There’s A Game of Thrones Plothole That No One Seems To Talk About

Game of Thrones’ cultural zeitgeist status unfortunately doesn’t shield it from plot holes and inconsistencies—and there are more than a few. There’s Daenerys not being able to spot the Iron fleet from hundreds of feet above and the show ignoring the army of white walkers when it chooses Arya Stark to deliver the death blow to the Night King.

But by far the most puzzling and blatant plot hole—and the one that the Game of Thrones fandom is surprisingly silent on—occurs in Season 6 when a Lord Baelish-led Knights of the Vale come to Jon Snow’s aid against the Bolton army in the Battle of the Bastards. The issue isn’t that they arrive, or even do so at a convenient moment; it’s how they manage to even get there at all that leaves attentive audiences scratching their heads.

Related

One Game of Thrones Castle is More Vulnerable Than Fans think

The Eyrie’s location atop a mountain in the Vale of Arryn is both an asset and a liability, making it a weaker castle than presented.

Lord Baelish Seemingly Marches the Knights of the Vale Past Moat Cailin…but How?

Moat Cailin Is Meant To Be Unpassable

Although it is never actually shown, it is implied that Lord Baelish marches the Knights of the Vale past the stronghold of Moat Cailin, which, by that time, is held by enemy Bolton forces. As far as strategic Westerosi castles go, Moat Cailin is the most nerfed in Game of Thrones. Sitting astride a narrow causeway on the Kingsroad, the fortress is the only land route to and from the North.

Although in ruins, the impassable swamps of the Neck surround Moat Cailin and this strategic position means it has no trouble bottle-necking unfriendly passersby even with a token force. Flanking the fort is choosing to die by disease and the poison darts of the native crannogmen that inhabit the Neck’s swamps rather than the arrows and swords of the defenders. Yet when it comes to Lord Baelish (Littlefinger) and his valiant Vale men, the show seems to forget about the existence of this castle. Trying to work around how he must have done it only leads to more head-scratching inconsistencies, as the logistics simply don’t add up, whichever way it is examined.

Lord Baelish Must Have Struck A Diplomatic Deal With The Crannogmen

He Is Impressively Cunning, After All

As with most impregnable castles in Westeros, passing through, or bypassing Moat Cailin is difficult, but not impossible. The least-bloody way is to befriend its defenders or the crannogmen that flank it. Knowing Littlefinger’s oratory wealth, cunning nature, and flair for politicking—which is established throughout the show—it’s easy to imagine him opting for the latter. The crannogmen of the Neck are bound to the ruling House Reed and House Reed is bound to House Stark, the Wardens of the North. Basically, if an army is pro-stark—or convincingly claims to be—House Reed may consider giving passage if direct access to Moat Cailin is no longer an option. The problem, though, is finding House Reed.

Greywater Watch shelters the ruling house, and it is elusive; in other words, it constantly moves along the swamps and is famed as an impossible castle to locate. A plausible theory for how the Vale knights make it past the Moat is that Littlefinger must have brokered a deal with House Reed for safe passage, leveraging their steadfast loyalty to House Stark and the dire circumstances facing the Starks to secure safe passage.

The Bolton Army Is Over-stretched

But Moat Cailin Only Needs a Few Men To Secure It

Ramsay Bolton is visibly power-drunk in Game of Thrones. So much so that he may have, in his bid to cement control over Winterfell and the North, sourced manpower from Moat Cailin, depriving it of the necessary hands for a solid defense. But two things are already established in the show and the books: a few men manning the Moat are enough to put thousands of attackers at bay, and it is manned to some degree even in peacetime. Leaving it unguarded during hostilities is akin to leaving the front door to one’s house unlocked in a land of robbers. Ramsay is shown to be a fairly competent military planner. It’s unlikely he would be negligent of Moat Cailin in all places.

Naval Bypassing

Moat Cailin Is Not the Only Way to the North

Moat Cailin may be the only land route, but it is not the only way to the North. On the southeastern coast of the North lies the port of White Harbor which feeds the White Knife river running inland. The most practical move is for the Vale fleet to depart from Gulltown, avoid the Moat entirely by sea, sail through White Harbor, and continue to Hornwood before disembarking en route to Winterfell. However, unlike the books, Game of Thrones never acknowledges the existence of the Vale fleet. Worse, in Season 6, Episode 4 of the show, “Book of the Stranger,” Littlefinger tells Sansa that Robyn Arryn has the army camped at Moat Cailin—so why the need to bypass it if they are already there?

How Is Ramsay Not Aware of Their Presence?

If, as Littlefinger tells us, the Knights of the Vale are already at Moat Cailin: there’s an extra lifeline for this theory: that the fleet sailed up the White Knife, disembarked, and went southwards, approaching Moat Cailin from the rear and overrunning the Boltons garrisoned there. Although they’ll still be subject to the same problem—they are in a narrow passageway flanked by swamps and would surely be on the receiving end of Bolton arrows— at least they can cut off the defenders.

But in all these, surely their movements would have been noticed by other Northern lords now loyal to Bolton? Or how is it that no soul in the North (especially Lord Manderly) is privy to the presence of a large foreign army on their soil? The distance from White Harbour to Winterfell is roughly the same from King’s Landing to Riverrun. It takes only a raven to update Ramsay on the situation on the ground. It’s obvious that Game of Thrones writers—as with all writers really—when plot convenience contrasts with plot continuity, the former takes precedence.

Game of Thrones

First TV Show

Game Of Thrones

First Episode Air Date

April 17, 2011

Where to watch

HBO Max

More

George R.R. Martin Likes At Least One Of The Game Of thrones Spinoffs

George R.R.Martin is pleased with HBO’s work on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and wants fans to see it.