Why did Aegon oppose Volantis's expansion and other trailing questions.

[A Bong of Ice and Fire]

Was just rereading a Tyrion river-cruise chapter in ADwD, where we learn a lot about Volantis's post-Doom history.

Volantis wanted to claim the mantle of the Valyrian Empire and launched an aggressive war of expansion to do so.

A wide coalition of free cities and other forces opposed Volantis, including Aegon the (not-yet-then) Conqueror on the back of the Black Dread. Huh. Huh?

The motives of the Esso forces to oppose Volantis are clear. But WTF does Aegon care about the territorial scraps in Essos?

The only thing that is clear to me is that Aegon does not want Volantis to claim the legal-moral-imperial legacy of Old Valyria. This means that this legacy matters to Aegon, believer in prophecies and great family destinies.

I would conclude that Aegon wanted to knock out Volantis so that one day he or his descendants could claim the mantle of the Old Empire as the legitimate ruler-saviors.

Great. But then why did Aegon conquer Westeros instead?

If Aegon just wants it all, wouldn't he start by trying to consolidate his strength and legitimacy in the old imperial territories? He could easily do it; he had dragons, and he no doubt had just unleashed a very public butt-kicking on the Volantenes.

Strategically does not it not make much more sense to first grab the mantle of Valyria, then conquer the other backwaters? Otherwise he risked getting he and his family bogged down in Westerosi politics and infighting, and then distracted from the real prize.

In fact that's exactly what he did. Aegon fucked up. We know that Targaryens are extremely self-confident but do have the tendency to misread signs and portents, leading to costly tactical errors. I think that's what happened here.

Or perhaps Aegon simply thought he was picking off low-hanging fruit in the Seven Kingdoms, but didn't see the hidden dangers in the brush.

Either way, Aegon made a mistake. I think Daenerys's task is to fix it. That's why Dany is told to go East before she goes West.

Readers want to crucify Dany for not moving right away to Westeros. But Dany is doing the right thing by her family by not repeating Aegon's mistake.

Dany's destiny is to reraise the flag of Old Valyria under real Dragonlords, the Targaryens. That is the only way to build the strength and unity to defeat the coming forces of Winter.

The Gods of Ice and Fire play their eternal game of Cyvasse on the playing fields of Planetos, with Dragons and Others and armies and priests and other forces being moved around and sacrificed as needed. This is their never-ending, ever cycling Song.

Ice wants the Aegon-Dany piece bogged down in Westeros. Fire wants it to rebuild the Dragon's Empire.

Their Walls and Dooms are results of victorious battles, not victory in war, which never comes.

While the Song of Ice and Fire plays out endlessly on the macro scale, on the micro scale the Game of Thrones similarly plays on and on.

[Bright Blue Eyes]

Addendum: The Volanteneses wanted Aegon to be their emperor. He wouldn't even need to fight them for that, just say yes and have the crown placed on his head.

[conon394]

In fact that's exactly what he did. Aegon fucked up. We know that Targaryens are extremely self-confident but do have the tendency to misread signs and portents, leading to costly tactical errors. I think that's what happened here.

Or not...

Look we have such a tenuous description of the conquest and the reason the Targs were at the ass-end of the Empire anyway.

But I think its useful to consider how Aegon ruled. He did not declare a New Valaria, import their gods or slavery. He (or his heirs) did not even seek to make a unitary State modeled on even a bit of the Freehold. He left the Faiths alone, the Pact and Green men left undisturbed. The distinct cultures of Westros (North, Iron Islands, Dorne) also left intact as are all the storied kingdoms and lineages who bent knee.

All in all Aegon clearly was not looking to remake Valyria in any way but rather something new In Westros - perhaps with reason to avoid the Doom. A Unified and well run Westros with the only Dragons in the world is clearly the most powerful polity in the world, who needs more. A divided Essos is a good thing, a new Volantis empire not so much in that it sets up a rival power if successful.

Aegon and his sisters look to have been running away from the Freehold and had no desire to see it revived as a rival by petty pretenders.

[Fire Eater]

Dany won't rebuild the Valyrian empire, she wants to return to Westeros, otherwise what is the point of her plot if it isn't going to make an impact in the storylines of Westeros? Tyrion won't want her to stay in Essos he wants to return to Westeros to gain CR, and revenge on Cersei.

Aegon had no interest in rebuilding the Valyran empire, and I don't think they wanted to make him emperor since they still retained the triarchs. Why be a triarch in Essos with two other co-rulers when he could be the single king of a united Westeros. Westeros's hierarchical, feudal power structure makes it easier for conquest since you just add a layer on top on the seven kings who will be made into lords.

[JanAgro]

Aegon thought that the Valyrian Empire was deasd and did not want it to be rbuilt.He probably thoght that the empire had become too decadent and corrupt leading to the doo.Instead he takes on a challenge that nobody had done before uinifing westerot.It was Pride and Ubris that led to Aegon to do these thing.He didnt want the crown the Volanese were willing to give him he wanted to make his own

[The-Paul-Arron00]

Why would he want essos instead of westeros. That's like wanting Japan china Russia or the west in our world.

[shearstone]

The targs fled before the doom so perhaps they had pre warning the doom was coming which and knew that any attempt to rebuild it would be destroyed by the same power or they fled because they were exiled by the other families of Valyria, held a grudge and wanted Valyria to die (the doom gave them that opportunity).

It wouldn't be the first time a grudge can last so long and go to such extremes (Bracken and Blackwood).

What I never understood was Valyria controlled a vast empire but not one family in the freehold decided to station dragons in the empire? Not a single one except the Targs who seem to have fled sounds like a major plot hole to me.

[PrimeRhaegar]

well remember the valyiran empire didn't have an absolute ruler man it wasn't really an empire it was a freehold with the 40 dragonlord families holding the most power. Aegon knew that the volantesse would want to share the power and would probably want to be dragon riders too so he simply prevented a threat to his future plan i guess.

[Pero the first of His name]

Because he pulled off a Balon - No man gives me a crown, i take it!

[A Bong of Ice and Fire]

well remember the valyiran empire didn't have an absolute ruler man it wasn't really an empire it was a freehold with the 40 dragonlord families holding the most power. Aegon knew that the volantesse would want to share the power and would probably want to be dragon riders too so he simply prevented a threat to his future plan i guess.

I carelessly used the word empire, yeah. But we seem to agree that Aegon saw Volantene expansion as a threat to his plans. I think that this is a more plausible motive for Aegon's risky intervention in the war than just because he opposed slavery or had a huge ego.

(Of course given the lack of info to date I can't offer any solid evidence of Aegon's motives besides what might "make sense". Yeah, I'm speculating. Don't flay me, peoples.)

So the question remains - what was Aegon's long-range plan in regard to Valyria and its legacy?