Game of Thrones is on the verge of its penultimate season, but no one wants to see that world end. HBO is reportedly developing up to five different spinoff and prequel series that will potentially keep George R.R. Martin’s fantasy world alive and well on television. However, those projects are years away, and some fans simply aren’t willing to wait that long. So, they’ve created their own Game of Thrones spinoff!

Via i09, Patrick McCarthy has posted a 20-minute animated pilot episode called Game of Thrones: Doom of Valyria, which represents his hopes and desires for the inevitable spinoff. Within the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Valyria’s destruction is one of the few mysteries that remains unsolved on the TV series. All we know for sure is that Valyria’s end came swiftly and a once great empire fell to a devastating cataclysm. McCarthy’s tale extrapolates the origins of the Targaryen bloodline and populates the last days of Valyria with characters who echo some of their counterparts from the source material.

It’s hard to watch this and not to think of the ’70s animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings by Ralph Bakshi, and it also reminds us of Caprica. We already know the outcome, more or less. It’s the journey that matters. The leading heroine, Daenys, seems very much like Daenerys, although she may not survive to be wed to her brother, Gaemon. That union appears to be straining the Valyrian civilization, which may have already been on the verge of collapse. But the pilot ends without offering a definitive reason for Valyria’s fall.

We’ve previously covered McCarthy’s Stewie Potter animated short, and he wrote that his latest project was created in the hopes of selling it to HBO. That may be a long shot, but we respect the effort.

What did you think about the Doom of Valyria animated pilot? Let us know in the comment section below!

Image: Patrick McCarthy