The Death of Quentin Tarantino

Quentyn Martell, the eldest son of Prince Doran of Dorne, died three days after being engulfed in dragonfire during a reckless attempt to steal two of Daenerys Targaryen's dragons from the depths of the Great Pyramid of Meereen. His agonizing death, witnessed by few and mourned by fewer, marked the catastrophic end of a quest that had cost the lives of three of his companions and brought ruin to the fragile peace of Slaver's Bay. The prince's failure was total: he had come too late to win the queen, lacked the strength to master her children, and left behind only a charred corpse and a legacy of folly.

The Failed Dragon Theft

The attempt to seize the dragons was born of desperation. After Daenerys rejected his marriage pact and flew away on Drogon, Quentyn, urged by his companions Gerris Drinkwater and Archibald Yronwood, turned to the sellsword captain known as the Tattered Prince. In exchange for the promise of Pentos, the Windblown agreed to help him steal the two chained dragons, Rhaegal and Viserion, from their pit beneath the pyramid. Disguised as Brazen Beasts, the Dornishmen and their sellsword allies entered the pyramid's depths, killed the guards, and broke the locks on the iron doors. Inside, the air was thick with ash and the stench of brimstone. Rhaegal, the green dragon, was chained to the floor, while Viserion, the white, had burrowed into the brick wall. The plan was to feed them and chain them while they were torpid, but the beasts were far too wild. A crossbow bolt fired by one of the Windblown enraged Viserion, who killed the man and then turned his attention to the intruders. In the chaos, Quentyn tried to cow the dragons with a whip, as he had seen Daenerys do. He called out Viserion's name and snapped the lash, but Rhaegal struck from behind. The green dragon's flame engulfed the prince, setting his clothes and flesh ablaze.

The Agony and Death

Quentyn did not die quickly. His friends pulled him from the pit, but the damage was done. For three days he lay in the queen's own bed, his body a ruin of burns. Ser Barristan Selmy, who had taken charge of Meereen in Daenerys's absence, ordered the prince to be cared for, but the Blue Graces never came. Missandei, the young Naathi scribe, tended to him alone, reading to him and giving him water and milk of the poppy when he could swallow. He spoke only a few tortured words. The flesh sloughed from his face, revealing the skull beneath; his eyes became pools of pus. On the third day, just before dawn, he took his last shuddering breath. Ser Barristan, who had seen the prince's body, noted that he had no lips left and that his smile was a ghastly rictus. "Fire is a hideous way to die," the old knight reflected. "Small wonder half the hells are made of flame."

Aftermath and Legacy

The prince's death sent shockwaves through Meereen. The two dragons he had tried to steal escaped into the city, wreaking havoc. Rhaegal made a lair atop the pyramid of Hazkar, collapsing it into a smoking ruin and killing many of that ancient line. Viserion hunted freely, and the fires they started consumed parts of the city. The peace Daenerys had forged with the Yunkai'i shattered. The Sons of the Harpy resumed their murders, and the Yunkish lords, emboldened by the queen's absence and the chaos, demanded the dragons' deaths. Ser Barristan, now acting as Hand, had to deal with the consequences. He ordered Quentyn's body covered and promised to return his bones to Dorne, though he knew not how. The Dornish prince's two surviving companions, Gerris Drinkwater and Archibald Yronwood, were imprisoned. When questioned, they revealed the full extent of the plot: the pact with the Tattered Prince, the promise of Pentos, and the desperate hope that Quentyn's Targaryen blood would allow him to control the beasts. It had all been for nothing. The prince who had come for fire and blood found only fire, and his blood was spilled on the bricks of a foreign city, far from the red mountains of Dorne.