When Season 3 of Game of Thrones ended, I was pushed into a do-nothing writing funk. I had plenty of work to do, but I didn’t want to do it. Here’s my story of how Game of Thrones and the love of one character helped me get my mojo back!
It all started when my husband said to me before he left for work, “Our daughter loves Dora the Explorer, and you love Jorah the Explorer.” I thought, wow! That would be an awesome gif if I could find it on the Internet. But I need to back up because you may not know what I’m talking about.
If you don’t follow Game of Thrones (GoT) I feel bad for you. It’s the best show ever on TV. Ever! Even better than Lost, NYPD Blue, or Mad Men. And I like it better than True Blood or Rome. I don’t watch noted shows The Walking Dead or Breaking Bad or Dexter or Homeland, so I can’t comment how they stack up. Two years ago GoT premiered on HBO on Sunday, April 17th. I missed the premiere, but got caught up on the third episode, “Lord Snow.” Even with all of the assortment of characters, locales and plots, I figured out who was who and who we should root for in fairly short order.
I remember Ser Jorah Mormont counseling Daenerys Targaryen on horseback about some cultural question 
and in a few moments I saw his intelligence, kind-heartedness and confidence. Iain Glen who plays Ser Jorah does an amazing job of telling you what’s going on without saying a word. If you ask me who’s my favorite character, it’s Ser Jorah, not Tyrion or Daenerys or Arya, the popular ones. And if you really want to know, but were afraid to ask my second favorite is Ser Davos and third favorite is Tywin Lannister because he’s such a badass.
A Bit of Ser Jorah Background
Ser Jorah serves Daenerys as her advisor and knight protector, but things are getting tricky. In Season 1 he betrayed her by telling Varys, the spymaster in King’s Landing, that Daenerys is pregnant with Khal Drogo’s son. Although Varys works for the King, he is sympathetic to House Targaryen. With this information, King Robert ordered her assassination. Jorah did this so he could receive a pardon and return to his home of Bear Island in the far north. Ser Jorah is an exiled knight because he did a little slave business because he was in debt for an expensive wife. Slavery is illegal in Westeros. Due to his illegal behavior, he had to be executed or could join the Knight’s Watch and forego his title. He chose to sail across the Narrow Sea from his homeland where he eventually met Daenerys and company. But now Jorah is in love with Daenerys. His home is no longer on Bear Island, but with her. And she is the Mother of Dragons and her goal is to take back the Iron Throne is Westeros. There’s so much more I could say about the GoT saga, but you’ll need to Google it instead.
So I found a fabulous “Jora the Explorer” gif and along with that found so many other Ser Jorah memes, especially his “King of the Friendzone” moniker since Jorah’s love for Daenerys is utterly unrequited. Or is it?
Still experiencing writer’s block, I searched for Jorah and Daenerys and came up with a ton of fan fiction short stories about the two characters that were surprisingly well written! You know you’ve got a bad case of procrastination when you’re reading Ser Jorah fan fiction late into the night. The stories had depth, romance, humor, sexiness, and satisfaction. They also gave me a great deal more insight into Ser Jorah’s life. Turns out, most diehard GoT fans want these two to get together on the show and completely ship (meaning I want them to get together) them. I ship them, but it may not happen right away.
Here are my 5 reasons for a Ser Jorah/Daenerys ship:
- He loves her, respects her and will die for her
- He’s intellectually curious and well-read, so they’ll always have things to talk about
- He’s one of the best knights in the land—making him an excellent consort and right-hand man!
- He’s concerned for her needs and only wants her to be happy; he’s had really bad relationships and now knows what to do to make love last!
- He sings as well as plays guitar and piano (OK, OK, Iain Glen plays these instruments, but why can’t Ser Jorah?)
And as a result of writing this blog, I sucked myself out of my writing block funk. Thank you Ser Jorah and may Season 4 treat you better than George R.R. Martin and GoT book series does.
Feel free to comment and share your thoughts with me, but no spoilers past Season 3—please!
Sorry Alice, I’m rooting for a Jon Snow-Dany ship.
That would be so cute! I hope Jon lives to meet Dany. A:)
Who exactly is the Boltons’ servant who betrayed Theon? He shares a long backstory detailing his life as a proud Iron Islander, but keen viewers would have found his admiration for Theon suspicious as last season we learned the Iron Men have very little regard for honor or genealogy, and only respect the cruel and the powerful (they are pirates, after all). What was interesting was that when Theon and his friend entered the keep the friend acted like he was turning Theon in to the Boltons, presumably to save his own skin. But as he watches Theon get strapped back onto the rack, he says “put him back where he belongs,” which almost sounds like an order. Clearly, this man is more than meets the eye.
He’s Lord Bolton’s bastard son, Ramsay Snow–what a bastard!
Love this idea for getting out of a funk!!
We got to see him through Tyrions POV chapters trying to get to Dany and Dany thinks about him a few times in hers. But, although I’d like that to happen and for her to forgive him; I just can’t see it happening. It feels too nice a thing for Martin to let happen. Especially if Dany is going to win the Battle of Fire; every cloud with a silver lining. Plus, most personal quests by heroes in this series have ended in failure. Arya getting to her family. Brienne getting Jamie to KL to exchange for Sansa. Her losing Renlys sword. Her looking for Sansa. So I can only see Jorahs quest to reach Daenerys ending in his death. There also seems to have been a line drawn and I can’t see Daenerys changing her mind on this. So if he did re-enter her service. It would be a very tense bit of unrequited love and its hard to see where that would go. Storywise it seems to make the most sense for Jorah to sacrifice himself and fulfil the gods last service Dany mentioned when she sent him away. The only reason I doubt that Martin will kill him is that of the four people en route to Daenerys. Quentyn has already been killed. Victarion has been described by him as a dumbass and that seems to hint that he might also be up for the chop. Would Martin have 3 out of 4 people seeking out Dany killed? That would be a tad much.
Hi Sybil, thanks so much for your thoughtful comments on Ser Jorah. The actor, Iain Glen, wants Jorah to die while making love to Dany, so I bet there’ll be a self sacrifice kind of moment and you’re right–Martin doesn’t like his heroes to be fulfilled. [sigh]
Could you suggest me some good Ser Jorah fics? He happens to be my favourite character too.
Thanks, Sanjukta! Archive of Our Own is very good. https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Jorah%20Mormont/works