'Game of Thrones' Theory Says the Night King Might Not Be at the Battle of Winterfell

By Hannah Wigandt | Apr 23, 2019, 11:02 AM EDT

Winterfell is gearing up for the biggest battle it has ever seen. Gendry is forging dragonglass weapons, Brienne is training soldiers, and Jon is going through an existential crisis. No one knows who will live or die.

The White Walkers are very close, but where is their leader? At the end of episode 2, "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms", we see a frontline of White Walkers in horses leading the wights into Winterfell without the Night King. We know that the Night King is soaring through the air on Viserion somewhere, but what if the evil king's true plan doesn't involve an appearance at the battle?

Fans on Reddit have already started to believe that the Night King won't show up for the battle. They believe he will use the battle as a diversion for his plan to destroy King's Landing while his White Walkers defeat Winterfell.

What the fans argue is that the Night King is not stupid. It would be simple for Daenerys' remaining dragons to fly up to the newly-resurrected Viserion and breathe fire on him to kill him. So why not attack another, unguarded target?

"If you have a superweapon that you can't use against a particular target, then you find a different target," the Reddit post explained.

So, when everyone is expecting him to show up and fight in the battle, the Night King will instead fly to King's Landing, kill everyone there and create another army of the dead in the south that Jon, or who ever survives the battle, will have to conquer as well.

Scenes in previous seasons back this theory. In season 4, Bran had a series of visions, which all came true, except the one where he sees a destroyed throne room and the shadow of a dragon pass over. This could have been the Night King on Viscerion, instead of Daenerys and her dragons. In season 2, Daenerys also saw a vision where the throne room was destroyed and covered in snow.

While it does seem like a reasonable theory, no one can know until next week, when we're sure to get one of the best battles in Thrones history, and some twists and turns we weren't expecting.

h/t: [Mashable]