According to the latest teaser trailer for Game of Thrones, no one in Westeros is safe. What started as a clash of steel against steel has quickly become a battle of man versus myth as the Night King and his deadly army march their way through the Great Wall. Now, with the Seven Kingdom's main defensive weapon in icy shambles, fans have to wonder, how will our heroes defend themselves? Weapons of Valyrian steel are a safe bet as the substance is one of two strong enough to kill White Walkers, but an effective protection plan goes far beyond mere metal. So let's review 16 of the most powerful weapons currently on Game of Thrones.
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The arakh has a crescent-shaped blade and a long handle. Visually, the weapon falls somewhere between a sword and a scythe. Used most mostly by the Dothraki warriors, the arakh's design allows for a vast sweeping motion.
On Game of Thrones, Jorah Mormont comments that the blade works best when the fighter is on horseback. However, the arakh is no match for a Westerosian double-edged sword in hand-to-hand combat, and cannot penetrate armor.
Arya Stark wields this thin sword given to her as a child by Jon Snow. The sword fits Arya's petite frame and allows for a level of agility unmatched by the heavy slashing motions of a standard sword. Arya first used Needle to learn the Water Dance style of fencing popularized in the free city of Braavos. This technique emphasizes speed along with quick thrusting attacks.
While Arya has had much success with the weapon such as killing the Waif in the sixth season, Needle doesn't rank high as a power weapon, especially against foes as daunting as the White Walkers.
In the seventh season, Cersei Lannister commissions Qyburn, her new Hand of the Queen, to construct a weapon powerful enough to battle Daenerys Targaryen's dragons. He then creates a series of long-range artillery weapons each similar to a ballista or an industrial-size crossbow. Dubbed as scorpions, these bows shoot a bolt fast enough to pierce the skull of a dragon — or so Cersei thinks.
During the Battle of the Goldroad, Bronn fires a scorpion at Drogon while Daenerys rides him to safety. The bolt hits the animal in his shoulder and fails to penetrate Drogon's scales. Seconds later, the beast blasts the scorpion with fire and crushes the remains with his tail. Clearly, this weapon is no match for Daenerys or the Night King, both of whom have dragons on speed dial.
Gendry is the bastard son of King Robert Baratheon although he didn't know of his origin until Stannis Baratheon and Melisandre tried to use his royal blood for a mystical spell. After escaping their clutches and returning to King's Landing, Gendry forged a weapon for himself: a hammer inspired by the Warhammer swung by his father in the days of old. Eventually, Gendry joins Jon Snow's expedition north of the Wall to capture a wight as an example of why the Seven Kingdoms must unite against the Night King. This is the mission where we see Gendry's hammer in action, successfully smashing several wights to smithereens.
As a blacksmith by trade, we expect Gendry to fire up the forges of Winterfell in season eight to craft weapons (hopefully of Valyrian steel!) suitable for use against the undead.
Ice is a Valyrian steel sword kept in a ceremonial scabbard crafted from wolf pelts. As an heirloom of House Stark, the sword serves as a war weapon as well as a ceremonial tool for the Lords of Winterfell — that is, until the final days of Lord Eddard Stark. Tried for treason against King Joffrey Baratheon, Eddard faces beheading under the blade of this sword. Tywin Lannister, King Joffrey's grandfather, eventually melts the weapon down and forges the metal into two swords: Widow's Wail and Oathkeeper.
Widow's Wail has a Valyrian steel blade constructed from Ice, the ancestral sword of House Stark. Tywin Lannister presents this weapon to his grandson King Joffrey Baratheon on the monarch's wedding day breakfast. The hilt displays the stag of House Baratheon in Lannister gold. After Joffrey's death, Jaime Lannister adopts Widow's Wail and uses the sword against the Dothraki in the Battle of the Goldroad. The last we see of this weapon is at the end of season seven when Jaime leaves King's Landing with the sword to join the fight against the White Walkers.
Sister blade to Widow's Wail, Oathkeeper is a Valyrian steel sword forged from Ice, the traditional weapon of House Stark. Initially, Tywin Lannister bestows the sword to his son Jaime to establish a new ancestral sword to House Lannister. The blade is notable for its hilt fashioned after a golden lion with ruby eyes.
Jaime reconsiders the gift in the wake of his son's (King Joffrey) death and presents the sword to Brienne of Tarth for the task of rescuing a missing Sansa Stark, whom Joffrey once terrorized.
In the seventh season, Sansa sends Brienne and Podrick to King's Landing as her proxies during the armistice meeting in the Dragonpit with Queen Cersei Lannister. Oathkeeper remains by Brienne's side during the meeting, but she hides the weapon from the eyes of the Queen who still has no idea Brienne has possession of the valuable Lannister heirloom.
Made of Valyrian steel, Longclaw is the familial weapon of House Mormont. When Lord Jeor Mormont retired from his lordship to command the Night's Watch, he passed the sword to his son, Jorah Mormont, whose act of selling poachers into slavery disgraced the family and placed him in exile whereupon the sword returned to his father.
In the first season, Lord Jeor gave Longclaw to Jon Snow as a reward for saving his life from a wight. Jeor even remade the handle to replace the bear of House Mormont with the direwolf of House Stark.
During Jon Snow's expedition beyond the Wall in season seven, Jon offers to give Longclaw back to Jorah Mormont now that they are allies along with Daenerys. Jorah, however, releases all ancestral claims to the weapon and encourages Jon to wield the sword in good faith. In this respect, Longclaw replaces Ice as the new ancestral weapon of House Stark.
As the mission continues, Jon kills a White Walker with Longclaw and discovers that once a walker is destroyed, all the wights turned by that walker's hand die as well.
Notable for its green hue, this flammable liquid finds its roots in the Alchemists' Guild, an ancient society of learned men based in King's Landing. When ignited, Wildfire burns so hot that only sand can extinguish it.
In the second season, Wildfire played a major role at the Battle of the Blackwater during the War of the Five Kings. It showed up again (in a major way) in season six, when it killed . . . everyone? We can only cross our fingers that this unpredictable weapon will make a return in the final season.
On the HBO series, Lightbringer is a sword Stannis Baratheon acquires when Melisandre encourages him to pull the blade out of the fire created by the burning statues of the Seven. According to her prophecy, Lightbringer could only be pulled from fire by the Lord of Light's chosen one. After Stannis dies at the hands of Ramsay's army, the fate of the weapon is unclear.
In the novels, the sword has yet to exist as anything more than a legend. Forged by Azor Ahai, a Messiah figure in the Lord of Light faith, the sword glows and radiates a heat that harms all those deemed unworthy.
Although audiences have come to know Game of Thrones for its battleground warfare, poison has become a powerful weapon throughout the seasons. Here are three of the most devastating uses of poison thus far:
Joffrey's Death via the Strangler
King Joffrey Baratheon dies at his wedding feast thanks to Olenna Tyrell's use of the strangler. This poison comes in the form of amethyst-colored crystals and works immediately after ingestion. The victim's throat swells shut and blood leaks from the pores. Joffrey's death by strangler sends a schism through the Lannister family when Ceresi assumes her brother Tyrion is at fault.
Oberyn's Poisoned Spear
During the Trial For Combat to determine Tyrion's fate, Oberyn Martell uses a poisonous spear against Gregor Clegane, aka The Mountain. Oberyn's aerial acrobatics allow him to wound Gregor severely enough to strike a final deathblow. Unfortunately, Oberyn becomes so carried away with exposing Gregor's involvement in his sister's murder that the Mountain regains the upper hand and crushes Oberyn's head moments before succumbing to the effects of the poisoned spear.
The Long Farewell
In the fifth season, as Jaime and his niece-daughter Myrcella leave Dorne for King's Landing, Ellaria Sand poisons Myrcella with the Long Farewell, using an innocent kiss on the lips. Even though both are poisoned, Ellaria survives when her daughter Tyene produces an antidote. Myrcella is not so lucky. As her nose begins to bleed, we know the poison has become fatal.
In an interesting twist, Cersei Lannister uses this poison (and antidote) in the seventh season to unleash her wrath on the Sands for murdering her daughter. This time Tyene is the victim of Ceresi's poisonous kiss and Ellaria must watch her daughter die when the Queen locks the pair in a dungeon together.
The direwolf is the symbol of House Stark. So when Eddard finds a litter of pups on the road to Winterfell, his children convince him to allow them to keep the animals who happen to number four males and two females same as the Stark children.
Over the years, we've seen these direwolves grow loyal to the Starks — Ghost to Jon Snow, Nymeria to Arya, Lady to Sansa, Grey Wind to Robb, Shaggydog to Rickon, and Summer to Bran.
An adult direwolf may grow as large as a small horse and can tear a man to shreds. As we enter the eighth season, only Ghost remains alive at Winterfell, though Nymeria may still roam the Riverlands.
As we enter season eight, Daenerys Targaryen's trio of dragons has been reduced to a duo thanks to the Night King's stellar javelin skills.
Rhaegal, whose name is a derivation of her eldest brother Rhaegar, has green scales and orange-tinted wings. Drogon, named for her late husband Khal Drogo, acts as her personal mount and is the first to jump to her defense, as he did in season five during the Sons of the Harpy attack in the Pit.
In the penultimate episode of season seven, Daenerys uses her trio of dragons to rescue Jon Snow and his cohorts from a White Walker attack beyond the Wall. Viserion aids his brothers in battle by breathing fire over the scene, but the Night King arrives and hurls an ice spear at the powerful beast. The blade fatally wounds the dragon who crash lands into a frozen lake.
The wights retrieve Viserion's corpse and the Night King revives the animal with his ancient magic. This new dragon's eyes glow blue and his scales appear forever frosted.
With Viserion as his mount, the Night King leads his army to Eastwatch where the demon beast blasts the Wall with blue fire, allowing the Undead Army to enter the Seven Kingdoms.
Dragonglass is the Westeros name for obsidian, a form of volcanic glass. Along with Valyrian steel, it's one of the only substances known to kill wights and White Walkers.
In season seven, Samwell Tarly discovers that a substantial amount of dragonglass can be found on Dragonstone, the ancestral home of House Targaryen on an island near Blackwater Bay. Jon then forms an alliance with Daenerys Targaryen so that he can mine the substance in preparation for the oncoming war with the Night King.
Numerous weapons can be made from dragonglass such as arrows, spears, battleaxes, hatchets, and daggers.
Let's face it, the White Walkers are the show's deadliest weapons. Nonetheless, they carry their own protection in the form of large ice blades. Mostly seen as swords and spears, these blades can slice open a human and shatter any man-made weapon except those made from Valyrian steel.
Too bad the people of Westeros can't turn the White Walkers' weapons against them.
The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones premieres April 14.
