Game of Thrones in Real Life

**The Real-World Inspiration Behind Game of Thrones' Iconic Elements**

When you think about *Game of Thrones*, the first thing that comes to mind is its fantastical elements: an enormous wall of ice, three fire-breathing dragons, and a massive fleet of ships. But while these fictional creations are certainly impressive, they actually have loose parallels in real-world history and natural history. Let’s delve into how some of *Game of Thrones'* most iconic elements stack up against their real-world counterparts.

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### The Wall: A Fortification Unlike Any Other

In the world of *Game of Thrones*, the Wall is an engineering marvel—an enormous barrier made entirely of ice, stretching 500 km along the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms. Standing at a staggering 213 meters tall, this structure was supposedly built using both magic and manual labor over 8,000 years ago to protect against the White Walkers during what’s known as the Long Night.

While the Wall is purely fictional, it does have an impressive real-world counterpart: the Great Wall of China. Though not nearly as tall (only 5–8 meters on average), the Great Wall spans a whopping 8,851 kilometers—a length that would require stacking almost 18 Wall-sized structures end to end to match. Constructed over centuries, the Great Wall was built to repel Mongolian hordes, much like the Wall was built to keep out the White Walkers and their fearsome forces.

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### The Iron Fleet: A Naval Powerhouse

The Iron Fleet, the naval arm of the ironborn, is another element that stands out in *Game of Thrones*. Initially consisting of just 100 longships, the fleet later grows to over a thousand vessels under Euron Greyjoy’s command. While it might seem unrealistic for the ironborn to build such a massive fleet so quickly, there is historical precedent for such naval power.

The Persian Empire’s navy under King Xerxes I during the second Persian invasion of Greece in 480–479 BCE was similarly vast, with an estimated 1,275 ships. Like Euron Greyjoy, Xerxes sought to use his overwhelming numerical advantage to defeat his enemies. However, despite their size, both fleets faced the same challenge: maneuverability. The Persian fleet, much like the Iron Fleet, struggled in narrow straits, leading to decisive defeats at the hands of a smaller but more agile enemy.

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### The Dragons: Fire-Breathing Monsters Made Real

Few elements in *Game of Thrones* are as iconic as the dragons. Daenerys Targaryen’s three massive creatures—especially Drogon, who is said to be the size of a 747—are among the show’s most awe-inspiring features. While fire-breathing dragons don’t exist in reality, there are ancient creatures that share some traits with these mythical beasts.

The pterosaur *Ketel* (or *Quetzalcoatlus*) was one of the largest flying creatures to ever grace the Earth. With a wingspan of 16 meters and a height of at least 3 meters when grounded, this creature was truly massive. It shared with dragons their ability to dominate the skies, though it lacked the leathery wings and solid bones typically associated with mythical dragons.

Then there’s *Megalania*, the largest known terrestrial lizard to ever exist. This ancient predator, an ancestor of modern monitor lizards, had a massive frame, strong limbs, and a fearsome jaw filled with serrated teeth. Its venom was so potent that it could cause wounds resembling severe burns—perhaps inspiring the fire-breathing legend associated with dragons today.

If only *Ketel* had wings powerful enough to lift its massive body, we might have had true dragons in the real world. While the idea of creatures that can breathe fire remains speculative, these ancient beasts remind us that nature often provides inspiration for even the most fantastical elements of fiction.

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### Conclusion: The Real-World Roots of *Game of Thrones*

As you watch *Game of Thrones*, it’s easy to get swept up in its imaginary world. But beneath the magic and the mayhem lie real-world inspirations, from ancient fortifications like the Great Wall of China to naval battles reminiscent of Persia’s fleet. And who knows? The dragons we so love—and fear—might just be the result of ancient legends born from encounters with truly terrifying creatures.

If you’re inspired by *Game of Thrones* and want to create your own fan site or blog, Squarespace is an excellent choice. With its sleek templates and user-friendly design, it’s perfect for bringing your vision to life without needing any technical expertise. Whether you’re sharing theories about the show’s ending or showcasing your own fan art, Squarespace makes it easy to build a professional website.

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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis video is brought to you by Squarespace unless you've been living under a rock you've either seen the premiere of season 7 or you've had it spoiled for you by someone who has and if you don't watch Game of Thrones you really should give it a try there's nothing quite like watching your favorite characters get killed in the most brutal fashion but beyond the hype the show generates it's full of little details that seem to be in such contrast to reality and that's part of what makes Game of Thrones so interesting an enormous wall of ice built to keep out barbarians and Ice zombies three enormous fire breathing dragons a fleet of a thousand ships and countless others but despite how Fantastical these elements seem they each have at least loose parallels in reality let's start with the wall stretching almost 500 km along the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms this massive 213 M tall fortification of solid ice was supposedly constructed using both magic and manual labor about 8, th years before the show takes place in the aftermath of what was called the long night to defend the realm against White Walkers most people in the Seven Kingdoms including many of the knights watch until recent events believe the white walkers to be a myth and see the wall as more of a barrier to repel The Fearsome wildlings who live in The Frigid North the wall is undoubtedly enormous but the real world has an equally impressive counter while not nearly as tall as the wall of ice reaching just 5 to 8 m high on average the Great Wall of China is much much longer and built for a similar purpose not keeping out ice zombies but the possibly equally terrifying Mongolian hordes the main stretch of the Great Wall is a staggering 8,851 km long so while you'd have to stack about 26 great walls on top of each other to reach the height of the ice wall you'd have to place almost 18 of the ice wall end to end to match the length of the real world's most impressive wall next let's look at the mighty iron Fleet the iron Fleet the military arm of the iron born's massive assort of vessels was initially just 100 of their largest longboats this number dwindled to around 61 and when euron Greyjoy killed his brother Balon and took the throne Yara and Theon fled with a sizable portion of the remaining Fleet uron then ordered the construction of an additional thousand ships to hunt them down and prepare for war let's just ignore the fact that the iron Islands couldn't possibly build that many ships with their limited supply of lumber especially not within the time span of a couple months that's not what we're looking at does the G gantic iron Fleet have a real world parallel if we restrict our comparison to the part of history with similar technology to the Game of Thrones Universe the most direct comparison would be to the Persian Empire's Navy under King Xerxes I in 480 bcee this was the largest Fleet in history until the US Navy in World War II and numbered 1,27 ships in trims alone not counting the thousands of smaller vessels also involved Xerxes raised his Fleet in an attempt to crush the Greeks during the second Persian invasion of Greece between 480 and 479 BCE on paper it looked like an easy win for the Persians who outnumbered the Greek navy by some 900 ships in the bloody naval battle that ensued the Persian fleet was too large and cumbersome to maneuver in the narrow Straits in which the battle took place and the Greeks scored a decisive Victory euron greyjoy's Fleet is formidable but look what happened to the Persians it just goes to show that greater numbers don't necessarily mean anything if your enemy is prepared or has three dragons speaking of dragons let's take a look at these giant fire breathing monsters that are so prevalent in mythology around the world in Game of Thrones Daenerys Targaryen is lucky enough to raise Three Dragons from Tiny hatchlings to their current monstrous size in season 7 according to one of the show's directors drogon is the largest and is roughly the size of a 747 assuming that's not a gross exaggeration that would mean that drogon is 70 M long and has a wingspan of 64 m besides size dragons have several other notable features that you wouldn't expect to see in real life first they Wings unlike Birds dragons have leathery Wings most similar to a bat that are used to lift their massive weight off the ground also unlike Birds their bones are usually assumed to be solid and very strong rather than Hollow finally the typical dragon is depicted as being able to breathe fire are there any creatures in real life living or dead that come close to these traits well yes and no no there's not any single creature that has all of a dragon's characteristics but it might take fewer than you'd think to get the whole combination about 68 million years ago in North America there lived the largest flying creature in all of history it was called Ketel kadus and it shared the dragon's capacity for flight and some of its massive size the Ketel had a wingspan of about 16 M and stood at least 3 m tall when grounded this impressive Beast is estimated to have weighed between 200 and 250 k a considerable amount for a flying creature while the ketzel probably would look like a dragon in Flight it lacked some key features most notably a reptilian body teeth weight and the ability to breathe fire that brings us to the other half of our real life dragon this is Megalania the largest known terrestrial lizard to ever exist ancestor of the Australian goana monitor lizard and the kimodo dragon Megalania lived during the Pline era which means it coexisted with ancient humans and could have been the origin of dragon mythology in some parts of the world this deadly reptile fit common depictions of dragons to a tea it was giant had Strong Limbs a Crest between the eyes and a large fearsome jaw filled with serrated teeth but what really makes it stand out as a real life dragon is its incredibly corrosive Venom this Venom was fatal and 10 times more powerful than that of a kodo dragon due to its size it would cause wounds that looked like severe burns on its victims which likely sparked the fire breathing rumor if only Megalania had had an evolutionary need for wings and they were somehow powerful enough to lift the Beast off the ground we could have had true dragons in real life whether any creature could ever naturally develop the biological mechanism to breathe fire is doubtful but you never know but really we can all agree that it's probably a good thing the real world doesn't look more like Game of Thrones while I was researching for this video I got to check out some really cool Game of Thrones fan sites there was everything from news and rumors to behind the-scenes clips from crew members to Fan Art and more seeing all these different sites made me think how cool it would be to build my own Game of Throne speculation site because I'm pretty sure I know how the show is going to end and I want to be able to say I Told You So if I did make that website I definitely choose Squarespace as my platform because I've built other sites with their Sleek award-winning templates in the past and it really couldn't have been easier even for someone with no website design experience like me Squarespace is a professional super user friendly platform with nothing to install patch or upgrade so all you have to think about is what you want your website to be it's perfect for your own fan site blog or even your business visit squarespace.com secondth thought to save 10% on your first order if you enjoyed this video make sure to subscribe to keep up to date with the latest content and press that little bell under my channel name to be notified every time I release a new video you can watch my previous video by clicking here or if you're really bored you can watch all my videos by clicking here thanks thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video\n"