Wait, What *Do* Dragons Smell Like?
In a throwaway line from the “Game of Thrones” prequel’s premiere, one character scolds another, “You stink of dragon.” We haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
HBO
Even before House of the Dragon premiered, the drab Game of Thrones prequel has seemed like one of those shows that might raise more questions than it answers. For instance: “Does the world really need more of the “tits and dragons” show in 2022?” And also: “Who thought Matt Smith could pull off those wigs?”
For all the new fandom rabbit holes this new series creates, however, only one line has really stuck with us. In the premiere, a young Rhaenyra flies in on a dragon before sitting at her mother’s bedside in the castle. It takes only minutes for Aemma to tell her daughter to go take a bath—“You stink of dragon!”
This prompts an obvious, truly vexing question: What the hell does dragon smell like?
After a few days of sitting with this question and randomly journaling possible answers throughout the day—Is it like a dirty snake enclosure? Generational wealth, perhaps…but, like, covered in poo?—we realized this was a question that required group discussion. This needed to be a team effort. Here, for your perusal, are The Daily Beast’s entertainment team’s best guesses.
HBO
Nick Schager
BBQ alligator
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Old money
Charred rubber
Melted crayons
Chicken
Kevin Fallon
A golden retriever after you took it for a walk in the rain
Trash day in Manhattan in August
When your friend’s hair fell into a lit candle
A fart after you ate a sack of White Castle burgers
Asparagus
Allegra Frank
The middle schoolers sitting in the aisle of the YA fantasy section at Barnes and Noble
The garage where all your Disney VHS tapes have been sitting for 12 years
Leather sofa in 100-degree weather
Laura Bradley
Like the stables at an equestrian camp in August
Vick’s VapoRub, with a hint of burned popcorn in the office kitchen
The boys’ floors of a co-ed dorm building
The inside of a heavily used leather workout glove
Fletcher Peters
The blackened bits at the bottom of an air fryer
A campfire (but only after the dragon is bathed)
Madison Square Garden after 15 nights of Harry Styles performing
The beast in Beast
Adam Manno
Musty leather
A snake
Myrrh
A dusty attic
Kyndall Cunningham
The Rainforest Cafe
Vaseline
Burnt bacon
The inside of a brand-new car
The tire section at Sam’s Club
Coleman Spilde
An old, basically-falling-apart baseball glove leftover in the Disney Vault from the set of Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off
The Werk Room at RuPaul’s Drag Race after the queens have been baking in full makeup, wigs, and corsets under production lights for 16 hours
The blood-like metal of the fake teeth piece that Javier Bardem removes in Skyfall
Closing time at A Buffalo Wild Wings when all wings are half off with free dipping sauce varieties and there’s some sort of sport playoff happening
The set of Christina Aguilera’s “Dirrty” video
Madeline Roth
The cast you just had removed after breaking your arm 12 weeks ago
A donkey (this is purely based off Donkey & Dragon’s love story in Shrek)
The locker room showers at your local YMCA
Black licorice Twizzlers
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