How to train your dragon (for war)

[Corvinus85]

If someone else mentioned this already in an existing thread, power to you, I haven't kept up with everything.

The writers deciding to have Aemond and Luke lose control of their dragons was a great idea. Because these are beasts of war, but without the training for war. We've seen a bit about how the Targs train dragons - voice commands about when to fly, to land, to stay still, to burn shit etc. But what about situational training? Environment training? All we've seen is the Targs like to do a lot of pleasure riding.

Think about the warhorse of a knight. When a knight trains he also trains his horse. A normal horse freaks out at loud noises, the smell of blood, and will certainly not charge at a movable obstacle. A well trained warhorse can handle those situations.

Now, granted, some dragons have war experience, but that amounts to burning people, buildings, or ships, and flying through fired projectiles. There are no dragon jousts or dragon melees.

Rhaenyra does mention that their dragons never went to war, though she clearly forgot about Caraxes, and if we're including the riderless ones, then Seasmoke and Vermithor count, too. 

So Arrax's lack of control is certainly understandable. Vhagar has seen war, but the last time was the brief Dornish war, when King Jaeherys and his sons burned the Dornishmen at sea.

[Lord Varys]

I'd imagine that a dragon cannot be controlled in detail during a battle. The rider should be able to direct him against the enemy people, castles, ships, houses, etc. ... but not to the point that he has control over every single blast of fire or any bite.

It might also be hard to get a dragon to cool down and away from the fray of battle even if the rider has a change of heart.

Although I'd imagine a dragon to sense it if the rider is injured or exhausted and can no longer continue the fight.

In a fight of dragon against dragon the kind of thing we saw in the show might come into play. In addition to the feelings the riders fighting each other might have for each other ... a dragon likely doesn't like it all that much when another dragon attacks it.

With the Luke-Aemond situation, the dragon who fucked things up seems to have been Arrax. He couldn't handle the stress it the end, ended up attacking Vhagar. Vhagar, in turn, doesn't suffer some small drake burning her face, so she took care of the problem.

[DMC]

5 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

Rhaenyra does mention that their dragons never went to war, though she clearly forgot about Caraxes, and if we're including the riderless ones, then Seasmoke and Vermithor count, too. 

Yeah.  It might be a stretch, but she's talking directly to Daemon, so when she said "our dragons," I took that to mean hers, her children's, and Baela's (and perhaps Meleys as well).  Obviously she should know Caraxes has been to war, and Seasmoke and Vermithor weren't mentioned until Daemon's response to her comment.

Anyway, the topic is a good question, and one I have no idea how to answer.  How do you train dragons for war without them killing each other's riders and possibly themselves?

[cytherea]

5 hours ago, DMC said:

Anyway, the topic is a good question, and one I have no idea how to answer.  How do you train dragons for war without them killing each other's riders and possibly themselves?

Maybe that'd involve some sort of socializing? The dragons seem to be kept to their own, and you rarely see them interact save when two riders are flying somewhere. Maybe the best example of that would be Caraxes and Vhagar flying together on that scene.

They know how to diferentiate a situation from the other, and are likely to be kept under control even under stress, Laena less than Daemon, but both of them had some practical experience without a dragon-on-dragon kinda deal. Aemond though is not a rider who's seen battle, and Lucerys even less, with a dragon who is completely inexperienced.

[Mosi Mynn]

To me, it seemed as though both Vhagar and Arrax were responding to how their riders felt rather than what they said.  Luke was desperate and frightened, and Aemond was cruel and bullying.  Add in to that grumpy old Vhagar's own annoyance at a child having the audacity to blow flames in her face, and I think tragedy was inevitable

ETA: Syrax also seems very in tune with what Rhaenyra is feeling.  Rhaenyra looked outwardly in control when confronting Otto, but Syrax roared angrily - perhaps reflecting Rhaenyra's inner feelings.