House of the Dragon: Who Is Laenor Velaryon and Why Does He Have A Dragon
Rhaenyra Targaryen, like the rest of the women in House of the Dragon, knows she has a role to play, especially if she wants to secure her place as the next queen when her father dies (and that will be very soon). In the third chapter of the series, Viserys I lets his daughter know that part of her duty is to become someone’s wife, to create important alliances for her family, and to have the power she needs so that no one can supplant her or question her right to the iron throne.
Jason Lannister seizes the opportunity first, but Rhaenyra isn’t thrilled at all, so the king is forced to look for another option, which leads him back to House Velaryon (Corlys Velaryon proposed to his daughter Laena, 12 years old, to be the new wife of Viserys, but he rejected the proposal).
Who is Laenor Velaryon and What Does She Have To Do With Rhaenyra?
Laenor Velaryon then becomes one of the best husband options for Rhaenyra, after the councilors remind the king that the Velaryon family is one of the most powerful and wealthy in the kingdom, as well as having fleets of ships and being powerful warriors, so consolidating an alliance between the two families is your best option. While this is going on, Laenor is in the Stepstones Isles, where she fights alongside Daemon Targaryen and Corlys’s men to reclaim the territory, which was under the rule of a brutal man known as The Crabfeeder.
Damon and Corlys decide to attack with everything they have, and Laenor is the one who saves the Targaryen prince by appearing in the sky aboard his dragon, to which he gives the order Dracaris, and ends up burning all his enemies. Laenor eventually marries Rhaenyra (another cousin marriage), although it hasn’t happened in the series, and has 3 children (Jacaerys, Lucerys and Joffrey) with her, although many rumors circulated that they were not legitimate, which become her heirs, as well as supporting her during the Dance of the Dragons.
Why Is Laenor A Dragon Rider In House Of The Dragon?
Laenor Velaryon has a dragon named Seasmoke, which is a very apt name considering that her family rules the sea. Supposedly, only the Targaryens are dragon riders, the Velaryons are not, but Laenor is not just Velaryon, he is the son of Rhaenys Targaryen, the cousin of Viserys I who should have been queen, but who was jumped by her grandfather to give her her place a man, aka Viserys (and now she tells Rhaenyra that the same thing can happen to her).
Being a Targaryen by blood, Laenor also had the opportunity to have a dragon egg in his cradle, so he had that same bond as the rest of the Targaryen babies, and this is why he is a dragon rider. Theories say that not only the Targaryens can be horsemen, but anyone who has Valyrian blood or is a dragon seed, which means that they have some ancestor that comes from Old Valyria, where more families of dragon riders existed. Most of these families were destroyed during The Doom, which is when the Targaryens started to gain strength (being the only surviving dragon riders), but there likely are other survivors who could be dragon riders as well, they’d just have to get an egg, as Daemon attempted to do for his hypothetical son. Laenor’s history is not very long, but it is important to the Targaryen line of succession.
