Riding With Rhaegal?

Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls

(this is a slightly modified version of one part my recap of Season 8 Episode 1 “Winterfell”)

If I have one consistent criticism of Benioff and Weiss it is that they are addicted to sacrificing story, logic, and character motivation to deliver spectacle.

Of course everyone wants to see Jon riding a dragon, but should it also have to make sense? I think so.

At the end of the episode, in the post-episode mini-Documentary, Benioff (or Weiss, I can barely tell them apart) suggests that since only Targaryen’s can ride dragons, Jon should have known he was a Targaryen before Sam tells him at the end of the episode (no duh).

This should also raise the question of why Jon’s ability to ride Rhaegal didn’t give Daenerys pause too (are we really supposed to believe that Daenerys wouldn’t be tipped off by Jon being able to ride a dragon?) and also make me wonder why in the world she would encourage Jon to try to ride Rhaegal in the first place?

In theory, she could have always suspected or known that Jon was a Targaryen (remember inter-Targ marriage has always been the rule more than the exception) but, because Daenerys has always been presented as one of the only experts in Dragon lore left, any other explanation would entirely defy logic.