“House of the Dragon” takes place during the Targaryen golden age, centuries before “Game of Thrones” and during an era filled with dragons and their powerful human riders. How does the bond between dragon and rider form? It’s complicated, but it’s also pivotal to the power plays that take place within House Targaryen.
What Is Dragon Bonding?
Dragon bonding is a complicated thing, and it can happen at any time, though usually when the human riders are younger. Rhaenyra, for instance, bonded with her dragon Syrax when she was just seven years old.
The bond between a dragon and its human rider is a one-on-one relationship: once a dragon has bonded with a rider, they will not allow any other human, even another dragonrider, to ride them. However, in the book “Fire and Blood,” Westeros’s historians do note a few cases where dragons with living bonded riders have allowed other humans on them, as long as their bonded rider is also riding at the same time.
The bond between a dragon and their human rider lasts until death. Given their long lifespans, dragons usually outlive their riders. In some cases, a dragon may bond with a new rider after the first rider’s death. Technically speaking, a dragonrider who outlives their dragon could attempt to bond with a new dragon, but no one in history has ever actually attempted it.
How Do the Targaryens Get Bonded With Their Dragons?
The exact “science” of the bond between human dragonriders and their dragons is a little murky and hard to predict. Still, the Targaryens developed a ritual to try to ensure that each member of their family is bonded with a dragon early in life.
To try to increase the odds of a dragon hatching and bonding with a human, the Targaryens traditionally place an unhatched dragon egg in the cradle of an infant. “House of the Dragon” shows this tradition early on when the family plans to put one of Dreamfyre’s unhatched eggs in the cradle of Baelon, Viserys and Aemma’s long-awaited son. The same egg becomes the centre of controversy, however, after Baelon dies and Daemon tries to steal the egg for his future firstborn, only to be stopped by Rhaenyra.
The bond between a dragon and its rider is a pivotal part of Targaryen history – and of the Dance of the Dragons – and we’ll definitely be seeing more of it throughout “House of the Dragon.”
