The Game of Thrones series finale, “The Iron Throne,” has turned out to be one of the most divisive endings in television history. Fans still debate key moments, including the bit where Drogon destroys the Iron Throne after finding that Jon had killed his mother, Daenerys Targaryen.
One question fans still have is why Drogon decided to go for the throne rather than for Jon. Ramin Djawadi, who’s composed the music for the show its beginning, has an explanation. It begins with the score he wrote for the scene. “We see Dany and Jon and what he has just done, and that’s why the piece starts out with the solo violin and their love theme,” Djawadi told TIME. “It’s very fractured to show that [Jon] really can’t believe what he’s just done. The theme plays and then it stops and it starts again, so he’s slowly settling into what he has done while he’s holding her in his arms.”
Djawadi’s score is heartbreaking, and Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke really sell the drama of the moment.
After Jon kills Daenerys, Drogon senses something is wrong and flies into the Iron Throne. “From there, the music grows and the dragon theme comes in. And it’s the dragon, [Daenerys’] baby basically, her child realizing that mommy is dead and then the mixed emotions of sadness and anger at the same time.”
Drogon knows Jon killed his mother, but instead of taking revenge on him, the dragon turns his wrath on the Iron Throne and melts it into molten slag. According to Djawadi, it’s intended to represent Drogon destroying the thing that led to his mother’s downfall.
That’s how that music grows, and Dany’s theme is in there as well. It’s all these themes together and then it even turns into the main title theme when he melts the throne, which is symbolic for [the throne being] what everybody has been fighting for and [how] he has to resolve that she’s dead now.
Djawadi weaved songs from earlier seasons into the score as Drogon scoops up his mother and flies away. “[The song] ends very somber with a section of ‘Breaker of Chains,’ which was from season 4 when she puts the chains on her dragons and that big emotional moment of how hard it was for her to lock them up. So it ends with that emotional beat again and with [Drogon] flying away to the solo violins like the piece started to give bookends to it.”
Interestingly, Djawadi’s take on this moment contrast with what it says in the script for the episode. There, the Iron Throne is described as “just a dumb bystander caught up in the conflagration,” which makes it sound like Drogon didn’t intend to burn it specifically.
As in any collaborative medium, different artist approach things from different angles. Maybe someone can ask Djawadi for more clarification when he’s touring with the Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience, which is sweeping through North America now.
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