Since the start of the Game of Thrones, artist Robert Ball has made a custom illustration for every episode, commemorating some of the series’ most memorable moments in his Beautiful Death series. For example:
Robert Ball/HBO Robert Ball/HBO Robert Ball/HBO
Game of Thrones isn’t dead as a franchise, but if there were no additional series coming, nor any new books, we think Ball’s latest piece commemorating the television series would be a fitting way to end. The new artwork, made as a one-off for San Diego Comic-Con, is less symbolic than much of his Beautiful Death work, but no less lovely.
In a tweet, he notes that this is “probably last image” for the series. Check it out below:
Robert Ball/HBO
Although one could argue that this moment is meant to reflect Jon and Daenerys’ kiss in the season 8 premiere, this writer is reminded more of the kiss Jon and Daenerys share as he stabs her to end her reign before it can really begin in “The Iron Throne.” It’s a bit of both, really.
Visually, the illustration makes you want to start from the top and work your way down, but it also works from the bottom up. At the base of the work, we can see direwolves and chains in the silhouettes of Jon and Daenerys respectively. Panning up, we see crows and the pyramids of Meereen, all the way to the Wall being destroyed and the walls of Dragonstone. It’s a visual way of explaining the journeys that these two characters have taken up until this kiss.
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Of course, the color stories are just as important. Technically, Ball could have had Jon in both red and blue as the offspring of a Targaryen and a Stark, but it wouldn’t have had this kind of vibrant contrast. With Jon in blues and blacks and Daenerys in reds and oranges (with some black), we read them as being in opposition to one another. This kiss, passionate as it may be, cannot hold.
Ball didn’t give this piece a title in his tweet, but we think A Song of Ice and Fire might work very nicely.
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