‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2, Episode 5: Where Do Dragons Come From?

Otto isn’t a wartime hand of the king. Alicent isn’t a wartime royal regent. However Jacaerys Velaryon? He’s actually a wartime inheritor—and this week he has an attention-grabbing thought about the right way to deliver extra dragons to his aspect. Let’s break down that and extra from the most recent episode of Home of the Dragon, “Regent.”

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

Final week, George R.R. Martin posted a protracted weblog about dragons (who stated this man doesn’t write anymore?). In it, he talks in regards to the care he put into crafting his dragons—he deliberately designed them to have two legs, not 4, and gave them giant wings so their flight may very well be lifelike, for instance. He additionally has some guidelines for the way the bond between dragon and rider works:

They bond with males… some males… and the why and the way of that, and the way it got here to be, will ultimately be revealed in additional element in THE WINDS OF WINTER and A DREAM OF SPRING and a few in BLOOD & FIRE. (Septon Barth bought a lot of it proper). Like wolves and bears and lions, dragons may be educated, however by no means totally tamed. They may at all times be harmful. Some are wilder and extra wilful than others. They’re people, they’ve personalities… and so they usually replicate the personalities of their riders, due to bond they share are. They don’t care a whit about gold or gems, not more than a tiger would. Until perhaps their rider was obsessive about the shiny stuff, and even then…

There are various theories about dragons. As with virtually every part magical in Westeros, it’s exhausting to separate the reality from the myths, legends, half-truths, misunderstandings, and outright falsehoods. However right here Martin offers us a North Star to comply with, saying that Septon Barth needs to be our authority. So what did Barth learn about dragons?

First off, let’s begin with who Septon Barth was. Barth was a blacksmith’s son who was given to the Religion of the Seven. When he arrived in King’s Touchdown in 50 AC to serve underneath Septon Oswyck, he rapidly turned one in all King Jaehaerys’s most trusted advisers. Barth was by all accounts exceptionally smart, discovered, and hardworking, and Jaehaerys quickly named him hand of the king, an workplace he held for greater than 4 many years.

Barth’s accomplishments—serving to draft an intensive code of legal guidelines, considerably decreasing the crown’s debt, bettering infrastructure in King’s Touchdown—helped contribute to an unprecedented period of peace. Sadly for us, although, a lot of his writing has been misplaced to historical past. However some fragments are quoted in different texts, and so they present a glimpse into what Barth discovered about dragons throughout his very long time in King’s Touchdown. One factor we all know for positive about Barth’s dragon analysis: He believed that the Valyrians of outdated used blood magic to show wyverns—flying reptiles just like dragons however smaller and with out the power to breathe hearth—from the continent of Sothoryos into dragons. He didn’t consider dragons had been tamed; he believed they had been created.

Barth did intensive analysis on this space. His curiosity started round 56 AC, when Princess Aerea Targaryen, Jahaerys’s niece, returned from a visit to elements unknown. Aerea, at simply 12 years outdated, had claimed Balerion and fled Dragonstone within the night time. She was not seen for greater than a 12 months, her whereabouts a whole thriller to all in Westeros, at the same time as her mom, Rhaena, mounted her personal dragon and looked for her.

When Balerion returned, he landed within the internal ring of Maegor’s Holdfast, and Aerea slid off his again, deathly sick. The muscle had melted away from her bones, her garments had been in tatters, and one knight stated she ran a fever so scorching that he may really feel it via his armor.

Barth, who tended to the princess in her last day of life, was horrified by what he noticed. Hearth & Blood features a lengthy part of a journal Barth stored by which he described the situation Aerea was in as he and Grand Maester Benifer desperately tried to deal with her. Barth wrote that Aerea’s pores and skin was so scorching that when he touched it, “it was as if I had thrust it right into a pot of boiling oil” and that “there have been issues inside her, dwelling issues, transferring and twisting, mayhaps trying to find a manner out.” He wrote that “the poor youngster was cooking from inside.” Ultimately, Aerea’s flesh grew darkish and commenced to crack. Smoke got here out of her orifices. When Aerea’s coronary heart stopped, the “issues” inside her got here out. “Worms with faces … snakes with palms,” Barth wrote. “One at the least was so long as my arm.”

Days later, Barth wrote once more, speculating that Balerion should have taken Aerea to outdated Valyria. It’s right here we get closest to a central thesis on Barth’s beliefs in regards to the origins of dragons: “The Valyrians had been greater than dragonlords,” Barth wrote. “They practiced blood magic and different darkish arts as properly, delving deep into the earth for secrets and techniques greatest left buried and twisting the flesh of beasts and males to style monstrous and unnatural chimeras. For these sins the gods of their wroth struck them down. Valyria is accursed, all males agree.”

It was this occasion that led Barth to research dragons and in the end write Dragons, Wyrms, and Wyverns: Their Unnatural Historical past, Westeros’s most authoritative take a look at dragon lore and historical past. Sadly, the textual content doesn’t survive—King Baelor Targaryen had it destroyed roughly seven many years after Barth’s dying. The Citadel additionally condemned the ebook as “provocative however unsound.” However Martin tells us to belief Barth. (Barth additionally speculated that dragons can change intercourse, a notion that’s extensively rejected by Westeros’s maesters. However there are hints within the story that Barth is appropriate.)

Barth’s writing on Aerea supplies essentially the most specific suggestion of the idea that “the blood of the dragon” is not only a metaphor. His line about “twisting the flesh of beasts and males” hints that Targaryens have precise dragon blood working via their veins.

If true, this concept would clarify just a few issues about Targaryens. In A Storm of Swords, Daenerys is informed that “insanity and greatness are two sides of the identical coin. Each time a brand new Targaryen is born, the gods toss the coin within the air and the world holds its breath to see the way it will land.” Consider all of the violent, disturbed, or unstable Targaryens—King Maegor, King Aerys, Dany’s brother Viserys, Daemon, Aemond, Daenerys herself … the checklist may go on. This propensity towards insanity is usually defined on account of the Targaryens’ behavior of incest. However what if it is usually because the Targaryens are half dragon?

This might additionally clarify the Targaryen observe of incest itself. The incestuous marriages usually are not a Targ factor—they’re a Valyrian custom. It makes quite a lot of sense to maintain the blood of the dragon sturdy if that blood accommodates the important thing to dragonriding.

Moreover, Targaryens endure numerous stillbirths all through the collection by which the child is described as virtually dragonlike. Probably the most well-known case is that of Rhaego, Daenerys’s son in A Sport of Thrones. As Mirri Maz Duur performs a blood ritual on the dying Khal Drogo, Daenerys goes into labor—and in addition falls right 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-based wings just like the wings of a bat. Once I touched him, the flesh sloughed off the bone, and inside he was stuffed with graveworms and the stink of corruption. He had been useless for years.”

Bear in mind the stillbirth Rhaenyra suffers in Home of the Dragon when she learns Alicent and Aegon have usurped her crown? In Hearth & Blood, the kid—whom Rhaenyra names Visenya—is described as “a stillborn lady, twisted and malformed, with a gap in her chest the place her coronary heart ought to have been, and a stubby, scaled tail.”

Yet one more stillbirth follows this sample. Elinor Costayne, one in all King Maegor’s wives, gave beginning to “a stillborn abomination stated to have been born eyeless and with small wings,” per Hearth & Blood.

All of those incidents may produce other explanations. Daenerys’s stillbirth (which she doesn’t witness herself) may have been the results of Mirri Maz Duur’s blood magic. The outline of Rhaenyra’s youngster comes from an unreliable supply (although one that’s pleasant to Rhaenyra). And one in all Maegor’s wives—Tyanna of the Tower—claimed to be a sorceress who poisoned his different wives, together with Elinor Costayne. Nonetheless, the similarities within the descriptions run deep. Too deep to be a coincidence.

Lastly, A World of Ice & Hearth lays out one more trace: “The tales the Valyrians informed of themselves claimed they had been descended from dragons and had been kin to those they now managed.”

This brings us to Jacaerys. The prince posits on this episode that the concept solely Targaryens can journey dragons is propaganda. He and his mom wish to discover extra dragonriders—and so they don’t suppose candidates must have the final title “Targaryen” to be eligible to mount one in all these winged beasts.

Jace’s thought is about to kick off what can be known as the Sowing of the Seeds—a grand seek for extra dragonriders. Ulf the White is the primary dragonseed—basically a Targaryen bastard—recognized within the present (at the least if his declare that Baelon Targaryen is his father is true). However Rhaenyra and Jace will doubtless look first for distant members of the family with a recorded Targaryen lineage. “There may very well be scores of them,” Jace says.

However any dragonriding candidate should, it will appear, have a few of that vaunted “blood of the dragon.” Jacaerys and Rhaenyra say they don’t want “a dragonlord,” sure, however they’re useless set on going via their line and discovering long-lost descendants. In spite of everything, each recognized dragonrider thus far in historical past has been somebody with indeniable Valyrian blood.

Dragons can bond solely to “some males,” Martin writes. However is that as a result of Valyrians are actually half dragon? Is it due to some historical magic that bonds Valyrians with dragons? Or is it one thing else totally? Is the entire “blood of the dragon” factor an phantasm? Propaganda? Is “some males” not a reference to Valyrians in any respect? Does a completely completely different trait decide whether or not an individual generally is a dragonrider?

For solutions to all of this, we flip again to Martin, who wrote in his weblog that precisely how dragons bond with people will “ultimately be revealed in additional element in THE WINDS OF WINTER and A DREAM OF SPRING.”

Ah, properly. Guess we received’t be getting definitive solutions anytime quickly.

Fast Hits

Visenya isn’t a task mannequin

Approach again within the premiere of Home of the Dragon, the pregnant Aemma Arryn remarks that Rhaenyra has already picked out a reputation for her sister if the kid is a woman: Visenya. At this, King Viserys scoffs. “Gods be good,” he says, including, “This household already has its Visenya.”

Rhaenyra, it will appear, has one thing of a fascination with Visenya, one in all Aegon the Conqueror’s sister-wives, the primary rider of Vhagar, and the primary recognized wielder of Darkish Sister. Rhaenyra named her stillborn daughter Visenya, and earlier this season she was studying in regards to the late queen. Visenya was instrumental within the Conquest … however as Jacaerys says on this episode, “I hope you don’t imply to make use of her for instance.” Rhaenyra bristles at this, and the dialog awkwardly shifts.

Visenya was the extra stern of Aegon’s sister-wives. Whereas Rhaenys was a lover of dancing and mischief, Visenya was all metal and enterprise. Alongside together with her siblings, she burned hundreds of Westerosi in the course of the Conquest, taking Vhagar to the Riverlands, the Westerlands, the Vale, and Dorne.

Visenya was a cussed, strong-willed girl. Through the warfare with the Dornish, she started carrying chainmail night time and day to guard in opposition to would-be assassins. When King Aegon refused to take action, stating he had guards to guard him, Visenya drew Darkish Sister and slashed him throughout the cheek, saying, “Your guards are gradual and lazy.” This altercation led to the creation of the Kingsguard. Visenya insisted on personally choosing the seven knights who would shield King Aegon.

Visenya’s actions after the Conquest, although, doubtless contribute to Jace’s hesitation to make use of her as a information. It took greater than a decade of marriage for Visenya to have a toddler. Only a 12 months after the dying of Rhaenys—which left Rhaenys’s then 3-year-old son, Aenys, inconsolable and sickly—Visenya all of the sudden introduced that she was pregnant. She was positive the kid can be a boy. And so he was: the notorious Maegor.

After Maegor’s beginning, Visenya and Aegon grew distant. Whereas the king stored Aenys, his inheritor, shut by his aspect at courtroom, Visenya raised Maegor alone on Dragonstone. And when Aegon determined to tear down the Aegonfort to start building on a brand new hold—the Crimson Maintain—he moved again to Dragonstone … however had Visenya oversee the development, thus swapping locations together with her and preserving the 2 of them aside.

Visenya thus raised Maegor in her personal picture, giving him a sword when the boy was nonetheless a toddler and gifting him Darkish Sister when he turned 13. As Aenys grew from a sickly boy right into a wholesome man and commenced to have kids (together with his spouse, Alyssa Velaryon), a quiet rage grew inside Visenya. Each son Aenys had pushed Maegor again one other spot within the line of succession. Aenys in the end had three sons and three daughters, and it appeared unlikely that Maegor would ever sit the Iron Throne.

When Aegon died of a stroke, Aenys turned king. His first act was to current Blackfyre, King Aegon’s Valyrian metal sword, to his brother, saying, “You might be healthier to bear this blade than me.” Maegor additionally claimed Balerion, his father’s dragon. But regardless of Aenys’s coronation, some whispered that the realm wanted power in a king. That included Visenya, who stated, “The reality is obvious sufficient. Even Aenys sees it. Why else would he have given Blackfyre to my son? He is aware of that solely Maegor has the power to rule.”

Nevertheless, Maegor had fertility points. After greater than a decade of marriage to Ceryse Hightower, he had failed to supply any kids. And so a few years into his brother’s rule, Maegor shocked the realm when he took a brand new, second spouse in Alys Harroway. Visenya herself carried out the marriage rites. King Aenys, the Hightowers, and the Excessive Septon had been all outraged. Although King Aegon had had a number of wives, the realm wasn’t prepared to simply accept this observe by anybody aside from the conqueror. Aenys exiled Maegor to Pentos.

However that wasn’t sufficient, and Aenys was quickly examined by an rebellion of the Religion Militant. Because the smallfolk grew increasingly more rebellious (and after a failed assassination try), Aenys retreated to Dragonstone, reuniting together with his aunt Visenya.

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

Inside an hour of the king’s demise, Visenya had flown throughout the Slim Sea to retrieve Maegor. The 2 returned, and Visenya instantly topped her son with the Valyrian metal crown of her late husband. She then accompanied her son to King’s Touchdown and proclaimed that “if any man questions my son’s proper to the Iron Throne, let him show his declare together with his physique.”

Maegor’s bloody, despotic reign ensued. Visenya was by his aspect—arguably the king’s closest adviser. She contributed to Maegor’s violent rule, flying Vhagar to burn the Riverlands when a few of these homes did not swear fealty to the brand new king. After that, Visenya returned to Dragonstone, the place she taken care of Prince Jaehaerys and Princess Alysanne—two of Aenys’s kids—basically preserving them as prisoners. However Visenya grew outdated and frail and died in 44 AC, the third 12 months of Maegor’s reign.

After Visenya’s dying—and possibly whereas she was nonetheless alive—there have been whispers that she practiced darkish magic and potions. How did she so conveniently change into pregnant after greater than a decade of marriage? Why was her son so cartoonishly violent and unforgiving? Why did her son have such dramatic fertility problems with his personal? How did King Aenys come to die in her care?

To many within the realm, Visenya is a kinslayer and a kingslayer. To the particularly conspiratorial, she might have even birthed Maegor via darkish magic—explaining why he was such an inhuman monster.

A few of these similar varieties of whispers are doubtless unfold about Rhaenyra—particularly after Prince Jaehaerys’s dying. Possibly Visenya was not as monstrous because the histories make her out to be. However she actually was fast to make use of her dragon to burn Westerosi by the hundreds and cut back castles and cities to nothing however ash and mud. She usurped the road of succession. And if Rhaenyra is trying to Visenya for inspiration, what would that make her son Jacaerys? One other Maegor? Jace is correct—Visenya is not any function mannequin.

Alfred Broome departs Dragonstone … and his ebook character arc

Ser Alfred Broome has hardly been a lot of an ally to Rhaenyra on her Small Council. It’s unclear precisely what place he holds, if any, however he appears to have taken on a task of regularly undermining and disagreeing together with her. Thus, she’s despatched him off to Harrenhal to study Daemon’s intentions.

“It’s not a demotion,” Rhaenyra says. “It’s an thrilling change in function.” (OK, she doesn’t really say this.)

Sooner or later this season you might have questioned, “Who is that this man?,” “What’s his deal?,” and “Why does Rhaenyra hold him round?” Effectively, little or no in regards to the Broomes is thought from the books. Home Broome is a Westerlands home, which is a bit attention-grabbing as a result of it means Alfred needs to be sworn to the Lannisters, who’re aligned with the greens. However he’s a knight, not a lord, and he has served the garrison at Dragonstone because the days of Outdated King Jaehaerys. Hearth & Blood doesn’t inform us way more about Alfred, saying solely that his “sullen disposition and bitter method impressed neither affection nor belief.”

Within the ebook, Rhaenyra doesn’t ship Alfred away from the stronghold, so what Home of the Dragon has deliberate for Alfred is anybody’s guess.

The Girl Jeyne Arryn

Jeyne was born in 94 AC, close to the tip of the reign of King Jaehaerys. She turned the Girl of the Eyrie simply three years later, when her father and older brother had been killed by one of many mountain clans that inhabit the Vale.

Jeyne and Rhaenyra thus share one thing in widespread—they rule as ladies in a world constructed for males (plus, Rhaenyra’s mom was an Arryn). Jeyne’s cousin Arnold Arryn twice sought to supplant her because the ruler within the Eyrie. By the point Jacaerys lands there to ask for her allegiance, she’s had Arnold confined.

“My cousin Ser Arnold is wont to say that girls are too gentle to rule,” Jeyne tells Jace in Hearth & Blood. “I’ve him in one in all my sky cells, if you need to ask him.”

Through the Conquest, Visenya took Vhagar to the Eyrie and landed her within the fortress, bringing the Vale to heel for King Aegon. The Arryns have lengthy prided themselves on their “impregnable” fortress—however dragons render the benefits of the mountain fortress moot. That’s why Girl Jeyne is so set on gaining a dragon for her safety.

Daemon’s mom

Welp, Daemon’s desires—nightmares, really, I hope—have taken a little bit of a flip. This week we had been launched to his mom. Let’s study a bit about her.

Alyssa Targaryen died a 12 months after a tough childbirth, when Daemon was simply 3 years outdated. Thus, any recollections he might have of her can be hazy at greatest.

The daughter of King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne, Alyssa was an enormous character. She would boast that she was “as bawdy a wench as any barmaid in King’s Touchdown,” per Hearth & Blood. And he or she was an keen dragonrider. Her older brothers had first flown at 17 and 16, respectively, so Alyssa insisted on doing so at 15. She was the primary rider of Meleys, the Crimson Queen. (She needed to be satisfied to not declare Balerion, who was rising outdated and gradual.)

She married her brother Baelon—the identical Baelon that Ulf claims is his father—when she was an adolescent. The 2 reportedly spent almost each second collectively from then on, both on their dragons or of their bedchamber, and Alyssa rapidly gave beginning to Viserys. Though suggested in opposition to it, Alyssa took the new child Viserys skyward on her dragon. 4 years later, Daemon was born—and Alyssa took him up on Meleys as properly.

It was her third youngster, Aegon, who didn’t come so simply. The lengthy and tough labor left Alyssa sickly. She by no means recovered and died inside a 12 months. The boy Aegon additionally handed away shortly after.

Daemon by no means actually knew his mom, however this week he desires that he’s her favourite son. Is that this the place Daemon’s need for the crown comes from? A craving to impress the mom he hardly met?

Of essentially the most curiosity to me, as we transfer via characters from Daemon’s previous, is once we’ll get Paddy Considine again on-screen. It must be developing quickly, proper?

“A-niece”

In order that’s the way you pronounce Aenys. Effectively, now we all know.

Checking in on Dragon Math

Earlier than the season, I broke down the dragons on both sides of the brewing civil warfare. (Looking back, I maybe overestimated how “gradual and lazy” Meleys had change into, per Hearth & Blood, as she was clearly stronger than Sunfyre in final week’s battle). With the mud settled over Rook’s Relaxation, let’s rapidly test in on both sides. For the blacks:

• Syrax: (Three-star power ranking out of 5.) Stays on Dragonstone with Rhaenyra.
• Caraxes: (4 stars.) Daemon remains to be nominally aligned with Rhaenyra, however he’s positive getting snug calling himself “king.” Caraxes has at all times been the blacks’ strongest dragon—if Daemon can’t be relied upon, then the blacks don’t have any dragon that may even maintain a candle to Vhagar.
• Vermax: (Two stars.) Jace’s adolescent dragon is not any slouch, however there’s a motive the Freys are much more anxious about Vhagar.
• Moondancer: (Two stars.) Previous to the season, I had Moondancer pegged as a one-star dragon as a result of Hearth & Blood informed us that she was simply too younger to take a mount. However Baela was flying Moondancer when she noticed Criston Cole, so clearly her dragon generally is a issue within the warfare.
• Tyraxes: (Zero stars.) Joffrey’s dragon, too younger to be ridden.
• Stormcloud: (Zero stars.) Younger Aegon’s dragon, too younger to be ridden.

And for the greens:

• Vhagar: (5 stars.) Wants no introduction.
• Sunfyre: (??? stars.) Criston Cole stated Sunfyre was “lengthy within the dying.” Does that imply Sunfyre is already useless or simply grievously wounded like his rider? At any price, neither Sunfyre nor Aegon is in preventing form now.
• Dreamfyre: (Two stars.) Nonetheless theoretically one of many bigger dragons within the realm but in addition nonetheless ridden by Helaena, who’s the furthest from being a warrior of any character on this present.
• Tessarion: (Two stars.) Daeron exists! After Otto talked about the younger prince earlier this season, we must always anticipate Tessarion to look both later this season or early subsequent season. However Tessarion remains to be a younger dragon, very comparable in age to Vermax.
• Shrykos: (Zero stars.) Prince Jaehaerys’s dragon. Now unbonded and too younger to journey regardless.
• Morghul: (Zero stars.) Princess Jaehaera’s dragon, too younger to journey.

So, let’s add it up. The blacks have 4 rideable dragons, totaling 11 stars value of power. For the greens, it’s three dragons totaling simply 9 stars. The blacks nonetheless have the benefit, by my rely … however some intangible components put the thumb on the dimensions in favor of the greens. The primary is that the blacks are more and more discovering it tough to rely on Daemon. The second is that the greens have Vhagar. Whereas I’ve given her 5 stars, you would simply argue that she’s value six, seven, or 50.

As I detailed preseason, there are a selection of unclaimed dragons, and they’re all on both Dragonstone or Driftmark—areas the blacks management. Jace particularly highlights Vermithor (whom I gave 4 stars) and Silverwing (three stars). These dragons would definitely tip the benefit towards the blacks.

The Board Earlier than Us

The Riverlands continued to get carved up this week, with the Twins declaring for the blacks. I’m not prepared to maneuver Stone Hedge to the blacks, although, even because the Brackens face stress from the Blackwoods’ Daemon-endorsed marketing campaign of terror. There’s an excessive amount of defiance from the river lords for me to say whether or not the Brackens have really been “dropped at heel.”

Rhaenyra jokes to Jace that they may put a Mallister or a Tarly on a dragon. I don’t suppose these homes had been chosen carelessly—each are black-aligned within the books, so I feel we are able to safely mark them down for the blacks within the present now as properly. That’s the most recent, so right here’s the way it all appears to be like:

Subsequent Time On …

Subsequent week we’re getting simply what this present wanted: MORE DRAGONS.