Not to mention the time to murder Jon Snow was BEFORE he brought thousands of them through the wall.
The original purpose of the Wall and the Night’s Watch was not to keep Wildlings out.
The Wall plotline only works, I think, if Ser Allister and his supporters don’t believe that the White Walkers are much of a threat. There was a wight (zombie) attack in Castle Black in Season 1, from my memory, and then at the end of Season 2 the ranging Night’s Watch force was massacred by Walkers and wights, so there must be plenty of surviving Watchmen who have seen wights or White Walkers.
The writers should have done a better job pushing this, IMO – Ser Allister, and others, could have consistently been challenging the truthfulness of the reports of White Walkers and wights, and convincing others that these reports were exaggerated or false (e.g. they were really Wildlings in disguise, or something).
I still like the storyline, but I’m forced to assume that this was all happening in the background, and I think slightly better writing would have made it smoother, and would make Allister a more consistent and reasonable villain.
Re: The Mercs Stannis had. It was my assumption they went straight to Winterfell…hence that huge army and all those horses Ramsey had…
Of course they could have been Ramseys already but that’s my fanwank after months of Crusader Kings II.
IIRC the only people who have actually seen the white walkers are the wildings Sam, Jon, and the people in the room with Jon’s body. Most of the remaining watchmen just fought a battle with the wildings and have only heard of the walkers second hand. At the battle of Hardhome about half the wildings were more willing to take on the white walkers than trust Jon because they had only heard about the walkers. Once people see the white walkers they understand but until then they are just another enemy.
There is truism about organizations in that in the beginning they are organized for a purpose and over time they stop being about that purpose and start being about the good of the organization. The leaders of the Nightswatch are more concerned about the watch surviving as it is then actually protecting against the white walkers.
Don’t forget the expedition to Hardhome where they meet the zombie master. That included some of the Watch.
Yeah, didn’t Jon give a whole speech to everybody saying that if they didn’t bring them past the wall and protect them (or let them help fight), then it would just be an even bigger army of zombies?
Anyway, Thoros served his purpose already way back when. I bet in the “Previously…” segment for either the 2nd or 3rd episode we get reminded of what Thoros told Mel. How he did the resurrection trick. Which was basically, IIRC, that he didn’t even know. It just happened when he lacked faith and asked for a favor. We’re seeing Mel at a serious crisis of faith. She can do it “herself,” or rather, the LoL can apparently do it if she thinks to ask for it.
All of the Night Watch saw the supposedly mythical creatures that attacked the Wall with the wildlings. They all saw the woolly mammoths and the giants. They also saw the grasping hand of the chopped up white walker in season one. But whole white walkers? Pshaw! We believe the guy we admired and respected, up until this very moment, was a traitor who made up White Walkers. On the word of a man who obviously despised the current Lord Commander and wanted his job.
On the other hand, The Night’s Watch are made up of dumb men and criminals. So there is that.
I think Allister’s point of view would be established better if he had expressed some skepticism (and especially if he had managed to convince others, considering that most seem to be on his side now) about the white walkers.
Alliser*. The character is Ser Alliser Thorne. 
Was I the only one who did not recognize Bran in the previews? If we ever see Rickon again, he’ll probably have a full beard and Osha’s baby on his arm.
Alliser is a stupid name.
Not necessarily so. They just need to believe that the widlings are also a threat and won’t be of any help, rather fleeing (I think that Thorne specifically mentioned it at some point) and pillaging. Thinking this way, getting the widling on this side of the wall just add another danger on top of the upcoming offensive of the white walkers.
Most of the Night’s Watch was wiped out in a battle with the dead at the fist of the first men, and many of the people still at castle black barely survived that battle.
As Sam pointed out:
I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children.
It doesn’t say anything about getting laid. Just that they can’t marry or have children.
Yep, the “take no wife, father no children” leaves a big and time-honored loophole in the Night Watch oath.
Especially since it was established that the Night Watch has been going to the brothel at the edge of town for generations.
Right. I don’t think Alliser and his men don’t believe in the White Walkers and zombies, per se. I just don’t think they can really grasp the idea that the wildlings might actually help them in a fight against the supernatural enemy, and they’re too focused on the enemy they’re used to fighting day in and day out (wildlings) to properly assess the real threat.
There were only four survivors of Mormont’s expedition north of the wall. Nearly all of the survivors of the Battle of the Fist of the First Men were killed in the Mutiny of Craster’s Keep or Jon’s subsequent attack on it. The four were Jon, who wasn’t at the Battle of the Fist, and Sam, Grenn, and Edd, who survived both the Battle and the Mutiny. With Grenn dead and Sam gone, Jon, Edd, and the survivors of Hardhome would have been the only ones at Castle Black to have actually seen White Walkers.
So how does one become Lord Commander without a vote? :dubious: Game of Thrones depicts a quite rigid society where protocol, oaths, and tradition are very important. For that reason one would expect the Night’s Watch to follow the procedures they have for thousands of years.
It’s possible that Davos could assume a leadership role without being elected, but then he wouldn’t be Lord Commander.
Well, no, she hasn’t been established to have those powers. She witnessed it, and her reaction was to say out loud: “That’s impossible.” Seems pretty definitive that she doesn’t have them. (Yet?)
When she asked the guy how it was done, he didn’t know, so that wasn’t exactly helpful in terms of her learning how.