Game of Thrones script appears to answer big ice dragon mystery
An Emmys nod brought to light the official season 7 finale script, and now fans are debating what Viserion the dragon really is.
Spoilers are coming: This article covers events through the end of season 7 of Game of Thrones.
The final episode of season 7 of Game of Thrones featured a lot of fiery moments, but one of the most memorable was the introduction of Daenerys Targaryen's former buddy Viserion as an icy undead flying hellion of a dragon. This sparked many questions, some of which may now be answered after the Emmys released the official script for the episode.
The script by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss has gone public since The Dragon and the Wolf was nominated for a writing award for the HBO drama series.
The big debate is whether the dragon, which was reanimated after getting ice-speared in the neck by the Night King, is a zombie-like wight or an ice dragon, the cold counterpart to a fire dragon. Check out this Bustle article that comes down on the not-an-ice-dragon side.
This question got more confusing after we watched Viserion pummel the Wall with a blue fire, which could have been icy or hot. That left two main factions: Team Wight and Team Ice Dragon. Clearly Viserion is an undead wight of a dragon, right? Not so fast.
Viserion takes on the Wall.
A Reddit discussion pointed out a relevant passage from the script: "A massive chunk of the Wall breaks free ahead of Tormund. The ice dragon glides away, and we get our first clear look at him, and at the Night King on his back. He's done the same thing to Viserion that he did to Craster's sons. Only those were babies, and this is a dragon."
So the script explicitly refers to Viserion as an "ice dragon," which jibes with the description of the mythical beast in HBO's official episode synopsis.
To add another wrinkle, A Song of Ice and Fire scribe George R.R. Martin wrote a book for young readers called The Ice Dragon, which the publisher says is set in the Game of Thrones books' universe. It features a frigid, winter-loving breed of dragon that is clearly a separate breed from fire dragons.
This didn't quell the debate on Reddit, though. Some fans say Viserion clearly shows signs of being a wight-like creature or even a dragon form of a White Walker, the powerful leaders who can create wights.
Another lingering question seems to be whether the dragon breathes ice or fire. Viserion's fire-breathing abilities were already addressed shortly after the season finale aired when director Jeremy Podeswa told the Huffington Post, "It's certainly still fire -- it has the ability to burn the Wall and melt snow. But it's going to have a different kind of magical quality to it, because it's coming from an undead dragon."
The Emmys script may not change anyone's mind, and perhaps we're all wrong and Viserion is a special mix of ice dragon, wight and White Walker.
We may just be splitting hairs here by debating dragon nomenclature, but it gives us all something to do while we wait for the series to return in 2019. Perhaps then we will get our answers.
Personally, I'm rooting for White Walker dragon, which would give Viserion some degree of sentience rather than just turning him into a zombie wight.
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