Game of Thrones viewers may have found a plot hole when it came to the use of dragonglass during the Battle of Winterfell in season 8. The living finally came face-to-face with the Night King and his army of White Walkers and wights in the final season of the HBO series by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. The fate of Westeros fell in the balance with the outcome of the battle in the North but Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen had a key resource to assist in their fight.
Dragonglass was a topic of discussion several times before making a direct appearance on Game of Thrones. The substance was a form of volcanic glass known as obsidian. Besides Valyrian steel, dragonglass was the only other material with the capability of killing White Walkers. Sam Tarly first found dragonglass in season 2 and learned that a cache of the substance resided in Dragonstone, the home of the Targaryens. He continued to research dragonglass and passed on the insight to Jon. When preparing for the war against the dead, Daenerys allowed Jon to mine the dragonglass from Dragonstone.
Jon and Daenerys aligned ahead of the big battle and shipped a ton of dragonglass to Winterfell. Gendry and his men then forged the substance to make various weapons such as battleaxes, spears, hatchets, and daggers. A few figures like Arya asked for a particular type of weapon to fight the opposing forces. As a Redditor pointed out, however, nobody from Winterfell thought to use arrowheads made out of dragonglass. Jon and Daenerys’ army could have used specially equipped arrows to take down White Walkers and the dead from a distance, rather than rely on hand-to-hand combat. There was certainly enough dragonglass to work with and a large number of arrowheads could have been made.
Small pieces of dragonglass could be seen on weapons when the castle prepared for the battle but these were used as spearheads. During the actual battle, the army tactically used flaming arrows since fire could kill the army of the dead. Theon even used flaming arrows to protect Bran in Godswood before relying on his dragonglass spear to fight the Night King. This makes it seem like a creative decision to make the battle more intense, although from a tactical standpoint, flaming arrows might have been the better option when taking into account the supply. Dragonglass was significant but the arrowheads would have had a one and done use unless someone collected them on the battlefield. Using flaming arrows also featured a more appealing sense of imagery since some viewers wouldn’t have noticed if dragonglass was being used rather than normal arrowheads.
If the Winterfell army did heavily use dragonglass arrows, it would have probably shortened the battle. Forces could have hidden atop the castle walls, unleashing an array of arrows while taking out line after line of White Walkers. This would have made for a less suspenseful battle so Game of Thrones stuck with the combat weapons to give characters direct fight scenes. Imagine if Arya hid in Godswood and struck the Night King down with an arrow rather than her Valyrian steel dagger in an act of heroics. It’s easy to see why dragonglass arrows could lead to the notion of a plot hole but the series was already having trouble with the final season and siege tactics were probably not high on their list of priorities.
Next: Game of Thrones Finally Explains What Bran Was Doing During Battle of Winterfell
