What Would The Night King Have Done Without The Dragon?
As the Night King uses the dragon he got just over an hour of TV time before to bring down the Wall, are we to assume he had no other way through? The fact he’s been traipsing around just north of the Wall for years (Hardhome isn’t relatively that far out from Eastwatch) would definitely suggest his advancement was being halted.
If so, then that would mean had Dany never flown north then he’d be stuck twiddling his thumbs, raising the straggling Wildlings for little long-term gain, only hoping for a breakthrough; it was only when the three dragons came over the ridge that an option presented itself and he acted ridiculously quick. That’s an incredibly convenient plot turn in a show once built on methodical storytelling as is, but as it’s the biggest development for the central unstoppable evil force vastly reduces the primary antagonists’ threat; they are only deadly due to the heroes’ failures.
There is an argument to be made the show is making a point of how man’s fear of death inadvertently only accelerates the inevitability’s advancement, but there was nothing in the show that tries to put blame on Jon, Dany and co.’s short-sightedness (beyond Tyrion’s berating, something that is much more politically focused).
The Night Knight may have had another, more time-consuming trick up his sleeve - he is immortal, presumably, so waiting isn’t a big problem for his dead army - meaning the dragon simply accelerated plans. Although, as there’s no evidence of it, that begins making assumptions on the villain’s plans, and leading us onto an interesting track.
Was The Dragon Always The Night King’s Plan?
The alternative solution makes the Night King a calculating genius; he wanted the dragons to come north explicitly so he could claim one for his own. That gives him a consistent plan, explains away the years of static development and makes the dragon an essential part of his seven-season build-up, rather than empty spectacle thrown in at the final act.
However, starting down that track leads to many more assumptions. How did the Night King know that dragons had returned? Yes, he’s magic and as the birth of Dany’s children marked an increased presence of the mystical to the lands of men he could have sensed it, but then we still have a string of coincidences to get us to that point.
The only real explanation is that the Night King, like Bran is a greenseer. We know he has the ability to cut through his visions from both him giving the mark and stopping the flying ravens which led to the Eastwatch Seven beginning their march north. This theory takes it a step further and has him travelling through time/space to watch and build a scheme from Dany’s approach to Westeros and relationship with Jon (who he already has beef with care of Hardhome).
On the face of it, that makes a lot of sense. Him dispersing Bran’s watcher ravens is first presented as cold threat, but could have been intended to begin a chain of events that will lead to a dragon flying right into his trap; after all, he had three spears seemingly ready to take down the trio of fire-breathers once they arrive. But even then we have to make leaps in how everything would come together - no fan predicted the grab a zombie, scare Cersei scheme, yet this suggests the Night King bet on it - and near perfect timing.
The Night King’s Dragon Is Another Case Of Confusing Storytelling
From a storytelling perspective - something Thrones once mastered that this season has got choppy - this confusion and potential solution is particularly problematic. Along with its well-documented time travel/geography issues, Season 7 has been dominated by developments that feel out of character that are later attempted to be explained as part of some bigger plot, yet don’t hold up to close inspection. Take how Sansa suddenly turning on Littlefinger is presented like it should explain her and Arya’s cold relationship over previous episodes, yet doesn’t account for the younger Stark threatening to wear her sister’s face and pretty dresses just an episode earlier; at best the pair reconciled after Episode 6, meaning Arya still genuinely went full psycho.
Having the Night King scheme to grab Viserion basically makes the entirety of “Beyond the Wall” a cheap perspective trick whose tension exists purely from key information being held back. That’s totally fine in theory, but if there’s no addressing of this fact or even an explicit clue things aren’t as they seem, it’s cheap (indeed, the showrunners haven’t made any statements suggesting this). Contrast to the Jon Snow reveal, a comparably seismic twist that has been subject to copious foreshadowing; if the Night King is playing a meticulous long game, surely there’d be both evidence of the plan and some hints at his cognitive leadership.
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We don’t much about what the White Walkers actually want. There’s theories aplenty, but the show has yet to make a full stance on if they’re a misunderstood culture with complex needs or a basic embodiment of death (although Beric’s speech to Jon would hint, on screen at least, it’s the easier-to-convey latter option). This helps build a proper sense of unknowing fear in a show where much of the violence, while cruel, has purpose. At the same time, though, that ambiguity means we can’t just suddenly have deep, involved plot twists that attempt to look smart involving them without establishment.
The Night King is either lucky and every death that comes from his army in Season 8 is the fault of Jon and Dany’s fearful knee-jerk reactions, or he’s an intermittently all-seeing, all-knowing genius who just spends most of his time a basic pure evil in zombie-leader’s clothing. Take your pick - Game of Thrones is unlikely to explain it.
