Why haven't the Others come in force?

[KingInTheCave]

Beause it's not the last book yet.

[Nucky Thompson]

Yes but not anymore right? We haven't heard of any men killing Others during the story since the Long Night. Also, apparently the Others haven't been seen for thousands of years until now. What was their reason for staying hidden for so long? Or maybe they weren't hidden. Maybe they were attacking the wildlings little by little to build up their wight army for an all out attack on the wall like bent branch said.

It's because they are the terminator equivalent of the COTF. Once upon a time they unleashed the Others on humanity, making them stop in their tracks and ultimately sue for peace with the COTF. It was the COTF's plan all along - send the bad cops with all guns blazing and then come out as the good cop providing obsidian and making a friendly suggestion to build a huge wall across the middle of the continent (to prevent further terrorist incursions is all, nothing else). Those same COTF just so happened to be on the one side of the wall largely by themselves and effectively have for themselves an entire half of said continent which would otherwise be fully overrun by the humans, but that's just a coincidence, yo. Moreover, the humans happening to be on the same side of the continent as the COTF - i.e. the Wildlings remain at a low civilization level and at their first attempt to form a city (and thus to pose a danger to the COTF Reich) - boom, Hardhome happens. Moreover, said wall conveniently place all humans (along with humans from other continents) on the opposing side of the COTF. It could've been that slavers have landed in Hardhome and thus have behaved similarly to the first human invasion of Westeros - again, Hardhome was erased from the map.

Well yes, but all we know about the Others right now for sure is that they hate all life and want to destroy it. They are unbeatable against the wildlings who don't have obsidian. They could have destroyed them with minimal or no losses at any time, but why didn't they?

However, many years later, the COTF seem to be dying out, so in a last ditch attempt to prevent human dominance over Westeros - or simply to take their old enemies down with them, they are activating the old weapon of mass destruction - namely, the Others. That's why they are hearding the Wildlings, too - they want no one to be left behind the scourge and be able to rebuild civilization at a later stage.

And there is also the option that with dragons back in the game, the Others as a WMD are becoming ineffective and the window of opportunity to unleash them on humanity is closing - so the COTF are launching a preemptive strike to rid the continent of their ancient enemies. Once upon a time they were content with having one half of it remaining for them, but with those new developments, they either want to take it all for themselves, or to cleanse it from its human infestation in its entirety.

And for those purposes, they have bound a human - Bloodraven to to their bidding. Now that additional human resources are needed, Bran is hired by their corporation - as we see that he has no clue about what his employer's ultimate agenda is.

[Kylarch of Lorath]

IMO They're slowly building up their wight army. Logicly they start with a few rangers/wildings then attack another small group rinse repeat till they have enough to take on the majority. Also they could be on the defensive and using the small attacks to scare the wilding's south and pin down the ranger's. Mayhap's they be hidin' something in the lands of always winter.

First post :cheers:

[Joe Pine]

The Barrows mentioned on the way to Winterfell. What if it wasn't remains of men in them, but Others?

That'd mean they'd need winter and the Wall breached to go and revive their host. A sensible enough precaution by those that defeated them before, but no-one now knows the consequences.

[Señor de la Tormenta]

they were just to afraid of roberts hammer.

[CakeOfTheMorning]

Because they needed to have Benjen Stark first.

[Nuncle Kraken]

Maybe the Others aren't aware that men have lost the knowledge of the power of Obsidian. They waited 8000 years, hoping men would forget, and are now poking and prodding, waiting for winter, and to see if the human race is stocked full of dragon glass

[Queen‍‍‍‍‍‍ Alysanne‍‍™]

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/93522-foreshadowing-of-daenerys-at-the-wall-a-dwd-spoilers/ The others will get past the wall and Dany will play a role in defeating them.

[Jory Cassel]

Yes but they are nigh on invincible. The only thing that can kill them is obsidian and i'm pretty sure you can't find obsidian north of the wall in abundance. 50 Others could probably wipe out at least half the wildling host.

I don't know where obsidian can or can't be found north of the wall, but we do know that a number of wildlings does carry obsidian knives, via Jon in aDwD.

[WeirwoodTreeHugger]

The Barrows mentioned on the way to Winterfell. What if it wasn't remains of men in them, but Others?

That'd mean they'd need winter and the Wall breached to go and revive their host. A sensible enough precaution by those that defeated them before, but no-one now knows the consequences.

Maybe. I've always wondered if the barrows would come into play. Especially compared with the creepiness of the barrows in LOTR.

[Buried Treasure]

I'd agree with those that say they have not come because it is not Winter. Maybe only a fraction of their army was active in autumn or something.

That the only time we have seen them attack in force was against a large group of the Nights Watch encamped north of the Wall I think indicates the Others really are disadvanted when men that have sworn the words before a heart tree are on the Wall itself. The opportunity to wipe out so many NW men without having to deal with the Wall's magic was too good and so they broke from their usual pre-winter tactics of only worrying at the edges of large forces.

[Florina Laufeyson]

I have a crackpot about this actually.

My crackpot is that they are actually waiting for the Night's Watch to all but dissolve. We learn from Sam that a Black Brother is the only one who can cross the Black Gate. For some reason, the Wall hasnt been breached by Others. (instead, they tried to infiltrate with wights and attempted to kill LC Mormont. In which, they were thwarted.) There's also Craster's "deal" with the Others to think about. Craster knew about how desperate the Watch had become. Puddles followed Sam and Gilly and probably for a good while. Now why? Because Sam was in the wrong place at the wrong time? No, because Sam ended up with the dragonglass and that horn. Jon gave it to Sam to look after more or less, before going ranging with Qhorin. There seems to always be some sort of Other scout or informant hanging around near Craster's in order to make good on their "deal". After the battle at the Fist, the Others seemed to simply have waited. Puddles goes after Sam, Sam kills him. Theres no real Other movement after this point except some wight nonsense going on near the cave Bran ends up in.

Why are wights surrounding that area? Not sure, but probably because of one of two reasons:

1. Bran is potentially dangerous to the Others or Bloodraven is.

2. There is a loss of command of those particular wights and they are simply roaming around trying to chomp on whatever is alive.

I believe its number 2 because that cave doesnt seem too terribly far from Craster's. Puddles was probably in charge of that lot of wights. So now they are all running around willy nilly.

So what about the other Others? I think they are waiting for the Night's Watch to collapse entirely before they attempt to cross the Wall. The ward that the Wall seems infused with appears to be connected to the Watch itself. If they go, the ward goes.

/end crackpot

[dawgrunt]

Sure, the wildlings may carry a few obsidian knives, but not all right? Also it seems that the wildlings are pretty much terrified of the Others and if the others come in force and kill a few wildlings, maybe a few of their leaders like Mance or Tormund, the host would have been broken and they could destroy bits of it at ease. It doesn't add up TBH.