Game of Thrones symbology, explained: Fire

In the countdown to the final season of Game of Thrones, we’re taking a deeper dive into a few pieces of symbolism on the show (and in the series).

All too often, the two major houses on Game of Thrones, Starks and Targaryens, get stripped down to one comparison: ice vs. fire. It’s pretty easy, the Starks are from the north (winter and ice), their sigil is a direwolf, and their colors grey and white. Robert Baratheon even described Ned Stark as wanting to go “bury his head in the snow.” On the other hand, the Targaryens have (or had) dragons, their colors are red and black, and their motto fire and blood. Even the title of the series of novels, A Song of Ice and Fire, alludes to that as a central conflict. But it’s not that simple.

At various points in the series, fire has been used as a symbol of death and destruction (the Field of Fire, Harrenhall) and sorcery (Melisandre and the fire-wights). But it also represents life, power, and birth (or rebirth). In some ways, Quaithe said it best when she told Daenerys (in the novels, not the TV show) that she would light three fires: one for life, one for death and one for love.

While fire often can represent birth or rebirth, not all of these are equal. Dany’s rebirth, in the funeral pyre in season 1, seemed like a pretty clean affair. She only gained in power, in confidence and in stature afterwards. That was her major rebirth on the show, but in the novels she was reborn through fire (but not literally) much earlier.

When she was married off to Khal Drogo and began traveling with the khalasar, Dany was nowhere near as strong as she was when she walked into the fire. In the books, she had a pretty vivid dream (one of a few centered around dragons) where she was burned, but the fire didn’t destroy her, it just burned out the weakness and pain. That was when she really began to embrace the Dothraki life and become more sure of herself. At that point, the show was still opposed to any dream scenes, so her trip into the funeral pyre fire was even more transformational.

A lot of how the various people in Westeros view fire depends on what they think about dragons. During the Targaryen dynasty, dragons represented that family’s power. When the dragons died, their power diminished, madness grew, and eventually the Mad King was disposed. When the dragons hatched in the first season, it foreshadowed a resurgence of Targaryen power. Most of that was Daenerys, but it was also Jon Snow.

When Game of Thrones hits screens for its final season fire will undoubtedly be a destructive force, but not all that destruction has to be bad. The army of the dead needs to go, and fire is probably the easiest way to do it. That would be fire essentially saving the human race (imagine that). Also, because the Targaryen dynasty has a real chance to reestablish itself (through Jon and Dany), fire should be quite prominent regardless of any prophecies, Melisandre, or R’hllor.

The final season of Game of Thrones premieres April 24 on HBO.