The Tragic Resolution of the Dothraki Plot

Published May 21, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

Shat Hosts,

When we see Dany giving her speech about “liberating” the entire world, she begins by addressing her Dothraki as “blood of my blood” and commends them for keeping their promises to her – for killing her enemies in iron suits and tearing down their stone houses. She then commends her Unsullied for their loyalty and appoints Grey Worm as Master of War.

After the short time jump, when Sansa and company are negotiating for Jon and Tyrion’s lives, they are dealing with Grey Worm and every bit of dialogue points to the Unsullied as the sole opposing force to be reckoned with. The Dothraki are never once mentioned, which begs the question – what happened to the Dothraki?

The answer is tragic.

In Season 6, Episode 6 titled Blood of my Blood , Dany says to her new Khalasar – taken from the khals she burned alive – “Every khal who ever lived chose three blood riders to fight beside him an guard his way. But I am not a khal. I will not choose three blood riders. I choose you all.” She then charges them to help her kill her enemies in their iron suits and tear down their stone houses. Her speech in the finale is meant as a callback to her speech in Season 6. The critical point of that speech is that Dany appointed her entire Khalasar as her blood riders. Indeed, the greeting “blood of my blood” is reserved for blood riders, not any random member of a Khalasar.

So what does that mean about the fate of the Dothraki? Well, according to ancient tradition, when a Khal dies his bloodriders die with him. Simply put, Dany’s death likely led to a mass suicide by most of the Dothraki off-screen, as tradition mandated. We see a few Dothraki walking around the ports in King’s Landing – perhaps these Dothraki decided to ignore tradition to save their own lives – but it seems unlikely that many made that choice.

Another option is that the Unsullied killed them – according to the same ancient tradition, bloodriders may opt out of suicide if their khal dies in battle, but may only remain alive with the purpose of avenging their khal’s death. Then suicide. Perhaps some Dothraki saw Jon’s murder of Dany as “dying in battle”, attempted to kill Jon against Grey Worm’s wishes and died trying.

In any event, we can be confident that very few Dothraki are living in the end. After all, any meaningfully large group of Dothraki would merit the attention of the Small Council or, well, somebody, but they are never mentioned again.

For better or for worse, this outcome likely spells the end of the Dothraki as a people. Dany’s Khalasar was taken from Vaes Dothrak when many, many khals had brought their Khalasar to rest. These khals appeared the be important among the people – meaning they likely had very large Khalasar. Dany took all of them across the Narrow Sea. It seems unlikely that many Dothraki stayed behind. With half of Dany’s hoard killed by the dead, some taken down in the Battle of King’s Landing, and some taken down by their own ancient traditions only a few wandering Dothraki remain, perhaps selling their swords on outbound ships from King’s Landing.

This is a tragic ending to the Dothraki. Dany had once desired to elevate the Dothraki people, but her failed conquest led to their extinction.

Ken L.

Subscribe Now