Canonically, dragons never stop growing, so there's no known limit to their size. Balerion the Black Dread - the largest of the known dragons - could swallow a mammoth whole. They definitely get a lot bigger than that picture.

 

So that's how big an auroch is.

 

Like direwolves, aurochs are real (extinct) animals.

 

I liked the Mercy chapter.

How old is Arya supposed to be in Winds? 13?

 

Ha, custom printed Game of Thrones Lego:

http://citizenbrick.myshopify.com/c...hter-force-complete-series-plus-bonus-minifig

Only $220 for 12 minifigs! Bargain!

How long until they get shut down...

 

It's the bonus 13th minifig that really crowns it:

 

Sir Ser Typesalot

You think they'd at least use the proper title...

 

That photo is an artist's impression of Balerion the Black Dread when Aegon the Conquerer rode him, but Martin actually gave input to get the dragons proportions roughly correct. Here is the quote from the artist:

Personally, I think Tyrion's quote about Balerion being able to swallow a mammoth is a little strange. Here is his quote:

We know aurochs are considerably smaller than mammoths. Even the largest aurochs reached 71 inches at the shoulder, while the typical mammoth was over twice that. Mammoths also had about ten times the mass. Given the substantial size difference, it's a weird comparison.

The quote also tells us Tyrion has never actually seen a mammoth, so it's possible he was exaggerating or underestimated how big mammoths are. Although we know from Martin's blog that Balerion died of old age sometime before 101AL, so maybe he did have time to grow large enough.

 

I think this is the key - he was ~200 years old when he died, 101 years after Aegon's landing, so assuming that he grew at approximately the same rate through his whole life, he would have been 2x that size by his death.

 

Personally, I wonder who rode him after Maegor's death. Did someone actually ride a dragon large enough to swallow mammoths whole, or did he just spend the rest of his life wild and untamed?

 

Careful, tho. Just because they grow constantly until they die, doesn't mean the growth rate is linear.

 

The same Martin post I linked says Viserys I rode Balerion. Viserys I outlived Balerion, so Balerion would have been at or near his peak size.

This is true.

Also, we don't know what year Balerion actually died - Martin just said he was not alive in 101, so he might have died well before then. Although for Viserys I to have rode him he had to have at least survived for several decades after that photo (Aegon died in 37, Viserys I died of old age in 129).

 

Was it ever said what Syrio Forel, the First Sword of Braavos, was doing outside of Braavos for such a long period of time?

 

I assumed he was in King's Landing on business and Ned hired him to train Arya, or that he specifically asked Syrio to come over and teach Arya.

Both are a stretch with no evidence what-so-ever and I imagine Syrio would demand a hefty fee or felt some kind of strange obligation based on Ned's reputation but outside of that... Yeah, good question.

Feel like Cheddar's idea that he was retired is more likely.

 

Retirement is a likely explanation for his presence as a teacher instead of doing what he was suppose to be doing as the First Sword of Braavos, but at the same time I find it unlikely that he would call himself that if he was just an ex-First Sword.

 

Meh. This doesn't seem like something that old people do? For some a title like that is yours for life. Barristan would certainly always consider himself a member of the Kingsguard even if Dany rejected him.

 

This. People still recognize him as Barristan The Bold, even if you'd be a bit closer to the mark by removing that 'B'. It's more likely than not that Syrio Forel is a former First Sword - as Cheddar said - and simply identifies as such because of the respect that that would garner, and anything else he could get out of it.

 

Or maybe, even if he's no longer the current first sword, it's still a proper title. Much like how it's still correct to refer to a retired judge as "Judge ____".

That seems like a very Martin-y explanation.

 

The greatest swordsman who ever lived, killed by Meryn fucking Trant?