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At around 25 minutes into Game of Thrones S08E03 Jon Snow and his dragon (Rhaegal) were resting on the wall of Winterfell when he could have been burning the army of the dead whom the living were fighting and struggling against. Or most importantly, he could have lit up the trench. Why wasn't he doing either these things?

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    A lot of what happens in this episode is down to poor writing in my opinion, this is one of them.
    – TheLethalCarrot
    Apr 29, 2019 at 15:37
  • @TheLethalCarrot - I'd say it would be really poor writing to have a plan based on the fact that, no matter what they do in the battlefield, they can't beat that army, and to use the Three-Eyed Raven as bait to get the head of the snake, so to speak, and then leave Bran with just the Iron Born to burn some extra corpses that won't make any difference in the outcome of the battle, one way or the other.
    – PoloHoleSet
    Apr 29, 2019 at 21:03
  • But that would still be so many lives saved. There were lot of the living who died on the battle field, because the trench would not be lit fast enough, or because the dead would not be set on fire. Fire does not wake up the dead, and it would have been a good thing to atleast attempt. I was wondering if there was a reason behind Jon not leaving his post and saving people in the process. ( i got the reason now - battleplan)
    – Anu7
    Apr 30, 2019 at 7:10

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Because that was not the plan. In the war room scene of episode two they basically admit they cannot straight out defeat the army of the dead. The plan is rather to put up a good fight and lure the Night King to the Godswood in Winterfell, by using Bran as bait. There they would kill him and hope that destroys the whole army. So Jon is waiting for the Night King to take the bait, rather than flying out and risking the plan to fail.

However, after Dany sees all her Dothraki massacred she basically abandons the plan and attacks anyway. Jon shortly protests against this ("The Night King is coming") but joins her anyway.

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  • Yep. They can't burn enough of them to win, so chasing that, while abandoning their one true chance - to get the Night King and kill him, would be folly.
    – PoloHoleSet
    Apr 29, 2019 at 21:01

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