'Game of Thrones' Season 8: How Was The Wall Built?

There has only been one thing on Game of Thrones that has been seemingly indestructible since the show's Season 1 premiere: The Wall. However, even the ever-resilient gigantic ice structure was no match for the Night King's new pet, the dragon-turned-fire-breathing-wight Viserion, in the Season 7 finale.

While the toppling of The Wall foreshadows what's yet to come to Westeros in the eighth and final season—primarily the Night King and his growing army of the undead—seeing the iconic structure come down brings into question why Viserion's new wight-powered dragon fire was the only thing that could destroy it. After all, The Wall has taken a lot of beatings in the seven seasons of GOT so far, wildling-launched firebombs, mammoths and giant punches included.

There may be some clues in The Wall's original construction.

It's worth noting that GOT is largely based on the fantasy novel series, A Song of Ice and Fire, and renowned author George R.R. Martin reminded fans to keep that in mind with his simple explanation of The Wall on the GOT forum, Westeros.org.

In a Q&A with fans, Martin revealed The Wall was mostly comprised of ice and rock, although "more ice went into the raising of The Wall." He also confirmed The Wall wasn't built overnight, but rather "took hundreds of years to complete and thousands to reach its present height."

It was Season 1 when Lord Neddard Stark first mentioned the legend of Brandon the Builder, his son Bran Stark's namesake and the founder of House Stark, who was credited for building The Wall with the First Men. Then in Season 3, Osha told Bran an even deeper story of The Wall and explained his ancestor gave it to the Night's Watch to protect the people of the seven kingdoms.

A little more context on The Wall's development is offered in the books, specifically Martin's third novel of the anthology, A Storm of Swords. Samwell Tarly tells Bran and Reeds the story of how he and Gilly discovered the gate that leads underneath The Wall and notes his encounter with a man referred to as Coldhands. The rider, cloaked in black with his face covered, told them only men of the Night's Watch can open the gate.

While he was never referred to as Coldhands on the show, the GOT character, Benjen Stark, resembles the description the most. The former Night's Watch ranger was nearly turned into a White Walker but was saved from fully transitioning into one after the Children of the Forest found him and stopped the magic by shoving dragon glass into his chest. Though it prevented him from turning into a man-eating ice zombie, he was still technically dead.

After Benjen saves Bran and Meera from White Walkers in GOT Season 6, he explains that he cannot travel further south with them as he is technically an undead. It's then when he reveals ancient spells were carved into The Wall when it was first built, meaning the original construction of The Wall wasn't just built by Brandon the Builder and the First Men but likely the Children of the Forest too. The magic that encompasses the foundation of the wall prevents White Walkers from passing through.

Considering The Wall is 300 miles long and 700 feet tall, it would likely take more than the Night King's bit of magic to bring a structure that colossal down—but with something as big as Viserion, essentially an already-magical animal powered with White Walker juju, the Night King would likely have a better shot at countering The Wall's magic, rock and ice.

Hence why the final scene of Season 7 saw Viserion melting The Wall away with his ice blue fire.

The premiere episode of Game of Thrones eighth and final season is set to air on HBO on April 14 at 9 p.m. ET.