In this week’s ‘HotD’ deep dive, we look at the ties between Targaryens and dragons, Rhaenyra’s role model, Daemon’s mother, dragon math, and more

HBO/Ringer illustration

Otto is not a wartime hand of the king. Alicent is not a wartime royal regent. But Jacaerys Velaryon? He’s certainly a wartime heir—and this week he has an interesting idea about how to bring more dragons to his side. Let’s break down that and more from the latest episode of House of the Dragon, “Regent.”

Deep Dive of the Week: Who Can Ride a Dragon?

Last week, George R.R. Martin posted a long blog about dragons (who said this guy doesn’t write anymore?). In it, he talks about the care he put into crafting his dragons—he intentionally designed them to have two legs, not four, and gave them large wings so their flight could be realistic, for example. He also has some rules for how the bond between dragon and rider works:

They bond with men… some men… and the why and how of that, and how it came to be, will eventually be revealed in more detail in THE WINDS OF WINTER and A DREAM OF SPRING and some in BLOOD & FIRE. (Septon Barth got much of it right). Like wolves and bears and lions, dragons can be trained, but never entirely tamed. They will always be dangerous. Some are wilder and more wilful than others. They are individuals, they have personalities… and they often reflect the personalities of their riders, thanks to bond they share are. They do not care a whit about gold or gems, no more than a tiger would. Unless maybe their rider was obsessed with the shiny stuff, and even then…

There are many theories about dragons. As with almost everything magical in Westeros, it’s hard to separate the truth from the myths, legends, half-truths, misunderstandings, and outright falsehoods. But here Martin gives us a North Star to follow, saying that Septon Barth should be our authority. So what did Barth know about dragons?

First off, let’s start with who Septon Barth was. Barth was a blacksmith’s son who was given to the Faith of the Seven. When he arrived in King’s Landing in 50 AC to serve under Septon Oswyck, he quickly became one of King Jaehaerys’s most trusted advisers. Barth was by all accounts exceptionally wise, learned, and hardworking, and Jaehaerys soon named him hand of the king, an office he held for more than four decades.

Barth’s accomplishments—helping draft an extensive code of laws, significantly reducing the crown’s debt, improving infrastructure in King’s Landing—helped contribute to an unprecedented era of peace. Sadly for us, though, much of his writing has been lost to history. But some fragments are quoted in other texts, and they provide a glimpse into what Barth learned about dragons during his long time in King’s Landing. One thing we know for sure about Barth’s dragon research: He believed that the Valyrians of old used blood magic to turn wyverns—flying reptiles similar to dragons but smaller and without the ability to breathe fire—from the continent of Sothoryos into dragons. He didn’t believe dragons were tamed; he believed they were created.

Barth did extensive research in this area. His interest began around 56 AC, when Princess Aerea Targaryen, Jahaerys’s niece, returned from a trip to parts unknown. Aerea, at just 12 years old, had claimed Balerion and fled Dragonstone in the night. She was not seen for more than a year, her whereabouts a complete mystery to all in Westeros, even as her mother, Rhaena, mounted her own dragon and searched for her.

When Balerion returned, he landed in the inner ring of Maegor’s Holdfast, and Aerea slid off his back, deathly sick. The muscle had melted away from her bones, her clothes were in tatters, and one knight said she ran a fever so hot that he could feel it through his armor.

Barth, who tended to the princess in her final day of life, was horrified by what he saw. Fire & Blood includes a long section of a journal Barth kept in which he described the condition Aerea was in as he and Grand Maester Benifer desperately tried to treat her. Barth wrote that Aerea’s skin was so hot that when he touched it, “it was as if I had thrust it into a pot of boiling oil” and that “there were things inside her, living things, moving and twisting, mayhaps searching for a way out.” He wrote that “the poor child was cooking from within.” Eventually, Aerea’s flesh grew dark and began to crack. Smoke came out of her orifices. When Aerea’s heart stopped, the “things” inside her came out. “Worms with faces … snakes with hands,” Barth wrote. “One at least was as long as my arm.”

Days later, Barth wrote again, speculating that Balerion must have taken Aerea to old Valyria. It’s here we get closest to a central thesis on Barth’s beliefs about the origins of dragons: “The Valyrians were more than dragonlords,” Barth wrote. “They practiced blood magic and other dark arts as well, delving deep into the earth for secrets best left buried and twisting the flesh of beasts and men to fashion monstrous and unnatural chimeras. For these sins the gods in their wroth struck them down. Valyria is accursed, all men agree.”

It was this event that led Barth to investigate dragons and ultimately write Dragons, Wyrms, and Wyverns: Their Unnatural History, Westeros’s most authoritative look at dragon lore and history. Unfortunately, the text does not survive—King Baelor Targaryen had it destroyed roughly seven decades after Barth’s death. The Citadel also condemned the book as “provocative but unsound.” But Martin tells us to trust Barth. (Barth also speculated that dragons can change sex, a notion that is widely rejected by Westeros’s maesters. But there are hints in the story that Barth is correct.)

Barth’s writing on Aerea provides the most explicit suggestion of the theory that “the blood of the dragon” is not just a metaphor. His line about “twisting the flesh of beasts and men” hints that Targaryens have actual dragon blood running through their veins.

If true, this theory would explain a few things about Targaryens. In A Storm of Swords, Daenerys is told that “madness and greatness are two sides of the same coin. Every time a new Targaryen is born, the gods toss the coin in the air and the world holds its breath to see how it will land.” Think of all the violent, disturbed, or unstable Targaryens—King Maegor, King Aerys, Dany’s brother Viserys, Daemon, Aemond, Daenerys herself … the list could go on. This propensity toward madness is often explained as a result of the Targaryens’ habit of incest. But what if it is actually because the Targaryens are part dragon?

This could also explain the Targaryen practice of incest itself. The incestuous marriages are not a Targ thing—they’re a Valyrian tradition. It makes a lot of sense to keep the blood of the dragon strong if that blood contains the key to dragonriding.

Furthermore, Targaryens suffer a number of stillbirths throughout the series in which the baby is described as almost dragonlike. The most famous case is that of Rhaego, Daenerys’s son in A Game of Thrones. As Mirri Maz Duur performs a blood ritual on the dying Khal Drogo, Daenerys goes into labor—and also falls into a fever. When she awakes, she learns that her son was stillborn. Mirri describes Rhaego as “scaled like a lizard, blind, with the stub of a tail and small leather wings like the wings of a bat. When I touched him, the flesh sloughed off the bone, and inside he was full of graveworms and the stink of corruption. He had been dead for years.”

Remember the stillbirth Rhaenyra suffers in House of the Dragon when she learns Alicent and Aegon have usurped her crown? In Fire & Blood, the child—whom Rhaenyra names Visenya—is described as “a stillborn girl, twisted and malformed, with a hole in her chest where her heart should have been, and a stubby, scaled tail.”

Yet another stillbirth follows this pattern. Elinor Costayne, one of King Maegor’s wives, gave birth to “a stillborn abomination said to have been born eyeless and with small wings,” per Fire & Blood.

All of these incidents could have other explanations. Daenerys’s stillbirth (which she doesn’t witness herself) could have been the result of Mirri Maz Duur’s blood magic. The description of Rhaenyra’s child comes from an unreliable source (though one that is friendly to Rhaenyra). And one of Maegor’s wives—Tyanna of the Tower—claimed to be a sorceress who poisoned his other wives, including Elinor Costayne. Still, the similarities in the descriptions run deep. Too deep to be a coincidence.

Finally, A World of Ice & Fire lays out yet another hint: “The tales the Valyrians told of themselves claimed they were descended from dragons and were kin to the ones they now controlled.”

This brings us to Jacaerys. The prince posits in this episode that the idea that only Targaryens can ride dragons is propaganda. He and his mother want to find more dragonriders—and they don’t think candidates need to have the last name “Targaryen” to be eligible to mount one of these winged beasts.

Jace’s idea is about to kick off what will be called the Sowing of the Seeds—a grand search for more dragonriders. Ulf the White is the first dragonseed—essentially a Targaryen bastard—identified in the show (at least if his claim that Baelon Targaryen is his father is true). But Rhaenyra and Jace will likely look first for distant family members with a recorded Targaryen lineage. “There could be scores of them,” Jace says.

But any dragonriding candidate must, it would seem, have some of that vaunted “blood of the dragon.” Jacaerys and Rhaenyra say they don’t need “a dragonlord,” yes, but they are dead set on going through their line and finding long-lost descendants. After all, every known dragonrider to this point in history has been someone with indisputable Valyrian blood.

Dragons can bond only to “some men,” Martin writes. But is that because Valyrians are literally part dragon? Is it because of some ancient magic that bonds Valyrians with dragons? Or is it something else entirely? Is the whole “blood of the dragon” thing an illusion? Propaganda? Is “some men” not a reference to Valyrians at all? Does an entirely different trait determine whether a person can be a dragonrider?

For answers to all of this, we turn back to Martin, who wrote in his blog that exactly how dragons bond with humans will “eventually be revealed in more detail in THE WINDS OF WINTER and A DREAM OF SPRING.”

Ah, well. Guess we won’t be getting definitive answers anytime soon.

Quick Hits

Visenya is not a role model

Way back in the premiere of House of the Dragon, the pregnant Aemma Arryn remarks that Rhaenyra has already picked out a name for her sister if the child is a girl: Visenya. At this, King Viserys scoffs. “Gods be good,” he says, adding, “This family already has its Visenya.”

Rhaenyra, it would seem, has something of a fascination with Visenya, one of Aegon the Conqueror’s sister-wives, the first rider of Vhagar, and the first known wielder of Dark Sister. Rhaenyra named her stillborn daughter Visenya, and earlier this season she was reading about the late queen. Visenya was instrumental in the Conquest … but as Jacaerys says in this episode, “I hope you do not mean to use her as an example.” Rhaenyra bristles at this, and the conversation awkwardly shifts.

Visenya was the more stern of Aegon’s sister-wives. Whereas Rhaenys was a lover of dancing and mischief, Visenya was all steel and business. Along with her siblings, she burned thousands of Westerosi during the Conquest, taking Vhagar to the Riverlands, the Westerlands, the Vale, and Dorne.

Visenya was a stubborn, strong-willed woman. During the war with the Dornish, she began wearing chainmail night and day to protect against would-be assassins. When King Aegon refused to do so, pointing out he had guards to protect him, Visenya drew Dark Sister and slashed him across the cheek, saying, “Your guards are slow and lazy.” This altercation led to the creation of the Kingsguard. Visenya insisted on personally selecting the seven knights who would protect King Aegon.

Visenya’s actions after the Conquest, though, likely contribute to Jace’s hesitation to use her as a guide. It took more than a decade of marriage for Visenya to have a child. Just a year after the death of Rhaenys—which left Rhaenys’s then 3-year-old son, Aenys, inconsolable and sickly—Visenya suddenly announced that she was pregnant. She was sure the child would be a boy. And so he was: the infamous Maegor.

After Maegor’s birth, Visenya and Aegon grew distant. While the king kept Aenys, his heir, close by his side at court, Visenya raised Maegor alone on Dragonstone. And when Aegon decided to tear down the Aegonfort to begin construction on a new keep—the Red Keep—he moved back to Dragonstone … but had Visenya oversee the construction, thus swapping places with her and keeping the two of them apart.

Visenya thus raised Maegor in her own image, giving him a sword when the boy was still a toddler and gifting him Dark Sister when he turned 13. As Aenys grew from a sickly boy into a healthy man and began to have children (with his wife, Alyssa Velaryon), a quiet rage grew inside Visenya. Every son Aenys had pushed Maegor back another spot in the line of succession. Aenys ultimately had three sons and three daughters, and it seemed unlikely that Maegor would ever sit the Iron Throne.

When Aegon died of a stroke, Aenys became king. His first act was to present Blackfyre, King Aegon’s Valyrian steel sword, to his brother, saying, “You are more fit to bear this blade than me.” Maegor also claimed Balerion, his father’s dragon. Yet despite Aenys’s coronation, some whispered that the realm needed strength in a king. That included Visenya, who said, “The truth is plain enough. Even Aenys sees it. Why else would he have given Blackfyre to my son? He knows that only Maegor has the strength to rule.”

However, Maegor had fertility issues. After more than a decade of marriage to Ceryse Hightower, he had failed to produce any children. And so a couple of years into his brother’s rule, Maegor shocked the realm when he took a new, second wife in Alys Harroway. Visenya herself performed the wedding rites. King Aenys, the Hightowers, and the High Septon were all outraged. Though King Aegon had had multiple wives, the realm wasn’t ready to accept this practice by anyone other than the conqueror. Aenys exiled Maegor to Pentos.

But that wasn’t enough, and Aenys was soon tested by an uprising of the Faith Militant. As the smallfolk grew more and more rebellious (and after a failed assassination attempt), Aenys retreated to Dragonstone, reuniting with his aunt Visenya.

On Dragonstone, Aenys grew ill, and Visenya took charge of the king’s care. Aenys recovered for a short time … then learned that his son and daughter had been taken as hostages at Crakehall. He suffered a collapse and died three days later.

Within an hour of the king’s demise, Visenya had flown across the Narrow Sea to retrieve Maegor. The two returned, and Visenya immediately crowned her son with the Valyrian steel crown of her late husband. She then accompanied her son to King’s Landing and proclaimed that “if any man questions my son’s right to the Iron Throne, let him prove his claim with his body.”

Maegor’s bloody, despotic reign ensued. Visenya was by his side—arguably the king’s closest adviser. She contributed to Maegor’s violent rule, flying Vhagar to burn the Riverlands when some of those houses failed to swear fealty to the new king. After that, Visenya returned to Dragonstone, where she looked after Prince Jaehaerys and Princess Alysanne—two of Aenys’s children—essentially keeping them as prisoners. But Visenya grew old and frail and died in 44 AC, the third year of Maegor’s reign.

After Visenya’s death—and probably while she was still alive—there were whispers that she practiced dark magic and potions. How did she so conveniently become pregnant after more than a decade of marriage? Why was her son so cartoonishly violent and unforgiving? Why did her son have such dramatic fertility issues of his own? How did King Aenys come to die in her care?

To many in the realm, Visenya is a kinslayer and a kingslayer. To the especially conspiratorial, she may have even birthed Maegor through dark magic—explaining why he was such an inhuman monster.

Some of these same types of whispers are likely spread about Rhaenyra—especially after Prince Jaehaerys’s death. Maybe Visenya was not as monstrous as the histories make her out to be. But she certainly was quick to use her dragon to burn Westerosi by the thousands and reduce castles and towns to nothing but ash and dust. She usurped the line of succession. And if Rhaenyra is looking to Visenya for inspiration, what would that make her son Jacaerys? Another Maegor? Jace is right—Visenya is no role model.

Alfred Broome departs Dragonstone … and his book character arc

Ser Alfred Broome has hardly been much of an ally to Rhaenyra on her Small Council. It’s unclear exactly what position he holds, if any, but he seems to have taken on a role of constantly undermining and disagreeing with her. Thus, she’s sent him off to Harrenhal to learn Daemon’s intentions.

“It’s not a demotion,” Rhaenyra says. “It’s an exciting change in role.” (OK, she doesn’t actually say this.)

At some point this season you may have wondered, “Who is this guy?,” “What’s his deal?,” and “Why does Rhaenyra keep him around?” Well, very little about the Broomes is known from the books. House Broome is a Westerlands house, which is a bit interesting because it means Alfred should be sworn to the Lannisters, who are aligned with the greens. But he’s a knight, not a lord, and he has served the garrison at Dragonstone since the days of Old King Jaehaerys. Fire & Blood doesn’t tell us much more about Alfred, saying only that his “sullen disposition and sour manner inspired neither affection nor trust.”

In the book, Rhaenyra doesn’t send Alfred away from the stronghold, so what House of the Dragon has planned for Alfred is anyone’s guess.

The Lady Jeyne Arryn

Jeyne was born in 94 AC, near the end of the reign of King Jaehaerys. She became the Lady of the Eyrie just three years later, when her father and older brother were killed by one of the mountain clans that inhabit the Vale.

Jeyne and Rhaenyra thus share something in common—they rule as women in a world built for men (plus, Rhaenyra’s mother was an Arryn). Jeyne’s cousin Arnold Arryn twice sought to supplant her as the ruler in the Eyrie. By the time Jacaerys lands there to ask for her allegiance, she’s had Arnold confined.

“My cousin Ser Arnold is wont to say that women are too soft to rule,” Jeyne tells Jace in Fire & Blood. “I have him in one of my sky cells, if you would like to ask him.”

During the Conquest, Visenya took Vhagar to the Eyrie and landed her in the castle, bringing the Vale to heel for King Aegon. The Arryns have long prided themselves on their “impregnable” castle—but dragons render the advantages of the mountain fortress moot. That’s why Lady Jeyne is so set on gaining a dragon for her protection.

Daemon’s mother

Welp, Daemon’s dreams—nightmares, actually, I hope—have taken a bit of a turn. This week we were introduced to his mother. Let’s learn a bit about her.

Alyssa Targaryen died a year after a difficult childbirth, when Daemon was just 3 years old. Thus, any memories he may have of her would be hazy at best.

The daughter of King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne, Alyssa was a big personality. She would boast that she was “as bawdy a wench as any barmaid in King’s Landing,” per Fire & Blood. And she was an eager dragonrider. Her older brothers had first flown at 17 and 16, respectively, so Alyssa insisted on doing so at 15. She was the first rider of Meleys, the Red Queen. (She had to be convinced not to claim Balerion, who was growing old and slow.)

She married her brother Baelon—the same Baelon that Ulf claims is his father—when she was a teenager. The two reportedly spent nearly every moment together from then on, either on their dragons or in their bedchamber, and Alyssa quickly gave birth to Viserys. Although advised against it, Alyssa took the newborn Viserys skyward on her dragon. Four years later, Daemon was born—and Alyssa took him up on Meleys as well.

It was her third child, Aegon, who didn’t come so easily. The long and difficult labor left Alyssa sickly. She never recovered and died within a year. The boy Aegon also passed away shortly after.

Daemon never really knew his mother, but this week he dreams that he’s her favorite son. Is this where Daemon’s desire for the crown comes from? A yearning to impress the mother he hardly met?

Of the most interest to me, as we move through characters from Daemon’s past, is when we’ll get Paddy Considine back on-screen. It has to be coming up soon, right?

“A-niece”

So that’s how you pronounce Aenys. Well, now we know.

Checking in on Dragon Math

Before the season, I broke down the dragons on each side of the brewing civil war. (In retrospect, I perhaps overestimated how “slow and lazy” Meleys had become, per Fire & Blood, as she was clearly stronger than Sunfyre in last week’s battle). With the dust settled over Rook’s Rest, let’s quickly check in on each side. For the blacks:

Syrax: (Three-star strength rating out of five.) Remains on Dragonstone with Rhaenyra.
Caraxes: (Four stars.) Daemon is still nominally aligned with Rhaenyra, but he’s sure getting comfortable calling himself “king.” Caraxes has always been the blacks’ strongest dragon—if Daemon cannot be relied upon, then the blacks have no dragon that can even hold a candle to Vhagar.
Vermax: (Two stars.) Jace’s adolescent dragon is no slouch, but there is a reason the Freys are far more worried about Vhagar.
Moondancer: (Two stars.) Prior to the season, I had Moondancer pegged as a one-star dragon because Fire & Blood told us that she was just too young to take a mount. But Baela was flying Moondancer when she spotted Criston Cole, so clearly her dragon can be a factor in the war.
Tyraxes: (Zero stars.) Joffrey’s dragon, too young to be ridden.
Stormcloud: (Zero stars.) Young Aegon’s dragon, too young to be ridden.

And for the greens:

Vhagar: (Five stars.) Needs no introduction.
Sunfyre: (??? stars.) Criston Cole said Sunfyre was “long in the dying.” Does that mean Sunfyre is already dead or just grievously wounded like his rider? At any rate, neither Sunfyre nor Aegon is in fighting shape now.
Dreamfyre: (Two stars.) Still theoretically one of the larger dragons in the realm but also still ridden by Helaena, who is the furthest from being a warrior of any character in this show.
Tessarion: (Two stars.) Daeron exists! After Otto mentioned the young prince earlier this season, we should expect Tessarion to appear either later this season or early next season. But Tessarion is still a young dragon, very similar in age to Vermax.
Shrykos: (Zero stars.) Prince Jaehaerys’s dragon. Now unbonded and too young to ride regardless.
Morghul: (Zero stars.) Princess Jaehaera’s dragon, too young to ride.

So, let’s add it up. The blacks have four rideable dragons, totaling 11 stars worth of strength. For the greens, it’s three dragons totaling just nine stars. The blacks still have the advantage, by my count … but some intangible factors put the thumb on the scale in favor of the greens. The first is that the blacks are increasingly finding it difficult to count on Daemon. The second is that the greens have Vhagar. While I’ve given her five stars, you could easily argue that she’s worth six, seven, or 50.

As I detailed preseason, there are a number of unclaimed dragons, and they are all on either Dragonstone or Driftmark—areas the blacks control. Jace specifically highlights Vermithor (whom I gave four stars) and Silverwing (three stars). Those dragons would certainly tip the advantage toward the blacks.

The Board Before Us

The Riverlands continued to get carved up this week, with the Twins declaring for the blacks. I’m not ready to move Stone Hedge to the blacks, though, even as the Brackens face pressure from the Blackwoods’ Daemon-endorsed campaign of terror. There’s too much defiance from the river lords for me to say whether the Brackens have truly been “brought to heel.”

Rhaenyra jokes to Jace that they could put a Mallister or a Tarly on a dragon. I don’t think these houses were chosen carelessly—both are black-aligned in the books, so I think we can safely mark them down for the blacks in the show now as well. That’s the latest, so here’s how it all looks:

Next week we’re getting just what this show needed: MORE DRAGONS.