[Spoilers] The Princess and the Queen, complete spoilers discussion

[Lord Varys]

The Velaryons did not lose all their fleet. Rhaenyra took her troops to KL later with what remained of the Velaryon fleet. A good portion of the ships was destroyed, but not all of them. Just as it seems that only the harbor cities on Driftmark were plundered and destroyed, but not the Velaryon castle/keep. At least that's not mentioned. Thus I guess that most of the real Velaryon wealth was not lost, but of course the loss of the harbors was a blow to economy and permanently destroyed the Velaryon tax revenues from over-sea trade and stuff like that.

As to Targaryen-Velaryon-marriages:

We still have to assume that there were three Targaryen princes who married Velaryon brides. The only Targaryen prince with a Velaryon wife we know of is Prince Daemon (Aerion, the father of Aegon I, was no prince). Rhaenyra is not exactly a prince, either. It may be that a Velaryon married Maegor (but I guess he would have started to take multiple wives only after he ascended the Iron Throne) or one of Jaehaerys' sons, but it's entirely possible that some of the Targaryen-Velaryon matches happened after the Dance. A good candidate might be Daeron I who could have married a daughter of Alyn Oakenfist (he was married, GRRM confirmed that).

And later on we have no idea about the wives of Baelor Breakspear, Rhaegel, Maekar, and all his sons. Egg married for love, but no one ever said Aerion or Daeron did the same...

The Velaryons supporting a Blackfyre pretender may turn out to be wrong - in fact, it may be that their current predicament was mostly caused by Robert's victory. Robert severely punished Houses Darry and Connington, he could have done pretty much the same to House Velaryon. But since the Velaryons did not seem to be all that important during the reign of Aerys II my guess is that something must have happened before that.

[The hairy bear]

On the Visenya and Rhaenys

Tyrion says in AGOT that Meraxes was bigger than Vhagar. He even implies that Meraxes' skull is bigger, which would suggest that there was a big difference during the Conquest, since Vhagar died about a century later.

We also know that the three dragons were hatched before the birth of the Targaryen three siblings.

I agree that there are real grounds for Visenya to be jealous of Rhaenys: she's Aegon's favourite, she gives birth to his firstborn, and even when she's not a warrior she gets the biggest dragon.

On the Velaryons

My take on it is that the real cause of the Velaryons fall from grace is the loss of dragons. If it weren't for the Dance, they would have ended being a huge power. I could even see them conqueering lands in Essos. But without dragons they were just another rocky island in the Narrow Sea.

Another important factor may have been the growth of KL. It's possible that originally the ports at Driftmark concentrated the trade between Essos and Westeros, but KL eventually became the main port. That must be the reason why Spicetown was not rebuilt: KL had already occupied it's place.

On the MUSH

The family trees of the MUSH, titled Blood of Dragons and run (with GRRMs approval) by Ran and Linda, can be found here. You have to scroll down of each shield to see the actual information.

Bear in mind that it's not canon per se. The vast majority of the information included there was made up by Ran and Linda a decade ago.

But the interesting part is that Ran, after receiving all the information for the world book (including the complete account of the Dance of Dragons), decided to upgrade the family trees in order to make it consistent (when possible) with the new information available. We have to take into account that he couldn't do drastic changes, since many of the characters and backstories were already an essential part of the reolplaying.

However, all the information that has changed from the first version to the second version can be assumed to come from GRRM's own writings. (or at least, it brings the original content closer to GRRM's writings).

[DanaKz]

On the MUSH

The family trees of the MUSH, titled Blood of Dragons and run (with GRRMs approval) by Ran and Linda, can be found here. You have to scroll down of each shield to see the actual information.

Bear in mind that it's not canon per se. The vast majority of the information included there was made up by Ran and Linda a decade ago.

But the interesting part is that Ran, after receiving all the information for the world book (including the complete account of the Dance of Dragons), decided to upgrade the family trees in order to make it consistent (when possible) with the new information available. We have to take into account that he couldn't do drastic changes, since many of the characters and backstories were already an essential part of the reolplaying.

However, all the information that has changed from the first version to the second version can be assumed to come from GRRM's own writings. (or at least, it brings the original content closer to GRRM's writings).

Thank you!

[Rhaenys_Targaryen]

As to Targaryen-Velaryon-marriages:

We still have to assume that there were three Targaryen princes who married Velaryon brides. The only Targaryen prince with a Velaryon wife we know of is Prince Daemon (Aerion, the father of Aegon I, was no prince). Rhaenyra is not exactly a prince, either. It may be that a Velaryon married Maegor (but I guess he would have started to take multiple wives only after he ascended the Iron Throne) or one of Jaehaerys' sons, but it's entirely possible that some of the Targaryen-Velaryon matches happened after the Dance. A good candidate might be Daeron I who could have married a daughter of Alyn Oakenfist (he was married, GRRM confirmed that).

And later on we have no idea about the wives of Baelor Breakspear, Rhaegel, Maekar, and all his sons. Egg married for love, but no one ever said Aerion or Daeron did the same...

Daeron I was not only married, his wife birthed him two stillborn sons. That was in a Dunk and Egg story.

I agree that Daeron I could be a good option.

Baelor, in my opinion, could be a candidate as well, since Valarr seems to have had a little bit more Valyrian looks than Baelor. Of course, it could be his Valyrian looks came from his grandfather through Baelor.

[Lord Varys]

On Visenya and Rhaenys:

I don't know. If my assumption is correct, then Aegon may have only married his sisters shortly before the Conquest. The whole thing started when Argilac tried to marry his daughter to Aegon and eventually spurned Aegon's offer to marry her to Orys. That - as well as the fact that the Arryn queen offered herself in marriage to Aegon should he name her son his heir - strongly suggests that Aegon was not married for a long time despite the fact that he was already 29 years old (Visenya 30, Rhaenys 28) when the Conquest began.

There can be a number of reasons for that. Perhaps Visenya/Rhaenys spent some years in the East in the wake of the Volantene downfall. My best guess is that Aerion only died shortly before the Conquest. If he was refusing to allow Aegon to marry Rhaenys, Aegon may have countered by refusing to marry Visenya, and the standstill only ended when Aerion died. I'd not be surprised if it turned out that Aerion was still alive when he Aegon decided to intervene in the war against Volantis. It may be that the Aerion and his ancestors had a more friendly relationship with Volantis, and Aegon changed that policy. I'm also pretty sure that Balerion did not pass from Aerion to Aegon but was claimed by Aegon in his youth after his previous rider had died (he may have even be riderless for some time).

The same has to be the case with Meraxes and Vhagar. Both dragons are older (Vhagar about 20 years or so) than Aegon's sisters. And their mother, Velana Velaryon, most likely was not a dragonrider. Which means that Visenya and Rhaenys claimed Vhagar and Meraxes sometime during the childhood/youth. My best guess is that they, too, had been riderless for some time since it seems that there was some sort of strife/quarrel/climatic event during the time of Aerion's father.

Thus I think it very unlikely that Visenya felt slighted because she got the smallest dragon. She was the eldest sister and should have been able to claim whatever dragon she wanted. Perhaps she did try Balerion and Meraxes first, but could not bond with them. That would not have been Rhaenys' fault.

As to the failed Conquest of Dorne - that was not Rhaenys' fault. She did not even lead an invasion army to Dorne. All she did was fly from castle to castle on Meraxes finding them deserted. Then she met the Yellow Toad at Sunspear. Nobody could possibly lay that 'defeat' at Rhaenys' feet. And even if Visenya did, I'm inclined to believe that an all-out invasion of Dorne may have been conducted by at least two Targaryen dragons. Most likely Aegon would have accompanied Rhaenys to Dorne, or would have sent Visenya with Rhaenys to take it. We don't yet know whether Rhaenys was the only Targaryen going to Dorne.

And I'm pretty sure that Rhaenys and Meraxes did not die shortly after the Conquest. What we know about Aegon and his sisters indicates that Rhaenys and Visenya co-ruled Westeros for quite some time (Aegon left it to his sisters to rule the Realm), and Rhaenys must have also spent quite some time at court to entertain her (alleged) lovers as well as giving birth to 3-4 children.

It's also unclear whether Rhaenys died during the first pre-Conquest attempt to subdue Dorne, or during a later attempt. The fact that Dornishmen apparently knew how to use dragon-slaying weapons at that time could indicate that they had some experiences fighting the Targaryen dragons by then...

Rhaenys,

you can't have that tidbit about Daeron I from a Dunk & Egg story. That's not mentioned anywhere in there, I'm sure of it.

[Ran]

Make no assumptions on Aegon's marital status because of those marriage offers. After all, if a man has two wives (who happen to be his sisters), what prevents him from taking a politically-motivated third wife? He's already shown himself to be... unorthodox.

[Rhaenys_Targaryen]

Rhaenys,

you can't have that tidbit about Daeron I from a Dunk & Egg story. That's not mentioned anywhere in there, I'm sure of it.

Memory fail! That was Valarr, not Daeron...

*shame....*

Sorry

[The hairy bear]

Wow. Thanks Ran. Every bit of information you give, even if it's only a blurred implication, is really welcome! We are in dire need of the World Book! :)

So, when he landed Westeros in -2 AL, Aegon had already married his two sisters and had fathered most (if not all) his offspring. At this time, he was 25, Visenya 27, and Rhaenys 23.

One wonders how Aerion Targaryen died. He must had been quite young, judging by the ages of his children.

[Kennedy the Keen]

The source material Ran refers tp won't be released until after the series is done. Basically Martin wrote a lot of history/worldbuilding material that is the source for The Princess and The Queen and the upcoming book The World of Ice and Fire. The World of Ice and Fire will hopefully come out this year, but Martin and Ran have made it clear that we won't see the source material (aka the Grrmarillion) until after he's done with the main series and probably the Dunk and Egg tales.

Edit: I should add that Martin has done readings from this material. There's an interesting account of Aegon's Conquest here, and a report of a reading about Aegon's sons Aenys and Maegor here.

Thanks a lot for those websites and posts, I haven't stopped looking up GRRM interviews since u showed me those. Also I just got Dreamsongs vol 1 and 2 hopefully to learn about how George's brain works. And if you know of any interviews or literature on Bloodraven and/or the blackfyre rebellion, please let me know. I just finished the sworn sword and I found the little bit about BR very interesting. Is there more about him in the mystery knight? That the next on my list to get.

Oh and one more question, has anyone heard of the book Beyond the Wall? Is that back by George or fan fiction? Either way I'm still gonna get it as well, just wanna know if it accurate and historical or not.

[The hairy bear]

Kennedy the Keen,

There's much more about Bloodraven in the Mystery Knight. Even more than in the Sworn Sword. ;)

ETA: And the book Beyond the Wall is just a collection of essays on GRRMs works. Not fan fiction, not from George.

[Lord Varys]

Ran,

yeah, I know that Aegon was offered additional wives because he had already multiple wives. The polygamy was established, and why shouldn't he accept more wives...

But does the fact that Aegon was already married to Rhaenys/Visenya during the Conquest also mean that Aenys, his sisters, and Maegor were born yet?

As far as we know from the readings about the Conquest and Aegon's sons this was not the case. But it may be that Aegon's children were simply not mentioned during the reading on the Conquest, and the guys who took notes on 'The Sons of the Dragon' reading may have not caught the fact that Aenys was born pre-Conquest. But until this is resolved, I'm still inclined to believe that Aegon's children were born after the Conquest. But if he did marry his sisters years before the Conquest it would be indeed strange if neither Rhaenys nor Visenya had any children by the time of the Conquest...

Another interesting thing would be to learn whether Velena Velaryon was still around after the Conquest...

[The Crow's Third Eye]

Having just read tPatQ, I thought I would throw in my own thoughts about the Velaryon's loss of power.

Initially, they are staunch supporters of Rhaenyra,and stay with her till she is in control of KL. This means they have no friends among the greens.

However, after the betrayal of Ulf and Hugh, and Rhaenyra's subsequent orders for the arrest of Addam and the confining of Corlys to the dungeons, the Velaryon support for Rhaenyra is withdrawn. As we know, the outcome of the Dance is Aegon III on the Throne, and it may be that because the Velaryon's "abandoned" his mother, they were stripped of so much of their power, wealth etc? Just a thought.

Also, absolutely loved the novella, had the day off today and have been reading it for the past 3 hours, unable to put it down :D

ETA: Also want to say that I found the Greens' comments about Rhaenyra (i.e. she sleeps around) were somewhat hypocritical given where Aegon II was found when he was proclaimed King

[History of Westeros]

On the Velaryons:

High Tide was sacked in addition to Spicetown, that is mentioned. We don't actually know if High Tide is the Velaryon seat, but since the Sea Snake "lost all the treasures he had won in the east" via the sacking of High Tide, it's extremely likely. Otherwise we're to believe he hid all his loot in some other castle *and* the Triarchy ignored his main seat? I don't think so.

I realize the entire fleet was not destroyed during the Dance, but they clearly didn't have much of a fleet at the start of aGoT either. They lost half to 2/3 of the fleet during the Dance (1/3rd during the sack, other ships during the Battle of the Gullet, and undoubtedly others that were not mentioned), and the rest fell apart after. I'd not be surprised if the loss of Spicetown was crucial in the loss of the rest of the fleet.

Again, fleets are *expensive*. The British and Athenian empires failed in large part because the crippled themselves with fleet expenses. Without Spicetown (and all the lost wealth in High Tide) the fleet would be hard to maintain.

As to the size of the dragons, I'm not claiming Visenya claimed the smaller dragon or failed to bond the larger one. Meraxes skull is larger than Vhagar's despite Vhagar seeming to have considerably longer life. Thus, it could easily be that Meraxes was the larger when Visenya and Rhaenys were alive but not necessarily at the time they were first ridden. Something has to explain why one was larger than the other despite the huge age gap. If it was a growth spurt by Meraxes or slow growth by Vhagar, Rhaenys could've ended up with the bigger dragon before it was known which one would be bigger.

Even simpler: Meraxes' rider was still alive when Visenya claimed Vhagar, thus she chose the smaller dragon because it was her only choice.

[Colonel Green]

They lost half to 2/3 of the fleet during the Dance (1/3rd during the sack, other ships during the Battle of the Gullet

No, the story says the fleet lost a third of its strength during the Battle of the Gullet, which would include the sack. And there are no other naval engagements mentioned.

[Fire Eater]

We don't yet know how Viserys II returned to King's Landing. But my guess is that he did never reach the Triarchy. If that was the case, the powers there would have tried to sell him either to the Greens or the Blacks. And Rhaenyra and her court believe him dead shortly before they flee KL.

That indicates that the ship Viserys was on did sink and he was unaccounted for ever since then. However, it may be that a whole section on Viserys' alleged death was cut out from TPatQ. It may be that a dragonrider saw the ship he was supposed to be in sink, or it may be that that ship was recaptured by the Velaryon fleet and sank afterwards.

My guess is that Viserys may turn up as a sort of Arya-/Bran-version of the Dance, acting as a figurehead for the Blacks in the last period of the war. He may prove his identity with his dragon (egg).

That would be a much better story than him spending time in captivity in Essos.

We don't know how Maegor succeeded Aenys. It could be a coup, it could a partial coup, it could be the execution of Aenys' will.

That is not a bad theory. Viserys is said to have carried his egg with him wherever he went, and even when he tried to disguise himself he kept his egg hidden. Another possible Jon reference? The youngest son with an elder brother named Aegon, and carried his egg (dormant dragon/false identity like Aegon V's nickname) everywhere and becomes king with the reigning Targaryen line continued through him. In that case, I think Viserys will show up again.

As to Maegor becoming king instead of Aenys's son, Jaehaerys, Maegor was Aeny's Hand, and Aenys might have named him Regent in his will until Jaehaerys came of age. Either way, Maegor held a lot of of power in the RK.

[Lord Varys]

We don't yet know how old Jaehaerys was when Aenys died. The whole thing may get even trickier if Ran's post above is supposed to give a hint that Aegon I was married some time before the Conquest. Then Aenys may have indeed before the Conquest, perhaps even all the Targaryen children including Maegor, and then Aenys may have been in his forties when Aegon I died. In that case, it would be very likely that Jaehaerys was not exactly a small child at the death of his grandfather, and certainly not when his father died five years later.

This thing got tricky after the news about 'The Sons of the Dragon' reading became known. We know through that Aegon and Rhaenys had Aenys, and 2-3 daughters, and Aegon and Visenya only Maegor, who was about 5 or so years younger than Aenys. Aenys had a non-Targaryen wife of unknown heritage, and Maegor's first wife was Aenys' eldest sister.

The question of Targaryen succession including female inheritance were completely unsettled back then. It was always clear, it seems, that Aenys would follow his father, but whether Maegor (and his line, should he have any children which he didn't) should come after Aenys or only after Aenys' children and grandchildren was not settled during the reign of Aegon I. The 'Aenys line first' faction had even a heir ready - Aenys' eldest child, a daughter. It may be that she is the Princess Rhaena who first rode Dreamfyre, but it may also be that Rhaena was a younger sister of Jaehaerys and Alysanne.

We don't know if the birth of Jaehaerys caused Aenys to name his son his heir, or if the (much) older sister was still considered to be his heir. If the latter was the case - and even if not - it may be that Maegor seized the Iron Throne by (forcefully) taking Aenys' eldest daughter as his second (Targaryen) wife. That would have reunited the lines and their claims. It may be that Maegor ruled de iure only as King Consort but is considered by history the true king because his niece-wife was not part of his government. It could even be that his wife abdicated in favor of her husband or refused to take the Iron Throne in the first place.

In such a scenario Jaehaerys then may have risen to the Iron Throne because Maegor named him Heir Presumptive until such time as he had a son of his own.

On Viserys II:

There are a lot of connections between the Dance and the current series of wars in Westeros. Considering GRRM's writing style there has to be stuff going on behind the scenes, and lost heirs that are declared dead are a common theme in the main series, to say the least. And with Rhaenyra dead and Aegon III in captivity, something must have happened on the Black side to convince/motivate them to continue the war. I guess the manner of Rhaenyra's death was one thing, but they could only fight 'in the name of Aegon III', not with their king in their midst, so a good explanation would be that either Viserys teamed up with/mobilized a Black faction - which would have worked really well if a dragon hatched from his egg - or if one of Rhaena's egg hatched and she eventually became a dragonrider and a figurehead.

Viserys II becomes a very shrewd Hand eventually. He is the one who keeps the Realm intact throughout the reigns of Daeron I and Baelor I. He may have even served Aegon III as Hand. And what little we learn about him in TPatQ strongly indicates that he was even a clever seven/eight-year-old. He hid his egg and disguised himself as a common boy. That's exactly the thing Arya would have done...

[Colonel Green]

Regarding the future of House Velaryon, I wouldn't be surprised if the Sea Snake ended up being a major player in the resolution of the conflict and the new postwar regime. Virtually all the major statesmen from both sides are dead by the end of the story, or shortly will be dead, and Aegon III is too young to really be running the show by himself. Somebody has to pull the two factions back together.

[History of Westeros]

No, the story says the fleet lost a third of its strength during the Battle of the Gullet, which would include the sack. And there are no other naval engagements mentioned.

I realize the story says that, but it's well known the story is heavily edited. Surely there were other naval engagements that we didn't hear about. "much of the slaughter took place on water" after all.

The "half to 2/3rd's" is a guess, but a very conservative one. It could actually be a lot worse, but it's really hard to imagine they lose 1/3rd during the battle/sack and very little else during the rest of the war and short time after given how they declined so severely as a power.

If they stayed strong and influential, I wouldn't be guessing that their fleet took such losses.

Whether they lost more ships because of fighting, or because they couldn't manage financially, or both... we don't know. We do know it happened, whether around this time or more gradually (again, or both) we also don't know. It makes sense to guess that the un-seen parts of the war and the financial losses are the culprits, though yes, it's not certain.

[tze]

The three wild dragons apparently were all Targaryen dragon hatchlings who were never claimed by a rider (perhaps because the children who were meant to claim them eventually died early, or never dared/were not allowed to become dragonriders - due to some madness, perhaps). Eventually the eggs in the care of these children hatched, and it seems that this process stopped some time after the Dance. Aegon III handed down dragon eggs to his successors who continued to give those eggs to their young children. But they never hatched. This could indicate that the Dance may have destroyed or severely harmed 'the magical connection' the Targaryens had to their dragons and/or their dragon eggs.

Gyldayn tells us that

The largest and oldest of the wild dragons was the Cannibal, so named because he had been known to feed on the carcasses of dead dragons, and descend upon the hatcheries of Dragonstone to gorge himself on newborn hatchlings and eggs.

The existence of the Cannibal puts a number of things into some very different perspectives, I think. Sheepstealer supposedly hatched "when the Old King was still young", yet the Cannibal is even older than him, which means the Cannibal has been roaming around Dragonstone, eating baby dragons and eggs, for (likely) over a century---and potentially much longer than that. Why are the Targaryens giving their children dragon's eggs in the first place? Well, they can't just leave them in the hatcheries, obviously, or they'll be in danger of becoming the Cannibal's lunch. So rather than stick (all of) the eggs in a vault somewhere, someone got the idea of giving each kid an egg. That ensures that every child will eventually have access to a dragon, no matter how long the Cannibal lives and gorges, while simultaneously providing a way for the Targs to show off to their subjects how their kids are above "ordinary" nobility. It also cuts down on inter-family fighting, as everyone has their own designated (future) dragon. Long after the Cannibal was dead, the Targs continued the "give each child a dragon egg" practice, though they'd forgotten the initial impetus for it.

Why are there three wild dragons on Dragonstone? Well, say rather why aren't there dozens of wild dragons? If the Cannibal hadn't been "gorging" on hatchlings and eggs, the wild dragon population of Dragonstone would likely be much, much larger than it was. I see no reason to assume that Sheepstealer/the Cannibal/Grey Ghost were ever "intended" for any of the Targ kids, or that their eggs were ever in the possession of any Targ kids. They might have been, but it's certainly not guaranteed. Maybe the Targs even intentionally left superfluous eggs/hatchlings on Dragonstone to placate the Cannibal, for fear that if he ran out of baby dragons/eggs to eat, he'd start munching on the Targs' subjects? (As an aside, the Cannibal's tendencies might explain why the Grey Ghost makes such a habit of hiding.)

We're never told how dragon eggs hatch in the first place. We are told of "hatcheries" on Dragonstone, Sunfyre is said to have hatched on Dragonstone, and Tyrion claims the last living dragons hatched on Dragonstone. None of the other Dance dragons' birthplaces are specified, but there's no mention of "hatcheries" anywhere but Dragonstone. And clearly there were no dragon eggs incubating in King's Landing, or Rhaenyra wouldn't have had to flee to Dragonstone to get some. We know that four dragons survive the Dance, at least three of which are adults (the fourth could also be an adult that was left offstage for some reason (maybe it was injured prior to the Dance?), but we simply don't know).

My guess is that the situation is this: you need an adult dragon to hatch a dragon egg. (If dragon eggs need extreme heat to hatch, and if Gyldayn is correct and dragon hatchlings' scales aren't yet 100% fireproof, the adult dragon might simply be needed to get the baby dragon out of the fire before it burns to death.) That's why the eggs stopped hatching once all the adult dragons were dead. And if dragon eggs require volcanic activity to hatch, that would explain the importance of Dragonstone, specifically why the Targs went to the trouble of making it a separate seat for their heir (a practice none of the preexisting kingdoms appeared to practice). I'd be curious to see if any dragon ever hatched on mainland Westeros, or if all of them hatched only on Dragonstone.

Something that I think needs to be mentioned is this: for much of the Dance, Rhaenyra was pretty much broke. The royal treasury had been seized and hidden by Aegon, and Dragonstone is not wealthy. That's why Daemon went to seize the riches of Harrenhal, and why Master of Coin Tyland Lannister ended up with the torturers when Rhaenyra took King's Landing.

Dragon eggs, in "modern" times, are priceless. Even when the Targs had dragons, dragon eggs should still have been incredibly valuable, particularly to people in Essos. Rhaena was sent to the Vale with three dragon eggs. Gyldayn claims she "prayed nightly for their hatching", but . . . If one of them had hatched, that would have made no difference to the Blacks' war capabilities, because it would be years before the hatchling could be ridden. If all three of them had hatched, the Targs would have been in the same situation, but with the additional caveat that they had no spare family members to control the other two (even if Alyn had gotten one, that still leaves a superfluous egg). Why did Rhaena bring three eggs to the Vale, when previously she'd only had the one? Well, when a group whose financial situation is perilous sends off three incredibly valuable dragon's eggs, I think the possibility that hatching those eggs wasn't the actual purpose needs to at least be discussed.

Sell those dragon eggs, and Rhaenyra's financial situation would have been secure. They could have been meant as a special bribe for someone powerful. They could have been meant as a failsafe for Rhaena, a means of escape if she found herself in danger (since she had no dragon to fly off on, three dragon's eggs meant she'd always have a way to bribe her way to safety). Since Rhaena only headed to the Vale after Jace took over, maybe Jace applied the same critical thinking skills that made him think it was a good idea to let peasants ride dragons and decided to start selling dragon's eggs to fund the Blacks, where Rhaenyra had previously refused to do so. But in general, it seems odd to me that GRRM would go to the trouble of highlighting Rhaenyra's financial difficulties and then have her stepdaughter head off with some dragon's eggs, particularly given the heavy emphasis made on the monetary value of Dany's three dragon eggs (and later, dragon hatchlings) in previous books.

The same analysis could hold true for Rhaenyra's post-King's Landing attempt to get some eggs. Rhaenyra was in such dire financial straits that she'd just had to sell her crown. We're given an account, presumably by one or more of her loyalists, that

She was adamant on returning to Dragonstone. There she would find dragon’s eggs, she told her loyalists; she must have another dragon, or all was lost.

We don't have access to Gyldayn's source here, but I'd be curious to see if this was a direct quote, or if the source was at least partially interpreting Rhaenyra's words: If Rhaenyra was going on about getting some dragon's eggs, it's at least possible that the person who later recounted this simply assumed she needed them for another dragon, when in fact she planned to sell (at least some of) them to raise some cash. (Or perhaps Rhaenyra just wasn't telling her loyalists the full truth.)

The above analysis, of course, would pretty much require that dragon eggs not automatically hatch on their own, as the only logical way for Rhaenyra to be using dragon's eggs to fund her war would be if she believed the people she was selling to would never get baby dragons of their own. (Unless she had Cersei-level planning skills, of course, or if Jace was doing things without her consent.)

We still have to assume that there were three Targaryen princes who married Velaryon brides.

I feel compelled to point out that our source for that is Davos:

The Lord of the Tides was of the blood of ancient Valyria, and his House had thrice provided brides for Targaryen princes;

Davos was never tutored by a maester, isn't exactly what you'd call an amateur historian, never struck me as an amateur genealogist, and didn't even grow up in the Driftmark/Dragonstone area, (where he might theoretically have "soaked up" some generally-known Velaryon history). And this info comes from his very first chapter in ACOK, back when Davos was still illiterate, so he can't have read it somewhere.

We don't know where Davos heard this tidbit, but given Davos's lack of education, I'd say at this point it's far from authoritative. House Velaryon could have provided any number of brides to Targaryen princes in the past, but without a more authoritative source, I see no reason to assume they must have provided exactly "three".

Tyrion says in AGOT that Meraxes was bigger than Vhagar. He even implies that Meraxes' skull is bigger, which would suggest that there was a big difference during the Conquest, since Vhagar died about a century later.

The dragon skulls beneath the Red Keep didn't exactly have name tags attached. :) Tyrion looks at the three largest skulls and assumes that they are Balerion, Meraxes, and Vhagar, in the size order they would have had during the Conquest. But as has been pointed out, if Vhagar was 181 years old at her death, and Balerion was 200(ish) years old at his death, then if Meraxes died with Rhaenys (which I don't think has been 100% confirmed, but seems likely from the info we currently have), Tyrion has to be misidentifying the dragon skulls.

Moreover, Tyrion also says that

"The oldest was more than three thousand years old; the youngest a mere century and a half. The most recent were also the smallest; a matched pair no bigger than mastiffs skulls, and oddly misshapen, all that remained of the last two hatchlings born on Dragonstone."

Tyrion also claims that not all of the skulls there were post-Conquest. And again, no name tags. Who's to say that the three largest skulls even were Balerion/Meraxes/Vhagar, in any order? We don't know what size the other dragons Aenar brought from Valyria reached before their deaths. We don't know how large the more ancient skull(s) were that were mixed in with the post-Conquest skulls.

And if the two largest were Balerion and Vhagar, then was the third even Meraxes? Maybe it was Vermithor's skull, or the Cannibal's skull. If Meraxes died with Rhaenys, there's a really excellent chance Vermithor was older at the time of his death than Meraxes was at hers, and the Cannibal was likely older than Vermithor. We don't know exactly which dragon skulls ended up on the Red Keep's walls, but I see no reason to assume Tyrion's assumptions about Meraxes being larger than Vhagar were correct there. Particularly given that later on, when he and Shae are fooling around down there,

Within, the dragon skulls were waiting, and so was Shae. “I thought m’lord had forgotten me.” Her dress was draped over a black tooth near as tall as she was, and she stood within the dragon’s jaws, nude. Balerion, he thought. Or was it Vhagar? One dragon skull looked much like another.

And particularly since the misidentification of "dragons" (Targaryens) is becoming a major plot point within Tyrion's plot arc.

Regarding the future of House Velaryon, I wouldn't be surprised if the Sea Snake ended up being a major player in the resolution of the conflict and the new postwar regime.

Can we assume Corlys Velaryon actually outlived Rhaenyra?

Bound and beaten, but still silent, he was taken down into the dungeons and thrown into a black cell to await trial and execution.

We're never told if that trial and execution actually took place, but this thing has been so heavily edited that that's not dispositive either way. It's possible (unless Ran wants to clarify?) that Corlys did actually die off-screen, prior to Rhaenyra's escape from King's Landing.

[Fire Eater]

Does Daemon's daughter, Baela Targaryen, remind anyone of Arya?

When Dragonstone is being taken she manages to escape by slipping out her window and across roofs and over walls to the stables, and mount her dragon, Moondancer. When Cersei is taking control of the RK, and killing off Ned's men, Arya manages to get her things and escape, moving over walls and rooftops, first going to the stables, and later through the castle's hidden passages. Baela also had a sister, Rhaena, who was taken to the Vale and her dragon died young like Sansa, who had a direwolf who died young, and is currently in the Vale. Rhaena was also sent there to accompany Joffrey Velaryon, who died in KL, and Sansa was to be a companion (wife) to Joffrey. Finally, her dragon's name is Moondancer while Arya learned to be a water dancer with Ned saying Arya and Sansa were different as the sun and moon.

Baela also seemed to hold her own against Aegon II for a while; you got to admit the kid's got chops.