foolish watcher

Everyone is freaking out that there won’t be dragons in the ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel, but everyone is probably wrong.

Therese Odell
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George R.R. Martin has revealed that there will be no Targaryens in the Game of Thrones prequel that is probably going to be called The Long Night:

I wonder, since HBO’s prequel pilot takes place 10,000 years before Game of Thrones, will that world even be recognizable to fans as Westeros since there’s such a huge time jump?
“10,000 years” is mentioned in the novels. But you also have places where maesters say, “No, no, it wasn’t 10,000, it was 5,000.” Again, I’m trying to reflect real-life things that a lot of high fantasy doesn’t reflect. In the Bible, it has people living for hundreds of years and then people added up how long each lived and used that to figure out when events took place. Really? I don’t think so. Now we’re getting more realistic dating now from carbon dating and archeology. But Westeros doesn’t have that. They’re still in the stage of “my grandfather told me and his grandfather told him.” So I think it’s closer to 5,000 years. But you’re right. Westeros is a very different place. There’s no King’s Landing. There’s no Iron Throne. There are no Targaryens — Valyria has hardly begun to rise yet with its dragons and the great empire that it built. We’re dealing with a different and older world and hopefully that will be part of the fun of the series. [Prequel showrunner Jane Goldman] is a tremendous talent. She flew into Santa Fe and we spent a week talking about her ideas. She’s going into territory that I haven’t explored very much in the books. I’ve hinted about them. But she’s a major writer, I love her work.

I’ve seen some people take this as indication that there won’t be dragons on the new series, which I suppose is possible, but that’s not exactly what Martin says — he just notes that there will be no Targaryens and that Valyria is just beginning to rise. Dragons, according to The World of Ice and Fire, dragons not only existed since ancient times, but they existed everywhere, including Westeros even before the Targaryens brought them there.

In such fragments of Barth’s Unnatural History as remain, the septon appears to have considered various legends examining the origins of dragons and how they came to be controlled by the Valyrians. The Valyrians themselves claimed that dragons sprang forth as the children of the Fourteen Flames, while in Qarth the tales state that there was once a second moon in the sky. One day this moon was scalded by the sun and cracked like an egg, and a million dragons poured forth. In Asshai, the tales are many and confused, but certain texts—all impossibly ancient—claim that dragons first came from the Shadow, a place where all of our learning fails us. These Asshai’i histories say that a people so ancient they had no name first tamed dragons in the Shadow and brought them to Valyria, teaching the Valyrians their arts before departing from the annals.

Yet if men in the Shadow had tamed dragons first, why did they not conquer as the Valyrians did? It seems likelier that the Valyrian tale is the truest. But there were dragons in Westeros, once long before the Targaryens came, as our own legends and histories tell us. If dragons did first spring from the Fourteen Flames, they must have been spread across much of the known world before they were tamed. And, in fact, there is evidence for this, as dragon bones have been found as far north as Ib, and even in the jungles of Sothoryos. But the Valyrians harnessed and subjugated them as no one else could.

As for the Targaryens, they are only one of many Valyrian families (there were 40 Houses), and they were not particularly powerful during their time in Valyria. The Targaryens are the only Valyrians that we are familiar with because they were the only dargonlords to survive The Doom. So, it’s entirely possible House Targaryen didn’t exist in Valyria until much later in the Westeros/Essos timeline than this particular story will be exploring.

The point is: if we see any of Valyria or Essos in general in this new series, it’s not just possible, but likely there will be dragons — just no Targaryens. And with that, I will stop nerdsplaining now.

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Renewals

Cancellations

In Development

Casting News

Mark Your Calendars

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Christmas Movies:

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