‘Game of Thrones’: The Night King’s Dragon Isn’t What You Think

Warning: Game of Thrones Season 7 spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk…

As you’d imagine, the water cooler talking point for Game of Thrones fans this week is the Night King’s attack on Eastwatch at the end of the Season 7 finale. Using Viserion, who he recently “recruited” into his army, the Night King tore down a section of the wall and began The Great War.

The new Viserion is definitely one of the most powerful beings in Westeros, but he isn’t quite what people are thinking. That is not an ice dragon you’re looking at.

In the Game of Thrones books, Ice Dragons are very different from regular dragons. They’re much larger than the dragons we’ve seen with Daenerys and they have a lot more history.

As Uproxx pointed out, the description of the Ice Dragons in The World of Ice & Fire spins them out to much greater than Viserion.

Of all the queer and fabulous denizens of the Shivering Sea, however, the greatest are the ice dragons. These colossal beasts, many times larger than the dragons of Valyria, are said to be made of living ice, with eyes of pale blue crystal and vast translucent wings through which the moon and stars can be glimpsed as they wheel across the sky. Whereas common dragons (if any dragon can truly be said to be common) breathe flame, ice dragons supposedly breathe cold, a chill so terrible that it can freeze a man solid in half a heartbeat.

While Viserion might not be a true Ice Dragon – if they even really exist – he does share some qualities with them. The Night King’s newest weapon does have wings that the moon and stars can shine through, although this comes from holes in its skin rather than a translucent tone. Viserion also has eyes of blue crystal. That’s about where the similarities stop, but that’s okay.

This dragon is likely the TV version of an Ice Dragon. With only six episodes left, it’s unlikely that the ancient creatures will be introduced, so the showrunners modified their description a bit to make Viserion as close to the real thing as possible.

Viserion is dangerous enough as it is, let’s not keep hoping for more.

Photo Credit: HBO