Spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 7, Episode 6, "Beyond the Wall," below
Game of Thrones is, in general, an incredibly well-made and thoughtfully put-together show that dazzles millions of people week after week with intense action and thrilling political and family drama. Overall, it's an enormous triumph in television history. And all that makes it especially jarring when many viewers come away from the latest episode with the same set of confused questions and criticisms, which happened this week with Game of Thrones Season 7, Episode 6, "Beyond the Wall."
You only have to check Twitter, Reddit, or GameSpot's comments this morning to see what those questions are: Why didn't Jon and co. bring any horses beyond the wall? Why not use Beric's magic flaming sword for warmth? Why is Arya so mad at Sansa? And most important of all--since this sequence served as the climax for the entire season, and an incredibly pivotal moment for the series as a whole--how long did the Westeros Avengers sit on that rock waiting for Deus Ex Dany to show up, and is there any realistic explanation for this episode's timeline?
In short, Jon, the Hound, Beric, Thoros, Tormund, and some additional, un-named soldiers found themselves trapped on a rocky island in the middle of a frozen lake this episode, surrounded by the Night's King's army, awaiting rescue. Jon sent Gendry jogging back to civilization to seek help, stating that Daenerys is their only hope.
Naturally, Game of Thrones fans on Reddit have already crunched the numbers to figure out whether it's realistically possible that Gendry could run back to Eastwatch, a raven could fly to Dragonstone, and Dany could return with her big, beautiful babies in time to save Jon's motley crew. And their conclusions are pretty surprising.
Gendry running back to the Wall is the most plausible part (once you accept that they nonsensically traveled north without horses or ravens of their own). No more than a single day seems to have passed between the group leaving Eastwatch and finding the wights, and their pace could accurately be described as "plodding." Under extreme duress and with copious quantities of adrenaline pumping through him, Gendry could maybe make it back to the Wall within hours.
The rest of this sequence of events is harder to explain, but not impossible, it turns out. Redditor Vis-hoka determined that a raven would realistically take around two days to reach Dragonstone from Eastwatch, assuming (based on various sources) that the distance is around 2,000 miles and that ravens in this fantasy world can travel over 1,000 miles at a consistent speed of around 50MPH. User mikeCFNI is less generous, estimating that it would take a raven around four days to reach Dany.
If you then assume that the dragons can fly significantly faster than a raven--which is perfectly reasonable--Daenerys could potentially reach the stranded party in a day or less, depending on a number of unknowable factors. That puts Jon's merry band of misfits out on the rocks for a total of anywhere from three to five days, which is around how long both users estimate it would take for the ice to re-form thick enough for the wights to charge across it.
In other words, the timing might actually work out--if you're willing to accept a lot of assumptions about things like temperature, weather, travel speed, and the Night's King's motivations for not just sniping them all with cool ice javelins while they sat there not igniting their sword-torches.
There's a counter-argument, of course: That fans are simply reaching too far to explain events that should have been plotted more clearly on the screen. The fact that this all seems so improbable is not a good look, even if it technically works on paper. Yes, Game of Thrones fans have always been willing to put the work into deciphering this universe. But we're usually speculating about vaguely hinted-at past and future events, not bending over backward to rationalize impossible-seeming sequences in the present. Hopefully next week's finale turns out easier to digest.
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