The Valyrian Dragons Bigger Than Balerion & Vhagar

The Valyrian Freehold was a great territory that spanned much of the continent of Essos, but has since fallen to ruin, approximately one hundred years before Aegon's Conquest, when it was brought down by a cataclysmic event known as the Doom of Valyria. Check out the entire video on our channel to learn whether or not there were larger Valyrian dragons than Balerion and Vhagar before Aegon's Conquest.

[trehubb]

With the Targaryens being a low ranked family on Valyria it definitely wouldn't surprise me if that there were dozens of dragons bigger then a Balerion or Vhagar

[Luna-eord]

We rlly need a prequel about old Valyria like HBO come on how epic would that be

[Sannabon]

I wish Martin would do a book on pre-doom Valyria. I would love to know about the culture, the dragons, and the other creatures in the region

[Cappellano]

The Cannibal was a wild dragon that came to Westeros on his own separately from the Targaryens. It is highly likely that other dragons dispersed elsewhere before the doom.

[NevG]

Man, I'd love to see a show about Old Valyria. The Targaryon's before the fall, as well as the other prominent houses and a bunch of dragons. Since Winds is likely a pipedream at this point, hopefully GRRM can work on that before he croaks. A few seasons detailing Old Valyria, the fall, and finally culminating with Aegon's conquest.

[caykahve]

Everyone keeps getting this wrong. By the time Balerion died, he was insanely big. Vhagar during the dance was getting close to Balerions size DURING the conquest. He didnt stop growing until he died which is during Viserys reign. Vhagar when she died isn't close to Balerion when he died..

[nokinho]

In books it's mentioned that dragons liked dragonstone more then other places, and they grow faster there, becouse it's vulcanic island.

[thebactrian]

The dragons didn’t necessarily become smaller in every successive generation, although none reached Balerion size the 3rd generation dragons like Meleys was not smaller than some 2nd generation dragons like Silverwing and Dreamfyre, given Meleys was around 30-40 years younger she would’ve definitely surpassed them and she lived in the dragon pit her whole life

[dragonballsuper]

George RR Martin confirmed there were Dragons in Valyria bigger than Balerion:

“My brother found this thing on Valyria, ” Victarion told the thralls. “Think how big the dragon must’ve been to bear two of these upon his head. Bigger than Vhagar or Meraxes, bigger than Balerion the Black Dread.”

- Victarion Greyjoy in The Winds of Winter

[liamcollins]

Did the later dragons really get smaller, or did they just not reach their potential because many of them died young during the Dance of Dragons?
Balerion is the only dragon confirmed to have died of old age and was at least 208 years old in 94 AC, but maybe older (we don't when he was born, just that it was in Valyria before the Targaryens left in 114 BC), and Vhagar was close at 180 years old.
Vermithor and Silverwing were both pretty huge at roughly 100 years old, and Caraxes and Meleys were both ~80 years old. Imagine how big these dragons could have all become if they'd lived another century.

[TheDeadlyKnight]

Euron’s dragon-horn was fashioned from the horn of a dragon so massive, it had to be larger than Balerion. - -At least the book characters speculate it to be so.

[christianayers]

To be fair the reason the dragons size drops by generation is cause they all killed eachother before they could grow.
Dragonstone is one of the last viable dragon habitats. They also got smaller from the dragon pit.
The dragons are fine without Valyria, it's the Targaryens who needed the blood magic.

[skylargray]

Looking at Caraxes who was a sleek, serpentine dragon one can imagine at least some of the higher ranking great Dragonlords of Old Valyria must've possessed dragons as sleek and serpentine as Caraxes, but closer to Smaug's size and level of destructive power.

[moonjaehui]

I think it was Aurion Belaerys's dragon (presumably Terrax) who is already described as a "huge dragon" around the time on the Doom. Aurion went back to Valyria shortly after the Doom with 30k Qohori troops on the back of this "huge dragon" and made himself the first emperor of Valyria before vanishing with his army, but there's nothing written about what happened to his dragon. Imagine how large that dragon could've grown if it dwelt there among the ruins by the time Balerion went back with Aerea...

[ChadSmith-nqty]

we keep goign backwards in the story haha. what a glorious series to watch forwards from scratch for people in 10-20 years

[no.alien]

I wish we could witness Aegon riding Belerion on the screen. Man, that would be so fucking epic.

[leonardbrazil]

It’s a shame to say but the vhagar size calculations are now void since the designing team confirmed that vhagar was 150 meters long

[halo-halo]

This pretty much explains why Dany's Dragons grew pretty fast, because they were born out of magic. I've been looking for this answer for a while and I've never seen a youtuber address this issue.

[Anthooyant]

I read a theory on a forum, about how the Targaryen's dragons were bred only for war, and that other dragon rider families had different types of dragons for things like the use of blood magic.

[gravestone]

it says Vhagar is almost the same size as Balerion was during the conquest. Aegons conquest only lasted 2 years During the conquest Balerion was already 100 years old and lived for another 108 years After the conquest which would mean Balerion would almost be 2x the size of vhagar. I keep hearing people say "Vhagar was almost as Balerion during the conquest" but yet seem to forget Balerion lived for an additional 108 years after the events of the conquest.