52 replies to this topic

[oakenhelm]

I wonder if much of the confusion would have prevented by not having two words that sound the same (white and wight) describe two different beings.

[Arya Nymeria Stark]

Think about the season/book 1 premiere. Those are Others.

Now, think about the season 2 finale. Those are Wights.
In book 2, a couple of Craster's wives warn Sam to get Gilly and the baby away from the keep cuz Craster's other sons will be coming. I think that when he sacrifices his sons, they become wights.

[Lady Snowcat]

Arya Nymeria Stark, on 18 July 2012 - 01:39 AM, said:

Think about the season/book 1 premiere. Those are Others.

Now, think about the season 2 finale. Those are Wights.
In book 2, a couple of Craster's wives warn Sam to get Gilly and the baby away from the keep cuz Craster's other sons will be coming. I think that when he sacrifices his sons, they become wights.

OK - so in book 2, Craster was voluntarily giving up his sons to the Others who would then kill them and create wights?

By doing this, was Craster's sacrifice to the Others buying a peace of a sort with them?

And since Wights are basically brainless zombies, how do the Others control them so that they do not come mindlessly back into Craster's camp and kill everyone?

[Arya Nymeria Stark]

I'm reading book 5 now, though I don't know which book y'all are reading but there was one part when Jon said...

Spoiler

"We understand little of the wights and less about the Others."

[thepipes]

Sigh, it is easy.
most Others are white (although other Others are other than white), however Wights are like no others, except they are similar to    white Others but separate from other Wights who as we all know are white.
hope this clears it up for you all.

[Arya Nymeria Stark]

I think the Others are what we see in the book 1 prologue and the TV season premiers, and the Wights are the ones who attack the Fist of the First Men at the end of the second book/season 2 finale. HOWEVER, they did say that 3 horn blasts means Others, although I'd think it signals either one. I think Wights are the sons Kraster sacrifices and Others are something completely different.

[Ramsay Gimp]

Wights, White Walkers, Wildlings....

GRRM must have been feeling pretty lazy when he named the things lurking North of the Wall. I've noticed it really confuses show fans

[Dragon Punch]

Ramsay Gimp, on 11 September 2012 - 10:55 PM, said:

Wights, White Walkers, Wildlings....

GRRM must have been feeling pretty lazy when he named the things lurking North of the Wall. I've noticed it really confuses show fans

He didn't create the name wight it's a middle english word from and old english word that is used to mean wraith like creatures. Others are only referenced as White Walkers once or twice in the books, the producers of the show probably thought Others sounded lame or too vague, and yeah wildling is maybe a little lazy but it fits.

Also this whole thing confused me immensely until aSoS but it became clear from Sam's chapters what the difference was.

Edited by Dragon Punch, 14 September 2012 - 03:26 AM.

[SummerGhostofNymeria]

I think people have done a good job explaining the difference. It cleared things up for me, at least. I now know that the Others are the ones who create the wights, etc etc, I won't repeat all the things that have been said over and over. Only glad I finally understand as I've had this discussion many times with people I know who have been reading the books/watching the show.

[Esa1996]

Others are an other race from humans. Wights are dead animals/humans that the Others bring back to life the same way Thoros brings Beric back to life. The others praise the Great Other, humans praise R'hllor. Both gods have the ability to raise the dead, except they do it a little different. R'hllor puts life back to a body but doesn't fix physical damage to the body (Probably means that he can't fix bodies that are too badly damaged) and the Great Other puts life back to a body, but makes the body a slave of the ressuroctor. He can also most probably bring anything back to life, since the wights, unlike the undead of R'hllor, are immune to pain, or any other kind of damage except fire. (R'hllor's other name = The Red God/The Fire God)

[Bad Hound!]

Dragon Punch, on 14 September 2012 - 03:24 AM, said:

He didn't create the name wight it's a middle english word from and old english word that is used to mean wraith like creatures.

That's true, in LOTR Tolkien uses the word wight (even barrow-wights if I remember rightly), and in the 1st book Frodo & co have to fight them with special swords they found in the forest close to Tom Bombadil's house.

But yeah in aSoIaF, wights are animal or human zombies enslaved to the Others (aka White Walkers), simples.

Edited by Bad Hound!, 28 November 2012 - 07:45 PM.

[Lion of Judah]

Others are sentient, Wights are not.

[Nargauzius]

I have a question - what precisely causes wights to rise from teh dead?  In the opening scene, clearly, being killed and in the near proximity of an Other caused Waymar Royce to rise as a wight.  Other times it is implied that when people die NORTH of the wall, they become wights, but SOUTH of the wall, they do not.  This can't be true, strictly speaking, or at least, it can't have been true for very long or else the Watch would have figured that out.  Obviously, they can only rise at night.  But equally obviously, not ALL creatures that die above the wall become wights at nightfall - or hordes of wight animals and birds and such would already have been attacking.  I read somewhere that contact with the deep cold of the Others creates the animation of the dead bodies...but Othor's (not "Other", I mean the guy whose body was brought south of the wall) episode south of the wall would imply that the wight, once animated, does not have to REMAIN near the Other's cold...Othor himself was very very cold.  But he was not NOT very very cold during the day when the Night Watch were poking at him and smelling him.  So the cold emanates, and from OThers and wights alike! The scene that got me wondering about this is the first attack by Mance Rayder on teh wall, whcih took place in the dark dead of night, and which was described as taking place during a cold cold wind (thought not the dreadful cold of the Others, I guess).  All those dead mammoths, and giants, and wildlings that were strewn about the field in front the gate the next morning, had NOT risen as wights, nor had they been burnt.  Mance Rayder must have known they would not rise, or he could not have risked a night-time test attack on the wall...he'd quickly be dealing with a terrible internal problem, as the dead rose as wights.  Yet he must also have known the risks of this strategy - if the OThers had come along during that attack...you get my drift.  Any thoughts on this issue of precise cause of wight-rising?

Edited by Nargauzius, 27 January 2013 - 04:59 PM.