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Would you consider Gregor Cleganes somewhat physically realistic?


fabio012

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Gregor is not 7 foot 11. He is merely described as "closer to 8 feet than 7" That could be anything from 7 foot 6 and a half inches, upwards.

Wich means that he very well could be 7 foot 11 or close to that, just not eight foot. Something like that is what I imagine him to be afterall, after taking into account all the descriptions of him (well over seven foot, closer to eight, towering over Hodor who is seven foot, a veritable giant...).

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I find it extremely unlikely to be honest. Anyone who grows past seven foot obviously has gigantism, which naturally leads to brittle bones, breathing difficulties and typically a reduced lifespan. But it is a fantasy book, so GRRM has taken some liberties with the physical as well as the magical - if a brother and sister have three children in the real world, the chances that all three will be healthy and beautiful with just some psychotic tendencies in the eldest are very slim as well. Inbreeding in the real world leads to debilitating health problems; just look at Charles II of Spain.


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Extremely tall? Yes.


Extremely strong? Yes.


Ultra-violent? Yes.


All three together? Hell no. Especially in the middle ages, and especially with that height. Gregor would have died from various complications a long time ago. Especially with his brutal lifestyle and milk of the poppy abuse. That's why I hate the Oberyn vs Gregor fight. No one is that strong or good of a fighter. Gregor is like the Mary Sue of vicious brutes.


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i always assumed gregor in the books to be about 7'3 or 4. add in an inch or two from the soles of his boots, and a few more inches on the top of his helm, and you have someone damn near 8 foot tall when he is armored. westeros doesn't have an NFL combine so who knows how tall he is barefoot.


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@TheBlackFlame


I have to disagree with you here at least as far as the growth of the dragons. There are several fish and reptile species that will grow, barring some illness or serious injury their entire lives. These species never become so large they can't function i.e.- fish can still swim just as well regardless of body weight. As they grow the muscle tissue becomes better able to support the additional weight. I'd imagine the same thing is true of bird species. The muscle part not the continuous growing part. Flight is a question of ratios not base weight a California Condor can fly up to 60 mph despite weighing almost 20 lbs. inversely a Homing Pigeon weights less than 2 lbs and can fly at about the same 60 mph, in fact its actually a little less think more like 52-55 mph. Granted we're discussing completely made up creatures so anything is possible I guess but I find GRRM actually bases many of his elements on actual scientific principles. For example, the Doom is described exactly like a massive caldera eruption and dragons not having arms is another example. There is not nor has there ever been a vertabrate with more than four legs barring mutational outliers in the history and prehistory of this planet. Hence wings and two legs in leu of four legs and wings. As I said we are discussing mythical creatures in a fantasy setting so I'm not sure how much traditional biology and physics really apply. However if we're basing our theory on actual biology I hate to tell you but you're demonstrably incorrect.



Someone needs to tell me how to properly quote someone on this forum!


About what you said, I am not an expert on physics but I know a few things and it just isn't logical that something could continually grow for ever. That part I think you agree, but it is also possible that the dragons have a "full growth", it is just so long that we never saw it because all dragons that we know of died before they reached it and/or people in Westeros have their facts wrong.


I know that this is a fantasy setting and not everything needs to be realistic, but from my understanding this forum examines just how realistic Gregor's properties are. Its perfectly fine as fantasy, it may be lacking as "scientifically" correct from what we know.


Flight is not just a question of ratios, because there is the scaling effect that I mentioned. If you scaled a bee or a mosquito 50 times, it would not be able to fly.The scaling effect applies to flight as well as standing, and even more so in flight because the gravitational forces are stronger. For a fish maybe it is less of a problem because it spends all of its time inside water and some fish that live underwater have kind of jelly-like skeletons because the water pressure is enough to keep their body together, otherwise they would get crushed solely by the pressure. The biggest bird that . Check this video out, that's one of the reasons that i mentioned the dragon thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utu-LpJn3Is

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I always put Gregor at about 7'9.



The thing that always weirded me out was how GRRM describes him as weighing nearly 30 stone (420 pounds) and practically all of it muscle. Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (Gregor's actor in S4) is 441 pounds at 6'9. (According to Wikipedia) A whole foot shorter than Gregor.



The Hound is around 6'8 and totally believable. (Hafþór is probably what the Hound from the books would actually look like IRL.)


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what do you think that tall and still super strong?

Apparantly he could be far stronger than he is in the books. The actor that plays him in season 4 is even wider apparantly than book mountain.

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I always put Gregor at about 7'9.

The thing that always weirded me out was how GRRM describes him as weighing nearly 30 stone (420 pounds) and practically all of it muscle. Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (Gregor's actor in S4) is 441 pounds at 6'9. (According to Wikipedia) A whole foot shorter than Gregor.

The Hound is around 6'8 and totally believable. (Hafþór is probably what the Hound from the books would actually look like IRL.)

Rory McCann is 1.98 metres tall, the Hound is 2 metres tall. His height is perfect for the role imo.

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Real world equivalent = bees. They shouldn't be able to fly in theory.

That was based on some incorrect assumptions about the mechanics of a bee's flight. They guy who came up with this certainly didn't propose it as a serious theory since it's obviously not in accord with reality. It's only on the Westeros Forum that theories don't have to make sense.

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I always put Gregor at about 7'9.

The thing that always weirded me out was how GRRM describes him as weighing nearly 30 stone (420 pounds) and practically all of it muscle. Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (Gregor's actor in S4) is 441 pounds at 6'9. (According to Wikipedia) A whole foot shorter than Gregor.

The Hound is around 6'8 and totally believable. (Hafþór is probably what the Hound from the books would actually look like IRL.)

The Mountain is certainly fit as fuck

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He's plausible but stretched. A guy that big would have health problems and would probably not make a nearly invincible soldier. He does have headaches and all, but IRL it's probable he would also suffer heart problems and wouldn't naturally live much long past 40-45. The guy who portrayed him in season 4 of the show is about as big and strong as big and strong can possibly get, and he was a bit panned for being too short. It's at that point that you know the Mountain is not 100% realistic.



Then again, if we can accept Martin's version of genetics and the tumble-happy dwarf, I'm pretty sure a 7'9, very strong guy is lower than that on the ''humans don't work that way'' scale. It's not a big deal.



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There are a couple people in human history known to have been that tall, and fewer still to be that tall and also really big, but Shaq is probably the closest to being so freakishly strong and athletic in spite of being that huge. And that's with all the advantages of modern nutrition and training techniques. The overwhelmingly majority of people that size would lose a sword fight in ten seconds to anyone with skill. They're slow, uncoordinated, and present an enormous target.

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Did you read how unhealthy Robert was though? He needed bracers on his legs.

True but if you look at Kosen who suffers from the same condition as Wadlow he has none of symptoms that plauged him, i.e.- irregular heartbeat, extreme blood pressure fluctuations, joint rumination etc. On the other hand Andre the Giant (I apologize I don't know his real name offhand I'm not a wrestling fan) was only 7 foot 4 inches and suffered far more complications from his gigantism than Wadlow ever did. The reason he was healthier and able to survive longer was that better treatment was available than during Wadlow's time. I'm of the opinion that these cases need to be considered individually as there is a huge variance in what doctors refer to as "quality of life" among those with gigantism. Look at Yao Ming he has gigantism and he is in such great shape he played basketball on the professional level for years without extraordinary hardship. So its definitely within the realm of the possible.

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