Syl of Syl Posted April 7, 2019 Share Posted April 7, 2019 On 4/6/2019 at 6:01 PM, Lord Varys said: However, it could be easily enough established that Tyrion actually confused Vhagar's and Meraxes' skulls in the dark, or that whoever moved the skulls misidentified them, causing Tyrion to confuse them. Yeh, I thought about this possibility. However, Tyrion was rather well read and particularly interested in dragons. I would think that he'd know well enough the sizes relative sizes of the original three dragons that he'd be able to identify them by their skulls. On their respective ages, it could well have been that Meraxes was born very soon upon Aenar's arrival on Dragonstone in 126 BC. In that case, Meraxes could have been as old as 135 at her time of death but not older. We know that Vhagar was supposed to be 181 at her time of death. Balerion was born before 126 BC meaning he was at least 220 at his time of death (that's around 200 so it makes sense that he would have been quite young when he left Valyria). I think it is unlikely that Balerion was ever smaller than Meraxes given the various ways the three dragons have been described. It could well be that Vhagar grew a lot slower than these two and being that Vhagar had at 46 years more of life than Meraxes, I suppose that would have to be the case. If the growth rate of a particular dragon is a relatively stable thing through most of life, this would mean that Vhagar would have been quite significantly smaller than Meraxes during the conquest since they end up at similar size. On 4/6/2019 at 5:13 PM, Ran said: and another may simply be the case (and it does seem to be the case!) that dragons are not naturally all the precise same size -- there is variation between them, just as there are variations between people in terms of height. People don't typically continue to grow throughout their lives though. Do we have any idea if dragons experience growth spurts the way humans do? I remember seeing one theory somewhere that dragon growth is somehow related to volcanic activity. So the dragons on Dragonstone grew faster because of the volcanic activity there. In Valyria, the fourteen flames would have provided an ideal dragon environment. I suppose this could partially explain the various dragon sizes, since the growth rate of Vhagar would have slowed as she spent more time away from Dragonstone. So if dragons experience growth spurts throughout life, I think that would help to explain this conundrum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAllDSmith Posted April 15, 2019 Share Posted April 15, 2019 So I haven't read everything here yet, so if someone brought this up already sorry. I've been having this question ever since I started my reread and saw that a certain "Cheese Monger" trades in dragonbone, which would seem to be an incredibly interesting career path. With what we know about dragonbone and its economic and useful value, and how many times the Targs keep getting in debt: What in the seven hells are they doing with the bones (besides the skulls that are accounted for.) Balerion alone would be enough dragon bone to arm every named Targ to the teeth with dragonbone gear, and they could probably get every loan they need using the dragonbone just as capital. So what gives? Did GRRM just forget that every dragon he kills off is a fortune falling into somebody's hands? Sure there's the dragon eggs, but why isn't every Targ baby given a dragonbone dagger or a necklace or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moiraine Sedai Posted April 16, 2019 Share Posted April 16, 2019 Balerion got homesick for Valyria. He was nearing the end of his life, for a dragon, and decided to see Valyria one last time. It can be as simple as that. It can be as complex as part of the lifecycle of a dragon. Like fish going upstream to reproduce. Aerea had a year to learn dragon riding. But I think Balerion returned because he wanted to. Balerion let her ride but that's not the same as saying he actually cared about her. Horses don't have to love their riders but they tolerate them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Varys Posted April 16, 2019 Author Share Posted April 16, 2019 49 minutes ago, Moiraine Sedai said: Aerea had a year to learn dragon riding. But I think Balerion returned because he wanted to. Balerion let her ride but that's not the same as saying he actually cared about her. Horses don't have to love their riders but they tolerate them. But why would he be the only dragon doing that? And why did he return to KL of all places, not even Dragonstone, his true home in Westeros? Why did he need a rider to go to Valyria if that's where he wanted to go? It seems clear that Balerion wanted to go to Valyria but chances are not that great in my opinion that he did go there against Aerea's explicit wishes. As I said, the idea that Aerea actually had a specific goal in Westeros or Essos or anywhere is very unlikely. She felt rejected by anyone, her mother, her aunt, and Elissa Farman. There was nobody she may have wanted to visit, no place where she should have wanted to go. In this context Valyria is as good a place as any. Meaning chances are not that bad that Balerion did what Aerea wanted him to do - take her far, far away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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