Second Siege of Meereen

"The Masters have come for their property!"

- Missandei to Tyrion Lannister

Second Siege of Meereen is a siege during the Liberation of Slaver's Bay. It first appears in the episode "No One". Following Daenerys Targaryen's capture of Meereen and emergence as its queen, the Good and Wise Masters of Astapor and Yunkai engage in a fight to support the Great Masters to retake the city and reinstall slavery in the last city that has abolished it.

Prelude
After sacking Astapor and Yunkai to liberate the enslaved populace from both cities, Daenerys Targaryen and her army conquers Meereen. Upon crucifying 163 Great Masters and the news of Cleon taking over Astapor as its new King, Daenerys installs herself as Queen of Mereen. An uprising errupts against her new rule, with the infamous Sons of the Harpy plotting to retake the city and reinstall slavery.

After the attack at Daznak's Pit, Daenerys flees Meereen on Drogon's back and her newest advisor, Tyrion Lannister, is appointed ruler of Meereen in her stead, as he is the only one with experience in ruling a city. Varys arrived soon after, and offered Tyrion the service of his spies. Sometime afterwards, Meereen' shipyards have been burned.

Meanwhile, the slave-masters have retaken both Yunkai and Astapor, leaving Meereen as the only part of Slaver's Bay that the slave-masters have not reclaimed control over.

A short-lived stability
After news of the slave-masters retaking Astapor, Tyrion arranges a meeting with the Masters, offering them a seven-year time limit to phase out slavery from Astapor and Yunkai and compensate all slaveowners, with the condition that slavery is not re-established in Meereen. The Masters reluctantly agree. Despite disagreements from the former slaves, Meereen begins to stabilize and the Sons activity is drastically reduced.

The Siege begins
Despite having apparently agreed to Tyrion's terms, the Masters send a fleet to attack the city. The fleet begins bombarding Meereen in the night, while Tyrion and Grey Worm discuss strategy, with Grey Worm proposing they don't attack the Masters fleet directly, instead prompting the Unsullied to stay inside the Great Pyramid and wait for the Masters to come to them. Fortunately, Daenerys shortly thereafter returns to the city, arriving at the top of the Great Pyramid on Drogon.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the Second Siege of Meereen unfolds differently than in the TV series, that has changed most of it's storyline in process. Daenerys does not return with a Dothraki khalasar in order to take part in the fight herself. In her absence, Meereen is ruled by Ser Barristan Selmy, who is still alive, not Tyrion. Tyrion does indeed take part in the fight, but as mercenary of the Second Sons rather than ruler of Meereen or Daenerys' advisor. Far from suffering of greyscale or reuniting with Daenerys only to part ways with her in good terms, Ser Jorah Mormont is also part of the siege, also a mercenary of the Second Sons. Unlike in the TV series, the Second Sons are originally fighting for the Slaver Alliance.

Yunkai and their allies march on Meereen in order to cast down Daenerys and reinstall the government of the Great Masters as well as slavery, they don't send a fleet to besiege the city from the sea.

Daenerys marries Hizdahr zo Loraq, a Ghiscari noble of the city of Meereen, in order to broker peace. Daenerys holds the wedding feast in the Great Pyramid, with the Yunkish lords and sellsword captains in attendance. An exchange of seven hostages is arranged in order to ensure the peace. The Yunkai'i remain encamped outside of Meereen and the peace does not last long after Daenerys goes missing on her dragon, Drogon, and King Hizdahr is removed from power and imprisoned on the grounds of attempting to murder her. Barristan Selmy takes command of the city as Hand of the Queen in Daenerys' stead, along with the ruling council of Meereen. In the meantime the bloody flux, brought by runaway Astapori freedmen, begins to spread among the Yunkish army and their allies.

Meanwhile, Tyrion Lannister and Jorah Mormont escape slavery and join the Second Sons encamped outside the city. Tyrion and Jorah surmise that the Second Sons are fighting for the wrong side and they need to go over to Daenerys. Tyrion convinces Ben Plumm, the Commander of the Second Sons, to join Daenerys by signing decrees promising huge amounts of gold once he assumes his place as Lord of Casterly Rock. Thereafter, Ben Plumm declares that the Second Sons were always the Queen's men and rejoining Yunkai was just a plot.

Out in Slaver's Bay, the Iron Fleet arrives, as Euron Greyjoy, King of the Iron Islands and the North, has sent his brother, Victarion, to bring Daenerys to Westeros as Euron's wife. However, Victarion plans to take Daenerys to himself. Victarion's place in the battle in TV show is taken by Yara and Theon Greyjoy, who are planing to forge an alliance with Daenerys in order to take the Iron Islands from Euron for themselves and are likely to aid Daenerys in the battle to won her favor. In the novels, Asha (Yara's novel counterpart) and Theon are both prisoners of Stannis Baratheon, who is currently marching with his army to Winterfell.