King Edd of House Tollet Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 This always intrigued me...from a strategic point of view, the Others would gain more attacking the wildings so they could bolster their numbers Of course one could argue that they perceived the Night's Watch as their primary enemy, but I don't believe that was the reason Did the Others believed there was something important in the Fist, like say, the Horn of Winter? Did they want to make things easy for Mance's army to reach the Wall so they could take advantage from the aftermath of that battle? Were they afraid somehow to face a great host like the Wildlings and prefered the smaller force? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Hoare Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 Good question. Perharps the others thought the wildlings could have some utility agains't the Wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elder brother jonothor dar Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 It was more climactic and if the others wiped out the wildlings how could Jon be a BAMF and defend the wall against them? His love affair would be harder to pull off, as would him becoming LC. Assuming the Others did wipe out the wildlings with their much boosted numbers the chances of any of the night's watch making it back would be slim, nobody to send out ravens to the 7 kingdoms to ask for help and no Stannis at the wall > greater chance of the wall falling quickly. So yeh pretty much the story north of the wall ends then and there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Wraith Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 Mainly because they are pushing humanity back. It seems like they are far more interested in that then killing the Wildlings for some reason. The Night's Watch attack would have effectively scattered the Wildling host. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aryagonnakill#2 Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 It was a well thought out strategy. The Others cannot breach the wall itself at the time, but the wildlings could. They herded the wildlings toward the wall so they would attack it for them. They attacked the wildlings edges gaining some numbers, but never truly attacking in force. Had Mormont been able to scatter them as he intended, they would've posed no true threat to the watch and the WW's would've killed them little by little but been no closer to breaching the wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sensenmenn Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 They were looking for jon because they were informed by craster that he was in the NW host. There trying to kill AAR! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttering Ed Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 7 hours ago, Lord Wraith said: Mainly because they are pushing humanity back. It seems like they are far more interested in that then killing the Wildlings for some reason. The Night's Watch attack would have effectively scattered the Wildling host. 6 hours ago, aryagonnakill#2 said: It was a well thought out strategy. The Others cannot breach the wall itself at the time, but the wildlings could. They herded the wildlings toward the wall so they would attack it for them. They attacked the wildlings edges gaining some numbers, but never truly attacking in force. Had Mormont been able to scatter them as he intended, they would've posed no true threat to the watch and the WW's would've killed them little by little but been no closer to breaching the wall. Yes to both of these. The Watch had set up a blocking force to keep the Free Folk from coming south. The white walkers removed (decimated, actually) that blocking force and nibbled on the edges of the Free Folk to keep driving/herding them south. I'm not sure yet that the white walkers are totally hellbent on murdering every human, despite Old Nan's scary stories. But they pretty clearly want humans gone from their lands north of the Wall. Once that magic barrier of the Wall is out of service, whether it falls or just loses its magic, we'll find out what they really want. They may want all of Westeros. Or maybe they just want what was promised in the Pact between the First Men and the CotF. I'm eager to find out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Edd of House Tollet Posted June 3, 2017 Author Share Posted June 3, 2017 7 hours ago, aryagonnakill#2 said: It was a well thought out strategy. The Others cannot breach the wall itself at the time, but the wildlings could. They herded the wildlings toward the wall so they would attack it for them. They attacked the wildlings edges gaining some numbers, but never truly attacking in force. Had Mormont been able to scatter them as he intended, they would've posed no true threat to the watch and the WW's would've killed them little by little but been no closer to breaching the wall. This. Makes sense to me It's an interesting topic to discuss to further analyze the main strategic planing of the Others. Seems to me they could attack the Wildlings if they wanted, but instead went for the NW. Maybe they had some sort of intelligence (from Craster, most likely) what both NW and Wildlings were planning, and they simply took advantage Although I'm intrigued that real reason was to find the Horn of Winter (or Joramun). Based on other theories, there is strong evidence that Benjen found it, hide it on the Fist, then it was found by Ghost (Jon Chapter V in ACoK, I believe) and eventually fell into Sam hands (That's why that White Walker is chasing him in ASoS). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aryagonnakill#2 Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 1 hour ago, King Edd of House Tollet said: This. Makes sense to me It's an interesting topic to discuss to further analyze the main strategic planing of the Others. Seems to me they could attack the Wildlings if they wanted, but instead went for the NW. Maybe they had some sort of intelligence (from Craster, most likely) what both NW and Wildlings were planning, and they simply took advantageAlthough I'm intrigued that real reason was to find the Horn of Winter (or Joramun). Based on other theories, there is strong evidence that Benjen found it, hide it on the Fist, then it was found by Ghost (Jon Chapter V in ACoK, I believe) and eventually fell into Sam hands (That's why that White Walker is chasing him in ASoS). This is entirely possible because Jon or Sam or someone, does blow the horn. I personally doubt Craster is able to verbally communicate with them in a detailed enough way to describe what is going on, I suspect they could watch and figure it out for themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Edd of House Tollet Posted June 3, 2017 Author Share Posted June 3, 2017 Then it all comes down to the question about how exactly the Others thinks the great strategic picture Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zandru Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 Also, a matter of numbers. There were many tens of thousands of freefolk, with giants and mammoths besides, spread out over a vast area while moving and while encamped. Why in the world would any commander do a direct frontal attack on this many? Meanwhile, there were some 300 Night's Watch people, nearly all of the Watch's strength, isolated and concentrated in one spot on the top of a hill. Nearly all of them could be - and were - wiped out. This largely took out the organized opposition to the Others. Also, as many have pointed out, it helped the freefolk assault on the Wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edd tollett:( Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 5 hours ago, Muttering Ed said: Yes to both of these. The Watch had set up a blocking force to keep the Free Folk from coming south. The white walkers removed (decimated, actually) that blocking force and nibbled on the edges of the Free Folk to keep driving/herding them south. I'm not sure yet that the white walkers are totally hellbent on murdering every human, despite Old Nan's scary stories. But they pretty clearly want humans gone from their lands north of the Wall. Once that magic barrier of the Wall is out of service, whether it falls or just loses its magic, we'll find out what they really want. They may want all of Westeros. Or maybe they just want what was promised in the Pact between the First Men and the CotF. I'm eager to find out! It seems like you guys are on the right track. The timing of the attack is also suspect, it could be a coincidence but, right after the watch decides to attack the free folk, the Others attack them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Suburbs Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 4 hours ago, zandru said: Also, a matter of numbers. There were many tens of thousands of freefolk, with giants and mammoths besides, spread out over a vast area while moving and while encamped. Why in the world would any commander do a direct frontal attack on this many? Meanwhile, there were some 300 Night's Watch people, nearly all of the Watch's strength, isolated and concentrated in one spot on the top of a hill. Nearly all of them could be - and were - wiped out. This largely took out the organized opposition to the Others. Also, as many have pointed out, it helped the freefolk assault on the Wall. Beat me to it. A coordinated attack on the wildlings would probably have decimated the wight army even as they gained new wights during the battle. And the wildlings would have the sense to burn all of the fallen before they rose. The NW at the fist is a much smaller, so they could be easily overwhelmed, producing a smaller net gain in numbers but virtually no risk of loss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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