In the world of Game of Thrones, there are few creatures more powerful and more mysterious than dragons. After years of absence from the world, Daenerys Targaryen walked into the funeral pyre of Khal Drogo holding three dragon eggs, and she emerged still alive with three hatched baby dragons along with her. And that was the start of Dany’s quest to conquer the world, using the most powerful forces of fire known to existence to do it.
Although dragons have a huge starring role in Game of Thrones, there are still far more questions about them than there are answers. Since the series has now officially come to it’s close, it seems safe to say that answers to these questions are not forthcoming (not until the prequel House of the Dragon, at least). But these are 10 questions we still have about the Game of Thrones dragons that we’d kill to have answers to.
10 Why Did They Die Out?
It seems as if the magic in the world of Planetos ebbs and flows, and it also seems as if the dragons are inextricably linked to that magic. But that seems like an overly simplistic view of these incredibly powerful and mysterious beasts, and we have to wonder if there is something else that sustains them, or conversely diminishes them.
Dragons are exceptionally long lived creatures, and in the times of Old Valyria they were apparently everywhere, so how in the world did they go from flourishing to extinct in a matter of a few generations?
9 Were They Really Extinct?
After the Doom of Valyria and the Targaryen conquest, the dragon species underwent a relatively quick and abrupt end. Or at least, that is what happened to dragons within the known world. However, A Song of Ice and Fire author George RR Martin has been clear that while the known world of Planetos is vast, the unknown edges of the world are even bigger.
So just because the dragons vanished off the face of the known world, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they were completely gone. They could have been living in the east of Essos, in the unknown land Sothoryos, or even in whatever is west of Westeros.
8 Why Were They Reborn?
The obvious answer to this question seems to be that the dragons were reborn because Daenerys Targaryen was the super special chosen one, and that her existence and ability to sacrifice herself on an altar of flame is what brought dragons back into the world. That is at least what Dany and her followers all assumed.
However, correlation is not necessarily causation. Could it be that Dany just did the right thing at the exact right time? That she exchanged life for life when she killed Mirri Maz Duur and burned the eggs with her? And since magic was already resurging in the world, the dragons were primed to make their big return?
7 What Was The World Like When They Were Everywhere?
Daenerys Targaryen changed and pretty much conquered the world with her three dragons, the first dragons in the known world for over a century.
However, according to the histories of Essos and Westeros, there was a time in which dragons were found in every corner of the world. And there were forty families of dragon riders in Valyria, all of whom had their dragons too.
So what exactly was the world like when the dragons were so prolific? How did they survive and thrive? Did they just run rampant over the entire world? And how did humans peacefully coexist with them?
6 Why Did They Fade?
The extinction of the dragons is what really stands out in everyone’s mind when it comes to the death and rebirth of these fire beasts made flesh. However, it seems like they started to decline long before they actually died out, and it seems odd that no one noticed or was concerned by it.
Because once upon a time the dragons roamed free all over the world, but by the time that the Targaryens started to rise in the world there were apparently only a select few Valyrian families who had dragons, and then once the Doom of Valyria happened only the Targaryen dragons were left. So what happened to them?
5 Why Did They Only Answer To The Targaryens?
The Targaryens are borderline obsessed with the idea of the “blood of the dragon”, but what exactly does that mean, and why were they the only ones left who had it? Clearly there is some kind of connection between the Targaryens and the dragon species, but it’s a complete mystery as to what exactly that is.
The reactions that the dragons had to Jon Snow would indicate that there is something in the blood that dragons can naturally sense too, they knew Jon was a Targaryen before literally anyone else did, but what is it precisely that makes the dragon blood so special?
4 Where Is Drogon?
After Daenerys took a knife to the torso, Drogon understandably snatched up his mommy and took off. But where exactly did Drogon go, and why? He must have had plans for Dany, but we’re dying to know exactly what that was.
Plus, once he has mourned and memorialized mommy dearest, where is he going to go afterwards? A dragon, especially one of that size, is clearly pretty conspicuous, so it’d be interesting to know if he decides to take a tour of the known world or if he flies off into the unknown reaches of Planetos to set up shop.
3 Will He Ever Have Another Dragonrider?
The bond between a dragon and it’s rider can only be broken by death, and unfortunately for Drogon, he lost his rider in the only way that he could. However, it’s not unheard of for dragons to create a bond to another rider.
Is it possible that there are other dragon blooded people out there who are just unaware of their magical abilities? Or, and this seems like a bit of a stretch considering that he killed Drogon’s previous rider, but is it even possible that the last Targaryen Jon Snow could someday become Drogon’s new rider?
2 Where Did They Come From?
Given how undeveloped the cultures of Planetos seem to be on the whole, it’s no surprise that there hasn’t been some Charles Darwin-style inventory of the living beasts in the world and where they came from.
But given that dragons seem to be something between a normal animal and some magical being it’d be really interesting to know where dragons really originated from. There seem to be origin stories that explain the existence of dragons in the world, but as one might expect, they differ from culture to culture, and there probably isn’t one legend that is the “real” answer.
1 Will The Species Continue On Now?
Daenerys and her followers believed that it was Dany herself who brought dragons back into the world, and if they’re right then it seems logical that once Drogon dies the dragons will be gone from the face of the earth once again. But assuming Dany is responsible for the existence of dragons seems like a bit of a stretch.
The fact that Drogon is the only living dragon left means that he will have to reproduce somehow, but dragons aren’t gendered like normal animals, so it’s more than possible. What actually does trigger a dragon to lay an egg that will successfully hatch is still a mystery, though.
