I rewatched S7E6, “Beyond the Wall”, again and noticed a few things I had not noticed the first time.
For one thing, it almost seems like the Night King knows when Bran is watching him through Greensight. Is it just me? When Bran had warged into the ravens to fly over the Army of the Dead, the Night King looked up and the ravens scattered immediately, as if the connection to Bran had been suddenly interrupted or broken. And since Bran immediately goes out of his warg/Greensight trance also, I am assuming that it is broken.
The Night King was created by the Children of the Forest. Did they pass on Greensight to him when they created him?
Another thing I noticed was that the whole battle on the frozen lake seemed a bit too contrived when I watched it the first time. When I watched it again, I thought to myself, “this seems too scripted. It’s just too perfect.” And then it hit me. What if this is NOT an artifact of Benioff and Weiss’ writing, but an intentional part of it? They tend to be very intentional when it comes to things that appear in the show. So for example, the fact that suddenly the Night King and two other White Walkers have spears may be completely intentional. If the Night King has Greensight, who is to say that he didn’t foresee everything and act accordingly?
That would mean that everything in that sequence was set up purposefully, with the intention of allowing the little group to grab a wight in return for something: gaining an ice dragon.
- The small group of wights with a single white walker that is separate from the main army, allowing the group to accomplish their capture.
- The fact that all the wights die when the White Walker is killed, except for one. That seemed awfully convenient.
- The battle seems designed to get the group into trouble, and to send for help in such a way that Daenarys has to respond with her dragons.
- The white walkers held back, allowing the wights to do all the work, until the dragons showed up. Three dragons, three spears.
It may very well be that the Night King knew about the dragons, and knew that people would be coming to try to capture a wight. So he set the whole thing up, with the intention of killing a dragon and then turning it into one of his undead servants. Why else would they just happen to have those HUGE chains around, unless he knew he was going to need them?
But there’s more to it than that. As the Three-Eyed Raven said, the past has already happened – the ink has dried. So that would mean that anything the Night King does is also part of that greater plan. That would seem to imply some sort of connection between Bran and the Night King. What precisely that connection is, I don’t know. But suddenly I am wondering more about the visions that Melisandre has in the books. She sees Bran and thinks of him as the enemy. Why?
What if he is? What if Bran is unwittingly (at least at first) part of this new Long Night? What if Bran’s warging into the past is responsible not only for events like what happened to Hodor, but for other events as well, going back thousands of years, like the building of the wall? If Bran was responsible for that, what else might he be responsible for? AHHHHHHH my brain is getting fried.
Anyway, there does seem to be some sort of connection, because the Night King was able to see Bran and then interact with him. That touching is what allowed the Wights and the White Walkers to know where Bran and the Three-Eyed Raven were located and to be able to enter the space that had previously kept them out. And I imagine that is what will bring the Night King and his army south of the wall eventually, most likely to confront Bran, whether he is at Winterfell or somewhere else.
The season finale should be pretty eventful. I am going to make a few new predictions.
- The wall will be breached, probably as part of the finale. It may not be physically breached, but the dead will get past it and begin to make their way South.
- Bran’s role in events is even more critical than I originally thought, because he is a catalyst for making lots of things happen. I think that is why he is so important.
- I no longer believe that Bran will survive the series. I think the only way to end the threat of the Night King once and for all will be that Bran has to die. GRRM has said that the ending will be bittersweet, so perhaps that is what he was talking about, or at least part of it.
- Cersei will agree to a cease-fire/armistice, but only so she can come up with a creative way of shafting her enemies. It will be to buy time.
- The Hound will encounter his now zombified brother. Not certain, but seemingly likely.
We’ll see on Sunday!
~Geoff
The Books are Taking Over... 
I like your thinking, but (and this is just me, we’re allowed to hold different viewpoints) I don’t really subscribe to the Night’s King having greensight, unless it becomes obvious. Mostly because people will start up with “if the NK can see the future, why did he [make this mistake/fail to take this opportunity/etc]” statements.
A lot of the episode seems convenient, like the small group of wights for them to ambush, and the frozen lake, and the Others having ice javelins – I think that’s all fair to ding on the episode. As well as the not-really supported foundation for the mission, or the fast raven/fast dragon response.
But it just feels more reasonable that the White Walkers responded to this human encroachment, they surrounded them on the frozen lake because encirclement equals winning. They got nothing else to do, so they can wait out the people to die from the elements, or wait until they make a break for it in desperation.
I liked that, since the Others are thousands of years old, waiting a few days is a blink for them.
It’s convenient that they Others had javelins, but they’ve almost always had something like those when they’ve had guys on horseback.
The big chains are dumb, I agree. I don’t think they’re supposed to imply that the Others were expecting to down and dunk a dragon, I just don’t think the writers gave it much thought, or anticipated that we viewers would focus on that so much.
Look, even though I’m arguing against your theory, it’s not that wild. I like it better than some of the theories I hear. It’s certainly hard to disprove, since the Night’s King doesn’t really let his thoughts known. So if it helps make the episode cohere, I am not going to dismiss it.
Hey Pat! Thanks for commenting.
I definitely see what you are saying. I guess what seemed different about the spears for me was that we see the Night King with one when previously he carried some kind of big sword/scimitar looking thing. I still loved the episode. It’s funny how it seems impossible to wrap up the storylines with only 6 or 7 hours of show left now. I guess I understand how they might be feeling rushed to keep everything moving forward, and without text to draw upon, I guess the Deadly Duo have to get creative in ways that might seem odd.
Still, looks like a bunch of my predictions came true. And I was right about my older prediction that Littlefinger would die this season. I wonder how much time the Night’s Watch has left at this point.
~Geoff
I think they’ve announced that each episode in season 8 will be something like 90 minutes each, so it’ll almost be like getting a full season!