Will the Night King sack King’s Landing before the Siege of Winterfell?

Man, oh man, are we excited for Game of Thrones Season 8. All this anticipation has made us wonder, will the Night King sack King’s Landing before the Siege of Winterfell?

Unless you’ve been locked in the deep dungeons of King’s Landing with Ellaria and Tyene Sand, you’re probably aware that a small, indie project by the name of Game of Thrones, premieres in nine days (!). We all have a ton of questions about what the final season has in store for us, but given Throne’s past, it seems safe to assume it’ll be filled with not only twists but turns as well.

The images and trailers (as well as common sense) we’ve seen suggest that the Night King and his army of White Walkers and wights will march on the North as the start of their invasion of Westeros, after their successful destruction of the Wall in the Season 7 Finale. And, this does make a ton of sense, they do have to march through the North to get to the rest of Westeros after all.

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But I’m not sure this is the Night King’s plan. We are promised a Siege of Winterfell that will outdo the Helms Deep scenes from Lord of the Rings sure, but what if the reason this siege is going to be so spectacular is because of the Night King’s “real” plan? I believe, that the Night King’s real attack is going to be on King’s Landing.

Do I have any concrete reasons for this belief? No, not really. It’s just a gut feeling I’ve had since Season 7 ended.

I do however have some pretty damning circumstantial evidence I can use to try to persuade you. But before we get into that, let me outline what I think the Night King is actually planning.

The plan

I think that he is going to divide his vast army of wights sending, let’s say, 40% and the rest of the White Walkers to put Winterfell under siege. He will then march the remaining 60% of his army down the King’s Road (or perhaps even through the Twins, because who knows if anyone is in command there anymore), for an assault at King’s Landing.

Alternatively, he could just take zombie Viserion, raze a few village and towns along the way and take King’s Landing himself. Newly animated wights are a fearsome thing, and I shudder to picture them unleashed in an overpopulated cesspool like King’s Landing.

My guy could probably even just fly down to the city himself, dodge the ballistae Cersei thinks make her a match for two dragons and destroy Flea Bottom giving himself amble forces to destroy the city. What I’m saying basically, is that should he choose to do so, he has a variety of options to destroy King’s Landing, and multiply his forces greatly.

The real question is will he (or the showrunners) actually decide to do this.

Evidence

Now, I will admit, I don’t have very much in the way of actual evidence to support this theory of mine. But, there are the smallest of breadcrumbs that point to there being a non-zero chance of it coming to pass.

It feels like there is a general assumption that the Night King is planning to simply destroy the North with his army and then continue marching south, with his army now even larger, to destroy the rest of Westeros. A plot twist of this magnitude would be very peak Game of Thrones, so for that alone, I wouldn’t feel great about totally ruling this out.

Additionally, Daenerys’ vision of the Red Keep destroyed and ash falling through the shattered roof, couldn’t that ash be snow or even ash brought on from the destruction caused by an undead dragon. We also have scenes from the trailers depicting Cersei looking rather grim and sure she could be looking this way for any number of reasons. (Perhaps a lost pregnancy?)

Particularly damning in this sense to me is the scene where she is standing outside flanked by Qyburn and the Mountain, she is smirking while Qyburn looks horrified. To me this isn’t the victorious, “I’m smarter than you,” smirk that generally adorns her features. No, this is a smirk that says “welp, that is a White Walker riding a dead dragon to kill me, probably should have accepted the Dragon Queen’s help”.

Granted again, almost anything could be causing this. But Qyburn isn’t the type of man to be quailed easily. He was fascinated by the wight brought before them by Jon Snow during the peace talks. A sight which disturbed even Cersei.

The biggest piece of evidence might just be that it kind of just makes sense for the Night King to attack King’s Landing. They aren’t preparing for an invasion by White Walkers like the North. The population of King’s Landing dwarfed that of the North before the influx of refugees driven to the city because of a decade of war.

An army of fresh wights joining the Night King’s already nearly overwhelming forces would have to be absolutely backbreaking for Jon Snow and those that fight for the living.  Also, there are only six episodes left and two Big Bads to wrap up so it seems likely one of the enemies facing our heroes is going to be taken off the board more quickly than we think.

Now again, I’m not saying this will definitely happen, it almost definitely won’t happen in fact. However, I will say that I don’t think any of us should count out something unexpected, that seemingly has almost no shot of happening, taking place early on in Season 8.

Will it be the Night King sacking King’s Landing? I don’t know, but be sure to let us know in the comments what you think it’ll be.

Game of Thrones Season 8 premieres on Apr. 14 at 9/8c on HBO.