Hey youtubers it's Charlie and this week for my bonus Game of Thrones video I promised
I'd do something a little more bookish because so many of you want to jump into theories
and prophecies. The premise of this video is that the White Walkers are not evil. In
order to walk you through this I'm going to have to talk a lot about theories of what's
going to happen in the next two books as well as the show. So none of this is stuff that
has happened yet so technically I don't consider it spoilers. But just in case spoiler warning
for mega earth shattering theories of ice and fire.
Real quick shout out to Jesse Wade, you are the first winner in my book giveaway. You
get to pick which ever book from A Song Of Ice and Fire you want, I'll be messaging you
on your channel for details. Round 2 of the giveaway starts right now. All you have to
do to participate is be a subscriber and leave a comment on this video. I'll pick one winner
and announce who in my next bonus video.
So my Theory that the White Walkers aren't evil depends a lot on context, so if you've
only seen the show it's a lot harder to defend. That's why it helps to read the books, there's
much better context for characters. And one really important thing that the show hasn't
made super clear is the unreliable narration and the idea that written history has been
manipulated.
You also have to remember, that the way the show has portrayed them is very different
from the books. In the books they have what is described as an otherworldly beauty. On
the show they look like frozen versions of the colossal titan from attack on titan.
For example during the Princess and the Queen short story the Maesters play a big role and
it's implied that they helped exacerbate the Targaryen civil war. Maesters are largely
responsible for recording history and giving counsel to rulers in the seven kingdoms.
They're the scientists of Westeros, as such they hate magic. For a lot of the same reasons
as Varys. It's something they don't fully understand and can't control.
So while you have the White Walkers and the Great Other on one side of the conflict and
the Red God on the other, the Maesters sit in between trying to get rid of both of them.
Quick sidenote, there are more than three factions but for the sake of simplicity I'm
just using the Maesters as one example of a faction that doesn't want either magical
entity to reign supreme.
The easiest way to do that is over a long period of time give false counsel and eradicate
the Targaryen Dragons. Dragons have an unexplained connection to magic, as they started to die
out, so did certain kinds of magic.
So most of what has been written about Dragons is false, that means there's a strong chance
other history about magical events and races has been falsified, like the White Walkers.
Add to that, most written history of that period was recorded hundreds of years after
The Long Night Ended.
How did we find out that the Maesters had written things down wrong. Mostly characters
on the show pointing out contradictions between books. Book inside the story. It's funny to
read about characters reading.
There are very few people in the world that prize knowledge above all else, Tyrion is
They're some of the only characters we've seen so far that have called out historical
texts as being false. Samwell was talking about Scrolls at the Night's Watch and Tyrion
was talking about books written about Dragons at the Citadel in King's Landing.
So the way White Walkers and Dragons have been portrayed is a little twisted, they're
really just two equal states. I'm using Dragons in lieu of Fire Magic. It hasn't been expressed
literally in the books or the show yet, but a creature born of Fire is probably tangentially
related to the Red God. So for the sake of Argument I'm presenting them as avatars of
his power and preistesses like Melisandre like the white walkers.
Most of what we learn about the White Walkers comes from oral history passed down by Old
Nan telling Bran stories and other characters like Tormund Giantsbane, Mance Rayder and
other characters in the North.
In Old Nan's story she talk about how the Long Night came and brought the White Walkers,
they battled with the combined forces of The First Men and the Children of the Forest for
a long period of time, at the end of which the Last Hero defeated them with with a sword
referred to as dragonsteel. I think that's a reference to Valyrian steel.
After the war was over the Wall was built.
We don't know much about the Last Hero. But I think he's just a characterization of Azor
Ahai and if he used a Valyrian Steel blade it means he probably came from that region
of Essos and had dragons. It stands to reason if you could forge valyrian steel you came
from a period when Valyrians had tamed dragons.
Currently we don't have a date for when Valyrians first learned to tame dragons, we only know
when the Doom happened. The Wall for example was built over 8,000 years ago and that only
came at the end of the Long Night. Maesters didn't start writing down history till thousands
of years later. So you see the problem with people passing down false accounts of what
happened.
So by associating the last hero with the Azor Ahai myth, valyrian steel and dragons, we
have our Fire and Ice.
The interesting thing about Old Nan's tales are that they only speak of the White Walkers
closing in around the Last Hero, she never talks about him killing them all. And how
do you end a war without killing the other side?
You broker a peace treaty. Otherwise how would any white walkers still be alive at the start
of Game of Thrones? There has been no evidence of a black portal to hell or another dimension
or anything crazy like that. So some of the would have had to survive the Long Night and
retreat to the Lands of Always Winter.
And the Last Hero only appeared at the end of the Long Night. What if he was just someone
used to broker peace between the White Walkers and the combined forces of the Children and
the First Men?
Meaning he wasn't purely just a general or a warrior.
The Children of the Forest had their own war with the First Men, if they eventually brokered
peace it's not so hard to believe a peace treaty could be made with another supernatural
force.
Jumping forward in history to modern day Westeros, how do you seal a peace treaty between Houses?
With a Marriage.
Who do we know in Game of Thrones' history that took a White Walker as a bride? The Night's
King. He's another mythical figure that we believe to be evil based on what George RR
Martin has revealed so far.
It's not so hard to believe that his history was falsified. When Bran remembers the stories
Old Nan told about him, she said he was a Stark of Winterfell and he lived after the
Wall was built.
The timeline is getting a little fuzzy. Previously it's been believed the Night's King was formerly
the 13th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, he was a Stark, not the true heir of Winterfell,
but a brother. Like Brandon Stark in present day taking the black and Ned Stark being king.
Lots of Starks to go around in those days.
It's not so hard to believe that the Night's King was really just the fulfillment of the
terms of the peace treaty between the white walkers and the forces of men.
Also think about the Wall in all this. There are a couple theories about how it got built,
one says it happened slowly over the centuries using a combination of large scale manpower
and magic.
But what about this theory, The White Walkers built the wall using their Ice Magic. And
they built it to seal off men from their lands.
The conflict between the Wildlings and the Night's Watch developed over the centuries
because people in the south forgot the wall was there to separate them from white walkers,
not wildlings.
So it's easy to see, how over time, myths about the creation of the wall and the Night's
King could have been twisted.
There's also historical tales of Stark's interbreeding with people in the North, so there is precedent
for a Stark marrying a White Walker queen, or someone they held in great importance.
I know we haven't seen any female white walkers yet, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.
And the historical Night's Queen existed, we just don't have a lot of information about
her.
Quick Heads Up: Because the rest of my theory involves characters on the show right now
and future events I'm going to say spoiler warning one more time. Everybody ready? Okay.
The interesting thing about this is that it would imply that the Starks have White Walker
DNA floating in their veins. They are the human personification of Winter, Winter means
Ice, White Walkers are based on Ice Magic.
This means that in whatever final battle happens in the next two books. The Starks, or the
surviving Starks, Jon Snow for example would align themselves with the White Walkers. Crazy,
I know.
But we've seen the Three Eyed Raven and I've seen theories that he's aligned with the Great
Other. If Bran is going to replace him, that means another Stark would serve the forces
of Winter.
Who is the Fire in this scenario. Melisandre obviously, but also Daenerys and her Dragons.
They're the personification of Fire. House Targaryen's motto is Blood and Fire.
Why did the White Walkers wait till now to start coming back?
It's possible that the only reason they're taking action is because men aren't upholding
the peace treaty anymore. They're colonizing the North and the beginning of their attacks
coincide with the re-emergence of Dragons. Fire and Ice. It's like cosmic balance has
to be maintained, so as fire comes back, ice comes back too.
Rhaegar Targaryen was obsessed with the Azor Ahai prophecy, what if he understood that
balance must be maintained and that's why he had a child with Lyanna Stark. To bond
Ice to Fire. That's another theory that we won't learn more about until Book 6 comes
out, but it would make Jon Snow the literal culmination of the prophecy, he's like the
new version of the last hero and the Night's King, I think those people are actually the
same person.
If the Starks and the White Walkers are really connected on a historical level it's also
fun to think about their re-emergence being the result of all the Starks being killed.
It makes Winter is Coming sound more like a battle cry than a fearful premonition.
Jon and Daenerys are central figures in this so they have to exist in opposition. That
means depending on who's perspective you take, one of them is the hero and the other is the
villain.
So think about the idea that Daenerys is ultimately going to become the villain of the series.
Not the hero.
It's totally just a theory, but when you look for evidence in Rhaegar's prophecies like
the bit about the blue flower growing in a wall of ice, you start to see how Jon could
really be the prince who was promised.
Once this all sinks in, let me know what your theories are on the white walkers. Do you
think they're really evil or are they just a force to balance out the Red God, dragons
and Daenerys?
My next bonus video will post next sunday, be sure to subscribe to get it. I'm a little
behind, and because Monday nights are teen wolf now I'm not going to do a q&a for this.
So I'll try to answer as many questions as possible in the comments.
Right now click here to learn more about Aegon the Conqueror and click here for my Season
5 predictions.
Thanks for watching, see you guys tomorrow. High Fives!