3 Game of Thrones Plot Holes That Are Still Super Confusing

Game of Thrones set up one of the richest and most complex narratives that TV had ever seen in 2011, yet by the end, it was riddled with plot holes. The tragedy is that many of these errors could have been solved either with more episodes to flesh out the story or by sticking closer to the material from George R.R. Martin’s book series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Many of the biggest plot holes have obvious explanations, but some stick with fans to this day. Read on for three of the most confusing gaps in the story, and the best theories that could fill them — perhaps in Martin’s final two novels when they are eventually published.

Game of Thrones started as a pretty faithful adaptation of the first three novels in A Song of Ice and Fire – though even then, it made some wild changes that are hard to justify. A few of those changes were for the better, which means that in general, they all got a pass — until later when the story started collapsing like a house of cards. In hindsight, it’s clear that changes from the books are one of the leading causes of plot holes in the Game of Thrones TV series, from the exclusion of certain characters and subplots to completely made-up storylines like Jaime and Bronn’s trip to Dorne.

The “changes from the book” argument is probably tied with another for the most popular criticisms of the show — its shortened run time. According to Martin, both he and HBO wanted Game of Thrones to go on for several more seasons, but showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss insisted on ending it with Season 8. It’s not clear if they were behind the shortened episode count of the final two seasons, but commenters online generally hold them responsible.

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Many plot holes discussed online probably would have been explained organically with more screen time, but the show had no time for exposition in its mad dash to the end. Still, some Game of Thrones plot holes can’t be entirely explained with these two issues alone. Here are three of them, in chronological order.

What Does Lord Varys Want?

Lord Varys, Master of Whisperers, is introduced as one of the most adept players of the game of thrones early on, but what makes him really compelling is his uncertain loyalties and motivations. He discreetly helps Ned Stark in Season 1, distracts and misleads the Lannisters at times, yet easily strikes up a friendship with Tyrion when he becomes Hand of the King. At that point, he even reveals his backstory — he rose from slavery to spymaster to spite the man who maimed him as a child, ostensibly for revenge. That maiming also left him with an abiding hatred of all things magical and of all the people who try to harness magic.

Varys’ hatred of magic is downplayed as the show goes on, while his seemingly righteous political philosophy is emphasized. He gives a few unforgettable monologues about the nature of power and the criteria for a great ruler, believing leaders have a responsibility for their people. He also believes it is just for people like him to maneuver a “good ruler” into power by any means necessary — even if it means executing men like Ned or compelling impoverished children to be his spies.

In the end, Varys’s abrupt turn against Daenerys feels jarring and is counted as one of the weakest contrivances of the final season. However, the holes in Varys’s story begin to emerge much sooner than that. Surprisingly, the spymaster supports Dany in the first place, since so much of her political and military power comes from her dragons, which are certainly magical. Many people raise questions about how much Dany can control her dragons, but Varys isn’t really one of them.

Instead, Varys chooses to turn against Dany because he believes Jon Snow will be a better ruler — and will have an easier time taking control, since gender won’t be an issue for him. Varys has no concern about Jon’s magical entanglements, either. By then, Jon has been resurrected and is probably undead, to a certain extent. He’s also a dragon-rider and a warg, and has been mythologized to the point of being practically a religious figure. There are so many other issues here — Jon directly refused the throne; he and Dany were a couple, so Varys could have portrayed them as co-rulers anyway; and Varys’ skills at deception and espionage seemed to flee him, so that Dany easily caught wind of his treason and executed him needlessly.

More screentime would have helped Varys’s story, but the bigger issue for him is probably omissions from the books. The latest novel, A Dance with Dragons, reveals that Varys has secretly been scheming on behalf of a character named Aegon VI Targaryen, who was never included in the show at all. According to Varys, he rescued Rhaegar’s son Aegon from the Lannisters as a baby and shipped him across the Narrow Sea to powerful allies who raised him in secret, giving him a Renaissance man education to prepare him for the Iron Throne.

This is a much more sensible direction for Varys — he gets a claimant with the legitimacy of the Targaryen name behind him, without the magical baggage that comes with Dany and/or Jon. He also gets someone he has helped mold specifically for this task, at the cost of many lives and through the use of elaborate deception.

The Wight-Kidnapping Fiasco

Another infamous Game of Thrones Season 7 plot hole is the entire sidequest north of The Wall, when Jon and Tormund team up with Jorah Mormont and the remainder of the Brotherhood without Banners to hunt down a wight and bring it south with them to prove that the White Walkers are real and unite Westeros against them. If the whole plan sounds flimsy to you, you’re not alone, and the worst part is that the characters tried this before back in Season 1, sending Alliser Thorne to King’s Landing with the wriggling hand of a wight in a box. By the time he got there, it had stopped moving, indicating that the magical wards on The Wall probably stopped wights from surviving in the south.

The issues with Season 7, Episode 6, “Beyond the Wall” start with the concept of the plan itself, but they only get worse once it goes into action. The party manages to capture a wight, but it summons more of its kind as well as the Others themselves, and soon, the party is surrounded on a frozen lake. They send Gendry running back to The Wall for help because he’s “the fastest,” and Gendry, in turn, sends off a raven to Daenerys on Dragonstone. Daenerys then flies north with all three of her dragons, torches the army of wights, and rescues Jon’s party. All of this happens within 36 hours at most, as far as we can tell by the lighting.

Now, the issue of “fast travel” is very prevalent in Game of Thrones, where the time it takes to get around Westeros is pretty inconsistent based on the needs of the plot. Generally, dragons and ravens should be able to move around the fastest, but even so, this might be the most egregious “fast travel” in the entire series. Beyond that, the fact that the magical barrier of The Wall doesn’t trouble Daenerys’s dragons is a little odd, since we’re told that one of her ancestors, Queen Alysanne Targaryen, couldn’t command her dragon to fly north of The Wall no matter what.

Most frustrating of all, this plan does nothing for the forces of humanity and it strengthens the White Walkers. The Night King is able to retrieve the corpse of Dany’s dragon Viserion (with chains that many fans count as a plot hole) to raise him from the dead as a wight. Meanwhile, the Night’s Watch are able to get their captured wight to King’s Landing this time for some reason, but it still doesn’t convince Cersei to join their cause.

It seems pretty likely that this botched mission was a haphazard adaptation of some notes Martin had given to the showrunners for his upcoming books. He has foreshadowed another perilous journey into the far north for Jon, probably matching the in-world myth of the Last Hero and his 12 companions. The odd roster for Jon’s ranging party may be different in the books, but the inclusion of the Brotherhood Without Banners probably indicates that it will have something to do with the growing cult of R’hllor worshippers in the Riverlands.

However, in the books, Beric Dondarrion is dead by now, and his resurrected life force has been passed on to Catelyn Stark, who in the books returns from the dead as “Lady Stoneheart.” Meeting her might be more meaningful for an undead Jon, considering their awkward past together and the revelation of Jon’s true parentage. Catelyn may even be able to lend Jon some legitimacy as a leader, since Robb named Jon his heir in his will.

Fans theorize that a ranging in the north equivalent to this trip will probably have a different goal than kidnapping a wight. Once Jon has died and come back to life, he may have awakened enough of his psychic abilities to realize where Bran is and what he’s doing. He may go looking to bring Bran back, or beg help from the Children of the Forest, or both. As you’ll see in the last point below, fans expect resurrection to affect Jon much more powerfully in the books. As a bonus, Jon or someone else in the party will likely be able to skin-change a raven to take their message south, rather than sending Gendry on a perilous marathon.

What Is the Point of the Night’s Watch Now?

Jon goes through a lot in the final episode of Game of Thrones — he kills Daenerys, is imprisoned for it, and is sentenced to serve on the Night’s Watch for the rest of his life. We then see Jon return to Castle Black, which is populated mostly by Wildlings now. However, instead of manning The Wall, Jon passes through it and heads north, as the wild land up there is apparently becoming more hospitable to human life, now that the White Walkers are defeated.

Since the finale, fans have questioned why the Night’s Watch would still exist if humanity believes the White Walkers have been defeated for good. Jon himself wonders at this, and Tyrion explains, “The world will always need a home for bastards and broken men.” This is more of a callback to one of his most famous lines from Season 1 than an explanation, but we are also given the reason that Dany’s surviving loyalists see the Night’s Watch as an acceptable punishment for Jon.

In the end, it’s not clear if there really is still a Night’s Watch, since we see Jon riding north with the Wildlings rather than taking up residence in Castle Black. It’s frustrating that neither he nor any other character really seems to discuss whether the White Walkers are defeated for good. Like many of the big finale moments, this seems like a case where exploring more of the magical side of the story would have helped, and fans expect the books to do so.

Martin has said that characters resurrected from the dead are profoundly changed by the experience, and the book versions of Beric and Lady Stoneheart make that clear. If they are the template, we should expect Jon to look eerie and corpse-like when he comes back and to be very preoccupied with whatever he was focused on when he died. He will be more psychic than ever and may even be able to use his warg abilities to influence other people to some degree.

With that in mind, it seems likely that Jon will be banished not for political expedience but because of his very nature. He will not belong among the living and may not even be able to survive for long in the south. The icy magic of the north would preserve him, just as it did for the Others. A popular theory is that the newly-crowned omniscient King Bran will use the last shred of his humanity and compassion to banish Jon north of The Wall and command him to stand watch for more White Walker incursions. The implication would be that, over time, Jon risks becoming the mythical threat in the north himself.

There are many questions left unanswered by Game of Thrones, but in a way, it’s nice that the series left so much room to speculate as we await the final novels. Game of Thrones is streaming now on Max, with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms coming later this year and House of the Dragon Season 3 coming sometime next year. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels are available now in print, digital, and audiobook formats. The author has reported progress on his next book, Winds of Winter, but there is no release date for it yet.

What are your biggest lingering questions about Game of Thrones? Let us know in the comments below!