Why did the wights attack en masse only at The Fist

[Yakman]

Could the Fist have been a fortress of the First Men during an early war against the Children of the Forest? If so, then this ancient hostility could easily have aroused Ghost's suspicions. Or it could just be that Ghost had a premonition and didn't want to be a Wight Wolf, oh my puns.

It may well be that the Last Hero's true role was to mend fences with the Children, who then armed and taught the Night's Watch.

[Florina Laufeyson]

Could the Fist have been a fortress of the First Men during an early war against the Children of the Forest? If so, then this ancient hostility could easily have aroused Ghost's suspicions. Or it could just be that Ghost had a premonition and didn't want to be a Wight Wolf, oh my puns.

It may well be that the Last Hero's true role was to mend fences with the Children, who then armed and taught the Night's Watch.

See bumps' post again. A ringfort isnt an actual fort in the conventional sense.

[~No One~]

Isn't there something about how the White Walkers can't pass while the NW stay true? (Unless I'm making that up from somewhere) Maybe their strategy was to kill the LC? Seems to me that their big plan right now is to find a way to pass the Wall. I'm guessing they've not got the memo about Jon's little predicament...

[Yakman]

See bumps' post again. A ringfort isnt an actual fort in the conventional sense.

It's also been abandoned for thousands of years.

[Mulled Wino]

It was an old ringfort of the First Men... maybe it had many more stashes of obsidian weapons buried there than the one Sam found, and the Others wanted to stop the Night's Watch from discovering them?

But the simplest explanation is that they just saw an easy way of destroying most of the Watch's best troops in a single go.

sam didnt find them. You are disqualified

[Mulled Wino]

I do think there's something specific about the Fist itself, but the fact that the men were closely stationed for a prime attack en masse is a good explanation for why it happened the way it did.

First, Ghost behaves very strangely when he gets to the Fist. Ghost is always calm around wights, whereas other animals flip out around them. The opposite seems to happen at the Fist; Jon first tries 3 times to get Ghost to walk up, and all three times Ghost won't come. Ghost comes in a 4th time and gets into the Ringfort and starts going crazy and leaves again. Ghost comes into the Ringfort finally to summon Jon to the stash of dragonglass, but again, Ghost is not shown to stay. I think there's something curious about the place that Ghost senses (some of the ravens do as well, but not the other animals). Some have suggested simply that Ghost was sensing the impending danger of the wight attack, but I disagree somewhat; the direwolves do not separate themselves from their partners when they sense danger, but try to stay near their familiar. Ghost's behavior might suggest that there's something more to the Fist itself.

I think the Ringfort is interesting. Ringforts aren't fortresses or tall walls; they are passive defense systems. They're circular enclosures to delimit cities/ dwelling circles inside. Jon thinks of the Ringfort as a historical battle ground, and there may well have been battles fought there, but a ringfort itself is a seat of political power. The wall itself was a passive defense system to hinder easy theft of livestock and the like from the outside. My guess is that the Fist was some sort of a city with a king in the past that came to some tragic end. So I think it might be an ancient city that suffered some sort of terrible tragedy (I speculate that it involved ice magic/ becoming Others, but this is really crackpot and not a necessary conclusion to the notion that something wiped out this ancient city that might still be percolating there). The other thing I've considered is that it could be a necropolis, like a series of barrows delimiting a city of the dead, which could hold special power as well (as we know, "the bones remember").

first off, im not scared to admit that, as a 40ish yr old father of three business owner, I am actually ecstatic to read your posts BB. Ugh. Im a fanboy and im deleting this post in 24 hrs.

theres clearly something more than impending danger that ghost senses imo. The CB crows are there for a long time before danger approaches them and the forest becomes empty while they are there, yet the ravens dont seem to make more of a rukus than before. Ghost is gone so we dont know his reaction. Im looking for a connection between the possible old school sort of "capital" of the first men and the danger the nw are in.

[mindchap]

Mance and Craster works for them so they could only attack Black Brothers, and that's where they happened to be.

[Not Dead Just Broken]

Could the horn (the "broken" one that Sam's carrying with him) have been the target of their attack? It's clearly important possibly even The Horn of Joramun.

[Mulled Wino]

The horn is very interesting as a motive I agree

[Florina Laufeyson]

Could the horn (the "broken" one that Sam's carrying with him) have been the target of their attack? It's clearly important possibly even The Horn of Joramun.

This is possible, if the Others

1. Thought Mance had the Horn but realized he didnt and it was all bullshit.

2. Knew the Horn was buried there all along.

3. Realized it when Sam nabbed the thing.

....Maybe thats what Puddles was after? Ohhhhhh snap. Crackpot time!

[Mulled Wino]

This is possible, if the Others

1. Thought Mance had the Horn but realized he didnt and it was all bullshit.

2. Knew the Horn was buried there all along.

3. Realized it when Sam nabbed the thing.

....Maybe thats what Puddles was after? Ohhhhhh snap. Crackpot time!

bam! I'm gonna have to research

[Florina Laufeyson]

I think this should retitled "Motives of the Others" but yeah. My new pet crackpot is Puddles was sent to get dat Horn.

[Muggle]

why cant the white walkers freeze the bay of seals and cross there ignoring the wall ?

[mindchap]

I think this should retitled "Motives of the Others" but yeah. My new pet crackpot is Puddles was sent to get dat Horn.

I didn't think Sam got the horn until Jon gave it to him when he left with Aemon and Gilly?

[King Aerys the Just]

sam didnt find them. You are disqualified

Blah, blah, same thing.

I think this should retitled "Motives of the Others" but yeah. My new pet crackpot is Puddles was sent to get dat Horn.

That's an interesting idea.

why cant the white walkers freeze the bay of seals and cross there ignoring the wall ?

Because then the entire Night's Watch and the Wall would have been completely pointless ever since their beginning thousands of years ago, and Bran the Builder would have been the biggest fool and ice waster in the world. That would be too strange from a storytelling perspective at this point.

Most likely the Wall is some sort of magical barrier against the Others as well as a physical one.

[Mulled Wino]

I think this should retitled "Motives of the Others" but yeah. My new pet crackpot is Puddles was sent to get dat Horn.

puddles was benjen looking for his care package he left by the fist. All his people (wights) we looking too

[Jory Cassel]

I didn't think Sam got the horn until Jon gave it to him when he left with Aemon and Gilly?

He gave Sam everything he found, except for a dagger he made for himself and one he made for Mormont, IIRC. Sam, who has been giving away spear- and arrowheads had the stuff with him the whole time.

[noSer]

bam! I'm gonna have to research

I so badly wanted that to be why puddles attacked but he was just picking off the stragglers, and Sam fell behind. This matches with what Tormund told Jon later at the wall about how they were attacked as they came to the wall. So as awesome as that would be the evidence doesn't support it. If they were after the horn it would have been another all out attack.

[Morienthar]

Because the Others that attacked either are outriders as they don't have their entire force prepared or Were there to find and obsidian and dispose of it.

[Black Crow]

There may well be something peculiar about the Fist and its significant that at first Ghost was unable to get in - as if it was warded against him. Beyond that its difficult to say in the absence of evidence.

As to the attack and why it appears to so far be unique, its a simple matter of logistics. Up there the Watch were quite literally a sitting target. They stayed there in that one place long enough for the White Walkers/Otherlanders to be able to assemble a big enough army of wights to overwhelm them.

Remember that the wights are generally slow and clumsy and we've never seen one running, so actually assembling an army of them is going to take some time in the first place and then trying to intercept a faster-moving force of men is going to be horrendously difficult. It can be done of course if properly planned, but its not an operation that can be mounted at the drop of a hat.

Mormont would have been fine if he kept moving, and those who got away from the Fist soon outdistanced their pursuers - except ser Puddles, who conspicuously didn't have any wights trailing after him. As I say on the Fist they were quite literally a sitting target and that's why, and only why, the Wights were able to mount a massed attack.