, heâs the type she was dreaming of. Hope that makes sense.
As for the man with blue lips, many fans in the fandom are of the opinion that itâs Jon and Iâm suspecting that you are of this opinion as well, but I disagree with that interpretation.
The basis for this theory is Branâs first weirwood vision when he saw Jonâs dead body in the ice cells at Castle Black.
Finally he looked north. He saw the Wall shining like blue crystal, and his bastard brother Jon sleeping alone in a cold bed, his skin growing pale and hard as the memory of all warmth fled from him. And he looked past the Wall, past endless forests cloaked in snow, past the frozen shore and the great blue-white rivers of ice and the dead plains where nothing grew or lived. North and north and north he looked, to the curtain of light at the end of the world, and then beyond that curtain. He looked deep into the heart of winter, and then he cried out, afraid, and the heat of his tears burned on his cheeks.
âA Game of Thrones, Bran III
Except for Jonâs body being cold and frozen, the rest of the scene doesnât match up. Of course, blue is mentioned in the wall, and a body will start to turn blue when exposed to extreme cold as cyanosis or livor mortis sets in because of lack of oxygen. However, the bruised blue lips doesnât match up.
The man with bruise blue lips and a member as cold as ice Euron, which is interesting because while Daario and Drogo were similar types of men, the way Daario and Euron are described, they could almost be the same person. Itâs why some in the fandom are in favor of this theory.
I donât think they are the same person because the timing doesnât match up, and it would mean that Euron was able to be in two places at once; and nothing in the story thus far has shown that to be possible. So, unless George comes out with a magical reason that would explain how Euron could fly across the seas faster than a speeding bullet, they are two separate individuals. Oh, and thereâs also the fact that Daarioâs lips are not blue.
My thinking is that Daario is in the story to prepare Dany for Euron. If she loses Daario, and that possibility is on the table, she will be more susceptible to Euron when he starts trying to worm his way into her feelings. Heâs the type of guy she goes for, and he will heavily remind her of Daario. Also, her dream of the man with the blue lips suggests that Euron may already have begun his seduction of her.
George actually begins the set up to it being Euron a few chapters earlier when Xaro Xhoan Daxos pays Dany a visit, and then he reveals the truth in TWOW.
"Not all your enemies are in the Yellow City. Beware men with cold hearts and blue lips. You had not been gone from Qarth a fortnight when Pyat Pree set out with three of his fellow warlocks, to seek for you in Pentos."
Dany was more amused than afraid. "It is good I turned aside, then. Pentos is half a world from Meereen."
âA Dance with Dragons - Daenerys III
After Xaro leaves, Barristan as the Lord Commander of her Queens Guard shows his concern at the potential threat.
Ser Barristan cleared his throat and said, "This warlock that the merchant spoke of âŚ"
"Pyat Pree." She tried to recall his face, but all she could see were his lips. The wine of the warlocks had turned them blue. Shade-of-the-evening, it was called. "If a warlock's spell could kill me, I would be dead by now. I left their palace all in ashes." Drogon saved me when they would have drained my life from me. Drogon burned them all.
"As you say, Your Grace. Still. I will be watchful."
âA Dance with Dragons - Daenerys III
Danyâs choice of words is interesting because Pyat Pree is not the warlock Barristan needs to worry about. In A Feast for Crows, we get this interesting conversation between Victorion and Euron, when the latter sends the former to Meereen to bring back Dany for him to wed. Keep in mind that AFFC and ADWD is one book split into two, and so events in them are taking place around the same time.
Euron turned to face him, his bruised blue lips curled in a half smile. "Perhaps we can fly. All of us. How will we ever know unless we leap from some tall tower?" The wind came gusting through the window and stirred his sable cloak. There was something obscene and disturbing about his nakedness. "No man ever truly knows what he can do unless he dares to leap."
The captain took the cup Euron had not offered, sniffed at its contents suspiciously. Seen up close, it looked more blue than black. It was thick and oily, with a smell like rotted flesh. He tried a small swallow, and spit it out at once. "Foul stuff. Do you mean to poison me?"
"I mean to open your eyes." Euron drank deep from his own cup, and smiled. "Shade-of-the-evening, the wine of the warlocks. I came upon a cask of it when I captured a certain galleas out of Qarth, along with some cloves and nutmeg, forty bolts of green silk, and four warlocks who told a curious tale. One presumed to threaten me, so I killed him and fed him to the other three. They refused to eat of their friend's flesh at first, but when they grew hungry enough they had a change of heart. Men are meat."
âA Feast for Crows - The Reaver
Xaro tells Dany that two weeks after she destroyed the House of the Undying, and left Qarth, Pyat Pree and his warlock brethren sail to Pentos in search of her to exact vengeance.
And Euron later tells Victorian about capturing a gallaes out of Qarth with 4 warlocks and a quantity of shade-of-the-evening. What are the odds that he and Xaro are talking about two different sets of warlocks? Absolutely nil, which is confirmed in the preview chapter for TWOW, which George read at a convention. It was taped by fans and later transcribed by Poor Quentyn.
âDrink with me. Your king commands it.â
Euron grabbed a handful of the priestâs tangled black hair, pulled his head back, and lifted the wine cup to his lips. But what flowed into his mouth was not wine. It was thick and viscous, with a taste that seemed to change with every swallow.
Now bitter, now sour, now sweet. When Aeron tried to spit it out, his brother tightened his grip and forced more down his throat. âThatâs it, priest. Gulp it down. The wine of the warlocks, sweeter than your seawater, with more truth in it than all the gods of earth.â
âI curse you,â Aeron said, when the cup was empty. Liquor dripped from down his chin into his long, black beard.
âIf I had the tongue of every man who cursed me, I could make a cloak of them.â
Aeron hawked and spat. The spittle struck his brotherâs cheek and hung there, blue--black, glistening. Euron flicked it off his face with a forefinger, then licked the finger clean. âYour god will come for you tonight. Some god, at least.â
âThe Forsaken - The Winds of Winter Preview Chapter
There is a suggestion in another Dany chapter that while in exile, Qarth might have been Euronâs base of operation when he was not out reaving.
Dany had laughed when he told her. "Was it not you who told me warlocks were no more than old soldiers, vainly boasting of forgotten deeds and lost prowess?"
Xaro looked troubled. "And so it was, then. But now? I am less certain. It is said that the glass candles are burning in the house of Urrathon Night-Walker, that have not burned in a hundred years.
âA Clash of Kings - Daenerys V
Many in the fandom, myself included think that Urrathon Night-Walker is Euron. It fits with all the symbolism and him conveniently being in the area at the same time, but thereâs also the curious detail revealed in an Asha chapter concerning an ancient Greyjoy ancestor from the Age of Heroes. With his legend and similar sounding name, he seems to have been a Euron prototype.
"Torgon Greyiron was the king's eldest son. But the king was old and Torgon restless, so it happened that when his father died he was raiding along the Mander from his stronghold on Greyshield. His brothers sent no word to him but instead quickly called a kingsmoot, thinking that one of them would be chosen to wear the driftwood crown. But the captains and the kings chose Urragon Goodbrother to rule instead. The first thing the new king did was command that all the sons of the old king be put to death, and so they were. After that men called him Badbrother, though in truth they'd been no kin of his. He ruled for almost two years."
âA Dance with Dragons - The Wayward Bride
So we have Euron, which clues suggests might have been in Qarth around the same time as Dany, and who might just have a glass candle, using shade-of-evening. A drug it is suggested came into his possession when he captured Pyat Preeâs ship that sailed just a couple of weeks after Dany left Qarth.
The same Forsaken preview chapter confirms that it was indeed Pyat Preeâs ship that Euron captured when Aeron sees the captured warlocks on the Silence, Euronâs ship.
Last were two warlocks of the east, with flesh as white as mushrooms, and lips the purplishÂŹ-blue of a bad bruise, all so gaunt and starved that only skin and bones remained. One had lost his legs. The mutes hung him from a rafter. âPree,â he cried as he swung back and forth. âPree, Pree.â
âThe Forsaken - The Winds of Winter Preview Chapter
While Dany discounted the warning Xaro gave to her about Pyat Pree, it is taking form in her dreams with the man with bruised blue lips, and all evidence point to the warlock in question being Euron.
That night her cooks roasted her a kid with dates and carrots, but Dany could only eat a bite of it. The prospect of wrestling with Meereen once more left her feeling weary. Sleep came hard, even when Daario came back, so drunk that he could hardly stand. Beneath her coverlets she tossed and turned, dreaming that Hizdahr was kissing her ⌠but his lips were blue and bruised, and when he thrust himself inside her, his manhood was cold as ice. She sat up with her hair disheveled and the bedclothes atangle. Her captain slept beside her, yet she was alone. She wanted to shake him, wake him, make him hold her, fuck her, help her forget, but she knew that if she did, he would only smile and yawn and say, "It was just a dream, my queen. Go back to sleep."
âA Dance with Dragons - Daenerys VII
As it is strongly suggested that Euron also has access to a glass candle, it is quite possible that heâs entering Danyâs dreams and seducing her in that manner. Itâs strongly implied that heâs doing just that to his brother, only, he is giving him nightmares. However, while Euron might be manipulating Aeron in his dreams, the Damphir is also seeing the truth of some things.
The dreams were even worse the second time. He saw the longships of the Ironborn adrift and burning on a boiling bloodÂŹ-red sea. He saw his brother on the Iron Throne again, but Euron was no longer human. He seemed more squid than man, a monster fathered by a kraken of the deep, his face a mass of writhing tentacles. Beside him stood a shadow in womanâs form, long and tall and terrible, her hands alive with pale white fire. Dwarves capered for their amusement, male and female, naked and misshapen, locked in carnal embrace, biting and tearing at each other as Euron and his mate laughed and laughed and laughed...
âThe Forsaken - The Winds of Winter Preview Chapter
So, yes, all evidence so far points to it being Euron and not Jon who Dany dreams of. And in a way, with Daarioâs similarity to Euron, one can argue that both Danyâs dreams were about the same personâŚEuron.
