The Others invasion

[Arya_Ghostface]

Hah.

I don't think they'll be an "invasion". The Others seem perfectly content with their hunting; if the Wall comes down, they'll spread South sure, but the issues surrounding the Others are highly confused and we don't know anything about them other than vague hearsay from an old crone, three violent encounters and brief lore vomit from Sam. In fact, rather than an "invasion" of the Others I imagine we'll be getting a different side of them come tWoW; a look into why they exist and how they contribute to the messed up seasons in ASoIaF, when Jon goes north to the Lands of Always Winter (and we'll see why GRRM described them as the "Sidhe made of Ice").

I think we'll also be getting a much deeper look at the Red Lot and just what they're up to. Victarion having fire made flesh, Moqorro's creepiness, Dany's nearness to Valyria the conflict with Volantis; things are boiling and bubbling at the extremities of GRRM's world, and the Others aren't the only emerging worry.

I agree with this opinion. We just don't know who the Others are and what they want to do. We do know that the Wall's magic will not allow them through, Coldhands couldn't pass under it (though the wights who attacked Commander Mormont were carried through the Wall as corpses no problem, which is interesting). I don't see the Wall coming down either. I think if there is such a thing as a horn that can bring the Wall down, that is currently sitting safely with Sam in Oldtown and nobody knows what it can do.

Having said that, I would like to see a Dragons vs. Others battle, maybe some Others will trickle through the Wall in some way. It won't take many to terrorize the hell out of the southerners, especially if they don't know how to fight them. So the Dany vs. Others at the Trident is still a possibility, even with the Wall intact.

As for the cold Jon Snow feels, blood carries heat, if someone is bleeding there is no means for the body to heat up and they will inevitably feel cold. Especially at the Wall where it's cold anyway.

[lentrix]

The Wall will definitely crumble, - I think this will be the ending of WOW. How far they get to down - im unsure, but it will be past Winterfell. There is probably something in Winterfell they can help battle the others but this is need to be evacuated south, or someone will need to stay (or go back) to activate/get it.

[joluoto]

I think Davos will run into them on Skagos. Dead things in the water, maybe they're all marching to make some Cannibal Zombies, and Unicorn Zombies!

[Petyr Patter]

If one considers the author and one of his goals, to subvert traditional story telling tropes, the importance of the Wall lessens. Right now, there are two major "One Ring"s in place, the Wall and the three Dragons. "One Ring" in this case being the only thing that can beat the evil, bring balance to the force, etc. Almost every fantasy novel has them. Ignoring the Dragons for now, the Wall is being built up as the only thing to keep the Others at bay. That if the Wall should not be adequately manned, or if the Wall should fall then the DOOM. Throw in Martin's love for history... massive walls tend to be less effective than its builders hope. Biggest example is the French Maginot Line of WWII, which the Nazi's just bypassed by invading north through other countries.

So, I think the Others are also just going to bypass the Wall. While there isn't a land route, the Others might just get there hands on enough boats in the attempt to evacuate survivors. Then, on to King's Landing! Because that is the sort of shake up that Martin likes to throw at readers.

[Ghost's Shadow]

Yes, let the Others row a boat to KL! Just like

Gendry in the last ep.

Row, row, row your boat...

[Pearlthegirl]

The Others are dead, why can't they just walk around the Wall in the water?

[jd111]

Woul it be possible for the wights to start popping up on this side of the wall? Are they born of the others or is it the cold that raises them?

Don't the wildlings always burn their dead? To stop them from rising, or to stop the others from raising them?

[Tini]

The Others are dead, why can't they just walk around the Wall in the water?

Three guesses:

1) Salt water destroys the magic. They die for real if they try.

2) Jon received a report that there are dead things in the water at Hardhome. The dead thing in the water may not be allies of the Others north of the Wall. If there are different factions of Others fighting each other. passing through the water may not be possible.

3) The Wall is just an outward sign of a mgaical barrier that keeps the Others at bay. The magical barrier continues under the Sea.

[Tini]

Woul it be possible for the wights to start popping up on this side of the wall? Are they born of the others or is it the cold that raises them?

Don't the wildlings always burn their dead? To stop them from rising, or to stop the others from raising them?

No one knows how the the Others animate the dead. They just rise, so the Wildlings burn their dead to prevent that.

Jon brought some dead with him from the other side of the Wall. They did not rise at Castle Black, so it would seem that they can't start popping up on this side of the Wall as long as the Wall is still functional. I think we'll see wights appearing at Castle Black as an unintended consequence of Bowen Marsh's attempt to assassinate Jon.

[Tini]

So, I think the Others are also just going to bypass the Wall. While there isn't a land route, the Others might just get there hands on enough boats in the attempt to evacuate survivors. Then, on to King's Landing! Because that is the sort of shake up that Martin likes to throw at readers.

If bypassing the Wall were an option, I think the Others would have done so long ago. If the stories are to be believed, the Wall stopped them for thousands of years despite smugglers and the like bypassing the Wall to deal with wildlings. The dead things in the water might not even need boats.

[Tini]

The Wall will definitely crumble, - I think this will be the ending of WOW. How far they get to down - im unsure, but it will be past Winterfell. There is probably something in Winterfell they can help battle the others but this is need to be evacuated south, or someone will need to stay (or go back) to activate/get it.

Maybe people will only fully realize it at the end of WOW, but I think the crumbling has already started. The people at the Wall will realize it first. Enormous magical energies were used to create the Wall, and the Night's Watch is somehow involved in keeping it intact.

Thanks to Melisandre we know that human sacrifice raises large amounts of power, and royal blood is much more powerful than that of commoners. Edric Storm, maester Aemon, Mance's son... and Jon Snow. Jon is king's blood, too, descended from the Stark kings in the North, and possibly from the Targaryen kings as well. If Robb named him heir, one can even argue that Jon is a king. He is related to Bran the Builder, and he is Lord Commander of the Night'S Watch. Now the Night's Watch betrayed him, sacrificed him right next to the Wall. I'll be disappointed if that doesn't have any effect on the Wall.

[Veltigar]

They will not attack the north before they have dealt with the remaining Children of the Forest, Bloodraven and Bran.

tWoW will be almost entirely devoted to human action (rise of Faegon, Dance of dragons, finally killing LF and Varys thus showing that the game is over, etc.) only Bran chapters are going to give us information about the others (and possibly a Benjen chapter).

We are going to get some bran chapters deepening his bond with BR and learning to wield his power. The others will attack and Bran will flee the caves with Meera, Hodor and possibly Coldhands. BR can't go anywhere and Jojen will take Brans place on the Weirwood throne so that the Others think that they have killed them.

After that there are two possibilities:

1) The others don't want to attack the wall, they might be interested in Gorne's way (I think the childrens cave is the main entrance to that route) and pop up behind the wall and start killing shit.

2) They use the Horn of Joramun, delivered to them by Jaqen or Euron (because they took it from Sam) to bring the wall down and start killing shit.

But that's all for ADOS not tWoW

[MikeDC]

If one considers the author and one of his goals, to subvert traditional story telling tropes, the importance of the Wall lessens. Right now, there are two major "One Ring"s in place, the Wall and the three Dragons. "One Ring" in this case being the only thing that can beat the evil, bring balance to the force, etc. Almost every fantasy novel has them. Ignoring the Dragons for now, the Wall is being built up as the only thing to keep the Others at bay. That if the Wall should not be adequately manned, or if the Wall should fall then the DOOM. Throw in Martin's love for history... massive walls tend to be less effective than its builders hope. Biggest example is the French Maginot Line of WWII, which the Nazi's just bypassed by invading north through other countries.

So, I think the Others are also just going to bypass the Wall. While there isn't a land route, the Others might just get there hands on enough boats in the attempt to evacuate survivors. Then, on to King's Landing! Because that is the sort of shake up that Martin likes to throw at readers.

I agree that Martin's desire is to subvert the typical fantasy story, but that leads me to the conclusion that the others are always going to be a sidebar to the story and never mount a giant invasion in the first place. Because the others are fundamentally magical, and Martin is mostly telling a story about men.

I think it's basically Bran's role to defeat them so they don't actually invade. Which means Bran is really the hero of the story, but of course, nobody will ever actually see or know what he's done because the invasion itself is stopped and he's a crippled boy stuck merging into a tree. Which is exactly the sort of subversion of the fantasy ideal that GRRM wants. Magic and heroism have their price. And Bran is the obvious vessel for that as a wielder of powerful magic who dreamed of a heroic life. Well, he's going to live one, but he's paying the price for it.

[Former Lord of Winterfell]

To me, a huge clue are all the repeated statements that the Kingdom's granaries are half-empty, and that there is not enough food to survive a long winter. So the Others' invasion, having them directly kill people and raising hordes of wights, isn't the only existential threat. And defeating the Others militarily, even with dragons, doesn't solve the problem of a lack of food to survive the winter. It is winter itself that must be defeated. To me, that suggests that simply defeating the Others with dragonglass or dragons isn't enough.

Someone has to defeat/deal with the Other. I don't think this means no actual invasion by the Others and their wights -- I think that's definitely coming. It's just that it will be more of a fight for survival by men, whereas the hope for actual victory will lie much further North while the rest of Westeros is struggling to survive the onslaught. And I could see not just Bran, but also the dragons, having a role in that.

[AtomixIGN]

I think they will sweep around the wall. Particulary at East Watch, they've already started. Last Hearth and the Dreadfort are doomed. Those ships in White Harbor will be for an Evacuation.

[Whitering]

Do we have any evidence that they have ever assaulted the Wall at all? They last rose 8000 years ago, were pushed back to the deep north and the Wall was raised to stop them coming south. Now the Children were involved with the Wall, so it probably does work, but I don't actually remember hearing about any undead assaults on the Wall, they still haven't in the books yet.

[Queen Elsa]

Many people, and I, believe that TWOW will have an Other invasion. If this is so, how far into the book do you think they'll invade and how far into Westeros?

Though it will be horrible, I'm hoping the Others will find their way down to Dorne. It's unfair for the North to fight the Others and defend the realm of men at the same time while the southern kingdoms keep playin' the game of thrones.

[Winterz]

I think they will be sighted near the Wall in early or mid-book, then eventually the Wall falls (one way or the other) and by the end of the book the North will be seriously deep in wight-fighting.

They'll only be defeated by the end of the last book if you ask me. And Jon will only discover his true parentage when he and the NW begin retreating all way back to the Neck (or maybe just WF). I think the WWs will swarm the entire continent (the places which suffer from Winter, Dorne will likely be immune so most people will try to evacuate to here) very quickly and by the end TWOW there will be reports of WWs sighted in the Vale and Riverlands. In a DoS they'll be near King's Landing and in the Stormlands.

[Whitering]

If the Others don't make it to at least KL I will be upset. It has to impact the South otherwise, while it's been fun to read about what's going on down there...you know, it could have been a much shorter series.

[Black Crow]

The Others are dead, why can't they just walk around the Wall in the water?

Despite what Old Nan implies, they aint dead:

. Here is what George said, in one e-mail: 'The Others are not dead. They are strange, beautiful… think, oh… the Sidhe made of ice, something like that… a different sort of life… inhuman, elegant, dangerous.