That’s a fair point. Although I’d point out that the Ghiscari are also Valyrian in heritage, and have been so for several thousand years.
*cough* Oh yes, quite.
The gods of Ghis were dead, and so too its people; these Astapori were mongrels, Ser Jorah said. Even the Ghiscari tongue was largely forgotten; the slave cities spoke the High Valyrian of their conquerors, or what they had made of it.
A “mongrel” culture, whose dialect is referred to in an incredibly unflattering way… they are not remotely Valyrian the way Dany is Valyrian, she does not see them that way and they only see her as a Westerosi.
(“Mongrel” is used to refer to the Ghiscari 5 times in ADWD. They are othered and animalized by the characters and the narrative, and it is certainly deliberate.)
Sure, they call themselves something else. But we’re also told that “the colossal pyramids and temples and homes were given over to dragonflame. The fields were sewn with salt, lime, and skulls. Many of the Ghiscari were slain, and still others were enslaved and died laboring for their conquerors.” And then the Valyrians settled their lands and occupied them for five thousand years.
And then 300-400 years ago, they made up a new culture and claimed to be the same as that old culture. Does that make them the old culture?
Of course they’re not “Old Ghis come again”, and nobody was claiming that. But they’re not ethnically or culturally Valyrian, that’s the whole point. Since you’re fond of quoting TWOIAF, note “after the Doom came to Valyria, the cities of Slaver’s Bay were able to throw off the last of the Valyrian shackles, ruling themselves in truth rather than playing at it. And what remained of the Ghiscari swiftly reestablished their trade in slaves.” They’re a mixed culture, mixed racially, but one where those families can trace back to old Ghis lineage are considered higher class. And most importantly, it’s a culture that is alien to Dany and described as alien by the narrative.
And Dany is not culturally Valyrian, she’s culturally Westerosi (her knowledge of HV does not count — is she a freeholder or a monarchist? a slaver or an abolitionist?), so even if Valyria’s influence was a strong part of the existing culture of the Slaver’s Bay cities, it’s irrelevant to the argument that “Dany is […] educated to regard Westeros as her homeland and Westerosi values as her own […and] is surrounded by lands and food and wine and costumes and cultures that are mostly only allowed to be exotic or gross, or both.”
I think they’re more Valyrian than they are anything else – and I don’t see why we should believe their claims to ancient heritage anymore than we should believe that Petrarch was actually an ancient Roman. In fact, I think it kind of works better as them being both, because then Dany’s confronting her own heritage.
And I disagree that she’s culturally Westerosi. She’s never lived in Westeros. Her entire understanding of the place is fragmentary, second-hand, and skewed through her brother’s frenzied re-interpretation of the land he left when he was a child. She’s spent her entire life in Essos. The place where she feels at home is in Essos – the red door is not in Dorne.
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