Season Eight of Game of Thrones is right around the corner. But it’s not here yet. To occupy my time, I’ve been writing feature essays (if I can dignify what I write as “essays”) for the Watchers on the Wall Game of Thrones news site.
My most recent feature is now up on their website, a (long) post defending an event that is not only one of the most derided situations in Season Seven, but the most critical. The decision to go beyond the Wall and capture one of the Night King’s wight foot soldiers.
I defend this plan. I defend it hard. (Or at least I use a lot of words.) I even talk about Stannis Baratheon, a guy everyone loves talking about.
Stannis Baratheon: That’s true. They talk and talk.
It’s likely that anyone reading this found the concept of the wight heist ludicrous – I can name off at least one podcaster who let their misunderstanding and under-appreciation of this daring plan ruin the tense back half of the season for them – and that’s okay. My goal is not to change everyone’s mind. (But if I can get just one person to warm up in regards to our team of heroes heading into the cold, deadly north, I will have succeeded as a rando guy on the Internet who’s writing about his favorite show.)
You can read my feature here:
As always, feel free to leave me feedback here or the Watchers on the Wall site. (People are not shy about telling me I’m wrong, and that’s a good thing.)
(Comments are always welcome. Super welcome! But if you want to talk spoilery Game of Thrones talk with me (also welcome) I’d invite you to visit my Safe Spoilers page on my backup blog. That way my non-book-reading friends won’t be shocked with foreknowledge.)
Image from HBO’s Game of Thrones (obviously.)
If you liked this article, thank you! I have all of my Game of Thrones related articles on my handy-dandy Game of Thrones page should you want to read more but don’t want to navigate around my site.
© Patrick Sponaugle 2019 Some Rights Reserved
I Can't Possibly Be Wrong All the Time 
For me, “stupid plan/nonsensical logistics” and “tense, thrillingly executed TV making” are not mutually exclusive. I wasn’t crazy about the in-show character planning and decisions and how much sense it made, but I enjoyed the hell out of watching it unfold and it was superbly filmed, scored, acted, edited, etc. And as you note, even within the episode – aside from the dazzling spectacle – there were lovely character grace notes. Enjoyed reading as always, Pat.
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Thanks, man. I appreciate it. We’re pretty close to getting new episodes, and new Small Council podcast episodes!
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I don’t think anyone can argue that the pacing of the wight heist left a lot to be desired, I really don’t understand complaints as to the logic of the mission. It was a long shot, yes, but most things born out of desperation are. It’s been firmly shown throughout the series that no one save those who’ve been north of the Wall take the White Walker threat seriously. Bringing living (or unliving, rather) proof would be the only way to convince those safely removed in the South of the threat. Lest people forget, Jeor Mormont reported the wight attack at Castle Black and was promptly ignored. Like you expertly pointed out, this was really a narrative device to sway Dany rather than Cersei, and it succeeded in setting up a lot of future points, so I don’t know what the issue is. Even if one were to (erroneously) argue that their mission proved pointless, that shouldn’t prevent its inclusion in the show. That would be like saying the War of the Five Kings should have been cut because no one succeeded in wrestling control of the Iron Throne away from Joffrey and the Lannisters.
And yes, I choose to believe Bran used his foreknowledge to warn Dany to arrive, so she was already in flight before Gendry made it back to Eastwatch. It’s not shown to NOT be the case, and it rectifies the time discrepancies. It’s my party and I’ll headcanon if I want to! 😛
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I support that head canon 100 %
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I’m super excited to see how it plays out
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Me too! I am not looking forward to the series ending, but it has to end.
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