Assassination Of Daenerys Targaryen - Game Of Thrones Wiki

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Assassination of Daenerys Targaryen

Part of the Last War

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Battle of King's Landing	Great Council in the Dragonpit

Event information

Date

305 AC[a]

Place

Red Keep, King's Landing, Crownlands

Outcome

• Death of Daenerys Targaryen
• Imprisonment and later exile of Jon Snow to the Night's Watch
• Official extinction of House Targaryen (bloodline still active)
• Iron Throne destroyed by Drogon with dragonfire

Factions

Iron Throne(House Targaryen)

Jon Snow

Participants

Queen Daenerys I Targaryen †

Jon Snow

Casualties

Queen Daenerys I Targaryen †

None

"You are my queen. Now and always." ―Jon Snow just before killing Daenerys Targaryen[src]

The assassination of Daenerys Targaryen is a pivotal and closing event of the Last War. Following Daenerys Targaryen's destruction of a surrendered King's Landing, in which hundreds of thousands of innocents were slaughtered, Jon Snow reluctantly kills her, to prevent more massacres and destruction.

Contents

• 1 History
  • 1.1 Background
  • 1.2 The assassination
  • 1.3 Aftermath
• 2 Behind the scenes
• 3 In the books
• 4 References
  • 4.1 Notes

History[]

Background[]

Daenerys, who gradually succumbs to the Targaryen madness, initially agrees to Tyrion's proposal that they give the people of King's Landing a chance to surrender. However, at the Battle of King's Landing, she burns down the city even after the Lannister soldiers surrender. King's Landing is destroyed by the dragonfire of Drogon and by the wildfire caches placed beneath the city by Daenerys's father, King Aerys II, resulting in the deaths of thousands of smallfolk and surrendered soldiers.[1]

Jon, Davos, and Tyrion walked through the city in the aftermath, stunned and dismayed by the amount of destruction and death caused by their queen. Daenerys delivers a speech to her Dothraki and Unsullied forces, declaring the sack of King's Landing a success. Daenerys tells them all that they "liberated" King's Landing, "You tore down their stone houses, you gave me the Seven Kingdoms." She declares their war is not over, proclaims her intention to conquer the world and put an end to the rule of all tyrants, breaking the wheel for good. Before them all, Tyrion disgustedly confronts Daenerys for slaughtering an entire city; he is subsequently arrested by Daenerys.[2]

Jon visits Tyrion, who warns the former about what Daenerys has become. As Jon struggles with this, Tyrion reasons, "I know you love her. I love her too, not as successfully as you, but I believed in her with all my heart. Love is more powerful than reason." Jon reflects of what Maester Aemon told him long ago, "Love is the death of duty." Tyrion tells Jon that he is the shield that guards the realms of men, who tries to protect people, "Who is the greatest threat to the people now?" Tyrion acknowledges he is asking Jon to do a terrible thing, "But it is also the right thing." Due to his love for Daenerys, Jon doesn't think he can do it. Tyrion reminds Jon that his sisters will never kneel for Daenerys.[2]

The assassination[]

Daenerys walks in to the ruins of the throne room, seeing what she saw in the House of the Undying years ago. She approaches the Iron Throne, reaching out to touch it when she is found by Jon, who confronts her over burning down King's Landing, killing thousands of men, women, and children, and executing surrendered Lannister prisoners. Daenerys defends her actions, claiming they were necessary. Jon pleads with Daenerys to forgive Tyrion and all of the people of King's Landing, to make them see they are mistaken about her. Daenerys says she can't hide behind small mercies, "The world we need won't be built by men loyal to the world we have." Jon says they need a world of mercy, but Daenerys believes her actions are the way they build a good world. Distressed, Jon asks Daenerys how she knows it's good and questions, "What about everybody else? All the people who think they know what's good?" Daenerys simply responds, "They don't get to choose." Embracing Jon, Daenerys asks him to be by her side and to build her new world together. As the two kiss, a greatly anguished Jon tells Daenerys that she will be his queen forever, before he stabs her in her heart with his dagger.[2]

Weeping, Jon holds Daenerys in his arms as she dies. While he cradles her body, Drogon flies into the throne room. As Jon prepares to face death via Drogon's flames, Drogon roars in anger and grief and unleashes his fire across the throne room, melting the Iron Throne. He does not kill Jon, but instead picks up Daenerys's corpse and flies away, leaving the grieving Jon behind.[2]

Aftermath[]

Jon's assassination of Daenerys, nearly identical to the way the Mad King had been slain, officially marks the legal extinction of House Targaryen. Moreover, Daenerys's death infuriates the Unsullied, and Grey Worm has Jon taken prisoner for both treason and regicide. In the coming weeks, despite the death of their queen, the Unsullied continued to remain in power over King's Landing. Some time later, a gathering of the great Westerosi lords and ladies, including Tyrion, is held at the Dragonpit, to decide Jon's fate. Grey Worm along with Yara, one of Daenerys's loyalists, want Jon executed, while Sansa and Arya want to pardon him. Tyrion then proposes that they leave it for the new king or queen to decide that fate, and suggests that the gathered leaders choose the next king or queen. In a Great Council in the Dragonpit, Bran is chosen as king, and Tyrion declares that from now on the king will be chosen by a gathering of the lords and ladies instead of inheriting the crown by bloodline, which, in some ways, "breaks the wheel" that Daenerys intended - that of hereditary rule.[2]

Later, Tyrion informs the imprisoned Jon that Bran sentenced him to the Night's Watch for life in order to appease Grey Worm and the Unsullied. Though the Unsullied are not happy with this verdict, as it robs them of their vengeance, they have no choice but to accept it. Jon bleakly wonders if he did the right thing and that it didn't feel right. In response, Tyrion tells Jon to ask him again in ten years. They bid each other farewell for now, and Jon rides north of the Wall with the remaining wildlings and Ghost.[2]

Behind the scenes[]

• The death of Daenerys has been foreshadowed in "Valar Morghulis", in which she experienced a vision in Qarth of the throne room surrounded by what seems to be snow (actually, it turned out to be ashes) and ruins she would eventually cause, followed by a reunion with her deceased husband and son in the 'afterlife'.

In the books[]

In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, an equivalent event has not occurred. The TV show has surpassed the timeline of the books, two of which are yet to be published, so it is unclear if such an event will occur.

References[]

1. ↑ Game of Thrones: Season 8, Episode 5: "The Bells" (2019).
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Game of Thrones: Season 8, Episode 6: "The Iron Throne" (2019).

Notes[]

1. ↑ In "Winter Is Coming," which takes place in 298 AC, Sansa Stark tells Cersei Lannister that she is 13 years old and Bran Stark tells Jaime Lannister that he is 10 years old. Arya Stark was born between Sansa and Bran, making her either 11 or 12 in Season 1. The rest of the Stark children have been aged up by 2 years from their book ages, so it can be assumed that she is 11 in Season 1. Arya is 18 in Season 8 according to HBO, which means at least 7 years occur in the span of the series; therefore, each season of Game of Thrones must roughly correspond to a year in-universe, placing the events of Season 8 in 305 AC.

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Assault on the Targaryen fleet · Fall of Casterly Rock · Sack of Highgarden · Battle of the Goldroad · Wight hunt · Dragonpit Summit · Rescue of Yara Greyjoy · Retaking of the Iron Islands · Battle at Dragonstone · Battle of King's Landing · Assassination of Daenerys Targaryen