Post by Maester Sam on Jan 22, 2019 2:42:56 GMT
Certainly from Dany's perspective, her baby dragons need her. They seem to drink her breast milk, but that is odd, isn't it? That would not be something that normally happens with dragons, I would think. Rather unnecessary! That has always been so odd to me! So perhaps Dany is incorrect in the way that she nurtures her young dragons, and they don't need her as she thinks? I don't favor this one way or another, just working through some thoughts.
LOL!!!! What if that was a normal thing - the Targaryen women have to nurse the hatchlings! Hahahaha, now I can't get that image out of my head. All those beautiful queens having to secretly play wetnurse every time an egg hatches...
But yes I agree, Dany's situation most likely is not normal. Surely most dragon hatchlings don't ever nurse on a person. But despite this, it takes a while for her dragons to start to eat meat - specifically, they refuse until she figures out that it has to be cooked/burned. I don't see how they can possibly get cooked meat if they're born in the wild, unless their mom (mother dragon) provides it.
I did a little research on non-mammal's that breast feed (kinda) and it turns out there are several, including pigeons and flamingos, whom apparently form a pouch of nutrient rich "milk" by their neck and breast area before their egg's hatch and for the first several days, the young are feed this regurgitated, high-protein substance for several days. The substance is quite like breast milk, although it's clearly a different method of feeding. Perhaps dragons work like that, and the imagery of Dany breast-feeding three magical reptiles isn't as odd as it seems? They just needed the protein rich nutrient anyway they could get it?
Ooooh, very interesting. I suppose it's possible that dragons also regurgitate their version of milk for their young. Which of course supports the idea that baby dragons need a mom around if they are to survive. Either for dragon milk, or at the very least to char their meat for them until they can breathe fire.
Maybe Morning,
Dany, being the blood of the dragon, produced breast milk similar enough for her dragons to thrive. The eggs sensed the moment she conceived, and started calling to her - in dreams, and also they got warm to the touch and once she sensed movement. They hatched right after Rhaego, when Dany's milk had just come in ... It kind of fits, even if it seems a bit weird...
Perhaps there were always oddities in hatching eggs, with some not hatching, or some eggs hatching into wyrms that would attack, and it was information that was kept quiet on Dragonstone? If something happened to change all of this before the Dance, I am trying to think of what might have been the trigger? Perhaps that the Targaryen's were choosing to live away from Dragonstone more often?
I like this idea! What if it's not just the dragons that need to live in volcanic areas - what if the dragonriders, too, require such a place in order to be healthy and mentally stable? What do all the great Targaryen kings have in common? They loved Dragonstone and went there often, and/or they were Prince of Dragonstone for some time and thus lived there. This kept them sane. And fertile. If you think about it, all was well with Aerys before he became king and moved to King's Landing. He was charming and attractive, had several good friends, and had just sired Rhaegar, a healthy beautiful heir.
But after Summerhall, when he became king and moved to KL, things started to go downhill. Hmmm. I need to think about this more but I think you're really on to something!
It's hard to say what was the last dragon to hatch.
"Do you want a clout in the ear? There are no dragons."
"No, but there are eggs. The last dragon left a clutch of five, and they have more on Dragonstone, old ones from before the Dance. My brothers all have them too. Aerion's looks as though it's made of gold and silver, with veins of fire running through it. Mine is white and green, all swirly." The Mystery Knight
"No, but there are eggs. The last dragon left a clutch of five, and they have more on Dragonstone, old ones from before the Dance. My brothers all have them too. Aerion's looks as though it's made of gold and silver, with veins of fire running through it. Mine is white and green, all swirly." The Mystery Knight
What is the last dragon that he is talking about? Is that Morning? Is it one of the two stunted dragons that Tyrion talks about?
I don't think it can be one of the stunted ones, since Tyrion says those were only the size of a dog. Something the size of a dog can't lay an egg the size of a dragon's egg. Let alone five of them. They wouldn't even fit inside its body! I really hope there is another explanation.
What is the last dragon that he is talking about? Is that Morning? Is it one of the two stunted dragons that Tyrion talks about?
He sat naked under the elm while he dried, enjoying the warmth of the spring air on his skin as he watched a dragonfly move lazily among the reeds. Why would they name it a dragonfly? he wondered. It looks nothing like a dragon. Not that Dunk had ever seen a dragon. The old man had, though. Dunk had heard the story half a hundred times, how Ser Arlan had been just a little boy when his grandfather had taken him to King's Landing, and how they'd seen the last dragon there the year before it died. She'd been a green female, small and stunted, her wings withered. None of her eggs had ever hatched. "Some say King Aegon poisoned her," the old man would tell. "The third Aegon that would be, not King Daeron's father, but the one they named Dragonbane, or Aegon the Unlucky. He was afraid of dragons, for he'd seen his uncle's beast devour his own mother. The summers have been shorter since the last dragon died, and the winters longer and crueler." The Hedge Knight
Again, this green dragon is apparently being credited with being the last Targaryen dragon, she was small with withered wings but she was well enough to lay eggs, although they never hatched. Also she is noted to be green. But Morning was said to be pink, with black, so this green dragon cannot be her. We are also never told she was stunted or deformed in any way. As a matter of fact, she seemed to be large, or at least to grow fast, because I think she was able to be ridden by the age of five.
So, is this green dragon one of the "pair" that Tyrion talks about. What the pair a male and female and that is why they were able to produce a clutch of eggs? So much we don't know! But if so, they were not very big, if their head was the same size as a large dog, but still able to breed. Or, we are missing a dragon?
I think we must be missing one. Fire and Blood ended with Aegon III Dragonbane turning 16 and he ruled for a good while, so there are 10+ years left in which this green dragon can hatch, lay 5 eggs, and die. I'm not sure how old a dragon has to be to lay eggs, but Dany's are ridable (well, Drogon is) by age... how old are they? 3-ish? So they grow pretty fast. I would find it believable if they can lay eggs at age 5 or 6. So there is enough time for our green female.
As for being the last - she may not have been the last to hatch, only the last to die. So she hatched first, then some time later the stunted pair hatches. That pair is sickly and dies within a year (judging by the size being that of a dog). But the green dragon is still alive, and now she is old enough to lay eggs. It can all work, if one more dragon hatches and is green.
Hmmm! That is interesting. In Bran's dreams, the gargoyles look like lions, have red eyes and seem to chase him, but that is influenced by his push/fall. I wonder if that type of stone dragon is actually something that has been trapped in stone, waiting ... I have wondered that about some of the gargoyles on Dragonstone, as well. I need to think on this some...
The way Melisandre talks about "waking the stone dragon" makes me think she expects something like this - for a stone dragon to awaken and become real. (Of course, Dany also sees a "great stone beast" take wing in a HOTU vision, so we may actually get to see this happen.) Maybe the castles with gargoyles are special, and contain sleeping stone animals that can come to life under the right conditions? IIRC, fire and blood are needed to wake a dragons from stone... so Ramsay would have certainly created the ideal conditions.
Oh and it just occurred to me where it could have gone to disappear. A place where its presence wouldn't be reported to the civilized world.
The Skagosi call themselves the stoneborn, referring to the fact that Skagos means “stone” in the Old Tongue.
-TWOIAF
-TWOIAF
Ah, clever GRRM. Of course that's where the stone dragon would go. Silverwing also found herself an island. So there is precedent.... I bet Rickon is already riding it.