Jump to content

Why did the dragons not fly away from Valyria?


Recommended Posts

They could have escaped and it is shown they can fly very fast especially Meleys and Caraxes is said to be very lean so very fast. Why can they not fly away from the eruptions and surely it would have taken at least an hour for the eruption to happen? Even the slowest of Dragons should have flown away..... GRRM needs to be more realistic 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, Mark O'Kane said:

They could have escaped and it is shown they can fly very fast especially Meleys and Caraxes is said to be very lean so very fast. Why can they not fly away from the eruptions and surely it would have taken at least an hour for the eruption to happen? Even the slowest of Dragons should have flown away..... GRRM needs to be more realistic 

This is where Firewyrms come in. They would be able to snipe the dragons, as they would escape the volcanoes as it erupts. Also I doubt dragons could be killed by the volcanoes anyway, there must have been some other creatures released. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It wasn't some lazy eruptions, a whole sea was created. The earth went for a somersault. 13 flames. 14 including the symbolic dragons'. My pet theory. Whatever, massive damage. Hundred kilometers into the sky atleast. Plus sorcery shit 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is a chance that some dragons of Dragonstone were survivals of Doom. For instance reason why Cannibal was so hostile toward anybody could have been that originally he belong to another of 40 dragonlord families of Valyria and for that reason he did not think either Targs or their dragons as his kin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Mark O'Kane said:

Do you think the firewyrms killed the dragons? Maybe infecting them all. After Balerion went to Valyria I think he was infected as he got really slow

I think the adult firewyrms did. The baby firewyrms infected the ones that returned.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Loose Bolt said:

There is a chance that some dragons of Dragonstone were survivals of Doom. For instance reason why Cannibal was so hostile toward anybody could have been that originally he belong to another of 40 dragonlord families of Valyria and for that reason he did not think either Targs or their dragons as his kin.

Probably one of the dragons which was out hunting riderless in the free cities.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/17/2021 at 7:51 PM, Mark O'Kane said:

They could have escaped and it is shown they can fly very fast especially Meleys and Caraxes is said to be very lean so very fast. Why can they not fly away from the eruptions and surely it would have taken at least an hour for the eruption to happen?

A volcanic eruption sometimes takes then form of a sudden explosion, which can send rocks at velocity faster than 200-300 m/sec. Then, they can emit poisonous gases that could also be the cause of the death of dragons. It appears that the Doom of Valyria combined both elements, since we are told that "every hill for five hundred miles exploded, filling the air with ash and smoke and fire".

And we are talking of 14 volcanoes exploding simultaneously. It's not unrealistic at all to assume that all living beings on the area had to die.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not to say the dragons might not have seen the eruption a threat (being creatures of fire and stuff) and didn't even try to escape at first. Who knows, exactly? Who was there to submit the heat killed the dragons? What if other aspects of thr eruptions did? Various gases, rocks flying and shit. I dunno, honestly, but the thing is: Not only the Targaryen dragons survived the Doom. The few dragonriders who were around the Free Cities and didn't join Aurion were all killed along with their dragons, if it was possible. The people were tryna tame and kill them at the same time, and the TWOIAF book claims these dragons ran off never to be seen. At the time of the Conquest only it is confirmed that there are no living dragons left except for the Targaryen ones.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Given all the information we have, dragons may not be natural animals at all, but magical chimeras bred from Valyrian firewyrms and Sothoyran wyverns. As such, they may not be able to reproduce at all without the help of magic.

Aegon V tried to use magic to hatch dragon eggs. Daenerys managed to do it using magic accidentally... what if magic was always needed to hatch dragon eggs...?

We know there were "wild", unclaimed dragons in Dragonstone, but, what if the Targaryen performed blood magic on the wild dragon nests, in order to keep a reserve of dragons for breeding purposes...?

If the Valyrian Dragonlords died during the Doom, nobody was left to cast the hatching magic on the eggs, and the dragons became unable to breed...

 

Also, there are hints that the Doom wasn't just a massive volcanic eruption... the settlements closest to Valyrian are populated by mutant "monsters". And ships don't return from Valyria... Can the whole island be affected by earthquakes, burning cinder rain and lava flows all the time? Is the sea around it always suffering constant tsunamis without respite? Like, isn't there even a safe corner in the whole island? If so, even Ghiscar should receive constant rains of ashes, given the monstrous volume of ashes the volcanes would be releasing every day...

What if the Doom wasn't just a bunch of massive volcanic eruptions, but it also was, somewhat radioactive? What if the volcanos released poisonous, teratogenic substaces all over Valyria...?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good luck trying to outfly and outspeed a titanic volcanic eruption with an ocean of volcanic projectiles thrown at amazing speed in all directions and with ocean of fire and lava everywhere in a hundreds or thousands of kilometers area. 

The explosions and the shockwaves generated by them alone must have killed the immense majority of the dragons flying above Valyria.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Terrorthatflapsinthenight9 said:

Good luck trying to outfly and outspeed a titanic volcanic eruption with an ocean of volcanic projectiles thrown at amazing speed in all directions and with ocean of fire and lava everywhere in a hundreds or thousands of kilometers area. 

The explosions and the shockwaves generated by them alone must have killed the immense majority of the dragons flying above Valyria.

We don't know if the Doom was like that. Most volcanic eruptions leave plenty of time for flying creatures to escape: People could escape Mount Vesuvius's eruption by sea and land.

Even if the Doom was like Krakatoa multiplied by fourteen, and it happened without previous warning, there probably were dragons flying out of Valyria or in the fringes of Valyria proper; some of them could have been far away from the volcanoes to escape the cloud of ashes.

If ALL of Valyria terrain had exploded as if the whole peninsula were a single Plinian volcano, and not just the Fourteen Flames, the effects would have been way more catastrophic on a global scale than they are described.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/3/2021 at 9:01 AM, Ser Lepus said:

We don't know if the Doom was like that. Most volcanic eruptions leave plenty of time for flying creatures to escape: People could escape Mount Vesuvius's eruption by sea and land.

Even if the Doom was like Krakatoa multiplied by fourteen, and it happened without previous warning, there probably were dragons flying out of Valyria or in the fringes of Valyria proper; some of them could have been far away from the volcanoes to escape the cloud of ashes.

If ALL of Valyria terrain had exploded as if the whole peninsula were a single Plinian volcano, and not just the Fourteen Flames, the effects would have been way more catastrophic on a global scale than they are described.

Maybe they were killed off by non-valyrians. Maybe some flew away to sothoryos.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/17/2021 at 1:51 PM, Mark O'Kane said:

They could have escaped and it is shown they can fly very fast especially Meleys and Caraxes is said to be very lean so very fast. Why can they not fly away from the eruptions and surely it would have taken at least an hour for the eruption to happen? Even the slowest of Dragons should have flown away..... GRRM needs to be more realistic 

You are right to question this.  Our author simply chose to ask the reader to take it on faith that the dragons did not fly away.  Something which they could easily do.  Some would have said "let's get the flying flock out of here" and flew away to freedom.  And makes the  more realistic plot. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...