Skip to main content

game of thrones - Can a non-Targaryen ride a dragon?


We see lot of speculation about who will ride Daenerys' dragons.


One of the candidates is Tyrion, but he is not a Targaryen. Jon Snow is also a candidate, but he is only half-Targaryen.


I am not here for speculation, but to ask a simple question:


Must one be a (pure) Targaryen to ride dragons?



Answer



TL;DR : Noble dragonriders may not have been exclusively Targaryen but all were Valyrian. Furthermore, there have been some bastard dragonriders, called dragonseeds, of unknown origin.


Long answer :


There is a little bit of speculation in the answer, as it is not etched in stone that one can ride a dragon only if he is valyrian, but as there is a limited amount of dragons and dragonriders, we know individually each dragonriders (at least in post-doom era)



As far as I know, all known noble dragonriders where Valyrian. There are also some bastards who became dragonriders, called dragonseeds ( bastards of House Targaryen as well as House Velaryon), even though we are not 100% sure of their origin.


Of course, the Targaryen are the most famous dragonriders, but there are others as well.



  • Jaenara Belaerys flew over Sothoryos with his dragon.

  • Aurion, Emperor of Valyria, is a famous dragonlord that survived the Doom of Valyria, proclaimed himself Emperor of Valyria, and tried to reestablish the Freehold.

  • House Velaryon, A Valyrian noble House who, like the Targaryan, left Valyria before the Doom. They are allied with Targaryens, and there have been a number of dragonriders from this house.

  • Dragonseeds, alleged Valyrian bastards who became dragonriders during the Dance of the Dragons.


The only potential non-Valyrian dragonriders are the dragonseeds, because we don't really know the lineage of those bastards.


Usually, the term of dragonseed is used for Targaryan and Velaryon bastards, but the term was also used to call the dragonriders during the dance of the dragons.



Long story short, there was a civil war between Targaryens, and the black (Rhaenyra Targaryen's loyalists) had more dragons than dragonriders. Prince Jacaerys Velaryon offered lands, riches, and knighthood to any such "seeds" that could master a dragon. A lot of men tried, a lot of men failed.


Those who succeeded were known as dragonseeds, but we don't know for sure if they were all Targaryens/ Velaryons or if it's their alleged Valyrian blood which enabled them to ride a dragon. Another thing to note is that not all of them had Valyran traits (Silver-gold hair, purple eyes etc.).


The best example is Nettles : She is described as a "brown-skinned girl with black hair and brown eyes", not your typical Targaryen.


So, to sum up, all noble dragonriders were valyrian, and bastards dragonriders were supposed to be Valyrian as well, but not all of them had strong valyrian traits, so in conclusion:



  1. Only Valyrians can master the dragons.

  2. Valyrians don't need to be pure-blooded to accomplish that feat.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.
Post a Comment
Read more

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...
Post a Comment
Read more