Game of Thrones fan shares terrifying Night King theory ahead of battle at Winterfell
*Spoiler warning for season 8 episode 2 of Game of Thrones*
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Game of Thrones is nothing without its fan theories, and there are plenty circulating around the forthcoming third episode of season 8.
The closing scene of episode two showed the White Walkers practically knocking on the front door of Winterfell, as Jon Snow, Daenerys, Sansa and co prepare for an epic battle. What many fans are wondering is... where in the Seven Kingdoms is the Night King?
One theory suggests that, while the force at Winterfell may emerge victorious against the army of the undead, they could face an even bigger nightmare coming from King's Landing.
Originally posted by Reddit user u/qp0n in February, it suggests that the Night King wasn't seen among the ranks outside Winterfell because he's taken his ice dragon to King's Landing, where Cersei is holed up with 20,000 soldiers from the Golden Company and a million citizens.
“When the army of the undead line up for the battle of Winterfell, the Night King and his zombie dragon will not be there," the theory goes. "Instead he will already be near to his next target ... King's Landing. If you play out what the battle of Winterfell would be like in your head if the NK+Viserion would be there... it would be easy for Drogon/Rhaegal to take out the zombie dragon; it's 2v1 and wight's all can be killed by fire.. including Viserion.
"It would not be difficult to simply fly up to Viserion and breathe fire on him, and that would be that. THE NIGHT KING IS NOT STUPID, not enough to kamikaze his most powerful asset. - If you have a superweapon that you can't use against a particular target, then you find a different target.”
The theory uses Bran's vision in season 4 as evidence: “During season 4 while Bran is being ushered north to meet Bloodraven, he touches a wierwood and has a set of visions which we see. All of those visions have since come to pass, except the ones where he sees a destroyed throne room & a dragon shadow pass over King's Landing. I believe the reason we are only shown a shadow was to not give away that it is actually the NK and Viserion, not Dany and her dragons.”
While the idea of an even bigger undead army is certainly terrifying, the trailer for episode three seems to debunk this theory quite quickly. In the tense glimpse at the battle at Winterfell, Jon Snow is heard saying "the Night King is coming" and we also get a brief look at what looks like the ice dragon being ridden by the Night King. It looks as though Bran's plan to lure him to the godswood just might work.
The latest episode of the series featured a controversial Arya scene that actor Maisie Williams thought was a prank when she first read the script.
Game of Thrones season 8 episode 2 is available on Sky Atlantic and NowTV in the UK
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