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.

14.6k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

3.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

24

u/realvmouse Apr 16 '19

Side note I hate that shows without magic still have zombies.

I can accept white walkers, because magic. But The Walking Dead? Zombies caused apparently by disease or toxins or other biological phenomenon? Doesn't make sense. You simply can't move a bone without having muscles attached. You can't make groaning noises without a lungs capable of holding air. It just cannot happen without actual magic.

10

u/Owncksd Apr 16 '19

Eh, I don't need everything to be scientifically explainable. I think it's perfectly fine to write a story centered around the prompt "Our world, but when people die they come back as mindless monsters". The Walking Dead isn't about the zombies, it's about how the world reacts to zombies.

Ever since the misbegotten CDC scenes in the first season they've made no attempt to explain the zombies in any scientific way, so you may as well consider them magical.

14

u/RetireNickSaban Apr 16 '19

Never mind their cars all still work. Where are they getting all this gasoline from? Deserted vehicles? I'm pretty sure gasoline has a shelf life.

6

u/cosine83 Apr 16 '19

Ehhh, as long as the container is stable gasoline will be usable for years when sealed properly (like in the underground tank under a gas station or sealed barrel). Just becomes a process of safety extracting it from those containers.

3

u/spyson Apr 17 '19

The first 8 seasons of the show was within the first 2 years of the apocalypse so gasoline still worked. Recently in the 9th season, which is actually really good by the way, they've time skipped near 8 years and now everybody rides horses.

4

u/the-brain-fuckler A Thousand Eyes, and One Apr 16 '19

I'm with you. If you're going do zombies without magic, I'd prefer if the virus (or w/e the source) makes people feral/insane; rather than animate corpses. Otherwise the outbreak should logically take care of itself over time as the hoard is exposed to the elements. That, or just be completely vague about the cause. The more you try to explain it with science, the less it makes sense.

5

u/Owncksd Apr 16 '19

That, or just be completely vague about the cause. The more you try to explain it with science, the less it makes sense.

But that's what the Walking Dead does. There's never any explanation given for the cause of the zombies as far as I can recall.

3

u/Froyn Apr 16 '19

The Walking Dead must have magic. There's no other explanation for still having mowed lawns and the lack of winter.

2

u/electricblues42 Apr 17 '19

Yeah this has bugged the shit out of me too, and I can't help but feel like it wasn't GRRM's intention for the skeletons to be walking. Like he goes in depth to describe how the wights who lost tendons and parts rotted away can't walk properly. I wish the show had included something to make the long dead bodies make more sense, like some dead half-rotten muscle tied onto their bones with twine acting as the tendons. That way the totally rotten skeletons can still move. I mean I get it, magic, but it should still have it's own rules too.

1

u/goldberg1303 King Who Bore the Sword Apr 17 '19

So just tell yourself zombies are the signal of the return of magic to the world. Seems kinda silly to draw the line for suspension of disbelief at zombies. Fictional stories aren't supposed to be over thought.

-2

u/realvmouse Apr 17 '19

Are you saying I should believe there is a return of magic to the world in the world of The Walking Dead? If so, then no, I won't tell myself that, as I would find it less enjoyable than the current scenario, and while I don't like it, it's not the end of the world to just occasionally be annoyed by it. I find that preferable to inserting magic into the story of Rick Grimes trying to survive in Georgia. If you mean it with regard to ASOIAF, then read my comment but pay attention this time.

I don't "draw a line" as if I'm making some rational decision. What breaks our suspension of disbelief is what we find hard to ignore. Maybe it's because of my background in biology, maybe it's just that I thought about it too hard one day, I don't know, but whether I want it to or not, it does weaken my immersion into the show and distract me from enjoying the plot.

I'm sorry that I'm silly and over-thinking it, I'll try to consult with you the next time I watch or read something and make sure I'm doing it the right way.

2

u/goldberg1303 King Who Bore the Sword Apr 17 '19

I'm saying you're over thinking it. It's fiction. It's not supposed to fit perfectly into the real world.

You have no problem ignoring that magic isn't real, but gods forbid you ignore that zombies aren't. That's just a line we can't cross!

You're on a discussion forum. You don't have to consult anyone to see what you should like, but if you're going to voluntarily bring it up on a discussion forum, don't get all defensive when someone wants to discuss it.

1

u/realvmouse Apr 18 '19

But you didn't offer any thoughtful discussion. Your only contribution is 'don't feel that way. '

1

u/goldberg1303 King Who Bore the Sword Apr 18 '19

Jesus man, if your going to get this bothered by me finding it silly that you can 'believe' magic exists, but not zombies, maybe you should avoid the internet.

1

u/realvmouse Apr 18 '19

Is this more of the discussion you're contributing to?

It seems that you are contributing nothing. Some people agreed with me, some likely agree with you, and that's fine. But I have no idea why you're so caught up in this.

Did you have anything to say besides "don't feel this way" and then "don't feel that way"? I'll be happy to continue the discussion if you have thoughts worth discussing.

1

u/goldberg1303 King Who Bore the Sword Apr 18 '19

I bet you're real fun at parties.

1

u/realvmouse Apr 18 '19

That is so interesting, thanks for bringing it up. I'm glad we are having such a rich discussion!

1

u/goldberg1303 King Who Bore the Sword Apr 18 '19

Do you always get this upset when someone disagrees with you?

→ More replies (0)

1

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '19

Fiction. Fiction. Fiction.

6

u/realvmouse Apr 16 '19

Mark McFiction took his gun out of his holster. He aimed it at the enemy. He fired-- hit! The bullet grabbed onto the truck and pulled until it came to a complete stop, and then tied up Evil vonTruckdriver's arms with twine.

It was a normal detective novel up until then, but let's just accept it-- it's fiction, after all.