Why The Night King Didn’t Die When Scorched By Dragon Fire

Warning: Contains Spoilers

HBO

For all his chilling intentions for the realm of the living, the Night King (RIP) kind of looked like an icicle you’d find dangling from the bottom of your car.

So I was kind of surprised when, rather than melting into a big blue puddle at the Battle of Winterfell, the Night King responded to having dragon fire breathed all over him with a cheeky little grin.

We have seen Drogon turn a fair portion of the wight army into an extremely unappetising looking zombie BBQ. How is it that the Night King remained so smugly uncharred?

Many fans have theorised that the icy eyed menace actually had Targaryen blood somewhere in his chilly veins, with the dragon family having a famously unusual relationship with fire. Furthermore, he is clearly a confident dragon rider.

And so, fans were eagerly anticipating an answer to this mystery from showrunners, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, wondering what sort of mystical lore was written upon the Night King’s flameproof skin.

However, the answer actually feels a bit deflating for those of us who love analyzing every little fragment of the show for meaning and continuity.

Speaking on HBO’s accompanying documentary short series Inside the Episode, Weiss said:

There’s no reason to know for certain that the fire wouldn’t kill or destroy the Night King, but there’s also no particular reason to believe that it would.

Then a few moments after this happens, the Night King brings them a whole larger undead problem by taking all of their own who have been killed in the course of this battle and turning them into the enemy.

You can watch the most recent episode of Inside the Episode for yourself here:

I mean, this makes a lot of sense and all. But after eight seasons of waiting for this baddie to rock up and raise hell, I feel like I wanted to know a little more depth to this – admittedly very creepy – moment.

So much of the beauty of Game of Thrones is in the slow unraveling of secrets, and in the rich history which permeates through the songs and destinies of the dynastic families. I have to confess, this ‘meh’ explanation left me feeling colder than Viserion’s breath after a soft mint.

With the Night King destroyed, the next villain to face down will be Cersei. Of course, as a human – albeit a nasty one – she could be easily be dispatched with a few puffs of dragon breath. However, no doubt she will have some tricks of her own up her sleeve…

You can now – finally – watch the new season of Game of Thrones on HBO or Sky Atlantic.

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Julia Banim

Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.