Kraznys mo Nakloz
A Good Master of Astapor, a cruel and casually obscene slaver who breeds and sells the Unsullied by the thousand.
A soul born at Astapor, sworn to The Masters of Slaver's Bay.
The fuller tale
How it ends for them
On the screen. Undone by his own sale (S3┬ÀE4)
The Good Master of Astapor traded eight thousand Unsullied for a dragon, sneering in Valyrian at the queen he assumed could not understand him. She understood every word. Dracarys.
On the page. Undone by the sale of an army (ASOS, ch. 27)
The Good Master mocked the barbarian queen in High Valyrian while he sold her eight thousand Unsullied for a chained dragon. Dany answered him in his own tongue ÔÇö and Drogon answered him in fire.
Kraznys dies in the Plaza of Punishment at Astapor in both tellings, and in both the instrument is the merchandise. The sale complete ÔÇö eight thousand Unsullied for the black dragon ÔÇö Kraznys discovers that Drogon will not answer his tugging on the chain, and the barbarian girl explains why in flawless High Valyrian: a dragon is not a slave, and she has understood every word he ever said in front of her. Then, to the master holding her dragonÔÇÖs leash: Dracarys. DrogonÔÇÖs fire takes Kraznys in the face and chest, burning him alive in his tokar in front of the army he made, while the Unsullied ÔÇö freed and commanded in the same minute ÔÇö turn on AstaporÔÇÖs masters at large. The Good MasterÔÇÖs last transaction stands as the sagaÔÇÖs most complete piece of poetic accounting: he sold the whip, the army, and the translator, and each of the three was in the plaza to watch what his contempt had failed to price.
Their chapters, book by book
A Storm of Swords 1 chapter that name them
Where the page and the screen part
The two tellings stage Kraznys almost identically ÔÇö the obscene sales patter, the mistranslations, the dragon-for-an-army bargain ÔÇö which is itself a sign of how well the booksÔÇÖ scene worked; the showÔÇÖs changes are cosmetic. On the page his interpreter is a slave girl of about ten and the price is Drogon plus ships and goods, haggled over days; on screen Missandei is grown and the bargain compressed. One structural difference: in the books DaenerysÔÇÖs deception runs deeper ÔÇö she has hidden her Valyrian from everyone for weeks, and her command word to the Unsullied is accompanied by the formal transfer of the harpyÔÇÖs-fingers whip, which she then throws down, freeing the army in the same breath she looses it. In both tellings his death is the pivot of her legend; the books simply let the reader hear, one beat earlier, how completely he never saw it coming.
Their journey
Where the two tellings send them to the same place the road runs whole; where they part, the screen keeps the left and the books the right.