When Benjen Stark shows up to save Jon Snow from the wights, he hops off his horse, boosts Jon into the saddle, and tells him to “ride for the pass.” (There’s always a pass.) Jon asks Benjen to come with him, but Benjen says “there’s no time” and sends Jon on his way. Bringing a lot of men north of the Wall was what Lord Commander Jeor Mormont did back in season 1, and that ended terribly. And it’s not like it’s the first time a group of fantasy adventures opted to go on a quest on foot - I remember the fellowship marching over the Misty Mountains in The Lord of the Rings.Īs for why Jon didn’t bring more men, it stands to reason that the more men he brought, the more opportunities there were for them to be turned into wights and added to the army of the dead. A small mission kept as simple as possible, even accepting the possibility they may not return in some cases, because they’re going to need their armies elsewhere too.Ĭlearly there are ways of keeping a horse alive beyond the Wall - Benjen seems to manage alright - but I can accept that the team would want to keep the mission small and lean. My feeling was – the horses would have to be fed, watered, and rested, kept warm…How would they do that in snowy and bad weather - looked like a blizzard there for awhile? The Night King and wights would take them as well. But Jon’s SEAL Team Six didn’t bring any horses with them. If he’d ridden one, fans could more easily believe that he’d make it back there in time. One thing that might have helped alleviate questions about Gendry’s lightening-quick trip back to Eastwatch is a horse. Why didn’t the group bring horses with them and why were there so few men? (Plus they could have eaten Thoros - I doubt it, but I kind of love that the possibility is out there.) Meanwhile, their thick winter clothes can protect them from hypothermia, and they always have Beric’s flaming sword in a pinch. They were all wearing packs and knew they were going on a journey, so it’s reasonable to assume they brought food and water with them. I’m also not bothered by questions of how the group could have survived while they waited. I’m okay assuming they waited however many days it took Dany to get there. It was unclear exactly how many days passed while the guys were waiting for Daenerys, and according to Taylor, it was left vague on purpose. And remember: the ice doesn’t have to freeze to the point where it can support one guy without cracking it has to freeze to the point where it can support an entire army. As the math above shows, it more or less works. Personally, the timeline didn’t bother me. Below, Redditor MiUniqueUsername posted an explanation for how the timeline could make sense. Is it possible for everything that happened with Gendry and Dany to happen? Unsurprisingly, the internet is all over it. Some of those complaints even reached the ear of director Alan Taylor, who admitted to Variety that the timeline of the episode - which involves Gendry running to Eastwatch, sending off a raven, Dany receiving the raven, and Dany flying to wherever Jon’s group of wight-hunters were beyond the Wall, all in the time it takes ice to freeze - was “straining plausibility a little bit.”Īre these fair criticisms? We thought we’d walk through some of the alleged holes in this episode and try to justify them, aided by our wonderful commenters. It brought us some spectacular action, but many fans have dinged it for what they see as a critical mass of implausibilities, conveniences, and plot holes. “Beyond the Wall” has proved a divisive episode of Game of Thrones.
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