Re: The Official Game of Thrones [A Song of Ice and Fire] Thread
Just spitballin'.
But that synopsis thing got me thinking. If you accept that the myths from back then have some truth, but have not been remembered perfectly, then things could get interesting.
If you assume the Long Knight ended not with a victory but with a truce, and you consider that we've seen this King Wight turn human babies into wights, then what if the war ended by AA offering himself to the Others? So the Wight we saw is actually long-lived AA. Maybe the legend of the Night's King, of a human betraying humanity, is a corrupted view of what really happened.
Of course, this leads to the inexorable conclusion that AA is tired, wants to pass on, and needs a replacement. And that's Bran's fate.
A podcast I listen to was talking about this theory, not particularly about AA being the night's King, but about the war ending with a truce, rather than a defeat of the WW. A portion of it revolved around the fact that the WW were the ones who constructed the Wall (who the hell else has the ability to construct something that massive made entirely of ice and contains magic (ohhh maybe the Children of the Forest did the magic part)). The Night's King (who was a Brandon Stark IIRC) sealed the truce with a marriage to a WW. Some how the history got corrupted over the thousands of years and now everyone remembers him as someone evil. It went on to say that the WW were actually much closer to being wiped out then we were led to believe. Upon seeing the encroachment of Wildlings and the NW into the lands beyond the wall they are stirring again. They saw the red comet and knew that it meant dragons have returned, the one thing capable of completely erasing their species from existence.
So in response they begin by warning the humans through the act killing a ranging party and letting one escape to tell the tale; that the White Walkers have returned and the terms of the ancient truce must be honored. How does the NW respond? By sending out the largest ranging party in living memory. So the WW respond themselves, completely decimating the ranging. Instead of flooding over the wall, which I think they could find a way to do, they linger in the Haunted Forest and the Lands of Always Winter. There has to be a reason why they are moving so slowly. They never full out attack Mance's huge wildling host, only attack them from the sides and rear...almost like they are herding them towards the wall. The theory is that the White Walkers don't want war either, they just want the terms of the truce to be honored.
I just wish we knew more because the scant histories we have now are so unreliable that they could be interpreted a hundred different ways.
The thing that confused me about the theory you mentioned (about AA = Night King), and my theory as well is that the Night King was someone who ruled at the wall for 13 years as the 13th lord commander of the NW and the King of the North + the King Beyond the Wall combined forces to take him down. How could the Night King be AA if AA was the one who ended the long night in the first place which took place before the wall was constructed? The time lines do not match up. If we assume that AA is the King White Walker guy, then how do we explain the Night King?
*I am using AA/Last Hero interchangeably because I think they are the same person? Idk.
edit: found another hole in my theory, if there was a King beyond the Wall way back then, that means there were wildlings back then too. If the WW were attacking now because their territory was being encroached upon, why didn't they attack earlier?
edit2: Ok I was thinking, what if the Last Hero and his 12 companions who set off to find the COTF were the founding members of the Night's Watch. As each one perished, a new Lord Commander was chosen. By the time the Last Hero was left, he would have become the 13th Lord Commander. This is assuming that the Night's watch predates the wall, which is a supposition that I did not consider. It seems far fetched though.
Here is what Old Nan has to say about the Last Hero:
Her voice had dropped very low, almost to a whisper, and Bran found himself leaning forward to listen.
"Now these were the days before the Andals came, and long before the women fled across the narrow sea from the cities of the Rhoyne, and the hundred kingdoms of those times were the kingdoms of the First Men, who had taken these lands from the children of the forest. Yet here and there in the fastness of the woods the children still lived in their wooden cities and hollow hills, and the faces in the trees kept watch. So as cold and death filled the earth, the last hero determined to seek out the children, in the hopes that their ancient magics could win back what the armies of men had lost. He set out into the dead lands with a sword, a horse, a dog, and a dozen companions. For years he searched, until he despaired of ever finding the children of the forest in their secret cities. One by one his friends died, and his horse, and finally even his dog, and his sword froze so hard the blade snapped when he tried to use it. And the Others smelled the hot blood in him, and came silent on his trail, stalking him with packs of pale white spiders big as hounds - "
When the Walkers finally found him, some sort of event was triggered that caused the COTF, the WW, and the Last Hero to come to a truce with one another.