Pour one out for Viserion. Game of Thrones had a heartbreaking death (well, there's always a heartbreaking death on Game of Thrones) when Daenerys Targaryen's (Emilia Clarke) dragon was slain by the Night King. Not only slain, but transformed into a weapon for the other side. Gulp.
"The whole path of the show in someway had been trying to map out all the episode end points and with this one it was the dragon opening its blue eye and realizing the Night King has finally gotten his own weapon of mass destruction," co-creator David Benioff said in the behind-the-scenes video below.
Yeah, it's not good for Dany and Jon Snow (Kit Harington).
"We knew that killing the dragon was going to have an enormous emotional impact because over the seasons and seasons of the show, it's really been emphasized what they are to Dany," co-creator D.B. Weiss said. "We knew that the Night King would see and seize the opportunity. I like to think that when the dragon dies that it's kind of a one two punch…"
"The dragons are my children," Dany told an ailing Jon Snow in the episode. "They're the only children I'll ever have."
"It's a heartbreak," Clarke told EW. "Not only losing it but having that being given to the other side."
Now that the dragon is on the other side, defeating the Army of the Dead is now even more important. "My dragon could not have died for nothing, so this is now so important," Clarke said. "For the first time, you're starting to see her defenses broken."
The death of the dragon hit Game of Thrones fans hard, particularly Saturday Night Live's Leslie Jones. "NOT THE DRAGON!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! NOOOOOOOOOO," Jones tweeted as the Night King took down Viserion.
RIP Viserion.
Who has the best claim to the Iron Throne? We broke it down for you below.
Game of Thrones airs Sundays, 9 p.m. on HBO.