History Characters / HouseOfTheDragonDragons

* BizarreSexualDimorphism: Averted. There are no visible features that distinguish male and female dragons: individual dragons do look different but this is purely due to their breed. Much like many real-life reptile and bird species, they don't have external sexual organs.

[[Characters/GameOfThronesWesteros The Seven Kingdoms of Westeros]] | | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonBlacks Blacks]] ([[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonRhaenyraTargaryen Rhaenyra Targaryen]] | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonDaemonTargaryen Daemon Targaryen]]) | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonGreens Greens]] ([[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonAlicentHightower Alicent Hightower]]) | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonHousesOfWesteros Houses of Westeros]] ([[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonHouseTargaryen House Targaryen]] [[[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonViserysTargaryen Viserys Targaryen]]] | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonHouseVelaryon House Velaryon]]) | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonOthers Others]] | '''Dragons''' ]]]]-]

[[Characters/GameOfThronesWesteros The Seven Kingdoms of Westeros]] | | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonBlacks Blacks]] ([[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonDaemonTargaryen Daemon Targaryen]]) | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonGreens Greens]] ([[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonAlicentHightower Alicent Hightower]]) | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonHousesOfWesteros Houses of Westeros]] ([[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonHouseTargaryen House Targaryen]] [[[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonViserysTargaryen Viserys Targaryen]]] | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonHouseVelaryon House Velaryon]]) | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonOthers Others]] | '''Dragons''' ]]]]-]

* TheBusCameBack: Enters the story during episode 6. Vhagar is [[PutOnABus absent at the start of the series]], having outgrown the Dragonpit, not living there anymore.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vlcsnap_2022_10_24_22h38m43s403.png]]

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler:Vhagar literally slices him in two with her teeth and jaw, leaving only the tail, one leg and one wing falling off.]]

** It's not mentioned as much, but Vhagar was also ridden by Prince Baelon; the father of Viserys and Daemon.

* LastOfHisKind: She is the last living dragon to have hatched before the founding of the Seven Kingdoms and the last of Aegon the Conqueror's three dragons.

[[Characters/GameOfThronesWesteros The Seven Kingdoms of Westeros]] | | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonBlacks Blacks]] ([[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonDaemonTargaryen Daemon Targaryen]]) | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonGreens Greens]] ([[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonAlicentHightower Alicent Hightower]]) | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonHousesOfWesteros Houses of Westeros]] ([[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonHouseTargaryen House Targaryen]] | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonHouseVelaryon House Velaryon]]) | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonOthers Others]] | '''Dragons''' ]]]]-]

* TheDreaded: She's by far the largest and oldest dragon introduced in the plot, having once been the dragon of one of the sister-wives of Aegon I the Conqueror and for this very reason her being among the Greens makes this faction a very credible threat to the deployment of the Blacks (which instead have more -- although smaller, until they can claim Vermithor -- dragons on their side).

** A dragon is a magnificent and effective weapon of war--and even regular ranged weapons of this time have [[NoSell tended to be ineffective against them]]. However, they are most effective in pitched battles or encounter battles (i.e. whole hosts of armies facing each other). Hence, guerilla or asymmetric warfare that denies a dragon-possessing army open encounters can still wear them down by attrition. Furthermore, they are not entirely invincible.[[labelnote:From the books...]]The dragon Meraxes was killed (together with Queen Rhaenys, sister-wife of Aegon the Conqueror) by a fateful ballista shot in their failed invasion of Dorne -- although it got very lucky piercing her brain through her eye instead of hitting one of the many invulnerable spots on a dragon's body. The mouth, chest and throat, for example, are ''not'' weak points.[[/labelnote]]

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Appearance-wise, he's markedly different than the other dragons seen in the franchise up until this point, being much more serpentine in build, with a much longer neck and tail than the other dragons, and a sleek body (to the point he basically resembles a giant snake with wings). He's also shown having smaller hind-limbs than the others, which double as a second, smaller pair of wings.

* AnimalMotifs: Has facial features of dogs and horses, and is one of the more tame and loyal of the dragons.

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: A sandy-yellow golden color, with a distinctive set of swept-back horns that seem to be extensions of her facial crests and more equine-shaped skull. The showrunners mention in behind the scenes videos that she belongs to a different "breed" of dragon that is "built for speed", designing her with a streamlined shape like a supersonic jet.

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: A sandy-yellow golden color, with a distinctive set of horns that seem to be extensions of her facial crests and a face with a more equine or canine look than the more reptilian/ avian faces of the other dragons.

[[folder:Tyraxes]]
!!Tyraxes

Prince Joffrey's bonded dragon.
----

[[/folder]]

* EndangeredSpecies: Since the Doom of Valyria nearly wiped out all the dragons, the current population has been minuscule since then. While House Targaryen has put efforts into hatching more of them, their current numbers have barely risen above ten by the time of King Viserys’ reign.

* OldRetainer: A nearly 200-year-old dragon ridden by several generations of Targaryens.
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Though she's from the same "breed" as Daenerys's dragons, with a T-Rex-like head, the showrunners explained in interviews that they wanted to show what a dragon looked like when it grew almost 200 years old. Taking the idea from the books that "dragons never stop growing" and running with it, they decided that dragons eventually die when they grow so big that it just isn't physically possible to sustain their biology anymore, even in this Fantasy world (the SquareCubeLaw is a harsh mistress). Thus Vhagar is an extremely large and powerful, but old and gnarled grandmother of a dragon. Her skin is sagging on her throat and belly, and her scales look overgrown with each other. She also lacks pronounced horns (which could either be a case of sexual dimorphism, or that all dragons horns stop growing after they reach a certain age), and has a much thicker skull and jaws.

* GiantFlyer: Outsizes all other dragons in the hands of Houses Targaryen and Velaryon, and thus also reigns as the strongest. Fittingly, in her appearances in [[Recap/HouseOfTheDragonS1E6ThePrincessAndTheQueen "The Princess and the Queen"]], she absolutely '''dwarfs''' Caraxes, himself a fairly large dragon. [[labelnote:From the books...]]By the time of the Dance of Dragons, it's said that Vhagar had grown as large as Balerion was during Aegon's Conquest, thus implying that Balerion was still larger than her by the time of his death.[[/labelnote]]

* MixAndMatchCritters: All of the dragons have a combination of reptilian and mammalian traits, such as movable lips. Their bat-like wings may be considered either way, as seen in the extinct [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scansoriopterygidae Scansoriopterygidae]] dinosaur family.

* TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler:After being chased and intimidated by Vhagar in the midst of a hurricane, Arrax decides to take revenge on her against Luke's will by spitting fire in her face before flying away. Unfortunately for him, Vhagar after that act decides to stop playing with him and devours him along with his rider.]]

* LeeroyJenkins: [[spoiler: After being hounded by Vhagar and her rider, Aemond, Arrax defies the orders of his own rider, Lucerys, to simply flee and instead attacks the much larger and stronger Vhagar with his fire breath. This immediately costs both Arrax and Lucerys their lives to Vhagar's subsequent counterattack.]]

[[Characters/GameOfThronesWesteros The Seven Kingdoms of Westeros]] | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonBlacks Blacks]] | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonGreens Greens]] | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonHousesOfWesteros Houses of Westeros]] ([[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonHouseTargaryen House Targaryen]] | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonHouseVelaryon House Velaryon]]) | [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragonOthers Others]] | '''Dragons''' ]]]]-]

* SeriesMascot: For the first season, at least, being heavily promoted together with Rhaenyra (as she is essentially the PrincessProtagonist of the first half of the narrative).