How Did The Children Get To Dragonstone Again?
So, during the “Spoils of War” episode of Season 7 of Game of Thrones, I went off on a bit of a tangent about the scene where Jon and Daenerys find that cave of wonders under Dragonstone (where Jon revealed he was in possession of a magic carpet and then used it to fly Daenerys around Agrabah singing a song about a ‘new world’ while they held hands…didn’t that happen? I could be misremembering).
Anyway, what was bothering me was the suggestion that the Children of the Forest (COTF) decided to take a cave vacation to Dragonstone (because, let’s face it, Dragonstone is PLUSH!
Just a reminder, Dragonstone is an island, all around Dragonstone is a liquid substance that looks very little like trees and not at all like a forest.
Just to remind you, the Children of the Forest were not known for their prowess at building or creating things, they could not even forge weapons or armor.
It seems very unlikely to me that they made many, or any, ocean voyages.
I don’t want to suggest it isn’t possible that they could have built a boat that was sea worthy, but it seems improbable to me.
Let’s just start with the fact that they are called the ‘Children of the Forest.’
Remember when they needed Bran, a child without functional legs, to come all the way to the tree of the three-eyed raven?
If the COTF were super-mobile, don’t you think they could have at least helped Meera get Bran to the tree?
If their super powers included teleportation, couldn’t they have used it to help Bran?
The source of COTF powers is/was a deep connection to Weirwood Trees, why in the world would they make a pilgrimage so far from the FOREST?
Being annoyed and confused, as I often do in these situations, I decided to ask some people who know MUCH more about Game of Thrones than I do (not exactly a challenge).
Anyway, I asked Elio and Linda from Westeros.org (the duo who literally wrote the book about the history of Westeros and who do consulting for GRRM and the television show).
Luckily, they are often nice enough to respond (I am very thankful, as I can misremember things sometimes).
After chiding me about assuming that seagoing vessels require metal, they seem to agree with me about the likelihood that the COTF were on Dragonstone:
Now, you might be saying:
“Okay smart guy, if they weren’t on Dragonstone, how did they get dragonglass?”
My answer is pretty simple, the books suggest that dragonglass also existed beyond the Wall (you know, where the COTF live). And, if you think about it, this totally makes sense because dragonglass is the same thing as obsidian and volcanoes don’t usually only exist in one place on a planet.
Even more bizarre, during that scene, they suggested that the COTF were fighting the Valyrian’s at the time? Huh? The COTF certainly aligned themselves with the first men to fight Andals and White Walkers but never to fight Valyrian’s (unless I missed a huge chapter of ASOIAF or the World of Ice and Fire).
Nothing irks me more than when showrunners Benioff and Weiss do violence to the carefully constructed history of Westeros just to create some cheat code so they can create shortcuts or engage in creative history like:
- turning coastal raiders, from an archipelagic nation with few trees, into open sea conquerors (Euron’s 1000 ship fleet)
- turning a guy with NO formal military training into a guy who trained his forces in formal Roman Legion tactics (Battle of the Bastards).
I have no doubt that this will come back to haunt us again in the final season. All of a sudden, we will find out that it was the COTF who hold some secret to saving the world (beyond dragonglass and valyrian steel).
Sigh.
Josh is a blogger and freelance writer who writes about television, movies, music, politics, ethics, and whatever else is of interest coming across his feed.
