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When I picture the deaths of Daenerys Targaryens dragons, the first word that comes to mind isobscene.
The dragons are technical filmmaking achievements ofa scale and qualitynever before seen on television.
He flies away and his future is unknown.
But while the minds of these dragons remain a mystery, what theysymbolizecan be sussed out more readily.
As such, they serve as legends on a map of the future.
Two paths say, Here be dragons.
The third is wide open.
Named after Daeneryss abusive and ultimately pathetic brotherViserys, Viserion is the first dragon to go.
What happens after this soaring, triumphant moment of high fantasy?
Death, on a scale unmatched by even the biggest giants and mammoths and direwolves.
The weapon catches Viserion mid-flight as flame still blazes forth from his mouth.
It takes him down in a torrent of fire and blood, turning Danys own house words against her.
When he opens them again, they are the ice-blue eyes of the living dead.
The second death is that of Rhaegal.
The creature dies near the seat of power of his namesake, whose titles included prince of Dragonstone.
This time, theres no tension, no suspense, no build at all.
As rousing, hopeful music plays, Dany and her dragons soar above their fleet.
Euron is a chuckling, swaggering void in the shape of a man.
That leaves one last dragon the one who lives.
Inevitably, Drogons roars start soon thereafter.
At first distant and muted, they rise to a crescendo.
Then the colossal black monster arrives in the flesh.
But if Jon expected an execution, he is instead granted a reprieve.
Now, no one will be able to do so ever again.
Viserion is slain by the Night King, the personification of death.
Supernatural in origin, he is the enemy that faces all people, a collective and existential threat.
Euron Greyjoy, thats what.
Thats precisely the point.
People can do such great things together, yet theyll return to destroying each other given the slightest opportunity.
Rhaegals death at Eurons hands feels repulsive, almost absurd, because so are the venal forces he represents.
While the conqueror of Kings Landing dies herself, her last surviving child does not.
Yet Drogons departure speaks just as directly to the course of the final season as do his siblings deaths.
Here, once again, we see the larger project of the show at work.
The Iron Throne is not a series finale that either fully vindicates or fully condemns its survivors.
Instead, half-measures are the order of the day.
The North achieves independence, but the other Six Kingdoms stay under central rule.
Sansa Stark returns to her home, though it, too, is an undiscovered country now.
The North has not had a universally acknowledged monarch in centuries.
Its quite possible that shes the first queen to rule the Northever.
Whatever shell do next will be a brand-new thing.
And in the final image of the series, Jon Snow rides into the unknown.
But hes choosing life over death, healing over killing, an open ending over a sure thing.
Yet in doing so, he has a chance to do something good, and yes, something new.
He could just as well have cited another magical and mysterious being altogether.
In this process there are no magic bullets, no guarantees, no happily ever afters.
The path to a better future is one of uncertainty and imperfection.
It is measured in decades rather than days.
It is charted in thousand-mile journeys rather than single bold steps.
