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Why the Pyres?


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So, most (let us say half) of the Dothraki are gone, same of the Unsullied...  I don't know how to count the Jon's warriors, but we have another dragon DOWNED. 

Since Arya killed the NK, and the NK make all the rest, then why are is there a need for Pyres?  There is no one left to turn them.  Or is there?

Cheers,

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26 minutes ago, MinscS2 said:

Easier to burn thousand of peoples on funeral pyres than dig a thousand graves in the frozen ground.

Yes. It is close to impossible to bury thousands of dead before they decay. In wars they have to burn the dead.

Considering the previous threat of the Nightking is might be sensible to start the tradition to burn dead anyway, even if it appears to be over now.

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The Dothraki for sure, burn their dead anyway. 

I just want to restate how ridiculous it is that there was still apparently half left of any of the groups of warriors, lol.  Especially the Dothraki!  

The other thing I was noting when the episode aired:  I wonder how long it took to gather up all those dead?  Wow, that would have been an enormous job! 

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I don't have a problem with them burning the bodies, I mean they know now what can happen with dead bodies, so they might want to burn them just in case. And also as it was already pointed out, it's easier than burying them.

But to me it seemed like a big waste of wood to build so many pyres. Aren't they still in a middle of a winter? Or do they hope that the winter goes away now that the NK is gone?

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7 minutes ago, Nerevanin said:

But to me it seemed like a big waste of wood to build so many pyres. Aren't they still in a middle of a winter? Or do they hope that the winter goes away now that the NK is gone?

From what Tormund said about the winter snows passing or whatever it was he said, I think they still expect to have winter, but that it won't be a ridiculously long season like it would have been if the WW/NK were not defeated. 

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26 minutes ago, Red Dragon10 said:

I wonder how long it took to gather up all those dead?  Wow, that would have been an enormous job! 

Several days to one or two weeks probably. They still have partially healed wounds visible. They need to focus on building pyres and burning the dead before they rot. Luckily it's winter.

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55 minutes ago, Red Dragon10 said:

From what Tormund said about the winter snows passing or whatever it was he said, I think they still expect to have winter, but that it won't be a ridiculously long season like it would have been if the WW/NK were not defeated. 

Yeah but in that world that the story takes place in "winter" and "summer" describe much longer periods than in our world and there is no way to tell how long they will last. IIRC, the summer that ends when the story starts lasted at least for 7 years. So even if the NK is dead, the current winter can last another 5 years, so I think that wasting so much wood on funeral pyres is stupid.

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1 hour ago, Kajjo said:

Yes. It is close to impossible to bury thousands of dead before they decay. In wars they have to burn the dead.

Considering the previous threat of the Nightking is might be sensible to start the tradition to burn dead anyway, even if it appears to be over now.

I agree with this.  It couldn't hurt.

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13 minutes ago, Nerevanin said:

Yeah but in that world that the story takes place in "winter" and "summer" describe much longer periods than in our world and there is no way to tell how long they will last. IIRC, the summer that ends when the story starts lasted at least for 7 years. So even if the NK is dead, the current winter can last another 5 years, so I think that wasting so much wood on funeral pyres is stupid.

Are you asking if the NK is not really destroyed?   Thanks,

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They could have reused the wood from the trebuchets for the pyres ?

With the ground being frozen, burying bodies would simply not have been possible.   So on that score at least, the show writers were displaying realism. 

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They could have had Drogon heat the ground with fire, if they so desired.  But pyres are what the wildlings use and what the Dothraki use, and that is part of the dead right there.  And I imagine after all they went through, even with the NK being destroyed, they just don't want to bury the dead. 

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3 hours ago, LadyNoOne said:

So, most (let us say half) of the Dothraki are gone, same of the Unsullied...  I don't know how to count the Jon's warriors, but we have another dragon DOWNED. 

Since Arya killed the NK, and the NK make all the rest, then why are is there a need for Pyres?  There is no one left to turn them.  Or is there?

Cheers,

Probably just in case. If I had just fought the army of the dead and watched my own people slew and then rise up to fight against me, I would burn the dead. I would not take chances with that magic being gone for good. I would even make it the new tradition going forward to burn the dead before placing their ashes in a hole in the ground or a crypt. The old dead would be left for dragon fire. Beside its winter. the ground is probably frozen and only Starks get buried in the crypts. 

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8 minutes ago, Red Dragon10 said:

They could have had Drogon heat the ground with fire, if they so desired.  But pyres are what the wildlings use and what the Dothraki use, and that is part of the dead right there.  And I imagine after all they went through, even with the NK being destroyed, they just don't want to bury the dead. 

I agree with this opinion.

 

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1 hour ago, Bradam said:

seemed a waste of wood me, i was wondering the whole time why they didn't just use the Dragons to burn them all. 

Same. Keep the wood as fuel and use the instant torch dragons.

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I agree that it would have been hard to bury all of those bodies. But also, did you notice that Jon gave them a Night's Watch funeral? Not only he burned them, but he said that they were the shield that guarded the realms of men... and now their watch has ended. I quite liked that.

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18 hours ago, LadyNoOne said:

Are you asking if the NK is not really destroyed?   Thanks,

No. I'm talking about natural cycles of "summer" and "winter" periods in the world of Westeros. Sorry if I worded it unclearly!

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23 hours ago, MinscS2 said:

Easier to burn thousand of peoples on funeral pyres than dig a thousand graves in the frozen ground.

It's also way more cinematic. 

This.  :agree:.

You have at least 20,000 Dothraki plus their horses, half the Knights of the Vale, 4,000 Unsullied, half the northern troops (4-5,000?), 20 or so Ironborn, unknown number of civilians, and at least 150,000 (and probably more) corpses that had previously been wights

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