What's Skroth for SPOILERS?! They may spring like newly-risen wights within this list. So brace yourself, Winter Is Here! Seriously, catch up to the very latest episode before warging forward!
Viewers learned in "The Door" that the Children of the Forest created the White Walkers!! Let that sink in for a second. Bran learns this as he green dreams with the Three-Eyed Raven. Why? Because they needed protection from men as they killed the CotF and cut down their weirwood trees. Yeah, that happened.
Also, let’s hear it for Old Nan. Without her, we wouldn’t have hardly any White Walker Game of Thrones theories. She was the Google of her time, recounting horrifying tales to the Stark children that would later serve as real-life guides and give clues about the future of House Stark and the coming war with the White Walkers.
Most White Walker theories are tied directly to the Starks, with some believing that the Starks are descendants of the White Walkers, AKA the Others. One of the more wildly popular White Walker fan theories shuddered back to life when Melisandre (with the possible help of Ghost and other unknown factors) raised Jon Snow from the dead. His gasping for breath on the table certainly unearthed a long-held theory that the Lord Commander will become the next Night King. At the very least it’s one of those irresistible notions to fill in the days between episodes until the showrunners prove us right or wrong.
Here’s another notion for you. What if the White Walkers are the good guys and they built the Wall to keep men out and prevent them from destroying what’s left of the giants, unicorns, and other creatures not widely accepted south of the Wall? What if they bring the Long Night to stop man (and woman) in their violent pursuit of the Iron Throne and their intolerance for the Others? Seems less like a theory now.
Let’s look at some popular White Walker fan theories and see which ones are worthy of the Night’s King’s frosty touch and speak of them in whispered Skroth, the language of the White Walkers.
The Children of the Forest Created the White Walkers!
Photo: HBO
After sacrificing a man at a weirwood tree, the CotF tell Bran that they created the White Walkers to defend themselves against men. Also, check out that spiral from above with the weirwood tree in the center. Many minds blown.
The Children of the Forest Created a Monster
Photo: HBO
And they’ve clearly created something they can’t contain. And now they need Bran’s help. Also, RIP Hodor and Summer. Revenge for the direwolves! Revenge for Hodor!
Let’s Talk About That Knife
Photo: HBO
We see Leaf sacrifice a man at the sacred weirwood tree. And she’s using… an obsidian or dragonglass knife. This explains why such a knife can kill them.
Now We Know What Those Symbols Mean
Photo: HBO
Now we know that the symbols belong to the Children of the Forest because they created the White Walkers. So that's what they were trying to tell everyone. Also, oops.
The White Walkers Were Supposed to Be the Good Guys
Photo: HBO
In a passage of A Dance with Dragons, Leaf explains that it’s man that is the problem. She tells Bran, “That was in the dawn of days, when our sun was rising. Now it sinks, and this is our long dwindling. The giants are almost gone as well, they who were our bane and our brothers. The great lions of the western hills have been slain, the unicorns all but gone, the mammoths down to a few hundred. The direwolves will outlast us all, but their time will come as well. In the world that men have made, there is no room for them, or us.”
So are the White Walkers doing the world a favor and reducing the numbers of men so the giants, unicorns, and others can return?
Thanks, Bran
Photo: HBO
Warging on his own, Bran makes contact with the Night King, giving the latter the power to walk straight up to the Bloodraven and bring the wight army swarming into the cave.
