Okay so I know what you’re thinking -- how can you analyze a fantasy show like Game of
Thrones with science?
You know what?
You're right.
Fine.
Let’s stick to the areas where G.R.R.
Martin’s epic fantasy only butts up against reality.
I’m doing this for you.
Hodor Hodor Hodor, Hodor Hodor...Hodor, I mean let’s start with Hodor, the big friendly
giant who has a real neurological disorder.
In Game of Thrones, the man known as Hodor is called that because that’s the only word
he can say.
He can move and reason and express emotion and otherwise act normally, but the only word
that comes out of his mouth is “Hodor.”
Over 150 years ago, this condition was actually described by a French physician named Paul
Broca.
In 1861 Broca encountered two patients, one of which could only say five words and the
other that could only say one word kind of like Hodor, but this time it was “tan”.
Upon their autopsy Broca found that both patients had damage to the inferior frontal gyrus of
the left cerebral hemisphere, or about here.
That area became known as “Broca’s area” in the brain, an area of the brain directly
related to speech.
Hodor’s condition is from a specific amount of damage to Broca’s area, and known as
expressive aphasia.
And it’s caused by something like a stroke or a blow to the head.
Hey, doesn’t Hodor have a scar on his Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor?
What about the dietary requirements of dragons?
Since we’ve already covered the science of dragon fire, let’s tackle something else.
In season five of Game of Thrones, at least in the first few episodes, Daenerys’s largest
dragon Drogon is on the loose.
But since we know an animal like this would have to fuel its energetic flight, it must
be consuming something… or someone.
What about a diet of people?
Well, in this season of Game of Thrones Drogon is about the same size as a Tyrannosaurus
Rex, so let’s assume that it has maybe the same metabolic needs, or about 40,000 calories
per day.
To lift this girth off the ground, Drogon’s wings, and the muscles required to flap those
wings, would have to be enormous, requiring enormous energy.
So maybe let’s multiply his energy needs by an order of magnitude or a factor of 10.
To supply the 400,000 calories that Drogon would need to sustain its flight every day,
it would need to eat at least three well-fed people every single day.
And sorry Dany, that’s a lot of people laid at your feet… and even more uh, children.
Game of Thrones.
This is a spoiler.
Okay?
Good.
Could the Mountain crush the Viper’s face in?
Could that happen?
Oddly enough, scientists haven’t crushed a living human skull to find out the forces
involved.
But we can look to studies that deal with skull damage to get some idea.
One study of children’s bicycle helmets used wetted, weighted cadaver skulls to test
the helmet’s ability to prevent skull injury.
But first they had to establish a baseline and to do this, they crushed these cadaver
skulls against a steel plate to see when they would “fail catastrophically”—uh, get
smushed.
The result?
520 pounds of force could crush a skull.
Well, seeing how the actor who played the Mountain, Hafthór Björnsson—his name is
Half-Thor, for goodness sake!—is literally the strongest man in Europe.
It’s not really out of the realm of possibility that he could crush a skull.
And crush our dreams.
But what about White Walkers and animal possessions and reanimated skeletons!?
Well c’mon, that’s just fantasy!
I’m waiting for the next person to get poisoned by some strange chemical or the next person
to get their skull crushed in.
Why?
Because Science, yeah!
Want more science?
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Thanks!