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There are some potential Game of Thrones spoilers ahead if you’re not caught up on Season 7, so be aware of that as you read on….Now, let’s get started.
Celebrity physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson took to Twitter yesterday to drop science on some happenings in Game of Thrones Season 7. He was nice enough to wait a few weeks after the Season 7 finale before he started tweeting about it, presumably to avoid dropping spoilers on his 9.24 million followers.
Neil occasionally does this on Twitter, applies the Laws of Physics to TV/Movies. He started out tweeting about the physiology and biology of dragons, which he says Game of Thrones mostly got correct when designing the show’s 3 dragons. However, it was his last tweet about the so-called ‘ice dragon’ that’s the most intriguing. Here’s his Twitter blast on the physics of Game of Thrones, in order:
Everybody all caught up on #GameOfThrones? I have a comment or two, if anybody is interested…
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) September 24, 2017
I thought the frozen dead dudes couldn’t swim, but aside from that…
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) September 24, 2017
Bad Physics in #GameOfThrones: Pulling a dragon out of a lake? Chains need to be straight, and not curve over hill and dale. pic.twitter.com/VIJlIuDz3L
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) September 24, 2017
Good Bio-Physics in #GameOfThrones: The Dragon Wingspans are sensibly large, as their body weight would require for flight. pic.twitter.com/gzD5wI38u5
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) September 24, 2017
The sensibly large wingspan of Dragons in #GameOfThrones contrasts with aerodynamically useless wings of Renaissance cherubs. pic.twitter.com/I8L8ILBtUu
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) September 24, 2017
Good Biology in #GameOfThrones: As in #LordOfTheRings, Dragons forfeited their forelimbs to make wings, like birds & bats. pic.twitter.com/pguBe6rosQ
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) September 24, 2017
All of that’s quasi-interesting, but none of it really sheds light on the show and potential mysteries about this so-called ice dragon, or zombie dragon. This tweet, however, potentially drops some knowledge on fans:
Intriguing Thermal Physics in #GameOfThrones: BlueDragon breath would be at least a factor of 3X hotter than RedDragon breath pic.twitter.com/RvpBkqJ1sw
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) September 24, 2017
Everyone’s assumed it is an ice dragon…But would ice bring down The Wall which was made of ice? Or would blue fire that’s 3x the heat of normal red dragon breath make a lot more sense?
It seems silly to apply the rules of Physics to the CGI dragons in a Fantasy TV series, but it also seems like the Game of Thrones writers try and keep the show as realistic as possible within the realm of Fantasy. So going forward, until HBO states otherwise, I’ll just assume that it’s blue fire and 3x as hot as the fire from the other two dragons.