Jon Snow's hostages

[Light a wight tonight]

The Wulls, Liddles, etc. were loyal to Ned. They may have had to give hostages in previous generations, but IIRC they didn't need to send any hostages to Ned. Even after his death, they respected him enough to try and save his daughter.

Also, we must remember that killing the children isn't the only way to enforce good behavior from the Wildlings, of course.

You're missing my point. They are known to be loyal so they don't have to send hostages, but they know that their ancestors did and they expect it to be required of people whose loyalty is suspect. This describes the Wildlings very precisely. The old Kings in the North would execute those hostages and the Wulls, etc, expect that the Wildling hostages would get the same treatment for similar infractions.

[RK Rajagopal]

You're missing my point. They are known to be loyal so they don't have to send hostages, but they know that their ancestors did and they expect it to be required of people whose loyalty is suspect. This describes the Wildlings very precisely. The old Kings in the North would execute those hostages and the Wulls, etc, expect that the Wildling hostages would get the same treatment for similar infractions.

Yes, they would expect the same treatment from Jon, which is why I said they would lose respect for him if he doesn't carry out his threat.But I don't think that if he doesn't kill the children, all hope of the Wildling peace is lost. For example, he could have killed the offending Wildlings, and presumably still maintained the peace.