Why haven't the Others come in force?

[FacelessDude]

Because George doesn't want them to. Once all the plots intermingle at the correct time, the Others will attack the Wall.

[UselessOpinion]

Maybe because it's not winter yet. They keep repeating this line about whether the cold brings them or they bring the cold. Maybe it's the cold that allows them to thrive and save for a handful of moments it hasn't been cold enough to sustain them. Wights also seem inactive during the day, so while there may be a ton of Others they can't move all their arrow fodder through while the sun's out.

[N/A]

Because George doesn't want them to. Once all the plots intermingle at the correct time, the Others will attack the Wall.

You're correct, of course but we can't really answer everything with that :P we want to see why george wants it that way or rather his explanation of it

[Crevek]

Why haven't the Others come in force?

Because George doesn't want them to. Once all the plots intermingle at the correct time, the Others will attack the Wall.

Drama is the only reason.

[Ramsay B.]

They were about to do an all out attack on the planet but then Sam killed Puddles and they were like, fuck this shit. 8000 more years of peace.

[N/A]

They were about to do an all out attack on the planet but then Sam killed Puddles and they were like, fuck this shit. 8000 more years of peace.

All they ever wanted was peace and some trade, that's until their good will ambassador puddles was brutally murdered by that savage pig

[Rhymes with Weak]

And hey, that idiot small paul did attack the other first, so it was in self defence.

[FacelessDude]

You're correct, of course but we can't really answer everything with that :P we want to see why george wants it that way or rather his explanation of it

True, but that's the backbone of it. His imagination is so brilliant he'll make it come out perfectly, the reason will be very creative too.

[alienarea]

True, but that's the backbone of it. His imagination is so brilliant he'll make it come out perfectly, the reason will be very creative too.

I don't think so.

It is obvious there aren't many White Walkers around and we know from Old Nan's tales that they hate fire, iron and the touch of sunlight. So unless Westeros is entirely cloaked in darkness they can't win.

[Morienthar]

They've laid siege to westeros and are waiting for a breach in the defenses.Which is the wall.

[Young Queen Nym]

I agree with the notions that they are waiting for winter to come. Winter has only just reached KL at the end of ADWD. The Others are probably waiting for it to get super cold, perhaps for one of those long ass snow storms which blot out the sun for days on end. As for why they haven't wiped out the wildlings completely yet, I'm not too sure, but they seem to be starting. I'm not sure IIRC but I think that Melisandre pretty much tells Jon that she saw the wildlings that he wanted to send ships to save have been attacked by The Others.

GRRM says that we'll going further north in WoW, possibly to find out something that happened in The Land of Always Winter that has forced The Others to go south with an army. We can only speculate, I guess.

[Valyriasdoom]

I always wondered why they didn't attack the wildlings in Hartheim with one single huge attack. Perhaps they feared the obsidian that might be with the army of Mance Raider, but the wildlings at Hartheim were pretty much defenseless

[FacelessDude]

I don't think so.

It is obvious there aren't many White Walkers around and we know from Old Nan's tales that they hate fire, iron and the touch of sunlight. So unless Westeros is entirely cloaked in darkness they can't win.

And the reason Westeros isn't entirely engulfed in darkness is because George hasn't made it so, and that's because he is waiting for the correct time. Once he is ready (and once the plot develops to where he needs it to be, for example once all the characters are in the places he requires them) then darkness will come, and the Others along with it. Get it?

You ever look at how a plot works? The climax of ASOIAF's narrative is right around the corner (before a climax is the rising action). Every other POV needs to reach their climax at a specific time for the plot to work correctly. I'll give you an example, what if Jon, Mel, and all of the Night's Watch were too far south of the Wall when the darkness and the Others arrive at the Wall?

It wouldn't make a lick of sense, the Others would break through and the story wouldn't go the direction George needs it to go. So you're wrong.

[ServantOnIce]

The Great Other called his banners and tried to mobilize his soldiers, but just like in the human world there was the usual foot-dragging and vacillation from his lord bannermen. Seriously, I'm not even convinced that the Others all agree about invading Westeros proper; there's probably a Catelyn in there who wants to uphold the peace, as well as a Young Wolf Other who is pleased as punch after smiting the humans at the Fist of the First Men and there's probably even a Lysa or Walder Frey in there who wants to do nothing.

Probably some Lannisters there as well, all caught up in incest and hiding their trips to the ice brothels in the lands of always winter.

[ServantOnIce]

I agree with the notions that they are waiting for winter to come. Winter has only just reached KL at the end of ADWD. The Others are probably waiting for it to get super cold, perhaps for one of those long ass snow storms which blot out the sun for days on end. As for why they haven't wiped out the wildlings completely yet, I'm not too sure, but they seem to be starting. I'm not sure IIRC but I think that Melisandre pretty much tells Jon that she saw the wildlings that he wanted to send ships to save have been attacked by The Others.

GRRM says that we'll going further north in WoW, possibly to find out something that happened in The Land of Always Winter that has forced The Others to go south with an army. We can only speculate, I guess.

Global Warming . . . .. causing the Land of Always Winter's polar cap to melt.

[Muggle]

I have put forth some ideas on this subject

a short read but you might like it

[WeirwoodTreeHugger]

Maybe the Others knew that driving the Wildlings south would cause strife amongst the NW. That is exactly what happened. He let the Wildlings past the wall and got stabbed for it. Remember that the magic in the wall holds as long as the wall stands and the Nightswatch stays true.

As to the question of why aren't they striking sooner; they needed to wait until the magic in the world started growing strong again. These are the conditions needed to bring on long night 2.0.

[Wolf in Hallowed Places]

I was gonna link to Muggle's earlier thread but he beat me to it...worth reading anyway.

[Sir Tan Lee]

I think its a mixture of reasons I'll go over each.

Numbers

They don't have enough zombie minions to be very successful. They can't attack the giant Wildling camp because the Others know that the Wildlings know how to fight them. The Wildling camp at its height probably had tens of thousands. When your outnumbered 10 to 1 or even 20 to 1 it doesn't really matter how "undead" you are. The whites would get chopped into a thousand pieces. This also explains why they only take the scouts and small groups. They want to build up their numbers with minimal risk. The only reason the Others could attack the Night's watchmen is because they were inexperienced and didn't have many soldiers. The same can be said about Hardhome. The Wildlings that went to Hardhome were tired, malnourished and depleted so for the Others its less of a battle and more of a slaughter.

Leadership

I'm going to guess that the Others aren't totally united and they don't agree on what they should be doing either. This would probably make it harder to mobilize and get minions.

Winter

This is probably the biggest reason. My hypothesis is that the colder and darker it is the more powerful the Others are. The Others depend on the weather and if the conditions aren't good then they won't attack.

[TheBastardofBluegrass]

I think Winter is the biggest reason, furthermore why attack while your opponents are fighting among themselves, attacking now would give all men a common enemy to unite against, better to wait and fall upon them at their weakest, during winter when they're tired and haggard - whoever wins between Stannis and Bolton is mega-screwed.