Can There Be More Dragons on Game of Thrones?

Warning: This story contains spoilers for Game of Thrones.

Daenerys is having a bad year on Game of Thrones. After the Night King turned Viserion into an ice dragon in season 7, she lost another one of her dragons, Rhaegal, when Euron shot a big crossbow at him in the fourth episode of season 8.

Plus, the Iron Throne is still out of reach. Sunday’s episode, “The Last of the Starks,” illuminated how Rhaegal’s demise will be a larger problem for the Mother of Dragons.

In the short term, Daenerys’ loss will have a major impact on the show. She’s furious at Cersei for killing one of her beloved children, as well as Missendei, one of her closest advisors. In the next episode, she will likely try to follow the advice Missendei gave before she died — “Dracarys” — and burn down the Red Keep. The show has long been haunted by the shadow of a single dragon’s over King Landing. This news means the vision of this image will be fulfilled. Now we know why there’s only one dragon in that shot, rather than two or three.

The loss of Rhaegal also means that Jon no longer has a dragon to ride. If Daenerys can wait for Jon to arrive with more troops before attacking King’s Landing — which seems extremely unlikely — then Jon will have to fight on foot. If Daenerys has already killed Cersei by the time he’s arrived and fully transformed into the Mad Queen, he will have to face an angry Dragon Queen without a dragon of his own.

This potential breakdown could mean the end of dragons in the world of Thrones. Even if Drogon survives the fight against Cersei, he won’t live forever. That’s probably good news for HBO’s budget and the showrunners. Many fans have argued that the writers are uncomfortable with the magic on the show and have been disposing all mystical elements of the plot as they approach the endgame — from the White Walkers to soothsayers to dragons to poor Ghost the direwolf, who didn’t even get a goodbye pet from Jon on Sunday night’s episode.

Dragon-loving fans are clinging onto a tiny chance that other dragons or dragon eggs could still exist on the show. The possibilities are slim but present. Here are all the ways that Daenerys or Jon could acquire more dragons.

Drogon could be pregnant

In George R.R. Martin’s books, dragons are described as being gender fluid. So even though Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion were all named after men, they may be biologically capable of gestating and laying eggs. So in theory, one —or several — of those dragons could have lain eggs long ago.

It’s curious that Daenerys never pursued breeding her dragons on the show, especially after she lost Viserion to the Night King. But now she has one dragon left and little hope of creating more unless Drogon is somehow already pregnant.

Drogon could have already lain eggs

What’s more likely is that Drogon already laid eggs earlier in the show. Daenerys’ favorite dragon disappeared for a good chunk of time while Dany was in Essos. It’s possible that the creature took a jaunt over to Valyria and headed to a remote location to lay eggs. That would certainly make for a big surprise at the end of the season.

There could be more eggs hidden in the Shadowlands

Illyrio Mopatis, the man who arranged Dany’s marriage to Drogo, gifted Daenerys her petrified dragon eggs in the very first episode of season 1. He told her that the eggs came from the Shadowlands beyond Asshai and implied that they were the last of their kind. But there’s a small chance there are more dragon eggs hidden somewhere in the Shadowlands.

There could be eggs under Winterfell

In Martin’s books, it’s strongly suggested that there could be dragon eggs in the Winterfell crypts. (Some have suggested that dragon eggs are hidden in Lyanna’s tomb.)

One character claims the Targaryen dragon Vermax laid eggs in the crypts. If that’s true, the eggs have not hatched. If they survived the rising of the wights in the crypts during the Battle of Winterfell, they are probably frozen and would have to enter a fire to be revived, like Daenerys’ first eggs.