--- title: How Game of Thrones Hinted Jon Snow Would Ride a Dragon description: Game of Thrones is back for its final season and wasted no time with major reveals: Jon Snow rode Rhaegal, the dragon named after his father. canonical: https://time.com/5570339/game-of-thrones-jon-snow-rides-rhaegal/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-04-15T01:34:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T23:17:50.222Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Game of Thrones May Have Foreshadowed That Jon Snow Moment og:description: Here's how. Game of Thrones fans, you may have forgotten this part og:url: https://time.com/5570339/game-of-thrones-jon-snow-rides-rhaegal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta64eda820712b1f0/6989463c97cdff16316b7718/jon-snow-daenerys-targaryen-game-of-thrones.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: jon-snow-daenerys-targaryen-game-of-thrones og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Game of Thrones May Have Foreshadowed That Jon Snow Moment twitter:description: Here's how. Game of Thrones fans, you may have forgotten this part twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta64eda820712b1f0/6989463c97cdff16316b7718/jon-snow-daenerys-targaryen-game-of-thrones.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How a Key _Game of Thrones_ Detail May Have Foreshadowed That Long-Awaited Jon Snow Moment  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Apr 15, 2019 1:34 AM UTC  YouTube  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Apr 15, 2019 1:34 AM UTC **Warning:** This post contains spoilers for the [_Game of Thrones_ ](http://time.com/4913247/game-of-thrones-season-8-premiere-date/)[season 8 premiere](http://time.com/4913247/game-of-thrones-season-8-premiere-date/). _Game of Thrones_ returned for its eighth and final season Sunday night and wasted no time jumping right back in to the action. The premiere kicked off with moments that viewers have been waiting on for years, including a number of anticipated reunions ([Jon and Arya](http://time.com/4822458/game-of-thrones-season-7-jon-snow-daenerys-targaryen/), Jaime and Bran, etc.) and, of course, [Jon riding a dragon](http://time.com/4890649/game-of-thrones-jon-snow-dragon-daenerys/). Jon hopped on Rhaegal’s back and took a ride through Westeros’ wintry wilderness alongside Daenerys Targaryen and Drogon. Fans have long speculated that Jon would eventually ride one of Daenerys’ dragons due to his Targaryen heritage. But a moment in the sixth episode of season 7, “Beyond the Wall,” seemed to give even more credence to the [theory](http://time.com/5566093/game-of-thrones-season-8-fan-theories/). When Daenerys flew north to rescue Jon and co. from the army of the dead, Jon was the only member of the party who didn’t make it onto Drogon’s back. Now, this was ostensibly because Jon was tackled through the ice by two wights right before Daenerys was forced to flee. But there may have also been another reason. In George R.R. Martin’s _A Song of Ice and Fire_ book series, Daenerys notes that no Targaryen has ever ridden more than one dragon, a detail that was pointed out by Reddit user [No\_conspicuity](https://www.reddit.com/r/gameofthrones/comments/6vmqft/everything%5Fa%5Ftheory%5Fabout%5Fjon%5Fand%5Fthe%5Fdragons/) after the episode aired. --- > “” --- That brings us to a key question: Could Jon have sensed that it wasn’t right for him to mount Drogon when he was destined to ride Rhaegal, the dragon named after his father? As for how this development will play into the season as a whole, seems like it would be useful to have two people capable of flying dragons into battle if the Night King shows up with undead Viserion. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5570339/game-of-thrones-jon-snow-rides-rhaegal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5570339/game-of-thrones-jon-snow-rides-rhaegal/"},"headline":"How a Key Game of Thrones Detail May Have Foreshadowed That Long-Awaited Jon Snow Moment","datePublished":"2019-04-15T01:34:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T23:17:50.222Z","description":"Spoilers ahead!","url":"https://time.com/5570339/game-of-thrones-jon-snow-rides-rhaegal/","keywords":["Television","game of thrones","TV","game of thrones 2019","clickmonsters"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta64eda820712b1f0/6989463c97cdff16316b7718/jon-snow-daenerys-targaryen-game-of-thrones.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta64eda820712b1f0/6989463c97cdff16316b7718/jon-snow-daenerys-targaryen-game-of-thrones.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"jon-snow-daenerys-targaryen-game-of-thrones","caption":"","creditText":"YouTube","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5570339/game-of-thrones-jon-snow-rides-rhaegal/","name":"How a Key Game of Thrones Detail May Have Foreshadowed That Long-Awaited Jon Snow Moment"}}]}] ```