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waitingforsecretsouls · 1 year ago

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Dance-era Dragons and their Dances

As can perhaps be seen in my previous post about the size of Tessarion, dragon sizes in ASOIAF are something that's very interesting to me, in particular because I feel that for all its many (many) flaws it's the one thing Fire & Blood is very consistent in, and clear about. Yet there seems to be a lot of confusion about particular specimens even though the text itself offers clear explanations.

So consider this my write-up about my understanding of the general (not able to offer up numbers, sorry) size of dragons in 129 AC, for my own referrence (rather than a bludgeon against differing opinions). It will contain an examination of available information about the concerned dragons, including the battles they were involved in from which I will extrapolate to make points (and perhaps slightly judge their and their riders performances).

EDIT: This turned into something far more like my personal commentary on the Dances in the latter (and larger) half, so, uh, yeah, the attempt at making some sort of larger point got lost along the way. The Tl;dr: Stop underestimating Sunfyre's and Tessarion's size, please, the text itself is rather clear that they're big lizards!

Rhaenys is a Biased Party (even if general guideline)

Perhaps the most consistently referred to piece of text concerning Dance-era dragons (understandably so, considering it's the only one to name all dragons at once) is Rhaenys ennumeration of Targaryen dragons at the 'Black Council'. Yet said ennumeration by her is inherently biased as both seen in the surrounding narration as well as Rhaenys' assessments themselves. To quote:

“We have more,” said Princess Rhaenys, the Queen Who Never Was, who had been a dragonrider longer than all of them. “And ours are larger and stronger, but for Vhagar. Dragons thrive best here on Dragonstone.” She enumerated for the council. King Aegon had his Sunfyre. A splendid beast, though young. Aemond One-Eye rode Vhagar, and the peril posed by Queen Visenya’s mount could not be gainsaid. Queen Helaena’s mount was Dreamfyre, the she-dragon who had once borne the Old King’s sister Rhaena through the clouds. Prince Daeron’s dragon was Tessarion, with her wings dark as cobalt and her claws and crest and belly scales as bright as beaten copper. “That makes four dragons of fighting size,” said Rhaenys. Queen Helaena’s twins had their own dragons too, but no more than hatchlings; the usurper’s youngest son, Maelor, was possessed only of an egg. Against that, Prince Daemon had Caraxes and Princess Rhaenyra Syrax, both huge and formidable beasts. Caraxes especially was fearsome, and no stranger to blood and fire after the Stepstones. Rhaenyra’s three sons by Laenor Velaryon were all dragonriders; Vermax, Arrax, and Tyraxes were thriving, and growing larger every year. Aegon the Younger, eldest of Rhaenyra’s two sons by Prince Daemon, commanded the young dragon Stormcloud, though he had yet to mount him; his little brother, Viserys, went everywhere with his egg. Rhaenys’s own she-dragon, Meleys the Red Queen, had grown lazy, but remained fearsome when roused. Prince Daemon’s twins by Laena Velaryon might yet be dragonriders too. Baela’s dragon, the slender pale green Moondancer, would soon be large enough to bear the girl upon her back…and though her sister Rhaena’s egg had hatched a broken thing that died within hours of emerging from the egg, Syrax had recently produced another clutch. One of her eggs had been given to Rhaena, and it was said that the girl slept with it every night, and prayed for a dragon to match her sister’s. Moreover, six other dragons made their lairs in the smoky caverns of the Dragonmont above the castle. There was Silverwing, Good Queen Alysanne’s mount of old; Seasmoke, the pale grey beast that had been the pride and passion of Ser Laenor Velaryon; hoary old Vermithor, unridden since the death of King Jaehaerys. And behind the mountain dwelled three wild dragons, never claimed nor ridden by any man, living or dead. The smallfolk had named them Sheepstealer, Grey Ghost, and the Cannibal. “Find riders to master Silverwing, Vermithor, and Seasmoke, and we will have nine dragons against Aegon’s four. Mount and fly their wild kin, and we will number twelve, even without Stormcloud,” Princess Rhaenys pointed out. “That is how we shall win this war.”

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—The Blacks and the Greens

As see in her first and last lines (bolded), Rhaenys is trying to make the argument that their acess to larger number of dragons is Rhaenyra's factions largest advantage against the Greens in the as of yet potential conflict ahead. Fair enough. But as seen in her very first line, her following assessments are all built on the foundation of also explicitly trying to prove the superiority of said dragons, which is where we run into some snaggs and a deliberate down-playing of the Greens dragons. About the one thing I'm ready to agree on is the general order of size, but not the presumed gaps between them so often incorporated into fanon (other reasons for which will be examined later).

Looking at her descriptions of the Greens dragons we notice the concession that Sunfyre is "splendid", "though young", which can be read as either an attempt to downplay said splendor (something many seem to see as a reference to his appearance, to which I respectfully disagree, the following "though young" makes clear that it's a broader categorization with youth standing in contrast to said "splendor", since youth would make a nonsensical contrast to beauty, due to not being mutually exclusive, plus nonsensical to bring up in Rhaenys battle-focused assessment) by bringing up his youth, or a concession about Sunfyre's potential risk-factor despite his youth. All in all, even if it may be my particular reading of it, one of the more fair and reasonable evaluations.

But Dreamfyre, Vhagar and Tessarion? Dreamfyre is one of the oldest and largest dragons alive, yet all Rhaenys has to say about her is who her previous rider was? Whereas Syrax, who has no battle experience and is never noted for a ferocious temperament or other notable characteristic the way eg. even pre-first-bloodletting Meleys and Caraxes are (fast and fierce), gets mentioned as "huge and formidable"? If size is what prompts this praise, I hope we can all agree how nonsensical it is to mention a ~50 years younger Syrax as "huge" but not Dreamfyre, whose roused ferocity we see at the Storming of the Dragonpit. She literally brings down the building that was errected to house the Black Dread. But okay, the most noteworthy thing is that Rhaena once flew her, whatever you say Rhaenys. Tessarion gets no description at all outside of her coloration, when later events see her exhibit swiftness, ferocity and endurance more than most other dragons on the list. Vhagar only gets the praise that it's impossible to downplay the danger posed by her, as attempted with the others, imo another confirmation of Rhaenys goal with said speech.

Not taking Shrykos and Morghul into wider consideration intially seems fair enough, given the youth of them and their riders, however when you compare them to the treatment of dragons of similar age and size on Rhaenyra's side it starts to look unfair. Whereas Shrykos and Morghul get dismissed as "no more than hatchlings", the category that's consistently applied to any dragons too small to be mounted, Stormcloud suddenly gets bumped up to a "young dragon" that's "commanded" by the NINE-YEAR-OLD Aegon (to Jaehaerys' and Jaehaeras six years), and the also as-of-yet too young to be mounted Moondancer gets spun into nearly battle-ready (even though being large enough to be mounted and being large enough for (dragon-on-dragon) combat are NOT the same mile-stone, see eg. Stormcloud's later death to arrows and one scorpion bolt). In a similar vein, the comparative youth and thereby lack of size of the Strong Boys dragons (sorry TB shooters, it's just too convenient a term to refer to them as a collective), as the only cradle-hatchlings involved in the conflict proper ("Superior fire-power will solve all our problems, so let's take barely ridable dragons and barely-teens into combat". How does Rhaenys get cast as this wise "what could have been" Queen in the mold of Alysanne? Rhaegar-syndrome of never actually being fully in charge, I imagine) gets overpainted with the basic facts that their dragons are healthy and growing, as is true for literally every other currently living dragon.

I have no overall issue with her descriptions of Caraxes and Meleys, (though Meleys was never actually involved in any kind of battle prior to the Dance. I like to hc that she grew up on Dragonstone similarly to Sunfyre (canon) and Tessarion (hc) with the dangerous-for-hatchlings Cannibal around to potentially fend off), they have either enough history or age to at least somehwat back up their praise. However, I hope this made clear why I do not consider Rhaenys opinion the be-all-end-all of estimating dragons size and danger posited by them.

Can't make a Dragon without breaking some Eggs

While I already mentioned it a few times in the previous section I'm gonna quickly elaborate on it here: Despite common belief, neither Sunfyre nor Tessarion are likely to be cradle-hatchlings or even just "regular" hatchlings hatching from an egg given to a Targaryen child. Fire & Blood always makes sure to mention when such eggs are presented, whether it's the cradle-egg or childhood-egg variant, the result from said egg (hatching, hatching misformed and/or sickly, not hatching at all). An occurence that's rather rare in the Targaryen history pre-Dance: Aenys bonded with an already hatched hatchling from Dragonstone, Maegor refused such young dragons offered to him, Rhaena bonded with the young dragon Dreamfyre. Jaehaerys and Alysanne are the first Targaryens mentioned to receive cradle-eggs, with Vermithor and Silverwing as their hatchlings, even though compared to later such occurences theirs is a heavily mythologized account and may potentially be open to interpretation. Alone of all their children, an egg was placed in Prince Aemon's cradle, though we never hear anything about it again, seeming to indicate it never hatched (since Aemon goes on to claim the young dragon Caraxes). Meleys as well is already a young dragon by the time Alyssa claims her. In fact, it's only with Rhaenyra's sons questionable paternity that the "tradition" of cradle-eggs is "revived" (imo it never was a consistent enough custom to be considered a tradition pre-Dance, but them's them fandom terms).

Whatever the truth of these allegations, there was never any doubt that King Viserys still meant for his daughter to follow him upon the Iron Throne, and her sons to follow her in turn. By royal decree, each of the Velaryon boys was presented with a dragon’s egg whilst in the cradle. Those who doubted the paternity of Rhaenyra’s sons whispered that the eggs would never hatch, but the birth in turn of three young dragons gave the lie to their words. The hatchlings were named Vermax, Arrax, and Tyraxes. And Septon Eustace tells us that His Grace sat Jace upon his knee atop the Iron Throne as he was holding court, and was heard to say, “One day this will be your seat, lad.”

Fire & Blood, Heirs of the Dragon—A Question of Succession

The whole reason the Strong Boys are presented with dragons eggs in the cradle is in an attempt to dispell the rumours of their questionable paternity, "by royal decree" making it clear it's not standard custom, and given how Aegon II, Helaena and Aemond are all older than even Jacaerys and there is never any question about the legitimacy of Alicent's children, combined with Fire & Blood's consistency in mentioning egg dispensations, makes clear none of them ever received a cradle-egg or regular eggs. Same goes for Daeron, who in particular is mentioned in contrast to Jacaerys as showing his Targaryen blood:

The court was still rejoicing over the birth of the princess’s child when her stepmother, Queen Alicent, also went into labor, delivering Viserys his third son, Daeron…whose coloring, unlike that of Jace, testified to his dragon blood. By royal command, the infants Jacaerys Velaryon and Daeron Targaryen shared a wet nurse until weaned. It was said that the king hoped to prevent any enmity between the two boys by raising them as milk brothers. If so, his hopes proved to be sadly forlorn.

Fire & Blood, Heirs of the Dragon—A Question of Succession

The reasons Jaehaerys, Jaehaera and Maelor receive cradle-eggs are most logically a quiet "arms-race" between both factions, an attempt to show they are equally (and implied superior due to lacking the "taint" of illegitimacy) as legitimate Targaryens and potential heirs as Rhaenyra's children, who all are presented with cradle-eggs that hatch (see also the Greens attempt to PR-slander Viserys for his egg not hatching, which would be a self-own if it had happened to all of them), made possible by not being reliant on Royal Decree since Helaena, their mother, claimed Dreamfyre, the most prolific egg-layer among the Targaryen dragons (not that Viserys would have had a good reason to deny the other set of his grandchildren eggs upon explicit request, but I honestly don't think the Greens bothered (not that they were required to) with consulting him).

Tl;dr: Neither Sunfyre nor Tessarion can logicstically be cradle-hatchling.

The Dragons Dance

This is the section in which I will examine the battles of the Dance of Dragons that involved dragons and said dragons performance in them, to extrapolate about their likely sizes, maybe correct some misconceptions about the battles themselves, and perhaps other characteristics that jump out.

Oh Honey, You've got a Big Storm coming....

Let's do this chronologically and start with the "battle" above Shipbreaker Bay, though there's not that much to say, roll quote:

Outside the storm was raging. Thunder rolled across the castle, the rain fell in blinding sheets, and from time to time great bolts of blue-white lightning lit the world as bright as day. It was bad weather for flying, even for a dragon, and Arrax was struggling to stay aloft when Prince Aemond mounted Vhagar and went after him. Had the sky been calm, Prince Lucerys might have been able to outfly his pursuer, for Arrax was younger and swifter…but the day was “as black as Prince Aemond’s heart,” says Mushroom, and so it came to pass that the dragons met above Shipbreaker Bay. Watchers on the castle walls saw distant blasts of flame, and heard a shriek cut the thunder. Then the two beasts were locked together, lightning crackling around them. Vhagar was five times the size of her foe, the hardened survivor of a hundred battles. If there was a fight, it could not have lasted long. Arrax fell, broken, to be swallowed by the storm-lashed waters of the bay. His head and neck washed up beneath the cliffs below Storm’s End three days later, to make a feast for crabs and seagulls. Mushroom claims that Prince Lucerys’s corpse washed up as well, and tells us that Prince Aemond cut out his eyes and presented them to Lady Maris on a bed of seaweed, but this seems excessive. Some say Vhagar snatched Lucerys off his dragon’s back and swallowed him whole.

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—A Son for a Son

The general rule of thumb seems to be that younger dragons are swifter than older and larger ones (see: Young Meleys vs Vhagar or even Older Meleys, the proposed "match-up" of Moondancer vs the Cannibal), but because the weather-conditions were suboptimal to say the least Vhagar managed to catch up to Arrax since the storm likely would have bothered her (read: knocked around) far less than the smaller Arrax. We don't get much about the fight itself except that it must have been a pretty one-sided affair and that Vhagar was five-times the size of Arrax (other comparisons of such kind we get are Quicksilver being a quarter the size of Balerion, Tessarion being one-third the size of Vermithor (the canonically special dragon, second only to Vhagar in size at 14-years old). Yet no-one is saying Quicksilver was tiny just bc Balerion was fuck-off huge, and Tessarion gets reduced to the same size as Arrax, smh...). I do find it interesting that the dragons were "locked together", indicating Arrax at least tried to fight back by biting into Vhagar as well...But otherwise, as mentioned, not much to comment on, everyone knows and acknowledges Vhagar is huge and that Arrax is one of the youngest dragons involved. Next!

Time-out corner for Sunfyre and Meleys (Vhagar's also here, I guess)

Next we have the Battle of Rooks Rest, one of the more impressive ones, considering the dragons involved. Much discourse has been had about who makes a more cutting or incompetent figure: Much smack has been talked about Aegon and Sunfyre in particular, given the result of the battle. But looking at the actual course of events it's pretty clear (even stated by the text itself) that the duo were the clincher in this battle:

Then came an answering roar. Two more winged shapes appeared: the king astride Sunfyre the Golden, and his brother Aemond upon Vhagar. Criston Cole had sprung his trap, and Rhaenys had come snatching at the bait. Now the teeth closed round her. Princess Rhaenys made no attempt to flee. With a glad cry and a crack of her whip, she turned Meleys toward the foe. Against Vhagar alone she might have had some chance, but against Vhagar and Sunfyre together, doom was certain. The dragons met violently a thousand feet above the field of battle, as balls of fire burst and blossomed, so bright that men swore later that the sky was full of suns. The crimson jaws of Meleys closed round Sunfyre’s golden neck for a moment, till Vhagar fell upon them from above. All three beasts went spinning toward the ground. They struck the ground so hard that stones fell from the battlements of Rook’s Rest half a league away. Those closest to the dragons did not live to tell the tale. Those farther off could not see for the flame and smoke. It was hours before the fires guttered out. But from those ashes, only Vhagar rose unharmed. Meleys was dead, broken by the fall and ripped to pieces upon the ground. And Sunfyre, that splendid golden beast, had one wing half torn from his body, whilst his royal rider had suffered broken ribs, a broken hip, and burns that covered half his body. His left arm was the worst. The dragonflame had burned so hot that the king’s armor had melted into his flesh.

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—The Red Dragon and the Gold

The common view of this clash seems to be that the three dragons clashed mid-air, maybe did some fancy maneuvering, Vhagar saved Sunfyre's hide, Meleys ripped Sunfyre's wing, they crash, Meleys gets killed (sometimes with a switch of the third-to-last and second-to last, but with the constant of Meleys injuring Sunfyre's wing). What the text itself actually describes is rather different however.

First of all, Kudos to Rhaenys for facing her certain doom bravely. Next, let's note the huge credit to the danger posed by Meleys that she is considered not only a potential risk but even potential victor against Vhagar. That's not something even Caraxes gets, who's half of Vhagar's size but consistently mentioned as dangerous and vicious. Meaning Meleys is likely a good deal older than Caraxes, rather than just a decade or two. Pre-Dragonseeds it's safe to say that Meleys was the largest dragon of Rhaenyra's faction by a good deal.

Next, let's have a look at the actual sequence of events, as depicted and via logical inference: While we are not told of details, the three do exchange fireballs aimed more likely at the enemy rider(s) rather than their dragons, given the respectable age of all dragons involved and increased resistance to flame that comes with this, and likely try to maneuvre in a favourable position for attack from up close. Whether by deliberate targeting (which would make sense, given that Sunfyre IS the smaller target compared to Vhagar, and Aegon is the crowned and anointed rival claimant to Rhaenyra) or circumstances, it's Sunfyre Meleys ends up getting close and personal to, threatening to bite into his neck until Vhagar drops on BOTH OF THEM from above, initiating a crash. For me it makes more sense for Meleys to not have fully bitten into Sunfyre's neck and get disloged by Vhagar likely crashing into her rather than having the bite but somehow getting disloged AFTERWARDS. Opinions may of course vary, but either Sunfyre has a neck of steel for not getting a noteworthy injury from a full-force bite, or said bite never occured. I also find it unlikely that Meleys would have half-ripped off Sunfyre's wing while in a freefall with Vhagar likely on top of both her and Sunfyre, I just don't see the opportunity for that sort of maneuvering and leverage in this situation. If she is the one who caused that injury (which I'm not so sure about), it makes more sense to me to have occured during a short ground-battle folllowing the fall. Largely also because I see no reason the observers wouldn't have noticed Meleys biting into Sunfyre in such a vital area, to such a degree, when we get a ludicrous amount of details of Vhagars and Caraxes bites and clawing during their fall.

Either way, the flames and smoke prevent anyone from seeing what happens after the crash, but we do get the note that Meleys was "broken by the fall and ripped to pieces upon the ground", meaning she sustained notable injuries through the fall, but was ultimately killed following it upon the ground (as it seems unlikely a dead Meleys not offering resistance or displaying signs of life would have had to get ripped apart any further). If you're a proponent of Meleys as injuring Sunfyre's wing, then this likely short (given that she was seemingly majorly injured by the crash whereas Vhagar was unharmed, as the one doing the pile-driving, and Sunfyre seems well-enough, apart from the torn wing) ground-battle seems the likeliest opportunity for the injury to have occured. I lean more towards the pile-driver maneuver by Aemond and Vhagar that canonically fell on both Meleys and Sunfyre to have done the deed, because it seems logistically sounder to me (if Meleys already was "broken" by the fall it seems doubtful she would still score such a major injury) and for the irony it adds to Aemond as rider of the largest dragon around and built up as this terryfying and bloodthirsty figure, only to turn out a pretty incompetent dragonrider, getting his brother and kings dragon caught in the crossfire. Given how the only injury mentioned for Sunfyre is his torn wing I also find it likely he participated in the whole "ripped to pieces upon the ground", as he seems to do very well in ground-battles for a dragon, see also his later battle against Wallys Motoon and his men and the off-screen battle against Grey Ghost, unlikely to have involved aerial combat due to his awkwardly healed wing (that's one of the few things not re-injured by said fight).

All in all, Aemond is the one who gives a poor showing in the battle, with the main clash described occuring between Meleys and Sunfyre (yes, he does save Sunfyre's neck, but said maneuver also seems like the main cause for Sunfyre's major injury! Given that he rides the largest dragon around I don't think it's too critical to ask if he couldn't have found a way to eg, place himself between Meleys and Sunfyre or smg).

This is not related to the dragons, so not a main point, but aside from the broken bones which clearly ARE from the fall I find it interesting to contemplate if Aegon's burns may have partly occured mid-air, in the whole "[...]balls of fire burst and blossomed, so bright that men swore later that the sky was full of suns."

Sunfyre's size is once again emphasized in the aftermath:

The king’s dragon, Sunfyre, too huge and heavy to be moved, and unable to fly with his injured wing, remained in the fields beyond Rook’s Rest, crawling through the ashes like some great golden wyrm. In the early days he fed himself upon the burned carcasses of the slain. When those were gone, the men Ser Criston had left behind to guard him brought him calves and sheep.

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—The Red Dragon and the Gold

If Sunfyre was only the size of around two or three war-horses or something I feel like there could have been something figured out, but alas. Also, the fact that he surived the fall that "broke" Meleys is very impressive and another testament to his size, even if you argue that he probably wasn't at the bottom of the pile upon impact.

All in all, I see the battle as a bit more active, particularly involving Sunfyre, than commonly depicted, especially given that he is presented as the main target of Meleys, who is said to potentially threaten even Vhagar, had Aegon and Aemond not shown up together. Rhaenys and Meleys did their best against impossible odd and likely were the ones so severly burning Aegon but I find it increasingly unlikely that they're the main instigators of Sunfyre's injury. If someone goofed up it was Aemond.

Rooks Rest 2.0 Sunfyre

No reason to delay, let's immediately tackle another one of the big Sunfyre fights, the attempt by Wallys Motoon to slay him while he's earthbound.

Elsewhere in the realm, Lord Walys Mooton led a hundred knights out of Maidenpool to join with the half-wild Crabbs and Brunes of Crackclaw Point and the Celtigars of Claw Isle. Through piney woods and mist-shrouded hills they hastened, to Rook’s Rest, where their sudden appearance took the garrison by surprise. After retaking the castle, Lord Mooton led his bravest men to the field of ashes west of the castle, to put an end to the dragon Sunfyre. The would-be dragonslayers easily drove off the cordon of guards who had been left to feed, serve, and protect the dragon, but Sunfyre himself proved more formidable than expected. Dragons are awkward creatures on the ground, and his torn wing left the great golden wyrm unable to take to the air. The attackers expected to find the beast near death. Instead they found him sleeping, but the clash of swords and thunder of horses soon roused him, and the first spear to strike him provoked him to fury. Slimy with mud, twisting amongst the bones of countless sheep, Sunfyre writhed and coiled like a serpent, his tail lashing, sending blasts of golden flame at his attackers as he struggled to fly. Thrice he rose, and thrice fell back to earth. Mooton’s men swarmed him with swords and spears and axes, dealing him many grievous wounds…yet each blow only seemed to enrage him further. The number of the dead reached threescore before the survivors fled. Amongst the slain was Walys Mooton, Lord of Maidenpool. When his body was found a fortnight later by his brother Manfryd, naught remained but charred flesh in melted armor, crawling with maggots. Yet nowhere on that field of ashes, littered with the bodies of brave men and the burned and bloated carcasses of a hundred horses, did Lord Manfryd find King Aegon’s dragon. Sunfyre was gone. Nor were there tracks, as surely there would have been had the dragon dragged himself away. Sunfyre the Golden had taken wing again, it seemed…but to where, no living man could say.

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—The Red Dragon and the Gold

A very impressive resistance offered by Sunfyre, who's explicitly elevated above the commonly expected performance of an earth-bound dragon, succesfully adapting his fighting style to the circumstances and driving his attackers off despite getting dealt "many grievous wounds", and ultimately reclaiming the air in the aftermath of these fresh injuries (his attempts to take flight thrice are bolded for the later comparison to Tessarion and a slightly tinfoil-y theory). Also another mention of the "great golden wyrm" descriptor, as a reminder of his size.

Hook, Line and Sinker

Oh, Battle of the Gullet...Battle of the Gullet...For all the plot-holes and blatant 'it needs to result in this, no matter the set-up' of the conflict, the Battle of the Gullet is one of my favourite flops of the Dance. I'm not gonna note all the inconsistencies-duxbelisarius made an excellent series on the logical inconsistencies of the Dance-but look purely at the dragonbattle aspect of it.

When Prince Jacaerys swept down upon a line of Lysene galleys on Vermax, a rain of spears and arrows rose up to meet him. The sailors of the Triarchy had faced dragons before whilst warring against Prince Daemon in the Stepstones. No man could fault their courage; they were prepared to meet dragonflame with such weapons as they had. “Kill the rider and the dragon will depart,” their captains and commanders had told them. One ship took fire, and then another. Still the men of the Free Cities fought on…until a shout rang out, and they looked up to see more winged shapes coming around the Dragonmont and turning toward them. It is one thing to face a dragon, another to face five. As Silverwing, Sheepstealer, Seasmoke, and Vermithor descended upon them, the men of the Triarchy felt their courage desert them. The line of warships shattered, as one galley after another turned away. The dragons fell like thunderbolts, spitting balls of fire, blue and orange, red and gold, each brighter than the next. Ship after ship burst asunder or was consumed by flames. Screaming men leapt into the sea, shrouded in fire. Tall columns of black smoke rose up from the water. All seemed lost…all was lost… Several differing tales were told afterward of how and why the dragon fell. Some claimed a crossbowman put an iron bolt through his eye, but this version seems suspiciously similar to the way Meraxes met her end, long ago in Dorne. Another account tells us that a sailor in the crow’s nest of a Myrish galley cast a grapnel as Vermax was swooping through the fleet. One of its prongs found purchase between two scales, and was driven deep by the dragon’s own considerable speed. The sailor had coiled his end of the chain about the mast, and the weight of the ship and the power of Vermax’s wings tore a long jagged gash in the dragon’s belly. The dragon’s shriek of rage was heard as far off as Spicetown, even through the clangor of battle. His flight jerked to a violent end, Vermax went down smoking and screaming, clawing at the water. Survivors said he struggled to rise, only to crash headlong into a burning galley. Wood splintered, the mast came tumbling down, and the dragon, thrashing, became entangled in the rigging. When the ship heeled over and sank, Vermax sank with her. It is said that Jacaerys Velaryon leapt free and clung to a piece of smoking wreckage for a few heartbeats, until some crossbowmen on the nearest Myrish ship began loosing quarrels at him. The prince was struck once, and then again. More and more Myrmen brought crossbows to bear. Finally one quarrel took him through the neck, and Jace was swallowed by the sea.

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—The Red Dragon and the Gold

Going purely by what canon shows us, then Jacaerys Velaryon most certainly comes across as one of the most incompetent dragonriders of the Dance. Involved in all of one battle, a certain and brutally one-sided affair of a victory, involving five dragons against a dragon-less fleet, including two of the largest dragon alive, gets defeated by a grapnel-hook and ship (am I saying this bc I'm salty how people tend to hype Jace to the high heavens while dismissing Aegon II's and Daerons canonically demonstrated greater proficiency? Mayhaps). But potential ragging on Jace's "skillZ" as a dragonrider aside, it most certainly shows Vermax' comparative youth as a dragon, which includes softer scales than among older dragons, giving a reasonable explanation for the amount of damage done, and how a mere grapnel hook could have penetrated deep enough to cause it. At MOST, and given the examples of other cradle-hatchlings we see highly unlikely, Vermax would have been 15 years old. Compared to the other dragons involved in the Dance, that's YOUNG. Also Kudos to Jace's bravery for leading his men into battle, so to speak, even if his assistance was kind of unecessary (especially considering Vermax' comparative youth), but I can certainly see the morale aspect of it (JUST sending out the Dragonseeds by themselves for the dity work wouldn't exactly inspire loyalty in them).

Not much to say on the Dragonseeds at this point, similar to Aemond, the sheer size of their dragons alone would be enough to comfortably carry them through most battles. Not saying they couldn't possibly have any talent, but their amount of experience is dwindlingly small compared to most other dragonriders involved, and none of them save Addam ever end up in another dragon-on-dragon battle, so not much to comment on them as dragonriders.

Honey, Honey

Time to introduce Daeron and Tessarion, who make their debut at the Battle of the Honeywine. I already made an entire post about Tessarion's size, so maybe some parts of that are gonna be re-stated in the segments of this post concerning her.

A fortnight later, in the Reach, Ormund Hightower found himself caught between two armies. Thaddeus Rowan, Lord of Goldengrove, and Tom Flowers, Bastard of Bitterbridge, were bearing down on him from the northeast with a great host of mounted knights, whilst Ser Alan Beesbury, Lord Alan Tarly, and Lord Owen Costayne had joined their power to cut off his retreat to Oldtown. When their hosts closed around him on the banks of the river Honeywine, attacking front and rear at once, Lord Hightower saw his lines crumble. Defeat seemed imminent…until a shadow swept across the battlefield, and a terrible roar resounded overhead, slicing through the sound of steel on steel. A dragon had come. The dragon was Tessarion, the Blue Queen, cobalt and copper. On her back rode the youngest of Queen Alicent’s three sons, Daeron Targaryen, fifteen, Lord Ormund’s squire, that same gentle and soft-spoken lad who had once been milk brother to Prince Jacaerys. The arrival of Prince Daeron and his dragon reversed the tide of battle. Now it was Lord Ormund’s men attacking, screaming curses at their foes, whilst the queen’s men fled. By day’s end, Lord Rowan was retreating north with the remnants of his host, Tom Flowers lay dead and burned amongst the reeds, the two Alans had been taken captive, and Lord Costayne was dying from a wound given him by Bold Jon Roxton’s black blade, the Orphan-Maker. As wolves and ravens fed upon the bodies of the slain, Ormund Hightower feasted Prince Daeron on aurochs and strongwine, and dubbed him a knight with the storied Valyrian longsword Vigilance, naming him “Ser Daeron the Daring.” The prince modestly replied, “My lord is kind to say so, but the victory belongs to Tessarion.”

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—The Red Dragon and the Gold.

I already made my case on how I find it logistically impossible for Tessarion to be a cradle-hatchling, and find that the immediate reversal Tessarion's arrival has on the battel another indicator that she was likely decently sized- her roar is described as "terrible", afterall, and there doesn't seem to have been any worry about arrows being used as a deterrent against her. In a previous section concerning the defense of King's Landing, she is indirectly called a "mature dragon":

With Sunfyre wounded near Rook’s Rest and unable to fly, and Tessarion with Prince Daeron in Oldtown, only two mature dragons remained to defend King’s Landing. Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—The Red Dragon and the Gold

and Aemond's objection against involving her in the hunt for Daemon is not any sort of consideration that Tessarion herself might be too small to bring to battle against Caraxes (nor Sunfyre...Here as well it's Aegon's injuries that are the concern), but that Daeron is too young:

Prince Aemond had no taste for such delays, however. He had no need of his brothers or their dragons, he declared; Aegon was too badly hurt, Daeron too young.

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—The RedDragon and the Gold

Something I also see as the reason that six-year-old Daeron had not yet ridden Tessarion despite claiming her, his own youth, given that the youngest age we have of a Targaryen flying a dragon is Rhaenyra at seven years old.

The cruelty of children is known to all. Prince Aegon Targaryen was thirteen, Princess Helaena eleven, Prince Aemond ten, and Prince Daeron six. Both Aegon and Helaena were dragonriders. Helaena now flew Dreamfyre, the she-dragon who had once carried Rhaena, Maegor the Cruel’s “Black Bride,” whilst her brother Aegon’s young Sunfyre was said to be the most beautiful dragon ever seen upon the earth. Even Prince Daeron had a dragon, a lovely blue she-dragon named Tessarion, though he had yet to ride.

Fire & Blood, Heirs of the Dragon—A Question of Succession. VS.

At the center of the merriment, cherished and adored by all, was their only surviving child, Princess Rhaenyra, the little girl the court singers dubbed “the Realm’s Delight.” Though only six when her father came to the Iron Throne, Rhaenyra Targaryen was a precocious child, bright and bold and beautiful as only one of dragon’s blood can be beautiful. At seven, she became a dragonrider, taking to the sky on the young dragon she named Syrax, after a goddess of old Valyria. Fire & Blood, Heirs of the Dragon—A Question of Succession.

Daeron then goes on to use Tessarion similarly how Queen Rhaenys once employed Meraxes-as a scout about enemy movements above all else.

Yet the greatest threat to Rhaenyra’s reign was not Aemond One-Eye, but his younger brother, Prince Daeron the Daring, and the great southron army led by Lord Ormund Hightower. Hightower’s host had crossed the Mander and was advancing slowly on King’s Landing, smashing the queen’s loyalists wherever and whenever they encountered them, and forcing every lord who bent the knee to add their strength to his own. Flying Tessarion ahead of the main column, Prince Daeron had proved invaluable as a scout, warning Lord Ormund of enemy movements. Oft as not, the queen’s men would melt away at the first glimpse of the Blue Queen’s wings. Grand Maester Munkun tells us that the southron host numbered more than twenty thousand as it crept upriver, almost a tenth of them mounted knights. Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Triumphant

In the previously published extended version of the Dance, The Princess & The Queen, it is specifically mentioned to be the threat of meeting Tessarions dragonflame in battle that makes many of the Reachs Rhaenyra advocates surrender or flee rather than face the Hightower host:

Flying Tessarion ahead of the main column, Prince Daeron had proved invaluable as a scout, warning Lord Ormund of enemy movements and entrenchments. Oft as not, the queen’s men would melt away at the first glimpse of the Blue Queen’s wings rather than face dragonflame in battle. The Princess and The Queen

Not gonna make a headline for Bitterbridge, given how it's one of the more ignominious chapters of the Greens Reach-campaign, certainly, without the "excuse" of a breakdown of the chain of command and inability to control the Two Betrayers even if so desired as First Tumbleton.

In the Reach, Lady Merryweather yielded Longtable to Lord Ormund Hightower; true to his word, his lordship did no harm to her or hers, though he did strip her castle of its wealth and every scrap of food, feeding his thousands with her grain as he broke his camp and marched on to Bitterbridge. When Lady Caswell appeared on the ramparts of her castle to ask for the same terms Lady Merryweather had received, Hightower let Prince Daeron give the answer: “You shall receive the same terms you gave my nephew Maelor.” Her ladyship could only watch as Bitterbridge was sacked. The Hogs Head was the first building put to the torch. Inns, guild halls, storehouses, the homes of the mean and the mighty, dragonflame consumed them all. Even the sept was burned, with hundreds of wounded still within. Only the bridge remained untouched, as it was required to cross the Mander. The people of the town were put to the sword if they tried to fight or flee, or were driven into the river to drown. Lady Caswell watched from her walls, then commanded that her gates be thrown open. “No castle can be held against a dragon,” she told her garrison. When Lord Hightower rode up, he found her standing atop the gatehouse with a noose about her neck. “Have mercy on my children, lord,” she begged, before throwing herself down to hang. Mayhaps that moved Lord Ormund, for her ladyship’s young sons and daughter were spared and sent in chains to Oldtown. The men of the castle garrison received no mercy but the sword. Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Triumphant

While more generous interpretations might see the spread of fire as an accident, Daeron's words make very clear that the destruction of Bitterbridge at the hands of Tessarions flames is very much deliberate retribution. And it IS Tessarions flames- "dragonflame" that "consumes" the town and promts Lady Caswell to surrender even her castle, stating resistance against Tessarion as futile. These combined tibits make it once again very clear that Tessarion cannot be of similar size as the Strong Boys cradle-hatchlings. Offering up her castle after seeing the methodcal and merciless destruction of her town, if she was up against a dragon not much larger than a horse? Not likely. Heck, even Vhagar-Vhagar!!!-is inable to utterly destroy the Riverland castles and keeps Aemond directs her to burn. Dragonflame grows in intensity as a dragon ages, and Tessarions flame has now been menioned both as a deterrent and shown as destructor of an entire town and she herself enough to threaten a castle into surrender.

But lets get to First Tumbleton so we can get a small change of scenery afterwards...

Girl, You're such a Backstabber (Stabber)

It may be that it was the thought of attacking Tessarion that gave them pause. In the Gullet, all the dragons had been on their own side. This too may be possible…though both Vermithor and Silverwing were older and larger than Prince Daeron’s dragon, and would therefore have been more likely to prevail in any battle.

Not going to comment about the motives about Hugh and Ulf, but once again, I find it telling that the prospect of attacking Tessarion is brought up as a potential deterrent in the first place, even as the higher likeliehodd of a Vermithor & Silverwing victory is established. It shows that Tessarion is able to get credited as a serious opponent at least, rather than disregarded altogether. But on to the battle itself.

As the singers tell it, Lord Roderick was bloody from head to heel as he came on, with splintered shield and cracked helm, yet so drunk with battle that he did not even seem to feel his wounds. Ser Bryndon Hightower, Lord Ormund’s cousin, put himself between the northman and his liege, taking off the Ruin’s shield arm at the shoulder with one terrible blow of his longaxe…yet the savage Lord of Barrowton fought on, slaying both Ser Bryndon and Lord Ormund before he died. Lord Hightower’s banners toppled, and the townsfolk gave a great cheer, thinking the tide of battle turned. Even the appearance of Tessarion across the field did not dismay them, for they knew they had two dragons of their own…but when Vermithor and Silverwing climbed into the sky and loosed their fires upon Tumbleton, those cheers changed to screams. It was the Field of Fire writ small, Grand Maester Munkun wrote. Tumbleton went up in flame: shops, homes, septs, people, all. Men fell burning from gatehouse and battlements, or stumbled shrieking through the streets like so many living torches. Outside the walls, Prince Daeron swooped down upon Tessarion. Pate of Longleaf was unhorsed and trampled, Ser Garibald Grey pierced by a crossbow bolt, then engulfed by dragonflame. The Two Betrayers scourged the town with whips of flame from one end to the other.

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Triumphant

A magnified version of Bitterbridge and not much to be said on the dragons and dragonriding involved, save that Daeron and Tessarion seem to have cleaned up with the fighters outside of the city while Vermithor and Silverwing burned the city itself and didn't take part in the battle "proper". It is in the (nonsensical...) power-vacuum and struggle in the aftermath that we get a tibit about more closely determining Tessarions relative size:

When Bold Jon Roxton demanded to know by what right he presumed to name himself a king, Lord Hammer answered, “The same right as the Conqueror. A dragon.” And truly, with Vhagar dead at last, the oldest and largest living dragon in all Westeros was Vermithor, once the mount of the Old King, now that of Hard Hugh the bastard. Vermithor was thrice the size of Prince Daeron’s she-dragon Tessarion. No man who glimpsed them together could fail to see that Vermithor was a far more fearsome beast.

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Overthrown

Vermithor, for reference...

And truly, with Vhagar dead at last, the oldest and largest living dragon in all Westeros was Vermithor[...]. Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Overthrown In battle he rode Vermithor, once the mount of the Old King himself; of all the dragons in Westeros, only Vhagar was older or larger. Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Triumphant He was a dragonrider as well, riding upon Vermithor—a great beast of bronze and tan who was the largest of the living dragons after Balerion and Vhagar. The World of Ice and Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Jaehaerys I

1/3 of that doesn't sound too bad!

Sunfyre Solo-Run

Going back to our favourite golden terminator. Aside from the fact that crossing over to Dragonstone with his awkwardly-healed wing is pretty impressive in its own right, given that he couldn't sustain flight for long:

Though his torn wing had mended enough for him to fly, it had healed at an ugly angle, and it remained weak. Sunfyre could no longer soar, nor remain in the air for long, but must needs struggle to fly even short distances. The fool Mushroom, cruelly, says that whereas most dragons moved through the sky like eagles, Sunfyre had become no more than “a great golden fire-breathing chicken, hopping and fluttering from hill to hill.” Yet this “fire-breathing chicken” crossed the waters of Blackwater Bay…

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Overthrown

out main objects of attention in this section are obviously going to be his off-page battle with Grey Ghost and the battle with Moondancer, reunited with Aegon II.

So first of all I'm gonna get out of the way that no, I'm not just trying to hype up Sunfyre, all signs do point to Grey Ghost likely being an older and larger dragon. Why do I think so? Because of what is required to get categorized as a "Wild Dragon". Wild dragons are not just any and all young dragons that happen to live unclaimed on Dragonstone, no such dragon ever gets classified as such (Seasmoke, Syrax, Sunfyre...).

A wild dragon is a dragon that aged out of the classification of "Young Dragon" without ever being claimed, hence growing feral. "Young Dragon" in itself encompasses a large range of ages-Seasmoke, who counts three decades at least, is still classified as one such, for example. The approximate ages we can reconstruct for the wild dragons bear this perspective out, with both the Cannibal and Sheepsteller being at least ~70 years old, and no reason to suspect Grey Ghost to be that far behind (another small sign of this being that he already earned himself his nickname from the people of the island, as well as knowledge of his preferred hunting habitat and personality). Therefore I find it likely that he would be both older and consequently larger than Sunfyre, even if with a less aggressive disposition than most dragons. It's this oberved "shyness" that makes it seem unlikely he'd have been the one to initiate conflict with Sunfyre.

But to this common song of peril at sea, the Volantenes added a queer note. As Nessaria beat westward, the Dragonmont loomed up before them, huge against the setting sun…and the sailors spied two dragons fighting, their roars echoing off the sheer black cliffs of the smoking mountain’s eastern flanks. In every tavern, inn, and whorehouse along the waterfront the tale was told, retold, and embroidered, till every man on Dragonstone had heard it. Dragons were a wonder to the men of Old Volantis; the sight of two in battle was one the men of Nessaria would never forget. Those born and bred on Dragonstone had grown up with such beasts…yet even so, the sailors’ story excited interest. The next morning some local fisherfolk took their boats around the Dragonmont and returned to report seeing the burned and broken remains of a dead dragon at the mountain’s base. From the color of its wings and scales, the carcass was that of Grey Ghost. The dragon lay in two pieces, and had been torn apart and partially devoured. Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Triumphant Yet this “fire-breathing chicken” crossed the waters of Blackwater Bay…for it was Sunfyre that the sailors on the Nessaria had seen attacking Grey Ghost. Ser Robert Quince had blamed the Cannibal…but Tom Tangletongue, a stammerer who heard more than he said, had plied the Volantenes with ale, making note of all the times they mentioned the attacker’s golden scales. The Cannibal, as he knew well, was black as coal Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Overthrown For half a year he recovered from his wounds in a remote fishing village whilst Rhaenyra and much of her court were in King’s Landing, and during that time Sunfyre arrived from Crackclaw Point, despite the dragon’s crippled wing, which made it ungainly in the air. Thus hidden, they were able to recover their strength. (Sunfyre went on to kill the shy, wild dragon called the Grey Ghost, leading to confused reports claiming that it was the Cannibal that did it.) The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aegon II

While we don't get much detail, it seems the fight itself was fierce enough, given their roars and the wonder with which the sailors watched it (as well as the simple fact that it's decribed as a legitimate "battle"). The fresh wounds taken from Grey Ghost mentioned in Sunfyre's battle against Moondancer are testament to this as well. Whether Sunfyre is the one who partly devoured his corpse...It would certainly fit the cannibalization theme of the Dance as a whole, and Sunfyre as the most obvious symbol of the decline of House Targaryen itself-from the most beautiful dragon in the world to something of a wreck, slowly dying from his accumulated injuries.

The burned king and the maimed dragon each found new purpose in the other. From a hidden lair on the desolate eastern slopes of the Dragonmont, Aegon ventured forth each day at dawn, taking to the sky again for the first time since Rook’s Rest, whilst the Two Toms and their cousin Marston Waters returned to the other side of the island to seek out men willing to help them take the castle.

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Overthrown

Aside from the general Aegon II and Sunfyre feels, this passage seems to indicate Aegon and Sunfyre accustomizing themselves to their new respective restrictions and changes when it comes to flying (Not near enough discussion about the fact that Aegon is the only disabled dragonrider we see and the adjustment curve that must have been...Heck, it's his hope to eventually fly again even after he shatters both of his leg, even after Sunfyre's death, to eventually claim "a new Sunfyre, prouder and fiercer than the last").

So it came to pass that when King Aegon II flew Sunfyre over Dragonmont’s smoking peak and made his descent, expecting to make a triumphant entrance into a castle safely in the hands of his own men, with the queen’s loyalists slain or captured, up to meet him rose Baela Targaryen, Prince Daemon’s daughter by the Lady Laena, as fearless as her father. Moondancer was a young dragon, pale green, with horns and crest and wingbones of pearl. Aside from her great wings, she was no larger than a warhorse, and weighed less. She was very quick, however, and Sunfyre, though much larger, still struggled with a malformed wing and had taken fresh wounds from Grey Ghost. They met amidst the darkness that comes before the dawn, shadows in the sky lighting the night with their fires. Moondancer eluded Sunfyre’s flames, eluded his jaws, darted beneath his grasping claws, then came around and raked the larger dragon from above, opening a long smoking wound down his back and tearing at his injured wing. Watchers below said that Sunfyre lurched drunkenly in the air, fighting to stay aloft, whilst Moondancer turned and came back at him, spitting fire. Sunfyre answered with a furnace blast of golden flame so bright it lit the yard below like a second sun, a blast that took Moondancer full in the eyes. Like as not, the young dragon was blinded in that instant, yet still she flew on, slamming into Sunfyre in a tangle of wings and claws. As they fell, Moondancer struck at Sunfyre’s neck repeatedly, tearing out mouthfuls of flesh, whilst the elder dragon sank his claws into her underbelly. Robed in fire and smoke, blind and bleeding, Moondancer beat her wings desperately as she tried to break away, but all her efforts did was slow their fall. The watchers in the yard scrambled for safety as the dragons slammed into the hard stone, still fighting. On the ground, Moondancer’s quickness proved of little use against Sunfyre’s size and weight. The green dragon soon lay still. The golden dragon screamed his victory and tried to rise again, only to collapse back to the ground with hot blood pouring from his wounds. King Aegon had leapt from the saddle when the dragons were still twenty feet from the ground, shattering both legs. Lady Baela stayed with Moondancer all the way down. Burned and battered, the girl still found the strength to undo her saddle chains and crawl away as her dragon coiled in her final death throes. Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Overthrown

This is a good showing from both dragons involved, given their respective conditions. Small dragons are established as swifter and more nimble in the air in general (as we'll see in Second Tumbleton as well), Moondancer is noted as swift in general and Sunfyre has accumulated quite the amount of injuries. Given Moondancer's size and youth I do take some small issues with the apparant ease with which she rakes open Sunfyres scales however (given that it's established lore that said scales harden with age I'd expect a barely rideable dragon to have more difficulties injurying a battle-sized dragon) and the distribution of "hits" exchanged during the fall, but those are admittedly a bit nit-picky. Given how Moondancer succumbed quickly once on the ground it also seems likely that the eye-injury mentioned in Aegon's greeting of Rhaenyra was inflicted by Grey Ghost (given that there's no reason the infliction of such a major injury wouldn't be mentioned in the description of the battle, had Moondancer caused it, especially since all other injuries she did cause are attributed to her):

As he stirred and raised his head, huge wounds were visible along his neck, where another dragon had torn chunks from his flesh. On his belly were places where scabs had replaced scales, and where his right eye should have been was only an empty hole, crusted with black blood.

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Overthrown

and Sunfyre already carried it into battle with Moondancer, which would add another explanation than simply "lack of speed" to his failure to grasp Moondancer with claws or jaws in the first rush, trouble with his "claws-eye" coordination and getting an accurate visual of her.

I don't think it's controversial to claim that when it comes to combat Sunfyre has one of the most succesful records of all dragons involved in the Dance, partly simply bc the number of "battles" he's part of exceeds that of all others, and partly due to exhibiting unrivaled perserverance, especially considering that he either had to face his enemies already injured (Moondancer, Motoons men) and/or with a disparity in size against his favour (Meleys, Grey Ghost). If one takes Rhaenys intial comment about him as disparaging rather than acknowledging, there is also a certain irony in Sunfyre being the dragon to prove instrumental in the downfall of both Rhaenys and Rhaenyra. But this is where his role in this already far-to-long post ends.

Dance Baby Dance!

Chronologically speaking, God's Eye precedes Second Tumbleton, but at this point it's whatever. Let's say I wanna save it for last, as a boost of motivation by turning towards less involved dragons. Also, let me pre-face this by saying that I see Daeron as involved until the three-way Vermithor, Seasmoke and Tessarion battle at least. Tessarions behaviour, fighting-style and intervention makes little sense otherwise, and the book is very open about the fact that all of the proposed theories for Daeron's pre-battle or immediatet demise at his tent are fishy by adding a footnote that amounts to "however he really died, it happened at Tumbleton, okay?"

Again, the many logistical criticisms to be made will be disregarded for this, just looking at dragon-performance, Pt.1 :

In the sky above, Addam Velaryon could see the battle turning into a rout below him. Two of the three enemy dragonriders were dead, but he would have had no way of knowing that. He could doubtless see the enemy dragons, however. Unchained, they were kept beyond the town walls, free to fly and hunt as they would; Silverwing and Vermithor oft coiled about one another in the fields south of Tumbleton, whilst Tessarion slept and fed in Prince Daeron’s camp to the west of the town, not a hundred yards from his pavilion. Dragons are creatures of fire and blood, and all three roused as the battle bloomed around them. A crossbowman let fly a bolt at Silverwing, we are told, and twoscore mounted knights closed on Vermithor with sword and lance and axe, hoping to dispatch the beast whilst he was still half-asleep and on the ground. They paid for that folly with their lives. Elsewhere on the field, Tessarion threw herself into the air, shrieking and spitting flame, and Addam Velaryon turned Seasmoke to meet her. A dragon’s scales are largely (though not entirely) impervious to flame; they protect the more vulnerable flesh and musculature beneath. As a dragon ages, its scales thicken and grow harder, affording even more protection, even as its flames burn hotter and fiercer (where the flames of a hatchling can set straw aflame, the flames of Balerion or Vhagar in the fullness of their power could and did melt steel and stone). When two dragons meet in mortal combat, therefore, they will oft employ weapons other than their flame: claws black as iron, long as swords, and sharp as razors, jaws so powerful they can crunch through even a knight’s steel plate, tails like whips whose lashing blows have been known to smash wagons to splinters, break the spine of heavy destriers, and send men flying fifty feet in the air. The battle between Tessarion and Seasmoke was different. History calls the struggle between King Aegon II and his half-sister Rhaenyra the Dance of the Dragons, but only at Tumbleton did the dragons ever truly dance. Tessarion and Seasmoke were young dragons, nimbler in the air than their older kin. Time and time again they rushed one another, only to have one or the other veer away at the last instant. Soaring like eagles, stooping like hawks, they circled, snapping and roaring, spitting fire, but never closing. Once, the Blue Queen vanished into a bank of cloud, only to reappear an instant later, diving on Seasmoke from behind to scorch his tail with a burst of cobalt flame. Meanwhile, Seasmoke rolled and banked and looped. One instant he would be below his foe, and suddenly he would twist in the sky and come around behind her. Higher and higher the two dragons flew, as hundreds watched from the roofs of Tumbleton. One such said afterward that the flight of Tessarion and Seasmoke seemed more mating dance than battle. Perhaps it was.

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Overthrown

Other posts have been made (including an old one of mine; warning for re-translated rather than original F&B passages, as I did not have the original available at the time) about the discreptancies between a riderless dragons behaviour and Tessarions movements, so I'm not gonna re-state them all. Suffice to say both Daeron and Addam demonstrate some good dragonriding skills in this, even Addam with his spotty and short history as a dragonrider (the one thing that makes me consider the possibility of Laenor-as-Addam in the show as semi-plausible...). We also see both Tessarion and Seasmoke described as young dragons and exhibit similar nimbleness and maneuverability. Seasmoke was hatched in 101 AC at the latest, btw, though likely earlier, given that he's classified as a young dragon even then:

The Great Council deliberated for thirteen days. The tenuous claims of nine lesser competitors were considered and discarded (one such, a hedge knight who put himself forward as a natural son of King Jaehaerys himself, was seized and imprisoned when the king exposed him as a liar). Archmaester Vaegon was ruled out on account of his vows and Princess Rhaenys and her daughter on account of their sex, leaving the two claimants with the most support: Viserys Targaryen, eldest son of Prince Baelon and Princess Alyssa, and Laenor Velaryon, the son of Princess Rhaenys and grandson of Prince Aemon. Viserys was the Old King’s grandson, Laenor his great-grandson. The principle of primogeniture favored Laenor, the principle of proximity Viserys. Viserys had also been the last Targaryen to ride Balerion…though after the death of the Black Dread in 94 AC he never mounted another dragon, whereas the boy Laenor had yet to take his first flight upon his young dragon, a splendid grey-and-white beast he named Seasmoke.

Fire & Blood, Heirs of the Dragon—A Question of Succession

On to Part 2 of the battle though:

The dance ended when Vermithor rose roaring into the sky. Almost a hundred years old and as large as the two young dragons put together, the bronze dragon with the great tan wings was in a rage as he took flight, with blood smoking from a dozen wounds. Riderless, he knew not friend from foe, so he loosed his wroth on all, spitting flame to right and left, turning savagely on any man who dared to fling a spear in his direction. One knight tried to flee before him, only to have Vermithor snatch him up in his jaws, even as his horse galloped on. Lords Piper and Deddings, seated together atop a low rise, burned with their squires, servants, and sworn shields when the Bronze Fury chanced to take note of them. An instant later, Seasmoke fell upon him. [...] This was no dance, but a fight to the death. Vermithor had been flying no more than twenty feet above the battle when Seasmoke slammed into him from above, driving him shrieking into the mud. Men and boys ran in terror or were crushed as the two dragons rolled and tore at one another. Tails snapped and wings beat at the air, but the beasts were so entangled that neither was able to break free. Benjicot Blackwood watched the struggle from atop his horse fifty yards away. Vermithor’s size and weight were too much for Seasmoke to contend with, Lord Blackwood told Grand Maester Munkun many years later, and he would surely have torn the silver-grey dragon to pieces…if Tessarion had not fallen from the sky at that very moment to join the fight. Who can know the heart of a dragon? Was it simple bloodlust that drove the Blue Queen to attack? Did the she-dragon come to help one of the combatants? If so, which? Some will claim that the bond between a dragon and dragonrider runs so deep that the beast shares his master’s loves and hates. But who was the ally here, and who the enemy? Does a riderless dragon know friend from foe? We shall never know the answers to those questions. All that history tells us is that three dragons fought amidst the mud and blood and smoke of Second Tumbleton. Seasmoke was first to die, when Vermithor locked his teeth into his neck and ripped his head off. Afterward the bronze dragon tried to take flight with his prize still in his jaws, but his tattered wings could not lift his weight. After a moment he collapsed and died. Tessarion, the Blue Queen, lasted until sunset. Thrice she tried to regain the sky, and thrice failed. By late afternoon she seemed to be in pain, so Lord Blackwood summoned his best archer, a longbowman known as Billy Burley, who took up a position a hundred yards away (beyond the range of the dying dragon’s fires) and sent three shafts into her eye as she lay helpless on the ground.

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Overthrown

Lots to unpack here. AFirst of all, some nice contrast Vermithor, explicitily riderless, provides to Tessarion, claimed to be riderless but behaving very differently wrt the whole 'not being able to tell friend from foe' and participating in a three-way-deathmatch rather than just...fly off, given how Seasmoke ditched her. As for the battle itself, while it's true that Seasmoke and Vermithor are the first ones entangled with each other, I do nonetheless find it remarkable not only that she does so but by how much Tessarion outlasts them-Second Tumbleton was a night-surprise-attack, so lasting until sunset is quite some time.

Here's also where we get into a small tinfoil theory of mine: perhaps some readers will remember the section of Sunfyre's fight against Wallys Motoon and his men and how I bolded the section "Thrice he rose, and thrice fell back to earth"? I find it difficult to see this Tessarion scene as anything but a deliberate call-back to said scene, which, you guessed it, does end with Sunfyre ultimately flying off after the initial assault in which he failed to take air. I thereby propose that if she hadn't been sniped by Rhaenyra supporters ("she seemed to be in pain" I think that's to be expected after a three-way dragon battle involving friggin Vermithor!) Tessarion might have had a chance at recovery. Just a theory, but the celebration about the succesfull defeat of two Green-aligned dragons makes me disinclined to give them the benefit of the doubt regarding dragon rehabilitation.

Even so, they wreaked great slaughter on their confused and disorganized foes, fired their tents, burned or captured almost all their wagons, fodder, and provisions, made off with three-quarters of their warhorses, slew their prince, and put an end to two of the king’s dragons.

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Overthrown

Driving your Dragon into a Lake?

Ans so we come to the Battle above the Gods Eye....

Then the old prince bade Caraxes bend his neck, and climbed stiffly onto his back, whilst the young prince kissed his woman and vaulted lightly onto Vhagar, taking care to fasten the four short chains between belt and saddle. Daemon left his own chains dangling. Caraxes hissed again, filling the air with flame, and Vhagar answered with a roar. As one the two dragons leapt into the sky.

Prince Daemon took Caraxes up swiftly, lashing him with a steel-tipped whip until they disappeared into a bank of clouds. Vhagar, older and much the larger, was also slower, made ponderous by her very size, and ascended more gradually, in ever widening circles that took her and her rider out over the waters of the Gods Eye. The hour was late, the sun was close to setting, and the lake was calm, its surface glimmering like a sheet of beaten copper. Up and up she soared, searching for Caraxes as Alys Rivers watched from atop Kingspyre Tower in Harrenhal below.

The attack came sudden as a thunderbolt. Caraxes dove down upon Vhagar with a piercing shriek that was heard a dozen miles away, cloaked by the glare of the setting sun on Prince Aemond’s blind side. The Blood Wyrm slammed into the older dragon with terrible force. Their roars echoed across the Gods Eye as the two grappled and tore at one another, dark against a blood-red sky. So bright did their flames burn that fisherfolk below feared the clouds themselves had caught fire. Locked together, the dragons tumbled toward the lake. The Blood Wyrm’s jaws closed about Vhagar’s neck, her black teeth sinking deep into the flesh of the larger dragon. Even as Vhagar’s claws raked his belly open and Vhagar’s own teeth ripped away a wing, Caraxes bit deeper, worrying at the wound as the lake rushed up below them with terrible speed.

And it was then, the tales tell us, that Prince Daemon Targaryen swung a leg over his saddle and leapt from one dragon to the other. In his hand was Dark Sister, the sword of Queen Visenya. As Aemond One-Eye looked up in terror, fumbling with the chains that bound him to his saddle, Daemon ripped off his nephew’s helm and drove the sword down into his blind eye, so hard the point came out the back of the young prince’s throat. Half a heartbeat later, the dragons struck the lake, sending up a gout of water that was said to have been as tall as Kingspyre Tower.

Neither man nor dragon could have survived such an impact, the fisherfolk who saw it said. Nor did they. Caraxes lived long enough to crawl back onto the land. Gutted, with one wing torn from his body and the waters of the lake smoking about him, the Blood Wyrm found the strength to drag himself onto the lakeshore, expiring beneath the walls of Harrenhal. Vhagar’s carcass plunged to the lake floor, the hot blood from the gaping wound in her neck bringing the water to a boil over her last resting place. When she was found some years later, after the end of the Dance of the Dragons, Prince Aemond’s armored bones remained chained to her saddle, with Dark Sister thrust hilt-deep through his eye socket.

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Triumphant

Be an Aemond and wear your seatbelt! Bad role-modelling from Daemon's side aside, the explicit description of Daemon hurrying up Caraxes with his whip is somehow very fun to me, a nice detail if you will...Yeah, Vhagar was likely slower no matter what, but it's interesting that Aemond doesn't seem that interested in giving chase in the first place. Honestly, if Daemon didn't enter this battle plainly suicidal it would be difficult to see something that could be considered a "win" for him. Yes Caraxes is constantly highlighted as vicious beast with experience in warfare, but Vhagar eclipses him in both temper, experience and being around twice as large, so Aemond's confidence and slower pace in going after them seems justified instead of just blatantly arrogant. It's only because Daemon is willing to throw his own and Caraxes life away that he is able to pull a maneuver such as the jump and leaving Caraxes to get torn apart by Vhagar to keep her in place. While I consider the move itself ridiculous no matter what, I do like that it takes a suicide run to take down Vhagar, even if her injuries itself still seem a bit....shallow, comparatively, to lead to her death as quickly as they seemingly do. Yeah, physics and whatnot. Droping into a lake still seems a bit more ignominious than having to get literally torn apart to be stopped. It also seems like a bit of a waste that for all his hype Caraxes was only actually involved in a single dragon-on-dragon battle, but wasted opportunities are another staple of the Dance's writing.

Rhaenyra exits Stage

Ngl I almost forgot the Storming of the Dragonpit, not because it's not a hugely significant event but because three-quarters of dragons involved are barely riding-size and not controversial regarding their size or ferocity (except Syrax mayhaps, who gets a bad reputation). Also, it's another looong section, but it does contain dragons fightings, so here goes (Part 1 bc it's another long one, as mentioned):

There were four dragons housed within the Dragonpit. By the time the first of the attackers came pouring out onto the sands, all four were roused, awake, and angry.

No two chronicles agree on how many men and women died that night beneath the Dragonpit’s great dome: two hundred or two thousand, be that as it may. For every man who perished, ten suffered burns and yet survived. Trapped within the pit, hemmed in by walls and dome and bound by heavy chains, the dragons could not fly away, or use their wings to evade attacks and swoop down on their foes. Instead they fought with horns and claws and teeth, turning this way and that like bulls in a Flea Bottom rat pit…but these bulls could breathe fire. “The Dragonpit was transformed into a fiery hell where burning men staggered screaming through the smoke, the flesh sloughing from their blackened bones,” writes Septon Eustace, “but for every man who died, ten more appeared, shouting that the dragons must needs die. One by one, they did.”

Shrykos was the first dragon to succumb, slain by a woodsman known as Hobb the Hewer, who leapt onto her neck, driving his axe down into the beast’s skull as Shrykos roared and twisted, trying to throw him off. Seven blows did Hobb deliver with his legs locked round the dragon’s neck, and each time his axe came down he roared out the name of one of the Seven. It was the seventh blow, the Stranger’s blow, that slew the dragon, crashing through scale and bones into the beast’s brain…if Eustace is to be believed.

Morghul, it is written, was slain by the Burning Knight, a huge brute of a man in heavy armor who rushed headlong into the dragon’s flame with spear in hand, thrusting its point into the beast’s eye repeatedly even as the dragonflame melted the steel plate that encased him and devoured the flesh within.

Prince Joffrey’s Tyraxes retreated back into his lair, we are told, roasting so many would-be dragonslayers as they rushed after him that its entrance was soon made impassable by their corpses. But it must be recalled that each of these man-made caves had two entrances, one fronting onto the sands of the pit, the other opening onto the hillside. It was the Shepherd himself who directed his followers to break through the “back door.” Hundreds did, howling through the smoke with swords and spears and axes. As Tyraxes turned, his chains fouled, entangling him in a web of steel that fatally limited his movement. Half a dozen men (and one woman) would later claim to have dealt the dragon the mortal blow (like his master, Tyraxes suffered further indignity even in death, as the Shepherd’s followers sliced the membranes from his wings and tore them into ragged strips to fashion dragonskin cloaks).

The last of the four pit dragons did not die so easily. Legend has it that Dreamfyre had broken free of two of her chains at Queen Helaena’s death. The remaining bonds she burst now, tearing the stanchions from the walls as the mob rushed her, then plunging into them with tooth and claw, ripping men apart and tearing off their limbs even as she loosed her terrible fires. As others closed about her she took wing, circling the cavernous interior of the Dragonpit and swooping down to attack the men below. Tyraxes, Shrykos, and Morghul killed scores, there can be little doubt, but Dreamfyre slew more than all three of them combined.

Hundreds fled in terror from her flames…but hundreds more, drunk or mad or possessed of the Warrior’s own courage, pushed through to the attack. Even at the apex of the dome, the dragon was within easy reach of archer and crossbowman, and arrows and quarrels flew at Dreamfyre wherever she went, at such close range that some few even punched through her scales. Whenever she lighted, men swarmed to the attack, driving her back into the air. Twice the dragon flew at the Dragonpit’s great bronze gates, only to find them closed and barred and defended by ranks of spears.

Unable to flee, Dreamfyre returned to the attack, savaging her tormentors until the sands of the pit were strewn with charred corpses, and the very air was thick with smoke and the smell of burned flesh, yet still the spears and arrows flew. The end came when a crossbow bolt nicked one of the dragon’s eyes. Half-blind, and maddened by a dozen lesser wounds, Dreamfyre spread her wings and flew straight up at the great dome above in a last desperate attempt to break into the open sky. Already weakened by blasts of dragonflame, the dome cracked under the force of impact, and a moment later half of it came tumbling down, crushing both dragon and dragonslayers under tons of broken stone and rubble.

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Overthrown

While the Storming gets understandably celebrated as the Smallfok striking back against the Targaryens and their particularly recent suffering imposed on the people for personal gain, I also always find it very sad, not only due to the huge numbers of casualties, but also because it's...Two of said dragons were bonded to (eventually) murdered children that never even rode them, one to the queen whom to avenge was one of the sparks that lit the riot in the first place, the last one to another child. All of them chained, only one actually mature one, all acting on the animal instinct of self-preservation rather than being deliberately directed to kill by their riders (which is the key component of death tolls attributable to dragons. Outside of Drogon, dragons that are left to their own devices in Fire & Blood have a civilian death toll of zero. I don't think that's just an oversight or coincidence). It's not that I don't get why people love it and find it very powerful or don't share these opinions, I just find the chained dragons a very powerful motif as well. Anyway, here we have a good depicition of the different ages and sizes of the dragons, with Shrykos and Morghul being probably around Stormclouds size, who was felled by arrows and a scorpion bolt. Tyraxes is larger, with Joffrey escorting Rhaena to the Vale on him, which you can see in the higher death toll he exacts on his attackers. Then there's obviously Dreamfyre, displaying her greater size and age by far as well as the potential danger she might have posed in the Dance if GRRM hadn't written Helaena out of it. I said it around the beginning of the post, but bringing down the entire Dragonpit, killing everyone within, the very same Dragonpit constructed to hold Balerion...Yes, obviously rampaging dragons likely weren't part of the "plan" but you can't tell me you wouldn't try to build your dragon enlosure durable and equipped for eventualities...

Unchained and riderless, Syrax might have easily flown away from the madness. The sky was hers. She could have returned to the Red Keep, left the city entirely, taken wing for Dragonstone. Was it the noise and fire that drew her to the Hill of Rhaenys, the roars and screams of the dying dragons, the smell of burning flesh? We cannot know, no more than we can know why Syrax chose to descend upon the Shepherd’s mobs, rending them with tooth and claw and devouring dozens, when she might as easily have rained fire on them from above, for in the sky no man could have harmed her. We can only report what happened, as Mushroom, Septon Eustace, and Grand Maester Munkun have set it down for us.

Many a conflicting tale is told of the death of the queen’s dragon. Munkun credits Hobb the Hewer and his axe, though this is almost certainly mistaken. Could the same man truly have slain two dragons on the same night and in the same manner? Some speak of an unnamed spearman, “a blood-soaked giant” who leapt from the Dragonpit’s broken dome onto the dragon’s back. Others relate how a knight named Ser Warrick Wheaton slashed a wing from Syrax with a Valyrian steel sword (Lamentation, most like). A crossbowman named Bean would claim the kill afterward, boasting of it in many a wine sink and tavern, until one of the queen’s loyalists grew tired of his wagging tongue and cut it out.

Possibly all these worthies (save Hobb) played some role in the dragon’s demise…but the tale most oft heard in King’s Landing named the Shepherd himself as the dragonslayer. As others fled, the story went, the one-handed prophet stood fearless and alone against the ravening beast, calling on the Seven for succor, till the Warrior himself took form, thirty feet tall. In his hand was a black blade made of smoke that turned to steel as he swung it, cleaving the head of Syrax from her body. And so the tale was told, even by Septon Eustace in his account of these dark days, and so the singers sang for many years thereafter.

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Overthrown

Now, Syrax often gets a bad rep for not doing anything of interest during the Dance, an opinion I myself do overall share...But I'm inclined to reward points for a death against what's likely massive bloodmagic. Given how ASOIAF rolls, it seems by far the likeliest explanation to me. The number of deaths in the Storming of the Dragonpit would certainly have offered more than enough "sacrifices" to make it work. As for her decision to fight on the ground, it wouldn't be the worst plot-contrivance of the Dance. Honestly, given how unfavourable she was described just shortly before this, she actually did rather well:

Six dragons remained in King’s Landing, but only one within the walls of the Red Keep: the queen’s own she-dragon, Syrax. A stable in the outer ward had been emptied of horses and given over for her use. Heavy chains bound her to the ground. Though long enough to allow her to move from stable to yard, the chains kept her from flying off riderless. Syrax had long grown accustomed to chains; exceedingly well-fed, she had not hunted for years.

Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Triumphant

And with that this post that was supposed to be another "Sunfyre and Tessarion are larger than you think" post turned into somthing else entirely, a comentary of the Dance's multiple dragonbattles, explaining my perspective of events and far, far, too long. "Tumblr won't let me save the draft" kind of long. If anyone actually read this far, congratulation, I hope it made sense, given that I kind of lost the plot after the first two sections or something.

#asoiaf #dragons #the dance #sunfyre #tessarion #moondancer #vhagar #caraxes #meleys

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