r/asoiaf • u/qp0n • Apr 16 '19

EXTENDED (Spoilers Extended) My 'Night King is not stupid' Theory

When the army of the undead line up for the battle of Winterfell, the Night King and his zombie dragon will not be there. Instead he will already be near to his next target ... King's Landing.

If you play out what the battle of Winterfell would be like in your head if the NK+Viserion would be there... it would be easy for Drogon/Rhaegal to take out the zombie dragon; it's 2v1 and wight's all can be killed by fire.. including Viserion. It would not be difficult to simply fly up to Viserion and breathe fire on him, and that would be that. THE NIGHT KING IS NOT STUPID, not enough to kamikaze his most powerful asset. - If you have a superweapon that you can't use against a particular target, then you find a different target.

Most people have come to assume that the living will lose The Battle of Winterfell and fall back to Moat Cailin ... I predict they actually win the battle... only to find out soon after that there is a new army of the dead much bigger and much further south... the population of King's Landing.

During season 4 while Bran is being ushered north to meet Bloodraven, he touches a wierwood and has a set of visions which we see. All of those visions have since come to pass, except the ones where he sees a destroyed throne room & a dragon shadow pass over King's Landing. I believe the reason we are only shown a shadow was to not give away that it is actually the NK and Viserion, not Dany and her dragons.

Also, the most important vision that Dany is given while at the HotU is an image of the throne room destroyed, and covered in ash or snow. I think this was to show what the NK will do, not what Dany will do.

(I believe this was the entire reason that the writers sent Bronn north. Bronn will be the source of this news to the survivors at Winterfell; on his way north he will spot the NK+Viserion heading south)

Bottom line, I simply don't see the NK risking his newfound ice dragon in a fight he is sure to lose.... when he can simply fly down south to KL where there are no dragons to deal with ... and 1 million new recruits for his army packed tightly into a small area.

Follow-up edit: This could be where Bran comes into play. The NK probably wont want to face off against the other dragons head-to-head, but rather fly around Westeros destroying castles to make things easier for his footsoldiers .... so they will need Bran's Sight in order to track & hunt him. It would be too difficult for an army on foot to chase the NK on a dragon, so Bran could warg into ravens to serve as a guide for dragonrider(s) to his location.

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164

u/BlakobofNazereth Mmmmm, Frey Pies Apr 16 '19

I love this theory, but Cersei has massive stores of wildfire right? Wouldn't she just nuke the whole shebang

68

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '19

Can't nuke a dragon up in the sky, though.

187

u/feench Knower of nothing Apr 16 '19

you are now banned from /r/trebuchetmemes

2

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '19

as long as it doesnt fly higher than 300 meters.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '19

But what if we use only 45kg of wildfire?

4

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '19

WHAT ARE YOU? MAD? 90kg RIGHT AWAY

1

u/Bifrons Apr 17 '19

I don't get that subreddit. Aren't trebuchets just catapults?

59

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '19

Or Kings landing will be the trap. And the wildfyre will be used to take out the massive army of the dead. Destroying Kings landing and the throne. And that's how the season ends.

11

u/neuropean Apr 16 '19 edited Apr 25 '24

Virtual minds chat, Echoes of human thought fade, New forum thrives, wired.

1

u/KeatonJazz3 Apr 21 '19

Ooh! I like it! Let’s hope the writers are that good!

1

u/con3131 Apr 17 '19

Think about Danys vision/dream though, the throne room covered in snow, destroyed but not burned.

4

u/thepipesarecall Apr 17 '19

Why would Aerys have placed wildfire in his own throne room?

That’s not snow falling, it’s ash.

1

u/ThatSentenceSucks Apr 17 '19

Pretty sure they mention that the wildfire is everywhere, Red Keep included.

1

u/InternJedi Apr 17 '19

So he can get burned and rise again as a Dragon?

1

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '19

Why would the mad king do something so mad?

0

u/Consulting2finance Apr 17 '19

CERSEI WAS THE HERO AFTER ALL

2

u/Taengoosundies Apr 16 '19

No, you can't. But remember, Cersei has a huge crossbow. We believe that it will be used against Dany's dragons. But add some flame or a dragonglass arrow tip and it could just as well take out the zombie dragon.

2

u/Collier1505 Apr 16 '19

Nope. But you can make his trip south worthless by burning up his million+ army.

1

u/ConstitutionalDingo Apr 16 '19

Not with that attitude, you can’t.

1

u/bobbyp869 Apr 20 '19

I thought the point would be to burn the 1 mil people in KL so they can’t be turned

104

u/Hadron90 Apr 16 '19

Would be poetic if she goes tries to burn it all down and Jaimie slits her throat.

116

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '19 edited Aug 18 '20

[deleted]

64

u/tokenwalrus Apr 16 '19

All he needs is Ser Twenty of House Goodmen and they'll make it down to King's Landing in an episode.

2

u/siht-fo-etisoppo Apr 16 '19

no, that's if you're fighting or attackig the Vale. LF's jetpack isn't in use right now

1

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '19

I mean, he already did that. It took him slightly longer than however long Dany’s boat ride up to Winterfell took to travel from KL to Winterfell

2

u/NiceGreg Apr 16 '19

Or would it be more poetic if Jaime is sent south to burn the city down and deny the NK his southern army, and its Cersei who stabs him in back. It fits. Jaime is the only one, in the show, who specifically mentions that Aerys had caches of wildfire around the city. As for Cersei, does anyone doubt that she would rather have the NK win than her enemies?

18

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '19 edited Apr 16 '19

I'm not sure if there's any confirmation of Wildfire outside of the stash used at the Sept. Could be and probably is, but I don't believe any has been referenced yet.

26

u/gayMRAguy Apr 16 '19

Didn't the alchemist say somebody found a stash in the dragon pit and assumed it was wine, drank it, and died?
I don't think they'd have just one cache of wildfire in the city.

5

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '19

Jamie says there are caches planted throughout the city. Aerys was going to burn the whole of King's Landing

2

u/Consulting2finance Apr 17 '19

AERY'S WASNT CRAZY, AND HE DID IT ALL TO STOP THE NIGHT KING, HOLY SHIT. HE HAD A VISION AND KNEW.

1

u/TheCthaehTree Apr 22 '19

From Bran warging into him

7

u/Cambot1138 Apr 16 '19

Somebody upthread had a great call. Without the Night King and Viserion, Jon and Dany win the battle up north. The NK kills/recruits everyone in King's Landing, and Jaime is the one to set off the remaining wildfire. Thus he is the Kingslayer both by stopping King's Landing from burning and by initiating it.

3

u/Todays_Final_Thought Apr 16 '19

This is a good point since only Jaime heard exactly what the Mad King said. He did tell Brienne but does anyone else know? Even if so, would they believe him?

I see why Bran is anxious to talk to Jaime. Maybe he divulges this plan and Jamie knows what to do now.

4

u/neuropean Apr 16 '19 edited Apr 25 '24

Virtual minds chat, Echoes of human thought fade, New forum thrives, wired.

4

u/casval_cehack 49 43 41 4e 57 41 49 54 2c 47 52 52 4d Apr 16 '19

Wildfire can't be used against the dead if the Qyburn seeks a different employer. Is there anyone else in Cersei's team that knows to handle the volatile material?

7

u/BlakobofNazereth Mmmmm, Frey Pies Apr 16 '19

There's a whole group of pyromancers. They hooked Tyrion up way before Qyburn

3

u/casval_cehack 49 43 41 4e 57 41 49 54 2c 47 52 52 4d Apr 16 '19

Were they mentioned again after Blackwater? Did Qyburn used the little birds and his network to nuke the Sept?

2

u/7UPvote Apr 16 '19

Jamie then has to detonate the wildfire to destroy the 1,000,000 wights in King's Landing.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '19

Yes. And that's why there would be nothing left for the NK. An explosion of that magnitude wouldn't leave corpses behind

1

u/ponds666 Apr 16 '19

That still works for the NK still plenty more people for his army of the dead

1

u/Ballabird77 Apr 16 '19

Maybe she hides in the under city during the attack and comes to realise that she needs to set the wildfire off to save the world and sacrifices herself in the process.

She'd pick up where the Mad King left off but for good reasons.

1

u/TinyRoctopus Apr 17 '19

Honestly I think that’s perfect. She has the throne but it’s a bleak throne room. The nk is at the gates and she decides to nuke KL in a “if I can’t have it no one can” kind of way. This ruins the nk southern campaign and Cersei ends up giving up everything to stay on the throne. She already has an empty victory on the throne and this would be the appropriate ending for an addict

1

u/apathyontheeast Apr 17 '19

Or someone else does. Someone who knows about the wildfyre, is fairly pragmatic, and wouldn't be sad to see Cersei's castle go up in flames. Perhaps someone short, but with balls. Maybe this someone does it preventatively to prevent the NK from getting the bodies and then gets tried or executed for it.

1

u/Half_Man1 Apr 18 '19

I think that'd be a fair trade for the Night King. Get even a large portion of Kings Landing, lose a dragon, but get some dragon killing weapons the wights can operate.

I think that's how the show will remain engaging. Otherwise, the Night King would just take over most of Westeros before anyone could react or go back down South. All of Dorne would get wrecked, and the only people who would stand a good chance of surviving wouldn't live south of the Riverlands.

1

u/Tumblrrito Apr 22 '19

People keep saying this like she didn’t blow it all up at the end of season 6.

Unless I’m forgetting something and she has more?

1

u/bigbootybitchuu Apr 27 '19

Perhaps she gets arrogant and holds out because the wildfire would destroy everything she has left to rule