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A lot of new information has come up about mythical stuffs mostly with the premiere of the 7th season of Game of Thrones, one of which is about Dragon-Glass.

If you haven't watched the first episode yet then stop on your tracks 'cause the internet is dark and full of spoilers.

The Citadel is the brain of Westeros and we were taken to the Citadel in the new episode.

There's a mountain of Dragon-glass in Dragonstone and the book mentioning it was in the Maester only area. Now, every Maester in Westeros may have been to that area and have learnt a great deal. Why can't they just tell Jon that "Hey Jon, no need to learn how to make Dragonglass, there is a mountain in Dragonstone, let's go and get it." Or do we just assume that all the Maesters out in the seven kingdoms never went through the books whereas Sam got to that page in just a few seconds.

Also, the Archmaester is told by Sam that White Walkers are real and can be killed only with Dragonglass. So, now do we also assume even the Archmaester doesn't know about the mountain of Dragonglass under the soil Dragonstone? Or is there another aspect of this why the Citadel is not very attentive to what Sam has told them?

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    "Sam got to that page in just a few seconds" I do not believe that this is the case. Note that at the top of this scene, Sam is exhausted. He's nearly halfway through his current (quite thick) book. I can't find a screenshot or transcript to confirm, but my impression was that this wasn't the first book he'd been reading. Sam's whole sequence was characterized by time lapse; there's no strong reason to conclude that this was his first night of study. Jul 18, 2017 at 2:02
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    The vibe I got was that maesters, while perhaps book-wise are pretty big damn fools who act like the rest of the world doesn't matter to them and will have no consequences to their existence.
    – Davor
    Jul 18, 2017 at 12:07
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    I know that the One Ring can be destroyed only by the fires of Mount Doom, but I also believe the LotR saga to be fictional. I am not afraid of the One Ring being used in real life. If some of the maesters assume the white walkers to be fictional (according to Sam's claims), then their knowledge of the supposed effects of dragonglass on white walkers are considered equally fictional.
    – Flater
    Jul 19, 2017 at 15:34

3 Answers 3

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Remember his line about how people "thought Robert's Rebellion was the end, Aegon's Conquest was the end, The Long Night was the end, and yet it wasn't."

I think it does not matter if the Archmaester knows about the mountain of Dragonglass, he has shown he does not particularly care or want to be involved. Even the Maester sent to the wall (Aemon) was not told any of this information, and heck he was a Targaryen! Right now, it seems the Citadel is willing to let the events of the world play out and simply document them.

That is unless you believe in the Great Maester Conspiracy...

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    Plus..no-one cares about Dragonglass...because, up until now it hasn't been important.
    – Paulie_D
    Jul 17, 2017 at 15:51
  • Totally forgot about Maester Aemon. Thanks for clarifying. Totally, the Maesters have no idea that how messed up things are at The Wall (thanks to our very own Bran Stark) Jul 17, 2017 at 16:11
  • And to get to use your dragon-glass you'd have to first get through the hundred of thousands wights Jul 18, 2017 at 13:56
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It might be written in books all over the place, in our real world, how to defend or kill anal-probing aliens from Andromeda who are made out of Silly Putty.

However, how many people would bother looking up, remembering, or reading a chapter about something they think is silly fiction? Sam says, quite specifically, that no one at the Citadel thinks the White Walker and the undead are real.

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  • Yeah. They seem to be doing an excellent work at remembering! haha...
    – LeonX
    Jul 17, 2017 at 17:02
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    We are actually rather good at remembering how to kill our own mythological creatures. I would assume a very decent amount of people have a decent knowledge of using a mirror shield to fight a medusa, the fact that trolls don't like acid that fire works against a hydras head regeneration ability or that vampires should be staked through the heart, exposed to the sun or that they don't like garlic.
    – DRF
    Jul 18, 2017 at 14:17
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    I sure hope these Andromeda books are not in the restricted area.
    – Peter
    Jul 18, 2017 at 14:26
  • @DRF - yeah, but those are all real. j/k, but as part of mythology, those were all told as being real - as real a Jesus or Noah is to modern Christians. The White Walkers, particularly for those who are not northerners (and for northerners as well, for the most part), are considered stories old ladies make up to scare kids. A bit different, because they're not even considered part of myth (like the Old Gods), for the most part. Jul 18, 2017 at 15:25
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Maybe they don't know the seriousness of the White Walkers.

We can see his careless talk with Samwell:

enter image description here

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    What careless talk about your need to activate Windows. ;)
    – Wildcard
    Jul 18, 2017 at 0:13
  • ^ oh my gosh! :'D Jul 18, 2017 at 4:03

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