Power ranking the dragons of A Song of Ice and Fire

1. Balerion

As with Drogon, there’s not much I can say about Balerion the Black Dread you don’t already know. Probably inspired by Ancalagon the Black, the greatest of the winged dragons from Tolkien’s Legendarium (another of George R.R. Martin’s dragons is called “Morghul”), Balerion was famously huge enough to swallow an aurochs whole. Balerion is the single biggest factor in the success of Aegon’s Conquest; that should be more than reason enough to put him at the top of this list.

Even before the Conquest, Balerion accomplished much, including destroying the Volantene Fleet, a feat Drogon could be forced to replicate. During the Aegon’s invasion, Balerion destroyed Harrenhal, killing Harren the Black Hoare and his sons and melting parts of the huge castle, including what would subsequently be named Kingspyre Tower.

Balerion was not a young dragon when Aegon the Conqueror landed on the spot that would become King’s Landing. Unlike Vhagar and Meraxes, Balerion was born before the Doom of Valyria, the only dragon on this list other than Terrax for whom that is true. Maybe that’s why he is in a league of his own. It’s obvious that knowledge about dragons deteriorated over the centuries following the Doom. And as knowledge withered away, so did the dragons themselves, to an extent. In a way, looking at Balerion is like looking back in time; what was the world like when dragons the size of Balerion were the norm? He stands above and apart.

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