Why does a White Walker sword dissolve when it is killed?

Potential Spoilers Below

I keep telling everyone that similarities between The Wheel of Time (TWOT) and A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) are vast even if there are those out there that say otherwise.

I wrote an article asking “Why leave a good weapon lying on the ground?”  The answer is simple because it has to do with the Wheel of Time.  Rand al’Thor along with the male Forsaken made swords seemingly out of thin air using the One Power.  If you were to kill someone who wielded a sword using the One Power the sword they made would disappear because when they died the One Power would be negated and with it the sword.  It seems that the White Walker swords adhere to that rule.  When GRRM was asked “Do you know what substance an Other sword is made from?”  he answered: “Ice.  But not like regular old ice.  The Others can do thing with ice that we can’t imagine and make substances of it.”  This to me is similar to what an Aes Sedai can do with the One Power when they seemingly create things from nothing.

Rand laughed. “Do you believe you can frighten me so easily, Forsaken? Ba’alzamon himself has hunted me. Do you think I will cower now for you? Grovel before a Forsaken when I have denied the Dark One to his face?”

“Is that what you think?” Be’lal said softly. “Truly, you know nothing.” Suddenly there was a sword in his hands, a sword with a blade carved from black fire. “Take it! Take Callandor! Three thousand years, while I lay imprisoned, it has waited there. For you. One of the most powerful sa’angreal we ever made. Take it, and defend yourself, if you can!”

He moved toward Rand as if to drive him back toward Callandor, but Rand raised his own hands—saidin filled him; sweet rushing flow of the Power; stomach-wrenching vileness of the taint—and he held a sword wrought from red flame, a sword with a heron-mark on its fiery blade. He stepped into the forms Lan had taught him till he flowed from one to the next as if in a dance. Parting the Silk. Water Flows Downhill. Wind and Rain. Blade of black fire met blade of red in showers of sparks, roars like white-hot metal shattering.

Rand came back smoothly into a guard stance, trying not to let his sudden uncertainty show. A heron stood on the black blade, too, a bird so dark as to be nearly invisible. Once he had faced a man with a heron-mark blade of steel, and barely survived. He knew that he himself had no real right to the blademaster’s mark; it had been on the sword his father had given him, and when he thought of a sword in his hands, he thought of that sword. Once he had embraced death, as the Warder had taught, but this time, he knew, his death would be final. Be’lal was better than he with the sword. Stronger. Faster. A true blademaster.

This perfectly describes Jon Snow.  In the TV show the first time he faced a White Walker, who was similar to a blademaster compared to his skill, he also barely survived.  He caught the White Walker off balance because he had a Valyrian steel sword and that gave him the element of surprised that won him the day.  When all was said and done, he was coughing up blood and had to run for his life in the end.  In the Wheel of Time as Rand fought more one on one sword fights, he quickly elevated to become a blademaster himself.  The TV show is fast tracking this for Jon Snow and so the second time he faced a White Walker he was more confident and defeated it also.  And yes, when a White Walker is killed his blade also melts away to nothing because he was the power that animated it.

The fear that filled Sam then was worse than any fear he had ever felt before, and Samwell Tarly knew every kind of fear. “Mother have mercy,” he wept, forgetting the old gods in his terror. “Father protect me, oh oh . . .” His fingers found his dagger and he filled his hand with that.

The wights had been slow clumsy things, but the Other was light as snow on the wind. It slid away from Paul’s axe, armor rippling, and its crystal sword twisted and spun and slipped between the iron rings of Paul’s mail, through leather and wool and bone and flesh. It came out his back with a hissssssssssss and Sam heard Paul say, “Oh,” as he lost the axe. Impaled, his blood smoking around the sword, the big man tried to reach his killer with his hands and almost had before he fell. The weight of him tore the strange pale sword from the Other’s grip.

Do it now. Stop crying and fight, you baby. Fight, craven. It was his father he heard, it was Alliser Thorne, it was his brother Dickon and the boy Rast. Craven, craven, craven. He giggled hysterically, wondering if they would make a wight of him, a huge fat white wight always tripping over its own dead feet. Do it, Sam. Was that Jon, now? Jon was dead. You can do it, you can, just do it. And then he was stumbling forward, falling more than running, really, closing his eyes and shoving the dagger blindly out before him with both hands. He heard a crack, like the sound ice makes when it breaks beneath a man’s foot, and then a screech so shrill and sharp that he went staggering backward with his hands over his muffled ears, and fell hard on his arse.

When he opened his eyes the Other’s armor was running down its legs in rivulets as pale blue blood hissed and steamed around the black dragonglass dagger in its throat. It reached down with two bone-white hands to pull out the knife, but where its fingers touched the obsidian they smoked.

Sam rolled onto his side, eyes wide as the Other shrank and puddled, dissolving away. In twenty heartbeats its flesh was gone, swirling away in a fine white mist. Beneath were bones like milkglass, pale and shiny, and they were melting too. Finally only the dragonglass dagger remained, wreathed in steam as if it were alive and sweating. Grenn bent to scoop it up and flung it down again at once. “Mother, that’s cold.”

“Obsidian.” Sam struggled to his knees. “Dragonglass, they call it. Dragonglass. Dragon glass.” He giggled, and cried, and doubled over to heave his courage out onto the snow.

Grenn pulled Sam to his feet, checked Small Paul for a pulse and closed his eyes, then snatched up the dagger again. This time he was able to hold it.

“You keep it,” Sam said. “You’re not craven like me.”

“So craven you killed an Other.” Grenn pointed with the knife. “Look there, through the trees. Pink light. Dawn, Sam. Dawn. That must be east. If we head that way, we should catch Mormont.”

“If you say.” Sam kicked his left foot against a tree, to knock off all the snow. Then the right. “I’ll try.” Grimacing, he took a step. “I’ll try hard.” And then another.

Even though the sword of fire that Rand created using the One Power was formidable it was not as powerful as Callandor.  Callandor was the sword that prophecy said marked him the Dragon Reborn; similar to Lightbringer prophesying the return of Azor Ahai.  That is the reason why I don’t think that Longclaw in the books will be Lightbringer.  In the TV show they will probably make it Lighbringer as they don’t have time to go into Lightbringer fully but in the books, I see Longclaw as similar to Rand’s sword wrought from red flame.  I see Dawn as Callandor as when it shown it appeared brighter than the sun.  You all know that I think Jon Snow takes on some of the characteristics of Rand al’Thor.  Did you notice what Be’lal said to Rand.  He told him “Truly, you know nothing.”  Who have we heard time and again being told they know nothing?  Coincidence?  You take everything I have put together and judge for yourself.

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.

Another candidate for who could kill Varys

Potential Spoilers Below

My first assumption is that it will be Dany because she gave him the circumstance under which she would burn him alive.  Now after I re-read another passage, I think it could happen another way.  What if Tyrion turns out to be the one to betray Dany and not Varys?  Tyrion and Varys have become fast friends but if he were a traitor and Varys found out would he murder his friend to keep his secret.  I say he would.  Below are descriptions of Tyrion talking of him in similar tones (is it foreshadowing what is to come)?

“Someone told me that the night is dark and full of terrors. What do you see in those flames?”

“Dragons,” Moqorro said in the Common Tongue of Westeros. He spoke it very well, with hardly a trace of accent. No doubt that was one reason the high priest Benerro had chosen him to bring the faith of R’hllor to Daenerys Targaryen. “Dragons old and young, true and false, bright and dark. And you. A small man with a big shadow, snarling in the midst of all.”

“Snarling? An amiable fellow like me?” Tyrion was almost flattered. And no doubt that is just what he intends. Every fool loves to hear that he’s important. “Perhaps it was Penny you saw. We’re almost of a size.”

Varys smiled. “Here, then. Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less.”

“So power is a mummer’s trick?”

“A shadow on the wall,” Varys murmured, “yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow.”

Tyrion smiled. “Lord Varys, I am growing strangely fond of you. I may kill you yet, but I think I’d feel sad about it.”

Will Tyrion kill Varys to cover up his betrayal of Dany after Varys discovers it?  Could it be he that says “Dracarys” while riding a dragon instead of Dany as I originally thought?

Click here to see why I thought it would be Dany who would kill Varys.

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.

It’s time to dance with “Jak o’ the Shadows”

Potential Spoilers Below

I keep telling everyone that similarities between The Wheel of Time (TWOT) and A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) are vast even if there are those out there that say otherwise.

Per an interview Benioff tell us what the Night King is after: 

"I don’t think of him as evil, I think of him as Death,” Benioff told EW. “And that’s what he wants — for all of us. It’s why he was created and that’s what he’s after.”

It is noted that Jak o' the Shadows refers to death or the Dark One.  Since Benioff thinks of him as death the question now is will Tyrion who I believe is the Mat character from the Wheel of Time have a bigger role to play in the planning of the battles to come?  Mat’s mantra was "Dovie'andi se tovya sagain (It's time to toss the dice)”.  Mat normally says it when his life is on the line or is in trouble and needs to find a way out.  Anyone into ASOIAF and TWOT as I am knows that it may as well be Tyrion’s mantra as well.  Below are times within the books that Tyrion “tosses the dice”. 

“He does not look broken to me,” Lady Catelyn said.

Lady Lysa paid her no mind. “Say what you will,” she commanded Tyrion.

And now to roll the dice, he thought with another quick glance back at Bronn. “Where to begin? I am a vile little man, I confess it.  My crimes and sins are beyond “counting, my lords and ladies. I have lain with whores, not once but hundreds of times. I have wished my own lord father dead, and my sister, our gracious queen, as well.” Behind him, someone chuckled. “I have not always treated my servants with kindness. I have gambled. I have even cheated, I blush to admit. I have said many cruel and malicious things about the noble lords and ladies of the court.” That drew outright laughter.”

Bronn grinned. “You’re bold as any sellsword, I’ll give you that. How did you know I’d take your part?”

“Know?” Tyrion squatted awkwardly on his stunted legs to build the fire. “I tossed the dice. Back at the inn, you and Chiggen helped take me captive.”

“Everyone tells me that.” Tyrion glanced up at the sellsword. “Did I offend you? My pardons … but you are scum, Bronn, make no mistake. Duty, honor, friendship, what’s that to you? No, don’t trouble yourself, we both know the answer. Still, you’re not stupid. Once we reached the Vale, Lady Stark had no more need of you … but I did, and the one thing the Lannisters have never lacked for is gold. When the moment came to toss the dice, I was counting on your being smart enough to know where your best interest lay. Happily for me, you did.” He slammed stone and steel together again, fruitlessly.”

“Oh, I imagine they’ll be here long before it comes to sleep.” The smell of the roasting meat made Tyrion’s mouth water.

Bronn watched him across the fire. “You have a plan,” he said flatly, with a scrape of steel on stone.

“A hope, call it,” Tyrion said. “Another toss of the dice.”

“With our lives as the stake?”

Tyrion shrugged. “What choice do we have?” He leaned over the fire and sawed a thin slice of meat from the kid. “Ahhhh,” he sighed happily as he chewed. Grease ran down his chin. “A bit tougher than I’d like, and in want of spicing, but I’ll not complain too loudly. If I were back at the Eyrie, I’d be dancing on a precipice in hopes of a boiled bean.”

“And yet you gave the turnkey a purse of gold,” Bronn said.”

“A Lannister always pays his debts.”

“When dawn broke, he found he could not face the thought of food. By evenfall I may stand condemned. His belly was acid with bile, and his nose itched. Tyrion scratched at it with the point of his knife. One last witness to endure, then my turn. But what to do? Deny everything? Accuse Sansa and Ser Dontos? Confess, in the hope of spending the rest of his days on the Wall? Let the dice fly and pray the Red Viper could defeat Ser Gregor Clegane?”

So, with all that being said will men sing song’s to Tyrion’s battle planning prowess as they did to Mat?  I don’t know but I do know that it’s time to Dance with Jak o’ the Shadows because “Winter is Coming”!

Click here to listen to the song for yourself or just read it below:

We'll drink the wine till the cup is dry, And kiss the girls so they'll not cry, And toss the dice until we fly, To dance with Jak o' the Shadows.

We'll dance all night til the moon runs free, And dandle the lasses upon our knee, And then you'll ride along with me To dance with Jak o' the Shadows.

We'll sing all night, and drink all day, And on the girls we'll spend our pay, And when it's gone, then we'll away, To dance with Jak o' the Shadows.

There's some delight in ale and wine, And some in girls with ankles fine, But my delight, yes, always mine, Is to dance with Jak o' the Shadows.

We drink all night and dance all day, and on the girls we spend our pay, and when we're done, then we'll away, to dance with Jak o' the Shadows.

We'll toss the dice however they fall, And snuggle the girls be they short or tall, Then follow young Mat whenever he calls, To dance with Jak o' the Shadows.

We'll toss the dice however they fall, And snuggle the girls be they short or tall, Then follow Lord Mat whenever he calls, To dance with Jak o' the Shadows.

We'll give a yell with a bloody curse

Then hug the maids it could be worse

As we ride away with the dark ones purse

To dance with Jak o' the Shadows

Like Mat; Tyrion was reluctant to go into battle

Who will walk away from this dance intact when all is said and done?

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.

What is the Night King’s strategy? More aptly what is he looking for?

Potential Spoilers Below

I keep telling everyone that similarities between The Wheel of Time (TWOT) and A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) are vast even if there are those out there that say otherwise.

Per an interview Benioff tell us what the Night King is after: 

"I don’t think of him as evil, I think of him as Death,” Benioff told EW. “And that’s what he wants — for all of us. It’s why he was created and that’s what he’s after.”

OK so, he wants to rid the planet of sentient life.  So how does attacking Westeros do that?  Does he intend to systematically do it one village, town or city at a time?  I don’t think that is what he intends to do at all.  Within the series what is the most destructive force that we have seen?  Most people (i.e. TV viewers) would probably answer the Night King and his Army of the Dead.  Let me ask the question in another way.  What is the most destructive force on their planet at the current level of development of the inhabitants that we have seen to date?  I would answer that as the weather or nature itself.  Now let’s look at it from the point of view of this story. 

First, we learn of the story of the Breaking of the Arm of Dorne.   Stories tell us that the greenseers of the Children of the Forest used the hammer of the waters to make the seas rise and sweep away the land, shattering the land bridge that linked southeastern Westeros and southwestern Essos.  They did this in an unsuccessful attempt to end the invasion of the First Men.  The following are excerpts from the books that mention this story:

“The histories say the crannogmen grew close to the children of the forest in the days when the greenseers tried to bring the hammer of the waters down upon the Neck. It may be that they have secret knowledge.”

“where legend said the children of the forest had once called down the hammer of the waters to break the lands of Westeros in two.”

The second story is the Doom of Valyria which I see as more destructive.  An event not thoroughly explained that caused the downfall of the Valyrian Freehold.  An empire that stood for five thousand years was wiped out almost instantly.

It was written that on the day of Doom every hill for five hundred miles had split asunder to fill the air with ash and smoke and fire, blazes so hot and hungry that even the dragons in the sky were engulfed and consumed. Great rents had opened in the earth, swallowing palaces, temples, entire towns. Lakes boiled or turned to acid, mountains burst, fiery fountains spewed molten rock a thousand feet into the air, red clouds rained down dragonglass and the black blood of demons, and to the north the ground splintered and collapsed and fell in on itself and an angry sea came rushing in. The proudest city in all the world was gone in an instant, its fabled empire vanished in a day, the Lands of the Long Summer scorched and drowned and blighted.

An empire built on blood and fire. The Valyrians reaped the seed they had sown.

I think both events were caused by the same thing.  It was said concerning the shattering of the Arm of Dorne they may have had a secret knowledge.  I think the same knowledge caused the Doom.  More specifically I think the same device cause both.  And that is what the Night King is searching for as he doesn’t know the exact location of the device.  For those of you have kept up with my theories you know I believe that the device is located at the Isle of Faces.  I think that the device is similar to a device found within the Wheel of Time called the “Bowl of the Winds”.  During the Age of Legends, Aes Sedai using several bowl-shaped ter’angreal’s allowed its users to control the weather on a planetary scale.  I wrote about this theorized device a few years back; click here to read it.  I believe that a similar type device is what the Night King is after and if he gets his hands on it, he will be able to trigger a planet shattering event that could end all life on their planet. 

It is for this reason I think the attack on Winterfell is simply nothing more than a diversion.  If he wanted to just kill everyone, he could have done it before Jon and Dany could assemble their troops at Winterfell; taking out their base of operation.  Wights don’t tire why not just have them run day and night and get there before they arrive and again take their base of operation.  He himself could have destroyed Winterfell from the air on Viserion; the same as Aegon the Conqueror did riding Balerion the Black Dred assaulting the castle Harrenhal which was thought to be impregnable.  I believe he is drawing everyone who has knowledge to defeat his armies so that he himself can find what he is looking for and destroy the world unmolested. 

When I first saw the Lands of Always Winter on the TV show and saw the crystal spires jutting up from the ground  with the crystal pedestal at its center I immediately thought of the Bowl of the Winds.

Could this be a focal point for the theorized device that I believe exists within this world?  Could there be several other focal points around the globe?

The Bowl of the Winds

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.

What’s in a name?

Potential Spoilers Below

I keep telling everyone that similarities between The Wheel of Time (TWOT) and A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) are vast even if there are those out there that say otherwise.

Per an interview Benioff tell us all a little about the Night King. 

"I don’t think of him as evil, I think of him as Death,” Benioff told EW. “And that’s what he wants — for all of us. It’s why he was created and that’s what he’s after.”

Below is what I have been telling you all about the Night King:

Suddenly, it occurred to her that this fellow knew a great deal for a Friend of the Dark, especially one not many years past twenty. He swung one leg over an arm of the chair, lounging insolently under her scrutiny. Graendal might have snatched him, if he had any position or power; only too strong a chin kept him from being pretty enough. She did not think she had ever seen eyes so blue. With his insolence in her very face and what she had had to endure at Shaidar Haran’s hands so fresh, with the Source calling her and the Myrddraal gone, she considered teaching this young Friend of the Dark a sharp lesson. The fact that her clothes were grimy added their part; she herself smelled faintly of the perfume in the wash water, but she had had no way to clean the rough woolen dress in which she fled Egwene al’Vere, with its rips from her journey down to the Pit. Prudence prevailed—this room must be close to Shayol Ghul—but barely.

“What is your name?” she demanded. “Do you have any idea who you are speaking to?”

“Yes, I do, Moghedien. You may call me Moridin.”

Moghedien gasped. Not for the name; any fool could call himself Death. But a tiny black fleck, just large enough to see, floated straight across one of those blue eyes and then across the other in the same line. This Moridin had tapped into the True Power, and more than once. Much more. She knew that some men who could channel survived in this time aside from al’Thor—this fellow was much of a size with al’Thor—but she had not expected the Great Lord to allow one that particular honor. An honor with a bite, as any of the Chosen knew. In the long run, the True Power was far more addictive than the One Power; a strong will could hold down the desire to draw more saidar or saidin, but she herself did not believe the will existed strong enough to resist the True Power, not once the saa appeared in your eyes. The final price was different, but no less terrible.

In the Wheel of Time the Dark One promised Elan the following.  Know that Moridin was known by numerous names throughout the series; but his true name was Elan Morin Tedronai.

IT IS WHAT YOU PROMISED ELAN, Rand said. YOU PROMISED HIM AN END TO EXISTENCE.

I OFFER IT TO YOU, TOO, the Dark One replied. AND TO ALL MEN. YOU WANTED PEACE. I GIVE IT TO YOU. THE PEACE OF THE VOID THAT YOU SO OFTEN SEEK. I GIVE YOU NOTHING AND EVERYTHING.

So, I don’t think any of this is coincidence.  The Night King as I have told you all before was based upon Moridin.  The reason his eyes were blue is because of Moghedien  thinking “She did not think she had ever seen eyes so blue”.  The reason why he has “King” in his name is because of Rand’s thoughts of Moridin, for the first time, seeing him covered in dust:

He burst out into a street before he knew it, stumbling three steps before stopping. The pain in his side made him want to bend over, but he thought his legs might give way if he did. His wounded foot throbbed; it seemed a year ago that that red wire of Fire and Air had stabbed his heel.

His rescuer stood watching him; covered with dust head to toe, the fellow managed to look a king.

I think the reason why they think of him as “Death” is because that is exactly what the character who I say he is based upon name actually translates to in the Old Tongue.  What do you think?

Moridin

The Night King

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.