THE Battle of Winterfell proved to be one of the most popular episodes in Game of Thrones’ finale season.
As Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) allied with the North to fend off the Night King and his army of White Walkers, fans were treated to a siege of truly cinematic proportions.
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Between Drogon’s fire-breathing, Melisandre’s (Carice van Houten) magic and Arya Stark’s (Maisie Williams) incredible stealth skills , show bosses packed in all manner of stunts and CGI wizardry.
However, fans have noticed one significant oversight when it comes to the allied forces’ defensive strategy.
As any Westeros enthusiast will know, dragonglass is one of just two substances that can destroy White Walker upon contact, the other being Balyrian steel forged in dragon fire.
During season 7, we saw Jon Snow (Kit Harington) lead an expedition to a huge mine at the ancestral home of the Targaryens, Dragonstone.
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With Daenerys’ blessing, he was allowed to mine vast quantities of dragonglass from the cave and ship the material back home to Winterfell.
With this in mind, some questioned why the dragonglass wasn’t put to more prominent military use during the attack on Winterfell.
Taking to Reddit, murdererousbanana13 wrote: “On Dragonstone, we see that there is plenty of dragonglass, but for some reason, no-one thought to make dragonglass arrowheads.
“In season three, we see Sam kill a white walker with a dragonglass dagger, so we know that dragonglass is an effective choice for killing white walkers and wights.”
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They pointed out that a ranged assault could’ve helped break up the front line of the Night King’s army during the initial charge on the castle walls.
What’s more, they noted that as sniper-style shot at the Night King and undead dragon Viserion could’ve ended the battle before it even started.
“Arrows would be a smart choice because they could kill wights/white walkers (and maybe even the Night King) without hand-to-hand combat and in one shot,” they went on.
“With the arrows, they could easily kill zombie Viserion too.”
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The post received plenty of upvotes and sparked quite the debate in the comments section.
One user agreed: “Jon even finds a handful of arrowheads made of dragonglass on the Fist.”
While a second chimed in: “I thought that’s what was going to happen, [they would] mass-produce dragonglass arrows.”
However, one fan pointed out that a more conservative approach to the precious materials made sense.
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“When you shoot an arrow, you’re likely not getting it back,” they pointed out.
“So it’s a one and done with the dragonglass, especially when for the most part a flaming arrow would do the job for the wights.”
The use of dragonglass isn’t the only aspect of the battle to draw criticism from viewers.
