When Game of Thrones began, dragons were essentially already an extinct species. Since the last one died (before Daenerys’ dragons were hatched), the summers grew shorter and the winters colder. Some have hypothesized that there’s a connection between dragons and the White Walkers, but this has never been clarified. How many dragons are left on Game of Thrones? Are there any outside of Dany’s dragons? Are there any dragon eggs left?
This post has major spoilers for Season 8 Episode 4 of Game of Thrones, so only read on after you’ve seen the episode.
Before Daenerys, the last surviving dragons were possessed by House Targaryen. When dragons were at their most powerful, they were possessed by Valyrians (of which the Targaryens are descended.) But the Doom of Valyria mysteriously wiped out nearly the entire Valyrian empire and almost all of its dragons, along with its knowledge of dragons. Only the Targaryens survived because they were at Dragonstone with a few dragons, rather than at Valyria itself.
House Targaryen used the last dragons to conquer and unite the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, about 300 years before the War of the Five Kings, according to the Game of Thrones wiki. Sadly, most of the remaining dragons died in the Dance of Dragons, which was a massive civil war within House Targaryen about 170 years before the War of the Five Kings. Over time, the dragons became smaller and smaller until they were just about the size of cats. And then they finally went extinct.
When Dany was given the three dragon eggs as a wedding gift, the popular belief at the time was that those were petrified eggs and not viable. When she hatched them, it was seen as a miracle. This is because the knowledge of dragon reproduction was lost over time. Dragon eggs don’t just “hatch” like other reptiles. They can keep a spark of life for decades or even centuries and it takes some kind of blood magic (the rumor says) to hatch them. The idea is that the eggs must be burned in flames and a life must be exchanged for theirs. The great fire at Summerhall was rumored to be started by Aegon (Egg of the Dunk and Egg novella, and Dany’s grandfather) in an attempt to hatch dragon eggs. But this isn’t clarified.
As far as we know, Daenerys’ three dragons – Viserion, Rhaegal, and Drogon – are the last dragons left in the world. But there is much of Essos and beyond not explored in the series, so it’s possible there are dragons somewhere else in the world.
Tonight, Rhaegal was killed, leaving only Drogon left alive. As far as we know, this is the last of the dragons because Daenerys was supposedly given the last of the dragon eggs.
But hope isn’t completely gone. If you recall, in a previous season when Tyrion and Jorah were sailing through Valyria (and the time when Jorah got infected), they saw Drogon flying around the ruins. See the video below:
Around the same time, Daenerys had said in a different scene that she hadn’t seen Drogon in a while and wasn’t sure where he was. She had confided to Daario in Season 5 that she didn’t know where Drogon was. At one point she saw him on the Great Pyramid, but when she reached for him he flew away again.
Some have guessed that perhaps Drogon went to Valyria to lay dragon eggs. It’s not outside the realm of possibility. We don’t really know how dragons reproduce or even know for sure that Drogon is male. He could have been impregnated by Viserion or Rhaegal. Or maybe he’s male and impregnated a female dragon that was still alive somewhere in Valyria. (This second theory seems less likely.)
Dragons are so mysterious and so much knowledge of them has been lost. I think a clutch of dragon eggs is somewhere in Valyria, parented by Drogon. So perhaps there’s still a chance that more dragons or dragon eggs are out there. Perhaps Drogon isn’t the last of his species and the dragons aren’t going extinct again after all.