Which Beast from the 'Game of Thrones' Houses Would Win?

Live Science

In a battle between animals representing the most powerful houses in "Game of Thrones," which beast would best the others?

Transcript

00:00 In Game of Thrones, the most powerful houses are represented by animals.

00:05 But what would happen if those animals were to fight each other?

00:09 So, we have a stag for House Baratheon, a lion for House Lannister,

00:19 a wolf, direwolf, for House Stark, and a dragon for House Targaryen.

00:24 So it would kind of seem like this is a no-brainer, right?

00:26 I mean, obviously, the dragon would win.

00:28 But there are some circumstances where special abilities that the other animals have

00:33 might actually defeat the dragon.

00:36 Let's look at the stag.

00:37 So, the stag is the only one of all these animals that's not a carnivore,

00:41 so you'd think, "Oh, it's at a disadvantage."

00:43 But stags actually have big, powerful racks of antlers.

00:48 And actually, we saw in the very first episode of Game of Thrones,

00:52 the Starks found a direwolf in the forest that had been killed by a stag.

00:56 Well, of course, the stag was dead, too. It had been killed by the direwolf.

00:59 But at least you could see that the stag could defend itself against a direwolf

01:03 and even potentially a lion.

01:05 Oddly enough, though, the stag is probably the one that has the best shot at taking down a dragon

01:11 because the other two carnivores, they tend to attack their prey by jumping at it

01:17 and biting its neck, ripping out its throat, tearing pieces of it off while they're chasing it.

01:23 None of that would work on a dragon because of its armored scales.

01:26 But a stag, with its pointy antlers, might possibly be able to penetrate those scales to kill the dragon.

01:34 Now, of course, that would have to happen with a lot of force,

01:37 probably more force than a stag could generate,

01:39 so that would mean that the dragon would have to actually fall on the stag

01:42 and impale itself on the antlers, which would kill the stag.

01:46 But then, actually, that would get both of them out of the way,

01:49 and then you'd just have the direwolf and the lion left.

01:51 So, between the direwolf and a lion,

01:53 wolves and direwolves, which actually were Ice Age mammals that were once here on Earth and are now extinct,

02:02 direwolves and wolves hunt in packs, so they're used to sort of being a team player.

02:08 A wolf by itself might be at a disadvantage against a lion

02:12 just because it's used to fighting with its packmates.

02:14 So, a direwolf matched against a lion, the lion might end up being the victor there.

02:20 Of course, a direwolf, a lion, or a stag beating a dragon would be a pretty big upset.

02:26 So, how could such a scenario work?

02:30 So, to find out, I talked to someone who organizes something called March Mammal Madness,

02:35 which is an annual bracket, except instead of pitting sports teams against each other,

02:40 it pits mammals against each other in a series of battles with only one victor at the end.

02:46 And her name is Dr. Katie Hind, and she told me that there are some circumstances

02:53 that could potentially explain why a dragon might not perform as well as you would expect it to.

02:57 And one of them could have to do with what we know about the dragon's behavior in Game of Thrones.

03:03 Now, these dragons are very, very bonded to their mother, Daenerys Targaryen,

03:08 and if she weren't around on the battlefield, that might affect their performance,

03:12 that might make them not want to fight, so they might be likely to fly away.

03:16 Another possibility is because dragons are so big and they generate fire and they have to fly,

03:21 they need a lot of food, they need a lot of fuel to keep going.

03:24 And so if a dragon was really hungry and weak, then maybe the carnivores might have a chance to take it down.

03:31 Or if it got hungry and it decided that it just wasn't worth the effort for it to try and take down these, you know, fairly tough meals,

03:39 maybe, again, it would just fly away and look for something easier to eat.

03:43 So, well, these are all possibilities.

03:46 If you, you know, if you really just put them all together in a battlefield and had them go at it,

03:52 I don't think there's any question about which one would win.

03:55 Dragon all the way.

03:56 [Music]

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