In hindsight, it was the mother of all bad ideas. The Army of the Living chose to put the women, children, and non-fighters in the Winterfell crypts to keep them from harm’s way. The only glitch in the plan? Crypts are full of dead people ready to be resurrected by the Night King. Fans have been thinking this, We have been thinking this, and now Peter Dinklage seems to have been thinking this as well.
In a behind-the-scenes video published by HBO, Peter Dinklage seems very baffled at this crucial weak link in Winterfell’s battle plans. In his words,
“We’re in a crypt. Nobody thought of that. [the Night King] is bringing all the dead people back to life, and they put the women and children in a crypt with all the dead people, so…Arrgh!”
And that’s exactly what happened. When the Night King slowly raised his hands, all we could think of was all the dead bodies surrounding Jon Snow coming back to life. But a similar horror had already started playing out down in the crypt. One by one the dead Starks broke free of their stone sarcophagus and attacked the unarmed women and children in their supposed ‘safe’ haven. Dinklage brings out the dramatic potential of it:
“There’s this epic battle going on upstairs, and the genuine horror movie down below in the crypt.”
While that made for great drama, the logical loophole is glaringly visible (not the only one in the admittedly thrilling episode 3). The Starks have always buried their dead, and it is extremely unlikely that no one in the Northern leadership thought of that.
Some fans have argued that the crypts were still relatively safer. The number of dead people in there is finite, and most of them are dust by now. But would it not have made better sense to put some armed guards there? Sansa seemed to have the only Dragonglass weapon in the vicinity, that too only because Arya insisted.
What do you think of the crypt scene? Tell us in the comments.
