Game of Thrones: The Fate of the Dragons Revealed

This article contains major spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 3, “The Long Night.”

A dragon is a precious thing. Once the mighty beast of burden that Old Valyria was built upon, for centuries it was thought dragons were extinct. That is until Daenerys Targaryen was gifted with three dragon eggs—thought to be stone fossils and once prized items stolen from the Targaryen family hundreds of years prior—that would eventually hatch. But even after these incredible, nigh indestructible creatures returned to our world, poor sweet Viserion still met the Many-Faced God of Death in season 7 and found him to be a blue-eyed devil… one who converted the cream and golden dragon to the forces of darkness. So perhaps more than any human character’s fate—sorry, Theon—it was the fate of Drogon and Rhaegal that most vexed viewers of “The Long Night,” the episode in which the Night King’s armies finally descended upon Winterfell.

As it turns out, as intense as that gripping episode was, we needn’t have fretted. “The Long Night” said goodbye to many characters, but Drogon and Rhageal were not among them. While some audience members were confused by the ambiguity of nighttime warfare that saw Rhaegal tossing and turning in a death grip with Visierion above the clouds, we never saw Rhaegal actually sustain a visibly lethal blow or die. And as in all fiction, if there is no body (or even a clear exit wound), there is no death. Rhageal takes a beating from Viserion and is forced to shake off Jon Snow, but it was no deadlier a scenario than when Drogon was attacked by a thousand zombies, crawling on the red and black hell-beast like ants feasting on a picnic.

Drogon flew off, shaking the wights from his flesh, but he is visibly fine and breathing at the end of the battle when he returns to Daenerys, wounded but unbowed. He even attempts to comfort the mother of dragons as her likely best and truest friend, Ser Jorah Mormont, departs this world. If a dragon could cry, this might be the moment. Instead Drogon rests to console Dany for another day. This is confirmation Drogon survived for anyone who was confused, however he was not alone.

read more: Game of Thrones Season 8 – The Fate of Ghost Revealed

If you watch the Game of Thrones Season 8 episode 4 trailer, you will see Jon Snow going to pet and examine a still very much alive Rhaegal, as well as both dragons flying above Winterfell to what should hopefully be Sansa Stark’s relief after they helped save her home and her own flesh from becoming the province of the dead.

So there you have it, Drogon and Rhaegal are alive! Rest easy, for while the long night is over, the game of thrones is just about to reach its crescendo.

David Crow is the Film Section Editor at Den of Geek. He’s also a member of the Online Film Critics Society. Read more of his work here. You can follow him on Twitter @DCrowsNest.