#truly no one does symbolism like grrm 🥺

[addamvelaryon]

Time to talk about the Dragonpit again…

The doors of the Dragonpit were made of bronze and iron. It’s an odd dichotomy that the metals of winter served as protection to the creatures of the long summer. During the Storming of the Dragonpit, when the rioters tried to break into the structure, they could not bypass those doors. Instead, they had to find other means of getting to the dragons inside:

Bronze and iron were the metals of winter, dark and strong to fight against the cold.

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The Shepherd’s lambs smashed through the doors (the towering main gates, sheathed in bronze and iron, were too strong to assault, but the building had a score of lesser entrances) and came clambering through windows.

I’ve often mentioned that the Dragonpit exists in juxtaposition with the Wall, so this is a very neat detail to me. The purpose of the Dragonpit was to house and protect the creatures of fire inside from dangers outside. Whereas, the Wall serves to protect those behind it from the dangers of the creatures of ice on the other side.

Protection of the realm is the ultimate objective for the black clad sentinels of the Wall, the Night’s Watch. Their vows, which liken them to fire, state as much:

“Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.”

Just like the Night’s Watch, the Dragonkeepers are protectors who armor themselves in black:

The king decreed that all the dragons should be guarded night and day, regardless of where they laired. A new order of guards was created for this purpose: the Dragonkeepers, seventy-seven strong and clad in suits of gleaming black armor, their helms crested by a row of dragon scales that continued, diminishing, down their backs.

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Empty suits of armor stood sentinel along the walls. They were relics of the Targaryens, black steel with dragon scales cresting their helms, now dusty and forgotten.

Just as the Night’s Watch is willing to give their life in order to protect the realm, the Dragonkeepers do the same for the dragons. But both groups have their numbers greatly reduced so they are no longer able to keep their watch to their full ability:

The Dragonpit had its own contingent of guards, the Dragonkeepers, but those proud warriors were only seven-and-seventy in number, and fewer than fifty had the watch that night. Though their swords drank deep of the blood of the attackers, the numbers were against them.

Service in the Dragonpit concerns protecting the dragons. It is also simultaneously about protecting the city (aka the realm):

It had long been the custom for at least one dragonrider to reside at the pit, so as to be able to rise to the defense of the city should the need arise. As Rhaenyra preferred to keep her sons by her side, that duty fell to Addam Velaryon.

GRRM is so on the nose describing the Dragonkeepers as “stood sentinel along the walls” and “had the watch that night”. I'm not even going to get into all the parallels between Addam and Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, Jon Snow, because those are obvious enough.

When the Dragonpit fell, the Dragonkeepers were slaughtered by an uncontrollable violent mass of people (wights) who were led by a sinister figure (White Walker) determined to destroy the creatures of fire. When the Wall falls, the members of the Night’s Watch will probably be killed in like manner.

At the end of the war, all the dragons were dead except for Morning (the false dawn). Shortly afterwards, Westeros was subjected to the onset of a cruel winter that swept over the realm:

This period was soon known as the False Dawn.

[…]

And a terrible, hard winter—first declared by the Conclave in Oldtown in 130 AC, on Maiden’s Day—had taken a firm grip on the realm, and would last for six cruel years.

I believe it’s very deliberate that the dragons are connected to the state of the realm.

After all, the Dance of the Dragons is just Song of Ice and Fire writ small. What happened before will perforce happen again.