Last week, audiences were treated to a ballad of cold dread at "Hardhome," a magnificent set piece in the frozen North showing the nigh invincible White Walkers massacring a wildling village and recruiting the corpses into the army of the dead. It is poetic, then, that the song in this week’s "The Dance of Dragons" was one of fire, both for good and ill.
Long before the events of Game of Thrones, before Westeros was ruled under the Iron Throne, the dragonlords of Valyria created the first true global empire, harnessing their unique bonds with dragons to bring all other civilizations under their thumb.