Portrait of a White Walker

[iheartseverus]

I found this close-up screencap of a WW over at the TWoP site--first time I've seen his/its face, up close and personal. (The original cap was dark and vague so I ran it through Photoshop to brighten and enhance, but didn't change any actual features, of course).

Hmmm, blue cat's (snake's?) eyes, no nose, skeletized face, an...ice? beard? Is that hair or some kind of hood on his/its head? My first smart-ass impression--a cross between Bigfoot and Lord Voldemort. A poster over at TWoP also posited that based on the WW we saw in the prologue, they're somewhere between 7 and 8 feet tall.

Your impressions?

http://img.photobuck...ermyenhance.jpg

[Lion of Venice]

Nice find!

My first impression: not even close to what I imagined a White Walker to be like.

Does anyone know if the design of this WW has been decided by GRRM or with his help? Because I always figured the WW to be more fey-like or maybe vampire-like, certanly not some sort of mummified corpse...

Beside that, It's kind of a goofy image, with his mouth open in a strange expression, so maybe seeing them move will be more convincing.

[iheartseverus]

Nice find!

My first impression: not even close to what I imagined a White Walker to be like.

Does anyone know if the design of this WW has been decided by GRRM or with his help? Because I always figured the WW to be more fey-like or maybe vampire-like, certanly not some sort of mummified corpse...

Beside that, It's kind of a goofy image, with his mouth open in a strange expression, so maybe seeing them move will be more convincing.

It is a weird cap, to be sure. That mouth doesn't look like it could move very well, but who knows? And I keep staring at that hair/hood, can't figure out which it is. I think actual hair would be creepier (white hair, of course). I think the most striking feature is the eyes. Not because of the blue so much, but because of the obvious cat? snake? pupil. That says that whatever white walkers are, they are not any version of human, those are animal eyes, not human eyes. Whatever it is. I don't want to meet one this winter in my back yard... :uhoh:

[Asarlai]

I just kind of thought of a large person made of ice. This certainly is interesting, though the skeletal look could cause further confusion with the wights, who are animated dead bodies.

[Ser Warpechowski]

I imagined someone very tall, slim of limbs with very long arms and legs, with a sharp figure and lots of straight lines, made of ice and with a metalic skin somewhat resembling mirrors.

[iheartseverus]

I imagined someone very tall, slim of limbs with very long arms and legs, with a sharp figure and lots of straight lines, made of ice and with a metalic skin somewhat resembling mirrors.

Oh, I like that 'skin made of mirrors!' Probably too reflective to film, though. As for height, whoever did this cap (and gads, how much long and tedious 'rewinding' did it take to capture this split-second image!) also compared this WW's height to Waymar Royce and says that the WW is between 7 and 8 ft tall. Looking at it more closely, I do think that's hair on its head, rather than a hood. There seems to be 'wisps' here and there that we wouldn't expect from a hood.

ETA: Okay, I put it thru Photoshop again to remove the 'greenish' tint that I think is just a result of it being in the shadows in the woods. To me anyway, it somehow looks more..intelligent? this way. Almost laughing, enjoying itself.

http://img.photobuck...ermymoreice.jpg

[Anomandaris86]

White Walkers of the Carribean.

[TheEvilKing]

I always pictured them as white aliens with really cool swords. Although that's probably completely wrong.

[Joomy]

White Walkers of the Carribean.

:lol:

[JWJ78]

I always imagined them looking very close to the wraiths in Stargate Atlantis

[aimlessgun]

Like everyone else, absolutely nothing like what I pictured. It's not white. End of story. I imagined a crystalline being of snow and ice.

However! GRRM obviously knows things we don't. Maybe the walkers are not totally inscrutable killers and we'll actually get to speak with them and stuff, which means they'll need humanish faces that can emote and be played by actors and such.

[Calibandar]

Looks like a generic monster, would not be out of place in the recent slew of zombie films, but not much of a resemblance to the Others' description in the book as I recall.

[Trinket]

Sort of reminds me of the Grinch...

I was imagining them more like a white shade or something reminding of glass or crystal. More icy and surrounded by fog similar to breath when it's cold.

[Lion of Venice]

Maybe the mask isn't complete, being made more for the silhouette we see in the scene. The more I look at it the more I think it isn't finished, the nose and the mouth in particular seem to be just placeholders for more details.

About the eyes... They should be glowing, so chances are we aren't meant to see the pupils at all. On the stream of my "not finished" idea, maybe they are just vertical slits to allow the actor to see trough?

[iheartseverus]

Sort of reminds me of the Grinch...

HA! This!

[jfrenchy]

honestly very surprised that the producers even bothered with this much detail in the costume. maybe as a surprise ending-cliffhanger for the finale? i don't know, the wall front has been all about hurt feelings after the short intro of the season, with the exception of the scary zombie attack, why would these monsters show up out of nowhere i dont know. if anything, this was just some prototype or dummy costume and i wouldn't put much weight into it, if it was real to begin with

the walkers only make an appearance in the prologue/ep1 so far right? going back through the hd videos i can say that there's 2 shots of them running in the woods, one way to short and covered with trees, the 2nd about 5 seconds long where you can see predator shaped faces :stunned: but absolutely no still faced shots

the longest still shot is after the white walker cuts off the head and turns around to face the night watchman (the one who gets executed for desertion) for a whole 2.4 seconds, before the camera jolts away. i don't have the best equipment, plain old PC, so for me all it looked like was some shadowy face in a hood, with 2 greenish glowing eyes ( not blue )

now maybe the pic in the OP is that exact scene, but i'll have to admit that there was some very high quality source video used to photoshop in that amount of details. in any case i don't know how they will turn out in the end, but i sure hope it's not like that, because i kind of agree with the grinch assessment :laugh: not so scary

[iheartseverus]

honestly very surprised that the producers even bothered with this much detail in the costume. maybe as a surprise ending-cliffhanger for the finale? i don't know, the wall front has been all about hurt feelings after the short intro of the season, with the exception of the scary zombie attack, why would these monsters show up out of nowhere i dont know. if anything, this was just some prototype or dummy costume and i wouldn't put much weight into it, if it was real to begin with

the walkers only make an appearance in the prologue/ep1 so far right? going back through the hd videos i can say that there's 2 shots of them running in the woods, one way to short and covered with trees, the 2nd about 5 seconds long where you can see predator shaped faces :stunned: but absolutely no still faced shots

the longest still shot is after the white walker cuts off the head and turns around to face the night watchman (the one who gets executed for desertion) for a whole 2.4 seconds, before the camera jolts away. i don't have the best equipment, plain old PC, so for me all it looked like was some shadowy face in a hood, with 2 greenish glowing eyes ( not blue )

now maybe the pic in the OP is that exact scene, but i'll have to admit that there was some very high quality source video used to photoshop in that amount of details. in any case i don't know how they will turn out in the end, but i sure hope it's not like that, because i kind of agree with the grinch assessment :laugh: not so scary

So, basically, you're claiming the screencap is a fake? And the member who spent forever to capture this split-second cap just made it all up? I suppose, then, if I brought you all the other screencaps this member has shared, you'd declare them to be fakes as well? As to 'very high quality ...used to photoshop in that amount of detail' I assure you that the Photoshopping was mine. And all I did was use contrast, saturation, etc. to bring in the cap clearer, not to add in or change any details whatsoever.

[jfrenchy]

So, basically, you're claiming the screencap is a fake? And the member who spent forever to capture this split-second cap just made it all up? I suppose, then, if I brought you all the other screencaps this member has shared, you'd declare them to be fakes as well? As to 'very high quality ...used to photoshop in that amount of detail' I assure you that the Photoshopping was mine. And all I did was use contrast, saturation, etc. to bring in the cap clearer, not to add in or change any details whatsoever.

not claiming just pointing out a distinct possibility, especially seeing it from my side

no, if you'd post a link with the collection of images whomever / wherever this was posted i wouldn't say 'fake!' either, i'd love to see them to be honest

and to clarify:

if anything, this was just some prototype or dummy costume and i wouldn't put much weight into it, if it was real to begin with

in other words, the producers never intended for 'that' look to be the final look of the monster. just something their extras, or whatever you call people that run around being monsters, could put in with some 'semblance' at least in physical shape, contrast and shadows considering, of some closeness to what their final product will be. and yes, if it was real to begin with. regardless of that, i don't believe white walkers are going to show up in the last segment of the finale so i think that by next season there will be much better costumes

but i'll have to admit that there was some very high quality source video used to photoshop in that amount of details.

very high quality source video that someone captured. either it be through equipment or some special source i don't know. for example, here's a screenshot of the scene i'm talking about captured from hbo HD broadcast to dvr and to my pc, cropped as is with Gimp:

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/4362/goty.th.jpg

don't matter how much i can zoom in there, never will i get even close to anything as seen in the pic you posted, impossible. the lines, the color.. heck look at the original pic, you can see the iris! then compare it to the shot i put up here. so, just like i wrote, yes i have to admit that the video source where the picture was taken from had to have been of some extremely high quality, if that is even possible, especially after juxtaposing both shots (assuming these are the same relative shots), and then trying to figure out how much detail can be gained.

i think my scepticism of the validity of the OP is well deserved given what i've viewed prior to this post, and what I have on hand to compare with, and i tried my best to originally not scream out fake to begin with, i think i'm starting to convince myself someone just put a pic of some monster and posted it online for all TWoP to wonder at

ETA: ignore all this. the OP's shot is plainly visible much earlier than the pics showed here. straight from the show

[Kaitscralt]

While it's not my place to say whether it's fake or not, it definitely wasn't lifted from the picture linked in the post above me. You can't get this sort of detail out of that image, and the tilt of the head isn't even correct.

Now if it was a picture leaked from GOT people then that is different. All in all I don't believe this is the intended depiction of a white walker by the producers.

[AquariumDrinker]

Here is an unaltered screencap I got using fraps on the very low quality sneak peak on the EW website before the series aired. I can see that original pic being real, possibly enhanced, though.

http://s1176.photobucket.com/albums/x338/Aquarium_Drinker/?action=view&current=other2.jpg

**edited to add**

I bet the first shots are just placeholders until more budget can be put towards a proper white walker. Look at the improvement in the Hounds appearance after the pilot, for example.