Things That Make No Sense In Game Of Thrones

As Game of Thrones begins, King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy) is still on the throne of Westeros. Right away, viewers learn about his famous conquest of the Seven Kingdoms with Ned Stark (Sean Bean) by his side. After overthrowing the raving King Aerys Targaryen, Robert became fiercely protective of his throne, seeking to kill any young Targaryen threats. In the aftermath of Robert's untimely death, his illegitimate successor, Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson), takes that mission several steps forward, ordering the systemic murder of Robert's many, many bastard children to ensure his own status as king.

Unfortunately for Joffrey, he misses one important bastard: Gendry (Joe Dempsie), a gifted young blacksmith. Gendry goes on to survive the entire series, but bafflingly, his Baratheon blood never proves to be climactic. Just before the end of the show, other characters acknowledge it, but in confusing ways: Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) legitimizes him, making him Lord Gendry, despite the fact that doing so could challenge her own claim to the Iron Throne. If Gendry is the last remaining son of Robert Baratheon, why does Daenerys go so far as to give him more of a right to rule Westeros?

Daenerys begins the show as the khaleesi of a wild Dothraki horde. After losing and gaining control of these proud horse lords many times over, she eventually makes her way to Westeros with a massive Dothraki army at her back. After losing one of her dragons to the Night King, Daenerys finds herself at a major disadvantage as the White Walkers head towards Westeros. As the battle begins, seemingly most, if not all of her Dothraki warriors charge ... and are immediately snuffed out by the army of the dead. A dramatic overhead shot even shows them being swallowed whole by darkness.

However, just a few episodes later, after Daenerys overtakes King's Landing, the camera pans across what looks like thousands of Dothraki warriors, enthralled by her speech about conquering the world. How is this possible? Benioff himself said that the Battle of Winterfell was "essentially the end of the Dothraki," so unless a secret Dothraki power is that they can magically multiply, how does Daenerys have so many horse lords left after that frigid battle?

Right from the beginning, Game of Thrones' biggest mystery concerned the White Walkers, an undead race of beings who live in the far north beyond the Wall. The White Walkers and their leader, the Night King, pose an enormous threat to all of Westeros: As early as the pilot, it's clear that the army of the dead will eventually make its way to the Seven Kingdoms and wage devastating war.

Throughout the series, viewers get small pieces of information about the Walkers, including that they are given babies as offerings from humans who live north of the Wall, who they turn into tiny Walkers. However, in the season eight episode "The Long Night," when the Walkers finally make their way to Winterfell, Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) dispatches the Night King himself without too much trouble. The mysteries surrounding the White Walkers die with him and his entire army. What did the White Walkers really want? They have unique clothing and tools, the markers of civilization — what did theirs look like, far in the frozen north? And why wasn't any of this properly explained?

After Daenerys swoops in to rescue Jon, Tyrion, and the rest of the gang, she suffers a major loss when the Night King takes careful aim and shoots one of her dragons, Viserion, out of the sky. Daenerys leaves with her two remaining dragons, Drogon and Rhaegal, but the loss is deeply felt. Matters only get worse when we see the Night King reanimate the dragon for his own nefarious purposes.

The image of Viserion's eye reopening with its new blue hue is definitely one of Thrones' coolest visuals, but the mechanics of how the Night King and his army retrieve the dragon from underneath the ice of the far North definitely raises some questions. Earlier in that same episode, the wight-capturers keep Walkers at bay by isolating themselves on a rock surrounded by water, as wights can't swim. If that's so, how did they retrieve Viserion? Beyond that, the army of the dead uses enormous chains to drag Viserion to the surface: Where did they get those, and how did they attach them to the dragon underwater? Are we to understand that not only does the far North have a secret foundry, but that some of the Walkers are Olympic-level swimmers?

In Game of Thrones' second season, viewers meet Melisandre (Carice van Houten), a cryptic priestess of R'hllor, the Lord of Light. Initially, Melisandre, who serves Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane) until his death, is the only red priest viewers meet, but before long, others like Thoros of Myr (Paul Kaye) and a priestess who seeks out Daenerys in Meereen, appear. Beyond their fire-related powers, each of these mystical beings deliver prophecy, especially Melisandre, who makes sweeping proclamations about chosen ones and rightful kings pretty regularly.

These prophecies are all exciting in the beginning, but by the time Game of Thrones draws to a close, none of them have been fulfilled. The show's writers clumsily try to make one of Melisandre's predictions relate to Arya's slaughter of the Night King after the fact, but it doesn't really work. When all is said and done, Melisandre's predictions have little to no bearing on anything in the show's outcome and are never explained at all.

Like all fantasy, Game of Thrones is home to plenty of moments that require viewers to put aside some of their logic and reason. But sometimes, Thrones asks too much of its fans, especially when it comes to injuries. After characters like Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) die of actual afflictions like blood poisoning, you might think that a serious injury — say, a gaping stomach wound — might take a character down once in a while. But you would be wrong.

Both Jaime and Arya endure brutal stab wounds to the stomach during fights: Arya loses a tussle with the Waif (Faye Marsay) in season six, while Jaime struggles against Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk) in the final season. And yet, neither person seems much troubled by these grievous injuries. Jaime makes it into the Red Keep to find Cersei, only to die by her side as the building crumbles, while Arya somehow leaps into a (probably filthy) canal, swims across Braavos, and is eventually cured by a cup of soup and a good night's sleep. Armor can be effective against knives, but apparently, being a series regular can save you from multiple stomach wounds as well.

Though Daenerys begins the show as a naive child bride, marrying Khal Drogo at her brother's behest so that he can gain power, she quickly comes into her own. Tragically, Drogo sustains an infected wound, and despite her best efforts, the dragon queen can't keep her husband from a grisly death. Bereaved but newly self-confident, Daenerys sets her sights on Westeros, putting her romantic life on the backburner.

Though Daenerys takes a few lovers, including Daario Naharis (Michiel Huisman), she never truly falls in love again ... until Jon Snow arrives, and the two fall head over heels for each other. Putting their lackluster chemistry aside — as well as the fact that they're actually aunt and nephew — Daenerys risking her quest for the Iron Throne over a lover is wildly inconsistent with her character. Seriously, can you imagine the steely Daenerys who took Meereen putting her title in jeopardy for a dude she's known for a few months? It doesn't make sense ... until you consider that, as a plot device, it forces Jon to face some internal conflict about killing the woman who's not just his queen, but his lover.

When audiences first meet Jon Snow and Ned Stark, they're told that Jon is Ned's shameful bastard, the product of an affair with a tavern wench. But as these earliest episodes make clear, Ned prizes his honor above all else, making the entire situation seem a little shady. Ultimately, the truth is revealed; Jon isn't a bastard at all, but is the legitimate product of Ned's sister Lyanna Stark and Daenerys' brother Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, who married in secret.

As Lyanna lay dying with Robert Baratheon's forces approaching, she begged her brother to keep Jon's real identity a secret, which would save him from Robert's sword. This is true enough — but the lengths to which Ned goes to keep this secret are extreme. For years, Ned's loving wife Catelyn (Michelle Fairley) resents Jon as shameful proof of her husband's infidelity. Couldn't Ned have told his wife the real story? Yes, Lyanna made Ned swear that he would never tell anyone, but Catelyn is as trustworthy as they come, and her treatment of Jon leaves lifelong scars on both the boy and the Stark marriage. Enabling that doesn't actually seem more honorable than confiding in the one person meant to share his life's burdens — really, practical and courageous Catelyn could have helped him keep the secret more securely.

Putting aside the fact that Euron Greyjoy is undoubtedly one of the most irritating characters in recent television history (we get it, writers, he's crass), pretty much everything he does in the final two seasons of Game of Thrones makes no sense. As Thrones' final conflict draws near, Euron's niece and nephew, Yara (Gemma Whelan) and Theon (Alfie Allen), steal his best ships. Though Euron whines quite a lot about how their home of the Iron Islands has terrible resources, he still manages to build 1,000 ships in pretty quick order, without much fuss.

From there, Euron apparently gains perfect aim overnight, taking down one of Daenerys' typically impervious dragons with a perfect shot — from a moving ship, no less. He sends Rhaegal tumbling into the sea, leaving Daenerys with just one dragon. He's a crude idiot at multiple major disadvantages, yet none of them seem to actually matter. In a show that prides itself on taking fantasy tropes seriously, especially in terms of mundane realities like war, Euron Greyjoy stands out like a bizarrely lucky sore  thumb.

It takes Daenerys until the start of Thrones' seventh season to arrive in Westeros. When she does, she makes a triumphant return to Dragonstone, her ancestral home, which was most recently occupied by Stannis Baratheon and his forces. In a near-silent scene that closes the seventh season's premiere, Daenerys strides across a shore she barely remembers, flanked by her closest advisors. At last, she's finally ready to take on her Westerosi foes.

However, there's one thing about this scene, triumphant as it may be, that doesn't add up. After Stannis' death, why didn't anyone acquainted with the Lannister forces even bother trying to take Dragonstone? As a coastal stronghold, it would have been wise for Daenerys' enemies to send even just a few soldiers to protect the place where she was born, especially because they likely knew she would return. Watching Daenerys arrive at Dragonstone is a touching moment, but it's also the result of some pretty weak military strategy.

In the series' final episode, the lords and ladies of Westeros come together to find a new ruler and rebuild their government after Daenerys' death. Bran is chosen as the next King of the Seven Kingdoms, but before anyone can celebrate, his sister Sansa makes an important request. Before Bran is officially crowned, Sansa asks that the North, which has always belonged to the Starks, maintain its independence. Bran agrees, and eventually, Sansa is crowned Queen in the North.

Clearly, this is a good move for Sansa, but it's pretty strange that neither Yara Greyjoy, who has been angling for the Iron Islands' independence, nor the unnamed prince of Dorne, a region with a long history of independence from the other kingdoms, asks for the same thing. Sansa gets what she wants — so why don't they ask too? It makes absolutely no sense that these two other power players just sit there, ask for nothing, and accept the fact that their precious kingdoms remain under Bran's rule.

After learning to assume other people's faces and stealthily murder her enemies in Braavos, Arya quickly proves herself to be a formidable assassin, taking down those who have wronged her and her family as soon as she arrives in Westeros. For years, however, one enemy looms above all the rest: Cersei Lannister. It seems like a foregone conclusion for much of the series that Arya will be the one to kill Cersei.

However, when push comes to shove, Arya does not kill Cersei. She comes incredibly close to accomplishing her mission — but then, the Hound warns her that killing Cersei will end up killing her as well, as the Red Keep is on the verge of collapse. Somehow, that one sentence works, and Arya turns back. This seems pretty illogical, considering that Arya, the insanely brave killer of the Night King, once murdered the entirety of House Frey, even feeding some of them to Lord Walder Frey in a pie. Cersei's death is disappointing anyway — it doesn't help that it fails to bring Arya's story to a close.