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

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

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...
Post a Comment
Read more

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF
Post a Comment
Read more

Which Doctor Who works are canon?

I have been watching a Doctor Who documentary and they mentioned that Paul McGann did audio stories so he wasn't just a one-hit Doctor (and that there are novels featuring his Doctor as well). My question is: is Doctor Who canon just the show, or is it like Star Wars where some books and audios are canon and some are not? The documentary also shows that before 2005 they did audio stories where the Doctor is female and obviously that cannot be — not the female part, but the show doesn't count any female Doctors in episodes like The Day of the Doctor . Answer Nothing, and also everything The definitive piece of writing on Doctor Who canon is this blog post by writer Paul Cornell . I'm essentially going to be summarizing his post here, much less eloquently, but one section I want to quote directly is this: Nobody at the BBC has ever uttered a pronouncement about what is and isn't canonical. (As I'm sure they'd put it, being such enthusiasts for good grammar.) Be...
Post a Comment
Read more