delivered a dragon straight to them? Has GRRM or D&D said anything about this? Would the battle simply have happened at Castle Black instead of Winterfell and the dead would have pulled a World War Z to over 700 feet? Given how bad battle strategy in this show has been, they would likely have sent Dany's army to fight them in front of the Wall.
shareIn the books, the wildlings believe there’s a magical "Horn of Winter" which, when blown, can bring down the Wall. So far (i.e. in the books that are available) it’s not clear if it’s just a myth or if the horn actually exists. But it COULD be the way the Army of Dead gets past the wall.
shareThat's convenient.
shareI'm not really sure. I imagine they would have been able to breach the gate at the bottom of the Wall, the one the giants and mammoths from before had already broken through at Castle Black, but the Night's Watch may have filled the tunnel with water to freeze, like Jon originally suggested to. Though that was still in operation up to the end of series 7, for them to go and get the wight to bring back to King's Landing.
They never actually explained it in the show but there must have been a way they'd have got past the Wall, for Jon and company to want to bring one of the dead back in the first place to show Cersei and prepare a battle.
Before the dragon, a lot of folks thought they were gonna freeze the water by eastwatch and go around.
shareWhich would make the whole massive effort that went into building the Wall by the Children of the Forest, the First Men and the Giants absurd and pointless if that was an option as soon as the WW woke up.
shareI thought the Wall was magic and prevented the Walkers from doing shit like that? I think without that Ice Dragon, it would have just been a hundred thousand dead men beating on a giant Ice wall that they could never pass or destroy.
shareBran being marked broke the magic of the cave, so people didn't know how that might affect the magic of the wall.
shareSo not only did he not contribute anything helpful in the last two seasons, but he's also(possibly) the reason the White Walkers can even go south? Bran is just the Grand Central station of being useless!
shareOkay, I blame the people around Bran for failing to make use of his powers as much as I blame Bran himself...
But fuck Bran was useless!
And now he's going to be professionally useless for the rest of his life, while the civil servants run his government. Gawd, what a sad excuse for an ending.
Oh, your just being envious!
I mean… doing nothing but daydreaming, having guys who do the dirty work for you but still being boss of it all – isn’t that the job that EVERYONE dreams of? I’d take it!
And being the 3ER, he’s got the potential to write Wikipedia all by himself and become the best candidate EVER on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" once Westeros has the technology.
;-)
Oh, sure, throw in some travel and you've got my dream job!
But not my dream government.
I thought the Third Eyed Raven was partly responsible for that. I mean he could have given Bran a heads up and told him not to get touched by the Night King otherwise he'll come for him and it may mean he'll be able to pass the Wall. Not the sort of information you keep to yourself.
Then he goes pointlessly sightseeing with Bran back to Ned's early days thereafter, when they should be focusing on getting the hell out of the cave.
If it had turned out to be a brutal 20 year winter like The Long Night (the winter described in Old Nan's story from season 1) and they experienced years of total darkness, it's possible that enough coastal ice could form to allow the Night King and his army to go around the Wall, without the need for any magic.
Through the tunnels. That would take some time but the dead are in no hurry.
shareWhen the Night King put his mark on Bran, it broke the enchantment protecting the Children of the Forest.
The show could have gone the route of the Night King placing his mark on a bunch of prisoners and the letting them cross the Wall, weakening the enchantment.
I guess a dragon melting the Wall just looked cooler.
So really Bran going beyond the wall is what fucked them all over?
And he ends up on the throne as a reward. How interesting.