Game of Thrones: What Happened To Slaver’s Bay After Daenerys Left

Daenerys Targaryen left Daario Naharis in charge of Slaver’s Bay when she left for Westeros in Game of Thrones season 6, but what happened to the location after she departed? Although Daenerys (Emilia Clarke)’s journey in Game of Thrones was always about getting to Westeros and claiming the Iron Throne, much more of her time on the show was spent learning to rule in Essos, and in particular the cities within Slaver’s Bay.

Dany first arrived in Slaver’s Bay back in Game of Thrones season 3, when she travelled to Astapor to purchase the army of eunuch slaves the Unsullied. This was a key turning point in Daenerys’ story, as she freed the Unsullied and killed their master, liberating Astapor from slavery before moving on to do the same with Yunkai and, eventually, Meereen. It was in the last of these where she settled down to prove herself as a true ruler, although not without its challenges.

Daenerys faced uprisings and upset while ruling Meereen prior to finally leaving for Westeros in the Game of Thrones season 6 finale, “The Winds of Winter”. From there she would conquer King’s Landing and become the so-called “Mad Queen” before her death at the hands of Jon Snow (Kit Harington), but it leaves open the question of what happened to Slaver’s Bay.

Daenerys Renamed Slaver’s Bay & Left Daario In Charge

Before her departure, Daenerys Targaryen seemingly ended slavery once and for all in the region. She and her dragons went to war with the slave masters in the fiery Battle of Meereen, laying waste to their ships and men, while Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) killed the masters himself. With slavery over and peace of a sort secured, Daenerys renamed the location as the Bay of Dragons, promising a more hopeful and better world where slavery wouldn’t return.

To help ensure this, she left Daario Naharis (Michel Huisman) in charge of Meereen, taking on a similar role to that which she had performed and ruling it in her name, with the support of sellswords the Second Sons. Although he was reluctant, both because peacekeeping wasn’t necessarily his strong suit and due to his love of Daenerys, he understood why he couldn’t travel with her to Westeros – where she may need to make a marriage pact with a noble house – and so agreed to rule over and protect the Bay of Dragons in her stead.

Game of Thrones Doesn’t Address The Fate of Slaver’s Bay

After Game of Thrones season 6, it’s left unclear what happened to Daario and the Bay of Dragons. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the HBO show never has cause to return to Meereen; Daenerys, the Unsullied, Dothraki, her dragons, and the rest of her party are all with her in Westeros, which becomes her renewed focus. Meereen was an important part of that journey, but it was something of a stepping stone on the way to taking control of Westeros. With Dany finally in the Seven Kingdoms, and Game of Thrones‘ final two seasons being truncated into just 13 episodes in total, then there was little narrative space to expend upon Slaver’s Bay.

It’s possible that this is something that will be addressed in George R.R. Martin’s forthcoming A Song of Ice and Fire books, but there’s still a lot of work necessary to get there. Martin himself has struggled with Dany’s storyline in Slaver’s Bay – previously referring to the tangled web of characters and plot lines as the “Meereenese knot” – and in the books, there’s still the full liberation, Battle of Meereen, and renaming of it as Bay of Dragons to come (assuming each of those things happens on the page, that is).

Dany’s journey will likely take longer still, with it possible she will venture further into Essos before heading to Westeros, as she’s setup to head to (and likely conquer) Volantis first. Spending more time in Essos may mean more time for word of what’s happened in Meereen since her departure to get round, or Martin may just want to find a way of clearing up exactly what happens in some way, though like with Game of Thrones it’ll be tricky to find a great narrative reason for doing so.

Would The Bay of Dragons Return To Slavery?

With Daenerys gone from the region and Daario in charge, then there is a fair question of whether or not the Bay of Dragons would simply slip back into being Slaver’s Bay. While Dany had liberated the slaves and killed the masters, there is unfortunately no guarantee whatsoever that the newfound status quo in the Bay of Dragons would remain. Slaver’s Bay had been the center of slave trade for thousands of years, dating all the way back to the Ghiscari Empire around 8,000 years before Aegon’s Conquest of Westeros. And while its people may have had issues with who was in charge, there has never been a perceived problem with slavery itself. The figureheads may change, but the system is largely accepted.

For his part, Daario may be able to keep some semblance of order, but even that is a big ask. He and the Second Sons are ruling in Meereen, but that still leaves Astapor and Yunkai; even if he were to send commanders there to rule on his behalf, it’s spreading things very thin, and the potential for a rebellion would be ripe. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to imagine them losing control, and slavery returning to the region. That itself is assuming Daario even sticks around. While he would likely do so out of duty to Daenerys, word would eventually reach him that she has died, after which he may no longer be so content to sit and rule in Meereen when is he a sellsword and fighter by nature. Likewise, without the threat of Daenerys and her dragons coming back, then there’d be much less to fear for anyone wanting to restart the slave trade in the Bay of Dragons.

The ending of Game of Thrones saw Westeros attempt something a little closer to democracy, with the lords and ladies of the noble houses of Westeros electing Bran Stark the new King of Westeros and ruler of the Six Kingdoms. That might be cause for some optimism with regards to Slaver’s Bay, suggesting that the old ways are indeed changing, but it’s a different place with a different culture to Westeros, and it’s noticeably lacking figures such as Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) and Sam Tarly (John Bradley) to promote such ideas. With the Unsullied heading to Naath, then it makes it even less likely that there could be anyone to stop slavery eventually returning to the Bay of Dragons, even if it was several years after Daenerys’ death.

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