Jon Made Friends With A Dragon On 'Game Of Thrones'

In the first episode of Game of Thrones Season 8, horses were ruined for Jon Snow forever. That was because Daenerys Targaryen showed him a whole new world when they paused their war preparations to go for a ride on her dragons. But what dragon did Jon ride on Game of Thrones? It's actually a pretty significant detail that foreshadowed the big news Jon learned at the end of the episode.

Daenerys had three dragons: Drogon, named after her late husband Khal Drogo; Viserion, named after her jerk brother Viserys; and Rhaegal, named after her eldest brother Rhaegar, whom she never met. Viserion was lost last season during a fight with the White Walkers and ended up submerged in icy waters, though the Night King later resurrected him to be the secret weapon of the army of the dead. That left behind Drogon and Rhaegal as a pair of his-and-hers dragons.

Telling the dragons apart might be difficult because they're all massive and scaly, but there are distinctions to be made. Drogon has more of a brownish-red tinge to his scales, whereas Rhaegal is a touch more green and gold. In Episode 1 of Season 8, Dany hopped on Drogon, while Jon rode Rhaegal.

While to Jon, one dragon may be just like another, it definitely wasn't an accident that he ended up on Rhaegal. That's because of the information fans learned last season, and Jon learned later that night: Rhaegar Targaryen is Jon's biological father. That reveal confirmed a long-held fan theory carried over from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books. Many readers had suspected for years that Jon was the secret child of Rhaegar and Ned Stark's sister Lyanna. Now they know for sure that it's the truth.

So it was pretty much fate for Jon and Rhaegal to have their little soar in the skies together, especially considering what followed. Jon now knows that he isn't Ned's son like he always thought. He was never even a bastard; Rhaegar and Lyanna married secretly, making Jon the heir to the Iron Throne after Rhaegar was killed in battle with Robert Baratheon. The successful dragon ride hinted at Jon's Targaryen ancestry, since they have a natural ability to get along with dragons, but also offered a more specific clue about where he came from.

It's only too bad that Jon wasn't privy to what that bit of foreshadowing meant before he bedded down with his Aunt Dany. He could have really used the tip! Jon may have been operating in ignorance before, but he has all the information now. And that may change things going forward. It's unclear whether Jon will decide to go after his birthright, but finding out he and Daenerys are related will almost certainly cool their romance for a moment (then again, the Targs were known for incestuous marriages, so maybe not). At least Jon got to enjoy that one awkwardly thrilling ride on Rhaegal before he was dealt the bad news.