‘Game of Thrones’ Needs To Copy Harry Potter To Fix Its Greatest Mistake

The current season of House of the Dragon is in full swing, sucking everyone back into the bloody politics of Westeros. The show is so good that it has almost made up for the stinker that was the Game of Thrones finale — almost. Indeed, the now-infamous Season 8 of what used to be the biggest show on Earth was so disastrous that it threatened to ruin the franchise’s legacy completely. Of course, A Song of Ice and Fire has endured, but many of us still feel frustrated at how mishandled the show’s finale was, especially everything concerning the White Walkers and the Night King.

Seven years later, the Long Night and its poor execution are still a sore subject for Thrones fans, who wish they could’ve experienced the threat of the White Walkers in all its icy glory. As it turns out, maybe they still can. The Harry Potter saga addressed one of its biggest shortcomings — a lack of worldbuilding beyond the main story — with the video game Hogwarts Legacy, a massive commercial and critical success that revitalized interest in the series and finally gave us a glimpse at the Wizarding World of the past. Game of Thrones could follow the same route, using a video game to explore the White Walkers’ history and finally do justice to these incredible villains.

‘Game of Thrones’ Failed the White Walkers

Image via HBO

It’s not an overstatement to say Game of Thrones completely butchered the White Walkers’ story. Season 8 tried to rush through the two main stories — the White Walkers and Daenerys’ (Emilia Clarke) Mad Queen arc — in just six episodes. In the process, it ruined both narratives, completely assassinating Dany’s character and delivering a Long Night that was incredibly underwhelming and poorly lit and staged. And it was such a shame, because the show did a great job setting up the White Walker threat for six seasons, only to drop the ball at the last minute.

It’s not like HBO doesn’t know how badly the show messed up with the White Walkers. In fact, the network even tried to make a show about the first Long Night, tentatively titled Bloodmoon. A Pilot was made, with big names like Oscar nominees Naomi Watts and Miranda Richardson in leading roles and a premise said to be set during the Age of Heroes. The plot hinted at revealing more about the secrets behind the White Walkers, with the suggestion that we’d actually get to see the first Long Night as an entire generation of Westeros in darkness, instead of the one night we saw on the show. Alas, the show never made it past the Pilot stage, and HBO unceremoniously cancelled it hours before greenlighting House of the Dragon.

And so, we’re back to square one. The White Walkers are still one of the World of Ice and Fire‘s biggest mysteries. The show did reveal a few hints here and there about their nature and origins, but chose to keep them in the dark for the most part. As for the promise of their corruptive and destructive power, we never saw that beyond Hardhome, with the show instead rushing to an all-too-convenient ending where killing the Night King magically destroyed the entire army. It might make some degree of sense, but it felt more like a cop-out.

A Video Game Can Finally Put the Spotlight on the White Walkers

Image via HBO

If the White Walkers are still as underdeveloped as they’ve always been, what better way to explore their lore than in a long-form project? A video game set in the Age of Heroes could do wonders for Westeros’ worldbuilding. You could play as a brother of the then-blossoming Night’s Watch, or perhaps a minor knight looking to make a name for themselves; you could even play as the legendary Last Hero, who contacted the Children of the Forest after facing hordes of giants, wights, and spiders. We all know the Long Night supposedly lasted an entire generation, providing a unique setting for the story: a world in perpetual darkness. Along the way, you could meet figures from the Age of Heroes’ legends: Bran the Builder, Lan the Clever, Garth Greenhand, Symeon Star-Eyes, and Durran Godsgrief, to name a few.

While Game of Thrones was always too busy setting up other villains and plot points, a video game centered on the Long Night would finally allow the White Walkers to shine. Since the first Long Night was actually a meaningful event that marked a before-and-after in Westerosi history, we could see these icy beings spreading throughout the continent unopposed; it would be the equivalent of the Season 8 intro, where the animation chronicled the White Walkers’ advance through Westeros. The show stopped them in Winterfell, but a game could see them go further south.

A video game also allows fans the chance to actually fight the White Walkers, which is too badass an idea to pass. Discovering their mysteries and uncovering their weaknesses would make for a brilliant narrative, but actually fighting them would be a long-awaited experience for any fan of the series. After all, seeing Jon (Kit Harington) fighting them during the iconic “Hardhome” episode was a highlight of Game of Thrones. In a game, you would slowly gain experience with every Walker kill, build an army, recruit allies, and eventually fight for Westeros’ salvation during the Battle for the Dawn.

George R. R. Martin Has Made a Name for Himself in the Gaming Space

Image via Bandai Namco Entertainment

Perhaps the greatest argument in favor of a Game of Thrones video game is the fact that George R. R. Martin has already entered the video game space with great success. As the creative mind behind the critical and commercial smash Elden Ring, Martin has seen firsthand the many liberties to be found in the realm of video games. The grimdark world of Elden Ring is actually prove that Westeros can translate into the medium perfectly; it’s just a matter of wanting it.

A potential video game set in this time would also have the freedom to create something basically from scratch. Martin himself confessed that the Age of Heroes remains vague in his lore; it was one of the issues Bloodmoon faced and that eventually led to its cancellation. Thus, a video game could take the basics created by Martin and enhance them with a new story and characters, much like Hogwarts Legacy did with the Harry Potter lore. That game took everything we knew about Hogwarts — the common rooms, the classes, the Forbidden Forest, Hogsmeade — and strengthened it, immersing us in the Wizarding World like never before. The same could be done with Westeros and the White Walkers, finally answering one of the biggest questions in A Song of Ice and Fire and redeeming Game of Thrones‘ biggest blunder.