The Long Night, aka the agonising wait for new Game of Thrones, is well and truly here, and fans are left with nothing to do but analyse every single detail of the previous seasons/books.
Luckily, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has provided us with new food for thought on Twitter.
Everybody all caught up on #GameOfThrones? I have a comment or two, if anybody is interested…
Firstly, like many fans, he questioned the White Walkers' use of chains to get Viserion out of that frozen lake. But unlike fans who were all "how the hell did they get those chains?", he pointed out that, er, the problem is actually — that's not how chains work???
Bad Physics in #GameOfThrones: Pulling a dragon out of a lake? Chains need to be straight, and not curve over hill… https://t.co/OBzLoYXMLA
Damn.
And before you're like, "This is a show with dragons, nothing makes sense!", Neil has news for you: The dragons are legit, scientifically speaking! Well, at least as far as their wings are concerned.
Good Bio-Physics in #GameOfThrones: The Dragon Wingspans are sensibly large, as their body weight would require for… https://t.co/ZyNoTAa0Lr
Good Biology in #GameOfThrones: As in #LordOfTheRings, Dragons forfeited their forelimbs to make wings, like birds… https://t.co/l4dnuIArPj
But here's where things get really interesting: Neil posits that Wight Viserion's blue fire would burn THREE TIMES hotter than normal dragon fire...
Intriguing Thermal Physics in #GameOfThrones: BlueDragon breath would be at least a factor of 3X hotter than RedDra… https://t.co/mfbMCENwY9
...which is already REALLY fucking hot.
Of course, Neil's suggestion might not actually be canon within the show, but it makes a lot of sense when you consider what we've already seen.
And if it IS the case, it could have worrying consequences for the other dragons – and maybe even Dany. Because while fire can't harm dragons – what if Viserion's blue fire can?
It wouldn't be the first time fire has killed a dragon within this universe. As highlighted in an animated history video recently released by HBO, the Doom of Valyria involved fire so hot, even dragons fell.
But even if Viserion's fire can't kill dragons, he still can. After all, the Dance of the Dragons, a civil war amongst the Targaryens that took place long before the events of Game of Thrones, saw most of their dragons die in battle against each other. It seems like history will repeat itself yet again in Daenerys and Jon's showdown with the Night King.
And I'm really not ready for more dragon deaths, so maybe the long wait between seasons isn't so bad after all.
