In this informal video essay, the host explores which Westeros castle or stronghold is the best, weighing defensive utility, historical resilience, and aesthetic appeal. He begins by outlining his criteria—ability to fend off attacks, strategic location, and visual elegance—then evaluates several notable castles: Dragonstone (favored for its organic design and island advantage), Winterfell (historically breached by Theon), the Eyrie (virtually impregnable from the ground but vulnerable to air), Highgarden (beautiful but easily seized), Casterly Rock (strategically strong and rarely taken), Pyke (sea‑based but historically conquered), Castle Black (defended by the Wall but not a conventional stronghold), Riverrun (politically captured), and the Alcázar Palace used for Dorne (more a pleasure palace than a fortress). He also mentions Harrenhal’s ruined state. After comparing strengths and weaknesses, he concludes that Dragonstone edges out the Eyrie as his top pick, citing its rich history, dragon motifs, and defensive island position. The video ends with a call for viewers to comment on their favorite castles and a reminder to like, subscribe, and upvote.
Chapters
Hey you, welcome back to the channel. And guys, today I want to talk about what is the best castle or stronghold in Westeros. And I thought about that. I love some of the designs and some of the history about some of the castles and strongholds that have been part of the Game of Thrones or Song of Ice and Fire story. And it's been kind of hard to pick a favorite, or which one I think is the best one for a utility purpose and for fending off attacks, and also for just their elegance, beauty, and style. And so in this shot, we have a shot of Dragonstone. Dragonstone is definitely one of my favorite castles or strongholds. It looks organic. It looks to be alive. And when the World of Ice and Fire books were released and they showed artist depictions of Dragonstone, it looks quite a bit different from what we get in the TV show. But I like— I think I like the TV show's version a lot better. Better, although the book version is a little bit more decorative. But I really like how they simplified the look of Dragonstone yet made it organic and made it living. So, you know, as far as being able to protect itself, Dragonstone is an island, so that's always good. You gotta attack from the sea. Land troops. And so that puts Dragonstone obviously at a great advantage. So let's look at some more and let's try to decide which one might be the best castle based on a little bit of history and based on its ability to fend off attacks. Of course, that's Winterfell, and unfortunately Winterfell doesn't go to the top of my list because, you know, Winterfell was easy for Theon Greyjoy. We got to see in the Game of Thrones TV show to take Winterfell. But when it comes to fending off enemies, you know, Winterfell can hold up against armies for a good duration of time. But still, Winterfell wouldn't be one of my favorite of the of the castle. So let's look at this diagram, try to get an idea here of some of the castles and, uh, you know, what might, what might be the most advantageous castle. And one of the castles that comes to mind, it's known to be impregnable from attacks, specifically from the ground. But not from the air is the Eyrie, the stronghold of the House of Arryn and the Vale of Arryn. And, uh, you know, the, the lord of the, uh, the lord of the Vale, right? And that's the Eyrie, and that's at the right-hand corner here. And, uh, so the Eyrie is quite an amazing castle, definitely one of my favorites along there with Dragonstone. Not, not not only because of its, um, uh, location and, uh, strategic location, but just because of its organic elegance, how it blends into the, the mountains. And, um, you know, we got to see the sky sails, which, you know, were in the Moon Door. The Moon Door— we could forget the, the Moon Door when we saw in the TV show where Bronn had his battle with the knight, with Ser Varys. I believe his name was Ser Varys, and Bronn defeated Ser Varys and he was thrown out outside the Moon Door. So, Illyrio definitely is one of my favorites. Dragonstone is one of my favorites. Now let's look at House— I'm sorry, Highgarden, seat of House Tyrell. The bottom left-hand corner. Um, it's, uh, not much has been known, uh, as far as I'm aware of about, uh, Highgarden being, you know, being, uh, uh, being, uh, you know, put your attack desert yet. Uh, it was founded by Garth and then of course after Aegon's conquest it was handed took over Tyrell's, you know, as the Greenhands were removed from power. And the stewards at that time, the Tyrells were stewards of, or bannermen of, of the Greenhand house. And they took over Highgarden. Obviously, it's a very beautiful-looking castle, and I think we might get get to see it in this year's season 7 here of Game of Thrones for the first time. But not only Highgarden, we'll also get to see Casterly Rock. And so Highgarden, although it looks good, it probably wouldn't be one of my favorite castles because of the— because of its location. It looks like it could be seized quite easily. I wouldn't put that at the top of the list, but Casterly Rock might make it to the top of the list even though we haven't seen it yet. Just how it's described, its location. I don't believe it's ever been taken by anybody. Robb Stark wanted to take it. He never got to this location, wasn't successful. Daenerys in season 7, it seems she'll be trying to take it. I'm not sure if she'll succeed or not, but so far everything looks good. It does seem to have a very good location. It looks very hard to seize Casterly Rock, you know, without a great loss of life and troops. So definitely like Casterly Rock. Also Pyke. I like how Pyke is situated, although, you know, I don't think Pyke really would serve well as a stronghold as far as fighting off troops. Looks like Pyke would be easily taken, but I think with Pyke, how the Greyjoys operate, it's more than likely that if they can't stop you at the sea trying to come in and get to the Iron Islands, then you pretty much won the battle. You know, as they've been conquered, we've seen them be conquered several times already. The Greyjoy, you know, uprising or rebellion was was squashed quickly by Robert Baratheon and various things like that. So Pyke, not at the top of my list, although I like how they have the connective bridges from one castle to another. I'm not exactly sure, you know, just how well that works out. They got these little narrow bridges that they cross, and that's good, I guess, for keeping troops out, but obviously that wasn't enough because they've already been conquered and taken over, various things like that. Um, Castle Black, Castle Black, the Night's Watch. We know of course Castle Black has the Wall. They have the Wall on one side, but I guess if Castle Black was ever attacked, which they shouldn't be, but if they were ever attacked from inside within the Wall, doesn't look like Castle Black would really be a a good castle to defend off attacks. But again, Castle Black was never really created for that purpose. It was created to keep attacks from outside coming into Westeros. So they got the Wall, which gives it great protection in regards to that. But as a castle and a castle function within itself for itself, Castle Black definitely wouldn't go to the top of my list. And then we got Riverrun here, the seat of House Tully over 1,000 years. And we actually did get to see Riverrun at the last season, season 6, when Jaime Lannister had the showdown with the Blackfish. And, uh, you know, not so much that the Lannister army took Riverrun. They took it, you know, by, you know, by political means. It didn't, you know, didn't have to fight a bloody war or anything like that. Or, or, but what did— what was clear in that episode was that the Lannisters knew that they would take Riverrun. So that, that tells me that Riverrun is not, you know, one of the best strongholds Eventually the Lannisters were going to get through again. It's got one of these, these land locations where it's easy to transport troops in and surround the castle and various things like that. So definitely wouldn't be one of my favorite castles. So with that said, what is then— which would I say is the best? And I got, I got a combination of Eerie, the Eyrie, and I got a combination of Dragonstone. So which of those two? Those are my finals, and I would say, guys, I would have to go with Dragonstone, although I love the Eyrie. The Eyrie is very cool, one of the coolest strongholds I've ever seen in fiction or in real life. And just real quick, You know, a lot of these castles that are used in the Game of Thrones TV show are actually built around, or they use some CGI, and some of it's real, some of it's not CGI. They're actually, these are actually real castles, real stronghold locations. In here is not the, in real life it's called the Alcazar Palace. And it's the palace that's used by the Dornish House Martell. And but as you can see, that palace is more like a winter or a summer— I'm sorry, a winter or a pleasure palace, right? It's not something that's gonna, you know, fend off attacks really. It doesn't really serve that purpose. So it wouldn't make it to the top of my list, although I think it's very nice to look at. But the Eyrie, I do like, one of my favorites. But the reason I think Dragonstone would win out is because Dragonstone in the world of Game of Thrones specifically just has so much of a history and a Game of Thrones framework built into it that you can't help but not only see all the advantages to Dragonstone, but to see the entire legacy and history of the Game of Thrones world with the inclusion of all the dragon artwork, the organic look and feel to the castle. I just love it. It would definitely have to get my number 1 pick. So guys, what's your favorite Game of Thrones castle? Which one do you think is the best? And I did forget Harrenhal, but Harrenhal at this point is in ruin pretty much from when it was burned when Harren the Black placed his last and final stone on the castle. But anyway guys, what's your favorite pick for for best castle and stronghold in Game of Thrones? Comment, comment below. Let me know what your favorite is. Guys, if you like content like this, don't forget to like, subscribe. If you're watching this on Steemit, don't forget to upvote this video. And until next time, guys, take care.
