Which region will suffer most from Winter?

[Free Northman Reborn]

9 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

I’ve always found that odd myself too. I wonder if he had actually ‘risen’ prior to that? I know the eyes had changed, but perhaps he hadn’t yet been ‘active’ and so could be dragged through.

We’ve also never seen a Wight actually try and pass a warded place so we do t know exactly what would happen. Would the magic animating them simply cease? Would they burn, dissolve, rot? I don’t know, but intriguing to think about

Bloodraven can warg through the Wall. So can Bran. We have direct evidence of that.

[HexMachina]

Just now, Free Northman Reborn said:

Bloodraven can warg through the Wall. So can Bran. We have direct evidence of that.

Right. And....? I’m talking about wights, not skinchanging

[Lord Varys]

1 hour ago, HelenaExMachina said:

I’ve always found that odd myself too. I wonder if he had actually ‘risen’ prior to that? I know the eyes had changed, but perhaps he hadn’t yet been ‘active’ and so could be dragged through.

We’ve also never seen a Wight actually try and pass a warded place so we do t know exactly what would happen. Would the magic animating them simply cease? Would they burn, dissolve, rot? I don’t know, but intriguing to think about

Coldhands can't pass through the Black Gate and he can't enter the cave of the Children, but there is no reason to believe he couldn't walk through the tunnels the Watch (in their stupidity) have cut through the ice. If wights can be carried through the tunnels, they should also be able to walk through them.

The Wall is imbued with magic but in the end it is just a physical barrier, not an impenetrable magical barrier. If it was that, then there would have never been a reason to build it as high as it was build - the reason for that is that the higher the Wall the harder it is for the wights and Others to climb over it.

Bloodraven and the Children want Bran's travels to remain a secret. That's why Coldhands does not contact the Watch, and that's also why the Reeds do not contact them.

I guess a ward means that the Others/wights simply can't enter a place. They cannot bring themselves to go in there.

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

5 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

 I wonder if he had actually ‘risen’ prior to that? I know the eyes had changed, but perhaps he hadn’t yet been ‘active’ and so could be dragged through.

The wight's hand that ghost brought to Jon was black.  Indicating that he had already been risen/reanimated.

Quote

Why are your hands black?"

The ranger studied his hands as if he had never noticed them before. "Once the heart has ceased to beat, a man's blood runs down into his extremities, where it thickens and congeals." His voice rattled in his throat, as thin and gaunt as he was. "His hands and feet swell up and turn as black as pudding. The rest of him becomes as white as milk."

That wight was up and walking around, and laid himself in the snow right near where the Night's Watch say their vows, in order to be found.

 

4 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

The Wall is imbued with magic but in the end it is just a physical barrier, not an impenetrable magical barrier. . . If wights can be carried through the tunnels, they should also be able to walk through them.

If that was the case, Mel could have "carried" her shadow baby in her womb right through the front door of Storms End, or Davos could have "carried" it in a rucksack.  They had to go under the wall to get around the ward.  "Storm's End is an old place. There are spells woven into the stones. Dark walls that no shadow can pass—ancient, forgotten, yet still in place."  It is Wight-repellent.

Also, Sam could have given Coldhands a pigger-back ride through the Black Gate.  Coldhands was a Black Brother and could say the magic words, why wasn't that enough?  Answer: "The Wall is more than just ice and stone, he said. There are spells woven into it . . . old ones, and strong. He cannot pass beyond the Wall."

As for why the wall is so tall, snow drifts during a decades long winter could get pretty dang high.

Quote

The Five Forts are very old, older than the Golden Empire itself; some claim they were raised by the Pearl Emperor during the morning of the Great Empire to keep the Lion of Night and his demons from the realms of men...and indeed, there is something godlike, or demonic, about the monstrous size of the forts, for each of the five is large enough to house ten thousand men, and their massive walls stand almost a thousand feet high.

I am thinking that most of the Wall is this same black stone, built by the same people for the same purpose.  Did they just accidentally build their whole civilization out of fused black dragonstone which is also the only thing that kill Others (besides Valyrian steel?) and is impassible to "shadows"?

The Wall is just covered in a veneer of ice also.  That is why the tunnel zigs and zags, because they knew there was a gate in the wall somewhere, but did not know the exact location, so they tunneled in, and had to go left or right to find the gate.

[Angel Eyes]

On 4/2/2018 at 3:30 PM, Dead headofMaelysKinslayer said:

Which region will suffer most from Winter in The Winds of Winter? North or Riverlands?

The North, hands down. They’re right in the line of fire.

[kissdbyfire]

1 hour ago, By Odin's Beard said:

The wight's hand that ghost brought to Jon was black.  Indicating that he had already been risen/reanimated.

The black hands only seem to indicate that the person in question is dead, as per the quote you provided above. 

1 hour ago, By Odin's Beard said:

That wight was up and walking around, and laid himself in the snow right near where the Night's Watch say their vows, in order to be found.

Well, you can't really state that as fact b/c it's pure speculation. Maybe that's what happened, and then again maybe not. There's no way of knowing for sure w/ the info we have so far. 

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

5 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

The black hands only seem to indicate that the person in question is dead, .

Dead and vertical, otherwise the blood would not pool in the hands and feet.

6 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

Well, you can't really state that as fact b/c it's pure speculation.

There is a difference between speculation and deduction.  The wights were people that were known to the Night's Watch, killed, reanimated (and were walking around, as evidenced by the black hands), and layed down in snow near the grove of Weirwoods where the Night's Watch say their vows (the trees see this), continue to play dead as Ghost pulls one of their hands off, and the next day the watch comes and retrieves the wights (and the wights don't move the whole time, even though they are actively being reanimated) and drag them through the wall, then the wights get up at night and attack Mormont.  I deduce from these strange events that it was a trick.

Some posters claim that wights are simply drawn to warm bodies and attack them mindlessly, why did they not attack the night Ghost found them?  It seems like they were guided to attack Mormont specifically, for maximum antagonization, to cause the "great ranging."