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Will the Wall Fall?


drayrock

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From a GRRM interview about historical parallels:


http://io9.com/10-sources-that-george-r-r-martin-borrowed-from-for-ic-511679817



"Well, some of it will be revealed later so I won't talk about that aspect of it, but certainly the Wall comes from Hadrian's Wall, which I saw while visiting Scotland. I stood on Hadrian's Wall and tried to imagine what it would be like to be a Roman soldier sent here from Italy or Antioch. To stand here, to gaze off into the distance, not knowing what might emerge from the forest. Of course fantasy is the stuff of bright colors and being larger than real life, so my Wall is bigger and considerably longer and more magical. And, of course, what lies beyond it has to be more than just Scots."



I could be wrong, but I took this to mean something else will happen to/at the wall. I began thinking of examples of walls falling and I couldn't think of it. Then my friend mentioned the Wall of Jericho. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_of_Jericho). Something that stands out to me is that it took 7 days for the Wall of Jericho to be knocked down. This could maybe be the historical parallel GRRM was hinting at, which would certainly mean the wall is coming down.

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The seasons are always screwed up...what do you mean.

The screwing up of the seasons according to GRRM has a magical cause.

The Wall was built and is maintained by old magic.

As to how it will fall, I rather favour the idea of something like the demise of Ser Puddles in the HBO version. The Wall is maintained by magic. When that magic is destroyed whether by a magic horn or anything else I envisage it dissolving into a great mass of ice crystals blowing away in the wind, rather than actually toppling over or melting.

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Black Crow, on 31 Dec 2013 - 6:24 PM, said:

As to how it will fall, I rather favour the idea of something like the demise of Ser Puddles in the HBO version. The Wall is maintained by magic. When that magic is destroyed whether by a magic horn or anything else I envisage it dissolving into a great mass of ice crystals blowing away in the wind, rather than actually toppling over or melting.

That would be really cool.

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I hope it will - for it's necessary for Others to become a serious threat.



As of now, Others are presented and magical and super-vile villains, but they haven't really achieved anything impressive so far. For their story to be interesting, Others need to up their game - and bringing the Wall down is good way to do that.


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The screwing up of the seasons according to GRRM has a magical cause.

The Wall was built and is maintained by old magic.

As to how it will fall, I rather favour the idea of something like the demise of Ser Puddles in the HBO version. The Wall is maintained by magic. When that magic is destroyed whether by a magic horn or anything else I envisage it dissolving into a great mass of ice crystals blowing away in the wind, rather than actually toppling over or melting.

that would be so anticlimactic. Seriously. The wall fading into tinkerbell dust... come on. Crashing down is the only way.

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Right when I read, "Oh there is a big wall keeping bad things away?" I was like, dis shit gonna break. I am a firm believer the wall is coming down. I think most are.

Will the wall fall (and I mean literally come down not like, be taken over by someone else) and if so what book and in what fashion do you surmise?

hahaa one of the best opening sentences of any topic, ever. Cheers!

And yes, I think it will. Horn of Joramun. Samwell Tarly of HORN HILL will have the honors.

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I think not only the Wall but the Night's Watch itself will fall (not necessarily in that order). If the Others are not able to pass through for supernatural reasons, then they are little threat to the kneelers south of the Wall. So a war of fire and ice (which we are clearly moving towards) could only happen if the Wall fell, along with the "watchers who wake the sleepers, the shields that guard the realms of men," etc. And GRRM has established that the wall COULD be brought down (horn of Joramun). The children of the forest used the "hammer" that severed the arm of Dorne and created the Stepstones... there have been precedents for such a phenomenon.


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There's not enough time left for the wall to break, so they sort of have to contain things up there. Yet at the same time, that wall better break, or else what the hell! Reams and Reams of paper have been devoted to outlining how paper-thin the Wall's protection has become, how ready it is to be breached. Leaving it intact would leave us with ice-blue wall balls. Also, left-leaning writers are under great peer pressure to show that such barriers are wrongly conceived because of the whole Mexico border thing so desperately needing to remain unwalled. If he shows his wall being proper and the best course of action for Westeros, then he'd be running the risk of having real world humans develop Wall Envy, and he wouldn't want to be responsible for putting such thoughts in their heads as "Hey, Westeros gets a big wall, why don't we?" So I'm predicting a tectonic shift in the powers that be---the wall will no longer be necessary at the close because all the species will have finally gotten a chance to "interact" and work out their issues, which will bring the ancient history to light and then the healing begins??? Or the melting ??? (if the Others just get the crap burnt out of them, including their sire, after which all the sired wights' and walkers' heads explode, ending the long term problem.) (Is it seriously an option that nothing will be resolved at the end, and the 1000th Lord Commander will take over and say "Gee, I hope we can keep these Others away, because things are always going to be like this!" The End ????? A pisser that would be.)


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:bawl: :bawl: :bawl:

I think the NW no longer being true will cause the blood magic built into the wall to fail. Then the Others will be able to breach it. After all, they like the cold. It isn't the ice that is keeping them out.

I agree with this. And the Horn acts as a trigger to break the final ward.

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:bawl: :bawl: :bawl:

I think the NW no longer being true will cause the blood magic built into the wall to fail. Then the Others will be able to breach it. After all, they like the cold. It isn't the ice that is keeping them out.

I like the cut of your jib and wish to subscribe to your newsletter

The Wall is no barrier at all without men to man it. After all the Free Folk cross at the unoccupied portions all the time. There's magic in The Oath that all men of The Watch take; it's what keeps Coldhands from passing (or perhaps more rightly, whatever consciousness is operating Coldhands cannot move the body through the portal because of it. We'll still have to see what's going on with him). Why is The Night's King's very name struck from record? Because he is The Ultimate Traitor, too horrible to name. Why? Because he married an Other. Clearly she could get up and down and on The Wall just fine if The Watch, either an individual member or the organization as a whole, let her come in.

If and when The Watch ceases to function as an organization -- and that's happening right now as Jon gets fragged -- The Others can go wherever they damn well please. THEY are the shield that guards the realms of men, the wall is just a tool to that end.

Bowen Marsh has just Completely Fucked EVERYONE.

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The Wall is definitely on the verge of collapsing, either physically or metaphorically, and the Night 's Watch will be no more. I think Jon will play a role in bringing it down.



I had started to get into detail about why I thought so, but it ended up being much longer than I intended so I made my own topic here, if anyone is interested.


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Bowen Marsh has just Completely Fucked EVERYONE.

gg, Marsh. I hope you get eaten alive by wights. But seriously, i agree with the rest of your post about the Watch themselves being the true ward on the Wall. I actually do think that the Horn is what shatters the wards underneat the Wall, if they still even hold after the Watch collapses.

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