Game of Thrones. Ah yes, that series of incredibly complex and intricate books, which gave birth to the incredibly complex and intricate TV show that is just reaching it's final season. A cultural sensation, a literary masterpiece, and... well, I just wish it had fewer sex scenes.
Now, disclaimer alert. I have only read the first three (I think?) books. I stopped there because I started watching the TV show, and it was... too much. Too confusing. My plan is to catch up on reading when the TV series finishes. So yes, there will be things I don't know or have forgotten. Please don't hate me.
So... after hearing that, you will have seen that I have made a very bold claim for a veritable novice to the world of GOT. And yet, I am confident that, if Westeros follows the laws of medicine and science, I know what will eventually defeat the army of the dead, even if the humans, dragons and direwolves fall.
It occurs to me that I should give a brief summary for the un-initiated. In Westeros, humans have been squabbling among themselves for ages about who should rule, while behind a gigantic wall, an army of monsters has been forming. These are led by the White Walkers. The first white walker was a human who was turned into a monster by the children of the forest (an ancient magical people) to fight the humans who were newly arrived on the continent of Westeros. He then turned human babies into other white walkers, and now we don't know how many of them there are. And they have a remarkable power- they can raise the dead and turn them into a zombie army. The only way to stop the dead from being awoken to fight for the white walkers is to burn their bodies, and white walkers can only be destroyed with dragonglass or valyrian steel. At the moment, the white walkers have killed and resurrected a dragon, destroyed the wall that was keeping them North, and are marching down through Westeros, killing every human they encounter and adding them to their army. And so, an unknown, but great number of bodies are marching South, lead by a corpse-dragon ridden by a white walker. Winter has come.
I think I actually want to start with that question. Why have the white walkers waited until Winter? In Westeros, the seasons last years each, in fact in series 1 it was autumn, and it has taken until the end of series 7 for Winter to arrive (and it still hasn't reached the South). That time period is probably about 10 years. That's a long time to wait, especially when this baddie seems to incredibly overpowered... especially when you consider that they have actually waited for thousands of years before then.
So, what changed?
Well, a couple of things have happened in the last few hundred years. The first, is the death of dragons. They used to be the nuclear warheads of Westeros, if you had a big dragon, you won every war. Simple. Then, after generations of being kept in captivity, in small cages, they began to shrink. Soon, they were lapdogs, unable to breathe fire, useless for war. Then they died out completely, removing one of the single biggest threats to the White Walkers. An enemy that spews out one of the few things that can destroy your un-dead soldiers is a bit of a problem. But still, there have been no dragons for a very long time. Apart from the recently born ones, that is.
There's another thing that has been changing. The last summer, the one that was ending at the beginning of the series, was the longest in living memory. Which meant that the Winter would be even longer. The LONGEST winter. But why does that matter?
Well, duh, because the white walkers are blueish white, and the snow will give them perfect camouflage! They can charge through the continent, slipping into every bedroom, and whispering "Valar Morghulis" into the ear of each victim....
or.....
Maybe there's another reason. Maybe the white walkers have an enemy. An enemy they truly, wisely fear. One they cannot kill. A mindless, painless host of enemies that could sweep through their entire army, and turn the undead soldiers against their fellows...
I speak, of course, of bacteria. Micro-organisms that can destroy flesh and turn it to dust. And they have allies, fungi, insects. They are the true enemy of the army of the dead, because they have evolved for millennia to destroy dead things. Rotting human corpses will spread these tiny warriors, until every one is being attacked. So, how long before the gigantic army of the dead is reduced to dust and bone?
Well, a human body can be reduced to bone, hair and connective tissue within a couple of months, and to bone alone in just a year. Now, we presume that once the connective tissue is gone, the dead can no longer get around, walk and fight (presumably leaving a trail of twitching, reanimated body parts behind the army?), so at this point they can be counted out of the game. So, each body can only last about 1 year.
Suddenly, it all seems quite easy for the forces of the living. Sit in their castles for a year, and the army will collapse into a pile of bones in front of them, leaving a group of frustrated white walkers who could be picked off fairly easily.
So, what can the Night King do about this? Surely, after waiting for so long, he's not going to lose so easily. He will have done everything he can to give himself the advantage, to prolong the life of his army....
And suddenly it falls into place. Winter is coming. The longest winter in memory. A decades long period of cold and ice. Cold, which slows down the activity of the billions of bacteria attacking the army. Cold which kills the insects that would speed up decomposition. The Night king has taken advantage of this incredible winter to prolong the... life? Unlife? Of his army. How long by? Well, a frozen solid corpse can be preserved indefinitely, think of Otzi the ice man who was preserved for 5000 years. But he was really an exception, not the rule. And what use is a frozen solid soldier to the Night King? No, I think we need to think of his army as refrigerated rather than frozen. So.. how long they could last is probably measured in years, rather than millennia. But several years rather than just a few months... that makes a difference when it comes to humans hiding in castles. That's the difference between the Night King losing and winning.
So, the army of the dead will decompose, but probably not fast enough to save the people of Westeros. But is there anything else, any glimmer of hope that might allow the living to outlast the dead?
Well, let me take you back a little, to one of the most iconic moments of the entire series. The walk of shame, where Cersei is forced to walk naked and barefoot through Kings Landing. Now, there's one part of this that I want to focus on particularly. Her feet. Her feet which, after only a few miles of walking are bloodied and broken. Now, for Cersei this is absolutely horrible, but she can heal. The cells in her skin can replicate and regrow. But what this illustrates is the damage that can be caused by just walking. So. What does this mean for the army of the dead, who can't tell when they are being damaged, who can't heal?
It means that, the more they walk, the further they travel, the more irreversible damage will be done. But it's not just their feet. When we walk, after a while we start to ache. This is because the muscles in our legs tire. Essentially, this is a lot of small muscle damage, and when it heals our muscles get stronger. But what happens to the dead, who can't heal? I suspect that the end result of this is that the army of the dead will be weakened, each soldier less steady on their feet, each blow less strong. The difference this could make in battle is unknowable, but this will also increase their rate of decomposition, creating ways for the bacteria and fungi to break through that much faster. The dead have been at a disadvantage from the start, one the Night King has tried to overcome. The only question now is:
Will it be enough?
The army of the dead will rot and fall apart, the further South they go the faster this will happen. They have a chance to wipe out humanity along the way, but the race is on. The living may not be able to defeat the dead in battle, but if they can hold on...
So how will Game of thrones end? With the destruction of the army of the dead. The only question is, who will join the army first?
This is Game of Thrones. They will win, or they will die.
Comments
Post a Comment