#i admittedly like the idea that they're destined to die together in every possible timeline bc it's very poetic

[bbygirl-aemond]

How long could Vhagar have lived before dying of old age?

Hi all! This ask here brought up the topic of Vhagar's longevity, and I actually have a lot of thoughts on this because it has implications for dragon biology in ASoIaF in general. So how long might Vhagar have lived, if it weren't for the Dance and she was able to die of old age? Let's turn to Balerion, the Black Dread, for an answer.

Balerion is the only dragon in known history to have died of old age, which is a problematic sample size to draw species-wide conclusions from. It's implied that he died because he was simply too big to fly anymore, but I don't necessarily think this applies to other dragons for a few reasons.

First, not all dragons grow at the same rates. We see that Dreamfyre, who is older than Vermithor, is still smaller than him. Dragons like Vermithor, Vhagar, and Balerion are discussed by Maesters are being unusually large, even for dragons. So if dragons die because they grow too big, certain species might live longer than others simply because they grow more slowly and tend to be smaller.

Second, Balerion's death might not have been solely due to old age. There were two extenuating factors that could very well have contributed to him dying earlier than he might have otherwise done. From 55-56 AC, Balerion and Aerea were completely AWOL, and when they returned Aerea was near death in a really freaky way, and Balerion had a nine-foot-long gash all down his side. It's thought that the two ended up in Valyria, went up against some freaky magic, and lost. Maybe the magic took more of a toll on Balerion than understood. Then, right after this, Balerion is chained up in the Dragonpit, and is kept underground for thirty seven straight years, until Viserys rides him a single time in 93 AC. We know that being chained is harmful for dragons' health and tends to physically weaken them.

So it's likely that if these things hadn't happened, Balerion would have been much stronger, even at the age where he died in canon. As for how much longer he might have been able to live, we can't fully say. I don't think it would be too much longer; probably a few decades at most. But all this is basically to say I don't think we should assume that dragons' lifespans max out at 200 years.

Around the start of the Dance, Vhagar was about 180 years old. So I'd say that she would live to at least 200 but likely longer, so long as she was allowed to remain unchained and uninjured. I'd say around 250-260 isn't unreasonable here. So if, in this scenario, Aemond has also survived, I actually think they could end up dying at around the same time; if Vhagar died at the age of 250, Aemond would be 86.

#i admittedly like the idea that they're destined to die together in every possible timeline bc it's very poetic #but in all seriousness balerion was kind of nerfed towards the end of his life #justice for him he didn't give the targaryens the seven kingdoms to go in dragon jail for 40 years #balerion #vhagar #vermithor #hotd #house of the dragon #show #books #fire and blood #meta