Beyond the Wall: Have we already seen the series’ endgame?

With the shock of the Purple Wedding and the controversy of the scene in the Great Sept of Baelor (hopefully) in the rear view mirror, this week’s installment of Game of Thrones was groundbreaking in other ways. While still containing some material that was born out of existing books in George R. R. Martin’s novels, “Oathkeeper” easily has the most changed/tweaked/added/completely-bonkers-new material we’ve ever seen in one episode. From Bran and company showing up at Craster’s Keep to the delayed reveal of Jorah’s early betrayal, it’s becoming more clear that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will be taking some liberties … and the word “liberties” doesn’t even begin to cover that final sequence.

A Song of Ice and Fire has always generated a great deal of theories and speculation about the various loose threads that Martin leaves dangling from book to book. Some are popular and well-regarded (R+L=J) and some are plain damn tinfoil (Varys the Merling King?). Amid the myriad crazy things that can be found in ASOIF forums was the idea that Craster’s boy-child offerings are changed/evolve into the White Walkers themselves. Confirming a theory like that is one thing, but providing a glimpse into the world of the White Walkers — including maybe-possibly the Night’s King himself — is something else entirely.

Before we dive down that particular rabbit hole, first our weekly SPOILER WARNING. Beyond the Wall is a column presented by readers of the novels for readers of the novels. So if you weren’t wondering why Jorah didn’t smell like Mereenese sewage by the end of this episode, this post is not for you.

Bob: Holy crapballs, dude. How about those last five minutes this week? I don’t think anyone saw a little trip into the heart of White Walker territory coming. It seems like we got a little glimpse into the future of the novels with the ending of episode four. As the series quickly (very quickly) catches up to the novels, it’s going to be happening more and more, but I think this is the first time we’ve really seen something that felt like a spoiler for the books.

Can this really be considered a spoiler for the books?I feel a little weird using the term spoiler here. This is definitely unique territory that we are entering. Can this really be considered a spoiler for the books? I’m assuming that this particular little nugget is completely canon with George R. R. Martin’s vision for his universe (and that IS an assumption). It seems like some in the fandom are freaking the hell out over being shown glimpses of the future of the novels before they get to read them.

Perhaps this is just a case of poor reading comprehension, as Craster’s sons being turned into White Walkers (or, Others, as they are referred to on the page), is pretty well documented. In one of Samwell’s chapters in A Storm of Swords, he encounters some of the eldest of Craster’s wives who warn him about the fate of Gilly’s baby if he doesn’t save it:

“The boy’s brothers,” said the old woman on the left. “Craster’s sons. The white cold’s rising out there, crow. I can feel it in my bones. These poor old bones don’t lie. They’ll be here soon, the sons.” – Samwell II, A Storm of Swords

The White Walker reveal shouldn’t be all that shocking, but to get a glimpse of the Walkers in their own environment, complete with big scary tower thing, and weird ritualistic ring of ice thing was pretty awesome. At least in my opinion. What camp are you in Ivey? Awesome? Or “how dare the show spoil us?”

Ivey: Considering the stance that we have both taken in this column for years, it would be hypocritical of us to be anything but accepting of this, would it not? Like you mentioned, it could just be something that has happened off-page in Martin’s mind, not unlike the transformation of Reek that we saw last season. In that case however, by the time those scenes aired, that arc had been revealed in A Dance With Dragons; the reveal of the Night’s King — which was “confirmed” in an HBO recap before it was quickly removed — is different.

But the question of whether or not this is a spoiler is something that will continue to be debated, and it is far from the last time that audiences will be faced with this scenario. Unless Martin releases Winds of Winter tomorrow, there’s almost no way the television show won’t catch up to the novels at some point.

Bob: I’m still skeptical he finish in two books, but that’s a digression we don’t need to take. Honestly, I think we’ve already been faced with this scenario, as early as season two, and we just haven’t talked about it. I could be dead wrong, but I believe that the visions that Dany had in the House of the Undying, some of which were shared by Bran a couple weeks ago, are a vision of some very late stage action in the story of A Song of Ice and Fire.

Both Bran and Dany saw the Iron Throne in a desolate Red Keep with snow falling through an apparently destroyed roof. Sure, this could just be a case of vision quest symbolism, but I don’t think it is. I think this (along with Bran’s vision of a dragon flying over King’s Landing) is going to be an integral part of the ending of Martin’s epic. It all makes sense, really — Dany coming back to King’s Landing, raining dragonfire down upon her enemies. It seems inevitable … but maybe that is what they want us to think.

Ivey: Was it snow, or was it ash? I think there’s another reading you could take from those two prophetic dreams: Each seems to point to Dany’s dragons laying waste to King’s Landing, but who is to say that she’s controlling them at that point? One of the arcs in A Dance With Dragons is Dany’s fears that she won’t be able to control them as they continue to grow. And her (television) vision of the Red Keep in the House of the Undying isn’t one that had a victorious tone.

Dany is a character whom I think has a good chance of dying in the series’ final act, with her role of bringing the “Fire” of the Ice and Fire dynamic to Westeros. That’s the conflict that I fear will end the series, with the people of Westeros being the caught in the balance.

Bob: Did you just show concern for the smallfolk? Of all the characters in all the novels, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone give a crap about the people of Westeros.