Black vs Green dragons (mild spoiler inside)

[Koopa]

I'm not entirely sure if a thread has been made about this. In any case. Today i visitied a bookstore and saw one of those bundled short stories book. With one short story of GRRM included telling the story of the dance of dragons between Aegon II and his half sister. Now i didn't buy the book, only story inside it am (at least currently) interested in was that one by GRMM. I might buy the short story of GRRM of the dance if it comes out as stand alone shortbook. So i ended up quickreading the story of about 100 or so pages (i think, my mind is already fuzzy on the actual lenght of it).

The story was written more as an account of it all, rather than a real 'book'. Like some storyteller quickly narrating the events. The things that stood out for me was this:
dragons are cruel. Seriously, not 1 dragon seems to bat an eye when killing it's own relatives, even if that meant that by the end of dance, they were nearly extinct. I'd figured they'd at least have some sympathy towards their own brethren, but on behalf of their riders they immediately slaughter other dragons and at time even without the order of a rider. This, alongside the fact that you'd think dragons would be more tolerable of say the son of their very own rider, letting him ride your back once, instead of bucking him off and killing him... leaves me to think dragons are less intelligent than i so far gave them credit. Not that human targaryens seem to hold back much for their own relatives, they too kill each other in abandon.

as to other things:
Aegon II seemingly starts off as a decent enough bloke, needing to be convinced before steeling his sister crown. But you quickly learn that that, may just have been a facade, cause he gets hooked up real quick on the king thing, and becomes quite evil. His mother is basically a plotting mixture of Cersei (before madness) and the queen of thorns. Her second son, and rider of Vhagar is a light version of Joffrey. (green side)

Meanwhile Rhaenyra Targaryen and Daemon Targaryen have 2 male sons, a stillborn girl, and a bunch of half Velaryon stepchildren (daemon 1-2 with his previous velaryon wife, and rhaenyra 3 with her velaryon husband) --> some weird velaryon/targaryen thingie i couldn't quite keep track off in my quickread + some weird mention of some of Rhaenyra's sons maybe not actually being of velaryon descendancy but bastards of some Strong dude... . The children actually all seem to turn out quiet well, in contrast to most of the green dragon's side offspring. Possible because of the lesser degree on incest. But by the end of the novel most are dead besides Aegon III whom eventually takes the crown. (black side)

Now Rhaenyra seems on okay person at start, but also quickly channels her inner cersei (this time the mad version) and basically causes her own demise by turning on her own ppl, calling them traitors, ... (helped in part by genuine treason, and her children's deaths).

GRRM shows Daemon (and their various children) in a decent enough light, but he also sleeps with a fellow dragonrider, presumable falling in love with her and out of love with his wife. Beyond the bed and love betrayal, he doesn't actually betray her politically/martially/.... As a final act he kills Aegon II somewhat evil younger brother, his dragon vhagar whilst dieing alongside his own dragon in the process.

Daemon's lover did prob. not have dragon's blood in her. She was one of a couple of riders who made a couple of dragons their ride after Rhaenyra's oldest son (i think) became somewhat in charge of the black dragon faction whilst his stepfather was out near Harrenhall waging war.He tried to create a bigger dragonforce by having these riderless dragons have riders so they could fight for him (he being the presumed heir). 2 of these end up betraying the black dragon faction and try and become kings themselves and fail miserable. --> this + the fact that so many characters seemed drawn on characters from asoiaf +similar plot points/twists was kinda dissapointing, like GRRM had run out of creativity and just modeled a couple of characters of previously created characters/plots and pulled a couple of deus ex machina to keep the dance raging longer and tie up some loose knots.

In any case: story basically is, nearly every dragon and royalty dies. At end of the dance Aegon II sits the Iron Throne but is a burned shell of himself without a dragon. He'll soon be knocked off his perch by Aegon III. Whilst the targaryan's influence has lost most of it's clout.

Some interesting other tidbits:
- Daemon's lover and her brown dragon dissapeared .Never to been seen again, no one knows what happed to her and the dragon.
- There was still a wild cannibal dragon alive near dragonstone whom no one could ride at the end of the dance.
- There is mention of a couple of egss, 3 of them with a connection to both the vale and more preeminently Pentos, my guess is these are the 3 dragoneggs and dragons that later hatched for Danaerys. There is also a mention of a couple of other dragoneggs, whose whereabouts i have no idea about in regards to asoiaf.

 

[Boaz]

Kiwi, interesting. I love histories, chronologies, and summaries of past events.

I devoured the appendices to The Lord of the Rings when I discovered them. At that point in the story, Aragorn was about to take the Paths of the Dead, Gandalf and Pippin were riding to Gondor, and Frodo and Sam were trudging through Mordor. And I quit reading the narrative and poured over the appendices as if I was Indiana Jones about to find the Well of Souls. In doing so, I found that Aragorn did not become the King of Arnor and Gondor... some guy named Elessar arrived and stole his kingdom and his girl! Doh!!

By the way, is the book in English or translated? I know you speak at least four languages... probably seven...

 

[Koopa]

It was in english. Also you must have me confused with someone else. I wish i was the guy speaking 7 languages. Im supposed to be able to speak 4 languages but the lack of actual use has deteriotated my german and french to the basics. Thankfully skype and some french ppl i chat with occasionally are refreshing somewhat of what remains of my french as of late.

Also been googling about it after coming home. And from what i get there might also be another shortstory released by grrm about prince daemon before the events of the dance. In which he sets himself up as a king of the stepstones. Anyone read this? Or am i interpretting what i found n google wrong?

 

[Koopa]

EDIT:
Possible because of the lesser degree on incest. But by the end of the novel most are dead besides Aegon III whom eventually takes the crown

--> i was wrong with this, cause i just remembered Agon II mother was a hightower.

 

[Boaz]

Im supposed to be able to speak 4 languages but the lack of actual use has deteriotated my german and french to the basics.

Meinst du das oder sagst du das nur so?

Three years of German in high school.

I can't ask directions back to my hotel or even for the bathroom, but I can say, Ist Ihr tochter achtzehn, bitte?

Die Sauerkraut ist in mein lederhosen.

 

[Koopa]

It's the truth, i can make clear what i want to say in french so it's still better than what you remember from your german. My german speaking skills are about the same as yours. I can still understand it all though, no doubt cause german and dutch sound a bit alike. like tochter (german) = dochter (dutch); achtzehn (german) = achttien (dutch).

Why would you ever wear lederhosen? People wear that to go drinking during the beer festival, but in my opinion, you need to be drunk first before even contemplating wearing that stuff.

The weird thing is, i've taken to watching japanese and korean movies. While i somehow mix the 2 languages up (even though they're nothing alike). I can't speak a word of it, but i can somewhat understand what they're talking about by now without requiring subtitles. I remember some time ago sitting next to some japanese (tourists??) on the train, and i suddenly noticed i had begun following their conversation...like oh, that's what they're talking about, where before it was just jibberish.

 

[Boaz]

Kiwi, you're going to ask about the lederhosen, but not the sauerkraut in the lederhosen?!?!

I lived in Taiwan for two years, but it was only after a year and a half that I started thinking in Mandarin. I think you must have a real facility for languages.

 

[Young stormlord]

I'm not entirely sure if a thread has been made about this. In any case. Today i visitied a ...

I didn't read that novella. I doubt I will read it before the ASOIAF ends. I like to imagine it instead, in my mind it is a sort of unholy mix of Lord of the rings and Eragon and Wack-a-mole machine. Nevertheless, I have read a prequel of sorts for that novella: THE ROGUE PRINCE, OR, A KING’S BROTHER, in the anthology Rogues. Made me feel fuzzy inside, like a smoker a week after leaving smoking and taking a cigarette anyway: a sinful pleasure and wrong, but it felt so good!

Maester Aemon's comment that it is dangerous to have too many dragons as well as too few seems to be proven by the history of Westeros. And there's mention of old king Jaeherys, from Dunk and Egg's stories, as a little kid. And Baelor the blessed! I got my Westeros fix, all right. And can wait for the book six now.

 

[Dragon Lust]

My take on the Dragons's propensity for attacking and killing other dragons or Targaryens is that they can somehow sense the state of mind of their riders. For example, Sunfyre returns to Dragonstone after being injured because the dragon senses that Aegon is hiding on the island. Later, Sunfyre devours Rhaenerys at the behest of Aegon.

It was the savage cruelity of the Targaryens that shocked me the most. Feeding each other alive to their Dragons? Their insensible lust for blood strikes me as a sort of madness that could be explained by the family's inbreeding. On the other hand, it may be that the Targaryens are no different from other royale families in bloodlust and it is only because they such a potent weapon in dragons that their bloodlust seems so acute.