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"Why would an Unsullied go to a brothel?"
Missandei on White Rat's death[src]

White Rat[b] was a member of the Unsullied.

Biography[]

Background[]

White Rat was a member of the Unsullied, slave soldiers trained by the Good Masters of Astapor. Like all Unsullied, his birth name was cast aside and he was given a new, dehumanizing name as part of the Good Masters' training to shed all sense of self-worth and individuality from their chattel.[1]

Along with thousands of his 'brothers', White Rat was purchased and liberated by Daenerys Targaryen and chose to fight for her as a free man. Like many Unsullied he chose to keep his slave name after his liberation.[1]

Game of Thrones: Season 5[]

White Rat was among the Unsullied who oversaw the removal of the large bronze harpy from the top of the Great Pyramid of Meereen. Like many Unsullied, he regularly visits a brothel and pays a prostitute to lay with him, holding and caressing him, and humming a song in the meantime. During one of his visits, he approaches Vala, a Meereenese prostitute whose company he frequently enjoys. He pays the prostitute, then keeps her from disrobing and removing his trousers - as a eunuch he is unable to have intercourse. However, Vala is in league with the Sons of the Harpy and, as White Rat is laying distracted, one of the Sons of the Harpy enters the room and slits his throat. Vala and the murderer watch as White Rat quickly bleeds to death. After learning of his death, Queen Daenerys orders him to be given a funeral at the Temple of the Graces with all honors.[1]

In the books[]

In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, an Unsullied by the name of Stalwart Shield takes the role of White Rat. Whereas Grey Worm and others chose to keep his demeaning Unsullied name to defiantly reappropriate it from the Good Masters, some of the other Unsullied, however - those who were born into slavery and don't remember their original names - do take up the suggestion to make new dignified names for themselves, such as "Stalwart Shield".

The TV series may have thought this would take too long to explain, so they renamed the character "White Rat" to keep with the previously established thematic naming of the Unsullied ("Grey Worm", "Red Flea", etc.)

Stalwart Shield is the first (and not the last, as Ser Barristan warned) of Daenerys's soldiers who is killed by the Sons of the Harpy. Till then, they limited their attacks to unarmed freedmen.

Like in the show, Stalwart Shield was attacked at a brothel, but was killed in a different manner: he was stabbed multiple times, then the killers filled his throat with goat genitals (Grey Worm removed them before the body was brought to Daenerys). As always, the killers left their mark in the crime scene - a harpy drawn in the blood of their victim. From the look of Stalwart Shield's wounds, Ser Barristan Selmy estimated that there were at least six attackers, and since his scabbard was empty - that he might have injured some of his murderers. Daenerys ordered her servants to conduct an investigation, but the murderers were not caught.

When his body was brought before Daenerys, she asked Grey Worm why he was in a brothel. Grey Worm answered: "Even those who lack a man's parts may still have a man's heart." In the series, it is Missandei who pursues this line of questioning, and it is framed in the context of her feelings for him.

In honor of Stalwart Shield's memory, a company of Meereenese freedmen is named after him "Stalwart Shields".

Appearances[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Game of Thrones: Season 5, Episode 1: "The Wars To Come" (2015).

Notes[]

  1. In "Winter Is Coming," which takes place in 298 AC, Sansa Stark tells Cersei Lannister that she is 13 years old and Bran Stark tells Jaime Lannister that he is 10 years old. Arya Stark was born between Sansa and Bran, making her either 11 or 12 in Season 1. The rest of the Stark children have been aged up by 2 years from their book ages, so it can be assumed that she is 11 in Season 1. Arya is 18 in Season 8 according to HBO, which means at least 7 years occur in the span of the series; therefore, each season of Game of Thrones must roughly correspond to a year in-universe, placing the events of Season 5 in 302 AC.
  2. Astapori Low Valyrian: Timpa Genes

External links[]

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