Matt Smith waded into a classic fandom debate on Tuesday night while promoting House of the Dragon Season 2. The actor was talking about his experience with Kit Harington, who played the warrior-king Jon Snow on Game of Thrones long before Smith played Jon’s ancestor, Daemon Targaryen. Smith said that there’s no doubt that Daemon could defeat Jon in a fight.
“Who would win in a fight between Jon Snow and Daemon? Mate, I’ve got a dragon,” Smith said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. He added that he has a “lot of respect for Jon Snow,” and “don’t get me wrong. Kit Harington – lovely man, lovely guy. I have a lot of respect, but don’t get it twisted, I would f- those brothers up, mate. I’ve got a dragon.”
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House of the Dragon takes place about 180 years before the events of Game of Thrones, so there’s no chance of this fight actually playing out. It is set when House Targaryen was at the peak of its power with over a dozen dragons ready for war. Smith’s character Daemon is the quintessential Targaryen warrior, with a deep knowledge of how to train and ride dragons, as well as how to fight on his own. He is even the wielder of the Valyrian steel sword Dark Sister – one of the two ancestral swords of the Targaryens.
Debates like this are popular in many fandoms, and Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire are no exception. In fact, author George R.R. Martin himself got involved in one fan-favorite discussion like this at WorldCon years ago. When asked who would win in a fight between his character Jaime Lannister and J.R.R. Tolkien’s character Aragorn, Martin favored his own character, and gave his reasoning. He also once wrote a blog post depicting a fight between Jaime and Harry Potter‘s Hermione Granger, though that blog has since been deleted.
In the case of Daemon versus Jon Snow, Smith missed the key detail that Jon did bond with a dragon in the final season of the show. He rode the dragon Rhaegal on several occasions, apparently because of his Targaryen ancestry. However, the show didn’t do much with this bond and we can probably assume Jon’s connection with Rhaegal is not as strong as Daemon’s is with Caraxes.
House of the Dragon Season 2 premieres on Sunday, June 16 on HBO and Max. The first season is streaming on Max now, along with all eight seasons of Game of Thrones. Martin’s books are available in print, digital and audiobook formats.
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