A song of Ice and fire discussion (spoilers incl A Dance with Dragons)

[Valarya]

I'm pretty sure it will be somewhat explained before the end of the book. We might not ever find out where the Other's come from, much like we won't discover how the Red Priests of R'hlor came about.. but they (the Others) will feature in the upcoming books.

I suspect the Wall will fall since the NW's LC broke his Oath.. and the Wildlings will be the ones who help save the realm. On top of Bran & Jon and perhaps some Dragons, of course. But there will be another Long Night.. and the Others will attempt to break in to the Realm again.

['thul]

ok, a bit out of things... deacronymize NW, would you?

[fool-ish]

What a distressing thought that is...the Wall falling! I am really quite awestruck by it.

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ok, a bit out of things... deacronymize NW, would you?

Night's Watch?

['thul]

The wall falling would certainly be an event the TV show producers would love to make.
These beings have a feeling that the rules of the oath, while portrayed as iron-hard and unflinching, are more like guidelines anyways.

[Valarya]

The wall falling would certainly be an event the TV show producers would love to make.
These beings have a feeling that the rules of the oath, while portrayed as iron-hard and unflinching, are more like guidelines anyways.

No, it has been said that the Oath of the NW (yes, Night's Watch) brotherhood helps hold the magic of the Wall..

I'll have to find the right passage for quotes and whatnot.

It will fall! It's what wall's in tales do, after all.

['thul]

Magic is rather uncertain. It might keep to the exact wording of the oath, which means that the wall should have fallen long ago, or it might keep to the spirit of the oath. If the guardians of the wall, the night's watch, stop guarding altogether against the threat of the white walkers, then the magic might fail. It could just as well be that so long as the intent of the watch as an entity is still to guard the realms of man against the white walkers, then the magic will live. The magic cannot be all that fickle, for the wills of man change all the time. There will always be LCs that don't care enough about the task. It might be that many a LC has thought the task is mostly guarding realms of man against wildlings, but because the intent is still to guard the realms of man, then the magic persisted.
The magic would probably fail if the LC and most of the watch, if not the entire watch, stopped caring about guarding the realms of man at all. If they were to instead be turncloaks and not guarding realms of man at all, then the wall would effectively have failed anyways. it might be thick, it might be tall, but so long as there are none to stop climbers, it is merely an obstacle.

[fool-ish]

It would be merely an obstacle when winter is come! The realms of men won't know what's hit'em, men of the Night's Watch included! It will still be a crying shame if and when it does fall, though if GRRM continues to write as he has been doing, it will be done spectacularly. Oh the anticipation!

['thul]

The question is how much of an obstacle it becomes.

The true cruelty of style from GRRM would be if he actually had the wall holding. 'thul doubt that any fan of his work truly believes that will happen, so that might, in classic GRRM style be just what happens.

[fool-ish]

Yeah, he does have a way of throwing all our theories and hopes out the window! I've learned never to be complacent about what I think might happen and perhaps more to the point, what this genre of writing usually provides...glorious, heroic deaths, the baddies dying a horrible death, a romance that was foreshadowed books and books ago etc! Though, I can but dream that all my optimism isn't entirely unfounded.

['thul]

'thul would not be surprised if GRRM keeps eye on the more common theories out in the internet community and actively writes to shatter them.