Am I missing Something about the Great Other?

[FittleLinger]

What do you call Bran looking through the eyes of the weirwood trees? He my not be as infallable and "god-like" as what we would normally think of as a god, but it seems to me Bran and Bloodraven are the old gods that the North worships.

That's precisely what shows us that gods are not what people think they are.

Well, I think we can all agree that the Others are intelligent beings. And someone must be commanding their legions.

Howcome there "must be"? Who is commanding the legions of intelligent humans? Which god?

The god of wine and teats I must presume.

[Sir Noone Sword Of The Day]

I've always had the feeling that GRRM is trying to show us that the masses will believe what they want to believe...."power resides...ya-ya"....but in the end there really is no one true religion. And people will base their interpretation of "God(s)" the way they want to believe it, whether its a force of all good, all bad, and/or all powerful.

I think the red comet was GRRM's way of foreshadowing the whole question of religion in Westeros (North and South) and the Free cities and that it can be interpreted any number of ways. One person's "Great Other" is another person's "Stranger" - it doesn't necessarily manifests itself in an actual physical/magical being.

Religion has always been just that, it gives people an outlet for hope in a grim and sometimes harsh world.

^^ I think I'm on board with this as well

[The Mother of The Others]

Yeah the Great Other talk from Mel isn't on target. In the same breath (?) she also labels Bran and Raven as Great Other candidates. Her confusion has led the Heresy topic to follow her down a confused path. I'm not expecting a great other to appear as a plot point. If we don't know anything about them (Mel included), how can we just assume they'd have an all-important queen bee?

[thetitansbastard]

Who is commanding the legions of intelligent humans? Which god?

Obviously you think none. We're all impressed.

[FittleLinger]

Obviously you think none. We're all impressed.

The sentence I quoted clearly stated that the Others are receiving military orders from a god. Whereas humans receive military orders from humans.

My issue was that "legions" and "deity" are connected with a "must".

This was not the correct place for "Bash the atheist".

[Reek Da Villain]

That's precisely what shows us that gods are not what people think they are.

Howcome there "must be"? Who is commanding the legions of intelligent humans? Which god?

The god of wine and teats I must presume.

How come there "must be"? Because it would explain why they are operating strategically rather than just outright marching on Westeros. There is no army that doesn't have a commander. I never said anything about a god.

[FittleLinger]

How come there "must be"? Because it would explain why they are operating strategically rather than just outright marching on Westeros. There is no army that doesn't have a commander. I never said anything about a god.

Aren't we talking about the Great Other - the opposition of R'hlorr, who is a deity? That was precisely my point - that either he doesn't exist, or is not the "Chief of the Others".

And anyway, the Others command armies of undead - I think they are the generals and I am not so sure they have someone commanding them...