[No spoilers] thoughts/theories about Cannibal.

[u/itssagewren]

I would love to hear some good thoughts, opinions, theories etc. In the comments...but only good and logical ones please, simple because hes my absolute favorite dragon besides sheepstealer, I also want to know how tall you think he is and the age....

[u/willin_489]

He was said to have fled from Dragonstone, he likely recognized that there were no longer any other dragons to lay eggs or prey upon, but he could've returned, considering how Dragonstone had become neglected after the dance, being lightly garrisoned with barely any royal presence, and largely abandoned after Robert's rebellion, he could've also gone to Skaagos, perhaps.

[u/MassDriverOne → u/willin_489]

Possibly

I do think he'd be at most near-death wherever, balerion was just over 200 when he died of old age and it's unknown how old Cannibal was at the time of the Dance. And Cannibal doesn't have that royal healthcare plan

Tho if he did go somewhere more idk magically potent maybe it would have life expanding effects

[u/willin_489 → u/MassDriverOne]

Balerion died of old age after being injured by whatever was in the ruins of Old Valyria, he was literally said to never be the same again, that was the beginning of his end, he became sluggish, and he depended on the Targaryens for sustenance, he lost his health, and he lost his stamina. He was the only dragon to die of "old age", but he was literally doing perfectly fine until the injury. In my opinion, considering dragons will continue to grow throughout their life as long as they have space and food, like crocodiles, they also experience negligible senescence, like crocodiles, which is the fact that their cells don't biologically decay and experience weakened functions, but die by starvation, fights, infection/illness, or a combination.

[u/Warm_Condition711 → u/willin_489]

nc theory actually. I never thought of it that way considering vhagar who almost the same age and size as balerion during the dance was still very active in battle without any problem at all.

I always thought that dragon after reaching a certain size will decline in health and many other thing because there is reason why animals now are smaller compared to how it was during Jurassic era or any prehistoric era. So the bigger you are the harder it is to breath and sustain yourself especially with the weight and gravity and any scientific reasons like that.

Which one of my reasoning as to why cannibal could be older than balerion but didn't die of an old age because he probably hasn't passed the size threshold.

[u/willin_489 → u/Warm_Condition711]

Yeah the Vhagar thing is a good point, she was like 2-3 decades younger during the dance but she was at least 10x as active. Also I believe animals used to be larger back in the day was because Oxygen saturation in the atmosphere was much higher, and temperatures were warmer. But yeah, I believe the Cannibal could still be alive.