Coming into the second episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones, Jon Snow has become the third dragon rider in the series, behind Daenerys and the Night King. It’s also true that Jon now knows he’s a Targaryen and has as much of a claim to the Iron Throne as the other contenders, one of whom is his current boo, Dany, aka his aunt.
Much has been made about Dany and Jon hooking up and becoming an item, with a lot of speculation around what Daenerys is going to do when she finds out she’s been getting horizontal with her nephew.
I’ve mentioned to many of my friends that Dany probably isn’t going to bat an eye when the truth is revealed because, well, she’s a Targaryen, a member of a house known for “keeping it in the family,” if you know what I mean.
Really, the incest likely isn’t going to bother her that much because once she realizes Jon has a better claim on the Iron Throne than her, she’s probably going to go Full Dracarys to get him out of the way, because everything goes better with dragon burning.
That’s assuming Jon can now be hurt by fire.
Since Season 1, when we learned Dany couldn’t be harmed by fire, there’s been a whole lot of discussion about her being fireproof. George R. R. Martin has stated that Targaryens aren’t immune to fire and that Dany is special because of what happened when she walked into Drogo’s funeral pyre.
Some believe the death of Mirri Maz Duur did something magical. Others have stated that because Dany bonded with her dragons in the fire, she gained their immunity.
Even GRRM has been a bit shaky on Dany being immune to fire. He has stated that, without a doubt, Targaryens aren’t immune to fire and that what happened to Dany was “magical”, though she’s still not unburnable.
However, the Daznak’s Pit scene, as written, has Dany close enough to Drogon’s flames that all of her hair is burnt off while suffering no other damage, which makes the claim that she really isn’t immune to the flames a little sketchy. (Also, as written, after she rides Drogon the first time she suffers a bout of massive diarrhea, but that’s another story.) So it’s entirely possible that her “dragon bonding” really has rendered her fireproof.
And now we come to Jon…
Jon rode a dragon. Not just any dragon, but the dragon named after his actual father. And he did so without being eaten or otherwise killed, which is something Dany’s dragons love to do to, you know, regular people. Particularly when Mommy is egging them on.
Jon has been burnt before, most famously when he lit up a wight with a lamp in the Lord Commander’s quarters during their attack on Castle Black. But that was before he found out he was a Targaryen, before he rode a dragon, before he… you might say “bonded” with that dragon. A dragon that was almost like a father to him…
Will we get a scene with Jon thrown into a massive fire only to walk out, unhurt yet naked? I think it’s possible–but I’ve been known to be wrong before. I guess we’ll just wait and see.
If nothing else, watching Dany deal with Jon’s real ancestor is going to be worth the ride.