Drogon is a male dragon belonging to Daenerys Targaryen and the eldest brother of Rhaegal and Viserion. He is the largest of her three dragons, as well as the most spirited and aggressive. As such, Daenerys has problems keeping him in control, despite seeing him as her "son". Many believe Drogon to be a reincarnation of Balerion, the Black dread, due to his being the same colors and of similar personality.
Personality and Appearance[]
Drogon was the most aggressive and least shy of all three of Daenerys' dragons. In the TV series, he was fiercely protective of his mother, and would rush to her aid if he sensed she was in danger. He was stubborn and the hardest to control of his siblings. However, he was loyal to her and to them. He was capable of mourning, as he was seen to cry out when his brothers Viserion and Rhaegal were each killed. Drogon also joined Daenerys in mourning Ser Jorah Mormont when he died defending her. When Drogon found Daenerys dead in the arms of her grieving lover, Jon, after he reluctantly assassinated her to stop her destruction, Drogon let out roars of anguish and grief. When she died, Drogon melted the Iron Throne in his desire to vent his anger, unintentionally ensuring no one would ever sit on the corrupting symbol of power ever again. Drogon could also be vengeful, as he was determined to, along with his mother, destroy the Iron Fleet after he watched Rhaegal die at the hands of their commander, Euron Greyjoy. As such, he bore a deep hate for ballistas.
In the books, Drogon is far more vicious and feral, and Daenerys is unable to make him listen to her commands.
In appearance, Drogon was black with red wings, eyes, and frills, and his flames were similar in color. In the TV series, he grew much faster and larger than in the books, reaching half of the size of a Boeing 747 jet by the events of season 7 after hatching from an egg the size of a cantaloupe in Season 1. In the novels, as of A Dance With Dragons, his wingspan measures 20 feet.
History in the Books[]
Drogon is first presented to Daenerys alongside his brothers Viserion and Rhaegal as eggs. He later hatches when placed on the funeral pyre of Daenerys' husband, Khal Drogo (Drogon's namesake). When Daenerys tried to immolate herself with Khal Drogo, and sacrificed the witch who had left Khal Drogo in a permanent comatose state, the resulting sacrifice of life for life resulted in Drogon and his brothers hatching, with Daenerys being unharmed by the flames.
As Drogon grew, he was trained by Daenerys, who learned much of dragons by raising him and his brothers. During her time in the city of Qarth, when the Sorcerers known as the Undying steal Rhaegal and Viserion, Drogon goes with Daenerys into the House of the Undying, defending her by burning the pulsating heart that serves as the sorcerers' life source, killing them before she rescues his brothers.
During her bargaining for soldiers in the city of Astapor, Daenerys uses Drogon as payment for 8,000 Unsullied soldiers from the slavers known as the Good Masters. She then uses the Unsullied to kill the Good Masters, after which Drogon returns to her. By this time, he has grown as large as a dog.
During her time in ruling Mereen, Drogon has grown to have a twenty-foot wingspan and roams far and wide, but he has become unruly and dangerous, which has led to him supposedly killing and eating a little girl, with her blackened bones being presented by the child's father as evidence to Daenerys. Drogon disappears when Daenerys tries to chain him up, and only returns when the fighting pits of Mereen are reopened. Drawn by the carnage and the smell of blood, he attacks the pit's fighters and sets much of the area ablaze. A fighter named Herghaz attacks and nearly slays him before Drogon kills him, and Daenerys then, seeing her "child" in danger, subdues him with a whip before mounting and riding him for the first time. Drogon then takes Daenerys away to his lair in the Dothraki sea, where he kills a horse, only for them to encounter Khal Jhaqo, one of Khal Drogo's former Blood-riders. His fate afterwards is unknown.
History in the TV Series[]
Drogon's history is much the same in the television series as in the books, but he is shown to be far more loyal to Daenerys than in the books, and has grown faster and larger than in the books.
Drogon is again presented as an egg by Khal Drogo as his wedding present to Daenerys alongside Rhaegal and Viserion's eggs. However, Viserys Targaryen, Daenerys' older, mentally unstable brother, tried stealing the eggs, only to be stopped by Ser Jorah Mormont. He hatches in the same way as in the books, placed on the funeral pyre of the dead Khal Drogo, with Daenerys walking into the flames to immolate herself, causing him and his brothers to hatch.
During their time in Qarth, it is Pyat Pree that steals the dragons and places them in the House of the Undying, before luring Daenerys to them to keep his magic strong, as his magic is empowered by the dragons' magic and that they are strongest in her presence. When she is chained up with her dragons, Daenerys unconcernedly whispers "Dracarys", signaling her dragons to breathe fire, and they burn Pyat Pree before incinerating the House of the Undying.
In Astapor, Drogon is traded to the head of the Masters, Kraznys mo Nakloz, for the Unsullied soldiers she needs as an army. When she has their loyalty, Daenerys unleashes the Unsullied on the masters before ordering Drogon to kill Kraznys and then the rest of the Masters.
Drogon and his brothers are also present in Daenerys' tent when a Wise Master from Yunkai arrives to entreat with Daenerys. Drogon, now about the size of a large dog, aggressively barks and snaps at the Master when he gets too close to Daenerys. Later, the Master has two slaves place a chest full of gold near Drogon as an offering to Daenerys. While the two talk, Daenerys throws a piece of meat to Viserion, and Drogon attempts to steal it from his brother. When the negotiation goes sour, Drogon growls at the Slave Master for threatening Daenerys. Scared for his safety, the Master tells his slaves to take back the gold and attempt to leave, Drogon stops them in their tracks, hissing and growling, forcing them to leave empty-handed.
By the time of Season 4, Drogon is the size of a small horse, and during a confrontation between him and his brothers, Drogon snaps at Daenerys when she tries to settle the dispute, causing her alarm that she is losing her influence on them as dragons never truly can be tamed.
Following her conquest of the city of Mereen, Drogon, now the size of a small ship, roams the countryside and kills a herd of goats. He later kills a young girl, leaving her father with the child's blackened bones. This forces her to chain up Rhaegal and Viserion. When he reappears to Daenerys, he is now the size of an orca, and she attempts to touch him, only for the dragon to fly away at the last moment.
As he flies west, Drogon is seen amidst the ruins of the Valyrian Peninsula by Sea Jorah Mormont and Tyrion Lannister, causing Tyrion to become temporarily speechless.
While Daenerys attends the grand re-opening of the fighting pits at the Great Pit of Daznak, a large group of Sons of the Harpy, rebels who seek to return Mereen to the tradition of slavery, appear and attack her council and the spectators. While trying to escape, Daenerys and her small group become surrounded by the Sons with no chance of escape. As she is about to accept her imminent death, Drogon suddenly appears, flying out of a flame burst and begins to attack, burning the Sons of the Harpy with his fiery breath and tearing them to pieces with his powerful jaws. Temporarily retreating in terror, the Sons of the Harpy regroup and retaliate by throwing spears at Drogon, wounding him, but when Daenerys commands him to fly away, he does so with her on his back.
Later, Drogon lands atop an impressive hill in a sea of green grass, which serves as his lair in the Dothraki Sea. Though Dany tries to convince him to take her back to Meereen, Drogon, still recovering from his wounds, is uninterested in flying back. Daenerys wanders away to find something to eat, but she is quickly surrounded by a Dothraki khalasar.
After Daenerys takes over command of the Dothraki, she senses Drogon following her. She slips away and rides him around the khalasar before landing and giving a rousing speech to her khalasar mounted on his back. He is significantly larger than he was during the battle in Meereen, being at least 80 feet long with a similar wingspan. Eventually, Drogon carries Daenerys to the Great Pyramid of Meereen, which is under siege by the Masters.
Daenerys discusses terms of surrender of the masters in Meereen, but corrects them by saying the terms are for their surrender, not hers. The masters foolishly mention slaughtering the dragons during the dictation of terms, which angers their mother. Drogon answers Daenerys's call and lands next to her so that she can mount him. As Drogon takes flight, Viserion and Rhaegal break out of the catacombs in which they were chained up to join their brother in the sky at last. At Dany's command of "dracarys", Drogon leads his brothers in immolating the slaver fleet with dragon fire, decisively ending the Masters' siege of Mereen, allowing her to take the enemy fleet for their own. Drogon then, alongside Rhaegal and Viserion, fly with Daenerys, her army and fleet of ships to Westeros at last.
By Season 7, Drogon is roughly 122 feet (half of the size of a 747Jumbo Jet). Upon Daenerys arriving at Dragonstone in Westeros, Drogon flies ahead with his brothers to explore the island upon which his ancestors Balerion, Vhagar, and Meraxes grew up.
During his time on Dragonstone, Drogon swoops low to greet Jon Snow and Ser Davos when they arrive to meet and negotiate with Daenerys, awing both visitors. Tyrion Lannister, now Daenerys' hand of the queen, informs Jon that while he'd like to say that you get used to the presence of dragons, that never actually happens.
When Daenerys learns of her allies among the Martells, Tyrells and the Greyjoys being attacked and defeated along with her Unsullied having been tricked into a trap, Daenerys takes Drogon and her Dothraki blood rider army march out to fight Jaime Lannister and his forces, who are returning from sacking the Tyrell Stronghold of Highgarden. In what becomes the Second Field of Fire, Daenerys and Drogon lead the attack on the Lannister army, burning a hole through the defenders' shield wall and causing terrible casualties to the defenders with every overhead pass, leaving ash and flame and death in their wake as the Dothraki overwhelm the armored soldiers and send the Lannister forces into disarray. They also burn the Lannister caravans and supplies, causing Jaime to turn his archers on the dragon. Despite their best efforts, Drogon's scales are too thick to pierce with arrows and the dragon destroys the bowmen with horrifying ease. Jaime's lieutenant, Bronn, then attempts to use the scorpion, a ballista created by Qyburn, Cersei Lannister's hand of the queen, to kill the dragon. Though Bronn manages to hit Drogon in the shoulder and cause him to nearly crash, Drogon manages to pull up at the last moment before blasting the scorpion with flame and smashing it to pieces with his tail. Wounded, Drogon lands and Daenerys attempts to pull the bolt out of his shoulder, leaving her open to an attack by Jaime Lannister. As Jaime closes in, Drogon shields Daenerys and attempts to incinerate Jaime, only for Bronn to save him, with Drogon instead incinerating Jaime's horse and Bronn and Jaime sinking into the river.
Drogon survives the battle despite his injury and is present when Daenerys addresses the defeated Lannister army. When she gives the soldiers a choice of surrendering and joining her or dying, Drogon helps enforce her will with a terrifying roar, causing many to bow before their new liege lady. Randyll Tarly and his son Dickon, refuse to bow before Daenerys, and to set an example to prevent further disloyalty, Daenerys has Drogon burn them alive, causing the entirety of the captured soldiers to bow.
After this victory, Daenerys and Drogon return to Dragonstone, where Drogon lands in front of Jon Snow. Though he roars at him, Jon stands his ground against Drogon. Drogon then, perhaps sensing Jon's true Targaryen heritage (for he is the unknown son of Daenerys' late brother, Rhaegar), allows the astounded King of the North to pet him on the snout. Daenerys watches this from atop Drogon's back in surprise. After Drogon flies away to join his brothers, Daenerys and Jon discuss the dragons, and though he does not initially agree with her assessment of them being beautiful, he does agree that they are indeed magnificent. Daenerys also informs him that no matter how terrifying or big the dragons may become, she will always view Drogon and his siblings as her children.
Drogon takes Daenerys north of the Wall, the great expanse of ice and stone that separates Westeros from the cold northern wastes when she attempts to rescue Jon Snow from the White Walkers and their army of undead wights. During the rescue, Drogon and his siblings reign fire down upon the army of the dead, destroying scores of the endless horde. However, during the battle, Viserion is killed by an ice lance hurled at him by the Night King, the leader of the White Walkers and Drogon roars in anguish upon seeing his smallest brother die. Afterwards, he, Rhaegal and Daenerys retreat with the rest of Jon's raiding party, who successfully capture a wight; their intended goal.
Drogon later delivers Daenerys to the Dragon Pit in King's Landing to discuss the threat of the undead army led by the Night King and the White Walkers. He leaves after she dismounts from his back and remains nearby until she departs.
Drogon and Rhaegal both accompany Daenerys and Jon to Winterfell, who have fallen in love with each other. Dorgon and Rhaegal stun the local populace with their appearance. Later, Daenerys brings Jon to accompany her on a flight, during which she rides Drogon while Jon rides Rhaegal. Jon is pleased by the experience after some initial struggle, and both dragons watch as their respective riders kiss in a hidden valley near a waterfall. During this exchange, Drogon stares at Jon during his kiss with Daenerys, causing Jon to keep an eye on him during their kiss.
During the Battle of Ice and Fire at Winterfell, Drogon participates in the battle, with Daenerys riding him while Rhaegal is ridden by Jon. Together, they manage to hold off the undead for a time, their flames destroying thousands of undead wights. With Rhaegal and their respective riders, the two dragons pursue the Night King on top of Viserion in a battle above the clouds. The two brothers fight ferociously with their undead sibling. When Rhaegal and Jon attack the Night King and Viserion, who are spewing flames on Winterfell, they fight mid-air. Drogon appears and manages to ram Viserion, knocking the Night King off to the ground.
Daenerys and Drogon burn the wights surrounding Jon as Jon runs towards Winterfell to stop the Night King after being dismounted from an exhausted and wounded Rhaegal. Drogon stays on the ground too long, Daenerys failing to notice the swarming wights around them. They frantically start attacking Drogon, him roaring in pain and rage. In a panic, he knocks Daenerys off his back and takes to the air, shaking off the dead assailants from his back, leaving Daenerys and Ser Jorah alone with the horde of the dead. Jorah defends Daenerys but is fatally wounded in the process. However, Daenerys survives when Arya Stark manages to kill the Night King, causing the wights to die and the army of the dead to be destroyed.
After the battle, he is seen beside Daenerys as she mourns Ser Jorah's death. As she weeps for Jorah, Drogon lays down on the battlefield, trying to console his mother and cooing mournfully as he shares in her grief.
Later on, Drogon and Rhaegal soar in the skies above Winterfell, though the latter struggles slightly due to his wing being injured from his fight with Viserion. The Targaryen forces then sail back to Dragonstone, with Daenerys and her dragons flying overhead. Euron Greyjoy's Iron Fleet ambushes them and shoots Rhaegal first with massive scorpions mounted on the ships, fatally hitting him multiple times and causing the dragon to smash into the Blackwater Bay and sink. Daenerys tries to avenge him by having Drogon burn Euron's fleet, but they are forced to retreat after narrowly avoiding being hit by another volley. With the Targaryen fleet denied the support of the dragons, Euron turns his scorpions towards them and sink the fleet.
Drogon is later present when Daenerys and her forces arrive at the gates of King's Landing to bargain for Missandei, but keeps his distance due to the scorpions along the city wall. With the death of Rhaegal, Drogon is now the last living dragon in the world.
After returning to Dragonstone, Drogon burns Varys on his mother's orders for Varys betraying Daenerys. Later, Daenerys uses Drogon to burn the entire Iron Fleet in Blackwater Bay during the Battle of King's Landing and then he destroys the gates to the city to let the Northern Armies into the city. The city surrenders to Daenerys but Daenerys uses Drogon to strafe the city streets full of fleeing civilians and the Red Keep, with her ground forces massacring the people.
After the battle, Drogon stands by Daenerys as she addresses the Dothraki and the Unsullied. She declares they "liberated" the civilians of King's Landing and will "liberate" the entire world, as well as deposing all rulers save for herself. When Jon goes to confront Daenerys, Drogon acknowledges him and lets him pass.
However, Drogon soon senses something is wrong and ascended to the throne room of the Red Keep. There, he discovers Jon holding Daenerys in his arms and grieving. Jon has reluctantly killed Daenerys to prevent more destruction and her tyranny. Drogon tries to wake her, but to no avail, and snarls angrily at Jon. Jon prepares to face Drogon's flames but Drogon - angered and enraged, wanting the world to burn but refusing to kill Jon - instead turns his flames on the one thing in his way, the throne, melting it with his flames, unmaking the symbol of power his ancestor Balerion created 300 years before. Realizing there is nothing left for him in Westeros now with his brothers and mother dead, Drogon gently picks up Daenerys' body in his talons and flies away towards Essos, never to be seen again.
In the months afterwards, Drogon is mentioned to be flying towards Volantis, whereupon the newly elected king of Westeros, Bran Stark, decides to use his magic to search for the dragon. It is not known if Bran ever found Drogon, or what happened to him afterwards.
Trivia[]
- Many fan theories abound as to Drogon's ultimate fate at the end of Game of Thrones:
- One popular theory is that he takes Daenerys's body to Valyria to be laid to rest amongst her ancestors.
- Another theory is that he takes her to be revived by the Red Priests in Volantis, where she will live out her days with Drogon in peace.
- A third theory claims Drogon takes Daenerys back to where she cremated Khal Drogo and where Drogon and his siblings were born so as to unite her with Drogo and her stillborn son Rhaego in the afterlife.
- Actress Emilia Clarke has stated her own theory regarding what Drogon did with Daenerys after her assassination by Jon; that Drogon cremated her by consuming her body after she died.