In a brand new blog post, Recreation of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin registers his disappointment with the Home Targaryen emblem on House of the Dragon. Specifically, that its three-headed dragon has 4 legs, as an alternative of his most popular two-legged depiction.
Within the submit, Martin argues a dragon’s wings would have doubtless advanced from its forelegs, stating “four-legged dragons exist solely in heraldry. No animal that has ever lived on Earth has six limbs. Birds have two legs and two wings, bats the identical, ditto pteranodons and different flying dinosaurs, and so on. ” He then then presents the right two-legged model of the symbol subsequent to its incorrect four-legged model, including, “why would any Westerosi ever put 4 legs on a dragon, once they might take a look at the actual factor and will [see] their limbs?” The submit concludes with the HBO-damning assertion, “Fantasy must be grounded. It’s not merely a license to do something you want.”
After all, the plain counter-argument right here is that no animal that ever lived on Earth has had three heads, both, however Martin catches himself, stating, “in fact no dragon has three heads. That bit is only symbolic, meant to replicate Aegon the Conqueror and his two sisters.”
Forgetting for a second {that a} three-headed dragon doubtless would want the additional legs to assist itself (or at least King Ghidorah’s dummy thicc thighs), Martin presents an attention-grabbing argument—although I’m unsure its essentially the right one. Should a dragon all the time be reptilian?
Many bugs, in fact, are six-legged animals with extra wings, which new analysis suggests might have evolved from gills. Notably, over 5,000 species of one thing known as a “dragonfly” which additionally matches the bodily description of its namesake. Hell, there there’s even a “flying” lizard known as a Draco with an extendable membrane that permits it to glide distances of over 200 toes directly. Martin can be adamant his dragons are “creatures of the sky” that should “breathe hearth,” but there’s vanishingly little oxygen the upper one goes. As bigger animals want extra of it for easy mobile respiration, it additionally strains credulity they’d stay contemporaneous to people. Hatzegopteryx, the biggest identified flying animal to have ever lived, did so at a time when there was 50% extra oxygen than our present ambiance. On this case, would it not be so tough to imagine a dragon might be a “residing fossil” descendent of an undiscovered six-limbed ancestor?
Possibly arguing about what number of legs a three-headed dragon would possess is a dialog higher left till after he finishes The Winds of Winter—and never a second earlier than.
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