Warning! Spoiler alert for “Game of Thrones” Season 7!
In a world of ice zombies and fire-breathing dragons, “Game of Thrones” fans are still “raven” about one apparent plot hole in Season 7, Episode 6, “Beyond the Wall.”
In order for Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) to swoop in and save the day in the most recent episode of the HBO series, a raven carrying Gendry’s (Joe Dempsie) distress message had to fly hundreds ― possibly thousands ― of miles in a matter of mere hours to reach her at Dragonstone.
Although the show is based on fantasy novels, some fans just aren’t buying a raven with warp speed. Twitter descended on the moment like wights onto Jon Snow:
But should you really give that idea the bird?
Euron Greyjoy actor Pilou Asbæk already told us that fans shouldn’t get too caught up in logistical details. Responding to criticisms over Euron and his Ironborn followers’ ability to build a huge fleet at the speed of light, he said, “Let’s not discuss how he can build 1,000 ships, guys. Seriously, I love that you guys are discussing it, but we’ve got White Walkers. We’ve got dragonglass and dragons. [Laughs] Why can an element of that kill the whole show for you?”
But even if you are getting caught up in the minutia, some fans argue that the numbers check out.
Redditor Buffalo_Danger says the whole concept of a raven network is already “fantastical.” (They do apparently work faster than texting and have better coverage than Verizon, so we’re with this idea so far.)
The Redditor crunched the numbers and ― using approximations for how far Gendry had to run to Eastwatch, the distance from the Wall to Dragonstone, and the speeds at which fantasy-world ravens can fly ― figured out it all could’ve theoretically taken place in 24 hours.
Gendry’s marathon: 3 hours
Super raven’s 900-mile flight to Dragonstone: 10 hours
Dany getting her shit together/arguing with Tyrion: 1 hour
Dragon-flight back to zombie island: 10 hours
You should “squint your eyes” at those numbers, Buffalo_Danger wrote, so yeah, squint away. But the point is: Maybe it’s not as ridiculous as we all thought. (You can see the full explanation here.)
Another Redditor, using approximations of the North’s frigid temperatures, says the sequence took place over five days, because that time frame would allow the ice to become thick enough to support a horde of wights.
Maybe that amount of time would also justify the Hound’s (Rory McCann) boredom, throwing rocks at wights to pass the time and causing the wights to realize the water was frozen again.
Seriously?
HuffPost’s own Sara Boboltz also weighed in:
We’ll take your word for it, Sara. Then again, when you have a raven like this, who cares about the numbers, anyway?
To infinity and beyond, lil’ bro.
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