I think the symbol in the E1 opening is a crude representation of Arya’s trampoline. It was all foreshadowed from the onset!

I got the book set for Christmas because your videos have inspired me to want to read again. I was originally just a show watcher but like pretty much everyone I think what they did from season 4/5 onwards was just a tragedy against art and cinema and storytelling. Thank you for your amazing videos, genuinely

Only death can pay for life… It makes sense that the others need death to sustain themselves. The scene at the beginning of the first book makes so much sense when viewed as a reminder and warning. To me the implication is clear: choose who dies yourselves or we will come and choose indiscriminately. If you also look at it from the perspective of energy conservation, it is possible that if the others have to harvest life energy themselves, they need many more people to die to sustain themselves because of the effort it takes to go out, find, and then sacrifice victims. So the historical compromise was that the north would supply the detritus of society for their needs as that would protect the women, the children, and the lords themselves.

The Theta symbol is also in some of Grrm's other books ... I can't remember I think it's dying in the light maybe or in the house of the worm... And it's the symbol in reference to genetic manipulation or something like that??

It might be the recent activity is due to Mance learning about them, consolidating the clans and moving towards the wall, which would result in a lot of blood when they clash with the crows, which would feed the system, which would prolong their suffering if they wanted to die or sustain them if they wanted to "live". The dead men that attack Mormont could have been meant to attack small groups of individual wildilings on the other side of the wall and they weren't meant to be taken, but they were taken and events unfolded. The fist of the first men might have been either an attempt to kill them before they return to the wall or harry as many as possible in that direction. Not sure which side I fall on yet, but I find that interesting at least.

The Old Ways as a world order being encoded in the Weirwoods vibes incredibly well with Elden Ring (which GRRM also wrote for), where the Golden Order is encoded in the Erdtree; Erde being the German for earth/world, to boot. In general I suspect ER is vastly overlooked for comparison and interpretation, there's so damn many parallels

I always liked the theory that the Others were like Frankenstein's Monsters created by the COTF to fight the First Men, and like Dr. Frankenstein the Children lost control of them. But I really like your theory too. Assuming it's correct, I'd say the Others are trying to free themselves rather than demanding more sacrifices to prolong their undead lives. Great video!

The Others impaled two CHILDREN. I think their issue is with the Children of the Forest... the beings who put them is the state they are in. To make it clearer 4:03 they literally draw the Isle of Faces with chopped up bodies. They form the bodies in the shape of the island then they surround it by heads in pikes FACES. I think men are just collateral damage in their war trying to release themselves "All Men Must Die". 7:25 this is where it all went wrong. It's not in this video but if you look at this tree later it is dead. In fact, this is the only dead weirwood tree we see. They accidentally picked the wrong person and made him immortal. 8:31 and 11:54 are constellations. It's a "meteor shower" (look up images when the camera shutter is kept open) The others are marking an important date.

GRRM likes his dark elements too much to let the white walkers be happy with their immortality. My money is on them trying to die to end their own suffering and stop their masters, the Children/Weirwoods. Much like the Faceless Men and the slaves of old Valyria did when they sacrificed their own lives to cause the Doom.

Thank you Michael. I finally have peace thanks to you

but then what does it mean when an Other is killed? is that just the ShadowIceBaby spell being broken? Their conciousness being launched back into their body? and if so, then why do dragonglass and valyrian steel possess that property?

Why did the others want Royce in prologue? Why duel him and then keep 1 alive

The spirals seem like whirlpools sucking a liquid down... like a toilet... so could be asking for blood. Could also symbolize like a "come to us" a map ... like wherever you are your direction should be to us. The Theta symbol thing could just represent The Wall... like do this... remeber it's what makes the wall stay up. Or we can just go around like the bodies outside it imply.

Holy crap. I haven't watched the vid on the Trees in the Wall thing so maybe he's mentioned this.... I wonder if the scenes where people are in the cold cells allude to the people frozen and tied to the trees within the wall. Because it being GRRM, there would be clues to how they are living or feeling or how being imprisoned is affecting their mind... something will be said as a clue to their state of mind.

So, taking your theory towards its next logical questions: 1. What is the difference between the Others strapped to the Weirwood Trees inside the wall and the Greenseers the Children have bound to Weirwoods? Why and in what ways are they different? Are the wall/weirwoods bound to Green Men perhaps? - if they ever existed or still exist as a species in this world - and if so how does that make them different? Clearly the Others radiate cold in a way that the Greenseers bound to Weirwoods don’t, but what does that mean exactly? 2. What are the COTF hoping to accomplish in connecting Bran to the Weirwood trees? I suspect this has something to do with the time traveling communication ability, somehow fulfilling the need for a Bran the Builder figure creating a circular timeline, maybe, but also why would they want that? To ensure the past to preserve the present and future and or to start the process over again? This is very unclear to me. 3. And this is the big one, why are the Others seemingly trying to stop the COTF’s plan with respect to Bran? This is the key motivational question, what do these factions WANT? Your videos are making good progress towards actually attempting to decode the overarching plot of the SOIAF novels, something I’m concerned GRRM will never actually do for the reader on the page, leaving fans with a saga that is similar to the incredibly dense symbolism of David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” which a KZfaq fan eventually decoded close to 30 years after it was released. I’m hoping videos like yours give people a change to understand the SOIAF books within their own lifetimes. Keep up the good work!

A question, if you kill an other he just spawn again from the original body?

01:06 🎵From the Weirwoooooooood, to The Wall! Til sweat drips down Jon's - nevermind.

i like the notion that the Others are connected to the weirwood trees and require blood sacrifices to sustain them. However, i cannot agree with the notion that they are shadows in the same vein as Melisandre's shadow baby. It seems much more likely that the words "shadow" and "white shadow" were used for poetic effect rather than accurate descriptions. Like saying "the wolves moved like shadows through the trees". But then again, this is the first video of yours i've seen :)

There are key entities that are bonded.By showing us others are bonded .Numbers 3,6,9 are numbers that are used through out George's story.That are formulas in another plain of existence. A door that will b opened with key entities in proper place in proper time.Theres aspects of your theory I agree with.But it's awsome regardless. 💯

10:03 Whoa whoa... that's ME! So cool. 😊

The shape of body’s in the floor looks like a wheel and George did have a lot of influence in the first season maybe it points to the wheel what needs to be broken, like the simple alter that the sparrow shows Cerci I think that was meant to be something too the only other alter I saw was the White walkers turned the baby on it, maybe winter alter an summer alter winter is the only one In use anyway, the ancestors maybe one sacrifice to fire and one to ice, nobody’s been sacrifice to fire since the targarians fell, maybe that’s why the weathers off

The thing that truly concern's me is the bold assumption that a Woman ala Melisandre is needed to create an Other. I think Michael should explore the idea that all they need is contact with a Heart Tree. After all, there are surely women if the heart tree. If the Other's are more akin to Shadow Assassin's, then they're more like drones. They don't die for real, they disconnect, back to the Weirwood net. DDOSED by too many magic souls in one place, or by too much fire in their Ice. If they "respawn" and can't appear wherever they like North of the wall, then I'd imagine it wouldn't be JUST from the wall. It could be from the wall, but why JUST the wall. The faces on the Heart Tree are already creepy. Their weeping visage certainly fits this depiction of a trapped man wishing for change, that Michael's going for. We've been creeped out by the faces on the trees ever since Bran started seeing through them, since we made the connection that they're looking glasses for Greenseers. Surely those south of the the neck knew this historically. Or maybe they just cut the trees down due to religious doctrine of the seven, who knows. You certainly don't have to chop the trees down though, to rob them of their power's of sight; and the blood sacrifice angle. All you need to do that, is to make the people in power follow the faith of the seven; and outlaw the practice. Boom, no more sacrifices, no more intel. Keep in mind, that in order to accomplish cutting down a Heart Tree the majority of the population has to follow a different religion. So the main reasons to remove them are already handled. What if the Trees themselves have grown from men, their roots entangled to a greater network? Only capable of generating "Ice Assassin's" or used for Greensight once the face has been carved? It'd also give George strong landmarks to place on a map, with each Heart Tree representing an Other; or representing a Teleport Gate/Respawn Point. Maybe this is why the Godswood in Winterfell is surrounded by walls? To serve as a magical barrier similar to the wall; and Storm's End. Perhaps this is why fielding soldiers will actually take place in the final battle? The moment an Other clears the wall, it can immediately disappear in a puff of mist and reappear from the Godswood, freezing it's pool in Ice. This could mean that once the Wall falls, it may only mark a greater shift in the War with the Others. Perhaps Melisandre is convinced toppling the wall will solve the problem, only to have it get worse. Imagine a scenario in which they topple the wall, only for the Other's to be able to appear nearly wherever they like North of the Neck, almost instantaneously. Imagine how bad this could be if a great refugee crisis was already heading towards the Neck, where it'd be best to hold out against an army of dead men. I've always found the scene in the heart of Winter from the show to be entirely nonsensical. In my opinion Samwell's encounter lends the greatest credibility to your theories. Why would an Other collect a babe physically; and transport it... where? Across hundreds of miles? To the nearest camp of Others? How could it know that now's the time, are we to assume an Other is always patrolling Crastor's for Bastards? It's not behavior you expect from a monster, like Vampires or Werewolves. It's behavior you expect from an anomaly. Like an Extra Terrestrial or the Fae. If it's just appearing at the nearest Heart Tree, (as if it were a womb) collecting it's sacrifice; and depositing it at said tree. That's far more believable. Not to mention, if they're truly just hungry for blood. Then the War of the Five King's acts as the perfect justification as to why the Other's don't reach the wall for years, when they have an army that can march day or night. I believe an early chapter in a Game of Thrones supports this theory, when Samwell and Jon swear their oaths Ghost finds the Wights. This would suggest an Other was in close proximity, which was already confirmed in the prologue, but this could simply be drawing attention to their entry/exit path.

The first symbol looks like a crude circle with a sword through it. The hilt points downward. If it was upward, it would look like one of the sigils for House Dayne.

11:37 As an expansion to my comment on 10:03, there seems to be seven spokes on this windmill. One for each of the seven kingdoms... one for Snow, one for Rivers, one for Sands, etc. While not as important to the symbol(s) itself, and clearly not shown in that screenshot, a breakdown of what power the noble family of each kingdom gets would be good. We know Starks get the ability to Warg. Reeds get Greensight. Pikes may get Watery Rebirth(?). But what about the Martels or any of the rest? I've only read the books once and that was years ago. I don't remember what, if any, supernatural power each house possesses. An investigation/recap of that might be good if for no other reason than to fill out what the humans get from their pact with the weirwood trees. That is, other than impending threat from the Others, which may or may not have existed at the time, why would the First Men agree to such a thing? This might be something GRRM hasn't specifically addressed, but I feel that there may be hints.

In the show, the frozen skin of the Night King looks like tree bark and the green ribbons on his sword make me think of roots or leaves. It's really odd for him to have that bit of colour. Green no less.

11:40 Couldn't it be both? Maybe the bodies strapped to the trees get swapped out every few hundred years and these ones are long past their due date so they want someone else to take their place?

You're actually starting to not sound crazy to me. So, ether, you're making sense, or I'm going crazy.

While I have a few reservations about your theory, a lot of them are interpretation rather than mechanical. For example, I think there's a strong theme of misinterpretation within the story itself. If you were an Andal and you saw the remains of BR from a distance without interacting, what would you think? You might see bodys offered as sacrifices to them. So, may issue is that what you're seeing as a request for sacrifices could also be seen as a request for greenseers. Trees full of the spirits of the dead unable to share their stored information because there is no longer a greenseer plugged into them acting as a messenger between realms, or in Frey language a Lord of the Crossing. Arguably, I would say the strongest symbolic evidence for elements of your theory is Bran himself. Fair skinned with red hair, he seems very much like a Weirwood. With his crushed legs he seems again to symbolically a grafted tree, grafted to the roots in the grove beyond the Wall. With his blue eyes he carries much of the symbolism you're attributing to the Others. Interestingly, while warged into Summer the combination of blue and gold would be green. interestingly, Bloodraven actually continues the theme, it's just harder to see. Brynden looks not like tree in Winterfell but the one a Raventree. His hair is white which mirrors the bare branches of that tree. He's an albino, so his eye colour is hidden, but as a Targ would normally be blue or purple. So the two of them seem to represent sort of grafted saplings from other Heart Trees. The combination of their eyes and hair gives us a combined symbol that suggests an image of your theory. I worry that like the Andals you're seeing a request for blood as food rather than a request for a partner. The arrangement of the dead beneath the person on the tree could simply be an image of those who've died within the roots of the trees rather than a request for more dead. Which itself isn't necessarily as dark as you're suggesting. It could be a request for people to start worshipping them again so when they do died they'll go into them and can be preserved. Not a mass feeding of the trees, just wanting to be where people choose to go when they do die.

What would be the significance of the 19 towers/forts/castles along the Wall? Why 19? Assuming each tree's roots span 15 miles this would allow for 19 TreeForts (see what I did there) to span the entire 300 mile length of the wall. Mathematically this works to get 19, but why? Why would GRRM make it so the roots reach that far out in only two directions? The Wall is 700ft tall and the trees would have roots stretching a little over 7 miles in each direction. But why 7? GRRM seems to like that number. Bit off topic musing, but there are 7 faces of the one God and the devout are said to be followers of the Seven. This very easily could be homage to the 7 noble families/kingdoms under one Weirwood tree organism. This would make worship of the Old Gods and worship of the New Gods into the SAME religion! They just don't know it! (Yes, GRRM would do this to the Old and New Testaments!) More importantly, those they call Gods end up being just people. Kings, sure, but just people. The deity religion thing(s) as a whole turns out to be a farce to control the plebs.

It took you 12 minutes to explain the symbols which I’m sure can be cut down even more. D&D couldn’t find 12 minutes to explain their own lazy world building. But they found plenty of time to add scenes that never happened in the books.

Always the ahhhtists - Mance Raider

Im very much enjoying your theory vids and input on Sundays with LML, and I'm looking forward to seeing you on a Livestream soon. A small bit of constructive criticism tho, condense your ammount of onscreen text to just the quote you need and the citation. It's too much to read and try to follow you at the same time. Your viewer must pause to read and then go back to make the connection with your point. This disrupts your flow and can be frustrating to the viewer.

Probably the wrong video for this comment, but all your videos feed into each other. If Bran can communicate with the past by sending dreams or other means, we should be able to see evidence of future Bransending messages directly to himself. Is there any evidence of that you are aware of? Bran could simply choose not to send himself messages, but why would he do that? If there is some sort of plan future Bran has then wouldn't current Bran be the best person to be in on it? Maybe I have missed it in one of the other videos.

Idk man George called the show “licensed fan fiction” on multiple occasions and platforms so I’m not super into really anything the television programs portrayed as being exceptionally accurate in any way shape or form. I like that you are branching into all kinds of fun things that others have long stopped talking about and that you are trying new theories but the show is just what you see…hot trash 😂