- Today's Nerdist News is sponsored by Midnight, Texas.
We're peeling back the deeper meaning
of that greyscale scene.
Right off the bat, let's get that spoiler warning
out of the way, ready.
(groaning)
Okay.
So, in what culminated in one of the greatest smash cuts
of all time, the second episode of season seven
Game of Thrones treated us to the crustiest,
most cringeworthy skin care session ever,
putting those cyst-popping videos to shame
and making me super happy.
Now there's a lot of time and effort being put into
curing greyscale and since the show is in its final
two seasons, we believe that finding a way to halt
the disease could play into the overall endgame.
But how, you ask?
Well, hope you have a thick skin,
because we're scraping through the clues to examine
three possible ways curing greyscale could affect Westeros.
(chuckles)
Now we all know how much George RR Martin loves
his symmetry, it's right in the name of the book series,
A Song of Ice and Fire, and the opposite of ice and fire
show up everywhere and with the icy white walkers
posing what seems to be the greatest threat
that affects every single kingdom and potential claimant
to the Iron Throne, we're betting the answer to stopping
them will be linked to something having to do with fire.
Enter greyscale.
Now greyscale has had several mentions in earlier seasons,
notably as the source of Princess Shireen's scars
and the Stone Men.
We first saw actual Stone Men, people with an advanced
form of the disease which has taken over their entire
bodies and infected their organs, in season five
when Jorah Mormont contracts it.
Now in legend, greyscale is known as Garin's Curse,
a plague placed on the Valyrian army by a Roynar prince.
So launching from that mythology,
we can consider greyscale as a curse that stemmed
from the Valyrians' world conquering days,
putting the disease pretty firmly in the fire column
along with dragons, dragonglass, and Valyrian steel,
which are all things that are closely tied to Valyria
and are known to be whitewalker killing tools.
Now if greyscale is the fire that could help melt
the whitewalkers' ice, then we see three possibilities
for how that could affect the Seven Kingdoms.
First off, greyscale could be used as a biological weapon.
As it was originally created in legend,
if Samwell successfully cures Jorah's greyscale
then passes that knowledge onto Jon Snow
and ultimately Daenerys, they could threaten a greyscale
outbreak in King's Landing, using it as leverage
against Cersei to take a knee to Queen Dany,
then spread the cure throughout the people
before the disease gets too advanced.
Notice how many times the Citadel archmaester mentions
that the disease is curable if it's caught early.
We think that many mentions of that factoid
must mean it's going to come in handy later.
Yet another way that greyscale could change the landscape
of Westeros is that the cure for greyscale
could usher in a new era of advances in practical science
that helps defeat magic.
The army of white walkers and wights come from
the magics of the Children of the Forest
and the books state that magic died when dragons did,
which implies that dragons have some sort of magical nature.
We already see Cersei's disgraced maester Qyburn
finding practical ways to fight and kill dragons
without the help of magic, and we think the cure
for greyscale could similarly play a role as a non-magical
defense against the army of wights.
Which brings us to our biggest speculation about how
greyscale could be a major game-changer for Game of Thrones.
Now this last theory is pretty thin so we're still
connecting the tissues that hold all the scales together.
We think that the cure for greyscale could be used
as a vaccine that would immunize the people of Westeros
against the white walkers, so stay with us here.
Remember how we mentioned earlier that the Citadel
archmaester told Samwell that greyscale can only maybe
be cured if it's caught early?
Well the scientific reason that early onset treatment
could work to stop the disease is that the body
is churning out antibodies to fight off infection
in the first stages, but the scaly tumors overwhelm
the immune system so that the production of antibodies
can't happen fast enough to fight off the illness.
So you could potentially inoculate people
by infecting them with greyscale,
then immediately cutting off the infection site
when they first start to show symptoms.
The body should keep creating antibodies
that can then have the upper hand in wiping out
the rest of that greyscale, and boom,
you've been scienced, greyscale!
Because science, with Jessica Chobot.
Sounds a lot better, in my opinion.
And to tie it all together with the white walkers,
since we've been able to tie greyscale to Valyria
through mythology and history, and thus we're grouping it
with other important things that have the power
to kill the whitewalkers, we conjecture that being
vaccinated with greyscale could also result in immunity
to becoming a wight and being under the control
of the whitewalkers, so there you have it,
our theories on how curing greyscale could change the game,
but what do you think?
Is curing greyscale important to how Game of Thrones
will end or did we just flinch through
that skin peeling scene for nothing?
Let's discuss.
And special thanks to today's Nerdist News sponsor,
Midnight, Texas.
From the author behind True Blood, Midnight, Texas,
takes us to a seemingly quiet town
where no one is who they seem.
That's because it's a safe haven for psychics,
witches, vampires, assassins, and anyone who just doesn't
fit in, but when a bigger evil comes knocking
at the doors of this quiet town of misfits,
its outsider inhabitants will have to band together
to keep each other safe.
Catch the premier tonight at 10/9 Central only on NBC.