Game of Thrones I
Game of Thrones
Game of thrones is one of the defining TV series of our time. I hope this episode encourages you to ritualistically and ceremoniously rewatch Game of thrones, a magnificent super fantasy saga about tits and dragons! This episode, along with other episodes in this series, will have MAJOR spoilers to the HBO show Game of Thrones and you haven’t watched it yet, well, message me for a watch party on discord because this shit has been out for 10 years now.
Allegory:
As a literary device, an allegory is a narrative in which a character, place, or event is used to deliver a broader message about real-world issues and occurrences. Authors have used allegory throughout history in all forms of art to illustrate or convey complex ideas and concepts in ways that are comprehensible or striking to its viewers, readers, or listeners.
Writers and speakers typically use allegories to convey (semi-)hidden or complex meanings through symbolic figures, actions, imagery, or events, which together create the moral, spiritual, or political meaning the author wishes to convey.[2] Many allegories use personification of abstract concepts.
In classical literature two of the best-known allegories are the Cave in Plato's Republic (Book VII) and the story of the stomach and its members in the speech of Menenius Agrippa (Livy ii. 32).
Among the best-known examples of allegory, Plato's Allegory of the Cave, forms a part of his larger work The Republic. In this allegory, Plato describes a group of people who have lived chained in a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall (514a–b). The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows, using language to identify their world (514c–515a). According to the allegory, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality, until one of them finds his way into the outside world where he sees the actual objects that produced the shadows. He tries to tell the people in the cave of his discovery, but they do not believe him and vehemently resist his efforts to free them so they can see for themselves (516e–518a). This allegory is, on a basic level, about a philosopher who upon finding greater knowledge outside the cave of human understanding, seeks to share it as is his duty, and the foolishness of those who would ignore him because they think themselves educated enough
The white walkers represent death and the looming devastations nature brings. It’s one of the classic tropes of struggle between Man and Nature. Nature being the white walkers which were created to preserve the remains of the land that have yet to be scathed by humanities’ destruction.
"In that darkness the White Walkers came for the first time. They swept through cities and kingdoms, riding their dead horses, hunting with their packs of pale spiders big as hounds."
―Old Nan
Who, or what, are The White Walkers
The White Walkers were an ancient race of formerly-human ice creatures who came from the Far North of Westeros. After remaining hidden for thousands of years, they returned and were sighted by several sworn brothers of the Night's Watch and countless wildlings. However, most who live south of the Wall believed them to be nothing more than creatures of legend.
The White Walkers were thousands of years old, coming from the time preceding the Age of Heroes. Born of powerful and untested magic, they were created to protect the Children of the Forest from the First Men, who had waged war on them ever since they had arrived from Essos. However, the White Walkers eventually broke free of the Children's control and became the most feared creatures in Westeros, posing a threat to anything living
Although the White Walkers have faded into legend over the centuries, disturbing reports began to reach the Night's Watch, just before the outbreak of the War of the Five Kings. The return of the White Walkers was confirmed during the Great Ranging undertaken by Lord Commander Jeor Mormont and by an unprecedented attack by the wight army on the wildling settlement of Hardhome.[2] Despite repeated pleas for support from the Night's Watch, the rest of the Seven Kingdoms have turned a blind eye to the return of the White Walkers as they remain embroiled in their own civil wars, believing the White Walkers to be purely mythological, much like giants and Children of the Forest, who have also faded into legend. The legendary White Walkers' aim was to erase the memory of the race of men from all existence through the death of the Three-Eyed Raven and pass over an endless winter. Their goal was very nearly achieved until their ruler, the Night King, was destroyed by Arya Stark at the Battle of Winterfell, ending the Great War and preventing the return of the Long Night with the extinction of the White Walkers and their magic.
Powers
White Walkers possess the magical powers related to ice and cold. Their arrival is usually accompanied by blizzards and the dropping of temperatures. They can also freeze anything they touch, as one froze Sam's sword to the point that it shattered. White Walkers also have superhuman strength, as one managed to toss Samwell Tarly several feet away with a single back-handed punch. The White Walkers wield swords and spears made from unique ice crystals.
However, one of their most deadly abilities is to reanimate the dead as their servants, known as Wights. They are actually capable of reviving any dead animal as wights, as a few White Walkers have been seen riding undead horses. They cannot, however, revive a corpse into servitude if it has been burned in fire. Once the Wights have been risen to serve the White Walkers, their eyes turn an icy blue, similar to the White Walkers' own eyes. Wights can be killed by fire or by using a dragonglass, and serve the Walkers without question.
The Night King, leader of the White Walkers, possesses the ability to change humans into White Walkers, demonstrated at the end of "Oathkeeper" when he takes Craster's son into his arms and places a single finger upon its cheek, causing the baby's eyes to glow blue and his skin to grow pale, taking on the appearance of the White Walkers. Whether or not this ability extends to only the Night King, all of the White Walkers amongst his caste, or all White Walkers in general remains to be seen.
During the massacre at Hardhome, White Walkers are shown to be resistant to fire due to the extreme cold they radiate, which snuffs out any flame they approach.[2] The ability was showcased again when the Night King was also able to snuff out dragon fire during the Wight Hunt.[7] The Night King was even able to withstand a massive fire breathing from Drogon without sustaining any damage during the Battle of Winterfell.[8] It is unknown if this also applies to wildfire.
According to legend, the White Walkers speak a language known in myth as "Skroth", which sounds like the cracking of ice.
Weaknesses
The only known weaknesses that the White Walkers have shown are their vunerability to weapons made of dragonglass or Valyrian steel. Upon being stabbed by dragonglass, a White Walker's body will begin to freeze into ice from the point at which it was stabbed, causing the Walker great pain. Finally, it will begin to crack and fall apart, as its now icy body shatters until there is nothing left but powder. Valyrian steel has much the same effect, but works much more rapidly, shattering White Walkers with a single blow. Valyrian steel is also capable of parrying White Walker weapons, unlike normal steel, which shatters on contact.
During the war council at Winterfell, Arya Stark speculates if dragonfire could stop the Night King and the other White Walkers. Bran Stark remains unsure since 'no one's ever tried' before. However, this is proven false when Daenerys Targaryen commands Drogon to engulf the Night King in fire, but the latter was left completely unharmed.
As wights are destroyed upon the White Walker that raised them are killed, the White Walkers were shown to have had their lives bound similarly to the Night King, who created them. So when the Night King was slain by Arya, all the White Walkers and the wights under them were destroyed.
The Spiraling Symbol of the Night King
In the first episode we see the spiraling symbol and as a reoccurring motif throughout the series. The very first time we encountered the White Walkers’ mysterious circular symbols was in the first sequence of the Game of Thrones premiere, “Winter is Coming.” Three rangers of the Night’s Watch ride north of the Wall and discover that a group of Wildings have been brutally murdered, and their bodies arranged in a mysterious circular pattern with a slash through it. One of the party believes it’s a sign of something sinister, but it’s shrugged off…until the dead rise.
The next time the show makes a point to show us a magical, mystical, circular pattern is in the Game of Thrones Season 1 finale, “Fire and Blood.” Far from the frigid wastes of the North, Daenerys Targaryen has come upon the idea to burn Khal Drogo’s dead body along with the witch Mirri Maz Dur, her dragon eggs, and herself. Daenerys emerges from the ashes the next day, naked and reborn as the Mother of Dragons.
The next time the show goes out of its way to show us a pattern connected with the White Walkers is in Season 3, Episode 3, “Walk of Punishment.” Jon is hanging out with the Wildlings and they find a grisly spiral design made of the chopped up remains of — yikes — dead horses. Mance Raydar comments, “Always the artists,” which many have taken to mean that the illustrious Ranger-turned-Wildling leader has seen symbols like these before.
In Season 6, Episode 5 “The Door,” Bran Stark discovers the truth about the White Walkers when he logs into the Treethernet. He flashes back in time to when the Children of the Forest created the Night King by plunging a dragonglass dagger into the heart of a man. We see that this is happening in the middle of a spiral of henge-like stones all encompassing a Weirwood tree. The stone symbol looks like what the White Walkers created with horse heads and limbs in Season 3.
Later in that same episode, Bran touches the roots of the Heart Tree without the aid of the Three-Eyed Raven and travels to a snowy version of this scene, where the Night King has assembled his army. This is the moment that the Night King sees Bran, brands him, and all hell breaks loose.
Elsewhere in Game of Thrones, we’ve seen a circular stone pattern, like a henge, in the North surrounding the executioner’s block where Ned Stark took that Ranger’s life in the premiere, and that same set up echoed in ice north of the wall where the White Walker takes Craster’s infant sons to give them “eternal life” as White Walkers.
It’s also perhaps worth noting that the House of the Undying in Qarth from the Season 2 finale is set up as a mysterious circular tower with spokes, and that the entrance features henge-like stones, as well. Circles within circles, that look like wheels…
Season 6
The Three-Eyed Raven shows Bran a vision of a heart tree amid spirals of standing stones in lush green valley. He spies Leaf and other Children of the Forest talking amongst themselves, then looking eagerly at a captive - a First Man - bound to the tree. Leaf approaches and slowly forces a dragonglass dagger into the captive's chest. The captive screams, but does not die, instead becoming the first White Walker: the Night King.
Bran immediately confronts Leaf about creating the White Walkers in the first place. Leaf tries to explain that they were at war with the First Men and were desperate to protect themselves from the invaders of their lands. Later, Bran is the only one in the cave awake and is anxious to warg back into the Weirwood tree. Unfortunately, the Night King is able to see him and grabs his arm, branding him with an icy mark. He breaks out of the vision with a scream. The Three-Eyed Raven tells Bran, Meera and Hodor that the Night King is now able to locate Bran and bypass the barrier keeping the White Walkers and wights out of the cave. The Children of the Forest use magic projectiles and incendiaries to fend the Walkers off, but are overwhelmed. They light a fire around the entrance which prevents the wights from entering, but the Walkers extinguish a pathway and walk through. The wights climb on top of the Weirwood, dropping through the top of the cave. Meera desperately tries to get Bran out of the vision and attempts to get the frightened Hodor to carry Bran away to no avail. Meera kills the first White Walker that enters with a dagger of dragonglass, as she fights alongside the remaining Children of the Forest to try to fend off the wights until Bran wakes up. Wights begin to swarm the cave, killing all of the Children of the Forest except for Leaf, as Meera starts yelling at Bran to warg into Hodor. Hodor in the cave puts Bran's body on a sled and starts hauling him towards the exit at the back of the cave with Leaf and Meera, as Bran's direwolf Summer is killed attacking the wights. As the wights are closing in on them, Leaf sacrifices herself, using magic to cause a huge explosion, buying the other three a significant amount of time. While the Three-Eyed Raven and Bran are still sharing a vision, the Night King kills the Three-Eyed Raven, and his figure within Bran's vision blows away as ashes and rags
So, what does this all mean?
Nothing
Actually so many folks on official blog sites, analysts, and reddit chainsters have failed to recognize the axiomatic metaphor. In fact, it’s literally a visual representation of what the symbols form: the esoteric designs literally form a fucking wheel lmao it isn’t hard to see it. Now reading into the metaphor of this wheel:
In Game of Thrones, the saying Turning of the Wheel is quoted by the lead characters as a hopeful plan to change the direction of humanities path into betterment, or destruction. The wheel has been turning towards war, betrayal, greed, deception, and death for as long as humans have ruled over Westeros. The redemption humans need is seen in the direction of how they approach the trials of intersectionality in Westeros. They must come together with the communities of people they’ve demonized for centuries.
Symbolism of the Walkers
Since the invasion of Westeros by the First Men (yikes LMAO) and their encroachment into the lands of the Children of the Forest, the native of Westeros, which led to a long period of warfare between the two people for control of the continent.
Some can interpret the white walkers and their Endless night and winter as an excellent metaphor for climate change and the public and political will to do anything about it. As we see Cersei blatantly refuse to believe the white walkers are real even after seeing a wight that was brought from beyond the wall. Cersei is a prime example of the politics behind the many naysayers of climate change. Even when presented with the threat she simply: did not care.
The team at HBO - despite their complete fuck up into season 8 and the finale - have deliberately set out to create an elaborate point-by-point parallel between the real and fictional worlds (Sam Tarly is Al Gore! Cersei's speech to Jaime in the Map Room is Donald Trump pulling out of the Paris Accord!) but you can't deny there are areas common to both.
