Four hundred thousand ravens, his own torsos

August 31, 2017 6:21 PM

The Winds of Winter as written by a neural network (all chapters here). Also why are a there no female White Walkers? (Game of Thrones spoilers if you're not quite up to date).
posted by Artw (15 comments total)

“Meera kicked the turtle warily at Tyrion’s face”.

YES PLEASE
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:55 PM on August 31, 2017 [3 favorites]

Why are there no female White Walkers

I think the answer is quite obvious:
What we get to see on TV is the army of the White Walkers. In medieval times, in which GoT is set, armies were made up of male fighters only.

The female White Walkers are at home in their igloos, where they tend to the White Toddlers and wait for the return of their male companions.
posted by sour cream at 12:06 AM on September 1, 2017 [5 favorites]

why are a there no female White Walkers?

I don't a know! Why a are a there no of the lady a White a Walkers, ah? It's a spicy meat a ball!
posted by Saxon Kane at 12:39 AM on September 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

"I think the answer is quite obvious:
What we get to see on TV is the army of the White Walkers. In medieval times, in which GoT is set, armies were made up of male fighters only."

Um, this is not remotely true, as even a cursory Internet search will attest.
posted by nonmerci at 12:43 AM on September 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Perhaps the female white walkers got bored of the really slow walking pace and went home? I'm only up to 7.5 and those guys are taking a really long time to get to the far end of the wall to attack that undermanned fort Jon Snow has been worried about for so very long.

I'm not reading the article (because only 7.5) but the absence of WWWomen seems to make no sense since they had WW kids back in series 5 and why wouldn't you white walker-ise Birgitte Hjort Sorensen's character?
posted by biffa at 4:05 AM on September 1, 2017

Everyone knows that on the savannah blasted frozen waste, female white walkers were more suited to foraging for roots and herbs which the band could inexorably advance towards and engulf in eternal winter when no humans were available. That's why even today they prefer to remain home rather than pursue careers as unstoppable civilization-ending menaces. You don't like it, blame science, not me.
posted by No-sword at 5:37 AM on September 1, 2017 [7 favorites]

The Nerdist explains
posted by Ber at 5:49 AM on September 1, 2017

Why are a there no female White Walkers?

This question has kept me up at night almost as much as "Why are there no female Ringwraiths?"
posted by Liquidwolf at 6:48 AM on September 1, 2017

Aren't there female White Walkers? (At least I saw some of them as female coded in those panoramic shots of fighters surrounding the lake.)

Oh edit: Oh, not the foot soldiers, those mounted guys. Nevermind.

(Still, Cersei might yet break the glass, er, ice ceiling on that one.)
posted by Kurichina at 7:02 AM on September 1, 2017

Kurichina is right, I went back and had a look at 5.8 and Birgitte Hjort Sorensen's character (Karsi) does get brought back after being killed at Hardhome. It looks pretty much like the Night King raises up all the corpses, men and women, while the surviving humans row away. See here, from about 3.00. That still leaves the question as why we don't see more of them on the march.
posted by biffa at 7:14 AM on September 1, 2017

Kurichina was right before a naughty edit anyway.
posted by biffa at 7:15 AM on September 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

The article explains that there ARE female wights, Karsi for example, and probably others that just aren't identifiable by any gender because there ragged and decayed. I think the subject is about White Walker leaders, as in those guys on horses who lead.
posted by Liquidwolf at 7:37 AM on September 1, 2017

The thing in the FPP that says "Why are a there no female White Walkers?" is actually a link you can click on to read more. The article also explains the difference between white walkers and wights ("We’ve seen female wights shambling alongside male ones, like Karsi (RIP) after the battle of Hardhome."). Ber also posted the same link, I guess for emphasis.

As for the question in the article about why only Craster's sons get white walkerized--didn't the show pretty much make it explicit that Craster puts his sons out as an offering to the WWs, and implicit that he does this so they will otherwise leave him be?
posted by mama casserole at 7:42 AM on September 1, 2017 [7 favorites]

As for the question in the article about why only Craster's sons get white walkerized--didn't the show pretty much make it explicit that Craster puts his sons out as an offering to the WWs, and implicit that he does this so they will otherwise leave him be?

Yep. He "marries" the daughters and sacrifices the sons.
posted by Liquidwolf at 7:50 AM on September 1, 2017

Sorry mama, I got carried away with it despite spoiler issue.
posted by biffa at 8:31 AM on September 1, 2017