Battle of King's Landing

The battle of King's Landing was the final engagement of the Last War, fought between the Lannister-led forces of Queen Cersei Lannister and the Stark, Arryn and Targaryen alliance force, led by Queen Daenerys Targaryen for control over King's Landing, the capital and largest city of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and seat of the Iron Throne.
== History ==
=== Prelude ===
Daenerys Targaryen sought to take the Iron Throne, the center of power from which her house ruled Westeros for 300 years before the Targaryen dynasty was overthrown by Robert Baratheon. Following the end of the Great War, Daenerys resumed the Last War against Cersei. Cersei reinforced her troops by allying with Euron Greyjoy and hiring the Golden Company.
After the parley with Cersei failed, Daenerys and her allies rallied their troops for assaulting King's Landing.
Prior to the battle, Tyrion convinced Daenerys to not attack the city if the bells were rung, signaling a surrender. Cersei fortified the city walls, while having Euron deploy the Iron Fleet in Blackwater Bay. In the early hours of the day of the battle, the Hound and Arya Stark, having ridden south from Winterfell in hopes of preemptively killing Gregor and Cersei, managed to infiltrate the castle.
=== The battle ===
Sailing from Dragonstone and marching from the Kingsroad, Jon, Davos, and Tyrion consolidated the Unsullied, Dothraki, and Northern-Vale forces outside the gates of King's Landing. Captain Harry Strickland, commander of the Golden Company, led his forces outside the city walls to face off the combined Targaryen, Stark, and Arryn forces.
In the opening act of the battle, Daenerys ambushed the Iron Fleet on Drogon while the fleet was still preparing for attack. Nosediving towards the fleet with the sun at her back, the tactic prevented the Iron Fleet from initially spotting Drogon as he closed in for the attack. Having learned from her earlier engagement with the fleet, Daenerys directed Drogon to fly fast and low to make it difficult for the ships to accurately target him. In the ensuing attack, the Iron Fleet was completely decimated, with the Ironborn unable to strike the dragon as Drogon laid waste to dozens of ships with dragonfire. Euron himself barely survived the assault by managing to jump into the sea before his ship was destroyed. With the Iron Fleet all but destroyed, Daenerys and Drogon proceeded towards the city proper, destroying the Lannister forces manning the Scorpions on the ramparts.
While the Targaryen, Stark, and Arryn forces continued to have an uneasy standoff with the Golden Company outside the city walls, Daenerys directed Drogon to the front gates, catching the defenders completely by surprise by destroying the gate in a fiery blast that shattered the Golden Company's lines and created a breach into the city. The Targaryen, Stark, and Arryn forces proceeded to charge forward in the ensuring confusion amongst the defenders. Harry Strickland, having been thrown from his horse from the attack, managed to recover, but was struck down by Grey Worm as he attempted to retreat into the city. The Dothraki were the first to enter the city, cutting through the still-recovering Lannister and preventing them from recovering fast enough to create a proper defense. The Northmen and Unsullied were close behind, mopping up the stunned Lannister forces as they poured into the city. Meanwhile, Daenery annihilated most of the Golden Company as they attempted to futilely flee from Drogon's dragonfire.
As the Targaryen, Stark, and Arryn forces battled the Lannister forces in the city, Daenerys and Drogon continued to strafe the city walls, destroying the remaining scorpions. Watching from the Red Keep, Cersei remained in utter denial of her increasingly dire situation even as Qyburn informed her of the loss of the Iron Fleet and Golden Company, destruction of all the anti-dragon ballistae, and breaching of the city gates.
As the fighting escalated, Jon, Davos, Grey Worm and the bulk of their forces march down the main street of King's Landing, cutting down attacks from Lannister soldiers along the way. They soon joined up with a group of Northmen in a standoff with a large Lannister contingent. With the last of the scorpions destroyed, Daenerys landed Drogon on a nearby roof, intimidating the remaining Lannister soldiers and small folk.
Realizing that the battle and war was lost, the Lannister soldiers dropped their weapons and surrendered, while the people of the city began to cry for the bells to be rung. Jon and Tyrion were relieved at the quick surrender, while Cersei watched in disappointment as both her soldiers and people turned on her, their cries for surrender echoing throughout the city. The bells soon began ringing, signaling that the battle had come to an end with a relatively bloodless Targaryen victory.
In a culmination of her accumulated grief and rage from the losses sustained in her campaign for Westeros, Daenerys furiously stared at the Red Keep, the former symbol of her family's power that was now held by her hated enemy. Unable to accept her easy victory, Daenery succumbed to the infamous Targaryen madness, rejecting the city's surrender in a terrifying turn of events as she unleashed Drogon on a destructive rampage across the city. Tyrion watched in horror from beyond the city's burnt walls as Drogon strafed through the city, destroying countless buildings and incinerating tens of thousands of fleeing smallfolk and surrendered Lannister soldiers with dragonfire. Following Daenerys's lead, Grey Worm rejected the Lannister surrender as well by hurling a spear at one of the Lannister soldiers, triggering the Targaryen, Stark, and Arryn forces to begin sacking the city. Jon attempted to stop the massacre by ordering his men to stand down. However, the men of the North were consumed by hatred for the actions of House Lannister (the Execution of Eddard Stark, the War of the Five Kings, the Red Wedding, Roose and Ramsay Bolton's rule, and Cersei's treachery in the fight against the dead) and refused to show mercy. In the ensuing chaos, Jon and Davos were separated, and Jon was forced to kill one of his own men when said man attempted to rape a woman. Meanwhile at the Red Keep, Cersei watched the unfolding carnage in mute horror and shock as Daenery and Drogon flew towards the Red Keep, directly striking the castle with dragonfire. Despite the deteriorating situation, Cersei remained defiant until Qyburn convinced her the battle was lost and that the Red Keep had been breached by the Unsullied, advising Cersei to retreat to the (relative) safety of Maegor's Holdfast.
Across King's Landing, the wildfire caches placed beneath the city by the Mad King, begin to ignite and explode, triggered by the dragonfire. As the city began to be consumed by an ever-growing conflagration, countless civilians died as they were crushed by collapsing buildings, burned from exploding wildfire or Drogon's dragonfire, or massacred by Daenerys's forces. With the situation rapidly deteriorating, Davos began evacuating civilians, while Jon - witnessing the ever-increasing danger of the battle and horrified by Daenerys's brutality - ordered the Stark and Arryn forces to begin a retreat from the city.
Towards the battle's climax, Daenerys and Drogon continued to make several devastating strafe runs across the city as well striking the Red Keep, partially destroying the throne room and several of the castle's towers. Meanwhile, Arya and the Hound manage to infiltrate the Red Keep, but before they could proceed with their mission, Sandor convinces Arya to turn back, warning her that if she goes further down her path for murder and vengeance, she'll end up like him. Arya heeds Sandor's advice and the two bid farewell for the last time as Arya rushes out of the Red Keep. Meanwhile, as Cersei, Qyburn, Ser Gregor and her Queensguard attempt to make their way to Maegor's Holdfast, Sandor intercepts them. Sandor effortlessly dispatches Cersei's remaining Queensguard before proceeding to taunt his brother, breaking Cersei and Qyburn's hold over Gregor as he moves to confront Sandor. When Qyburn orders Gregor to obey Cersei, the Mountain smashes his skull while Cersei flees. The Clegane brothers proceed to duel one another as Drogon continues to ravage the Red Keep, with Sandor knocking off Gregor's helmet and revealing his undead appearance. The Mountain is able to survive the Hound's fatal attacks and pushes him against a wall, severely beating him before attempting to crush his eyes, but the Hound repels him by stabbing him in the head before tackling him through a wall, with the two brothers falling hundreds of feet to their deaths into the flames below. Meanwhile, Arya continued to make her way out of the King's Landing, fleeing from collapsing buildings and attempting and failing to save civilians from the escalating carnage along the way. Arya barely survives herself as she narrowly avoids being caught up in one of Drogon's strafe runs, knocking her unconscious.
In the midst of the battle, Jaime goes around the Red Keep using a secret passage, but is confronted by Euron, having swam ashore after the destruction of his fleet. The two proceed to engage in a brutal melee. At the climax of their duel, Euron fatally stabs Jaime multiple times, but Jaime ultimately overpowers Euron and runs him through with his sword, killing him. Jaime then rushes to his sister, finding her in Maegor's Holdfast as the Red Keep begins crumbling around them. Comforting her, the two rush down to the crypts beneath the Red Keep where the dragon skulls are kept to make their escape. As the make their way through the crypts, the duo find that their exit to the boat has been blocked off by debris. Realizing the futility of their escape, Cersei desperately pleads with her brother to save her and their child. Jaime instead embraces her as the devastated Red Keep collapses on top of them.
=== Aftermath ===
An indeterminate amount of time after the conclusion of the battle, a stirring Arya wakes up in rubble, covered in ash, blood, and debris, having been unable to save anyone despite her many attempts. As she observes her surroundings, she sees an apocalyptic scene: burnt out or collapsed buildings lining streets filled with countless bodies of people turned to ash where they were. Out of the lifeless ruins that was once King's Landing, she finds an unexpected survivor, Harry Strickland's horse, which she uses to ride out of the ruined city. Daenerys later orders Grey Worm and the Unsullied to begin executing everyone who followed Cersei, including surrendered Lannister soldiers.
thumb|left|The remains of the Red Keep following the battle.
The casualties during the battle were immense. Including Lannister soldiers and innocent civilians, the death toll likely reached tens, if not hundreds of thousands, making the battle one of the deadliest in Westerosi history. Catastrophic damage had been rendered to large sections of King's Landing due to Drogon's multiple dragonfire strafe runs. Combined with the ignited caches of wildfire, it is likely huge swaths of the city were destroyed in the resulting firestorm. The degree of destruction had been so intense that ash precipitated onto the city in significant quantities (enough to partially bury a sleeping Drogon) in the hours and days following the battle and even partially blotted out the sun.
In the aftermath of the battle, Daenerys seizes control over what little remains of King's Landing, occupying the city with her armies. She then had both the Unsullied and the Dothraki assemble in the courtyard of the Red Keep before arriving at the ruin castle to address them both. As Jon and Tyrion look on solemnly behind her, Daenerys delivered a victory speech to the remaining Dothraki and Unsullied, declaring the sack of King's Landing a success. She congratulates the Dothraki on delivering her the Seven Kingdoms. She then praises the Unsullied and calls her forces 'liberators' for 'freeing' the people of King's Landing. Daenerys then promotes Grey Worm as the Commander of all her forces and her Master of War. Continuing on, Daenerys declared her intent of continuing to break the wheel, enlisting her army to embark on a conquest of not only the rest of Westeros, but all of the known world, to the shock and horror of both Jon and Tyrion.
==In the books==
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, an equivalent event has not occurred. The TV show has surpassed the timeline of the books, two of which are yet to be published, so it is unclear if such an event will occur.
In A Storm of Swords, Qyburn tells Jaime how Tyrion set the Blackwater on fire. That reminds Jaime of a dream he had about "green flames reaching up into the sky higher than the tallest towers, as burning men screamed in the streets." Perhaps this is a foreshadowing of the battle, if it ever occurs in the novels.
==References==
===Notes===
Category:305 AC
King's Landing
Category:Last War
Category:Massacres
de:Schlacht um Königsmund
fr:Dévastation de Port-Réal
it:Battaglia di Approdo del Re
pl:Bitwa w Królewskiej Przystani
ru:Сожжение Королевской Гавани