that Jon and company did not anticipate that Viserion would be raised by the Night King? They knew he was capable of raising anything that had died so it seems like poor planning to not evacuate the wall or leave a dragon behind to guard it.
shareYes. They fought that wight bear, they should’ve at least consired the possibility that the trick works on dragons, too.
Even if they said: »Oh, he’s at the ground of the lake, they won’t be able to raise him«, they should’ve taken some kind of precaution. You know, prepare for the worst…
That wouldn't have worked for me either, since Jon witnessed that the Night King doesn't have to touch the dead to raise them (although the NK did in this instance, presumably to form a special bond? who knows)
shareIm gonna assume that they were so freaked out and shocked to still be in one piece that they just bugged out of there and didnt think of it
Army of the Dead...Ice Demons... Most everyone would be incapable of anything for quite a while after getting out of that mess
Within the context of that world and what Jon and Dany have been through, I think the shock would have worn off faster. And Jon has already faced the NK. He knows what he can do. It was just irritating.
shareWhat makes you think they didn't realize it was possible?
Because 1) they were probably too polite to discuss the possibility openly around Danerys, and 2) there wasn't shit they could do stop the Night's King.
Evacuate the wall and / or guard it with dragon (s). There's a plan right there.
Too polite to discuss? Are you kidding?
Right and\or deploy scorpions with dragonglass bolts. He was probably the most steady target he will ever be when he was hovering and hitting the wall with blue fire.
shareDoes anyone on Team Danerys or staffing the Wall know how to build a scorpion, or any other sort of spear-launcher? Have they got the budget and the manpower to put scorpions or some equivalent all the way up and down the Wall, what with the wall being horribly undermanned even with the wildlings on board? Do they know the NK is coming right for them, instead of continuing to mysteriously hang around the far north? No, they didn't know, and they didn't know where he'd strike if he finally invaded, even though the audience did.
And no, they wouldn't evacuate the Wall. Maybe warn the people who are there, but they had no idea what an undead dragon was capable of, or whether the Wall would withstand its attack. Because I'm pretty sure this is the first time in history that an undead dragon has existed, or that one has attacked the Wall.
They did suspect that the attack would come at Eastwatch because of Bran's and The Hound's visions. Obviously they did not have scorpions ready, but that's really the whole point of Gastonian's post -- their priorities are off.
shareLook, if the Hound told you he'd had a vision of the future, would YOU believe him, or base any decisions you make on his supposed foretelling? Of course you wouldn't! And you wouldn't believe Thoros or Beric upon short acquaintance either, or any second-hand reports of what some crippled kid said back in Winterfell.
And that is what I mean by "The audience knows and the characters do not".