How Can Lannisters Breed Dragons? (& Can Other Houses Do It)

Episode 3 of House of the Dragon introduced new characters that are going to be interesting in terms of what they can offer in the greater plot of the series. One such character was Jason Lannister, who was introduced as a suitable suitor for Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. While trying to impress Rhaenyra, Jason said something about building a dragonpit for the dragons. So, how can Lannisters even breed dragons?

Lannisters cannot breed dragons unless they are married to Targaryens, who are the only ones capable of breeding and taming dragons. On top of that, the Lannisters would have to employ Dragonkeepers, which are the ones tasked with protecting their dragonpits or wherever they may lair.

It is the very fact that the Targaryens are the only ones capable of breeding and taming the dragons is that makes them special, and that’s why the other houses in the realm fear their power. So, as powerful and as wealthy as the Lannisters may be, no power and wealth in the world could match what a dragon offers. Now, let’s look at how Lannisters can breed dragons.

Can Lannisters Breed Dragons?

The first half of episode 3 of House of the Dragon was quite political in the sense that we followed the side of Rhaenyra and her father and how they were handling all of the different political maneuverings going on in the realm, all while Daemon and Corlys were out there in the Stepstones waging war against the Crabfeeder for three years. And one of the bigger political issues revolved around Rhaenyra’s future marital status.

We all know that Rhaenyra needed to fulfill her royal duties by getting married so that she could further the Targaryen bloodline, regardless of whether or not she would end up becoming queen. As such, sooner or later, she had to get married because of the fact that she needed to have a husband and a family that would allow the dynasty to thrive. And she learned the hard way that her father was selling her off to the high-born lords of Westeros.

Early in the episode, Rhaenyra met Jason Lannister for the first time, as she was able to quickly assume that he was a Lannister due to the lion sigils all over his armor. Jason was quick to try to impress the princess, who he thought had been promised to him by King Viserys due to the wealth and power that House Lannister possessed. Nevertheless, Rhaenyra and Viserys ultimately thought that he was not the right match.

Despite the fact that Jason was unsuccessful in trying to win Rhaenyra over, he mentioned something interesting in their conversation. It was when he told Rhaenyra that Casterly Rock was a suitable place to build a dragonpit on that allowed the princess to learn that her father was trying to sell her to the Lannisters for power. 

But the most interesting part about that conversation was the fact that Jason was willing enough to build a dragonpit, which we all know is a place where dragons are allowed to live and breed. So, can the Lannisters even breed dragons?

No other house in Westeros or even the known world is capable of breeding dragons because only the dragonlords were capable of doing so due to the fact that they were able to tame the dragons. As such, because the Targaryens are the only dragonlords left in the known world, that means that there are no other houses capable of breeding dragons.

So, with that said, the Lannisters are not capable of breeding dragons no matter what they do because they don’t have the bloodline or the innate ability to tame these beasts. That is what makes the Targaryens special, as they are the ones with the most powerful weapons in the world. No matter how wealthy and powerful the Lannisters may be in terms of their gold and armies, no power in the world could stand up to the might of the dragons of the Targaryens.

This is why Jason Lannister and the other houses throughout Westeros were trying their best to win King Viserys’s favor so that he could find a suitable match for his daughter. Of course, as we’ve seen from the Velaryons, marrying a Targaryen can change an entire family because that allows them to have the ability to not only tame dragons but also breed them.

How Can Lannisters And Other Houses Breed Dragons?

As mentioned, the Lannisters and the other houses in Westeros are not capable of taming dragons, much less breeding them. So, how would the Lannisters and the other houses be able to breed dragons?

The first thing that the Lannisters and the other houses should do if they wanted to breed dragons is to marry into the Targaryen family. After all, the Targaryens are the only ones capable of taming and breeding dragons, and that means they have the bloodline that dragons naturally recognize as dragonlords that came from the remnants of Old Valyria.

We mentioned that this was what the Velaryons did when Corlys Velaryon married Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, as they were able to mix their pure Valyrian bloodline with the bloodline of the dragonlords to produce Velaryon children with dragonlord blood. This allowed Ser Laenor Velaryon to become a dragonrider, as we saw in the battle against the Crabfeeder when he was seen riding Seasmoke.

Of course, this is something that’s easier said than done because the Targaryens have always been notorious for keeping their bloodline pure by marrying within the family. Corlys marrying Rhaenys was one of the rare occasions where the Targaryens were willing to allow a princess to marry someone from another house. In turn, despite being Velaryons in terms of their name, Laenor and Laena were able to gain the ability to tame and breed dragons.

On top of the fact that the other houses need to mix their bloodline with the Targaryens, they also need to build a dragonpit and employ the services of the Dragonkeepers to make sure that their dragons are able to have the habitat that they need to thrive and survive. Dragonpits are lairs that contain the dragons of the dragonriders. Meanwhile, the Dragonkeepers are the ones in charge of making sure that the dragons and their lair are protected, and that’s why they are trained to learn how to speak High Valyrian.

Nevertheless, the most important part here is for a member of House Lannister or any other house to marry a Targaryen girl so that their offspring would carry the name of their father, even though they still carry the blood of their mother. But the fact is that we hardly know of any family with Targaryen blood that has survived until the events of Game of Thrones, as even the Velaryons lost their ability to tame and breed dragons probably due to the fact that neither Laenor nor Laena were able to have children that carried their names for several more generations.

The fact that the dragons will only listen to the Targaryens is the reason why Jason Lannister was so adamant about winning Princess Rhaenyra’s hand in marriage. Of course, this is also the reason why the Targaryens are too picky in choosing a suitable husband for their princesses, as they don’t want the other houses to have children with Targaryen blood while carrying the family name of their house. Had that happened, Lannisters and Baratheons during the Game of Thrones would have been riding dragons all over Westeros.