Game of Thrones Included a Stealth Tribute to Missandei in the Finale

Last night’s series finale of Game Thrones left fans with a lot to process. He massively popular HBO series wrapped things up with a controversial death, an unexpected ascension to the throne, a heartwarming reunion of sorts, as well as new adventures for some of the show’s beloved characters. But, tucked into all of those things was a stealth tribute to Missandei whose death in Episode 4 was deeply troubling to fans — though it’s a tribute that may be bittersweet at best.

Spoilers for the series finale of Game of Thrones beyond this point.

In the end, no one sat on the Iron Throne. Sure, Dany defeated Cersei and made it all the way to the throne room, even putting her hand on the seat of power, but Jon Snow soon killed her and Drogon carried her body away after he took out his pain and rage on the Iron Throne by melting it with his fire. Jon is arrested for assassinating the Queen and before it’s all settled, he’s sentenced to serve on the Nights Watch and, in a surprise turn, Bran is elected king by the council that’s left. Everything settled, the various players went their separate ways and that includes Grey Worm and his Unsullied. Grey Worm had assumed control of Daenerys’s armies and they decided to leave Westeros. As they prepare to sale out, Grey Worm says that they will sail to the Isle of Naath.

It’s that destination that is a tribute to Missandei You see, Naath is where Missandei is originally from and its where Grey Worm promised they would go once the wars were over. Unfortunately, Missandei was beheaded at Cersei’s order in Episode 4 so their romantic happily ever after never got to be. Now, with the dream of Daenerys’ world gone as well as Missandei, Grey Worm decides to keep his promise and head to Naath. It’s a beautiful gesture and it absolutely hits the right emotional note for the overwhelmingly bleak episode, but there’s a huge problem with Grey Worm and his army going to Naath. They’re all probalby going to die.

In George R.R. Martin’s books that Game of Thrones is based upon. the Isle of Naath is very far to the south and close to the mysterious Sothoryos continent. Naath itself is a paradise, described as being filled with fruit and living in a generally uninterrupted peace but there’s a trick to that peace. The reason things are so glorious in Naath is because that there’s almost no intervention from the outside world because outsiders who come to the island die.

As Martin explains in The World of Ice and Fire, a companion book giving details on the locations of the fantasy epic, Naath is inhabited by large swarms of beautiful colorful butterflies. These lovely butterflies sound like they’d be glorious, but they’re actually lethal. They carry an illness referred to as “Butterfly Fever” and while natives of Naath are immune, outsiders are not. They’re infected within hours of arrival on the island and once infected, there’s no going back. Death is inevitable, and it’s a gruesome death at that with painful spasms that make victims appear to be dancing uncontrollably followed by sweating blood and flesh literally sloughing off the bones in the final stages.

It’s these butterflies that await Grey Worm and his army and while there are measures that they can take to prevent infection initially — stay for a very short period of time, land at night since the butterflies are active during the day — if they plan on staying their lives will be quite short. It’s a grim prospect.

Now, it’s possible that on Game of Thrones “Butterfly Fever” isn’t a thing. Naath was rarely mentioned in the series and the illness itself was never brought up. Game of Thrones didn’t duplicate everything from the books detail for detail so perhaps Grey Worm and his army will arrive in Naath and find it a beautiful paradise that isn’t going to kill them. Considering how Missandei died, it would feel a bit better if Grey Worm at least got to connect with something so important to her, allowing her legacy to live on.

If not, well. At least his heart seemed to be in the right place.

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