Watchers on the wall game of thrones

I am the watcher on the walls. I am the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come. The Night's Watch is grievously under-strength by the beginning of the book series, having fallen from 10, when Aegon the Conqueror invaded to less than 1,, divided into three garrisons at Castle Black soldiers , the Shadow Tower soldiers and Eastwatch-by-the-Sea less than soldiers.

This further reduced the Night's Watches ranks to only men, and perhaps worse, killed off most of their senior officers and best warriors, including Lord Commander Jeor Mormont himself.

The expedition force consisted of one hundred men from the Shadow Tower and two hundred men from Castle Black. After the Battle of Castle Black , the Night's Watch takes a headcount: their entire manpower including the garrisons at Eastwatch and the Shadow Tower has been reduced to brothers. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. The Night's Watch has no heraldic symbol , to emphasize its sworn duty to be removed from petty politics of one lordly House or another, but to defend the lands of men as a whole.

Thus, the Night's Watch uses solid black on its banner and shields, which symbolize the erasure of any allegiance to noble Houses. Even the "uniform" of the Night's Watch is to wear solid black clothing; members from wealthier families often buy all-black clothing before leaving for the Wall, while poor conscripts have their clothing simply dyed black when they reach the Wall clothing which isn't always well-suited for cold weather.

Solid black specifically denotes the rejection of heraldry, and is therefore strictly speaking not a "symbol" in and of itself, but the absence of a symbol. Game of Thrones Wiki. Game of Thrones Wiki Explore. Game of Thrones. House of the Dragon. Peterson - linguist. Patel - director. Vhagar Caraxes Syrax Meleys Sunfyre.

Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Night's Watch. View source. History Talk Do you like this video? Play Sound. This article is about the military order.

For the special feature, see: The Night's Watch " Night gathers, and now my watch begins. There are less than a thousand of us now. We can't man the other castles on the Wall. We can't properly patrol the wilderness.

We have barely enough resources to keep our lads armed and fed. The Starks have manned the Wall for thousands of years. And you are a Stark. You might not have my name, but you have my blood. You came alone, in chains, without friends or honor. You came to us rich and you came to us poor.

Some of you bear the names of proud Houses, others only bastard names or no names at all. It does not matter. All that is in the past. Here on the Wall, we are all one House. Join the Night's Watch. Alliser orders the archers on the Wall to nock their arrows, but they draw instead while Grenn accidentally drops a barrel down the Wall.

Alliser angrily drills his men on properly following orders when another horn blows from down below at Castle Black, signalling the unanticipated appearance of Tormund's band of wildlings at the castle's southern entrance. Realizing the dire need for experienced men to defend the keep from the surprise attack, Alliser orders Janos Slynt to assume command of the Wall's defenses and heads below to join the melee. Below, Tormund and Styr's forces charge the gate while Ygritte, acting as a sniper, manages to pick off several men defending the gate with her bow.

Pyp is firing a crossbow as Sam assists by reloading another crossbow, but Pyp's aim is poor due to inexperience and nerves so he repeatedly misses his shots. The band of wildlings manage to reach Castle Black's walls and begin scaling them using grappling hooks and ropes, forcing Sam and Pyp to retreat. Alliser Thorne arrives with reinforcements from the top of the Wall via the wooden lift system, which is being operated by Olly.

Alliser gives an impassioned speech, promising that the ancient order of the Night's Watch and Castle Black will survive this battle. His speech rallies the black brothers and Alliser personally leads the charge against the wildlings who have breached Castle Black's defenses, causing an intense battle to erupt in the courtyard.

On top of the Wall, Janos Slynt, having no true leadership experience, breaks down at the sight of the massive wildling army and begins fumbling his orders. Grenn steps in by falsely claiming that Alliser needs Janos back down below. Janos believes the lie and leaves, allowing Jon to take command of the Wall's defenses. The black brothers continue to rain down arrows on the advancing wildlings, even killing ones that are attempting to scale the Wall.

One giant , armed with a massive bow, manages to fire a huge arrow at one of the bunkers atop the Wall, completely obliterating it and killing the black brother manning it. The force of the giant's arrow carries the black brother off the wall on to the other side where he is shoved into ground with a tremendous amount of force. Hobb takes up his butcher's knife to defend the dining hall. Down in Castle Black, the battle rages on between the wildlings and the Night's Watch.

Styr and Ygritte continue to slay numerous black brothers. At one point, a group of wildlings breach Castle Black's dining hall. One wildling is killed when a black brother throws boiling stew in his face and beats him to death with the pot. Hobb , Castle Black's cook, calmly enters the dining hall and kills a wildling with his massive butcher's knife.

Meanwhile, Janos Slynt cowardly retreats to a storage room where he discovers Gilly and her baby. Samwell Tarly comforts Pypar as he dies. Sam comforts Pyp and stays with him until he dies. Sam is forced to leave Pyp's body and as he heads to Castle Black's lift system, but he is spotted by the Thenn warg. The warg charges at Sam as he desperately attempts to load his crossbow, managing to do so and firing a bolt into the warg's head just before he reaches him.

Meanwhile, Alliser Thorne is locked in a vicious duel with Tormund on the catwalks of Castle Black, both seem evenly matched in skill. However, Thorne suffers a grievous wound and is forced to retreat, being dragged to safety as he continues to shout orders to his men.

The black brothers defending the Wall manage to repel most of the wildlings attacking the outer gate, but one giant manages to make it through, greatly weakening the gate by repeatedly smashing it with his fists and managing to singlehandedly begin lifting the gate. Jon, knowing the inner gate won't hold against the massive giant, sends a group of black brothers led by Grenn to hold it at any cost.

Arriving at the inner gate, Hill cowers when faced by the giant charging at them, but Grenn bolsters his and the others courage by reciting the Night's Watch oath. The black brothers ready their weapons just as the giant slams himself into the inner gate.

Sam arrives atop the Wall to ask Jon for more men to defend the castle, and Jon tasks Sam with releasing Ghost from his pen to assist in the fighting. Jon descends the Wall and finally enters the fray, quickly dispatching several wildlings and catching the attention of Styr. The two meet in a single combat where Styr eventually gets the upper hand by knocking Longclaw away and brutally assaulting Jon, smashing his face into an anvil and tossing him into the blacksmith's forge.

Styr picks Jon up and begins strangling him, but Jon spits blood in Styr's face and distracts him long enough for Jon to grab the blacksmith's hammer lying next to him and buries it in Styr's skull. Upon killing Styr, Jon turns around to find Ygritte pointing her bow at him with an arrow drawn.

He smiles at her, causing Ygritte to hesitate. Before either can say anything, Ygritte is shot near the heart by an arrow fired from Olly, avenging the death of his father at Ygritte's hands during the wildling attack on his village. Just as Jon warned, the giants are able to break the door of the tunnel that runs under The Wall.

Nostalgia flashback: That tunnel is where we first met Thrones. The opening shot of the series was the gate opening; we were all so innocent then, still believing in the songs like Sansa.

Ser Alliser is a badass. He rouses the men and is fearless in battle. Thorne spots Tormund Giantsbane. We want them to fight, and they do. Tormund triumphs, but Thorne survives, wounded…. We expected about as much. You saw it, right? Around 40 minutes into the episode, there is a sweeping crane shot around the Castle Black courtyard with fighting in every corner of the frame.

The cast and crew shooting that day had to do that scene seven times to get it right. More in our interview link below. Or a little of it, anyway.

Then Jon takes on the lead Thenn. Jon convincingly holds off his much larger attacker and finishes him with a hammer. Pyp and Grenn die. Then Grenn dies off-screen while holding the tunnel against a rampaging giant. Two unexpected departures of likable guys. Ygritte dies — and kind of had it coming. His handsome looks? His nobility? That thing he did with his tongue? She could have killed him last time, and she purposely missed his vital organs.

The show has done well to get me invested in these as well as characters like Gilly, the baby and a few Watch members. However there are a lot of vaguely familiar faces that I don't care about in the Watch, mainly Jon Snows mates We've seen them throughout the show however they've always been side characters to Jon Snow, plus sadly a lot of the more memorable characters from the Watch have been killed - in some cases earlier this season.

The battle is lacking a final twist as throughout the series the "White Walkers" have been slowly built up and I thought they'd make their presence felt in this fight, as a result we don't get a final twist that Blackwater had. Ygritte's death is a highlight of the episode, it did feel like she was building up to a face turn at points this season but just as it looks like we're about to find out she's taken out by an arrow.