Jon Snow might have used the images etched on Dragonstone to make a case to Daenerys Targaryen, but is his Game of Thrones lore wrong?
Game of Thrones made it really easy for Jon Snow to refine his pitch to Daenerys Targaryen about working together before the undead waltz into the Seven Kingdoms during “The Spoils of War.” However, if you’ve been paying attention to the show so far, you know that there’s an alternative — and probably correct — interpretation to those carvings.
In the episode, Jon says that the children of the forest and the First Men formed an alliance against the White Walkers, even dubbing them a “common enemy,” like the Walkers are in the present of the series. The whole thing is even central to why he wants Daenerys Targaryen’s help!
In episode 5 of season 6, Bran Stark learns how the children actually created the White Walkers. We’re not arguing with Jon’s call that the children made the carvings he finds in the caves beneath Dragonstone. As discussed in the below video, the spirals are hallmarks of the children:
So he’s right there. However, it seems much more likely that the children instead documented how they had made the Walkers in Dragonstone instead. In the video above, Game of Thrones shows the aerial shot of Bran’s White-Walker-creation vision.
Compare to one of the carvings:
Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen and Kit Harington as Jon Snow/HBO
He then shows her the next set of carvings, offering the statement that the children and men were there together on the island to fight:
Still from Game of Thrones season 7 episode 4/HBO
However, if you look closely, the larger figures, which are likely the First Men, don’t look friendly so much as intimidating. The carvings on the chest suggest armor, and they’re holding weapons. Additionally, they’re much taller than the children, who are above. Jon then shows her the White Walkers.
If you’ll recall, the children actually used dragonglass to make the Walkers, so it makes sense that it would destroy them as well. Bran’s vision also isn’t clear about where this spell took place, but it’s possible that the children were on Dragonstone to acquire the dragonglass they needed, and maybe even carried it out on the island.
Of course, we haven’t seen where Dragonstone itself would have had weirwood trees, but remember: the children precede the Targaryen arrival, and A Wiki of Ice and Fire tells us that weirwood trees were once all over Westeros.
Now, the question is: Does Jon being wrong actually matter? In terms of Dany and Jon in the short-term, not as much. He was mostly illustrating his own points and showing her a piece of history that doesn’t have a lot of evidence that far south in the Seven Kingdoms.
In the long-term, however, this sets up two points. Bran could blow Jon’s mind again by correcting him about the purpose and existence of the White Walkers.
Additionally, it illustrates something that might turn out to be concerning. Of the major political players right now, Jon knows the most about how to combat White Walkers, but he still doesn’t know everything, and since he’s trying to beat back a huge extinction event…
Lionel Giles put it best in his translation of The Art of War:
"“Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”"
Metaphorically, we can also argue that Jon does not know himself, either, since he still thinks he’s Jon Snow and that his dad was Ned Stark. We’ve predicted that people may start suspecting things about him starting in episode 5 of Game of Thrones season 7, but suspicion still isn’t true knowledge.
Next: 5 predictions for Game of Thrones season 7, episode 5
For now, this is a small thing, but it might snowball (pun intended) into something bigger as Game of Thrones continues.