"The idea that we control the dragons is an illusion. They're a power man should never have trifled with."- Viserys I Targaryen
The fourth in a series about the dragons featured in the Game of Thrones. This issue focuses on Known Dragons plus Quotes about Dragons and Behind the Scenes.
KNOWN DRAGONS
Drogon, named after Khal Drogo, black with red markings. Larger and more aggressive than his siblings, he is also the personal mount of Daenerys Targaryen. Also known as the winged shadow by common folk when Daenerys resided in Meereen. Went missing following the Assassination of Daenerys Targaryen. He is the last known dragon left in existence.
Rhaegal, named after Rhaegar Targaryen, green with bronze markings. Daenerys allowed Jon Snow to mount him. He was killed by Euron Greyjoy after being shot multiple times with a scorpion in the Battle at Dragonstone.
Viserion, named after Viserys Targaryen, creamy white, with gold markings. He was killed by the Night King after being pierced in the neck by an ice spear and then reanimated as his Wight mount. He was later destroyed by Arya Stark during the Battle of Winterfell after her killing of his dragonrider - severing the magical connection between them.
Daenerys and her Dragons
KNOWN HISTORICAL DRAGONS
Balerion, the dragon of Aegon the Conqueror. Later ridden by Maegor the Cruel and Viserys I. Called the Black Dread, he was the largest of the known dragons and the only one who died peacefully when he was over 200 years old. Allegedly, the Iron Throne was forged in his breath. His skull is stored in the Red Keep.
Vhagar, the dragon of Aegon I's sister-wife Visenya. Later ridden by Baelon Targaryen.
Meraxes, the dragon of Aegon I's sister-wife Rhaenys. She was killed by a scorpion bolt during the First Dornish War. Her skull is stored in the Red Keep.
Quicksilver, Aenys Targaryen's personal mount. Later ridden by Aegon Targaryen. He was killed by Balerion in the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye.
Dreamfyre, Rhaena Targaryen's personal mount.
Vermithor, Jaehaerys I Targaryen's personal mount.
Silverwing, Alysanne Targaryen's personal mount.
Meleys, Rhaenys Targaryen's personal mount.
Caraxes, Daemon Targaryen's personal mount.
Seasmoke, Laenor Velaryon's personal mount.
Syrax, Rhaenyra Targaryen's personal mount.
Sunfyre, a dragon living in the Dragonpit.
Moondancer, a dragon living in the Dragonpit.
Tyraxes, a dragon living in the Dragonpit.
The last dragon - a stunted, sickly, inbred creature not much bigger than a cat, which died young.
In Season 1's "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things", Viserys Targaryen lists off the names of several dragons whose skulls he says he saw stored in the Red Keep. This list is not from the books, none of them were ever mentioned again, and several of the names were inside jokes from the writers. The Targaryens did collect skulls of dragons that were in some cases thousands of years old, not ones that they possessed since they came to Westeros, so it's possible that these existed at some point or another in Valyria's five thousand year history. His list included Vermithrax (an inside joke referring to the dragon in the film Dragonslayer), Ghiscar, Valryon, Essovius, and Archonei.
Some other mythical creatures, whose existence is unproven, have "dragon" in their name but are unrelated to real dragons - such as Sea dragons and Ice dragons.
"Zaldrīzes buzdari iksos daor. [Translation: A dragon is not a slave.]"
―Daenerys Targaryen to Kraznys mo Nakloz, much to the shock of the latter.
"They're dragons, Khaleesi, they can never be tamed. Not even by their mother."
―Jorah Mormont to Daenerys
"The dragons Aegon used to conquer Westeros ranged over hundreds of miles. Then Daenerys's ancestors started chaining them up in pens. A few generations later, the last dragons were no larger than cats."
―Tyrion Lannister about the rise and fall of the Targaryen dragons
"Everyone says Targaryens are closer to gods than to men, but they say that because of our dragons. Without them, we're just like everyone else."
―Rhaenyra Targaryen
"The idea that we control the dragons is an illusion. They're a power man should never have trifled with."
―Viserys I Targaryen
The dragons in the TV series are CGI creations, though in Season 2 - when they were about the size of small cats - the actors did use prop-dragon puppets on-set, to make sure that their eye-lines matched.
Supervising sound editor Tim Kimmel explained in a Season 4 interview what went into creating the dragon scream sound effects and other vocalizations: "Each dragon has multiple animals stacked and put together to create it...[in Season 3] we used the sound of two tortoises mating. There are various birds that get used in there. We sneak some other things in there—last season we had some weird dolphin sounds. I believe there's a pissed-off seal in there somewhere, during some of the angry spots. We sometimes use lions for the growlier stuff."
The real-life prop dragon eggs. (One was given to George R.R. Martin as a wedding gift.)
To create the noise of dragon claws clacking against hard surfaces as they move around, the sound effects team used a combination of beef-rib bones, and also press-on nails hot-glued to gardening gloves. That way, drumming the fingers of the glove against a hard surface sounds more realistic, like a dragon's individual claws hitting a surface.
In Season 5, Drogon is about 40 feet long from snout to tail-tip, and 20 percent bigger than the other two dragons (making them around 32 feet long). In Season 5, several dragon traits were copied from different real-life animals: Komodo dragons, iguanas, horned lizards, and crocodiles. The dragons' physical motions were derived from eagles and bats while, for their takeoff into flight, pelicans were used as a reference. Joe Bauer stated that in Season 6, the dragons will double in size yet again - which would make Drogon roughly 80 feet long, and the other two around 64 feet long.
In Season 5, to give the actors a better prop to react to, instead of just dangling a tennis ball and pretending it was breathing fire, the special effects team took the extra step of custom-building a fire-breathing crane. They began with a Technodolly, a motion-controlled crane with a 15-foot high arm that moves in different directions while its base rolls along a track, with a telescopic arm that usually holds a camera. The crew then took the camera out, and in its place mounted a flamethrower that could shoot as far as fifty feet. The crane was then programmed with Drogon's movements, so it could repeat the same sequence over and over again for multiple takes of the same shot. Thus the stunt team, actors, and directors always knew exactly where the dragon and its fire was supposed to be. After filming finished, digital artists then added Drogon's body around the real flames in the shot. A second method they used in Season 5 was the "SimulCam" system: a basic animation of the dragon would be saved on the camera monitor and imposed over what it was pointed at, so the cameramen and directors could always see where a dragon was supposed to be moving in any given shot.
The design and look of the dragons was motivated by the dragons in the SF movie Reign of Fire (2002).
For House of the Dragon, Miguel Sapochnik designed three distinct types of dragons: dinosaurian, canine, and horselike, based on the skulls of a Tyrannosaurus rex, a wolf, and a horse, respectively.
This article uses material from the “Dragon” article on the Game of Thrones wiki at Fandom and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
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