History Characters / ASongOfIceAndFireDragons

* LivingWeapon: The whole problem with Daenerys's dragons is the fact that she cannot control them [[spoiler:even when she was able to ride one]]. Historically, the Targaryen dragons were bound to their riders from birth or by trial-and-error; as it's documented, dragons have very little qualms about even attacking each other (like when Aemond Targaryen rode Vhagar to kill [[spoiler:Lucerys Velaryon and Arrax]]) and their level of control is a subject of speculation especially considering Dany's dragons and what they will or will not do. As such, there seems to be a degree of taming regarding the dragonrider, but a dragon is not a pet.

* HybridMonster: ImpliedTrope. The general {{fanon}} interpretation is that magic was used to hybridize flying, non-fire-breathing wyverns with non-flying, fire-breathing firewyrms. This comes from a couple sources. There are multiple myths about where dragons came from, but all suggest that humans predate dragons. Septon Barth -- who's implied to be a real smarty-pants about dragons -- theorized that dragons were created by Valyrian bloodmages using wyvern stock. Building off this theory, the traits that dragons have but wyvens lack (fire-breathing; enormous size) can be found in firewyrms -- plus firewyrms are native to Valyria. Then there's the case of Laena Velaryon's first dragon. At birth she was given a dragon egg, which hatched into "a wingless wyrm, maggot-white and blind." (Firewyrms are subterranean tunneling creatures. Without sunlight they wouldn't have any use for eyesight or melanin sun protection.) This appears to be a case of [[EvolutionaryLevels atavism]] -- lost ancestral traits reemerging, like the occasional human with a vestigial tail or extra nipples.

* IAmAHumanitarian: His favorite food was other dragons.

* VertebrateWithExtraLimbs: AvertedTrope. 4 limbs = 2 wings + 2 legs
-->'''[[https://grrm.livejournal.com/327410.html GRRM]]:''' There are no actual dragons, to be sure. But there are bats, and there are birds, and once upon a time there were pterodactyls. Those are the models to use when designing a dragon. No beast in nature has four legs AND wings.

* ImAHumanitarian: Dragons have no reservations about eating other dragons, and when two dragons fight to the death, the winner will sometimes eat the loser. The Cannibal was particularly infamous for snacking on eggs and hatchlings.

* MonstrousCannibalism: To dragons, meat is meat, even if it comes from another dragon. In particular, the Cannibal was a wild dragon that was notorious for munching on eggs, hatchlings, and dead dragons.

* EyeScream: The eyes of a dragon are largely noted to be their only real weak spot. Targeting the eyes is generally considered the best way to bring down a dragon, though it is in fairness very hard to do, requires an insane amount of luck and carries it's own risk in maddening the creature if it's not a fatal shot.

* GloryDays: Daenerys's dragons are not completely bound to her, so she hasn't actually got the Glory of Old Valyria fully back, yet. Heck, ever since the Dance of the Dragons and the death of the last dragon during Aegon III's reign[[note]]-As told in ''The World of Ice and Fire'' and ''The Princess and the Queen''-[[/note]], the methods for binding dragons have been effectively lost to time or are simply unavailable to Daenerys at the moment. Even during the Dance itself, although the ability to bind dragons was widely accepted as just an Old Blood thing, it really played out more like trial-and-error, since a few Dragonseeds (Targaryen or Velaryon bastards) were able to ride dragons after dozens of other candidates, some of them legitimate Targaryens and Valaryons, were either lightly barbecued or entirely eaten by both wild and "domesticated" beasts when trying to "tame" them to them. And then, there's Nettles: no known links to Valyria in her background, but she still rode Sheepsteeler quite successfully. So far, other than Daenerys herself and Ben Plumm (probable links to Aegon IV), only [[spoiler:Quentyn Martell]] has tried to get near the current trio of dragons, on the grounds that being her distant cousin meant it should be OK, yeah? Well, that logic got him brutally charred to death. So, it seems you ''do'' need more than just a drop or two of Targaryen blood to ride the fire and thunder properly... And, it's going to take Daenerys, her dragons and her advisors a while to work out what works.

* MeaningfulName: Rhaegar Targaryen, the "Last Dragon" of the family, is a talented strategist who is described as a classic chivalrous knight. Rhaegal is lithe, usually vocal (you need to be careful when it goes quiet, though) and a cunning strategist who is more deadly than you'd expect. He also looks very like the epitome of a classic Medieval dragon, matching his namesake's reputation, as well.
** A particularly wince-inducing layer of this is added in the fifth book: Prince Rhaegar had outraged the Martells when he snubbed his wife Princess Elia Martell in favor of Lyanna Stark, and unwittingly caused Elia's death when he ran off with Lyanna and sparked a civil war. In ''Literature/ADanceWithDragons'', [[HistoryRepeats Dany's dragon Rhaegal]] ends up [[spoiler:killing Prince Quentyn Martell when he was sent to make a marriage alliance Daenerys couldn't accept, causing the Martell faction to be screwed over yet ''again'' by the Targaryens and making it likely the HotBlooded, vengeful Martells will turn on Daenerys if they receive word of what happened to Quentyn in ''The Winds of Winter'']]. Oops!

* AlienBlood: Dragon blood is often unnaturally colored; in the two instances described in text, it matches its owner's scale colors.

* EyeScream: The eyes of a dragon are largely noted to be their only real weak spot. Targeting the eyes is generally considered the best way to bring down a dragon.
* GiganticAdultsTinyBabies: Dragon hatchlings are small enough to cling on a teenage girl's shoulders. The largest known dragon regularly snacked on mammoths and had a wingspan so large it could cover entire towns as it flew ahead.

* GiantFlyer: By the time of the Dance of the Dragons, Vhagar had grown to almost the same massive size Balerion was during the Conquest.

* MutualKill: Vhagar managed to disembowel Caraxes and tear off one of his wings in their final battle, but Caraxes kept his jaws locked around Vhagar's throat until they hit the ground, whereupon Vhagar was instantly killed by the impact.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: During Alysanne's visit to The Wall, she refused to fly beyond The Wall even though it was summer. She clearly felt something.

* TheDreaded: Probably the most feared dragon during the Dance after Vhagar herself -- even more than some of the older and larger dragons like Vermithor or Meleys (though Caraxes was still described as "huge"). Caraxes was easily the most battle-hardened dragon during the Dance, from years spent fighting proxy wars in the Stepstones. Vermithor, Silverwing, Meleys, and the other larger dragons were hatched during a long era of peace and never saw significant combat before. Vhagar was really the only other dragon who had seen much military action (in the Conquest, First Dornish War, and Faith Militant uprising -- 80 years before the Dance). Gyldayn states that enemy armies literally just ''ran away'' when they got news that Caraxes was approaching, a level of Dreaded that only Vhagar could also induce. The castellan of Harrenhal simply surrendered without a fight when Caraxes arrived at the castle.

* TheAce: Befitting of the beast that once belonged to Aegon the Conqueror, Balerion was considered one of if not the biggest and strongest known dragon around, with his size big enough to envelop a city and powerful black flames that can decimate entire armies and even the castle of Harrenhal. None of the dragons after him was able to eclipse his might.

* TheWorfEffect: Balerion was known as ''the'' strongest dragon around before and after the Conquest, notable as being one of the few dragons who has seen Old Valyria. The fact that ''something'' was able to injure a dragon of immense magnitude shows just how utterly dangerous the ruins of Valyria are.