I did a three part review HERE if you want to read a more detailed analysis of the season. That link has links to all three parts at the bottom of the post.
Anyways...Jon Snow/Daenerys Targaryen was a ship that had a little bit of promise. Before Season 7 I didn't care about it. I didn't hate it but I didn't ship it either. Which is really my feelings towards a lot of ships I don't ship. But when the show did Jon/Daenerys, it felt as if any promise the pairing had had been stripped away. Any intrigue was gone and it became boring to watch.
The main problems the showrunners made with it involved timing and the method of getting together. They decided to do the old 'hate each other and get together by the end' routine. Because of timing there wasn't enough scenes to fully evolve the characters to the point of a believable couple.
Previously I had theorized about Jorah/Daenerys having a secret affair and using Jon to solidify the Targaryen's claim on the Iron Throne. Today, though, I'm going to go in another direction. One in which my OTP of the series doesn't get together and yet I like because it is not happy. I don't watch Game of Thrones to be happy, after all.
The love story between Khal Drogo and Daenerys Targaryen is far from perfect. Yet that doesn't stop it from being beautiful in a way.
Viserys Targaryen wanted to reclaim the Iron Throne for House Targaryen but lacked an army. He managed to secure a deal with Khal Drogo. The Dothraki would grant him an army in return for Daenerys becoming his Khaleesi (aka wife/queen).
In Dothraki culture how well a Khaleesi is treated depends on the Khal. Some are treated very well while others...well...let's leave it at they aren't. Viserys had no way of knowing how his sister would be treated. And, in all honesty, there's not a high likelihood that the Beggar King cared.
During this time Daenerys and Jorah form attachments for each other. To her, he is the person from her home that is helpful. He gives her both knowledge and protection. To him, she is a bright ray of light and a new calling in his life.
Now the problem with that is more than obvious. That witch was a survivor of a group of people that had been raided by the Dothraki. That had no love for those like Khal Drogo. Just because Daenerys stopped the Dothraki from raping the witch didn't mean the woman owed the Targaryen anything. One good action didn't erase what had been done time after time by Drogo's people.
The fact that Daenerys trusted the witch showed how naive she was. She thought that the witch would be grateful and would return the kind gesture. That was not the case. Over a series of events the witch made Daenerys barren, killed her unborn child, and put Drogo in a kind of coma. This left Daenerys no choice but to kill Drogo so he could have peace.
Not only had her first love died, she had had to kill him because of her folly.
My first real relationship hurt when it ended. I found out that the term 'died of a broken heart' comes from science. I also found out that it's more than annoying when two nurses act happy about that fact. If I could feel that much pain after my first real breakup, I'm imagining Daenerys was feeling things about a thousand times worse.
With a broken heart, Daenerys wasn't quick to love anyone. It's a common cliche that the first breakup is always the worst. In this case she didn't have either a normal breakup or a normal death of a loved one. She got something way more messed up than that.
Many people like to point out that her not getting with Jorah Mormont proves that she doesn't love him. But, as I've talked about earlier, she isn't in a normal state of mind. Her heart has been shattered and she doesn't want to love anyone like Drogo. She doesn't want that kind of bond as she's experienced how badly it hurts when that bond is broken.
She doesn't get with Jorah because she knows a relationship with him will be as deep as the one with Drogo. She can't imagine experiencing that kind of heartache again. So Daenerys makes up excuses why she doesn't like Jorah.
She doesn't sleep with Jorah because a commitment to him will be more than a friends with benefits relationship. She needs someone she can use purely for sex.
So onto the scene appears Daario Naharis. He is young, foolish, rash, and generally an idiot. For someone seeking a good relationship he's not the one. Pro-tip to those seeking a significant other: if someone kills their former colleagues, that is not a romantic gesture you should feel aroused by.
But Daario is also good looking and has all the markings of a short-time relationship. So Daenerys eventually gets with him. With him she is able to have her sexual urges fulfilled as well as have a fantasy of love.
This shows that Daenerys making Daario a rebound was all done in her subconscious. She wasn't consciously running away from the pain of Drogo's death as her conscious mind wouldn't allow it. Instead her conscious mind allowed her to live in this fantasy where she had moved on and now loved Daario.
For those that haven't had a breakup that's resulted in a rebound...I'll tell you the story of my own rebound. After my first breakup I got with a guy and thought I liked him. We connected and I fooled myself into thinking I felt something for him. When we broke up I felt nothing. A little momentary shock and then nothing else. We kept up communications and then stopped after a bit.
Jorah Mormont didn't cross paths with Daenerys for the most honorable of reasons. He had previously fled to exile in Essos with his second wife. His second wife is no longer in the picture as she chose a rich man over Jorah. For a long time the possibility of going back home to Westeros was merely a dream to him. A mere wish. But then came an offer from King Robert Baratheon: spy on Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen to earn a royal pardon.
However, Jorah's spying mission quickly turned personal when he developed feelings for Daenerys. As was revealed in Season 7: he loved her the moment he set eyes on her. If he loves her why continue spying on her?
In the show he has worked for the Golden Company which always completes their assigned tasks. This could show that Jorah valued the honor in completing the spying mission. In any case the moment his duties to the Iron Throne were complete, he was fully Daenerys' to do with as she wished.
This part of Jorah Mormont's character is something that makes him my favorite character of the show. He is able to not blame Daenerys Targaryen for not bedding him. So often you hear stories about men and women crying about being friendzoned. So to have someone that doesn't act like that is more than amazing.
For people who cry about characters like Littlefinger who are so obsessed with a woman he goes after her daughter, it is odd that they wouldn't point out how well Jorah reacts to rejection.
Jorah doesn't want to get with Daenerys soon after Drogo has died. He can tell very well that Daenerys is suffering from a broken heart. He knows this means that any decision the young woman will make will be out of desperation. So he stays close to her and only tells her his true feelings once.
Jorah could tell how much Daenerys was hurting and also had more experience in heartbreak than she did. So he had all the pieces of information to tell him that Daario was merely a rebound for his queen. The fact the older man knew it was only a matter of time until the younger man left Daenerys' bed made enduring the taunts no less painful.
Daario never showed Jorah that he was trying to help Daenerys heal. This caused Jorah to become even more angry over the matter. There was a bit of jealousy in Jorah, but the care he felt for his love far outweighed that aspect.
The words 'I need you by my side when I take the Iron Throne' meant nothing else than a marriage proposal. He knew once he came back to her side she would bed him. And he would be glad not just for her love but for the fact her heart was healed.
When Daenerys sent Jorah to find a care, she didn't know if there was even a cure. In the moment she believed there had to be a cure as she couldn't lose Jorah. She couldn't lose someone else that she loved.
She also wanted to give a gift to Jorah if he didn't return. She wanted him to know, in no uncertain terms, that she loved him. She knew being on a mission for her would be one of the greatest gifts she could give the Mormont.
But after time passed she began to doubt Jorah's return. She began to doubt that she would ever see him again. That doubt lead to fear and that fear started to tear into her heart. A heart that then stopped healing.
Jon was also young and extremely noble. Unlike Jorah, the younger man didn't have such a jaded past.
Daenerys' subconscious, ever the wise one, knew what Daenerys was truly feeling. Hence the Targaryen was so adamant for her nephew to bend the knee. The queen's subconscious was doing its best to keep Daenerys from repeating her mistake.
Jorah knows his Khaleesi well enough to tell that something more is going on. He realizes that her broken heart has gotten worse and she's in confusion. So he refuses when Daenerys wants to get intimate with him. He doesn't want her when she's vulnerable as he feels that would be taking advantage of her.
He tells her that she hasn't moved on from Drogo and she agrees. He also tells her that he will only be with her when she's certain of her own wants.
So why doesn't Jorah speak to Jon about it? Poor communication seems to be a theme of Season 7.
Daenerys Targaryen isn't the only one dealing with a heartbreak. Jon Snow is still suffering the loss of Ygritte. The memory of the Wildling has never left him. He still remembers the cave and her dead body in his arms.
Ygritte's death tears at Jon as deeply as Drogo's does to Daenerys. He knows he should move on. Not just because she died but because he knows there is nothing after death. He knows there is no waiting for her as he'll never see her again.
He knows this so his subconscious decides on Daenerys as his rebound.
When it comes time for Daenerys Targaryen to decide how to travel to Winterfell, Jorah Mormont knows her decision was made while her heart was still broken. He knows that her decision to travel with Jon Snow was made out of her heartbreak. This fact makes him sad as he wants his queen to be happy above anything else.
Jorah goes on the same boat as the pair in case she needs to talk. He wants to be there for her emotionally. If things go wrong he wants to be there to comfort her.
Daenerys can be very sultry when she wants. Such as when she asked Daario to take off his clothes. Yet she has a look of surprise when Jon knocks on her door. It is as if she isn't in control and on some level realizes Jon is just another rebound.
Tyrion agrees to walk by Daenerys' chambers and see how she is doing. The reason Tyrion has the expression he does at the end of Season 7 is because he knows why Daenerys is having sex. He knows that she isn't in a good state of mind. He is mad because he cares for her and doesn't like how Jon seems to be taking advantage of her.
Not that Tyrion knows how much Jon Snow is suffering. Jon doesn't talk about how he feels about Ygritte to anyone. While Jon does trust Davos Seaworth and Sansa Stark, he doesn't want to discuss his love life to them.
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