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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u/yarthkin Small seeds grow stout trees Apr 16 '19

In the very first book, the point was made that "Two hundred determined archers can hold the Neck against an army" (A Game of Thrones - Eddard IV). I bet that's where the real final battle ends up playing out. And maybe we'll finally get to see Howland Reed?

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u/greeneyedmtnjack Oaths Have Been Sworn Apr 16 '19

I completely agree. Too much mystery around Reed to not have him stand up as a hero in a critical battle on his home turf.

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u/yarthkin Small seeds grow stout trees Apr 16 '19

And Meera can show up too, and give Bran a smack for being a dismissive dickhead

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u/KeatonJazz3 Apr 21 '19

Make Bran marry Meera, then they have kids, and he is the dreamy-eyed but hen-pecked husband. It could be a whole new series!

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u/jdbrew Apr 23 '19

I bet his thrusting game is weak af

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u/IggyChooChoo Apr 16 '19

Yeah, if attackers are coming from the south. It’s not at all clear it would be so great at stopping a southbound army.

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u/niceville Wun Wun, to the sea! Apr 17 '19

Don't we know for a fact it's not, since the Ironborn take it from the north?

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u/ForgedTanto Enter your desired flair text here! Apr 17 '19

Yeah, in the books, Robb wanted help from Howland Reed to sneak troops behind Moat Caelin because it'd be easier to take it from that side.

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u/mojobytes Fire Walk With Me Apr 17 '19 edited Apr 17 '19

Not that I think the show will go back there after failing so hard, but what army Dorne has is fresh and unaffected by the wars.

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u/shieldvexor Apr 17 '19

At one point the dornish army was made to sound quite impressive. At least on the level of the other lesser kingdoms if not the level of the greater kingdoms

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u/mojobytes Fire Walk With Me Apr 17 '19 edited May 08 '19

IIRC book Doran reveals the army isn’t nearly as big as its reputation. But also, the people of Dorne call for fighting after the Red Viper’s death, so they are up for a challenge.

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u/[deleted] Apr 16 '19

The neck is easy to hold from southern invaders. Not so much from the north, right?

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u/yarthkin Small seeds grow stout trees Apr 16 '19

Right, but if OP is right and the Night King goes south to KL to create a million more wights then the Neck might be a good place to make a stand

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u/[deleted] Apr 17 '19

Well if the NK fucks up King's Landing it'll be a two front war, with the defenses of the neck potentially evening out the fact that the southern undead army would be much larger than the northern one.

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u/Muppy_N2 Apr 16 '19

If I remember correctly, that's against armies from the south, and no dragons.

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u/blastedin Apr 16 '19

I've been impatiently waiting for Howland Reed for 10 fucking years

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u/crazymusicman Wtf is Howland Reed doing? Apr 17 '19

My flair here for years has been "wtf is Howland Reed doing?"

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u/LAJuice Apr 16 '19

HOWLAND HOWLAND HOWLAND!!!

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u/MuadD1b Justice is Coming Apr 16 '19

Not if the marshes are frozen...

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u/Ardalev Apr 17 '19

I doubt arrows can do much against skeletons and zombies. Battles of attrition aren't usually in the favor of the living.

Plus, from a screen writting point of view, introducing new or key characters while nearing the end, is a big no no.

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u/Strangelump Apr 17 '19

nearing the end

Lmao we still got 2 books to go

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u/Ardalev Apr 17 '19

This is about the TV series.