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The World of Ice and Fire - Constructing the Wall

Artist: Chase Stone

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402. Because, holy sh*t, they have one hell of a defense system for the Wall.

Submitted by anonymous

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402. Because Alliser Thorne gave a rousing speech to the Night's Watch akin to the "tonight we dine in Hell" speech from 300 before leading his brothers into battle.

Submitted by stannisbarathheon

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Night Watch - Bolton Better Run by Gillesketting

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Greetings, crows. Quite a long hibernation we had, eh? With the release of The World of Ice and Fire, bursting with new information about the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, this blog is rising from the cold snow.

Our inbox is hollow as heart tree though, send in your submissions. Especially your thoughts regarding the new knowledge from TWOIAF about the Night's Watch and the Others. Show the world why the black brothers deserve love, eh? A little warmth for their valiant, frozen shins.

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i know nothing by phennin

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Nights Watch: Great ASOIAF Illustration by DonatoArts

Note: This painting is part of A Song of Ice and Fire 2015 Calendar

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The World of Ice and Fire - Ravens bearing Aegon’s proclamation to all corners of Westeros.

Artist: Marc Simonetti

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Game of Thrones 4.07 “Mockingbird”

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401. Because of how the Night's Watch treats Olly like he was their baby brother.

Submitted by anonymous

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Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.

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400. Because Olly was the best archer in his hamlet.

Submitted by anonymous

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"Why stand in their way?"??? Because we want a story. Otherwise GRRM would have just but his pen down and gone to lunch. The old order's going out the window, but so long as a small part of humanity and the brotherhood survives, a new one can grow. Magic and life will be renewed. Stone wears to dust, bright fires leave only ash, and ice melts with spring, but the tree grows back. History is a wheel.

Well said. Perfection. Thank you little crow for this little gem. :)

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399. Because the (in my opinion) unnecessary and senseless deaths of our two crows hit me harder then the Red Wedding (and the Red Wedding hit me HARD).

Submitted by my5favouritefs

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Well responded, if a tad optimistic. Now, some more questions for you. 1.I was waiting for Stannis to thunder in, but he was conspicuously absent. Is he coming this Sunday? If not, his whole season will have been just about a waste. 2.What do you think of Janos Slynt? 3.What do you think of that "Night's King"/Craster's Baby scene? 4. What do you think of Craster in general, and of those who killed him and Mormont? I look forward to your answers.

Warning: Major spoilers for Season 4.

Okay, I didn’t realize this would be some sort of essay quiz thing. But hey, I’ll answer! Thank you for asking my thoughts.

*edit: You may notice that there are grammatical/spelling errors but I’m just too tired to review everything. Just wrote whatever came to mind.

Stannis will show up, I guarantee it. We know that Selyse and Melissandre are preparing to leave Dragonstone. Though Stannis and sweet Davos had left earlier for Braavos, obviously to help establish the future connection of the Watch with the Iron Bank. The show has already invested a lot of time on the build up since the end of season 3, they won’t just drop it. Besides, Stannis fans would rage. I don’t know why people expected him to show up in The Watchers on the Wall though, I was actually surprised with all the where-is-Stannis?! posts. I’ve always kind of expected that his entrance would be something of a cliffhanger of the season. The Watchers on the Wall is focused on the Brotherhood of the Night’s Watch, to showcase their ability, passion and strength. An entire episode dedicated only to them and their struggles. It would be such a bummer if Stannis ends up saving the day instead, right? Don’t worry, Stannis will get his big entrance in the finale. But for this episode, let the brothers shine for once.I’m more skeptical though whether the Night’s Watch election and Jon’s ascension to Lord Commander will make it through the finale. The election took a while in the books as you may remember. But hey, Ser Alliser and Slynt are the only ones left to compete with Jon so I guess it’s fine? I’m still upset that we will never get the raven out of the kettle scene, since the Old Bear never had a pet raven in the show. It would have been so beautiful. Also Sam’s little plot on helping Jon’s election would probably be cut too, which is sad.As for Janos, as much as I disdain the character himself, I do prefer his book counterpart. I don’t like how the show has made a witless coward of him. I know the boys needed to shine by leading the command during The Watchers on the Wall, so they had to get rid of Slynt in command somehow. But how is he supposed to run for Lord Commander now that most of men left have seen him hiding in fear? Or is the show going to play it as if no one has seen him cowering except for Sam and the few on top of the Wall?

By Night’s King/Craster’s baby scene, I assume you’re talking about when Rast left the baby in the cold then an Other brought the child to this somewhat elder shaman type Other and turned the baby into something with blue eyes (I won’t say it’s a wight, because wights are dead creatures brought back to life and that sweet little baby was not dead.) Frankly, I have never thought of connecting that to the legend of the Night’s King. Why though? Why the Night’s King? Is it because of the elder-shaman Other who some may have speculated it’s the legendary king? The Night’s King was human, a brother and Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. How could he be leading the Others if that was him? I think I’d like to read more on this theory before I say anything.

The scenes themselves were really interesting. We got a peek of whatever powers the Others truly possess. Take note: these are all canon in the show, but that doesn’t mean it applies to the books. We’re only exploring the show’s version of the cold ones. The book!Others might turn out completely different.

We now know what they did with Craster’s sacrifices. We now know that they have the power to turn a living creature into something else. Into what though? Not a wight, that’s for sure. Was the baby a little White Walker now? If so, this raises questions. Did the Others started out as humans? If so, how did the first Others came to be? Why do they need to turn babies into one of them? Are the Others incapable of reproducing? Or did they infant turn into something else entirely, like a human-Other hybrid that is more powerful? What did it exactly turn into and why? Why do the Others do this? So many questions really.Okay, so my thoughts on Craster. Well I’ve never taken that much interest in him. He never turned away brothers when in need of food and shelter, he would give them information, he was resourceful, he knew how to survive and to keep his wives and daughters alive, but yes he did commit so many ungodly deeds for a supposedly godly man. Though I am curious though how did he know that the Others would accept his sacrifices? Where did he get that knowledge? Why only boys? How did he broker this “deal” with them to not bother him as long as he keeps the babies boys coming? As despicable as he was, his knowledge of the Others would have been extremely helpful to the Night’s Watch if only he’d live.

The mutineers’ intentions are quite obvious. They gave up. That’s the core of it. They got sick of losing, they’re scared, they got sick of hunger, of illness, of this old man who kept ordering them to respect this other old man who refused to feed them. They gave up their vows, their morals, they gave up their faith in the Watch and let their needs take over. They gave up and gave in to their desires. Though take note, most of them were criminals who were sent to the Wall, forced to say the vows even without taking it to heart. So it’s no wonder why their criminal tendencies resurfaced again at the face between life or death. Their motives were understandable, but that doesn’t make it okay.

To be honest I did like the show’s plot of returning to Craster’s keep and getting rid of the mutineers. It was a realistic thing to do and it made sense to the original storyline. The books never clearly stated what happened to the mutineers and if they’ve ever crossed paths with Mance’s wildling army. Even though it isn’t canon in the books, the show’s subplot did well in filling in the blanks. Plus that scene with Bran choosing between being reunited with Jon and his search for the three-eyed raven was just heart-breakingly beautiful.

All in all, I can’t wait for the finale. Not even the old gods and the new can stop my excitement.

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I am the watcher on the walls. I am the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.

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398. Because we will never hear that the night is dark and full of turnips.

Submitted by anonymous