Is the Wither stranger than the Ender Dragon boss in Minecraft?

Minecraft, at least in its vanilla iteration without mods, has creatures that are coded as bosses within the game: the Ender Dragon and the Wither. Though the two creatures are different when it comes to their behavior, battle strategies, and lore, there's little denying that they're quite unusual compared to most in-game mobs. However, which mob is the stranger boss overall?

Both of these entities are fairly odd in Minecraft, which is likely what makes them such memorable bosses. The two creatures, aside from their common color scheme and status as endgame opponents, are quite different in most other respects.

Be that as it may, it's difficult not to assert that the Wither is undoubtedly the stranger of the two bosses, even in the world of Minecraft.

Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and reflect the opinions of the writer

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Why the Wither is stranger than the Ender Dragon in Minecraft

Most Minecraft fans would agree that the Wither is certainly the stranger of the vanilla game's two bosses. Why is this the case exactly? There are a few means of explaining this, both from a lore perspective and from a pure gameplay angle. It doesn't hurt to examine both to get the point across.

As far as lore goes, most Minecraft players have seen a dragon before they began playing the game. The Ender Dragon may have a particularly unique breath attack and hang out in the End, but she's still a dragon at her core, and this doesn't exactly come across as strange in the same way that the Wither does.

As far as appearance and lore go, the Wither is undoubtedly much stranger to most Minecraft players. For starters, the creature appears to be some strange fusion of three wither skeletons and has some very unusual abilities, including exploding upon its creation, leaving behind a wither rose upon death, and firing wither skeleton skulls as projectiles.

From a gameplay standpoint, the Wither is even more unusual when compared to the Ender Dragon. While the dragon's behavior and battle tactics are roughly the same in both of the primary editions of Minecraft, the Wither possesses different attacks and patterns (as well as different stats) between Java and Bedrock Editions of the game.

This is to say nothing of the fact that the Wither stands apart as an optional boss that must be manually summoned just to be fought. Moreover, the Wither is the lone source of nether stars outside of the use of commands or Creative Mode, whereas the Ender Dragon has no "drops" and can only have its egg or fire breath harvested.

All in all, although the Ender Dragon certainly has its quirks, it's still a dragon at the end of the day, a creature that has existed within fiction since time immemorial. The Wither is a much more unusual creature overall, regardless of whether its design or gameplay capabilities are taken into account.

No matter which way a player tries to slice things, it's simply too difficult to stack up the Ender Dragon next to the Wither and come away with the conclusion that the former is the stranger between the two in-game bosses. Even a cursory glance lends itself in the Wither's favor through and through.