Daenerys's High Valyrian Speeches, Season by Season: Astapor to the Final Speech

Quick Answer: Daenerys's great High Valyrian speech is the Unsullied speech in Season 3, Episode 4, "And Now His Watch Is Ended", in Astapor, where she reveals she understood every insult, says Zaldrīzes buzdari iksos daor ("a dragon is not a slave"), orders Dracarys, and commands the Unsullied to free the city. Her final speech in Season 8, Episode 6, "The Iron Throne", addresses the Unsullied and the Dothraki in King's Landing and promises to carry her war of liberation to the whole world. All of her Valyrian was written by David J. Peterson.

Daenerys Targaryen speaks four languages over eight seasons of Game of Thrones: the Common Tongue, Dothraki, the slaver dialect of Astapor, and High Valyrian. Her Valyrian speeches are rare, and that is why they hit so hard. This guide goes through them in story order, season by season: the episode, what is happening, what she says and what it means.

This page is organized by speech. If you are looking up one phrase, our Daenerys High Valyrian Quotes guide is organized by quote, with word-by-word glosses.

A note on transcripts: the dialogue belongs to HBO. We summarize each speech, quote only short attested lines, and explain them. For the complete English, the episode subtitles are the source.

Quick Reference: Every Speech at a Glance

Two of these are often called "Valyrian speeches" but are not: the Vaes Dothrak scene is Dothraki, and at Yunkai she speaks the Common Tongue while Missandei translates. They are included because people search for them, and because the language choice is part of the meaning.

Seasons 1 and 2: Before the Valyrian

In the first two seasons, Daenerys's other language is Dothraki. She learns it from her handmaids and her husband, Khal Drogo, and by the end of Season 1 she gives orders in it. High Valyrian is barely heard from her: it is her family's ancestral tongue, but there is no one around to speak it with.

The one Valyrian word that matters here is dracarys, "dragonfire". Daenerys teaches her young dragons to answer to it, and the word becomes her signature. Every later speech that ends in fire ends with this word. For the word itself, see Dracarys Meaning.

For her Dothraki lines in these seasons, see Daenerys's Dothraki Phrases.

Season 3: The Astapor Speech (the Unsullied Speech)

Episode: Season 3, Episode 4, "And Now His Watch Is Ended" (2013) Setting: the Plaza of Pride, Astapor

The context

Daenerys has come to Astapor to buy the Unsullied, an army of slave soldiers trained from childhood to obey. The slaver Kraznys mo Nakloz handles the deal through his translator, Missandei. All through the negotiations he insults Daenerys in Valyrian, certain she cannot understand. Missandei softens every line.

The price is Drogon, her largest dragon. At the handover she gives Kraznys the dragon's chain and takes the whip that commands the Unsullied.

What she says

When Drogon refuses to follow his new owner, Kraznys complains. Daenerys answers him herself, in High Valyrian:

Zaldrīzes buzdari iksos daor. "A dragon is not a slave."

Then she gives the command, dracarys, and Drogon burns Kraznys.

She turns to the army and speaks to them directly in Valyrian. In summary: she addresses them as Unsullied, the name of the army, and orders them to kill the masters and the soldiers of Astapor and every man who holds a whip, to harm no child, and to strike the chains off every slave they see. The army obeys. Astapor falls in minutes.

Afterwards she offers the Unsullied their freedom, and the choice to follow her or to leave. They choose to follow, and she becomes the commander of an army that serves by choice.

What it means

The speech is the hinge of Daenerys's story. Three things happen in one scene:

1. The reveal. The audience, like Kraznys, has heard her Valyrian only through Missandei. She has understood everything all along.
2. The reversal. Kraznys speaks Astapori Valyrian, a Low Valyrian dialect. Daenerys answers in High Valyrian, the classical form, the prestige language of the old Freehold her family came from.
3. The principle. "A dragon is not a slave" is about Drogon, but it is also about her, and about everyone in the square in chains.

The word-by-word breakdown, pronunciation and scene detail are in A Dragon Is Not a Slave in High Valyrian.

How to say the key line

Roughly zal-DREE-zes BOOZ-da-ri IK-sos DAH-or. Hold the long ī, tap the R. Full rules in the High Valyrian Pronunciation Guide.

Season 3: Yunkai and "Mhysa"

Episode: Season 3, Episode 10, "Mhysa" (2013) Setting: outside the walls of Yunkai

After Yunkai is taken, its freed slaves come out to meet Daenerys. She speaks to them in the Common Tongue and Missandei translates. Her message, in summary: she will not give them their freedom, because it is not hers to give; they must take it for themselves.

The crowd answers with one word, mhysa, and lifts her up. Mhysa means "mother" in the slaves' own language, the Ghiscari-influenced tongue of Slaver's Bay, not High Valyrian. The scene is often listed with her Valyrian speeches because it is the emotional sequel to Astapor, but its language is different.

Season 4: Before the Walls of Meereen

Episode: Season 4, Episode 3, "Breaker of Chains" (2014) Setting: outside Meereen

Meereen sends a champion to taunt her. After Daario Naharis kills him, Daenerys speaks to the city. She addresses the slaves, not the masters. In summary: she tells them she has not come to fight them, but to free them, and she has her catapults throw the broken chains and collars of Astapor and Yunkai over the walls.

The image does the talking. The slaves of Meereen pick up those chains, and the city soon falls from within.

This is also where her self-presentation as a liberator becomes fixed. From here on, her speeches return to the same idea: breaking chains.

Seasons 5 to 7: Rule Instead of Speeches

Ruling Meereen, Daenerys speaks mostly in council and in court, in the Common Tongue with Tyrion, Jorah and Daario, and through Missandei with petitioners. There are Valyrian exchanges, but no great speech.

One scene that people often remember as a speech is Season 6, Episode 4, "Book of the Stranger", at Vaes Dothrak. Daenerys tells the khals what she thinks of them and sets their temple on fire, walking out of the flames unharmed. That speech is in Dothraki, not Valyrian. Among the horse lords, Dothraki is the language of power, and she uses it.

In Season 7 she returns to Dragonstone, her birthplace, and her first words there are brief. Her addresses to Westerosi allies are naturally in the Common Tongue.

Season 8: The Final Speech in King's Landing

Episode: Season 8, Episode 6, "The Iron Throne" (2019) Setting: the steps before the ruined Red Keep, King's Landing

The context

The previous episode, "The Bells", ended with the destruction of King's Landing. Daenerys burned the city after its bells had rung for surrender. Now her armies, the Unsullied in their ranks and the Dothraki on horseback, stand in the ash. Drogon lands behind her and she walks to the top of the steps, his wings spreading behind her as she speaks.

What she says

She speaks to her armies in their own languages: to the Unsullied in Valyrian and to the Dothraki in Dothraki, and the scene is subtitled. In summary:

• She praises them as liberators. She frames the fall of King's Landing as freeing its people from a tyrant, not as a massacre.
• She reminds them of the cities they freed before, from Astapor to Meereen.
• She tells them the war is not over. She will not stop with Westeros: she will carry her war of liberation to Winterfell and beyond, across the world.
• Grey Worm, now her closest commander, stands at her side.

Watching from the edge of the crowd, Tyrion and Jon Snow hear the speech very differently from the soldiers. Tyrion resigns his post as Hand on the spot.

What it means

The final speech is built to echo Astapor, and that is the point. In Season 3 the same words, freedom and chains, were spoken in a slave city to the slaves themselves. In Season 8 they are spoken over a city she has burned. The language of liberation is the same; what it is being used to justify has changed.

The choice of languages matters too. Daenerys addresses her soldiers in their own languages, the gesture that won their loyalty in the first place. The Westerosi listening, Jon and Tyrion, need subtitles of their own. The scene shows, in sound, how far she has moved from the people of the country she means to rule.

The "full speech" searches

Many people search for "the full speech" or "the transcript". We do not publish full transcripts: the dialogue is HBO's. The episode's English subtitles carry the complete sense. What this page gives you is the context and the meaning, and the attested lines you can learn and say yourself.

Note that Zaldrīzes buzdari iksos daor belongs to Season 3, not Season 8. It is often searched with "full speech" because it is the line people remember from the Unsullied speech in Astapor.

The Lines You Can Learn

Only a few short Valyrian lines from Daenerys's arc are well attested and easy to learn:

For the meaning of the last pair, see Valar Morghulis Meaning.

Why Daenerys's Valyrian Sounds So Real

Every Valyrian line in the show was written by linguist David J. Peterson, who expanded the handful of words George R.R. Martin used in the novels into a full language with noun genders, cases and verb conjugations. That consistency is why daor always means "not" and always comes at the end of the clause, and why fans can break her lines down word by word. For how the language works, see the High Valyrian Language Guide.

Test Yourself

Think you can place every speech in its season? Make a quiz on "Daenerys's speeches" with the Tengwar Quiz and challenge other fans. And if Daenerys's other language caught your ear, Peterson's Dothraki is taught step by step in our free Learn Dothraki course.

People Also Ask

What does Daenerys say in her Season 8 final speech? In "The Iron Throne" she addresses the Unsullied and the Dothraki in their own languages, praises them as liberators and promises to take her war of liberation to the whole world.

What does zaldrīzes buzdari iksos daor mean? "A dragon is not a slave". It is from the Astapor scene, Season 3, Episode 4.

In which episode does Daenerys give the Unsullied speech? Season 3, Episode 4, "And Now His Watch Is Ended", in Astapor.

Is there a full transcript of Daenerys's Valyrian speeches? The scripts are HBO's, so we summarize them and quote only short attested lines. The episode subtitles carry the full English.

Related Reading

• Daenerys Targaryen's High Valyrian Quotes — Translated & Explained
• A Dragon Is Not a Slave in High Valyrian — The Astapor Line Explained
• Dracarys Meaning — What Daenerys Actually Says in High Valyrian
• Daenerys's Dothraki Phrases in Game of Thrones (With Translation)
• How to Say "I Love You" in High Valyrian
• Valar Morghulis Meaning — 'All Men Must Die' Explained
• High Valyrian Phrases in House of the Dragon — Complete Guide