it’s very annoying when the closed captions are simply not there for certain scenes or are only there for parts of scenes. I assume that happens to everyone , not just me?
I thought for sure they’ve referenced the obsidian from dragon fire (also the name), but they also refer to Valyrian steel as dragonsteel, IIRC. I haven’t read the books, so I don’t know 100%, but I’m fairly sure that’s the case, thought it’s possible I’ve taken a bunch of things out of context and mixed them up in my head.
There’s a better, more relevant model, I think - they’re changelings. Not in the sense of being swapped for an elf, but in the elf-struck sense. The WW are Snow Elves. Really, really ugly Snow-Elves. Falmer, basically…
It seems plausible, and would explain why no one has made Valyrian steel in centuries. (And obsidian is volcano-based here on Earth; perhaps on this planet, it’s got the same name but is created by dragons.)
I understood there were two "species"of White Walkers: the leaders and the soldiers but I guess I always assumed they were both formerly humans who died and were changed.
The sparrows have his wife and his mother as hostages. I’m sure he believes if he attacks they will be killed. He is lost and way over his depth and he knows it, and he knows everyone else knows it too.
Cersei has empowered the people who locked up and has convinced her only hope of rescue that he is powerless. Tywin was so right about her.
The soldiers are Wights, not White Walkers. WWs are the generals only.
If its the steel itself, then its an alloy thing. But concidering how the white walker litterally exploded when Jon nailed him with the sword, instead of biting into what ever flesh or…, that the steel might have an acoustic property to it.
Declan
I guess the confusion is just that it hasn’t been explicitly stated. But White Walkers (the “leaders”) are obviously something more than reanimated corpses. They are supernatural and magical: impervious to most weapons (susceptible only, apparently, to “dragonglass” and Valyrian steel), shattering regular steel and so on; extinguishing flames with their presence (and/or projecting extreme cold around their person), and at least one (the Night’s King) is obviously a necromancer.
We just saw it. He’s a necromancer. He made the vanquished wilding army rise under his control. They didn’t “turn,” a la “zombies”. They were reanimated, on command, by magic. That’s where wights come from, and why the dead are rising in the extreme north (there must be some limit to the range of control). Wights are no mystery either: they are meat puppets. They aren’t “impervious” to any weaponry and don’t require anything special to kill them, they are just corpses. But they are basically being puppeteered by a necromancer’s magic, so they don’t require blood, organs, or more than the basic ability to hold together in one piece, don’t feel pain, etc. Stabbing and clubbing will just slow them down, but the pieces will keep fighting on their “puppet strings.” Burning and giant-stomping destroys them completely enough.
I was just browsing the Wikipedia on necromancy, and interestingly enough the “Early and High Middle Ages” sections mentions Norse mythology (not surprising), and several examples of such things as a witch-princess who would raise her dead soldiers in battle to keep fighting, and particularly interesting mentions of Odin.
Yule/winter/season…sounds familiar. And further cursory perusal finds an even more tempting rabbit-hole to go down: Odin->“Fimbulvetr”, the “Mighty Winter” that immediately precedes Ragnorak->Ragnorak (great battle that is basically the destruction and rebirth of the world)->Odin is slain by a wolf in this battle…
Anyway, there’s definitely a lot of inspiration there. Magic. From what’s been shown to us, I think we are definitely supposed to believe that the White Walkers, or at least the Night’s King, are some kind of god(s)/demons/high sorceror or combination thereof. Definitely influenced, as is the rest of the story obviously, and all other stories, for that matter, by tales that have been told before.
I watched the final battle scene twice, and am trying to figure out what is going on geographically.
There’s a fence and a gate. Why is it there? What does it enclose?
Is it around the city? Why is is open to the water? If I were going to fortify my town, I wouldn’t want a clear shot in from the water. But, the building where they met and lost the dragon glass was on the “safe” side of the fence, right? And Jon ran right to it from the water.
Why are there thousands of wildlings milling about out side the fence. Obviously, they are outside of the fence since they were on the wrong side of the latch. So, there’s a fence that goes out and stops at the water?
Could someone draw me a map here?
I THINK… that this outpost was a far Night’s Watch outpost that the Wildlings took (maybe the night they assaulted the wall) or it was maybe a Wildling trading post?
The palisade was probably meant to control land access (animals or small groups) not to repel an army. It stopped at the water because they weren’t expecting threats from the water. It also stopped at the hillside, bolstering my thought that it wasn’t meant to ever be a battle defense.
Well, here’s a picture from the episode: http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20150601113829/gameofthrones/images/b/b0/Hardhome_(episode)_.jpg
So that’s where the wall is. What it’s for, I’m not exactly sure. It seems at least, to maybe be to provide some protection for the docks in case something happens. Maybe just an attempt to provide some sort of “last resort” stronghold, knowing they can’t possibly wall off the entire camp (look at it, it’s HUGE). I imagine, actually, that the powers-that-be such as they are know full-well that a major threat is the possibility of a wight outbreak in the camp at large, so putting a wall between themselves and the rest of the camp might have been the idea.
I’m not a 100% on this, but it looks like a stockade arrangement guarding the landward side of a very small coastal settlement. There is no seaward defense because not only does that little village look too poor to usually bother with much, but I’m assuming there is nobody that raids by water that far north. The Wildlings don’t seem to have any maritime capability. Jon was borrowing Stannis’ ships as he noted in a previous episode, as the Wildlings have no capacity to transport themselves. Meanwhile the sheer mass of refugees probably means that under normal conditions that little settlement couldn’t accommodate them. They were spread out beyond the stockade walls because they just wouldn’t fit without being packed in like sardines, if at all.
In the previous episode, Hardhome was described as a fishing village, and it was stated that the Wildlings had retreated there after the attack on Castle Black.
So the wall was intended to defend a much smaller population from outside threats. The majority of the Wildlings were forced to camp outside the walls, because there wasn’t room for them inside the walls. So when the worst case scenario hit them, they were shit out of luck.
ETA: Semi-Ninjaed, naturally.
Fooking amazing episode, but can someone explain why only Jon could kill a white walker? Is it because he is speculated to be a Targaryyen?
Now the fan theory makes a lot of sense.
No, it’s because he has a sword made of Valerian steel (and he’s a bad-ass). Note Sam killed one also, with a dragonglass (obsidian) dagger.
I dont think the White Walkers are necessarily undead.
There is a Wiki Article on what Hardhome is - or was. But, I don’t recall it being mentioned in the show. And regardless, it doesn’t mention the fence or it’s relevance.
I appreciate the explanations and the picture.
And while the fence still doesn’t make a lot of sense to me in a logistical or defense role, it does a great job of creating a bottle neck to make the battle last longer and build suspense. So, I’m going to assume that is it’s primary purpose!
And, while I’m OK with the Giant lumbering out to sea - He could have given the boats he passed a nice shove in the right direction. Damn selfish giants!
Closing the gate on the majority of the Wildlings was reminiscent of what they’ve said a few times in the past about The Wall: that there’s no difference between the Wildlings and the Northerners, except that they built a wall and one group ended up on the safe side and the other group was on the other side. The fact that the lead Thenn ordered them to close the gate after rejecting Jon’s offer was pretty ironic in that light.
Could someone clarify a point for me? (I read the threads but I don’t watch the series until its out on Netflix)
Some posts have talked about Jon’s sword shattering, others about a WW shattering when Jon’s sword hit it. Did both those happen, or am I misunderstanding one set of remarks?
If both, which order matters I guess. Either Jon was using an ordinary sword first, then went with his better Valerian one – and why did use the inferior one first? OTOH, if his sword shattered second, I’d think someone at least would mourn the loss of such a valuable weapon but no one has But why would he stop using the proven effective sword for a lesser one?.
Jon had several swords at the beginning of the fight. The White Walker shattered them all, until he unsheathed his Valyrian sword, then the White Walker shattered instead. I can only assume he was keeping his best weapon for last. And the lesser swords were doing just fine against the zombies, it was the White Walker at the end who destroyed them.