HBO
Which riders can mount dragons in ‘House of the Dragon’?
They’re fear inducing beasts, and tightly linked to the ruling dynasty of Westeros, but there are still some in ‘House of the Dragon’ who can tame the firebreathing drakes.
In the heyday of ancient Valyria, thousands of dragons flew through the air. At that time, members of different families rode the beasts, but everything changed in the decline of the kingdom, when a curse spread through the streets. The Targaryens and Velaryons abandoned the city and moved to Westeros, a territory over which they soon imposed their law. On the back of his dragon, Balerion the Black Terror, Aegon Targaryen conquered the Seven Kingdoms and proclaimed himself monarch. Since then, the gigantic reptiles were used as proof of the divinity of the house and its legitimacy to reign.
Many years after the conquest, Rhaenyra and his half-brother Aegon represent two opposing sides in the civil war for succession to the throne. Both Blacks and Greens deploy their dragons on the battlefield, which fight fiercely, leaving countless charred corpses. The contenders realize they need to add more beasts to their armies, so they require riders capable of taming them: Dragonseeds.
In a conversation that takes place in the first season, King Viserys explains to Rhaenyra that the fact that the Targaryens are dragon riders is a kind of illusion, as he recognizes that it is something that the Crown uses to show a supposed divine nature before their subjects. Therefore, when the need to incorporate new riders is put on the table, the queen points out that there are not enough Targaryens left to be able to do it. It is his son Jacaerys who comes up with the solution: find candidates who have lost their Targaryen surname because they have joined other dynastic lines, but who have blood from the house of the dragon and therefore are entitled to ride the creatures. The Velaryon, for their part, were never dragon riders.
‘House of the Dragon’ has released the first five episodes of the second season. With three left to finish, HBO has announced the renewal for a third season. There will be other spin-offs coming soon like ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ or the series about Aegon’s conquest.
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