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What do the Others want?


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The general assumption is that the Others mean to cross the Wall, or bring it down, but is there any indication of what they want?

The main reason I ask is, if we don't even know what they want south of the Wall, it may be premature to assume that their recent increase in activity is an indication of Southern intentions.

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8 minutes ago, BricksAndSparrows said:

The general assumption is that the Others mean to cross the Wall, or bring it down, but is there any indication of what they want?

The main reason I ask is, if we don't even know what they want south of the Wall, it may be premature to assume that their recent increase in activity is an indication of Southern intentions.

they hate warmth and life and seek to exterminate both 

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31 minutes ago, Dorian Martell said:

they hate warmth and life and seek to exterminate both 

I have never really bought this explanation. I mean, yes, we do know that they hate life and warm blood and warmth in general. But that as being sole motivation seems very GRRMy

I would like to think that somewhere we will learn a little more about the others and possibly see some kind of motivation from their POV. 

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10 minutes ago, BricksAndSparrows said:

:( Yeah... I mean that is definitely reasonable, but it would be a huge disappointment. All the characters are so unique with all these complex motives...

The Others are very inhuman. Presumably their reason doesn't adhere to our standards of morality. Maybe it's just in their nature.

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5 minutes ago, Michael Mertyns said:

The Others are very inhuman. Presumably their reason doesn't adhere to our standards of morality. Maybe it's just in their nature.

Absolutely. It's completely plausible, I just find it really typical and boring. I mean, they are one of the most mysterious and interesting elements of the series, but the turn out to be chaotic neutral fairy tale monsters? I would be let down.

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I don't believe that the Others are evil. GRRM has told; 

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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.

From all we know they just want to live in Westeros much like what the humans wanted to do and ended up killing the CotF. As Dr Wu told in Jurassic world; 

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Monster is a relative term. To a canary, a cat is a monster. We're just used to being the cat.

The humans were the monsters when they first arrived in Westeros and now the Others are monsters who want to do exactly the same thing.

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We know long winters follow long summers, and that the Others specialize in manufacturing goods out of ice. I think it's reasonable to assume that part of what they want is simply to establish a long winter, to rebuild and recover from the long summer of Robert's reign. 

We also have reasonable evidence that Others adopt human children, and that Craster was literally the only guy in the world who was voluntarily giving his children up for adoption in this way. I think it's reasonable to think that they want more children and more child donor families. 

We also know that they enjoy killing people, so I think it's reasonable to think that they plan on killing a lot of people. They also might want to kill people just because people want to kill them. Perhaps their leadership believed that any winter long enough to rebuild would also be long enough to provoke an invasion by humanity. 

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1 hour ago, YOVMO said:

I have never really bought this explanation. I mean, yes, we do know that they hate life and warm blood and warmth in general. But that as being sole motivation seems very GRRMy

I would like to think that somewhere we will learn a little more about the others and possibly see some kind of motivation from their POV. 

We may learn more, but as of now, they hate life and warmth. That is it.  

1 hour ago, BricksAndSparrows said:

:( Yeah... I mean that is definitely reasonable, but it would be a huge disappointment. All the characters are so unique with all these complex motives...

I also hope there will be something more, but as of now there isn't 

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2 hours ago, BricksAndSparrows said:

The general assumption is that the Others mean to cross the Wall, or bring it down, but is there any indication of what they want?

The main reason I ask is, if we don't even know what they want south of the Wall, it may be premature to assume that their recent increase in activity is an indication of Southern intentions.

It is possible that they just want to find some good Thai food.

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There is definitely more to the Others than just being icy killers. It will all be gotten to the bottom of this time round when this long winter/long night drops and people like Bran and Jon will no doubt play big parts in clearing things up.

Until we read more we can only just go with what we've have got:

They are likely misunderstood, but without doubt have got a seriously nasty view of the NW. Right from the prologue, to the failed mission to kill LC Mormont(which took out first Ranger Jaremy Rykker and four other brothers), to the attack at the fist, it's certainly clear the Others have a deep, long standing bad vibe toward the NW which dates back eight thousand years.

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14 minutes ago, Macgregor of the North said:

There is definitely more to the Others than just being icy killers. It will all be gotten to the bottom of this time round when this long winter/long night drops and people like Bran and Jon will no doubt play big parts in clearing things up.

Until we read more we can only just go with what we've have got:

They are likely misunderstood, but without doubt have got a seriously nasty view of the NW. Right from the prologue, to the failed mission to kill LC Mormont(which took out first Ranger Jaremy Rykker and four other brothers), to the attack at the fist, it's certainly clear the Others have a deep, long standing bad vibe toward the NW which dates back eight thousand years.

Well, if you think about it, they were intruding upon the Others territory too. The land beyond the wall belongs to the Others. Imagine it like this. You're at home, enjoying a nice meal and some armored dude runs into your backyard. He sees you and you see him. You do nothing but stare at him and he pulls out his sword ready to attack you. What would you do? I'd personally defend myself and my homeland. So that could easily explain why the NW and the Wildlings have problems with them.

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3 minutes ago, Librus said:

Well, if you think about it, they were intruding upon the Others territory too. The land beyond the wall belongs to the Others. Imagine it like this. You're at home, enjoying a nice meal and some armored dude runs into your backyard. He sees you and you see him. You do nothing but stare at him and he pulls out his sword ready to attack you. What would you do? I'd personally defend myself and my homeland. So that could easily explain why the NW and the Wildlings have problems with them.

Of course they were intruding, and with hostility as well. By the way he was dressed, and acting all commanding etc with his sable cloak, fancy garb, fancy Jewel hilted blade at his hip, why if I was an Other I'd be inclined to think the bloody LC of the NW had just swaggered in to my domain to cause chaos with a very dangerous weapon that could do my race harm ;)

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1 hour ago, MinotaurWarrior said:

We know long winters follow long summers, and that the Others specialize in manufacturing goods out of ice. I think it's reasonable to assume that part of what they want is simply to establish a long winter, to rebuild and recover from the long summer of Robert's reign. 

We also have reasonable evidence that Others adopt human children, and that Craster was literally the only guy in the world who was voluntarily giving his children up for adoption in this way. I think it's reasonable to think that they want more children and more child donor families. 

We also know that they enjoy killing people, so I think it's reasonable to think that they plan on killing a lot of people. They also might want to kill people just because people want to kill them. Perhaps their leadership believed that any winter long enough to rebuild would also be long enough to provoke an invasion by humanity. 

They are indigenous peoples protecting their homeland. That is what they want.

Wars of ethnic cleansing are seldom pleasant.

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