A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the anticipated prequel to Game of Thrones, is finally here on HBO, and there are already big questions lingering around the premise of the show. One of the big things that has left fans confused is the absence of dragons in the premise.
Though there are dragons in both the House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones, there seems to be none in this new series. This is set a hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones. Here’s why.
Why A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has no living dragons
Though A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms precedes Game of Thrones by a century, it also comes a hundred years after the events of House of the Dragon. The political turmoil in House of the Dragon ultimately culminates in a war fought with dragons. It becomes an event that came to be known as the Dance of Dragons.
During this “Dance,” most dragons, especially the strong and big ones, were decimated. Thus, leaving behind a few with barely any ability to move the line forward.
The new series takes place years after this event. Hence, the last dragon has already died off around 50 years before fans meet Ser Duncan the Tall. However, the Targaryens are still in power at the time.
Ser Arlan of Pennytree, Dunk’s master, reveals in the series that he had seen a dragon in Westeros when he visited as a boy.
The last dragon’s death also seemingly marked the end of magic in Westeros. “Summers have been shorter since the last dragon died, and the winters longer and crueler,” Ser Arlan said about this. Of course, this culminates in the story seen on Game of Thrones, where the winter finally comes.
House of the Dragon, which is around halfway through its story, will explore in detail why and how the dragons went extinct.
The first episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is now streaming on HBO Max.
