At the beginning of A Storm of Swords, George R.R. Martin dedicates the novel to Phyllis Eisenstein, a fantasy writer who convinced him to include dra
At the beginning of A Storm of Swords, George R.R. Martin dedicates the novel to Phyllis Eisenstein, a fantasy writer who convinced him to include dragons in his A Song of Ice and Fire books — and in truth, it’s demanding to imagine what Game of Thrones would look like without dragons. In 2023, Martin told Kevin Smith that he originally considered making Targaryens pyromancers, with the ability to wield fire. Fast-forward to House of the Dragon Season 3, and the show now features 16 different dragons, each with unique designs and personalities. These magical beasts have been a trope of fantasy fiction since the conception of the genre, but Martin uses them very carefully — and there seem to be strict rules in the Song of Ice and Fire universe about which characters can actually ride dragons.
House Targaryen Has Always Followed Specific Rules for Dragonriders
There is a distinct difference between House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones regarding Targaryen dragonriders. Martin established a strict set of rules for Westeros’s most powerful house — a rider can only control one dragon, no more, no less. That said, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) seems to be an exception. Throughout history, Targaryens often tamed dragons by confronting them, like Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) did with Vhagar, or placed dragon eggs in the cradles of newborn babies, allowing for an instant bond with their intended rider the moment they hatched. Daenerys poses an engaging case, given that her dragon eggs are hundreds of years venerable, supposedly fossilized, but when she walks into the burning funeral pyre at the end of Season 1, she emerges with three newborn dragons. As a result, Daenerys shares a maternal bond with three dragons, rather than just one. However, this is with the caveat that Daenerys can no longer give birth to a human child, an unprecedented situation unlike any other Targaryen in history.
Collider Exclusive · Game of Thrones Personality Quiz
Which Game of Thrones House Do You Belong To?
Stark · Lannister · Targaryen · Baratheon · Tyrell
Five great houses. Five completely different answers to the same question: how do you hold power in a world that will take it from you the moment you stop paying attention? Eight questions will determine where your loyalties — and your nature — truly lie.
Stark
Lannister
Targaryen
Baratheon
Tyrell
FIND YOUR HOUSE →
01
Someone powerful is acting dishonourably and everyone knows it. What do you do?
In Westeros, the answer to this question has ended more than one great house.
ACall it out, openly and on the record. If honour means anything, it has to mean something when it’s costly.
BUse it. Information about someone else’s dishonour is leverage — and leverage is power.
CAct decisively to correct it — with or without the approval of those around me.
DChallenge them directly. Strength settles disputes more honestly than courtroom manoeuvring.
ENavigate carefully — build alliances, apply still pressure, and create a situation where the right outcome becomes inevitable.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
What is the source of your power?
Every house endures because of something. What is it for yours?
AThe loyalty of people who trust me — earned over generations, not bought with gold.
BWealth, intelligence, and the willingness to utilize both without sentiment.
CA legacy so fearsome and a vision so total that opposition becomes unthinkable.
DPhysical strength, military force, and the respect that comes from being the kind of person nobody wants to fight.
ECharm, connection, and the ability to make powerful people feel that my success is also theirs.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
Who do you truly fight for?
Strip away the banners and the words. The candid answer tells you everything.
AMy family and my people — those who depend on me and have kept faith with me through everything.
BMy family — the ones who share my blood, even when they exhaust me, even when they disappoint me.
CMy cause — a vision larger than any single person, including me.
DMyself, and those few who’ve proven themselves worth fighting beside.
EMy house — its name, its future, the position I intend to leave it in when I’m gone.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
How do you deal with your enemies?
A house’s method reveals its character as clearly as its words ever could.
AHonestly — I face them directly, and I give quarter when it’s warranted.
BThoroughly — I don’t leave loose ends, and I don’t make the same enemy twice.
CDecisively — fire answers questions that diplomacy only delays.
DHead-on — I’d rather meet a threat on the battlefield than behind closed doors.
EElegantly — I prefer to make former enemies into allies, or at least into people who owe me something.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
What kind of ruler do you believe in?
Westeros is full of answers to this question. Most of them end badly.
AA just one — someone who serves the realm rather than using it, who leads by example rather than fear.
BA capable one — someone intelligent enough to navigate the game, ruthless enough to win it, and realistic about what winning costs.
CA transformative one — someone who doesn’t just rule what exists but reshapes what’s possible.
DA forceful one — someone whose authority is beyond question because the alternative is obviously worse.
EA wise one — someone who understands that the realm is fed by more than armies, and that a full stomach keeps more peace than a piercing sword.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
You suffer a devastating loss. How does your house respond?
How a house handles defeat tells you more about it than how it handles victory.
AWe grieve, properly and together — and then we endure, because endurance is what we do.
BWe adapt. We reassess. And we ensure that whoever caused this loss comes to regret it completely.
CWe burn hotter. Setbacks don’t soften us — they clarify what needs to happen next.
DWe hit back. Grief and revenge are the same motion in our house.
EWe regroup quietly, rebuild our position, and return when we’re ready — on our terms, not theirs.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
Which of these truths about Westeros do you most believe?
Every house has a philosophy. This is yours.
AThe lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Nothing matters more than the people you protect.
BA Lannister always pays their debts — in gold or in kind. Reputation is built on consistency.
CI am the blood of the dragon. Some destinies are written before the person who carries them is born.
DOurs is the fury. When we move, we move completely — and we don’t stop until it’s done.
EGrowing forceful means knowing when to bloom and when to wait. Patience is its own kind of power.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
The Iron Throne is within reach. What do you do?
The answer reveals not just your ambition — but your character.
AClaim it only if the realm needs me to — and rule in a way that makes it worth having.
BEnsure someone who owes us sits in it. The power behind the throne is safer than the throne itself.
CTake it. It was always meant to be mine — I feel that in my bones and in my blood.
DSeize it — with both hands, without hesitation. Opportunity in Westeros does not wait to be asked.
EPosition my house to be indispensable to whoever sits there — influence outlasts any single reign.
REVEAL MY HOUSE →
The Maester Has Spoken
Your House Is…
Your answers point to the great house whose words, values, and way of surviving in Westeros match your own. Bend the knee — or don’t. That’s very much up to you.
🐺 House Stark
Winter is Coming — and you have always known it. You prepare not out of fear but out of duty, because the people who depend on you deserve someone who takes the long view.
- You lead with honour even when it costs you, because you understand that a reputation built on integrity is the only one worth having.
- Your loyalty to family and people runs deep — not as sentiment but as a code that doesn’t bend when things get challenging.
- The North endures because Starks endure — not by being the cleverest players in the game, but by being the kind of people others are willing to follow into the icy.
- You are that kind of person. The pack survives. The lone wolf dies. You already know which one you are.
🦁 House Lannister
You understand the game — its rules, its exceptions, and exactly when the rules become the exception. You play it without illusions and without apology.
- You are sharper than most people realise, and you have learned to utilize that gap to your advantage.
- A Lannister always pays their debts — and you always keep your word, because your word is an instrument of power, and instruments must be kept in working order.
- You love your family with a ferocity that sometimes blinds you, and you know it, and you do it anyway.
- The lion doesn’t concern itself with the opinion of sheep. Neither, in the end, do you.
🐉 House Targaryen
You carry a sense of destiny that is challenging to explain and impossible to ignore — the feeling that you are not simply participating in the world but meant to reshape it.
- You are capable of extraordinary things, and you know it, and that knowledge is both your greatest strength and your most threatening quality.
- Fire and blood are not just words to you — they are a philosophy about what change requires and what it costs.
- The Targaryens at their best were transformative rulers who broke chains and defied the limits of what anyone thought possible.
- At your best, so are you. The dragon has three heads. You are one of them.
🦌 House Baratheon
You are a force — direct, powerful, and challenging to ignore when you enter a room or a conflict. You do not negotiate with challenges. You meet them.
- Ours is the fury — and yours is a kind of intensity that commands attention, respect, and occasionally fear from those who underestimate what’s behind it.
- You value strength and straight dealing. You’d rather know where you stand in a fight than navigate a web of courtly whispers.
- The Baratheons built their house on the back of one of the greatest military victories in Westerosi history — and then struggled with what came after.
- The lesson of your house is that winning is not the end of the story. Governing is. You are learning that too.
🌹 House Tyrell
You understand that power does not always announce itself — that sometimes it arrives with flowers, good wine, and a smile that doesn’t quite reach the eyes.
- Growing forceful is your house’s motto, and you live it: patiently, strategically, always investing in the relationships and resources that will matter most when it counts.
- You are charming by choice and calculating by nature — a combination that makes you one of the most effective players in any room you enter.
- The Tyrells fed King’s Landing and shaped its politics without ever sitting on the Iron Throne — and they were arguably more powerful for it.
- You know that the person who controls the food controls the kingdom. And you always know where the food is.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
Can Daenerys Control All Three of Her Dragons in ‘Game of Thrones’?
Daenerys holding one of her unhatched dragon eggs in Game of Thrones Season 1Image via HBO Max
While Daenerys is undeniably a mother to Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion, there is a common misconception that she can ride and control all three. Martin’s rules are unwavering, and even Daenerys isn’t an exception to the concept of one rider per dragon. Season 6 proves Drogon is Daenerys’ dragon when she takes flight from Mereen. By the end of Game of Thrones, both Rhaegal and Viserion find modern riders in Jon Snow and the Night King, but things are a little more complicated in the Song of Ice and Fire books, where Daenerys must learn more about Valyrian magic before she can fully control her dragon. Drogon is a unique dragon, said to be the reincarnation of Balerion the Black Dread, the fiercest and largest dragon ridden by Aegon the Conqueror. Despite the variety of dragons seen in House of the Dragon, none ever come close to resembling Balerion until Drogon. Drogon adds a symbolic significance to Daenerys, as she has not only brought dragons back into the world but supposedly given birth to a dragon that rivals the ultimate symbol of Targaryen dominance in Westeros.
The Targaryens in House of the Dragon face the opposite problem. While characters like Daemon and Rhaenys (Eve Best) display a great degree of control over their dragons, none ever grow to the same size as Balerion. Vhagar is the only dragon that comes close, and despite being nearly as venerable as Balerion, she is still smaller. Another large difference between the two series is that while dragons wear saddles and dwell in Dragonstone’s caverns in House of the Dragon, Daenerys’ dragons feature no such equipment and prefer to roam wild until she eventually locks them underneath the Great Pyramid in Meereen. The fact that Daenerys doesn’t require a saddle to ride her dragon could be due to her affinity for Dothraki culture, given the horselords roam the wilderness and ride horses with no saddles.
Daenerys’ Dragons Grow a Lot Quicker in ‘Game of Thrones’
Next to House of the Dragon, Daenerys’ dragons grow a lot quicker than any of her ancestors’. Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) dragon, Syrax, is over 30 years venerable, while Caraxes is roughly 70 during House of the Dragon Season 2. Despite their age, neither matches Drogon in size. Fans often attribute this as a plot hole in the story, but several explanations can account for this. In the Song of Ice and Fire book series, Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion are relatively smaller than their onscreen counterparts, but are expected to grow bigger before Daenerys invades Westeros. Martin originally planned a five-year time jump in his original novels, which would have given Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion ample time to develop into fully-grown dragons. He eventually decided against the time-skip, meaning the dragons would have to develop quicker to be effective assets to Daenerys.
Related
The Targaryen Family Tree From ‘House of the Dragon’ to ‘Game of Thrones’
Fire and blood and a lot of wigs.
Aside from a literary standpoint, there is an in-world explanation for the size disparity. Game of Thrones is set during a time when magic is returning to the world, partly indicated by the striking red comet seen in Season 2. Both dragons and White Walkers return to Westeros, and Greenseers like Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) unlock modern magical abilities. Daenerys’ dragons also seem to grow quicker because a modern age of magic has come to Westeros. By contrast, House of the Dragon is set in a time when magic has almost completely died out. As a Dragonkeeper tells Rhaenyra in Season 2, Episode 7, “The dragons are sacred; they are the last magic of Old Valyria in this sad world.”
Most of Daenerys’ dragons meet an unfortunate end in Game of Thrones, but the books will likely play out differently. Rhaegal and Viserion may have completely different riders, given there are more alleged Targaryens alive there than in the show. One thing is for certain: Daenerys is a unique Targaryen who shares a special bond with her dragons, something Daemon (Matt Smith) discovered during his prophetic vision in the Season 2 finale. While her fate onscreen disappointed viewers, the books will hopefully deliver a satisfying conclusion to her story and answer more of the many questions surrounding dragons.
