10 ways Game of Thrones improved on A Song of Ice and Fire

8. Daenerys and Drogon’s bond

Ugh. Ok, so I can’t lie to you, reader: watching the clip above made my heart weep with nostalgia…and it also made me outrageously angry about the pivot Daenerys’ story took in the show’s final season.

But before Dany’s ill-executed heel turn in King’s Landing, we got some great scenes drawn directly from the fifth A Song of Ice and Fire book, A Dance with Dragons. Dance saw Dany mired in the politics at Meereen, and admittedly dragged at times. The show condensed Dany’s plot there, focusing in on her central struggles.

Whether that was wise is up for debate. An argument can certainly be made that Martin is being much more meticulous about the seeds he’s planting for Dany’s later actions. But one very specific part of Dany’s story that the show made a wise move with, in my opinion, was her relationship with Drogon.

It’s not that Dany and Drogon don’t have a strong bond in the books; they absolutely do. But the show played up an almost supernatural link between them. The best example of this is Drogon’s intervention at Daznak’s Pit. The books played up the animal factor here, implying that Drogon was drawn to the pit by the noise and promise of fresh meat. (There are dead boars and human corpses in the pit, which Drogon promptly starts eating upon his arrival.)

The show, on the other hand, makes this feel like a really clear moment where Drogon sensed Dany was in danger and came to her rescue. There are other moments like this sprinkled throughout the show, and they really added to Dany and Drogon’s relationship, especially when you consider where it was all heading. Despite season 8’s imperfections, the scene where Drogon melts the Iron Throne in his grief over Daenerys’ death is still a thing of absolute beauty.