Skip to main content

Why does dragon fire from Game of Thrones leave bones?


Before the dragons from the TV series have grown we learned from the pyromancer that wildfire was the closest they could get to dragon fire. According to him the wildfire could burn through metal, stone, and flesh.


We could also saw how dragon fire could destroy the keep leaving great big holes in the walls.


Later when Dany's dragons grew up and started hunting we could see that they ate goats and a poor child leaving nothing but burned bones behind. How come the bones were left if the fire is so strong?


Also, if the fire was that strong, how does Dany expect that a metal chain and a door could keep them?



Answer




How come the bones were left if the fire is so strong?




You must bear in mind that we had no idea how exactly the bones came to be. Drogon was said to have been responsible for them, but there are a few scenarios which this could have happened:



  • he might have just been burning something nearby, or

  • might have just devoured the carcass, passing the bones (which were scorched due to the insides of the dragon being extremely hot, or

  • the bones might have been cooked in an oven as suspected by Dany (for the sheep anyway)



Also, if the fire was that strong, how does Dany expect that a metal chain and a door could keep them?



Chains Were Made to be Broken

The metal chains were only truly to get the dragons into the pit, beyond that there was no guarantee that the chains would hold. In fact, Viserion had actually broken through his:


[A Dance With Dragons spoiler]



The dragons craned their necks around, gazing at them with burning eyes. Viserion had shattered one chain and melted the others. He clung to the roof of the pit like some huge white bat, his claws dug deep into the burnt and crumbling bricks. Rhaegal, still chained, was gnawing on the carcass of a bull. The bones on the floor of the pit were deeper than the last time she had been down here, and the walls and floors were black and grey, more ash than brick. They would not hold much longer … but behind them was only earth and stone. Can dragons tunnel through rock, like the firewyrms of old Valyria? She hoped not.
-A Song of Ice and Fire: A Dance With Dragons, Part Two - Blood and Fire (Daenerys).



Perhaps given time, they could burn through the walls/doors (but that's just conjecture).
Take note also that there are a pile of bones. We don't know if they are scorched or not, but that definitely shows that an encounter with a dragon can leave bones behind!


The Blood of Old Valyria
There are some whom the dragons might take a liking to, or at least tolerate:



[A Dance With Dragons spoiler]



Brown Ben Plumm is one such person; he can trace his ancestry back to Old Valyria, and there are many mentions of how the dragons took a liking to him, especially this one:

[Tyrion:] Your branch sprouted from a stone spit across the narrow sea, no doubt. A younger son of Viserys Plumm, I’d wager. The queen’s dragons were fond of you, were they not?”
That seemed to amuse the sellsword. [Plumm:]“Who told you that?”
[Tyrion:]“No one. Most of the stories you hear about dragons are fodder for fools. Talking dragons, dragons hoarding gold and gems, dragons with four legs and bellies big as elephants, dragons riddling with sphinxes … nonsense, all of it. But there are truths in the old books as well. Not only do I know that the queen’s dragons took to you, but I know why.”
[Plumm:]“My mother said my father had a drop of dragon blood.”
-A Song of Ice and Fire: A Dance With Dragons, Part Two - Blood and Fire (Tyrion).



Using this to one's advantage can help to provide a means for controlling dragons.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...