The White Walkers are on the move and ready to attack, but when is that happening exactly? The latest trailer for this Sunday's episode of Game Of Thrones states that Bran sees them marching towards East Watch, which is not far from where they were when The Hound saw them in the flames way back at the premiere. So what's taking the White Walkers so long to do anything?
It seems likely The Night King is using that specific stretch of land as a rallying point before The White Walkers cross The Wall into the North of Westeros. As seen in this week's trailer for the next episode (featured on the next page), there are a TON of White Walkers on the march and getting all those bodies resurrected and congregated en masse to that one area had to take some time. With supposed months passed since the first sighting to now, it might be that The Night King has finally amassed an army large enough to make a real run at this world domination thing and is finally ready to unveil his strategy to getting around the wall.
Some Game Of Thrones fans seem to think The Night King will cross into Westeros through a frozen chunk of water just off the boundaries of the wall. If that's true, The Night King could be simply waiting for the ice to become thick enough to ensure safe passage for his army. If not, the delay could be the result of the White Walkers constructing some means of transport across the body of water. The latter seems unlikely given that we haven't seen White Walkers utilize boats before, but, then again, they ride horses and use swords, so why not?
There's also the fact that the White Walkers really have no reason to press the action. With winter explicitly guaranteed to be "long," The Night King is the triggerman on when this Apocalypse really kicks off in full force. It does seem like it would behoove him to get his army going sooner rather than later, considering Jon is actively gathering dragon glass and attempting to get Daenerys to his cause, but when one has waited so long for a chance to destroy humanity these things can't really be rushed, can they?
It might also just be that the White Walkers are an incredibly slow moving force. Just because they're undead doesn't mean they're any quicker than other armies in Westeros. Ultimately, that seems to be a non-issue, as it appears the White Walkers are going to thrive on strength in numbers. That said, if Dany ends up lending one of her dragons to Jon's efforts, the White Walkers might want to do some agility training so they can dodge those flames when they come their way.
Game Of Thrones is all new Sunday, August 13th at 9 p.m. ET on HBO. For more discussion related to this latest episode, check out how someone might be dead, or how the full power of Drogon was finally realized. For more summer shows, visit our summer premiere guide. And, with fall just around the corner, now might be the best time to start preparing for that with our fall premiere guide. For a look at next week's episode, be sure to check out the next page.
