Spoilers for Game of Thrones follow. As you know, I was scheduled to write about some of the great things that happened on Game of Thrones Sunday night. And we will talk about Arya and Sansa, very much so, in a little while. But I thought I should put out a comment as to what’s going on north of the wall.
We’re closely following the terrible events unfolding on a rock in the middle of a frozen lake near Eastwatch, where Jon Snow, several other less important but still basically good characters, and a bunch of nameless, soon-to-be-killed redshirts are surrounded by thousands of shambling, howling zombies led by the demonic Night King, whose horned head and piercing blue eyes spell death for nearly all who behold him. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides. On many sides.
Update, Aug. 21, 2017: As I said on Monday, we condemn in the strongest possible terms the egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence. It has no place on Game of Thrones. Wight supremacy is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including Night Kings, White Walkers, skeleton army men, skeleton navy men, skeleton coast guards, and that undead giant a few episodes back.
Another Update, Aug. 21, 2017: I will tell you something. I watched Sunday night’s episode closely—much more closely than you people watched it. And you have a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say that, but I’ll say it right now. The Night King’s undead army came charging by the thousands, tearing any living thing they could get their decaying hands on into tiny, bloody scraps before resurrecting them into a new life of eternal service to the forces of evil. And it was a horrible thing to watch. But there is another side to this. You also had a motley band of charming rogues traveling north of the wall on an extraordinary rendition mission without a permit, and they were very, very violent. I think there’s blame on both sides.
Yet Another Update, Aug. 21, 2017: To be clear, I do not endorse the actions of the Night King, and I reject his message of hatred, murder, ice spear attacks, and forced zombification.
Update? You Bet! Aug. 21, 2017: You know what? It’s fine. You’re changing history. You’re changing culture. And you had people—and I’m not talking about the White Walkers, because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in the Night King’s zombie army of undead warriors other than zombies and undead warriors. You had some very fine people on both sides. And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly.
Let’s Just Call This a Correction Instead of an Update, Then, Aug. 21, 2017: This article originally misstated that there were some very fine people in the Night King’s army. There were not. It also claimed that some members of the army of the undead were not themselves undead. While this may technically be true of the White Walkers, it is a distinction without a difference. Finally, it mistakenly implied that meaningful comparisons may be drawn between the statements of President Donald J. Trump and fictional characters fighting over a fictional throne on a television program that contains dragons and zombies and wizards. They may not.
This Had Better Be the Last Update, Aug. 21, 2017: Infrastructure week was an enormous success!
