The Wheel is still unbroken at the Wall

[Angel Eyes]

The Night’s Watch’s purpose was to shield the realm against the White Walkers and the wights. Problem is, the White Walkers are gone (again) and the Wall is destroyed. So things are going to devolve again into how things were at the beginning of the story of the Night’s Watch being undermanned, bereft of supplies, unable to man the castles. 

[RYShh]

Tyrion: “The world will always need a home for bastards and broken men”.

[It_spelt_Magalhaes]

Penal colony. 

The beauty of it was the Southron lords shitting on the Northern traditions by manning their Shield to Protect the Realms of Man with rapers, murderers and thieves.

Imo, any magic of protection it was built with would've wilted like hydrangeas in 50 degrees centigrade.

Ah, love thy neighbour. Respect your fellow man.

At least now it's just a penal colony.

[Angel Eyes]

On 5/26/2019 at 11:21 AM, It_spelt_Magalhaes said:

Penal colony. 

The beauty of it was the Southron lords shitting on the Northern traditions by manning their Shield to Protect the Realms of Man with rapers, murderers and thieves.

Imo, any magic of protection it was built with would've wilted like hydrangeas in 50 degrees centigrade.

Ah, love thy neighbour. Respect your fellow man.

At least now it's just a penal colony.

This makes it no better than it was before. There is no beauty in it.

[Sarah Michelle Gellar]

Someone has to keep the Mole’s Town brothel humming along.

[It_spelt_Magalhaes]

6 hours ago, Angel Eyes said:

This makes it no better than it was before. There is no beauty in it.

Exactly. The North might have, in days past, considered the Wall a sacred duty, a valorous sacrifice to guard the Realms at the expense of an individual's future. 

All we saw in present day were, maybe, Jon's naive notions, his uncle's grief and dutifulness and poor old Maester Aemon who took himself out of the game of thrones.

If all the Wall is for is a 'place for broken men and cripples' (or whatever Tyrion said) at least now it's openly such.

Not a device built for protection against a supernatural threat, manned with the scourge of the Seven Kingdoms and turned into a border fence against the wildlings.

[CrypticWeirwood]

3 hours ago, It_spelt_Magalhaes said:

Exactly. The North might have, in days past, considered the Wall a sacred duty, a valorous sacrifice to guard the Realms at the expense of an individual's future. 

All we saw in present day were, maybe, Jon's naive notions, his uncle's grief and dutifulness and poor old Maester Aemon who took himself out of the game of thrones.

I'm assuming you're referring to Benjen when you mention Jon’s uncle, not to Ned, right?

It's probably worth noting that Maester Aemon was also Jon’s uncle, just “many generations removed” so to speak, making him his many-times-great uncle. (Just how many greats depends on whether you follow the family structure from the books or the shorter one from the show.) Maester Aemon was also full of “grief and dutifulness”, and conveyed these “avuncular” lessons to Jon.

And while it didn't come out in the show, Bloodraven was half-brother to Maester Aemon's own grandfather, Daeron II. So Bloodraven was also related to Jon, but not to Bran whom he mentored.

It reminds me of the monarchies of Europe, where it sometimes seems that everyone is related to everyone else if you trace it back far enough. Heck, even Bilbo and Frodo and Merry and Pippin (but not Sam) were all related to each other.

[It_spelt_Magalhaes]

16 minutes ago, CrypticWeirwood said:

I'm assuming you're referring to Benjen when you mention Jon’s uncle, not to Ned, right?

It's probably worth noting that Maester Aemon was also Jon’s uncle, just “many generations removed” so to speak, making him his many-times-great uncle. (Just how many greats depends on whether you follow the family structure from the books or the shorter one from the show.) Maester Aemon was also full of “grief and dutifulness”, and conveyed these “avuncular” lessons to Jon.

And while it didn't come out in the show, Bloodraven was half-brother to Maester Aemon's own grandfather, Daeron II. So Bloodraven was also related to Jon, but not to Bran whom he mentored.

It reminds me of the monarchies of Europe, where it sometimes seems that everyone is related to everyone else if you trace it back far enough. Heck, even Bilbo and Frodo and Merry and Pippin (but not Sam) were all related to each other.

Yes, I meant Benjen. We don't see Jon's identity changing from Ned's son, bastard at that. Even if his siblings - yes, not cousins as he never changes his way of addressing them or the closeness between them - accept him as a Stark, he is, and ends the story we're shown, as Jon Snow.

I did have a weird thought a few threads back. A family of Westerosi nobility, Targaryens to worsen the reaction, sitting down for tea with Bilbo's extended family. In an innocent setting, the thought of Bilbo fixating on some apparently trivial practicality that would unconver a social cornerstone of the Dragons while dear Lobelia turned puce at the scandalousness of their family pratices? The tumular silence of disapproval from the Bagginses and the adventurous excitabilty of the Tooks?

[Haskelltier]

On 5/26/2019 at 1:25 PM, Angel Eyes said:

So things are going to devolve again into how things were at the beginning of the story of the Night’s Watch being undermanned, bereft of supplies, unable to man the castles. 

That is one possibility. Or the meeting of Wildings and northern people and the joint fight against the White Walkers could lead to a peaceful alliance, with regular trade where the wall is/was and a regular exchange of culture, people and so on. That could lead to a long, peaceful future between the Free Folk and the North. That is definitely a possibility. In the books you can see this more prominent, because Jon tried connecting Wildlings and Northmen by marriage between lords and moderate leaders of the Wildlings. Even Stannis wanted a future Lord of Winterfell with Val as his wife to secure the loyality of the Free Folk.

[Rose of Red Lake]

Even though I believe prison labor is unethical, I think they should at least be using those prisoners to rebuild Westeros, not defend a Wall in the frozen North that serves no purpose. Westeros needs a Civilian Conservation Corps and the NW is just the institution to transform into one.

[Jaghen]

For all we know Jon travels to the land of Always Winter, comes back with a bride with blue eyes and pale skin and decides to take residence in the Night Fort... There was a long night before, no one really knows how it ended, who is to say it did not end exactly as this one ? And thus, who can claim there won't be another one ?