dragonriding ability

[Syl of Syl]

There seem to be certain clues throughout the books that dragonriding ability is linked to an inherited trait. All the dragonriders are Targaryens or are linked somehow to Valyrian ancestry. So let's assume that there is a genetic component linked to dragonriding ability.

We can then look at the examples from Fire & Blood to get a sense of what this genetic component is. We are given two clear examples where a dragonrider produces offspring with a mate of non-Valyrian descent - Viserys's four children by Alicent Hightower and Rhaenyra's three children by Harwin Strong. These 7 children all grow up to be dragonriders. If dragonriding is a recessive trait, the probability of this outcome is 1 out of 128 (2 to the 7th power) or less than 1% (we have to assume that both Alicent Hightower and Harwin Strong are somehow carriers which needs an explanation - the other situation where both have the genetic ability without displaying it is even more implausible). This is the simplified case of Mendellian inheritance. In a more complex case, where multiple genes factor in, the probability of this outcome is even lower. This is a very unlikely outcome.

We also have four other instances of a dragonrider producing offspring with a non-dragonrider - Aenys had six children by Alyssa Velaryon (whose mother was a Massey), Aemon had one child with Jocelyn Baratheon (whose mother was Alyssa Velaryon), Rhaenys had two with the Sea Snake and Viserys had one child with Aemma Arryn. All four of these examples are less clear cut but the results (all but 2 of these 10 children are dragonriders - one of the 2 non-dragonriders died in infancy and the other died at the age of 15 without any opportunity to claim a dragon) add to the overwhelming evidence that whatever genetic component that may be a necessary pre-requisite for dragonriding ability has to be a dominant trait.

Therefore, we can come to one of three conclusions. The first is that genetics and dragonriding inheritance doesn't work at all like our genetics and there is some magical component that has yet to be revealed. The other two conclusions are either that this genetic trait is either much more widespread than assumed or it is a dominant trait, meaning that a dragonrider needs only to have one parent with the ability to be a dragonrider in order to express this genetic trait. These final two conclusions lead to some contradictions though. Quentyn Martell's failure provides one contradiction of a strong genetic component. And earlier, the numerous failures during the sowing of the seeds contradicts both the idea that this genetic trait is either dominant or widespread.

All the evidence points to some other magical means by which dragonriders form a connection with their dragon. There still remains much that is unexplained about how dragonriding works. If there is some soft genetic component that is necessary to provide a predisposition then there is something magical at work. Regardless, much of becoming a dragonrider must be more than just inheritance. There must be some factors that are learned traits of some kind.

One explanation that occurs to me for the way the inherited aspect works relates to the Targaryen affinity with fire. We see that Dany has this (she likes her baths very very hot and is able to withstand heat that others cannot), and we see with Egg as well that he had a similar affinity with heat. Quentyn Martell has Targaryen ancestry, but he also can trace his ancestry back to Nymeria of the Rhoyne. The Rhoynar were supposed to have some kind of water magic which perhaps cannot co-exist with the fire magic of the Valyrians. If this is the case, both Egg and Dany can trace their ancestry back to Nymeria as well, so after these marriages of fire and water the resulting offspring would be less likely to display this fire trait which is impossible to say anything else about considering there were no dragons around to provide proof one way or the other for this theory.

Whatever the shape of this thing is, the fact of the case must be that whatever part of dragonriding that relates to an inherited trait must be at this point fairly widespread throughout Westeros (and Essos as well), which means that there should be quite a large number candidates who could potentially ride Rhaegal and Viserion.

[The hairy bear]

Princess Daenarys Targaryen married Prince Maron in 187, and Quentyn's father was born in 247. There should be 4 or 5 generations between them, meaning that Quentyn would have has only 1/32th or 1/64th of Targaryen blood.

I assume that you need a much higher degree of Valyrian blood to ride a dragon. All the dragonseeds (except Neetles) had the typical Valyrian features, so I'd guess their Valyrian ancestor was closer than that.

But let's remember that this is the same book where Baratheons and Lannisters can only produce black haired descendants, and ruling members of many families maintain the same distinctive traits for centuries. George just doesn't care about portraying anything close to a genetically realistic world.

[Syl of Syl]

22 minutes ago, The hairy bear said:

But let's remember that this is the same book where Baratheons and Lannisters can only produce black haired descendants, and ruling members of many families maintain the same distinctive traits for centuries. George just doesn't care about portraying anything close to a genetically realistic world.

Well. The inheritance of dragonriding clearly doesn't follow any kind of probabilistic model so it is not genetic in the way we understand inheritance of genes. The hair color thing is realistic enough to relate to our world. The characters didn't draw perfectly scientific conclusions from the evidence, but the evidence is close enough to our reality to make sense.

25 minutes ago, The hairy bear said:

Princess Daenarys Targaryen married Prince Maron in 187, and Quentyn's father was born in 247. There should be 4 or 5 generations between them, meaning that Quentyn would have has only 1/32th or 1/64th of Targaryen blood.

I assume that you need a much higher degree of Valyrian blood to ride a dragon. All the dragonseeds (except Neetles) had the typical Valyrian features, so I'd guess their Valyrian ancestor was closer than that.

This is not at all how inheritance works in our world. If the percentage of Valyrian blood has something to do with it in GRRM's world, well then what is the threshold? The Targaryens have been marrying non-Valyrians for many generations by the time Dany pops out. This percentage thing doesn't hold water. We've seen in Fire & Blood that dragonriders keep popping out consistently over several generations of intermarriage. If there is something inherited, the rule of inheritance is a strong one, whatever it is.

That's why I think there's something magic-related going on. The dragonriding thing is too central to the story for GRRM to not have a fully fleshed-out explanation. If there is not some sort of consistent rule for the way this thing works, I'd be very surprised.

[TwiceBorn]

I've been thinking about this and this is what I've established so far:
- Targaryens believe that ability to hatch and ride dragons is within their blood. But this might be superstition.
- The best way of keeping the ability within the family is to marry each man in a family to a woman in the same family, because it is easier to trace woman parentage.
- Targaryens have cadet families that carry the dragonblood. Whenever there are excessive females in a generation of Targaryens, they will marry them to those families. If the opposite occurs (there is not enough females to pair with males) they will call for women descended from Targaryen females from those families.
- The cadet families are: Valeryon, Baratheon, possibly Celtigar. At some point Arryn served the role. There are "leaks" to other families as well, for example Hightowers - not all bloodlines are possible to trace.
- Important female figures in Targaryen and Valeryon families are in control of the eugenic project and investing heavily in it.
- Hightowers, maesters and Faith repeatedly attempt to disrupt or take control of Targaryen bloodline.
- Inheriting the ability is not mother related and probably not even gender related (you can inherit from a man as well).
- It (most probably) doesn't go with X chromosome either.
- Twins share the ability. Siblings not necessary.
- Couldn't (so far) establish the connection between ability getting watered down and dragons going extinct.
- Couldn't (so far) establish the connection between ability and monstrous miscarriages and infertility.
- People of "strong blood" descended from generations of valyrian females have powerful presence which might imply the ability

[Bowen Marsh]

The ability to bond with dragons is an inherited trait.  That is the whole purpose of the Valyrian custom of brother-sister marriages.  

[Ghost+Nymeria4Eva]

Valyria was an empire, and some illegitimate Valyrian bastards have shown the ability to ride dragons. Nettles is a primary example. She's a dragonseed on Dragonstone, so a half-Targ with distinctly non-Targ features. And yet she managed to ride a dragon. It seems obvious that the dragonriding ability has to be inherited in some manner considering what we see in the books. And yet, how it appears is kind of inconsistent. It's possible GRRM made a mistake. Understandable as he started writing these books a long time ago and our understanding of genetics has vastly improved since then. 

It's also very possible that there's more than one trait that need to get passed down the generations to get the dragon riding ability. That might be why some descendants inherit physical Valyrian features, but can't ride dragons, while other descendants don't physically look Valyrian, but can ride dragons. Maybe the Targs practiced incest because marrying one another increases the chance of offspring inheriting multiple traits at once that makes it possible to ride dragons. 

On 5/6/2019 at 10:09 PM, Syl of Syl said:

The first is that genetics and dragonriding inheritance doesn't work at all like our genetics and there is some magical component that has yet to be revealed.

My pet theory is that blood magic and sacrifice also plays a big role here. The Targs since Aegon I have dragons, but they don't seem to know much about magic. They don't offer any sacrifices to the fire or anything. And eventually overtime, the dragons they have dwindle in number, and physically gets weaker and smaller. And the family starts the war with itself too. It's possible the overall disappearance of magic from the world is the cause here or the maester conspiracy as some people say. Or it's possible that the Valyrians in exile have forgotten their ways and they lose dragons. 

Dany ultimately gets her dragons in a fire magic, blood sacrifice ritual. Her kin go into the fire, dragons come out, and she can ride one without getting burnt to death. GRRM has yet to reveal how a dragonrider can control a dragon as well. In ADwD, Dany realizes that riding a dragon isn't anything like riding a horse. Drogon doesn't necessarily follow her command. But there are some vague hints that it's her will that Drogon follows. 

Even if blood sacrifice is necessary to make or hatch dragons, how it gives the dragon affinity is still really confusing. I mean, Dany makes the sacrifice, but how does it pass down to her children (if she could have any)? I suppose there are magical blood ties that aren't really related to genetics, but the type of blood bonds that appear in magical fantasy worlds. You know like curses that pass down the generations. But in this case, dragons. 

Also, Dany in ADwD says that Drogon is fire made flesh, but so is she. The blood of old Valyria is human as far as we know. But they do have distinctive features, like pale skin, purple eyes, and silver hair no other people on earth have. These same features, especially the paleness, is associated with certain magic things, the White Walkers, the pale gods, and pale things that Septon Barth pulls out of Princess Aerea. So the genetics for them work differently because the Valyrians themselves aren't exactly human?

 

[Vashon]

On 5/6/2019 at 11:39 AM, Syl of Syl said:

There seem to be certain clues throughout the books that dragonriding ability is linked to an inherited trait. All the dragonriders are Targaryens or are linked somehow to Valyrian ancestry. So let's assume that there is a genetic component linked to dragonriding ability.

We can then look at the examples from Fire & Blood to get a sense of what this genetic component is. We are given two clear examples where a dragonrider produces offspring with a mate of non-Valyrian descent - Viserys's four children by Alicent Hightower and Rhaenyra's three children by Harwin Strong.

Alicent Hightower's mother may very well be Saera Targaryen, who possibly never went to Lys, and was only one man's whore, and was kept locked up in a tower and then disposed of when things started getting inconvenient.

On 5/6/2019 at 11:39 AM, Syl of Syl said:

.

We also have four other instances of a dragonrider producing offspring with a non-dragonrider - Aenys had six children by Alyssa Velaryon (whose mother was a Massey), Aemon had one child with Jocelyn Baratheon (whose mother was Alyssa Velaryon), Rhaenys had two with the Sea Snake and Viserys had one child with Aemma Arryn. has to be a dominant trait.

 

I realy hate not being able to spaghetti the quotes how I like. Anyways, if its a multifactor X chromosome, then it would be passed by a mother to a child of either sex and by a father to a daughter, but never a father to a son. And we don't actually know for sure if all those people you mentioned were incapable of riding a dragon, all we know is that they didn't claim one. 

Also, it wouldn't be a "Dominant" trait, or else incest wouldn't be necessary and every bastard a Dragonlord sires would be a dragonrider, and that just isn't true. And they are probably tracing it the wrong way. 

I know Preston isn't liked by people on this forum, but he did the footwork. Its clearly passed down through the X chromosome line, or else women couldn't ride dragons, and the main early limiter was a low number of dragons, not a low number of dragon riding genetics. You don't like Preston, and others, conclusions about where he takes that work, and other work, fine, but don't pretend like it doesn't exist, hasn't been done, and is totally worthless.

 

Genetics may very well only half the story, with the sacrifice of a young dragonlord also being necessary,

 

[Syl of Syl]

7 hours ago, Vashon said:

Alicent Hightower's mother may very well be Saera Targaryen, who possibly never went to Lys, and was only one man's whore, and was kept locked up in a tower and then disposed of when things started getting inconvenient.

How and why? Who was the person in Lys claiming to be Saera then? And what about Otto Hightower's wife? She would have to be a party to this conspiracy. And to what purpose?

7 hours ago, Vashon said:

You don't like Preston, and others, conclusions about where he takes that work, and other work, fine, but don't pretend like it doesn't exist, hasn't been done, and is totally worthless.

I don't know who Preston is. I am not aware of what you are talking about or I certainly would have responded to it or perhaps not felt the need to make this post at all. Perhaps you could provide a link? I'd be interested in reading what you are referencing.

[Vashon]

1 hour ago, Syl of Syl said:

How and why? Who was the person in Lys claiming to be Saera then? And what about Otto Hightower's wife? She would have to be a party to this conspiracy. And to what purpose?[/quote] And entirely different thread, part of which is pointing out the obviousness that the Citadel of Maesters was subverted and dominated by the Faith of the Seven as soon as they could possibly do so. Why anyone would propose that the Citadel could remain politically independent is utterly beyond good faith engagement of discussion. An entirely different youtube poop group of particularly pretensious fans. Anyways...

Quote

I don't know who Preston is. I am not aware of what you are talking about or I certainly would have responded to it or perhaps not felt the need to make this post at all. Perhaps you could provide a link? I'd be interested in reading what you are referencing.[/quote]

 

Preston Jacobs, an opinionated and divisive guy who comes to some startling conclusions, which have been long since confirmed to be wrong in regards to the show, probably wrong about the books, but otherwise? This very specific video series is on the right track, even if you disagree with the conclusions regarding Dany, the rest of the legwork is done and frankly, is astoundingly, stupendoulsy obvious.

But if you don't like it, fair enough, then please explain how it could be a dominant trait and how, if it isn't X chromosome, multifactoral or not, women can also ride dragons.

 

[Lady Valicious]

I always thought the ability was in every Targaryen as a potential but then you actually needed to bond with a dragon and that was never a certainty. They put dragon eggs in their children's crib in the hopes a bond would develop. During the Dance there were available dragons with no riders and that was the reason they sent the dragonseeds to see which ones would actually bond with one... It worked to a certain degree... So even if we have other Targaryens or Blackfyres (Jon, fAegon, "put your favorite secret Targaryen here") there is no certainty that any of them would bond with Rhaegal or Viserion and become a dragon rider. There's just a good probability it could work. 

Viserion likes Brown Ben Plum, proving he has indeed Targaryen blood... That said could it go to a full bonding? Let's see with TWoW if it goes there (don't really expect it). 

[Tygett Lannister]

I don't think dragon riding ability is necessarily connected to genes/blood. 

Logically there is nothing that would prove it. You might say that every person in the books that rides a dragon has Valyrian blood, but there is Nettles, of course she could be a Targaryen bastard but there is no proof she is (you can't say that she is a Targaryen bastard because she can ride a dragon when you are trying to prove dragon riding and blood are connected, just not how logic works). 

There is actually more people that have Valyrian blood and failed to ride a dragon than those who do not have it and failed. 

I think that Valyrian dragonlord houses believed and wanted others to believe only them can bond with dragons. Why? Because that gave them special status and divine power over masses of people. Same way that nobles of Medieval Europe convinced small folk that their blood is special and are chosen by God to be something more than others. That is why they kept inbreeding and whenever a non Valyrian rode a dragon they said he must be a Valyrian bastard/have their blood. 

Now I'm not saying that dragon riding is not connected to blood, I'm just saying there is also decent possibility that it is not and I think it would fit the writers personality and themes he likes to write about. I don't think GRRM is someone that would have a them of blood meaning so much for the story. 

By saying 'Valyrian'  I always mean Valyrian noble dragonlord houses of which only Targareyen house survived with a name. I am 100% sure that there is blood of other dragonlord houses in the world because they had bastards that left Valyrian before the doom. 

[Free Northman Reborn]

40 minutes ago, Tygett Lannister said:

I don't think dragon riding ability is necessarily connected to genes/blood. 

Logically there is nothing that would prove it. You might say that every person in the books that rides a dragon has Valyrian blood, but there is Nettles, of course she could be a Targaryen bastard but there is no proof she is (you can't say that she is a Targaryen bastard because she can ride a dragon when you are trying to prove dragon riding and blood are connected, just not how logic works). 

There is actually more people that have Valyrian blood and failed to ride a dragon than those who do not have it and failed. 

I think that Valyrian dragonlord houses believed and wanted others to believe only them can bond with dragons. Why? Because that gave them special status and divine power over masses of people. Same way that nobles of Medieval Europe convinced small folk that their blood is special and are chosen by God to be something more than others. That is why they kept inbreeding and whenever a non Valyrian rode a dragon they said he must be a Valyrian bastard/have their blood. 

Now I'm not saying that dragon riding is not connected to blood, I'm just saying there is also decent possibility that it is not and I think it would fit the writers personality and themes he likes to write about. I don't think GRRM is someone that would have a them of blood meaning so much for the story. 

By saying 'Valyrian'  I always mean Valyrian noble dragonlord houses of which only Targareyen house survived with a name. I am 100% sure that there is blood of other dragonlord houses in the world because they had bastards that left Valyrian before the doom. 

One dragon family linked to one dragonlord family. Targs can ride Targ dragons only, not any Valyrian dragon. And Targ dragons can be ridden only by Targs, not by any other Valyrian dragonlords.

[Tygett Lannister]

24 minutes ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

One dragon family linked to one dragonlord family. Targs can ride Targ dragons only, not any Valyrian dragon. And Targ dragons can be ridden only by Targs, not by any other Valyrian dragonlords.

Umm where is that supposed to be said. Or is that just your idea? 

[Free Northman Reborn]

18 minutes ago, Tygett Lannister said:

Umm where is that supposed to be said. Or is that just your idea? 

It is a theory that fits the evidence quite well. The need for keeping the Bloodlines pure, the theme of blood magic going into the creation of dragons way back in the beginning, the need for dragonhorns to steal dragons from rival families.

It makes sense from all angles, if you think about it.

[Ser Hedge]

On 5/6/2019 at 5:39 PM, Syl of Syl said:

Quentyn Martell's failure provides one contradiction of a strong genetic component. 

You may be right about Quentyn, but I would prefer to treat it as inconclusive either way. He might have been making a bit of headway with Dragon #1 and was blindsided by Dragon #2 appearing out of left field. The Windblown trying to kill one of the dragons not helping either.

There is also the chance that possessing the right blood/genes is a necessary, but not sufficient condition. The rider might also need the right personality, or at least enough boldness and daring, which Quentyn did not seen to display, but Dany did in the fighting pit (yes, hers is indeed a special case anyway). Trying to mount a dragon in the darkness of a dungeon where you can hardly see is another big handicap as well, I don't think anyone else had to deal with that.

[Tygett Lannister]

1 hour ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

It is a theory that fits the evidence quite well. The need for keeping the Bloodlines pure, the theme of blood magic going into the creation of dragons way back in the beginning, the need for dragonhorns to steal dragons from rival families.

It makes sense from all angles, if you think about it.

Honestly I don't see any evidence for dragon breeds belonging to certain Valyrian dragonlord family. You can explain dragonhorns for stealing already tamed dragons or dragons that weren't tamed yet. Dany's dragon eggs are really old and I'm supposed to believe it just happened to be Targareyen dragon eggs? A bit too convenient.

[Free Northman Reborn]

17 minutes ago, Tygett Lannister said:

Honestly I don't see any evidence for dragon breeds belonging to certain Valyrian dragonlord family. You can explain dragonhorns for stealing already tamed dragons or dragons that weren't tamed yet. Dany's dragon eggs are really old and I'm supposed to believe it just happened to be Targareyen dragon eggs? A bit too convenient.

Fire and Blood gives a strong hint as to the origin of Dany’s 3 eggs and that they were from a fairly recent batch of Targaryen eggs, in fact.

The need to marry within the family rather than intermarry with other dragonlord families makes sense if your bloodline is linked to a specific line of dragons. You don’t want to give your rivals access to that bloodline. Hence the Targaryen incest tradition.

And some circumstantial evidence comes from the Cannibal, who remained untamed by any Targaryens, killed and ate other Targ dragons, and was rumoured to predate the Targaryens’ arrival on Dragonstone. If he was from a different dragon bloodline it would explain why he could never be tamed by anyone of Targaryen blood.

[Tygett Lannister]

57 minutes ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

Fire and Blood gives a strong hint as to the origin of Dany’s 3 eggs and that they were from a fairly recent batch of Targaryen eggs, in fact.

The need to marry within the family rather than intermarry with other dragonlord families makes sense if your bloodline is linked to a specific line of dragons. You don’t want to give your rivals access to that bloodline. Hence the Targaryen incest tradition.

And some circumstantial evidence comes from the Cannibal, who remained untamed by any Targaryens, killed and ate other Targ dragons, and was rumoured to predate the Targaryens’ arrival on Dragonstone. If he was from a different dragon bloodline it would explain why he could never be tamed by anyone of Targaryen blood.

Makes sense of course, but it could still just be their superstition and not an actual thing. Zoroastrian kings would do the same to keep the blood of their family pure, which just led to inbreeding.

[Megorova]

On 5/6/2019 at 7:39 PM, Syl of Syl said:

The other two conclusions are either that this genetic trait is either much more widespread than assumed or it is a dominant trait, meaning that a dragonrider needs only to have one parent with the ability to be a dragonrider in order to express this genetic trait.

There are multiple foreshadowings in the books, that Jon will become Viserion's dragonrider, and Rhaego will become Rhaegal's.

For example, Viserion's egg hatched with a sound of shattering stone, Rhaegal's with a sound of thunder, and Drogon's with a sound of the breaking of the world - clues, that their dragonriders are the great dragon, that will be awakened from stone (Jon in the third vision from the set slayer of lies), the Stallion that mounts the world (dosh khaleen heard thunder of his hooves), and the Breaker of Chains (breaker of the existing world order, such as slavery, or that only men can be rulers of Khalasars).

Jon is half-Targaryen thru his father, and Rhaego is half-Targaryen thru his mother. And both will become dragonriders. So, even one parent with Valyrian genes is enough, to make a child able to bond with a dragon.

 

Though, there's a possibility, that both, Drogo and Lyanna, also were carriers of Valyrian genes.

Melissa Blackwood was mistress of Aegon IV Targaryen. She gave birth to three of his children. For some unspecified reason, Cregan Stark fought in a duel against Kingsguard Aemon the Dragonknight, brother of King Aegon.

I think, that the cause of that duel was Aegon's affair with Melissa. Cregan had challenged Aegon, because Melissa Blackwood was Cregan's granddaughter, and Cregan was not Ok with the King making her his mistress. I think, that Cregan had won in that duel, and spared Aemon's life. If the result of that fight was the opposite, and it was Aemon, who had won, then, most likely, Aegon would have ordered Aemon to kill Cregan. Though, Cregan won, which was probably a trial by combat, and, as a winner, demanded from the King to break up with Melissa, which he did. 

With his second wife, Alysanne Blackwood, Cregan had four daughters. It's possible, that at least one of those daughters had married back into Blackwood family, with her cousin. Most likely, it was Mariah Stark. And this Mariah was Melissa's mother, and grandmother of Bloodraven, Mya and Gwenys Rivers.

Then one of Bloodraven's sisters, most likely Mya, had married back into Blackwood family (same as her Stark-grandmother, Cregan's daughter Mariah). Then Mya had a daughter - Melantha Blackwood. And this Melantha married with Willam Stark, great grandfather of Lyanna Stark.

So, if my theory is correct, then Lyanna was 1/32 Targaryen, and she was Aegon's great great great granddaughter. Based on what is known about Brown Ben's ancestry, he is great great great great grandson of Aegon IV. So, Lyanna had 2 times more of dragon-genes than Ben Plumm. And even Ben has enough of dragon blood, to be recognized by Dany's dragons as their kin.

If my theory is correct, then thru Lyanna, Jon has the same amount of dragon blood, as Brown Ben Plumm, and additional dragon-genes from his pure-blooded Targaryen father, so Jon is 33/64 Targaryen.

And it's likely, that Drogo also had Targaryen ancestor. Could be, that one of Ben Plumm's ancestors, who was a Dothraki, was also Drogo's ancestor, and was descendant of that part of Ben's family, that were carriers of Targaryen genes, from Viserys Plumm. Brown Ben's family tree is fairly complicated. Though, there are certain hints in it, that besides Viserys' dragon blood, Ben also had one more ancestor with Targaryen genes. Among his ancestors were people from Braavos and Summer Islands. Black Pearls of Braavos, descendants of Aegon IV, are partially Summer Islanders, and partially Braavosi. It's possible, that one of the Black Pearls was Ben's ancestor. So he got his dragon genes also from this side. And so did Drogo.

So, besides being half-Targaryen thru his mother, Rhaego thru his father Drogo, could also have additional dragon-genes from Viserys Plumm (bastard of Aegon IV), and Black Pearls of Braavos (descendants of Aegon IV).

I know, that it all sounds very far-fetched. Though there are two, sort of evidences, of my theory. First is that Rhaego has silver-gold hair. And for that to be possible, there has to be Valyrian genes on both sides of his family. So, it's highly likely, that Drogo was a carrier of "blond" genes, and was a distant descendant of Valyrians. Second is that, for some reason, GRRM gave to us a fairly detailed composition of Brown Ben's genes. Ben could have just said, that he is a distant descendant of Viserys Plumm, but instead of that, he gave to Dany a detailed account of who were his ancestors - Westerosi (Viserys Plumm), Dornish, Ibbenesse, Qohorik, Dothraki, Summer Islander, Braavosi. So, possibly, this is a clue from GRRM, a clue that ties together Brown Ben, Black Pearls and Khal Drogo, as people with shared genes, inherited from Aegon IV.

So, Rhaego, same as Jon, is a bit more than half-Targaryen, and that's enough for both of them to become dragonriders.

[Tygett Lannister]

4 minutes ago, Megorova said:

If my theory is correct, then thru Lyanna, Jon has the same amount of dragon blood, as Brown Ben Plumm, and additional dragon-genes from his pure-blooded Targaryen father, so Jon is 33/64 Targaryen.

This is assuming Rhaegar was 100% Targaryen which is impossible since Daeron II his ancestor married a Martell woman and so did many other ancestor mix with other Westerosi houses. So theory you need to be 1/2 Targ or more falls pretty fast.