What a scene.
If you haven’t seen the jaw-dropping season finale to Game of Thrones, The Dragon and the Wolf, consider this to be your spoiler alert.
Do the opposite of Viserion and look away.
“It appears Tyrion’s assessment was correct. We’re fucked” – Jon Snow to Daenerys
If ever one line encapsulated the icy carnage that unfolded at the Wall, that was it.
Make no mistake about it, the future of Westeros is about to descend into absolute carnage because the Night King and the army of the undead are coming.
The Wall has fallen and the North is set to become an open battlefield between the living and the dead.
We all knew that the Night King had magical properties – he can raise the dead and is very likely a greenseer like Bran – but how exactly did he manage to bring down the 700 feet tall shield that defends the realms of men?
After all, we’re frequently told that the Wall is made of more than just ice and stone.
Benjen even says that “ancient spells were carved into its foundations. Strong magic to protect men from what lies beyond. And while it stands, the dead cannot pass.”
The dead are now marching over the ruins of Eastwatch and it appears that a crucial detail from the show’s early days might explain why Viserion was so successful in destroying it.
Cast you mind back to the final episode of Season 1, Fire and Blood, as Daenerys gives birth to her dragons after walking into Khal Drogo’s burning funeral pyre.
The three dragon eggs weren’t the only things in that fire though.
Mirri Maz Duur, the priestess who Dany enlisted to save Drogo’s life, was also burned alive in that scene. This means means that Dany’s three dragons were born from the blood of a magician that was powerful enough to give or take life.
What’s interesting is that this witch, or Lhazareen godswife to be precise, learned to perfect this blood magic ritual from a Maester that lived in Oldtown – that’s the exact place where Sam was studying in the TV show.
In A Feast for Crows, we’re told that Archmaester Marwyn, believed that that the order of Maesters had a secret goal to suppress magic. He also felt that they were responsible for the extinction of dragons.
As mentioned previously, he’s the same person that taught Mirri Maz Duur.
Dany’s dragons were born in a blood magic ritual and after the Night King resurrected Viserion, he’s essentially using the magical properties of Viserion to destroy the magical defenses of the Wall.
Fighting fire with fire, sort of speak.
On this note, there are are other mentions in the Song of Ice and Fire series that intrinsically link dragons to magic.
Since the death of the last dragon in 153 AC, we’re told that this lack of dragons has caused the summers to grow shorter and the winters colder.
In this period, magical spells also became less powerful.
Remember that the Wall has magical spells woven into its creation, it’s very likely that they became weaker.
When Tyrion meets with Wisdom Hallyne and Pollitor , two pyromancers that helped him defend King’s Landing from Stannis’ invasion at Blackwater Bay, he’s also told that magic in Westeros “began to go out of the world the day the last dragon died.”
In A Clash of Kings, Maester Luwin tells Bran that supports this theory that there’s a direct link between dragons and the existence of magic in the Seven Kingdoms.
“Perhaps magic was once a mighty force in the world, but no longer. What little remains is no more than the wisp of smoke that lingers in the air after a great fire has burned out, and even that is fading. Valyria was the last ember, and Valyria is gone. The dragons are no more, the giants are dead, the children of the forest forgotten with all their lore,” he says.
Simply put, dragons have magical properties and when combined with the Night King’s own knowledge of the dark arts, Viserion’s fire was more than enough to negate the magical properties of the Wall.
After 8000 years of existence, the shield that guards the realms of men is gone.
As we all saw from Bran’s vision in the very first episode of Season 7 – Dragonstone – the dead are already marching on grass.
Bran saw the future in the very first episode of this season and it has now come true.
Winter is here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MiQrzadfOg
Clip via – Ravenbreath
