16 May 2019

How to get rid of a Dragon

One of the most obvious "problems" that needs resolution in this last episode of Game of Thrones is the dispostion of a giantic black dragon named Drogon. I think there are only three real contingencies:

  • serves as Daenerys's muscle in her reign of terror
  • gets killed
  • gets exiled
I suppose that "becomes King Jon's/Aegon's dragon" is theoretically possible, that seems to be a stretch, but the writers have pulled a few stunts to get themselves out of some tight quarters as the series winds down, so anything is possible. However, in this case, they really don't need to.

Daenerys's terror muscle

If Daenerys wins the Game of Thrones, then she'll need Drogon to keep the people in line. After all, she torched half of King's Landing or more killing Lannister soldiers and innocent men, women, children, dogs, cats, chickens, and horses alike. A very different "liberation" than smuggling weapons in to slaves so they could do a DIY revolution with the backing of her Unsullied. Whatever respect and gratitude she might have accrued fighting the Army of the Dead means nothing in King's Landing and with the Lannisters. There is no way this show ends with Daenerys on the Iron Throne, which means one of two things for her and for Drogon: death or exile.

Death

How in the Seven Heavens do you kill Drogon? Build a Scorpion, I suppose, but that seems like that's a little too pat. Maybe if it somehow ties in Gendry, who despite being a prince takes to the forge once again, although there must be some surviving smiths who built the many Scorpions that Drogon exploded with dragon fire. It would be plausible to set a trap where Daenerys is going to accept the surrender of King's Landing (she'll want to do it where everybody can see Drogon, not that they haven't had all they could possibly want to see already), and they pop him, and Jon condemns Daenerys do die and chops her head off with Longclaw. Actually, that wouldn't be too bad a way to do it, come to think of it. You have Grey Worm and the Unsullied and the Dothraki to deal with, but some variation like that might work. I don't think they'll go down that route, though.

Poison or Blood Magic or other some such

Samwell Tarley is the last Maester-ish character still alive, and holed up in Winterfell. Yes, there is that jackass at the Citadel, but he doesn't count. We haven't seen his sorry ass since season 6. I don't think that Daenerys and crew are going to go back to Winterfell, so if Jon needs Sam's help in figuring out some way to poison Drogon or throw black magic voodoo on him, they'll have to communicate via ravens. I suppose Sam could send the recipe to Jon via raven, and Tyrion gets the pyromancer to mix it up, and then they feed Drogon a poisoned cow or whatever. But, I don't think so.

Bran wargs Drogon

Last we saw, Bran was in Winterfell, so it would have been more plausible to warg Drogon up there, and I don't think that Drogon's coming back. Still, he's the Three Eyed Raven and might be able to warg Drogon from a distance. Then he could make him stand still while Jon or Arya or someone stabs him through the eye or makes him drown himself or fly himself to death. I was hoping to see Bran warg a dragon at some point, but with the logistics as they are, I don't see it happening.

Arya goes out like The Hound

If Arya kills Drogon, I think she goes down fighting. How does she kill Drogon? I don't know — maybe Gendry makes here a Valyrian steel spear or Valyrian steel tipped arrows? Drogon is the only big bad that's left in Arya's league, unless you want to count the Unsullied or what's left of the Dothraki horde, but that's too big a shark to jump. Sam coming up with a dragon soft-spot and Arya putting ordinance on target wouldn't be too outrageous. It would invoke Bard the Bowman taking out Smaug in The Hobbit. For all the screen time Arya has got shooting bows, I don't think she's shot a single person. What the hell was all that archery screen time for? If she goes the Bard the Bowman route, she wouldn't have to die. It might even work if Sam sends a raven telling Jon what the material it was on the Night King's spear that was so deadly to Viserion and they make a spear or arrows out of that. Either way, they could have a little drama, missed shots, carnage, and make it work.

Death by a thousand Cuts

We've seen that dragons in Game of Thrones are very tough, but they aren't invincible. When Drogon came back to save Daenerys as she was being attacked by the Sons of the Harpy in Meereen, he was severely wounded by spears, and the dragons seemed to suffer injuries at the hands of the wights at in the battle with the Army of the Dead at Winterfell. If they can keep him on the ground somehow (trap? trick Daenerys in chaining him up?), it's feasible that they just overwhelm him with spears and arrows and whatever else they can throw at him. Or, they could just drop a building on him and bury him in rubble because that's the uber cool way to take out a major big bad character in the most epic series in the history of TV. SMDH.

Exile

If you can't kill the dragon, can you get him to go away? Now, I don't think he can roam the hills and dales of Westeros. I mean, I think the logistics work, as he was roaming the hills and dales of Essos and while he ate his share of sheep and the occasional shepherd, he wasn't an existential threat to civilization. It wouldn't work from the storytelling perspective. What are we going to do with this dragon? Meh, just let him run around. Yeah, no.

Follow Daenerys into Exile

It's possible that some combination of combat, political maneuvering, heavy application of guilt trip, etc., that Daenerys could get convinced she needs to go back to Essos. It's not all that out of the question if they can show her that the locals hate her, the place she's conquered is ashes and rubble and not anywhere nice as her dominions in Essos where many folks do love her, and what is her obligation to the Unsullied and Dothraki? The Dothraki taking their spoils will not endear her to the locals any more than her burning people with Drogon did. Maybe we'll see that there is a managable number of Dothraki that Westerosi armies could finish them off, but one way or another they need to be dealt with. What they'd like the best would be to go back to the Great Grass Sea. It's not likely, but there might be a way to dispose of them without mayhem and slaughter. What am I saying? It's almost certainly mayhem and slaughter.

Jon Snow flies Drogon to Old Valyria

Jon can fly dragons, but it remains to be seen if he can fly Drogon. Maybe he can. One way to be rid of him would be to fly him over to the ruins of Old Valyria and let him roam free where the worst he'd do is toast the occasional Stone Man. It might get him out of king duties, which he would like.

Arya flies Drogon to Old Valyria as Daenerys

We haven't seen the face trick in a while, and there's only one episode to go. What if Arya took Daenerys's face? If she can fool Drogon — and I really can't think of any reason that she shouldn't — maybe she can fly Drogon to Essos, maybe with the Dothraki in tow, and maybe the Unsullied, too? It wouldn't have to be a one-way trip, but it could be. She could either go back to Braavos, maybe to become First Sword, or she could get ferried back by whoever shipped the Dothraki back (probably Yara Greyjoy). Arya going to Braavos in pursuit of First Sword status is the very best possible ending for her, so I know they won't think of it. Still, how cool would that be?

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