What's the air speed velocity of a raven flying through a snow storm?

[Cowpoke]

Hold on. The Night King isn't even in the books? The opening of the TV is the body parts in a circle with the white walker claiming the baby, right? Is that in the books?

All this time I've been waiting for the slowest zombies in Hollywood history to march their asses down south of the wall and wreck shit and their leader isn't even in the books? WTF????

Yeah Ben covered it, but so far we haven't seen the leader of the undead army yet in the books. The "night king" is a thing of old legend and it's not really clear that he is the leader of the white walkers. He may be something completely different. The show often combines two characters from the book into one. The books are waaaay behind the show now.

 

[The Duke]

p.s. I think the prevailing theory is that the WW are made by the Night King, and that he makes them by transforming a human baby into a WW. In the books, Craster (Gilly's father) lived north of the Wall, with a house full of wives/daughters and no sons. He sleeps with all of them, and if they get pregnant, females stay there and are raised by the other women. The boys disappear. It is possible that Craster kills them, but the suspicion is that he gives them to the Night King.

That would explain why there is not an army of WW, and where they come from. The origin of the Night King is a mystery, but there are some theories about it if you look around on the net.

This was shown in one of the episodes, the NK converting one of the Craster baby boys into a WW. Odd little ceremony with an ice altar and the other WWs standing in a circle if I recall correctly...

 

[Been Jammin]

This was shown in one of the episodes, the NK converting one of the Craster baby boys into a WW. Odd little ceremony with an ice altar and the other WWs standing in a circle if I recall correctly...

I didn't remember that, but I'm sure you are right.

I don't remember for sure, but don't think that it has been made clear, in the books, what happens to Craster's boys or how the WW are created. I assume that the HBO version was told to them by GRRM, but I'm not 100% sure of that.

 

[Air_Thurman]

One theory is that Craster is actually Aemon's son. That is why there aren't a ton of white walkers. If the Night King could turn any baby into a WW wouldn't there be more? The power of king's blood helps make Craster's boys into WWs.

Don't know if I buy it but its interesting and one I hadn't heard before.

 

[Been Jammin]

One theory is that Craster is actually Aemon's son. That is why there aren't a ton of white walkers. If the Night King could turn any baby into a WW wouldn't there be more? The power of king's blood helps make Craster's boys into WWs.

Don't know if I buy it but its interesting and one I hadn't heard before.

Master Aemon? Weird theory.

As far as turning any baby into a WW....there could be any number of explanations as to why there are not more. Maybe the babies have to be given to him as opposed to him taking them. Maybe it took him years to figure out how to make babies into WW, and he just started doing it recently. Maybe the babies have to be born from something evil (like incest) to be candidates. yada yada yada

 

[Air_Thurman]

Master Aemon? Weird theory.

As far as turning any baby into a WW....there could be any number of explanations as to why there are not more. Maybe the babies have to be given to him as opposed to him taking them. Maybe it took him years to figure out how to make babies into WW, and he just started doing it recently. Maybe the babies have to be born from something evil (like incest) to be candidates. yada yada yada

Yeah, there could be any number of reasons there aren't many WWs. This was just one theory.

The main gist is that we know Craster's dad is a crow, Aemon is the right age and Aemon talked about his vows being tempted by a woman.

 

[Cowpoke]

Master Aemon? Weird theory.

As far as turning any baby into a WW....there could be any number of explanations as to why there are not more. Maybe the babies have to be given to him as opposed to him taking them. Maybe it took him years to figure out how to make babies into WW, and he just started doing it recently. Maybe the babies have to be born from something evil (like incest) to be candidates. yada yada yada

I'm guessing very few of them survived their defeat in the last war. They hibernated a couple thousand years until a few years back and have quietly been turning babies and digging up graves to create their army. They probably were too few in numbers to attack large wildling settlements so they relied on Crastor.