The Cannibal: Game Of Thrones' Most Terrifying Dragon Explained

Based on the title alone, it shouldn't come as a big surprise that on the HBO series "House of the Dragon" — the first major spin-off and prequel of their massive hit "Game of Thrones" — gives audiences a lot of insight into the dragons that populate Westeros during the timeline of the prequel series. By the time "Game of Thrones" begins its narrative, dragons are believed to be fully extinct until Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), one of the only descendants of the ancient and royal house, brings three seemingly dormant dragon eggs into a fire with her and emerges with three baby dragons bonded to her. "House of the Dragon," though, which centers around the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, has quite a lot of dragons, from Syrax (who's bonded to Emma D'Arcy's Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen) to the massive and ancient Vhagar (ridden by Ewan Mitchell's traitorous second son Prince Aemond Targaryen) to relative newcomer Vermithor, another humongous and incredibly old dragon who's claimed by "dragonseed" Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew).

With all that said, there's one major and frankly terrifying dragon who hasn't entered the chat on "House of the Dragon" yet, and that's a wild dragon known only as "the Cannibal." The Cannibal is particularly dangerous because it's a wild dragon — more on that in a second — and it's bound to become a part of the narrative of "House of the Dragon" because of its strange and somewhat tenuous relationship with one of the show's characters. Allow us to explain.

Here are some basic facts about the dragon known as the Cannibal. First, the dragon — which is described as a male dragon — resides on Dragonstone as a wild creature and is completely pitch-black in color, which would presumably allow it to use the cover of darkness to sneak up on unsuspecting prey. Nobody knows the Cannibal's age, though, but he's believed to be even older than Sheepstealer, a dragon that hatched during the reign of Jaehaerys I Targaryen (which is long before the events of "House of the Dragon" even begin). Unusually, the Cannibal was also unfriendly to other dragons, which is pretty rare, especially amongst dragons presumably borne from a batch of eggs that belonged to the ancient Westerosi house.

As such, the Cannibal is known to hunt not just weak prey like sheep and livestock, but other dragons from its place at Dragonstone; those aforementioned dragonseeds, which are illegitimate children with possible Valyrian blood who can ostensibly tame dragons, keep trying and failing to claim the Cannibal to the point where the dragon's normal lair is covered in their discarded bones. This is the scariest thing about the Cannibal, ultimately — he answers to nobody and hunts and attacks as he pleases, and no rider can claim him for battle or stop him from terrorizing other creatures. So how does he get involved in the Dance of the Dragons?

Within the narrative of "House of the Dragon," the young noblewoman Lady Baela Targaryen, played by Bethany Antonia, is already bonded to a dragon named Moondancer — but even so, her plotline might end up bringing the Cannibal into the mix. (It's interesting, though, that Baela's sister Lady Rhaena, played by Phoebe Campbell and the character who may or may not end up taming Sheepstealer, doesn't have any part to play in this potential plotline if we go solely off of what's represented in "Fire & Blood," the Targaryen family history by George R.R. Martin.) Here's what we might end up seeing based on "Fire & Blood," though.

After another wild dragon's corpse is discovered near where the Cannibal is known to reside, Rhaenyra's staunch supporter Ser Robert Quince — who, as of this writing, has not appeared on "House of the Dragon" — decides to rally some knights and kill the Cannibal for everybody's safety. Afraid of the Cannibal, Ser Robert ends up just telling everyone to be more careful, and Baela, unsatisfied with that answer, tries to go after the Cannibal herself atop Moondancer. Ser Robert literally imprisons her to stop her from going. Ultimately, after the Dance of the Dragons ends, we learn that the Cannibal is one of the only known surviving dragons: "The Cannibal still haunted the eastern slopes of the Dragonmont," the history tells us.

When the Cannibal will show up on "House of the Dragon" is anybody's guess, but based on just how cinematic it would be to see this massive and terrifying dragon, it feels like a safe bet that he'll enter the fray. "House of the Dragon" and "Game of Thrones" are both available to stream on HBO Max now.