In what’s sure to be a surprise to no one, we love it when people nerd out to figure out bits of fun, semi-factual information. And the geniuses over at The Daily Dot have done just that with their truly impressive guide to pop culture’s biggest dragons. And yes/of course, that includes Dany Targaryen’s trio of adorable reptilian nincompoops/children, Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion on Game of Thrones. Actually — figuring out just how large they may be is exactly what caused this guide in the first place.
It’s been said already that the dragons in Game of Thrones get big — really, really big — and never really stop growing until they’re dead. We saw an example of this largess when George R.R. Martin debuted a chapter from The World of Ice and Fire, complete with an image of Aegon the Conqueror and his sizeable fella, Balerion, the Black Dread. Dot‘s Rob Price then got all scientific in his hypothesis of what that meant for other popular dragons in our culture, including everyone from Pokémon’s Charizard to The Hobbit‘s Smaug to Harry Potter‘s Hungarian Horntail. It’s equal parts fun and wildly impressive given the research that went into it. All of which you’d do well to read over at the source.
Click the image below (and then click it again) for the full-size image:
So, we have to ask: if you could have any one of these dragons for your own, which would you choose? Let us know in the comments.
HT: The Daily Dot
Saphira would have been about 30 something meters at the end of the fourth book. Shruikan (why are the black dragons always the biggest?) would have been over 120 meters based on the size of his head, spines, his throneroom housing, and alleged wing span.
Most Pernese dragons are between 7 to 18 meters though Ramoth was estimated to between 40 and 60 meters.
The 13th Colossus in SOTC sometimes called Phalanx (the flying snake one) is about 170 meters long. If you want to face a Colossus about the size of Balerion, the 10th Colossus (Dirge, the worm) is about 73 meters.
Putting ALL those to shame would be Deathwing from WoW and Gildragon, a mecha-dragon, from Zoids. Deathwing and Gildragon are BIGGER than mountains. Balerion would make a nice snack for the world-changing WoW terror!
Pretty neat, but I’d love to see the Warcraft dragons taken into account. A couple people mentioned Galakrond, which is true, but if not him then at least like Alexstraza or Neltharion/Death Wing. They’re massive.
The author of this article first needs to learn what a dragon is… and how it is different from Wyverns,drakes and wyrms.
No Puff The Magic Dragon? C’mon!
I’m not sure where this Dragonite is coming from, but in the original series he appears as tall as a cliff, about 100 feet tall. And Charizard is at least twice as tall as Ash, so about eight or nine feet tall.
you forgot Shruikan from the Eragon series
She’s not there, but I would like to be friend with Saphira (The Heritage serie)… Ad maybe Draco (Dragon’s Heart) too!
And what about Falcor. the Luck DRAGON?
My 1st Choice Is #14 Drogon, Viserion Rhaegal & 2nd Choice Is #15 Balerion – Both A Song Of Fire & Ice 🙂
This image is so wrong in many ways
It must be a generational thing. I would want Gojira. Gojira started at 50 meters in 1954 and has continued to grow in appeal and stature… In the latest it is alluded that Gojira will be well over 350 feet. The premises being that Gojira must be tall enough to crush the tallest building and still be able to hide(?). His only issue is Gojira does not have wings, nuclear breath, electric discharge, and most important of all come back from the dead to both protect and crush those in the way….. Yep, if I can not have Gojira, I will take Godzuki…..!
This is pretty cool but I’m disappointed it left Eragon out. I know the movie sucked, but come on.
No Bahamut and his many incarnations? What about Draco from Dragonheart? Falcor from Neverending Story? I’m sure this chart is a work in progress, and we’ll see more get added at time goes by, much like this redonkulous comparison chart of starships: http://www.geek.com/news/incredible-comparison-chart-lists-almost-every-sci-fi-starship-in-one-image-1572157/
Ok this is kinda cool. But as a gaming nerd, they have mised some of the other pop culture’s Biggest dragons. Tiamat and Bahamut from D & D and Smaug from lord of the rings. Also I would have to put in there the MineCraft Dragon, for the end game area (yes I know there is no end game really in MineCraft)
SMAUG!!!
Where is King Ghidorah???
Can’t help but wonder where the dragons from Anne McCaffery’s series “Dragonriders of Pern” would fit..
Anne McCaffery’s dragons (the dragon riders of Pern series) are missing. That makes me sad… Especially since THAT is the dragon I want 🙂
If it has 2 legs it’s a Wyvern! Smaug is the largest Dragon there (unless you’re thinking of the morphed Smaug from the film)!
I would want shenron, for the wishes of course not sure why you would think he is only ten meters high when he is actually like hundreds of meters high.
Where is Vermithrax from Dragonslayer? 🙂
Hmm, I notice they didn’t take into account Anne McCaffrey’s dragons from her Pern series. Ramoth, the golden queen who was the largest of all the dragons on Pern was roughly the size of a 747. I think that tops the black dread.
Awesome, but I wish Saphira was included.
I believe the largest dragon is unsurpassed to be Galakrond, from the warcraft books. he was massive compared to all other dragons.
http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/wowpedia.org/thumb/6/67/Dawn_of_the_Aspects_cover.jpg/800px-Dawn_of_the_Aspects_cover.jpg?version=95f700c62b965e41c2680c4f8374ec98
there is NO WAY that you go Shenron right. He is at least a mile long, considering he can cover the entire sky himself…
Where does the Dragon from the TV show Merlin fit on this chart?
Shenlong is actually a lot bigger than that. He fills the goddamn skies, he’s easily over a kilometer long.
I’d choose Dragon from Reign of Fire because of it’s size/architecture or “the white dragon” Viserion (GOT)
So what happened to the Dragons of Pern? No longer considered pop culture? That’s a shame. Thanks for what’s there, though. 🙂
Where the hell is Bahamut zero from FF VII?
He’s the size of a small planet.
My favorite dragons were in “Reign of Fire” (2002). AWESOME!
One other set of dragons to consider agree the dragons from the movie “Flight of Dragons”.
If we’re talking about dragons here, why isn’t the giant dragon from How to Train Your Dragon not on this list? It was massive.
You’re seriously going to compare dragon size and not talk about The Dragonriders of Pern?! I’m shocked!
The source page doesn’t mention shenru at all, that’s really disappointing, because the graphics representation of his size is definitely wrong. This guy took up space under him that was easily equal to a city scape, abd they want us to believe he’s close to the size of a Hungarian horntail? It really draws the credibility of the whole image into debate.
But… Charizard is not a dragon
im just curious, why weren’t any of the dragons from the inheritance trilogy (eragon, eldest, brisingr, and inheritance) included? is it because they (pretty much) only exist in books? because I think sheirkan could give them all a run for their money. thank you! 🙂
I think Shenlong is a lot bigger, in the series we can see how he crosses the sky while getting out of the dragon balls
Hmm… none of the dragons from the Inheritance Cycle made the list. I wonder why?
My only question is, why no Onyxia or Sindragosa?
How big were the dragons from Christopher Paolini’s Eragon books?
Why did you not take Tolkiens dragons too?
was Ancalagon too big?