Game of Thrones: Why is the timeline so confusing this season?

Proceed carefully, as this contains spoilers for season 7 of the show.

Next Sunday night HBO will premiere the season 7 finale of Game of Thrones. The penultimate ever. And yesterday the premium channel released a bunch of still photographs for the episode, which will clock just under 80 minutes, making it the longest episode of the show to date. But as the season has progressed we instantly noticed how the timeline is weird and really fast over the last 6 episodes.

Ravens, people and dragons are traveling distances that had taken characters weeks or months to do in previous seasons, but now they are doing them in the span of one episode, at most. Last episode, not only had a few men traveling beyond the wall to capture a white walker that will prove to Cersei of their existence but after that, one of them, Gendry, ran back to the wall to send a raven to Dragonstone, for Daenerys to come to the rescue, which she does, on the back of the favorite dragon. But also when the Night King kills Viserion and it sinks to the bottom of the lake, we are supposed to believe that the blue eyed King, has giant chains just laying around ready for him to use.... except we are not.

Since the beginning of the season we have been clued in that the writers are ditching the real time element of the show, but we are so used to that element of the storyline that the audience is clearly struggling, especially in that scene of the last episode when the Night King drags Viserion out of the lake with giant chains and proceeds to making it one of the undead.

Truth is, we have no way of knowing if that scenes is right after Jon and co. abandons the area, or if it's 3 days later, or 3 months later, we simply have no idea.

If you don't really buy into the idea that since the beginning it was all a plan of the Night King, (as there is plenty of evidence for that) and he doesn't have chains laying around, maybe here is your explanation.

The show is now highlighting just the important parts of the story, so the passing of the time is irrelevant, mostly because the writers/show-runners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss now have really nothing to go on. Game of Thrones is an adaptation of A Song of Ice & Fire by George R.R. Martin, who as an author loves to write every possible little detail. And up until season 5 everything was on the books, a very rich story with it's own mythology. However as the show progressed, the linear passing of the time and the story-line itself was over, the show runners have now to write the action themselves.

And while I personally have had issues with some parts of their storyline, this is not a dig at Benioff and/or Weiss writing style, it just feels different to what we're accustomed to.

Books and TV shows are two different mediums. Martin has written very, very long books and the GOT show-runners had done a good job adapting the saga up until season 5.

If you pay attention to season 6, which also moved quite fast, it was basically all set up, yes big thing occurred but everything was pretty much setting up the end of the story. We are all aware that Martin revealed to Benioff and Weiss some of his endgame with the books, so they at least have that to go with, and they also have something important.... The fans. That's how the last two season have played out, between moving the story to an endgame, while picking up some stuff they let out in previous seasons, and pleasing (or displeasing) the fans.

The overall story has changed it's core, instead of the characters quiet moments and plotting, now they focus on action scenes, which explains why Season 7 (and 8) have less episodes, but basically the same budget. The center of the story-line is the battles, the dragons, the direwolves and the army of the dead.

Travels and quiet scenes that don't add anything to the overall plot-line don't matter anymore, they are a waste of time.

So maybe, instead of having the chains ready to go, the Night King sent for them after Jon and Co. left. And you might ask where is that always available Home Depot, beyond the wall? The answer is Hardhome, a kind of port, and the chains might be for ships and such. So makes sense. Another question you might have is how they managed to tie Viserion to the chains from the bottom of the lake? Well, first of all, this is a show with dragons and you're questioning this. Second of all the walkers don't breath so they could drop easily in the lake do their thing and float back to surface to pull it up.

Another clue of this new timeline issue is that we know that the men beyond the wall spent at least 12 hours in the rock in the middle of the lake, as the sun rise when they find out Thoros died.

It is possible for all that ensued north of eastwatch be an elaborate plan made by the Night King? Yes. We know that he is like a Greensight as he can see the future, and he is well aware of Bran when he is in one of his visions or warging around, but it's also possible for it all to be just a timeline misunderstanding.

Let me know in the comments below which one you believe it is. A big plan by the Night King or just a timeline hiccup?

Click the map to enlarge it and see the travelling made on Ep. 6 "Eastwatch".

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