Gossip On Thrones
Aegon’s Landing is PR Bullshit
By Fangirljeanne
Welcome to #GossipOnThrones where I’m going to dish the dirt on the history, families and politics of the World of Ice and Fire, i.e. Game of Thrones. I’m sticking mostly to the book canon, for obvious (SEASON 8) reasons.
If you’re familiar with GRRM writing, you’re aware of his use of the unreliable narrator. This is not limited to the main series. It’s also very obviously present in the companion books.
The World of Ice and Fire and Fire and Blood are written from the POV of Maesters. Fictional characters presenting the history as they know it and/or the stories told to them by others.
So it’s obvious these histories aren’t factual and that we as readers are meant to consider who’s telling the stories, as well as question what is in those stories even when dealing with the historical documents.
To kick off this first round of threads, I’m going to dig into the mythology and misrepresentation of the most famous family in all of Westeros. That's right, the Targaryens.
They’re touted as powerful, magical beings who were destined to rule. Or so it is believed 300 years after they conquered Westeros. But is it that the truth?
Let’s take a close look at history and ask some hard questions. Were the Targaryens really so great or were they just as petty, dysfunctional and fucked up as any family? They just happened to ride dragons.
Let’s begin at the beginning with the most famous Targaryen of all, Aegon Targaryen first of his name King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm and his legendary conquest of Westeros.
“Aegon’s landing” is PR bullshit. While Aegon isn’t Westerosi, he wasn't new to Westeros. When he landed his dragon at the mouth of the Blackwater it wasn't even remotely his first time setting foot in Westeros.
Aegon was born on Dragonstone, a volcanic island just a few miles off the East coast of Westeros. His family relocated from Valyria to Dragonstone a little over 100 before Aegon became king. 400 years before the events of Game of Thrones.
Aenar Targaryen, Aegon’s great-great-great-grandfather. Moved the family to Dragonstone, from Valyria because his daughter Daenys (Aegon’s great-great-grandmother and also great-great aunt) supposedly had a vision that Valyria would fall.
Conveniently 12 years later Valyria perished in what is later called “The Doom” when all 14 of the volcanos ringing the richest and most powerful city state in the known world erupted at once. There were no survivors, not even dragons escaped it.
This makes for a great story, told by the Targaryens. Keep that in mind as we go on.
Dragonstone was an outpost of Valyria, founded 200 hundred years before the Targaryen’s even considered moving. It’s a small fortress on the side of a volcano. It’s “damp and dreary,” and “smells of sulfur and brimstone.”
Dragonstone isn’t a seat of power. It is not a vacation spot. (Just ask Stannis Baratheon.) Why move there? I suspect it was Aenar’s only option after he was driven out of Valyria.
The Targeryens weren’t a royal family or even all that powerful of the 40, that’s right FORTY, noble house of Valyria. They certainly weren’t remarkable in a country full of people who rode dragons. They’re not even the only Valyrians in Westeros.
House Velaryon of Driftmark (an island southwest of Dragonstone, that’s actually larger and has WAY more fertile land than Dragonstone) settled in Westeros long before the Targaryens arrived. They just don’t have dragons or 3 centuries of PR to hype them like the Targaryens.
Then there’s House Celtigar of Claw Isle (a small island northeast of Dragonstone) and technically there’s also House Qoherys. Ser Quenton Qoherys was the man-at-arms of Dragonstone, who was given the title along with Harrenhal by Aegon during the conquest.
The Targaryen’s themselves admitted they weren’t a very powerful family back home in Valyria. So why move even further from the seat of power? Because your daughter has a bad dream?
Note: Daenys was only called “The Dreamer” after her “vision” was proved to be true. Again, this is the story told by the Targaryens. So who’s to know if it’s true. But it sure adds to the power and mystic of the only remaining family of dragon riders in the known world.
And it’s a great way to spin your family fleeing their homeland. I mean, why else would a family of D-listers move out of the wealthiest city in the world to set up shop on the edge of civilization, on the side of a volcano?
It feels like a bit of a Schitt’s Creek situation to me. Maybe Aenar got screwed over by an ally, got in debt to the wrong people or just pissed off a more powerful family and had to skip town before he wound up dead. Rains of Castamere style.
We’ll never know the real story because everyone back home in Valyria is dead. Which is pretty convenient for a two-bit family who used three dragons and a lot of PR to sell an entire content on the idea that they’re gods.
But at first they were not interested in being kings. The Targaryens, along with the Velaryon, got rich off the Gullet, a blockage that allowed them to control all the trade going into Blackwater bay, the biggest trade port for Westeros.
They were pirates. Take away the fancy titles and these “great houses” were just gangsters shaking down traders crossing the Narrow Sea between Essos and Westeros. GANGSTERS!
It took 5 generations of Targaryen’s living on the side of a volcano and getting rich off of protection money, to finally get to one of them who thought, “hey maybe we should check out that big hunk of land to the west.”
Aegon Targaryen, who would later be called Aegon the Conqueror, was approx 25 when he began the conquest. But he didn’t do it on a whim or after some prophet dream by one of his sisters. This was a calculated political campaign long before it was The Conquest of the songs.
Aegon and his sister-wife, Visenya, visited the Maester headquarters in Old Town years before the conquest, likely to get geographical info to make the Painted Table at Dragonstone (a detailed map of Westeros) among other things.
They also visited other parts of Westeros, the Reach and Casterly Rock to name a few. All this was done years before Aegon began The Conquest in earnest.
So the entire myth of Aegon Targaryen being this powerful master of dragons who set foot for the first time in Westeros when he declared himself king is a LIE! Likely one manufactured by a propaganda campaign created by Aegon's grandson, Jaehaerys.
The actual histories were written by Maesters hundreds of years later. It’s impossible to know what’s true, and what’s Targaryen propaganda. Especially considering how the tone of those histories changed once Robert Baratheon took the throne.
Chew on that until next time when we will take a closer look at the strategy behind The Conquest, Argilac “The Arrogant,” his daughter Argella, and our doubts that Orys Baratheon was as honorable as the histories claim.
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Thank you and remember All Men Must Die. Good thing I’m not a man.