MovieChat Forums > Game of Thrones (2011) Discussion > How would you defend the North?

How would you defend the North?


The North is so expansive that it seems to me an impossible place to defend from 100,000 inexhaustible zombies backed by a zombie dragon.

I would consider evacuating everyone much further south to a point where the land narrows and forces the Army of the Dead into a bottleneck. Maybe near The Twins. Send the noncombatants (elderly, small children) into the mountains of the Vale for protection.

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I wouldn't. I'd grab a bag of gold, head east until I hit the best whorehouse in Braavos, and enjoy myself until the night king shows up.

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Nice 😂

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That's what Bronn would've done with his prepaid gold. Screw the assignment.

He'd never head into the teeth of what's going on in the North.

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And then when he does show up in Braavos, get on a ship with a ton of provisions on it and then just journey out to sea and live as song as you can at sea and maybe find an island somewhere.

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If the Night King knows where you've sent your noncombatants, that might be his first stop. To make them combatants. I don't think they've said (most likely because the characters don't know) what the limits of his perception are. If you're hiding in a cave while the Night King passes by with his army will he be unaware of your presence, or sense you're in there?

Bottlenecks are of less value when they've got air support. Your first order of business has to be taking down the dragon. Something like Cersei's giant crossbow, bigger obviously since that didn't quite do it, shooting a bolt made of dragon glass. A bunch of that wildfire would come in handy. Seed it across a large field, in buried casks. Then set the whole thing off when it fills up with dead.

If we can cheat and use modern weapons, then .50 caliber machine guns with bullets made of dragon glass or Valyrian steel. And napalm. Lots and lots of air dropped napalm.

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Good plan, especially the wildfire mines.

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the two living dragons basically breathe napalm, fortunately

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I would have had the maesters keep pumping out wildfire like crazy,
I would retreat and have the army of the dead chase me until I had them in an enclosed area, like a canyon, then I would have hidden forces seal the entrances and then would rain down dragonfire and wildfire on their heads. That would kill the wights, leaving the whitewalkers. Got plenty of dragon glass and Valyrian steel for them.

What I wouldn't do is just wait for them to show up at winterfell.


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The maesters don't know how to make wildfire. That knowledge is jealously guarded by the Alchemists' Guild, who are in King's Landing and currently loyal to Cersei (in the show, that is; in the books it's not clear who is currently running things in King's Landing, after a major upset at the end of the last published book). The Alchemists' Guild are rivals of the maesters, and their power has declined since the maesters became the more influential order. The alchemists certainly wouldn't have let such valuable knowledge as how to produce wildfire fall into the maesters' hands, as that's all their guild really has left now.

But yeah, if they could get their hands on wildfire, that would be the best thing to use against the army of the dead.

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I bet Sam would have found some long lost recipe in the Citadel within an hour...

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Honestly, I don't see a way. If it weren't the dead of winter I'd set the dragons to burning the forests they're marching through, but everything is covered in ten feet of snow and nothing will burn on its own. But the humans are greatly outnumbered, they can't run from an army that never sleeps, they can't defend themselves from the Night King's death-winds except by hiding deep underground, and wherever they hide they can be surrounded and starved out.

Personally, I'd sell my mother and right kidney to get on a boat to Bravos.

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All you need is one of those coins that got Arya there and then Mom and kidney could go with you.

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I think those coins are only given to potential new recruits of the Faceless Men. Or carried by the Faceless Men themselves. Free passage to and from their stronghold in Braavos. That's why the captain honored it without question, you definitely don't want to get on the bad side of those guys!

It seems a little too easy to me, that just getting on an island would keep you permanently safe from the Night King's army. If his goal was really to kill everyone - which doesn't make a lot of sense considering the white walkers can't reproduce except by turning humans - you'd figure he would have a plan for getting across bodies of water. An interesting question to ponder: did he have another way past The Wall that he didn't end up having to use, or was luring Daenerys and her dragons there the plan all along?

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They could put an island under siege. I doubt many of them could survive without regular supplies from the mainland.

Or wait for it to get so cold that a sheet of ice forms. There was a time when people thought he might go around east watch by freezing the water around the wall.

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Or the Armies of the Dead could possibly walk across the bottom of the sea, like the undead pirates in the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" film.

Which means that neither the Iron Islands nor Essos are 100% safe, but I'd still make getting to a hot part of Essos my top priority.

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Kinda like how they got over the wall in World War Z. I don't think the Iron Islands are going to be as safe a retreat as Yara thinks they will be.

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The wights can't move through water. Once immersed, they sink to the bottom and become inert. That doesn't mean the Night King doesn't have a way around this problem. They didn't think he could get past The Wall either.

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When was it established that wights become inert in water? Didn't some bust out of the water when Jon & Co. were fighting them on the frozen lake?

Honestly, I've forgotten the details of that fight.

Edit: Maybe the Night's King has no power in the realm of the Drowned God.

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Edit: Maybe the Night's King has no power in the realm of the Drowned God.


Always possible.

Yeah, in that fight on the ice they were still struggling to get out. But the ones that lost their grip and sank into the water seemed to go limp and just float down. I don't think water destroys their bodies. The wights are basically appendages of the walker that raised them from the dead. They have no autonomy or free will of their own; they're like remote controlled drones, and water blocks the signal (so to speak). At least I think that's how it works. Never read the books.

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I did read the books, an experience I don't fully recommend, and it wasn't explained there and probably never will be.

So your theory is as valid as any.

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You could grow crops and raise livestock in a place like the Iron Islands if you absolutely had to. And there are islands much better suited to agriculture, which would end up trading with the others in an island based civilization where the mainland was lost. But even getting to Essos would be impossible if the army of the dead couldn't cross water. Is being in water the only problem for the walkers or is merely passing over exposed water (i.e. the Night King on his dragon) impossible?

I guess it comes down to whether the Night King could actually create a permanent winter, as Bran seemed to suggest. If it's cold enough for long enough the oceans would start to freeze over. Of course, by the time he could go after the Greyjoys where they live everyone would already be dead from starvation. Why bother hunting down every last person? All he'd really have to do is keep the world in a deep freeze and not allow anyone to get in a growing season. Stockpiles (no matter how copious) eventually run out.

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"You could grow crops and raise livestock in a place like the Iron Islands if you absolutely had to."

It's established in the books that they do.

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They look like parts of Scotland and Ireland. Not the easiest places to farm, but farm they do. Fishing would also provide a good chunk of the protein in their diets. You probably couldn't support a large population though. At least not without importing some of your food from other islands.

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I would send everyone to the crypt, where it's nice and safe.

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yeah, fighting at Winterfell is stupid.
dig a big trench with obsidian spears at the bottom.
put Daryl on a motorbike and lead the zombies into it as he jumps the trench.

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hahah dude this comment got me lol - might as well bring Rick and the helicopter as well for back up

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