Viserion
Viserion is one of the three dragons hatched from petrified eggs on the funeral pyre of Khal Drogo, the first dragons to be born in the world in more than a century. Daenerys Targaryen named him for her brother Viserys, the Beggar King, who was murdered by Khal Drogo. Viserion's scales are cream and gold, his horns and the spinal crest running down his back are gold as well, and his eyes are pools of molten gold. He is the second-largest of the three, smaller than Drogon but larger than Rhaegal. In his early days he was tame enough to ride on Daenerys's shoulder, his tail coiled around her arm, and she fed him morsels of charred meat from her own hand. He was the first of the two dragons to be chained up in the pit beneath the Great Pyramid, led there by Daenerys herself and shut inside with several oxen; once he had gorged himself and grown drowsy, they chained him while he slept.
Imprisonment and Wildness
As Daenerys struggles to rule Meereen, Viserion and Rhaegal are kept chained in a deep pit beneath the Great Pyramid, a prison that had once held five hundred men. The air is uncomfortably hot and smells of sulfur and charred meat. Viserion's chains are links as big as a man's fist, binding his feet to the floor, and an iron collar about his neck is fastened to the wall behind him. He grows larger and more savage in captivity. He snaps at Irri, one of Daenerys's handmaids, and sets Reznak mo Reznak's tokar ablaze. He shatters one of his chains and melts the others, and clings to the roof of the pit like a huge white bat, his claws dug deep into the burnt and crumbling bricks. When Daenerys visits the pit, he tries to fly to her, but the chains snap taut and slam him down onto his belly. He roars and spits golden flame at the wall behind him. The iron doors of the pit glow red-hot, and no one dares to touch them for a day.
The Attempted Theft
When Prince Quentyn Martell of Dorne attempts to steal Viserion and Rhaegal to prove himself worthy of Daenerys's hand, he and his companions enter the pit. Viserion has dug himself a burrow in the brick of the wall, a hole big enough to sleep in. When the intruders wake him, he launches himself from the ceiling, his pale leather wings unfolding and spreading wide, the broken chain dangling from his neck swinging wildly. His flame is pale gold shot through with red and orange. A crossbowman fires a quarrel that caroms off Viserion's neck, drawing a line of fire—dragon's blood, glowing gold and red. Viserion kills the crossbowman, his teeth closing around the man's neck, and flame gouts from the man's mouth as his eyes burst. The dragon tears off a hunk of flesh and gulps it down. When Quentyn tries to cow him with a whip, Viserion hisses, and then Rhaegal attacks from behind, engulfing Quentyn in flame. Viserion and Rhaegal escape the pit and fly free over Meereen, causing devastation.
Significance
Viserion's imprisonment and subsequent wildness embody the central tragedy of Daenerys's rule in Meereen: her attempt to be a peaceful queen forces her to chain her own children, and those chains only make them more dangerous. He is a creature of fire and freedom, and the darkness of the pit transforms him from a companion into a monster. His escape, alongside Rhaegal, marks the collapse of the fragile peace Daenerys has built and the unleashing of the destructive power she can no longer control. He is a reminder that dragons cannot be tamed by compromise, only by the will of a dragonrider.
