George R. R. Martin’s Latest Book Might Reveal Something Dire About Dany’s Fate
Have you rewatched all the key episodes of Game of Thrones? Do you have your viewing party plans in order for the premiere? Have you memorized all the major theories? Just in case your list of things to do before the season eight premiere of Game of Thrones needs another item, did you know that George R. R. Martin’s actually been dangling some season eight clues in front of you, at least since late last year?
As the folks at Bustle reminded us this week, Fire & Blood, GRRM’s November 2018 release about the history of the Targaryens, is definitely worth a read if you’re at all concerned about Dany’s future on the show and/or her remaining dragons. But if you’d rather watch more old episodes of GoT than dive into GRRM’s 700-plus pages he wrote (instead of giving the world The Winds of Winter, the long awaited sixth book in A Song of Ice and Fire), just know that your time wouldn’t have been a complete waste.
For starters, despite everything we’ve seen her do, it turns out Dany is destructible. And if we are to believe what Fire & Blood tells us about her ancestors, specifically, one who was named Princess Daenerys the First, the cold might not be the most optimal temperature for our Mother of Dragons. Per the book, Princess Daenerys the First died of “the Shivers,” a disease that kills its host via the coldest conditions imaginable despite the presence of dragon blood. And until her death, the Targaryens believed that they could not get sick.
As Mashable pointed out in November, this is the first time Princess Daenerys the First is mentioned in any GRRM’s writing. Is this a clue that Dany, who is definitely in Winterfell at the start of season eight, will die before the series is over? Or is this GRRM toying with our emotions because it’s the final season and he just wants to have some fun?
Before you lose sleep over the possibility of Dany not being part of Jon’s life when the credits roll (that is, if Jon himself survives the Great War), Fire & Blood also sheds some light on the abilities of Drogon and Rhaegal, who are assumed to be Winterfell-bound. Long before Dany, Queen Alysanne Targaryen, aka Good Queen Alysanne, queen consort of her brother, King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, wrote a letter describing what happened when her dragon, Silverwing, came face-to-face with the Wall during a visit to the Night’s Watch.
“Thrice I flew Silverwing high above Castle Black, and thrice I tried to take her north beyond the Wall, but every time she veered back south again and refused to go. Never before has she refused to take me where I wished to go. I laughed about it when I came down again, so the black brothers would not realize anything was amiss, but it troubled me then and it troubles me still.”
On season seven, Dany and her dragons successfully went beyond the Wall to save Jon and company, but at the cost of Viserion becoming an ice dragon under the Night King’s control. Will Viscerion and his brothers have some sort of showdown at the wall (that’s already basically half melted) on season eight? Or are Dany’s remaining dragons different from Silverwing?
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