The House of the Dragon Official Teaser Trailer had two dragons. Yesterday, I incorrectly
assumed that they were both my favorite dragon – Caraxes – the Blood Wyrm. Joshua Adams,
Mermaid Aquatics, Abhi Subedi, T M, Barna Baranyi, and Alex Evans all think that the
right picture is Rhaenyra riding Syrax. Let’s do a three way analysis. Dragon Rider,
Dragon Color, and Dragon Size. In terms of the rider, all I see is white
hair. So that does nothing for me. In terms of its color, Syrax was a yellow
dragon. So that fits with the dragon on the right.
That leaves us with one last factor. Dragon size. Let’s get real nerdy with this.
Dragons are like weirwood trees. The longer they live, the bigger they grow. And, supposedly,
they never stop growing. So age is one of the factors in dragon size.
At the beginning of the Dance, Vhagar was 180 years old.
Dreamfyre hatched on Dragonstone, and Rhaena bonded her the first time they met in 32 AC.
So Dreamfyre was at least 97 years old at the start of the Dance.
Rhaena had placed eggs into Jaehaerys and Alysanne’s cradles, so Vermithor and Silvering
were 95 and 93 years at most. Eggs were also placed into the cradles of
Aemon, Jacaerys, Lucerys, Jaehaera, and Jaehaerys. So here are the max ages of those dragons.
It’s also worth noting that Aemon rode Caraxes when he was a young dragon in 72 AC. So Caraxes
was at least 57 years old at the start of the Dance. And at that time, he was described
as a “huge and formidable beast.” Syrax was also described as a “huge and
formidable beast,” and Rhaenyra rode her at just seven years old. So Syrax was at least
25 years old at the start of the Dance. Sheepstealer was born during the early reign
of King Jaehaerys, who reigned from 48 to 103 AC. So Sheepstealer was anywhere from
26 to 81 years old, and most likely, closely to the latter.
Alyssa claimed Meleys in 75 AC, so Meleys was at least 54 years old at the start of
the Dance. At the Great Council of 101 AC, Laenor had
yet to take his first ride on his young dragon, so Seasmoke was at least 28 years old at the
start of the Dance. Moondancer was no larger than a warhorse during
the Dance. Tessarion was one third the size of Vermithor.
And, after Rhaena had placed dragon eggs into the cradles of Jaehaerys and Alysanne, it
became a tradition to place dragon eggs into the cradles of all trueborn Targaryen children,
so let’s throw in some numbers as estimates to the max age for a handful of dragons.
Aright, so here’s the age data. Vermithor was once said to be the third biggest dragon,
smaller than only Balerion and Vhagar. Silverwing and Dreamfyre were around the same age as
him, but they may not have been the same size since there are other factors other than the
dragon’s age. Some people in the World of Ice and Fire believe
that dragons do not grow as fast when they are locked up. That may have happened with
Viserion and Rhaegal. They did not grow as quickly as Drogon did while he was out flying
around. That might have been due to the space constraint. Or maybe they just didn’t eat
as much. Maybe both. There is another factor that often gets overlooked.
Genetics. Drogon’s egg was bigger than Rhaegal and Viserion’s eggs. So, when they first
hatched, Drogon was already the biggest of the three hatchlings. In other words, even
if every other condition had been the same, Drogon was probably going to be the biggest
of those three dragons. So age does not tell the entire story. But
it does tell a part of the story. And even the quote unquote “young dragons” during
the dance were older than Dany’s dragons. Now, let’s go back to the dragons in the
trailer. Syrax was described as a “huge and formidable beast” during the Dance.
This is what I think of when I read those words. Season 7 Drogon. A huge and formidable
beast. Granted, those words are subjective. Is the dragon on the left a huge and formidable
beast? Maybe. But the one on the right is definitely not a huge and formidable beast.
So the one on the right cannot be Caraxes or Syrax. At least, not during the Dance.
House of the Dragon Season 1 is going to have more than one timeline. So the dragon on the
right might be Syrax about 20 to 25 years before the Dance. Joshua, Mermaid, Abhi, T
M, Barna, and Alex … Thank you as always for commenting, and have a great day and weekend,
ya bastids.