Sheepstealer - Size, Origins, Appearance, Fate - Explained

Lets begin with diving into what Sheepstealer is in the Books, then go on to the series. In Fire & Blood, Sheepstealer was a lean, mud-brown dragon with a notable preference for mutton. Generally non-aggressive towards humans unless provoked, Sheepstealer had a reputation for being vicious and ill-tempered sometimes. Although Sheepstealer was known to have been in the Vale of Arryn at one point, he did not seek refuge there during the period when Rhaena was a ward of Jeyne Arryn as his primary residence was always Dragonstone. During the event known as the Red Sowing, Silver Denys attempted to claim Sheepstealer inside the dragonmont, but the dragon violently resisted him, tearing off Denys' arm and he was afterwards devoured by the larger cannibal. Grand Maester Munkun described Sheepstealer and his rider Nettles as "a skinny brown girl on a skinny brown dragon," though it is important to note that Munkun never actually saw Nettles himself.
Now, in the series, Rhaena Targaryen found out ashy remains of dead sheep and goats in the Vale, she was later told by Jeyne arryn that there was indeed a dragon there that was large and formidable. Since, Rhaena had been denied by the dragons of dragonstone to be their rider, she was desperate to find and finally bond with one. She also wanted to secure the aid of the Vale with their 15,000 soldiers in order to bolster Rhaenyra’s cause. After travelling for a while, never mind leaving the little kids alone, she finally tracks down the sheepstealer dragon after seeing him fly beside the mountains of the vale. She meets him and the encounter was left with a cliffhanger for the next season. But it is safe to say that she will tame and ride the beast, therefore cutting off the character of Nettles from the show.

[saba.k]

Sheepstealer is 80-90 years old, and spent all his life free and with enough food, why isn't he as large as Silverwing or Vermithor ?

[plainsongsutaru]

I also have issues with Sheepstealer's size, but at the same time, it's not that far off.

To elaborate on why I think that is, I'm going to use both the book lore and the show lore as references.

In the book, it explicitly states that both Caraxes and Sheepstealer don't stand a chance against Vhagar on their own and that they only stand a chance at taking her down when they're together.

In the show, when Rhaenyra and Jacaerys are speaking in episode 5, Jace mentions that Silverwing and Vermithor are the only two dragons that can kill Vhagar when they're alone (at least, that's how I understood what he said).

Besides, Daemon asks and even attempts to force Rhaenys (not that The Queen Who Should Have Been would ever let Daemon of all people tell her what to do) to join him, because with Meleys and Caraxes together, he was almost certain that they'd be able to kill Vhagar.

So, I think that the show was right to make Sheepstealer smaller than Silverwing and Vermithor (even though he should be around the size of Silverwing, maybe a bit smaller, based on his age, because he hatched when Jaehaerys was young), but in my opinion they made him a little too small.

Anyway, this may be an unpopular opinion (along with the fact that I'm glad they cut Nettles and are giving Sheepstealer to Rhaena), but it's just that: my opinion.

[LetsGameWithKaran]

Too small for a 90 year old free freaking dragon

[MourningCoffeeMusic]

If Sunfyre is really dead like Aegon said, this show really did him dirty.

[darienextreme]

it looks like a pink but dirty dragon, i think they are putting Sheepstealer and Morning together

[wafflingmean]

I love Sheepstealer's design but his size makes no sense at all. He should be at the smallest, only slightly smaller than Silverwing. Instead he doesn't even look half her size.

[honeybadger]

Sheepstealer is big, no idea what you guys are talking about. Bigger than moondancer, vermax, and probably bigger than Sunfyre too. As big as Syrax and Seasmoke. You gotta understand that Vermithor and Vhagar are like the giants among their kind, like freakishly huge even for dragons. They’re like the equivalent of that one 6’7 300 pound freak of nature lineman. Youre acting like the show is being faithful to the books for something as insignificant as the size and age of a dragon. Sheepstealer is oldish in the books, but they’re probably going for sheepstealer being more like 30 years old here and they might even have him grow. His design is SICK, like a pissed off alley tomcat. His patches of offcolor skin are sick too, like a true wild mutt dragon whereas Sunfyre Syrax and Silverwing look bred for beauty.

[sergioferrero]

Great video as always! Considering Sheepstealer's age, I would've expected him to be significantly bigger, even more so given that he's a wild dragon.

I'd love to see a Tessarion and Dreamfyre size estimation. Sadly, I'm afraid there's not enough material

[sijoypjohn]

Seepsteeler is the 5 largest dragon behind vhagar, cannibal, vermithor and dreamfyre but in show they purposefully reduce its size.

[jennifertaing]

One thing nobody has mentioned is why exactly some dragons get so huge. While growing up free and uncaged is one theory, another perhaps in combo is that dragons needs magic to grow. Martin has said over and over again there is power in blood. Some people have more significance/ magic than others, like royalty. Dragons that have been in battles and killed people by the score and/or eaten people are exposed to more magical energy and can grow larger and faster. A lot of the mature dragons seen in the show are veterans of past battles. Meleys, vhagar, caraxes, etc and have killed hundreds of people, allowing them to absorb the magical energy. The current gen dragons like sunfyre, vermax, and arrax spent their whole lives in the dragon pit. Dragons might not necessarily die from not killing and eating people but they are smaller for it. Sheepstealer was known to eat sheep, and was rather skittish. Could she have killed or eaten people along the way? Maybe, but she has her name for a reason. So even though she is of an age that should make her pretty big, she’s remained somewhat stunted. Think to drogon growing larger than his brothers. Yes he flew free while the others were caged, but he also killed and ate lots of people, and was involved in several fights too. Remember that the blood mages of valyria are theorized to have created dragons from combining fire wryms and drakes. They used blood magic, aka ritualistically killing many many slaves, to allow the mages to create hybrids. It’s not crazy to think that the dragons, as a result of the means of their species creation, would benefit from absorbing the blood magic from their victims.

[hannibalsmyth]

I’m glad sheepstealer made an appearance but I hate the fact that Nettles won’t make an appearance and is being sidelined for Rhaena.

[mauratjr]

The size of the Dragon can appear to be off because of camera angles. He made that sheep look miniature plus the distant shot made him look like a large dragon. One angle is her looking from a distance, which makes the dragon appear small but the side by side shows a large dragon

[jamieohjamie]

"He never really saw the dragon, so he didn't know shit." LMAO

[JonaTicStudios]

Sheapstealer's gotta be my third favorite dragon behind Vermithor and Vhagar now, Love his design ESPECIALLY His roar, It sounds very.... Mechanical, Reminds me of the WDRA (When Dinosaurs Roamed America) Dilophosaurus, Best roar in the show though for me personally is hands down Vermithor. Vhagar's updated vocals from EP.7 sound awesome too (She sounded way too hollow before IMO.)

I'm thinking in S3 Sheapstealer once claimed will get larger, Maybe the last time we see him he'll be S8 Drogon or Silverwing sized? That's just me, Anyway, Nice video!

[Kyoril]

Sheepstealer dropping that mutton from his mouth like "What? I'm hungry. Dont judge me"

[MaxIronsThird]

People complaining about Sheepstealer's size are funny(i also think the calculation here is wrong), i get getting angry about Nettles being cut from the show but this is ridiculous, they're basically using the same concept from Cannibal and Grey Ghost, meaning wild Dragons(Dragons that never bonded and have to hunt on their own) don't grow as much as Targaryen Dragons, which are constantly fed and don't need to scout for food.

PS: There is also the theory that blood magic accelerates Dragon's growth and that would be why Vermithor is bigger than Cannibal and Silverwing is bigger than Sheepstealer.

[marcos-llyr]

I like his design but not the size looks small for a wild dragon

[Killerwale-hkwy]

I really hope we get to see Cannibal. I want to see a dragon that is just designed to look evil.

[Guavapiñaa]

Finally, a video that mentions that Munkun described the dragon but really never saw how the dragon looked. I saw people outraged because the dragon was not "mud brown" like the books described it. I personally find the design to be ugly, but it suits Sheepstealer wild nature and that pied coloring is spot on

[breadybeans]

If y’all are wondering why sheepstealer Isn’t very big… well.. I’m not 100% sure if this is true but dragons need magical energy to grow large, and burning people is a good source of magic.. which is also probably why Drogon grew so big so fast (he started killing people when he was a hatchling) and why balarion and all the other large dragons (like vhagar, being a war dragon) grew soo big. They were used for war and burnt many, so they grew larger.


(O yea I forgot to add the Main reason: sheepstealer did not interact with people so he didn’t really burn anyone)