WARNING: FULL SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES FINALE EPISODE OF GAME OF THRONES, “THE IRON THRONE,” FOLLOW.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BY RAVENS ACROSS THE LAND…
DAENERYS TARGARYEN
Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Seven Kingdoms, the Mother of Dragons, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, the Breaker of Chains, has died. The queen met her tragic end at the remnants of King’s Landing.
The daughter of King Aerys II and Queen Rhaella, Queen Daenerys was born into a world at war. Birth on Dragonstone during the final day’s of Robert’s Rebellion, Daenerys and her elder brother Viserys were secretly sent across the Narrow Sea to avoid execution at the hands of Baratheon forces. Daenerys would spend her girlhood moving from one of the Free Cities to the next. In Pentos, her brother would broker her marriage with Khal Drogo of the Dothraki, forever altering the history of the world.
Over the course of the next few years, Daenerys Targaryen would make a dizzying ascent from last scion of a dying House to one of the most powerful people in the known world. Along the way she would suffer the loss of her brother Viserys, her husband Khal Drogo, and her son Rhaego. She would wander the Red Wastes of Essos and watch her people die of exposure. She would become embroiled in the politics of Qarth, barely escaping with her life and those of her dragons. Daenerys would free the Unsullied and use them to destroy their former masters in Astapor. She conquered Yunkai and Meereen, as well as bringing ever khalasar under her command. By the time Queen Daenerys set sail for Dragonstone in 100 ships brought by Queen Yara Greyjoy of the Iron Islands, she would have tens of thousands of men in her army.
After arriving in the land of her birth, Queen Daenerys continued her meteoric rise. Allying herself with the remnants of House Tyrell, House Martell, and bringing Varys and Melisandre into her employ, the Mother of Dragons made an ill-fated foray into the Westerlands of the Lannisters. The miscalculation led directly to her alliance with Jon Snow, the King in the North. This, in turn, brought the reality about the Night King to the Seven Kingdoms, as a wight brought from beyond the Wall proved the truth to the rumors.
Sadly, not even a common enemy would be enough in the end. Once the Night King threat was defeated at Winterfell, an unbreakable schism would form between House Targaryen and House Stark. Fearful that Queen Daenerys’ rigid belief systems and willingness to use mass violence against her enemies was growing from justice to tyrannical, splinter factions began to form. This is turn increased the queen’s isolation and paranoia. A cascade effect followed that ended with Daenerys burning the city of King’s Landing to the ground after they had surrendered. Devastated to find the love of his life capable of such reckless violence, Jon Snow put a dagger through Daenerys’ heart, ending her reign before it could truly begin.
Queen Daenerys is preceded in death by her mother, her father, her two brothers, her husband, and her son. She leaves behind no crown nor heirs. The fate of her remaining dragon, Drogon, is unknown. However, he was last seen flying east, perhaps towards Valyria of old.
