Fans Are Debating Whether Game of Thrones’ and Skyrim’s Dragons Are Actually Wyverns

Fans Are Debating Whether Game of Thrones’ and Skyrim’s Dragons Are Actually Wyverns

If the Internet is to be believed, Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons might have some serious soul-searching to do about that last title in particular. A great dragon debate has waged on among fans over Christmas, who finally determined that the so-called “dragons” in Game of Thrones are actually — and more accurately — wyverns.

Let’s examine the evidence.

This debate over the accurate term for the winged beasts in Game of Thrones (and Skyrim) stems from the distinction that a dragon is technically a creature with four legs and two wings, while a wyvern has two legs and two wings, and uses its wings as additional legs. This post from Redditor 4h0y1m4p1r4t3 has over two thousand responses of people both debating the different names of various types of dragon-like creatures, or alternately having their minds blown that the “dragons” in Game of Thrones and Skyrim aren’t actually dragons.

The fifth Elder Scrolls game does have many creatures called “dragons” that you can fight and kill within the game. But as you can see clearly below, this creature does match the description of a wyvern versus that of a dragon:

This semantics debate about which creatures are or aren’t dragons isn’t a new one, especially around Game of Thrones. Nerdist’s Sarah Keartes ran an article/PSA back in 2016 explaining how Daenerys’ children are, technically speaking, also wyvern. See them in flight below:

This visual depiction of dragons in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire world stems back to the concept art used in the Game of Thrones encyclopedia A World of Ice and Fire. As you can see in this drawing of Aegon the Conqueror riding Balerion the Black Dread, as depicted by Jordi Gonzalez Escamilla, these creatures have two wings and two back legs:

While Redditor Masta-Pasta took to Reddit to shame the many thousands of people sharing this now age-old debate over whether Skyrim and Game of Thrones features dragons or wyverns, they did get one key point wrong in their meme-ery:

If you go back to the root of the word, technically a wyvern is not just another name for a dragon. The term “wyvern” descends from the Latin word for “viper”, “adder” or “asp,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary, while “dragon” descends from the Latin term for “huge serpent.” Though similar, these are intended to be distinguished as separate types of creatures, and aren’t synonymous with one another.

Of course, we aren’t dragon scholars, and we are pretty sure the people having this dragon/wyvern debate on the Internet aren’t either. Whether with four legs or two, wyverns and dragons have visually become synonymous in high fantasy movies, TV shows and games, as evidenced by the fact Skyrim and Game of Thrones have no qualms about calling their wyverns “dragons.”

This debate even stems back to The Hobbit, in which Smaug is described as both a “fire drake” and a “dragon,” but in the Peter Jackson movies is depicted like a wyvern:

As Redditor Monsieur_Onion handily posted in a frequently shared graphic, not all dragon-like creatures are made the same. If you ever wanted to know your wyrms from your wyverns from your drakes, this is probably something worth bookmarking:

What do you make of the great dragon debate? Do you think these creatures should be accurately called “wyverns” if they’re with two legs instead of four, or are you not sweating the difference? Did we miss any pertinent details from this great dragon debate? Let us know in the comments!

constructed language developed for the show by linguist David J. Peterson, who used the words and phrases from GRRM\u0027s books to form and evolve a spoken system, described as a mix between Arabic and Spanish. You can even purchase audio language courses for it online.”,”height”:720,”width”:1280,”url”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/doth-1536605904269.jpg”,”styleUrl”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/doth-1536605904269_{size}.jpg”,”credit”:””,”objectRelationName”:””,”objectRelationUrl”:””,”albumName”:”25 Obscure Facts About Game of Thrones”,”relativePosition”:”05″,”albumTotalCount”:26},{“caption”:”21: The Tyrion… and Only – Had Peter Dinklage turned down the role of Tyrion Lannister, the show would have found itself out to sea a little bit. See, Dinklage was the one and only actor ever envisioned for the role. Martin thought of Dinklage when he was writing Tyrion, for years, and then executive producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, when casting the series, were also very single-minded about it. Dinklage was the first person to be offered a part on the show, which was done without him auditioning at all, and the first person to say \u0022yes.\u0022 “,”height”:720,”width”:1280,”url”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/18\/tyrion-1537305984314.jpg”,”styleUrl”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/18\/tyrion-1537305984314_{size}.jpg”,”credit”:””,”objectRelationName”:””,”objectRelationUrl”:””,”albumName”:”25 Obscure Facts About Game of Thrones”,”relativePosition”:”06″,”albumTotalCount”:26},{“caption”:”20: Bastard Swap – Iwan Rheon, who fans know as the sinister and sadistic Ramsay Bolton on the series, actually auditioned for the role of Jon Snow during the initial development phases of the series. Rheon came in to read for Dany\u0027s brother, Viserys, and was then asked to come back to read for Jon Snow. In the end, Rheon believes it may have come down to either him or Kit Harington for the esteemed Knower of Nothing role. “,”height”:720,”width”:1280,”url”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/18\/ramsay-battle-of-the-bastards-186441-1280×0-1537306126740.jpg”,”styleUrl”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/18\/ramsay-battle-of-the-bastards-186441-1280×0-1537306126740_{size}.jpg”,”credit”:””,”objectRelationName”:””,”objectRelationUrl”:””,”albumName”:”25 Obscure Facts About Game of Thrones”,”relativePosition”:”07″,”albumTotalCount”:26},{“caption”:”19: Friendship Is Coming – Despite not having any scenes with each other between Season 1 and Season 7, stars Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams have maintained a close BFF-style friendship throughout the entire series. The two became fast friends right as the show began and have been pretty inseparable as the years went on. Turner even asked Williams to be a bridesmaid in her wedding to Joe Jonas. The two also have matching GoT tattoos — which read \u002207.08.09\u0022 — marking the day they were cast on the series.”,”height”:1067,”width”:1600,”url”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/11\/10\/sophie-turner-maisie-williams-1541865721715.jpg”,”styleUrl”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/11\/10\/sophie-turner-maisie-williams-1541865721715_{size}.jpg”,”credit”:””,”objectRelationName”:””,”objectRelationUrl”:””,”albumName”:”25 Obscure Facts About Game of Thrones”,”relativePosition”:”08″,”albumTotalCount”:26},{“caption”:”18: The Queen and the Imp – The series holds another behind-the-screams friendship — that of Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey. Not only were the two friends before working together on the show, but Dinklage actually suggested Headey for the role of Cersei Lannister when he was in talks with producers Weiss and Benioff. Making their buddy-buddiness all the more grand is the fact that their characters loathe one another on screen. “,”height”:720,”width”:1280,”url”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/dinkhead-1536607801664.jpg”,”styleUrl”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/dinkhead-1536607801664_{size}.jpg”,”credit”:””,”objectRelationName”:””,”objectRelationUrl”:””,”albumName”:”25 Obscure Facts About Game of Thrones”,”relativePosition”:”09″,”albumTotalCount”:26},{“caption”:”17: It\u0027s a Nice Day for a Wildling Wedding – We suppose the ultimate friendship, the apex pairing, to come out of the series is the romance between star Kit Harington and actress Rose Leslie, who played the wildling Ygritte on the show for a few seasons. The two got married in 2018! Not too shabby considering their tumultuous on screen relationship came to a tragic end during the Battle of Castle Black.”,”height”:684,”width”:1216,”url”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/11\/10\/jon-snow-and-ygritte-1541866181155.jpg”,”styleUrl”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/11\/10\/jon-snow-and-ygritte-1541866181155_{size}.jpg”,”credit”:””,”objectRelationName”:””,”objectRelationUrl”:””,”albumName”:”25 Obscure Facts About Game of Thrones”,”relativePosition”:10,”albumTotalCount”:26},{“caption”:”16: The Wolf Among Us – The various Direwolves, introduced in the pilot episode, didn\u0027t wind up having the strongest track record for survival, but star Sophie Turner wound up adopting her wolf – a Mahlek Northern Inuit dog named Zunni – after its on screen counterpart Lady was killed off early in Season 1. Years later and Zunni is still a proud, furry member of the Turner household.”,”height”:720,”width”:1280,”url”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/sophieturnerladygameofthronesjpg-8829b0-1280w-1536608028264.jpg”,”styleUrl”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/sophieturnerladygameofthronesjpg-8829b0-1280w-1536608028264_{size}.jpg”,”credit”:””,”objectRelationName”:””,”objectRelationUrl”:””,”albumName”:”25 Obscure Facts About Game of Thrones”,”relativePosition”:11,”albumTotalCount”:26},{“caption”:”15: Happy Name Day – As Game of Thrones skyrocketed in popularity, so did the unique names of the show\u0027s characters. All of a sudden, parents from all over the world were naming their newborns \u0022Khaleesi,\u0022 \u0022Daenerys,\u0022 \u0022Arya,\u0022 \u0022Tyrion\u0022 and more. A ton of Thrones-based names, like Lord of the Rings names a decade earlier, popped up on national registries, and spiked hard between 2013 and 2015. “,”height”:720,”width”:1280,”url”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/18\/daenerys-targaryen-game-of-thrones-1537306241451.jpg”,”styleUrl”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/18\/daenerys-targaryen-game-of-thrones-1537306241451_{size}.jpg”,”credit”:””,”objectRelationName”:””,”objectRelationUrl”:””,”albumName”:”25 Obscure Facts About Game of Thrones”,”relativePosition”:12,”albumTotalCount”:26},{“caption”:”14: Poison Pen – A Song of Ice and Fire series author George R. R. Martin has actually written the scripts for four episodes of the TV series – Season 1\u0027s \u0022The Pointy End,\u0022 Season 2\u0027s mega-battle \u0022Blackwater,\u0022 Season 3\u0027s \u0022The Bear and the Maiden Fair,\u0022 and Season 4\u0027s Purple Wedding \u0022The Lion and the Rose.\u0022 Since Season 4 though, Martin has retired from GoT series writing so that he can focus on finishing the sixth book in the series, The Winds of Winter.”,”height”:720,”width”:1280,”url”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/18\/grrmjpg-b128aa-1280w-1537306231824.jpg”,”styleUrl”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/18\/grrmjpg-b128aa-1280w-1537306231824_{size}.jpg”,”credit”:””,”objectRelationName”:””,”objectRelationUrl”:””,”albumName”:”25 Obscure Facts About Game of Thrones”,”relativePosition”:13,”albumTotalCount”:26},{“caption”:”13: The End of All Things – The show\u0027s executive producers, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, met with author George R. R. Martin as they neared the point where the show was going to overtake the books, story-wise, so that they could get some answers out of him regarding his planned ending. Martin couldn\u0027t go into absolute specifics as to everything he was going to, or might, write in the books, but he provided them with a general overview and direction. Broad strokes, with a few key moments, so that they could get to work on filling in the rest themselves.”,”height”:720,”width”:1280,”url”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/benioff-weiss-1500499422719-1280w-1536607951547.jpg”,”styleUrl”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/benioff-weiss-1500499422719-1280w-1536607951547_{size}.jpg”,”credit”:””,”objectRelationName”:””,”objectRelationUrl”:””,”albumName”:”25 Obscure Facts About Game of Thrones”,”relativePosition”:14,”albumTotalCount”:26},{“caption”:”12: Riddle Me This – In order to win over George R. R. Martin when they approached him to see if he was open to a Game of Thrones TV adaption, executive producers Weiss and Benioff were asked, during a five-hour lunch meeting, a series of questions by Martin to see if they\u0027d read the books thoroughly. The kicker was \u0022Who is Jon Snow\u0027s mother?\u0022 We don\u0027t know if Weiss and Benioff answered correctly, but what they said was enough to gain the trust of Martin, and his blessing.”,”height”:720,”width”:1280,”url”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/cloak-1536607948471.jpg”,”styleUrl”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/cloak-1536607948471_{size}.jpg”,”credit”:””,”objectRelationName”:””,”objectRelationUrl”:””,”albumName”:”25 Obscure Facts About Game of Thrones”,”relativePosition”:15,”albumTotalCount”:26},{“caption”:”11: Hidden Figures – Eagle-eyed GoT fans spotted a quick, possible, Easter egg back in Season 1, in a scene featuring Jon Snow and Samwell Tarly. With the longtime \u0022R+L=J\u0022 theory (meaning Rhaegar Targaryen + Lyanna Stark = Jon Snow) having been proved correct on the show in Season 7, it\u0027s now fun to look back and see an R and L etched on a pillar, right next to Jon.”,”height”:599,”width”:1280,”url”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/gallery-1464089992-jon-snow-rl-1536607681310.jpg”,”styleUrl”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/gallery-1464089992-jon-snow-rl-1536607681310_{size}.jpg”,”credit”:””,”objectRelationName”:””,”objectRelationUrl”:””,”albumName”:”25 Obscure Facts About Game of Thrones”,”relativePosition”:16,”albumTotalCount”:26},{“caption”:”10: W\u00e4tchers on the W\u00e4ll – Michele Clapton, who designed the costumes for Game of Thrones Season 1 through 5, revealed last year that the noble furry cloaks worn by the Night\u0027s Watch to protect themselves from the freezing hell of the North were actually IKEA rugs. “,”height”:720,”width”:1280,”url”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/3653334524001-5541187149001-5541062809001-vs-1536607684062.jpg”,”styleUrl”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/3653334524001-5541187149001-5541062809001-vs-1536607684062_{size}.jpg”,”credit”:””,”objectRelationName”:””,”objectRelationUrl”:””,”albumName”:”25 Obscure Facts About Game of Thrones”,”relativePosition”:17,”albumTotalCount”:26},{“caption”:”9: A Swarm of Swords – The famed Iron Throne from the series, crafted by Aegon Targaryen I, from a thousand swords surrendered to him by his enemies, contains a few recognizable movie swords – including Gandalf\u2019s sword, Glamdring, along with Robin Hood\u0027s sword and a sword from Ridley Scott\u0027s Crusade era film, Kingdom of Heaven.”,”height”:720,”width”:1280,”url”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/iron-throne-teaser-game-of-thrones-18537483-1280-720-1536607811143.jpg”,”styleUrl”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/iron-throne-teaser-game-of-thrones-18537483-1280-720-1536607811143_{size}.jpg”,”credit”:””,”objectRelationName”:””,”objectRelationUrl”:””,”albumName”:”25 Obscure Facts About Game of Thrones”,”relativePosition”:18,”albumTotalCount”:26},{“caption”:”8: Coldhands, Warm Heart – The GoT series confirmed a major fan theory regarding the character of \u0022Coldhands\u0022 – a book character who appeared much earlier in the story and was vastly left out of the show – being Jon\u0027s lost uncle, Benjen Stark. But this might only be a show reveal. With the series having now journeyed beyond George R. R. Martin\u0027s books, it\u0027s unclear whether or not Martin will connect these two characters at all. It\u0027s said, and even seen in some notes between Martin and his book editor, that he considers Coldhands and Benjen to be two separate characters.”,”height”:720,”width”:1280,”url”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/coldhands-game-of-thrones-0-1536607675454.jpg”,”styleUrl”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/coldhands-game-of-thrones-0-1536607675454_{size}.jpg”,”credit”:””,”objectRelationName”:””,”objectRelationUrl”:””,”albumName”:”25 Obscure Facts About Game of Thrones”,”relativePosition”:19,”albumTotalCount”:26},{“caption”:”7: The Imp\u0027s Ex – Left out of the show was an important reveal regarding Tyrion\u0027s past. In a scene that would have come at the end of Season 4, had the producers kept it in, Jaime would tell Tyrion that Tyrion\u0027s first wife, Tysha, was NOT a prostitute hired by Tywin as a cruel prank on his son, and that she was actually a woman who loved and cared for Tyrion deeply. The prank was making Tyrion believe that she was hired to \u0022love\u0022 him, so that Tyrion would annul the marriage and cast her out. “,”height”:720,”width”:1280,”url”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/tyrionwife-1536607804876.jpg”,”styleUrl”:”https:\/\/assets1.ignimgs.com\/2018\/09\/10\/tyrionwife-1536607804876_{size}.jpg”,”credit”:””,”objectRelationName”:””,”objectRelationUrl”:””,”albumName”:”25 Obscure Facts About Game of Thrones”,”relativePosition”:20,”albumTotalCount”:26}]’
data-ads-disabled=’false’
data-ad-frequency=’3′
data-image-size=’1280w’>

Terri Schwartz is Editor-in-Chief of Entertainment at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.

Leave a Comment