Parallel Wounds: Khal Drogo and Victarion Greyjoy (Spoilers Extended)

Background

While not direct parallels, the wounds taken by Khal Drogo and Victarion Greyjoy take on similar qualities in certain fashions. So much so that I thought it would be fun to compare/contrast them.

Both Wounds Seem Fine at First

• Khal Drogo

Khal Drogo is wounded fighting another khalasar and killing two khals:

“Is scratch, moon of life, from arakh of one bloodrider to Khal Ogo,” Khal Drogo said in the Common Tongue. “I kill him for it, and Ogo too.” He turned his head, the bells in his braid ringing softly. “Is Ogo you hear, and Fogo his khalakka, who was khal when I slew him.”

• Victarion Greyjoy

While Victarion is wounded by a brave man (almost ironborn):

Victarion remembered the fight as if it had been yesterday. His shield had been in shards, hanging useless from his arm, so when Serry's longsword came flashing down he had reached up and caught it. The stripling had been stronger than he looked; his blade bit through the lobstered steel of the captain's gauntlet and the padded glove beneath into the meat of his palm. A scratch from a little kitten, Victarion told himself afterward. He had washed the cut, poured some boiled vinegar over it, bound it up, and thought little more of it, trusting that the pain would fade and the hand heal itself in time.
Instead the wound had festered, until Victarion began to wonder whether Serry's blade had been poisoned. Why else would the cut refuse to heal? The thought made him rage. No true man killed with poison. At Moat Cailin the bog devils had loosed poisoned arrows at his men, but that was to be expected from such degraded creatures. Serry had been a knight, highborn. Poison was for cravens, women, and Dornishmen. -ADWD, The Iron Suitor

Both Wounds are "Healed" by a Magi/Magic Person

• Khal Drogo

Dany brings Mirri Maz Duur to heal Drogo:

Dany could see the muscles in his chest where the skin had been cut away. A trickle of blood ran from the arrow that pierced his arm. “It is not for Khal Drogo to wait,” she proclaimed. “Jhogo, seek out these eunuchs and bring them here at once.”
“Silver Lady,” a woman’s voice said behind her, “I can help the Great Rider with his hurts.”
Dany turned her head. The speaker was one of the slaves she had claimed, the heavy, flat-nosed woman who had blessed her. -AGOT, Daenerys VII

with his men not happy about it:

Haggo followed the khal from the temple, but Qotho lingered long enough to favor Mirri Maz Duur with a stare. "Remember, maegi, as the khal fares, so shall you." -AGOT, Daenerys VII

Drogo doesn't exactly follow instructions:

Beneath his painted vest, a plaster of fig leaves and caked blue mud covered the wound on his breast. The herbwomen had made it for him. Mirri Maz Duur’s poultice had itched and burned, and he had torn it off six days ago, cursing her for a maegi. The mud plaster was more soothing, and the herbwomen made him poppy wine as well. He’d been drinking it heavily these past three days; when it was not poppy wine, it was fermented mare’s milk or pepper beer. -AGOT, Daenerys VIII

so Mirri resorts to blood magic (at the request of Dany):

"No," she pleaded. "Save him, and I will free you, I swear it. You must know a way … some magic, some …"
Mirri Maz Duur sat back on her heels and studied Daenerys through eyes as black as night. "There is a spell." Her voice was quiet, scarcely more than a whisper. "But it is hard, lady, and dark. Some would say that death is cleaner. I learned the way in Asshai, and paid dear for the lesson. My teacher was a bloodmage from the Shadow Lands." -AGOT, Daenerys VIII

• Victarion Greyjoy

Victarion's men pull Moqorro (who had been with Jorah/Tyrion en route to Dany):

"A wizard?" Could the Drowned God have sent a gift to him, here on the far side of the world? His brother Aeron would have known, but Aeron had seen the majesty of the Drowned God's watery halls below the sea before being returned to life. Victarion had a healthy fear of his god, as all men should, but put his faith in steel. He flexed his wounded hand, grimacing, then pulled his glove on and rose. "Show me this wizard."

and Moqorro knew about his hand:

"Your death is with us now, my lord. Give me your hand."
"My hand. What do you know of my hand?"
"I have seen you in the nightfires, Victarion Greyjoy. You come striding through the flames stern and fierce, your great axe dripping blood, blind to the tentacles that grasp you at wrist and neck and ankle, the black strings that make you dance."
“Dance?” Victarion bristled. “Your nightfires lie. I was not made for dancing, and I am no man’s puppet.” He yanked off his glove and shoved his bad hand at the priest’s face. “Here. Is this what you wanted?” The new linen was already discolored by blood and pus. “He had a rose on his shield, the man who gave this to me. I scratched my hand on a thorn.”
“Even the smallest scratch can prove mortal, lord Captain, but if you will allow me, I will heal this. I will need a blade. Silver would be best, but iron will serve. A brazier as well. I must needs light a fire. There will be pain. Terrible pain, such as you have never known. But when we are done, your hand will be returned to you.”

and a threat was made to Moqorro as well:

They are all the same, these magic men. The mouse warned me of pain as well. “I am ironborn, priest. I laugh at pain. You will have what you require … but if you fail, and my hand is not healed, I will cut your throat myself and give you to the sea.”
Moqorro bowed, his dark eyes shining. “So be it.”

and Victarion's hand was healed in another seemingly blood magic ritual:

The iron captain was not seen again that day, but as the hours passed the crew of his Iron Victory reported hearing the sound of wild laughter coming from the captain’s cabin, laughter deep and dark and mad, and when Longwater Pyke and Wulfe One-Eye tried the cabin door they found it barred. Later singing was heard, a strange high wailing song in a tongue the maester said was High Valyrian. That was when the monkeys left the ship, screeching as they leapt into the water.
Come sunset, as the sea turned black as ink and the swollen sun tinted the sky a deep and bloody red, Victarion came back on deck. He was naked from the waist up, his left arm blood to the elbow. As his crew gathered, whispering and trading glances, he raised a charred and blackened hand. Wisps of dark smoke rose from his fingers as he pointed at the maester. “That one. Cut his throat and throw him in the sea, and the winds will favor us all the way to Meereen.” Moqorro had seen that in his fires. He had seen the wench wed too, but what of it? She would not be the first woman Victarion Greyjoy had made a widow.

If interested: Animals Screaming During "Magical" Events

Both Wounds Change the Character

• Khal Drogo

Drogo ends up in a comatose like state:

Had she? Had she? If I look back I am lost. "The price was paid," Dany said. "The horse, my child, Quaro and Qotho, Haggo and Cohollo. The price was paid and paid and paid." She rose from her cushions. "Where is Khal Drogo? Show him to me, godswife, maegi, bloodmage, whatever you are. Show me Khal Drogo. Show me what I bought with my son's life." -AGOT, Daenerys IX

• Victarion Greyjoy

While Victarion's arm turns super powerful/leads him to believe he has two gods behind him:

But he would feed the red god too, Moqorro's fire god. The arm the priest had healed was hideous to look upon, pork crackling from elbow to fingertips. Sometimes when Victarion closed his hand the skin would split and smoke, yet the arm was stronger than it had ever been. "Two gods are with me now," he told the dusky woman. "No foe can stand before two gods." Then he rolled her on her back and took her once again. -ADWD, Victarion I

Fate of the Magi/Magic Person

• Khal Drogo (Mirr Maz Duur)

Mirri Maz Duur is sacrificed (in another blood magic ritual) resulting in the hatching of Dany's three dragons:

"You will not hear me scream," Mirri responded as the oil dripped from her hair and soaked her clothing.
"I will," Dany said, "but it is not your screams I want, only your life. I remember what you told me. Only death can pay for life." Mirri Maz Duur opened her mouth, but made no reply. As she stepped away, Dany saw that the contempt was gone from the maegi's flat black eyes; in its place was something that might have been fear. Then there was nothing to be done but watch the sun and look for the first star. -AGOT, Daenerys X

• Victarion Greyjoy (Moqorro)

We don't know Moqorro's fate yet, but he is one of the characters mentioned in Quaithe's warning to Dany:

"No. Hear me, Daenerys Targaryen. The glass candles are burning. Soon comes the pale mare, and after her the others. Kraken and dark flame, lion and griffin, the sun's son and the mummer's dragon. Trust none of them. Remember the Undying. Beware the perfumed seneschal." -ADWD, Daenerys II

with him trying to bring the faith of R'hllor from the Red Temple in Volantis (led by Bennero) to Daenerys.

A Couple More Parallels for Fun

Not necessarily about the wounds:

• The Dothraki Sea

Note how powerful Victarion's arm has become:

The silver queen is gone,” the ketch’s master told him. “She flew away upon her dragon, beyond the Dothraki sea.”
“Where is this Dothraki sea?” he demanded. “I will sail the Iron Fleet across it and find the queen wherever she may be.”
The fisherman laughed aloud. “That would be a sight worth seeing. The Dothraki sea is made of grass, fool.”
He should not have said that. Victarion took him around the throat with his burned hand and lifted him bodily into the air. Slamming him back against the mast, he squeezed till the Yunkishman’s face turned as black as the fingers digging into his flesh. The man kicked and writhed for a while, trying fruitlessly to pry loose the captain’s grip. “No man calls Victarion Greyjoy a fool and lives to boast of it.” When he opened his hand, the man’s limp body flopped to the deck. Longwater Pyke and Tom Tidewood chucked it over the rail, another offering to the Drowned God. -ADWD, Victarion I

• Bride of Fire

While Drogo marries Dany, it seems that while Victarion aims to marry her, his brother Euron is likely a couple steps ahead of him:

Her silver was trotting through the grass, to a darkling stream beneath a sea of stars. A corpse stood at the prow of a ship, eyes bright in his dead face, grey lips smiling sadly. A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness.… mother of dragons, bride of fire … -ACOK, Daenerys IV

If interested: Fates of the Bride of Fire's Suitors

TLDR: Just a quick rundown comparing/contrasting the wounds received by Khal Drogo and Victarion Greyjoy. Both wounds are originally thought to be a scratch and then later "healed" by a maegi/wizard (Mirri Maz Duur and Moqorro). Both of these characters have their own motivations in healing and the results ends up drastically different.