I believe the Others reacted to Waymar's blood, his red blood. Assuming Jon will be resurrected as a fire wight, there are implications of his body physically changing. GRRM said about Beric "his blood doesn't flow", it is implied his blood is dark, possibly black. Old blood (that had the time to oxidize) does turn brown or black. Presumably an undead Jon would be similar and thus, not bleed red when cut but bleed black (or maybe not at all). The Other likely said something distasteful about Royce bleeding like the living.
I just assumed that they have a code of honor that they abide by. Every opponent gets a fair fight. And also, maybe they take precautions to ensure their opponent isn't packing VS weaponry or obsidian
@@MJAce85 that wouldn’t be it because right after they see the blood and after the sword has burst they laugh mock him and all go for the kill at once. They definitely take precautions in that fight. They didn’t challenge Waymar 1v1 but rather set up a trap and surrounded him. They studied the way the blade reflected moonlight which implies at the very least they were worried about it being dragon glass or dragon steel. You can’t ignore the physical descriptions of Waymar as he looks like the typical stark since the Royce’s and Stark’s have intermarried recently. Lean gray eyes and dark hair. So much so that even Crastor takes note. Whether or not Crastor tipped them off or not it definitely seems like they were looking for a stark that more than likely would have a dragon steel blade. The fact that they laughed and mocked him when seeing his blood implies either they can tell he’s not a stark just by the sight or smell of his blood or the fact the stark they’re looking for as the original comment suggested wouldn’t bleed the same way as a “living” person. Which in my opinion is probably the most likely.
I don’t believe Jon will come back as a fire wight. His spirit and brain are essentially confirmed to have jumped to ghost and will likely remain there until his body is unfrozen. Whereas a fire wight (stone heart, beric) were firmly dead, body dead, spirit dead.
I'm going to comment before watching the video, having read the series multiple times, and watching the show; I always assumed that the Others were an elemental race that fought against the Children for centuries before the arrival of the First Men, which is why the Children use dragonglass for weapons. Its very sharp, but not very strong. Most weapons made of obsidian were small and ceremonial, unless it was the one thing deadly to an ancient foe. I think the first Long Night happened after the First Men slaughtered the Children and upset the power dynamic on Westeros, allowing the Others to dominate and march south. The Others have humor, so personality, their own language, which speaks to an intelligence level, and their own unique armor and weapons, indicating specialized magic or skills.
I think First Men vs Children of the Forest was basically a stalemate everywhere but the eventual location of Winterfell and points North. The implication being that the Children were naturally as adaptive to cold as the first men. I think the Others marched South once most of the Children vacated most of their settlements in the North. My hope is that there are far more Children of the Forest than men suspect Kingswood, and various other forest around the continent. It would also be cool if they were key in saving Ned, John Snow and anyone else we presumed dead but aren’t actually at the Tower of Joy. I would like to think the Children are far more keen in their ability to hide maybe 2000-3000 in bands no more than 100 all throughout rural sections and forest in the south. Maybe they even played roles in the background in other major events on Westeros after the conquest of Aegon the First. Incidentally
1:22:14 oh, maybe the reason why Will was so unintelligible by the time he reached the Winterfell area is because the Others had been hounding him all the way back to the Wall. Like, yes, he's a career scout, one of the best the Watch had, but what if he didn't ever manage to give them the slip? What is they DID identify him at the top of that ridge? What if he spent two weeks fleeing the demons day and night, barely keeping ahead of them? That would be enough to break a man.
Regarding the question near end about whether the others could return later after this series I like the idea in concept but inverted. Basically the children of forrest created the others of winter to survive against the threat of humans. I’ve not seen this theory anywhere else and have nothing to support it but I like the idea of the humans inadvertently creating a new others of fire in defense of humanity. Something like the fire wights or qyburns creation saving humanity only to later become an even greater threat with complete inversion of the seasons. Now instead of winter is coming and sheltering in the south you have summer is coming with shelter in the north. This would be a nice subversion of brans direwolf name “summer” as a curse rather then blessing and would also change the meaning of him being the new king.
I think it would make an interesting ironic situation if Bloodraven creating the prince to be ready for the return of the Others is the very thing that caused them to return.
Others returning theory: they’ve generally been around, but in smaller numbers. With the addition of Craster’s sons, they’ve swelled their ranks (maybe by only ten or fifteen, but if there were only four or five remaining after the first Long Night, that would be a massive increase). Now there are enough Others to start acting, enough to raise and control a higher number of wights than before.
You are mistaking white walkers for others. The others in the books are very different. They are beautiful, both male and female. They don't need human babies to add to their numbers. Their return has to do with mystical factors. It is never confirmed in the books that the others even turn human babies into their own kind, plus their origin is likely very different in the books.
In regards to how long Winds of Winter is taking; I am almost certain I read somewhere, and I doubt I could find it now, that GRRM said somewhere that he killed off a character in a previous book that he ended up REALLY needing in Winds of Winter, and he's had a huge issue with trying to figure out how to proceed with some part of the story without that character, as well.
@@johnbiggans3514 Every should remember what Neil Gaiman had to say about this: George RR Martin ain't our b*tch. I know some YT channels act like after the lockdowns he definitely should have finished and that there are no excuses or justifications left why TWoW isn't out yet but as much as I'm annoyed as well, Gaiman is still right.
The whole idea of the Others thinking Waymar is Jon is silly to me. Many fan theories have a narrowness of scale that the series doesn’t have. A far simpler idea to me is that the others singled waymar out because they recognized he was descendant of the first men.
Joe Magician is really tough to stomach because of this exact problem. He will be plodding along with a theory and backing it up with the sources, then he'll start in with some convoluted, contradictory justification for ideas that I don't rate above fanfiction. He comes up with stuff he thinks would be cool and then shoe-horns evidence in when he can.
I've always figured that the raising of wights was very akin to green seeing or warging. Just doing it with a corpse. We know you can skin change multiple animals, if it's just a corpse it should be easier. This would also be supported by certain bits of information we got in the show, without knowing if these bits of information are accurate or not. In particular, how killing a white walker seems to deactivate the dead that were nearby.
Great stream as always Robert. Thanks for all the great content and so often putting in the long hours for us all. With the Others I do not think they can procreate anymore. If there was ever a procreation period it would have been when the Night's Queen was around imo. Of course we have to question the accuracy of ancient myths and legend in this universe but shifting some details of the story around NQ almost reads as an Others' creation story. Either way I do not think they can procreate anymore , possibly never could and i do not think they are using the babies to do so either. Be it Craster or likely other arrangements of the sort via generations past or present all likely doing the same practice. For me if they could procreate over the millennia and / or via the baby sacrifices they would just be too numerous not only with them being near impossible to defeat with an army made up of that many basically super powered beings. But also would negate the need for the wighting ability , much rather focus on making 1000s and 1000s of super-soldiers via procreation rather than needing wights (even with as effective as wights could be). The wighting ability with the Others , to me suggests their numbers are likely quite small and I think GRRM would want to make it still somewhat plausible the Others could be defeated. Which if there are many many thousand Others would be pretty much impossible. If anything I suspect be it the babies or lambs being sacrificed the Others feed off their energy to help sustain themselves.
GRRM is a very busy man, so he should break the mold and allow a collaborative of fan fiction writers to complete his epic fantasy. Headed of course, by In Deep Geek. 🎉brilliant!
He took us for a test drive, using your analogy, as far as the Others go, compared to Krakens & the Deep Ones, who we’ve barely been teased. The GoT prologue says “HERE THEY ARE! And you won’t learn a single more detail about them for nearly 30 years, if ever!” *just one old nan story to Bran.
Theory: The timeline of the GEotD/First Men/Long Night/Azor Ahai is mixed around in terms of timeline. Primarily it seems likely to me that the First Men invading Westeros occurred while the GEotD still existed. The First Men, a culture from western Essos, began to expand into what would become Westeros and ran into the Children. They warred, the Children got pushed further and further North, until finally in desperation they created the Others by turning a female first-man warg, who then began expanding south and eventually crossed the arm of Dorne over to Essos The Bloodstone Emperor, current ruler of the GEotD, saw this threat coming and searched for a way to defeat them. He sent the "Last Hero" over to Westeros as an envoy, and he managed to reach the children and explain how the others were now destroying ALL men. The Children, realizing that their creation was targeting humans who had been uninvolved with the invasion of Westeros, gave him the Others' weaknesses. The Others were not willing to stop at that point because they're sentient and they were easily winning. With this intel, the Bloodstone emperor did two things: The first was using blood magic on a massive level to create dragons and dragon-riders (essentially creating an army, the survivors of which would go on to found Valryia after the war.) This experimentation likely occurred in Sothoryos, given the evidence for magical-based hybrid monsters being prevalent there. The second thing was arming his new blood-magic fueled fire-army with weapons that were capable of harming the Others. He tried to come up with a way to use obsidian in steel to create traditional swords imbued with that power. He experimented and eventually found that he could only make the weapon stable/unbreakable through blood sacrifice. "Nissa Nissa" was likely his wife and he quenched the sword in her blood as the final part of the ritual. I think, mirroring the Targaryens, his wife was also his sister, the Amethyst Empress. This eventually became known as the blood betrayal. The Bloodstone Emperor was Azor Ahai. Lightbringer turned out milky-white because the sacrifice was a willing one, rather than forced, which produces a black blade. The Daynes are descended from the Bloodstone Emperor and cover this up by claiming their story about finding the asteroid on an island. The Bloodstone Emperor likely used a LOT of blood magic, generating dragons, proto-valyrians, and dragonsteel for his regular troops, and this process was responsible for corrupting the GEotD capitol city, Asshai. The corruption is worst at the site of his castle - Stygai. It's possible that he sacrificed the entire population of Asshai to obtain enough power and weaponry to fight back against the Others. The dragonsteel produced was black due to the sacrifice being unwilling. The dragon army successfully pushed the Others back over to Westeros, at which point the Children used the Hammer of the Waters to cut the Others off from Essos permanently. The dragon army continued pushing the others North. At this point, the Others surrendered and the Pact was signed - A treaty between Humans, the Children AND The Others. The Others were given the North, the Children were given the Forests and Weirwood groves, and humans were allowed to stay in Westeros so long as they behaved and didn't destroy any more weirwoods North of the wall. The Wall was formed as a magical border denoting the territory of the Others, and the remainder of the GEotD military went back to essos and eventually founded Valyria. The remaining non-dragon riding GEotD population founded Yi-Ti, and world populations everywhere slowly began to recover and try to make sense of what had happened, with the seasons out of whack due to the sheer amount of fire and ice magic that had been used. The men remaining in Westeros adopted the Children's religion since they'd seen how powerful it was. That's where the age of heroes begins. Bonus: The Stark bloodline descends from the same First Men who the Children used to create the Others (hence all the Warging). Dany is Azor Ahai reborn, but Jon has bloodlines of both Ice and Fire. He is literally the song of ice and fire and the entire series is named after him. I expect he will be the one responsible for defusing both sides. He'll have to kill his ancient ancestor (the first Other, who I think was a female from the stark bloodline) and his Aunt, Dany.
I like it but the stories surround the long night aren’t present in central essos. Only in Westeros and Eastern essos. It’s likely that instead of the other matching east across essos, they traveled north through a North Pole ice sheet and entered essos from the east. Other than that I think all your ideas are very valid and the idea of the blood stone emperor being azor ahai is very fitting with George rr martins writing style. With that said the stories of azor ahai being the good guy and the blood stone emperor being the guy who caused the long night originated in the same place ashai. So that might be an issue.
Bran *totally* looks north and sees GRRM's version of the icy barad-dur where the Others are creating themselves en mass just popping out of some frozen weirwood they sacrifice the babies to
In the books lord commander mormont came to the conclusion that because othors wight came for him during the night that there is atleast something of the person the wight was before they died still in there because othors wight remembered exactly who and where the lord commander was so there’s definitely something of the previous occupant of the body in there. I think it would be cool and more horrifying if when the others magic re awakens the body that the consciousness of the person re awakens too but has no control over the body and has to helplessly watch as the wight kills everything it can and only dies again when the magic that re animated the wight dies in that body.
If anything maybe the “Others” were awoken by the decline of Westeros. It mimics Rome in the time of Hadrian’s wall Aka “the end of the world.” Authors have said it easy to imagine if u were a soldier at the wall to imagine dark creatures of the night & such at the wall or “end of the world” & if they’re at the end of the world maybe they can bring “the end of the world” & those scary nights may not end - this is how author’s minds work
This is my first time seeing your face. You sound wayyy older than you look. That’s a compliment. Your voice just sounds so seasoned and sophisticated. Anyway, thanks for the interesting videos! I love your channel.
Well someone took the children that he left in the woods. Could have been animals, so I don't know if Craster is evidence for anything related to the Others. But I do still agree that they have likely been woken or at least slowly awaking much earlier than GoT intro.
I agree that they weren’t so much “woken” as they’ve been away elsewhere or biding their time and amassing themselves before coming back into the area the watch patrols
I would say the Others were waiting and dwelling in the far north, slowly building their numbers through thousands of years of baby sacrifices from fringes of wildling society. I think they were trying to stay undetected beyond rumor and hearsay, until everyone, even the Night's Watch, forgets their true history, and their weaknesses by extension. The thing that I think triggered them to stir though was the dying of the Dragons, not just because of their obvious threat, but because without Dragons, fire magic begins to fade from the world, and people forget how to use it. It's no doubt that if they clashed with a civilization like the Valyrians, they would be facing their worst possible enemy. The Doom of Valyria was a massive boon to them, and as the Dragons began fading more and more, they began their slow, steady walk south. They are careful, slow, tactical, and silent, but as time goes on, and they grow stronger. The fist begins to close and suddenly they don't care if the rumors begin to pile up, because no one important believes them, and suddenly they're picking off wildlings, and then the Watch, and their army gets bigger, and they get bolder.
@@Grogeous_Maximus its been a long time since I've read the books, so I could be way off. But could it not be the meteor or comet or whatever it was? Wasn't that made a huge deal by most having to do with magic returning or whatever? At the same time didnt he kind of abandon that plot point lol? I could see if that comet comes around once every however many thousands of years it could have something to do with them coming back though.
I haven't read the books only watched the show. I got the impression the "game" was being played by the gods. The people are just pieces on the board. The goal is to take the throne. The gods throw in pieces like The Red Priests and the 3 Eyed Ravens, The Faceless Men to play their game.
I think Martin was stung by how the show ended but frankly... tough shit... it ended that way because he failed to write the next book within a decade... I’m sure HBO desperately wanted to have his works to go by, that’s what everybody signed up for, to adapt not finish for him.
What if the monumental event that imbalanced the seasons, was not the creation/ascension of the "others", but instead the dragons? The children of the forest had a good balance until the humans brought the dragons. So they made the "others" to counteract the dragons... Just a thought...
That accent bro. You sound like every narrator for every war history video I've ever seen. If I ever get a terminal illness, I want my doctor to tell you first, then you can break the news to me, cuz it just won't seem as bad if you say it
You mentioned that Crastors deal has been going on around 40 years which ties in with Rhaegars birth. Crastor, Rhaegar and Bran are the 3 people's whose stories we need to analyse to get some idea as to why the White Walkers are back.. I'd love to know more about the tales from Essos and know what's been happening over far east over the past 40 years. I'd also love more tales from their perspective of the long night in the form of an Old Nan character telling the version of the story from the East
My own theory on why GRRM is taking so long is that he's: A. Written himself into a quagmire and B: run out of historical events to crib from without getting too modern
I think the others deliberately didn't hurt the wildlings unless they had to because they were trying to Sheppard them down to the wall. The idea being the wildlings would inevitably kill each other off. It's a very grrm idea he used it in several of his other works. It also works if we assume the others are a weapon by the children against mankind. The others exploiting humanities xenophobia and tendency to kill itself
I've been wondering the Others are actually predominantly female for a couple of years now. I don't think that GRRM has stated (in the books at least) that they are male and that we're just assuming so because of the show and that typically the main antagonists of most fantasies are male. It would kinda make sense if the Others had more females than males because Craster only ever gives his sons to them and they don't seem to complain, for a lack of a better way to say it, about only ever receiving sons and not the daughters to. And the theory about the Corpse Queen being a female Other being sent to an all male military company would make sense.
I see the Others as creatures struggling between their innate nature as killing machines made to eliminate humans, and their drive to evolve and create their own civilization, language, and art. When you mentioned that maybe their story will conclude at the isle of faces where they may need to burn it down to end the magic that made them, it really hit me as something like the end of the Third Age and the start of the Dominion of Men in Tolkien's world, which is something that GRRM could draw inspiration from.
Wtf are talking about? I have never down voted a comment until I read this. Maybe they're just looking for work and a stable environment to raise their zombies in. They're just looking for a better life.
Its been a long time so I doubt you'll see this, but do you think that the Starks might have Other blood? If at some point they were more obviously other adjacent- "winter is coming" becomes more of a threat than a platitude, and the original sword Ice, which the valyrian steel version is said to be in replacement of could be an Other sword. What do you think?
I don't think the Starks have Other blood, the Others have Stark blood. I think that's where the whole "rule" about how there must always be a Stark in Winterfell comes from. I think they are intertwined somewhere somehow, and the specifics have been lost to time. Winter is coming is more than just a warning to bundle up.
Do you think the Wights think of water as lava? Rock melts and becomes lava. I’ve melts and becomes ice. I know it’s sounds dumb but do you think they are just afraid of melting? Dumb question but it was a shower thought I had
As much as I want to see how he works the rest of the story let's be real, there is *soooo* much story that could still be told here and that's before you get into all the history and lore which does actually expand and enrich the story even further. I'd honestly rather be chomping at the bit until we get fully fleshed out, well reasoned work not something rushed and badly cobbled together like the show became.
A very traditional route to take something like the Others would be that however they came into existence there's nothing that says they started out as/we're intended to be a weapon. If they were made by magic of any type they could have become warped/corrupted over time.
I think the Others went after the ranger in the beginning because he looked Noble George even described him as Noble when he was stood on the hill in full view that to me says they are looking for royalty
The obly problem i have with Daenerys hatching three dragons from three human lives (a la blood magic) is that Rhaego was already dead. MMD and Drogo were both living souls, but we're told Rhaego was stillborn. Maybe I'm missing something?
If Rhaegar knew the prophecy, presumably he'd have mentioned it to Lyanna when she fell pregnant, then surely as Lyanna gave John Snow to Ned, she'd have said, "protect him, he is the Prince that was promised", and yet Ned didn't do anything despite saying repeatedly that "winter is coming"?
I always kind of assumed that Craster didn't want to keep boys because he wanted to be the only male and that the others realised what he was doing and left him alone because they could turn those he left out.
I think he's just a soulless coward. How could he not be terrified by the others, and because he's an evil lowlife, I can easily see him sinking that low to keep his rich life.
THEORY!!!! Summerhall did wake the others because Rhaegar is Azor Ahai in the way that he sparked everything that allowed for the three heads of the dragon to end the long night. He was born at Summerhall
Aren't the Others made with 'Dragonglass' in the show right?? This is the same material that glass candles are made from too? And we know the candles can be connected to people to give them immortality. And we know this connection requires blood upkeep. So I propose that Dragonglass, which is described as "fire given form", is 'life' magic solidified. So, based on the scene we get to see in the show. We see the one of the children stab the man with dragon glass, in what would normally be a killing blow. Perhaps the dragon glass 'animated' him as he was in the process of dying. This would explain a lot of the motivations for The Others. They have been reanimated into a torturous, freezing cold, half life, for all of eternity. And have become embittered by the process. I suspect the process was fairly experimental, and was driven by the urgent need to win the war against humans. On another tangent, I have this bizarre idea that the Valyrians may very well have been sacrificing souls into their 'magical volcanoes', empowering their lava/fire, producing the dragon glass?
I don't agree that the Others will have their 'greenseer/greendreams' analogue. The Weirwoods strike me as a key part of the 'green vision' ability. I feel like the trees, being incredibly ancient, are a living 'bridge' for the Three Eyed Raven. I think his ability to look through 'time' is him actually looking through 'memory'. We do see Bran impacting the past, so my theory isn't perfect.
42:30 Interesting thing about the sidhe in Celtic myth (I'm not certain if this particular thing is original to the medieval strains, or came later during the revivals, as I can't remember where it was sourced - but that doesn't matter so much for analysing a contemporary pop cultural reference) - one of the places that they're given in that cosmology is as a sort of 'in-between' thing that's not an angel nor a demon, but is of the same order of celestial being. When their order of beings splits apart, during creation, the angels go into the heavens, the demons into the underworld, and the sidhe go into the natural world of human existence - in this version, they are almost archetypally supernatural, being something that takes mundane nature and extends it into a superhuman realm that is _still connected to and part of_ the mundane world we know. (They're still tied to the afterlife, too, so they're sort of occupying a similar realm of existence to ghosts - except they're neither dead, nor were they ever human to begin with. Funky concept.) Thus, if the Others are like _this_ type of sidhe, then they may very well be acting to (try to) _restore_ the natural balance through some inscrutable means, as they would be agents and/or direct manifestations/emanations of the (intended or original) natural order of the world, from before - whatever happened, happened.
Seems clear that Craster’s deal isn’t a deal. It’s just the Old Ways. Part of the Pact was probably that the others got human babies to maintain their society. Craster just happens to be the only one keeping the pact. So the others are pissed and they’re coming south for what they’ve been promised.
Think about it: the whole ASoIaF ends with white walkers finally winning. After Yi Ti, long night, Azor Ahai and all defeats they finally win. In my mind, only GM counts among current writers, who could dare such solution. What a refreshment it would be. This would not end the whole GM world, just pivot it unexpectedly.
So you gonna do a similarity video about some of the concepts and things that George RR Martin made for Elden ring that correspond to a world of ice and fire??
Here's a thought on Craster, and potentially others. Keep in mind we know next to nothing about the Others. The tale of the Night's King and Queen eludes to there probably being female Others. We do not know how many there could truly be. For all we know, in the Lands of Always Winter, there could be an entire civilization of them. They certainly have the capability of producing arms and armor. However, they may not have a biological means of reproducing. Wildlings do abandon weak, deformed, or otherwise unwanted offspring. Craster's (and maybe others) would be exceptional, as they could be perfectly healthy; good stock to raise soldiers from. The Others may possibly grow and age, we don't really know.
Hot take: the “Night’s Queen” was not an Other. She is called a “corpse bride.” No one describes the Others as being dead. Every description of this character matches that of a wight.
Have you seen David Lightbringers channel? He has theories on the others which he bases on loads of quotes from the book, he basically suggests that many storylines are actually allegories for the others. His theory is basically that the others are the original spirits of the weirwoods that were forced out by human greenseer spirits and they want revenge and to go home into the weirwoods via the godswood. If that's true all they want is to go home
I wonder if someone who is simply killed and raised has less mental power than someone changed while still living. Maybe the babies are how new Lts are created.
Do you think that the people if the seven kingdoms and essos know that the seasons are out of wack? Also I know when magic is involved it could be different but I always imagined that something astronomical was the cause of the seasons.
Maybe the others are sent by the children again. Their numbers are dwindling and they need to teach the realms of men another lesson. Maybe the strange seasons were meant to be a reminder of the pact but the men still forgot.
Hey loved this video and I know it is late to ask but, do you think what changed the season was the breaking of the arm of Dorn. I dont think the children created the others but awoken them. I think the children changed the places of the world, and in response we slowly got moves from winter and summer ( ice and fire). Also what about the heart of winter? Maybe it created the others and dragons made by the heart of summer. Hope you see this and get back to me.
I know you said that it not four elements, but maybe the season. So winter the other, spring children, summer dragons, and we don’t know fall. Maybe the faceless men. The reason the children can kill the other is winter “dies” to spring. Spring “dies” yo summer and summer to fall. The faceless men killed summer with the doom.
I am not sure, but while discussing Rob's successor, didn't cat mentioned that a stark girl was married into Royce family (1/2 generations before Ned) ?
If George was able to end GoT really weird like some of his other writing, I swear the big reveal was going to be the nights queen surrounded by 1000 wight babies.
Where are these 1000 babies coming from? The others seem to be small in number, otherwise, why the need for the Craster son sacrifice. If it was just a straight sacrifice, the Others would take the female babies too! But they only take the boys. Why? My guess is it’s because they cannot or are losing the ability to breed.
@@goatmc The Other legend has been around for 1000s of years, I can't see a scenario where wight babies grow up so it doesn't appear as though they become adult others at some point. Craster sacrifices his sons because that's what he wants to do. The others didn't say only boys, he just doesn't want boys around. Obviously the Others were never fully eradicated so even if the numbers dwindled they still could have a horde of baby wights. Just because the others seem like they have small numbers doesn't necessarily mean they are small in number.
There is a video on a channel Because Science, about How White Walkers shattered swords. They tried it with liquid nitrogen, with some very interesting results. You'll like it. Wonderful video, Robert, as per usual. I like the idea that the Walkers could have been summoned through a portal or something, because they don't seem to be indigenous to the planet.
Have you ever consider the possibility that The Others are the good guys? The winnig side always writes history. So what about the Others are the original inhabitants of the world pushed away by the men and men sub races, so they were force to hide for millennia till they got the strength to push back, I don't know it just came to my mind, we don't know if the last hero was the last conquistador or something like that, just brainstorming here
I found the TV show's account of their origin disappointing - it diminished their mystery and status, To be followed by many other disappointments of course 😀
Do you ever do any crossovers? In the battle of the 5 armies, how about replacing the good guy armies with an alliance of top notch empires from actual history such as the Romans to face the evil forces from battle of the 5 armies. No cheap magic allowed, just weaponry, tactics, skill, numbers, etc.
I think Dany being solo with drogo in the middle of no where was not needed and made the story just worse, tyrion became stupid and bad ruler meanwhile dany was away. And things seemed to fall apart starting there.
How do you kill a wight? We know coldwight can be killed with fire and dragonglass and probaly Valyrian steel, but can't be killed with normal steel weapons. Cut them in half and the parts keep coming at you. So why are firewights different? The Hound manages to kill Beric Dondarrion without using dragonglass or valyrian steel and since Beric uses fire himself, fire probably won't kill him either. Are firewights then killable with ordinary weapons? If so how? They can't bleed to death-no blood circulation. You can't stop their heart-it's already stopped. Brain death? Is the brain even alive? Yet Beric has been killed several times. What killed him? What kills a firewight?
Re: Craster’s sons, it’s likely old lore. People would leave their kids out as offerings to the faeries. He probably started doing it, and saw that they took the kids and left him alone, so he kept doing it
“He dared to hope” - was this royce daring or the other? Perhaps the others are hoping for death! They want to die and know only valeryn steel will kill them
I really like the idea of the Others being an (...?) infestation from another dimension, or sub dimension, like the Sidhe, or even a plain old elemental plane. I hadn't thought of that before, I'm normally allergic to dimension hopping or time travelling antagonists but for some reason I'm liking it now, maybe it's because I don't like the CoF answer as it's to easy and happens long after the First Men and the CoF made nominal peace. Even after the Others are defeated I hope some of their magic ice is left behind as relics and some houses hold it in as great esteem as other house hold their valaryian steel weapons. I do not deny those ice swords and ice armour seem awesome and I just want them for myself.
« happens long after the First Men and the CoF made nominal peace. » Not necessarily, in the tv show History and Lore we learn that the Children made the Others during the war with the First Men which lead to the Pact. Then the Others came back during the Andals invasion that broke the Pact. Could be the same in the books because in TWoIaF we can read: " Inexorably, the war ground on across generations, until at last the children understood that they could not win. The First Men, perhaps tired of war, also wished to see an end to the fighting. " "perharps tired of war" "perhaps", Yandel don't know why the First Men signed the Pact when they had the upper hand but the reason could be that the First Men got their ass kicked by the Others and decide to make peace with the Children.
@@bernadmanny The show itself yeah but the bonus History and Lore seems pretty tight especially with the timeline of these events. In the books we have to be very careful about what we think we know about these events because the timeline is blurry. You probably believe in what the book True History says but the characters keep repeating that maesters contest every dates, Martin also tells us that we should be wary of these statements and proved it by stating that the Long Night took place around 5 000 BC which makes it closer to the Andal Invasion and not thousands of years before like True History says. And since the First Men didn't keep a lot of records we don't know what happens during their fight against the Children of the Forest.
You know Robert bouta spit some wisdom with the glasses come off. 🔥
"If you're interested in the videos like 'what is the Night King's tax policies..." I'm interested in all your videos Robert - they are all great!
I believe the Others reacted to Waymar's blood, his red blood. Assuming Jon will be resurrected as a fire wight, there are implications of his body physically changing. GRRM said about Beric "his blood doesn't flow", it is implied his blood is dark, possibly black. Old blood (that had the time to oxidize) does turn brown or black. Presumably an undead Jon would be similar and thus, not bleed red when cut but bleed black (or maybe not at all). The Other likely said something distasteful about Royce bleeding like the living.
OK- what are some connections we could make with the house of black and white because when I read that I felt GRRM symbolism tingles haha
I just assumed that they have a code of honor that they abide by. Every opponent gets a fair fight. And also, maybe they take precautions to ensure their opponent isn't packing VS weaponry or obsidian
@@MJAce85 that wouldn’t be it because right after they see the blood and after the sword has burst they laugh mock him and all go for the kill at once. They definitely take precautions in that fight. They didn’t challenge Waymar 1v1 but rather set up a trap and surrounded him. They studied the way the blade reflected moonlight which implies at the very least they were worried about it being dragon glass or dragon steel.
You can’t ignore the physical descriptions of Waymar as he looks like the typical stark since the Royce’s and Stark’s have intermarried recently. Lean gray eyes and dark hair. So much so that even Crastor takes note.
Whether or not Crastor tipped them off or not it definitely seems like they were looking for a stark that more than likely would have a dragon steel blade.
The fact that they laughed and mocked him when seeing his blood implies either they can tell he’s not a stark just by the sight or smell of his blood or the fact the stark they’re looking for as the original comment suggested wouldn’t bleed the same way as a “living” person. Which in my opinion is probably the most likely.
I don’t believe Jon will come back as a fire wight. His spirit and brain are essentially confirmed to have jumped to ghost and will likely remain there until his body is unfrozen. Whereas a fire wight (stone heart, beric) were firmly dead, body dead, spirit dead.
I'm going to comment before watching the video, having read the series multiple times, and watching the show; I always assumed that the Others were an elemental race that fought against the Children for centuries before the arrival of the First Men, which is why the Children use dragonglass for weapons. Its very sharp, but not very strong. Most weapons made of obsidian were small and ceremonial, unless it was the one thing deadly to an ancient foe. I think the first Long Night happened after the First Men slaughtered the Children and upset the power dynamic on Westeros, allowing the Others to dominate and march south. The Others have humor, so personality, their own language, which speaks to an intelligence level, and their own unique armor and weapons, indicating specialized magic or skills.
I like this
Aztecs supposedly used obsidian as a proper weapon. Except they would have not been up against proper metal armor like the children were
I think First Men vs Children of the Forest was basically a stalemate everywhere but the eventual location of Winterfell and points North. The implication being that the Children were naturally as adaptive to cold as the first men. I think the Others marched South once most of the Children vacated most of their settlements in the North. My hope is that there are far more Children of the Forest than men suspect Kingswood, and various other forest around the continent. It would also be cool if they were key in saving Ned, John Snow and anyone else we presumed dead but aren’t actually at the Tower of Joy. I would like to think the Children are far more keen in their ability to hide maybe 2000-3000 in bands no more than 100 all throughout rural sections and forest in the south. Maybe they even played roles in the background in other major events on Westeros after the conquest of Aegon the First. Incidentally
The key is to ask yourself: _"Why was the Wall built?"_
1:22:14 oh, maybe the reason why Will was so unintelligible by the time he reached the Winterfell area is because the Others had been hounding him all the way back to the Wall. Like, yes, he's a career scout, one of the best the Watch had, but what if he didn't ever manage to give them the slip? What is they DID identify him at the top of that ridge? What if he spent two weeks fleeing the demons day and night, barely keeping ahead of them? That would be enough to break a man.
OMG your face!!! why is it so interesting to link faces and voices? love your videos!!! thank you
Regarding the question near end about whether the others could return later after this series I like the idea in concept but inverted. Basically the children of forrest created the others of winter to survive against the threat of humans. I’ve not seen this theory anywhere else and have nothing to support it but I like the idea of the humans inadvertently creating a new others of fire in defense of humanity. Something like the fire wights or qyburns creation saving humanity only to later become an even greater threat with complete inversion of the seasons. Now instead of winter is coming and sheltering in the south you have summer is coming with shelter in the north. This would be a nice subversion of brans direwolf name “summer” as a curse rather then blessing and would also change the meaning of him being the new king.
I think it would make an interesting ironic situation if Bloodraven creating the prince to be ready for the return of the Others is the very thing that caused them to return.
Others returning theory: they’ve generally been around, but in smaller numbers. With the addition of Craster’s sons, they’ve swelled their ranks (maybe by only ten or fifteen, but if there were only four or five remaining after the first Long Night, that would be a massive increase). Now there are enough Others to start acting, enough to raise and control a higher number of wights than before.
You are mistaking white walkers for others. The others in the books are very different. They are beautiful, both male and female. They don't need human babies to add to their numbers. Their return has to do with mystical factors. It is never confirmed in the books that the others even turn human babies into their own kind, plus their origin is likely very different in the books.
In regards to how long Winds of Winter is taking; I am almost certain I read somewhere, and I doubt I could find it now, that GRRM said somewhere that he killed off a character in a previous book that he ended up REALLY needing in Winds of Winter, and he's had a huge issue with trying to figure out how to proceed with some part of the story without that character, as well.
Probably Quentin Martell or Kevin Lannister
@@johnbiggans3514 Every should remember what Neil Gaiman had to say about this: George RR Martin ain't our b*tch. I know some YT channels act like after the lockdowns he definitely should have finished and that there are no excuses or justifications left why TWoW isn't out yet but as much as I'm annoyed as well, Gaiman is still right.
The whole idea of the Others thinking Waymar is Jon is silly to me. Many fan theories have a narrowness of scale that the series doesn’t have. A far simpler idea to me is that the others singled waymar out because they recognized he was descendant of the first men.
Joe Magician is really tough to stomach because of this exact problem. He will be plodding along with a theory and backing it up with the sources, then he'll start in with some convoluted, contradictory justification for ideas that I don't rate above fanfiction. He comes up with stuff he thinks would be cool and then shoe-horns evidence in when he can.
I've always figured that the raising of wights was very akin to green seeing or warging. Just doing it with a corpse. We know you can skin change multiple animals, if it's just a corpse it should be easier.
This would also be supported by certain bits of information we got in the show, without knowing if these bits of information are accurate or not.
In particular, how killing a white walker seems to deactivate the dead that were nearby.
To me, I think, that probably what woke them up was probably the death of the last dragon. Fire magic dwindled, they felt it and that woke up them up.
Sam Tarley knew because he was a nerd. He read books about it. Where his contemporaries would have been doing other things. He was in the library.
Great stream as always Robert. Thanks for all the great content and so often putting in the long hours for us all.
With the Others I do not think they can procreate anymore. If there was ever a procreation period it would have been when the Night's Queen was around imo. Of course we have to question the accuracy of ancient myths and legend in this universe but shifting some details of the story around NQ almost reads as an Others' creation story. Either way I do not think they can procreate anymore , possibly never could and i do not think they are using the babies to do so either. Be it Craster or likely other arrangements of the sort via generations past or present all likely doing the same practice.
For me if they could procreate over the millennia and / or via the baby sacrifices they would just be too numerous not only with them being near impossible to defeat with an army made up of that many basically super powered beings. But also would negate the need for the wighting ability , much rather focus on making 1000s and 1000s of super-soldiers via procreation rather than needing wights (even with as effective as wights could be). The wighting ability with the Others , to me suggests their numbers are likely quite small and I think GRRM would want to make it still somewhat plausible the Others could be defeated. Which if there are many many thousand Others would be pretty much impossible. If anything I suspect be it the babies or lambs being sacrificed the Others feed off their energy to help sustain themselves.
Omg. I've listened to you for ages. I was shocked to see you in person. I thought you were a 50ish grey haired dude. Congrats!!!
GRRM is a very busy man, so he should break the mold and allow a collaborative of fan fiction writers to complete his epic fantasy. Headed of course, by In Deep Geek. 🎉brilliant!
He took us for a test drive, using your analogy, as far as the Others go, compared to Krakens & the Deep Ones, who we’ve barely been teased. The GoT prologue says “HERE THEY ARE! And you won’t learn a single more detail about them for nearly 30 years, if ever!” *just one old nan story to Bran.
Theory: The timeline of the GEotD/First Men/Long Night/Azor Ahai is mixed around in terms of timeline. Primarily it seems likely to me that the First Men invading Westeros occurred while the GEotD still existed.
The First Men, a culture from western Essos, began to expand into what would become Westeros and ran into the Children. They warred, the Children got pushed further and further North, until finally in desperation they created the Others by turning a female first-man warg, who then began expanding south and eventually crossed the arm of Dorne over to Essos The Bloodstone Emperor, current ruler of the GEotD, saw this threat coming and searched for a way to defeat them.
He sent the "Last Hero" over to Westeros as an envoy, and he managed to reach the children and explain how the others were now destroying ALL men. The Children, realizing that their creation was targeting humans who had been uninvolved with the invasion of Westeros, gave him the Others' weaknesses. The Others were not willing to stop at that point because they're sentient and they were easily winning.
With this intel, the Bloodstone emperor did two things: The first was using blood magic on a massive level to create dragons and dragon-riders (essentially creating an army, the survivors of which would go on to found Valryia after the war.) This experimentation likely occurred in Sothoryos, given the evidence for magical-based hybrid monsters being prevalent there.
The second thing was arming his new blood-magic fueled fire-army with weapons that were capable of harming the Others. He tried to come up with a way to use obsidian in steel to create traditional swords imbued with that power. He experimented and eventually found that he could only make the weapon stable/unbreakable through blood sacrifice. "Nissa Nissa" was likely his wife and he quenched the sword in her blood as the final part of the ritual. I think, mirroring the Targaryens, his wife was also his sister, the Amethyst Empress. This eventually became known as the blood betrayal. The Bloodstone Emperor was Azor Ahai. Lightbringer turned out milky-white because the sacrifice was a willing one, rather than forced, which produces a black blade. The Daynes are descended from the Bloodstone Emperor and cover this up by claiming their story about finding the asteroid on an island.
The Bloodstone Emperor likely used a LOT of blood magic, generating dragons, proto-valyrians, and dragonsteel for his regular troops, and this process was responsible for corrupting the GEotD capitol city, Asshai. The corruption is worst at the site of his castle - Stygai. It's possible that he sacrificed the entire population of Asshai to obtain enough power and weaponry to fight back against the Others. The dragonsteel produced was black due to the sacrifice being unwilling.
The dragon army successfully pushed the Others back over to Westeros, at which point the Children used the Hammer of the Waters to cut the Others off from Essos permanently. The dragon army continued pushing the others North. At this point, the Others surrendered and the Pact was signed - A treaty between Humans, the Children AND The Others. The Others were given the North, the Children were given the Forests and Weirwood groves, and humans were allowed to stay in Westeros so long as they behaved and didn't destroy any more weirwoods North of the wall. The Wall was formed as a magical border denoting the territory of the Others, and the remainder of the GEotD military went back to essos and eventually founded Valyria. The remaining non-dragon riding GEotD population founded Yi-Ti, and world populations everywhere slowly began to recover and try to make sense of what had happened, with the seasons out of whack due to the sheer amount of fire and ice magic that had been used. The men remaining in Westeros adopted the Children's religion since they'd seen how powerful it was. That's where the age of heroes begins.
Bonus: The Stark bloodline descends from the same First Men who the Children used to create the Others (hence all the Warging). Dany is Azor Ahai reborn, but Jon has bloodlines of both Ice and Fire. He is literally the song of ice and fire and the entire series is named after him. I expect he will be the one responsible for defusing both sides. He'll have to kill his ancient ancestor (the first Other, who I think was a female from the stark bloodline) and his Aunt, Dany.
I like it but the stories surround the long night aren’t present in central essos. Only in Westeros and Eastern essos. It’s likely that instead of the other matching east across essos, they traveled north through a North Pole ice sheet and entered essos from the east. Other than that I think all your ideas are very valid and the idea of the blood stone emperor being azor ahai is very fitting with George rr martins writing style.
With that said the stories of azor ahai being the good guy and the blood stone emperor being the guy who caused the long night originated in the same place ashai. So that might be an issue.
Appreciate this IDG!
I think the "Giant Spiders" are something like a frozen horror construct made from the corpses of the dead.
That would be epic
Bran *totally* looks north and sees GRRM's version of the icy barad-dur where the Others are creating themselves en mass just popping out of some frozen weirwood they sacrifice the babies to
Those gaping weirwood mouths aren’t for nothing
In the books lord commander mormont came to the conclusion that because othors wight came for him during the night that there is atleast something of the person the wight was before they died still in there because othors wight remembered exactly who and where the lord commander was so there’s definitely something of the previous occupant of the body in there. I think it would be cool and more horrifying if when the others magic re awakens the body that the consciousness of the person re awakens too but has no control over the body and has to helplessly watch as the wight kills everything it can and only dies again when the magic that re animated the wight dies in that body.
If anything maybe the “Others” were awoken by the decline of Westeros. It mimics Rome in the time of Hadrian’s wall Aka “the end of the world.” Authors have said it easy to imagine if u were a soldier at the wall to imagine dark creatures of the night & such at the wall or “end of the world” & if they’re at the end of the world maybe they can bring “the end of the world” & those scary nights may not end - this is how author’s minds work
I love A Song of Ice and Fire fanfiction. I love fanfiction in general.
This is my first time seeing your face. You sound wayyy older than you look. That’s a compliment. Your voice just sounds so seasoned and sophisticated. Anyway, thanks for the interesting videos! I love your channel.
1:54:38 absolutely blew my mind never saw it that way
I don’t think the others were “woken” recently in regards to the start of GOT as Craster seems to have been involved with them for quite some time.
Well someone took the children that he left in the woods. Could have been animals, so I don't know if Craster is evidence for anything related to the Others.
But I do still agree that they have likely been woken or at least slowly awaking much earlier than GoT intro.
I agree that they weren’t so much “woken” as they’ve been away elsewhere or biding their time and amassing themselves before coming back into the area the watch patrols
I would say the Others were waiting and dwelling in the far north, slowly building their numbers through thousands of years of baby sacrifices from fringes of wildling society. I think they were trying to stay undetected beyond rumor and hearsay, until everyone, even the Night's Watch, forgets their true history, and their weaknesses by extension.
The thing that I think triggered them to stir though was the dying of the Dragons, not just because of their obvious threat, but because without Dragons, fire magic begins to fade from the world, and people forget how to use it. It's no doubt that if they clashed with a civilization like the Valyrians, they would be facing their worst possible enemy. The Doom of Valyria was a massive boon to them, and as the Dragons began fading more and more, they began their slow, steady walk south.
They are careful, slow, tactical, and silent, but as time goes on, and they grow stronger. The fist begins to close and suddenly they don't care if the rumors begin to pile up, because no one important believes them, and suddenly they're picking off wildlings, and then the Watch, and their army gets bigger, and they get bolder.
@@Grogeous_Maximus its been a long time since I've read the books, so I could be way off. But could it not be the meteor or comet or whatever it was? Wasn't that made a huge deal by most having to do with magic returning or whatever? At the same time didnt he kind of abandon that plot point lol? I could see if that comet comes around once every however many thousands of years it could have something to do with them coming back though.
Thanks Robert!
12:42 and now it's been 12 years and I still have hope!!!
I haven't read the books only watched the show. I got the impression the "game" was being played by the gods. The people are just pieces on the board. The goal is to take the throne. The gods throw in pieces like The Red Priests and the 3 Eyed Ravens, The Faceless Men to play their game.
I think Martin was stung by how the show ended but frankly... tough shit... it ended that way because he failed to write the next book within a decade... I’m sure HBO desperately wanted to have his works to go by, that’s what everybody signed up for, to adapt not finish for him.
I wish I caught this live to say that they're building up a Starkpile.
The magic being undone makes the end of the white walkers understandable and profound.
What if the monumental event that imbalanced the seasons, was not the creation/ascension of the "others", but instead the dragons? The children of the forest had a good balance until the humans brought the dragons. So they made the "others" to counteract the dragons... Just a thought...
Can't wait to see it all
Videos like these make me remember I don’t hate ASOIAF, in fact I love it! Wish George would release the bloody book
That accent bro. You sound like every narrator for every war history video I've ever seen. If I ever get a terminal illness, I want my doctor to tell you first, then you can break the news to me, cuz it just won't seem as bad if you say it
Ehhh I didn’t know you did these long-form videos this is awesome, made a long day of painting up a ladder fantastic
You mentioned that Crastors deal has been going on around 40 years which ties in with Rhaegars birth.
Crastor, Rhaegar and Bran are the 3 people's whose stories we need to analyse to get some idea as to why the White Walkers are back..
I'd love to know more about the tales from Essos and know what's been happening over far east over the past 40 years. I'd also love more tales from their perspective of the long night in the form of an Old Nan character telling the version of the story from the East
My own theory on why GRRM is taking so long is that he's: A. Written himself into a quagmire and B: run out of historical events to crib from without getting too modern
Nice shirt, nice stream 👍
I think the others deliberately didn't hurt the wildlings unless they had to because they were trying to Sheppard them down to the wall. The idea being the wildlings would inevitably kill each other off. It's a very grrm idea he used it in several of his other works. It also works if we assume the others are a weapon by the children against mankind. The others exploiting humanities xenophobia and tendency to kill itself
I've been wondering the Others are actually predominantly female for a couple of years now. I don't think that GRRM has stated (in the books at least) that they are male and that we're just assuming so because of the show and that typically the main antagonists of most fantasies are male. It would kinda make sense if the Others had more females than males because Craster only ever gives his sons to them and they don't seem to complain, for a lack of a better way to say it, about only ever receiving sons and not the daughters to. And the theory about the Corpse Queen being a female Other being sent to an all male military company would make sense.
Personally I think she's the first Other
I see the Others as creatures struggling between their innate nature as killing machines made to eliminate humans, and their drive to evolve and create their own civilization, language, and art.
When you mentioned that maybe their story will conclude at the isle of faces where they may need to burn it down to end the magic that made them, it really hit me as something like the end of the Third Age and the start of the Dominion of Men in Tolkien's world, which is something that GRRM could draw inspiration from.
Wtf are talking about? I have never down voted a comment until I read this. Maybe they're just looking for work and a stable environment to raise their zombies in. They're just looking for a better life.
Love these videos
Its been a long time so I doubt you'll see this, but do you think that the Starks might have Other blood?
If at some point they were more obviously other adjacent- "winter is coming" becomes more of a threat than a platitude, and the original sword Ice, which the valyrian steel version is said to be in replacement of could be an Other sword. What do you think?
I don't think the Starks have Other blood, the Others have Stark blood. I think that's where the whole "rule" about how there must always be a Stark in Winterfell comes from. I think they are intertwined somewhere somehow, and the specifics have been lost to time. Winter is coming is more than just a warning to bundle up.
I think it would be great if all the magic comes from one chaotic God.
I still want the books to end with the FM winning by giving everyone the gift.
The FM?
@@Slechy_Lesh Faceless Men.
@@Slechy_Leshfaceless men
There are several indications that ice wights at minimum retain memories and potentially grudges as well.
Do you think the Wights think of water as lava? Rock melts and becomes lava. I’ve melts and becomes ice. I know it’s sounds dumb but do you think they are just afraid of melting? Dumb question but it was a shower thought I had
Nice content!
I always loved my own perception of the others who I read the book 🤣🤣🤣
Considering some of the dark fae similarities it would make sense for that to be how the Others 'reproduce'
As much as I want to see how he works the rest of the story let's be real, there is *soooo* much story that could still be told here and that's before you get into all the history and lore which does actually expand and enrich the story even further. I'd honestly rather be chomping at the bit until we get fully fleshed out, well reasoned work not something rushed and badly cobbled together like the show became.
A very traditional route to take something like the Others would be that however they came into existence there's nothing that says they started out as/we're intended to be a weapon. If they were made by magic of any type they could have become warped/corrupted over time.
Would also be neat to see the ice dragon be brought into the main story. The Wall would be a perfect place for it/one to be hiding.
I think the Others went after the ranger in the beginning because he looked Noble George even described him as Noble when he was stood on the hill in full view that to me says they are looking for royalty
The obly problem i have with Daenerys hatching three dragons from three human lives (a la blood magic) is that Rhaego was already dead.
MMD and Drogo were both living souls, but we're told Rhaego was stillborn.
Maybe I'm missing something?
If Rhaegar knew the prophecy, presumably he'd have mentioned it to Lyanna when she fell pregnant, then surely as Lyanna gave John Snow to Ned, she'd have said, "protect him, he is the Prince that was promised", and yet Ned didn't do anything despite saying repeatedly that "winter is coming"?
With a dragon under their control... What's stopping them from freezing the water also... Which then gives them icy land to travel on..
I will answer injustice with justice.
I always kind of assumed that Craster didn't want to keep boys because he wanted to be the only male and that the others realised what he was doing and left him alone because they could turn those he left out.
I think he's just a soulless coward. How could he not be terrified by the others, and because he's an evil lowlife, I can easily see him sinking that low to keep his rich life.
THEORY!!!! Summerhall did wake the others because Rhaegar is Azor Ahai in the way that he sparked everything that allowed for the three heads of the dragon to end the long night. He was born at Summerhall
the children create the others montage as “this magic moment” plays in the background
only if we can get a training montage of the first Dragonrider and Sheepstealer with "Love is in the air"
They leave Craster alone, they don't harm him or his family. I know it's basic but maybe what it appears to be is exactly what it is.
Aren't the Others made with 'Dragonglass' in the show right??
This is the same material that glass candles are made from too? And we know the candles can be connected to people to give them immortality. And we know this connection requires blood upkeep.
So I propose that Dragonglass, which is described as "fire given form", is 'life' magic solidified.
So, based on the scene we get to see in the show. We see the one of the children stab the man with dragon glass, in what would normally be a killing blow. Perhaps the dragon glass 'animated' him as he was in the process of dying. This would explain a lot of the motivations for The Others. They have been reanimated into a torturous, freezing cold, half life, for all of eternity. And have become embittered by the process. I suspect the process was fairly experimental, and was driven by the urgent need to win the war against humans.
On another tangent, I have this bizarre idea that the Valyrians may very well have been sacrificing souls into their 'magical volcanoes', empowering their lava/fire, producing the dragon glass?
I don't agree that the Others will have their 'greenseer/greendreams' analogue. The Weirwoods strike me as a key part of the 'green vision' ability. I feel like the trees, being incredibly ancient, are a living 'bridge' for the Three Eyed Raven. I think his ability to look through 'time' is him actually looking through 'memory'. We do see Bran impacting the past, so my theory isn't perfect.
Yes! More tax policies coming up! The can of wyrms have been open, may it never be closed!
42:30 Interesting thing about the sidhe in Celtic myth (I'm not certain if this particular thing is original to the medieval strains, or came later during the revivals, as I can't remember where it was sourced - but that doesn't matter so much for analysing a contemporary pop cultural reference) - one of the places that they're given in that cosmology is as a sort of 'in-between' thing that's not an angel nor a demon, but is of the same order of celestial being. When their order of beings splits apart, during creation, the angels go into the heavens, the demons into the underworld, and the sidhe go into the natural world of human existence - in this version, they are almost archetypally supernatural, being something that takes mundane nature and extends it into a superhuman realm that is _still connected to and part of_ the mundane world we know. (They're still tied to the afterlife, too, so they're sort of occupying a similar realm of existence to ghosts - except they're neither dead, nor were they ever human to begin with. Funky concept.)
Thus, if the Others are like _this_ type of sidhe, then they may very well be acting to (try to) _restore_ the natural balance through some inscrutable means, as they would be agents and/or direct manifestations/emanations of the (intended or original) natural order of the world, from before - whatever happened, happened.
3:07 hell yeah brother!
Seems clear that Craster’s deal isn’t a deal. It’s just the Old Ways. Part of the Pact was probably that the others got human babies to maintain their society. Craster just happens to be the only one keeping the pact. So the others are pissed and they’re coming south for what they’ve been promised.
Night's King: I want my baby back baby back(ribs...)
@@sd5371 … with a nice Dornish Demi-glace
Think about it: the whole ASoIaF ends with white walkers finally winning. After Yi Ti, long night, Azor Ahai and all defeats they finally win. In my mind, only GM counts among current writers, who could dare such solution. What a refreshment it would be. This would not end the whole GM world, just pivot it unexpectedly.
So you gonna do a similarity video about some of the concepts and things that George RR Martin made for Elden ring that correspond to a world of ice and fire??
Here's a thought on Craster, and potentially others. Keep in mind we know next to nothing about the Others.
The tale of the Night's King and Queen eludes to there probably being female Others. We do not know how many there could truly be. For all we know, in the Lands of Always Winter, there could be an entire civilization of them. They certainly have the capability of producing arms and armor. However, they may not have a biological means of reproducing. Wildlings do abandon weak, deformed, or otherwise unwanted offspring. Craster's (and maybe others) would be exceptional, as they could be perfectly healthy; good stock to raise soldiers from. The Others may possibly grow and age, we don't really know.
I refuse to read dunk and egg until he honors his audience with his ‘promise’. I’m doing the “shut up and take my money “ thing
Hot take: the “Night’s Queen” was not an Other. She is called a “corpse bride.” No one describes the Others as being dead. Every description of this character matches that of a wight.
I like to think she is somewhere between human and Other, sort of an ice based mirror to Mellisandre.
I always pictured you in a nice suit and glasses like a learned gentleman. 🤣🤣
What’s would be the scenario where the Others are actually the good guys?
When you are one of them.
If the Others were actually created to fight the real threat…huge vampiric Ice Spiders coming in the Red Comet.
@@natie3322 I do believe the Others were actually created to fight the real threat: humans coming from the Red Comet.
Have you seen David Lightbringers channel? He has theories on the others which he bases on loads of quotes from the book, he basically suggests that many storylines are actually allegories for the others. His theory is basically that the others are the original spirits of the weirwoods that were forced out by human greenseer spirits and they want revenge and to go home into the weirwoods via the godswood. If that's true all they want is to go home
I wonder if someone who is simply killed and raised has less mental power than someone changed while still living. Maybe the babies are how new Lts are created.
the year of the false spring
Do you think that the people if the seven kingdoms and essos know that the seasons are out of wack? Also I know when magic is involved it could be different but I always imagined that something astronomical was the cause of the seasons.
Maybe the others are sent by the children again. Their numbers are dwindling and they need to teach the realms of men another lesson. Maybe the strange seasons were meant to be a reminder of the pact but the men still forgot.
Hey loved this video and I know it is late to ask but, do you think what changed the season was the breaking of the arm of Dorn. I dont think the children created the others but awoken them. I think the children changed the places of the world, and in response we slowly got moves from winter and summer ( ice and fire). Also what about the heart of winter? Maybe it created the others and dragons made by the heart of summer. Hope you see this and get back to me.
I know you said that it not four elements, but maybe the season. So winter the other, spring children, summer dragons, and we don’t know fall. Maybe the faceless men. The reason the children can kill the other is winter “dies” to spring. Spring “dies” yo summer and summer to fall. The faceless men killed summer with the doom.
That’s why the seasons are all messed up cause they are all flighting for dominance and the breaking of the arm of Dorn upset the balance
Maybe "The Others" were a nuclear option created by The Children of the Forest that might have then backfired on the Children of the Forest?
Preston Jacobs is crowd sourcing WoW so we'll have to see what GRRM does about that.
Fanfic is just fanfic - we know what GRRM thinks about that already.
I am not sure, but while discussing Rob's successor, didn't cat mentioned that a stark girl was married into Royce family (1/2 generations before Ned) ?
And daughters of the marriage were further married into Corbrays, Templetons and Waynwoods, yes
If George was able to end GoT really weird like some of his other writing, I swear the big reveal was going to be the nights queen surrounded by 1000 wight babies.
Where are these 1000 babies coming from? The others seem to be small in number, otherwise, why the need for the Craster son sacrifice. If it was just a straight sacrifice, the Others would take the female babies too! But they only take the boys. Why? My guess is it’s because they cannot or are losing the ability to breed.
@@goatmc The Other legend has been around for 1000s of years, I can't see a scenario where wight babies grow up so it doesn't appear as though they become adult others at some point. Craster sacrifices his sons because that's what he wants to do. The others didn't say only boys, he just doesn't want boys around. Obviously the Others were never fully eradicated so even if the numbers dwindled they still could have a horde of baby wights. Just because the others seem like they have small numbers doesn't necessarily mean they are small in number.
There is a video on a channel Because Science, about How White Walkers shattered swords. They tried it with liquid nitrogen, with some very interesting results. You'll like it. Wonderful video, Robert, as per usual. I like the idea that the Walkers could have been summoned through a portal or something, because they don't seem to be indigenous to the planet.
Have you ever consider the possibility that The Others are the good guys? The winnig side always writes history. So what about the Others are the original inhabitants of the world pushed away by the men and men sub races, so they were force to hide for millennia till they got the strength to push back, I don't know it just came to my mind, we don't know if the last hero was the last conquistador or something like that, just brainstorming here
I found the TV show's account of their origin disappointing - it diminished their mystery and status, To be followed by many other disappointments of course 😀
Euron could become the drowned king.
Do you ever do any crossovers? In the battle of the 5 armies, how about replacing the good guy armies with an alliance of top notch empires from actual history such as the Romans to face the evil forces from battle of the 5 armies. No cheap magic allowed, just weaponry, tactics, skill, numbers, etc.
Caesar wins
How long prior to the present story was the last long winter? Had even old nan witnessed it?
1:37:18 What have the Others been doing all this time?
Robert, do you think that Old Nan is one of the she-wolves of Winterfell?
I think Dany being solo with drogo in the middle of no where was not needed and made the story just worse, tyrion became stupid and bad ruler meanwhile dany was away. And things seemed to fall apart starting there.
S1: spiders big as hounds
S8: who?
How do you kill a wight? We know coldwight can be killed with fire and dragonglass and probaly Valyrian steel, but can't be killed with normal steel weapons. Cut them in half and the parts keep coming at you. So why are firewights different? The Hound manages to kill Beric Dondarrion without using dragonglass or valyrian steel and since Beric uses fire himself, fire probably won't kill him either. Are firewights then killable with ordinary weapons? If so how? They can't bleed to death-no blood circulation. You can't stop their heart-it's already stopped. Brain death? Is the brain even alive? Yet Beric has been killed several times. What killed him? What kills a firewight?
Re: Craster’s sons, it’s likely old lore. People would leave their kids out as offerings to the faeries. He probably started doing it, and saw that they took the kids and left him alone, so he kept doing it
“He dared to hope” - was this royce daring or the other? Perhaps the others are hoping for death! They want to die and know only valeryn steel will kill them
Well I finally put a face with the name!
Those books are never coming 😂ever, the Bible was put together in quicker time.
I really like the idea of the Others being an (...?) infestation from another dimension, or sub dimension, like the Sidhe, or even a plain old elemental plane. I hadn't thought of that before, I'm normally allergic to dimension hopping or time travelling antagonists but for some reason I'm liking it now, maybe it's because I don't like the CoF answer as it's to easy and happens long after the First Men and the CoF made nominal peace. Even after the Others are defeated I hope some of their magic ice is left behind as relics and some houses hold it in as great esteem as other house hold their valaryian steel weapons. I do not deny those ice swords and ice armour seem awesome and I just want them for myself.
« happens long after the First Men and the CoF made nominal peace. »
Not necessarily, in the tv show History and Lore we learn that the Children made the Others during the war with the First Men which lead to the Pact. Then the Others came back during the Andals invasion that broke the Pact.
Could be the same in the books because in TWoIaF we can read:
" Inexorably, the war ground on across generations, until at last the children understood that they could not win. The First Men, perhaps tired of war, also wished to see an end to the fighting. "
"perharps tired of war" "perhaps", Yandel don't know why the First Men signed the Pact when they had the upper hand but the reason could be that the First Men got their ass kicked by the Others and decide to make peace with the Children.
@@Oximb Let's just say that I don't look to the TV show for lore accuracy and consistency.
@@bernadmanny The show itself yeah but the bonus History and Lore seems pretty tight especially with the timeline of these events.
In the books we have to be very careful about what we think we know about these events because the timeline is blurry. You probably believe in what the book True History says but the characters keep repeating that maesters contest every dates, Martin also tells us that we should be wary of these statements and proved it by stating that the Long Night took place around 5 000 BC which makes it closer to the Andal Invasion and not thousands of years before like True History says.
And since the First Men didn't keep a lot of records we don't know what happens during their fight against the Children of the Forest.
Thanks