Wait, What *Do* Dragons Smell Like?

HUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON

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.

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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.

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HBO

Nick Schager

BBQ alligator

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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