[Book Spoilers] Why didn't the WW kill Sam?

[johhny-turbo]

The only issue with the dragonglass theory (which I think is currently the most plausible) is that I don't think wights are vulnerable to dragonglass so unless they changed that in the show or something there'd be no reason for the wights to not go after him.

[Ser_not_appearing_yet]

Maybe they aren't too bright? Or maybe they do kill Sam.

It did make for a cool visual, but I agree its sloppy writing.

[Lord of Cheese]

I imagine the NW will run out to meet the walkers and be distracted from Sam. Then have a battle, bunch of ppl die, Sam kills a WW and we are done. i guess. He seems awful surrounded at the moment...

[Ser Dermett Corbray]

I imagine the NW will run out to meet the walkers and be distracted from Sam. Then have a battle, bunch of ppl die, Sam kills a WW and we are done. i guess. He seems awful surrounded at the moment...

Yeah that's perhaps one way of doing it. Although that kinda defeats the purpose of fortifying yerself on the Fist. As I said in another thread though, the Fist as it is depicted doesn't really have an escape route. It's a sheer drop down the cliff. If they get assaulted by the wights and the WW from one side, they're pretty much fucked. Cornered.

[Jaimeisnotazombie]

It didnt kill Sam because he is important, that is all. they should of had a no name with him so, he no name could be killed, just to show the Other in action

[redriver]

Perhaps the scene isn't over yet.The Other is directing the Wights to attack the FOTFM,it would appear.

Maybe that's their primary objective,as opposed to killing Sam.

And perhaps when the scene continues next season,the Other will attack Sam and get the obsidian treatment,just like in the books.

It hasn't actually gone anywhere,neither has Sam.

A bit crackpot,I know.But just throwing it out there.....

[_fr]

For a moment after the scene where Sam looked at the Other, I thought they were going to get Sam jump and stab it with his dragonglass that he found earlier in the previous episode.

I'm curious on how they're gonna spinned this one so that Sam can make it out alive.

[Veriun]

(Sorry if this has been posted before, I didn't see anything, but then again...) Unless there was a mistake in the shots/editing, the White Walker didn't actually see Sam. When the camera pans backwards to show the zombie army, the White Walker isn't anywhere near the boulder; at the very least, unless it can see through stone, it couldn't have seen Sam from the angle it was implied that it was watching him from. Perhaps it sensed either Sam's presence or the dragonglass, and that's why it turned its head, and Sam was just being generally nervous about the whole "there are dead people a foot away from me" business. The way the scene was shot just strongly implied that they looked at each other.

I like it better than "WW doesn't give a fudge about Sam because plot armor", at the very least.

[Darth Pipes]

TV contrivances kept Sam alive.

How low is the White Walkers opinion of Sam if they take Craster's inbred infants but skip him? Or better yet say "We'll get to you later, fat ass."

That questionable scene aside, I for once enjoyed the final season. It was a great money shot to end the season on. As for whether we'll see the actual battle, I doubt it. We might get glimpses (probably almost all on the NW's side) but otherwise, I wouldn't expect much until Sam killed the WW. Though I would love to see and UnBear!

[sarah.jenice]

My point is, the Other didn't attack first, and we will never know if he would have. They haven't been overly aggressive or anything, only the wights have.

I'm sorry, but I just can't agree with this. With that rationale, don't you need to take into consideration who is controlling the wights? Do the Others just reanimate the wights and they just so happen to hunt down and kill people, but that's not what the non-agressive Others intended them to do? Maybe they should stop making wights if they're out of control and killing innocent people.

I don't know how accurate Old Nan's stories were, but she tells Bran that during the Long Night, the Others killed everything with hot blood in its veins. Maybe they do have motives or reasons for it like any of the armies in Westeros have for killing their enemies, but I don't see them as leaving anyone alone who doesn't try to fight them when they've reanimated thousands of dead bodies that are killing people without discretion - like Bran, Hodor, Meera and Jojen who are all attacked with Bran especially not being able to fight back. And for some reason, as Gilly tells Sam, they can smell/sense new life and that's why they come after her baby. Is that just a decision that the wights make or an order from their creators.

Basically, my point is that if the Others truly don't want living beings dead, they wouldn't be making wights who we've never seen let an innocent person go free.

On the prologue of A Game of Thrones, you are correct that Ser Waymar has his blade drawn, but he is obviously frightened and he tells the Other to stay where it is and from the way it reads, the Other walks up with a sword drawn so it doesn't seem like Ser Waymar has a choice. For everyone who does not remember the book clearly, below is an excerpt of the first time we see Others.

A Game of Thrones - Page 7

Down below, the lordling called out suddenly, "Who goes there?" Will heard uncertainty in the challenge. He stopped climbing; he listened; he watched. The woods gave answer: the rustle of leaves, the icy rush of the stream a distant hoot of a snowy owl. The Others made no sound. Will saw movement from the corner of his eye. Pale shapes gliding through the wood. [description of the woods]

"Will, where are you?" Ser Waymar called up. "Can you see anything?" He was turning in a slow circle, suddenly wary, his sword in his hand. He must have felt them, as Will felt them. There was nothing to see. "Answer me! Why is it so cold?"

A shadow emerged from the dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce. Tall, it was, gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh as pale as milk. [description of its armor] Will heard the breath come out of Ser Waymar Royce in a long hiss. "Come no farther," the lordling warned. His voice cracked like a boy's. He threw the long sable cloak over his shoulders, to free his arms for battle, and took his sword in both hands. The wind had stopped. It was very cold.

The Other slid forward on silent feet. In its hand was a longsword like Will had never seen. No human metal had gone into the forging of that blade. It was alive with moonlight, translucent, a shard of crystal so thin that it seemed to almost vanish when seen edge-on. There was a faint blue shimmer to the thing, a ghost light that played around its edges, and somehow, Will knew it was sharper than any razor.

Ser Waymar met him bravely. "Dance with me then." He lifted his sword high over his head, defiant. His hands trembled from the weight of it, or perhaps from the cold. Yet in that moment, Will thought, he was a boy no longer, but a man of the Night's Watch. The Other halted. Will saw its eyes; blue, deeper and bluer than any human eyes, blue that burned like ice. They fixed on the longsword trembling on high, watched the moonlight running cold along the metal. For a heartbeat, he dared hope. They emerged silently from the shadows, twins to the first. Three of them...four...five...Ser Waymar may have felt the cold that came with them, but he never saw them, never heard them.

The pale sword came shivering through the air. Ser Waymar met it with steel. When the blades met, there was no ring of metal on metal; only a high, thin sound at the edge of hearing, like an animal screaming in pain. Royce checked a second blow and a third, then fell back a step. Another fury of blows, and he fell back again. Behind him, to right, to left, all around him, the watchers stood patient, faceless, silent, the shifting patterns of their delicate armor making them all but invisible in the wood. Yet they made no move to interfere. Again and again their swords met, until Will wanted to cover his ears against the strange anguished keening of their clash. Ser Waymar was panting from the effort now, his breath steaming in the moonlight. His blade was white with frost; the Other's danced with pale blue light.

Then Royce's parry came a beat too late. The pale sword bit through the ringmail beneath his arm. The young lord cried out in pain. Blood welled between the rings. It steamed in the cold, and the droplets seemed red as fire where they touched the snow. Ser Waymar's fingers brushed his side. His moleskin glove came away soaked with red. The Other said something in a language Will did not know; his voice was like the cracking of ice on a winter lake, and the words were mocking. Ser Waymar Royce found his fury. "For Robert!" he shouted, and came up snarling, lifting the frost covered longsword with both hands and swinging it around in a flat sidearm slash with all his weight behind it. The Other's parry was almost lazy. When the blades touched, the steel shattered.

A scream echoed through the forest night, and the longsword shivered into a hundred brittle pieces, the shards scattering like a rain of needles. Royce went to his knees, shrieking and covered his eyes. Blood welled between his fingers. The watchers moved forward together, as if some signal had been given. Swords rose and fell, all in a deathly silence. It was cold butchery. The pale blades sliced through ringmail as if it was silk. Will closed his eyes. Far beneath him, he heard their voices and laughter sharp as icicles.

[Harrad]

Maybe someone in this thread will answer the question: what beheaded the Night Watch squad leader in Series 1, episode 1? The reason Sam survived the WW is that he appears in all the other books to date.

[Silent Assassin]

Maybe someone in this thread will answer the question: what beheaded the Night Watch squad leader in Series 1, episode 1? The reason Sam survived the WW is that he appears in all the other books to date.

I don't think that be a good answer, because they have to explain how Sam escape from them, in the books he fight against one WW just alone, in the TV show he can't fight right now against all of them

[daimonionen]

Maybe the WW have personalities.

Some (many, probably) would just kill Sam then and there, but this particular guy chose not to, because he thought Sam too pathetic to be worth it. Then, when he's all like "Ataaaack!" the whights might be too focused on the goal ahead to pay any attention to him. And he IS halfway hiding behind that rock.

[Thunderfist]

Sam probably pissed himself, and the WW just thought "damn that´s nasty, let´s just keep on walking"

[Andrés Garcia]

The scene ends before we see them leave Sam alone, so why are we assuming they leave him alone?

Watch the scene again closely. The camera travels back as it reveals a crowd of Others slowly moving forwards, but the White Walker who actually found Sam isn't moving; he's standing still right next to the rock that Sam was hiding behind. I'm not saying the writers didn't screw up, but there's no reason to think they did quite yet. Next season we might find out that the White Walker did approach Sam and that he then slayed it with his dragon glass dagger, becoming Sam the Slayer.

How does he escape the rest of them? I don't know, let's wait and see. That's why they call it a cliffhanger.

[Whorehammer]

I agree, if you keep watching Sam was actually further ahead. The Others were walking toward him.

[Harrad]

The real reason the WW (if thats what it was--hmmm--it wasnt walking) was to anticipate this thread.

[HouseLark]

OK, rather than go for the dragonglass/garlic/kryptonite theory I had another thought. Assume for a minute that the White Walkers are intelligent and not just mindless killing machines. In the two White Walker attacks that we've seen so far they have left a person alive despite clearly having the opportunity to kill them. Both times it has been a rather craven person that they have left alive.

My theory is that the White Walkers are leaving these people alive almost as heralds; they are allowed to live so that they can spread tales that will instil fear in the people of Westeros. It's something that happens a lot in war: someone is often left alive to bear witness to the power of an enemy. It's an intimidation tactic that can scatter and demoralise enemies before a bullet is fired or, in this case, a sword is sung. The Walkers each time may have left alive the most obviously craven individual as these pose no threat to the Walkers.

[Eliaskar]

I also noticed how the cold came when the WW's came in the Episode, whereas it's not sure in the books if the Other's come when there's cold or if the cold comes when they come.

[Horus Ex Machina]

This was my biggest gripe about the finale. It really killed off any awesomeness the ending had. Sam just sitting there surrounded by wights and White Walkers, and having them look at him and then just scream and keep marching? Totally lame.

I actually just think it was poor direction. Sam is behind a boulder and they make it look like they're side by side, but when you see the screen pan out, they're back on the other side of that boulder. I don't think they've actually seen him though they make it appear that they have. Poor direction. I would have been happier if they'd have ended the episode and the season with the hazy images that we get right after panning up from Sam panting behind the rock but I guess they wanted one massive CGI shot to echo last season's finale.

Personally I think the anticipation would have been much more enticing.