game of thrones - Are the Night's Watch still required?

In the TV series Game of Thrones, now that as of Season 8 Episode 3, "The Long Night", the

Night King is defeated and the White Walkers and their wights are dead along with anyone (presumably) who was behind the Wall prior to season 8,

are the Night's Watch still required?

Answer

Well no, but actually yes.

After Battle of the Dawn when the Others were defeated the first time, the Order retained its structure. They won but they didn't know if the threat was truly gone so they remained on their posts, defending the realms of Men against Night's King (The real one, not Darth Maul on Ice) and Wildlings. With time, they lost sense of their true purpose and many believed they were just meant to fight the Wildlings.

Now in the showverse, it seems the Long Night is over after stretching shockingly for almost one whole night. But that doesn't mean that the Watch has lost its usefulness. Here's why:

Night's Watch provides a chance for redemption to criminals. For example Brynden Rivers, Ulmer of Kingswood, Olyver Bracken etc. At th every least, it keeps dangerous criminals out of the society.

It provides a home to misfits like younger sons, bastards, orphans and starving who belong nowhere. For example Waymar Royce, Jon Snow, Lommy Greenhands, Hotpie etc.

It provides a way for the nobles to get rid of rival claimants in a way softer than execution and more permanent than exile. For example Yorick V Yronwood, Eddard Stark etc.

The hope of being allowed to take the black leads to swifter surrender of people with a losing cause. For example both Aegon II and Theon Greyjoy became very hopeful when their Maesters counselled them to join the Watch as their enemies approached. It's another story that both of them decided not to given that they didn't trust their enemies (Or in Theon's case, brothers on the Wall).

It provides a chance to the lowborn and bastards to rise high in the world. For example Cotter Pyke, Satin and Jon Snow.

On the off-chance that the others might rise again, the Watch needs to be there to fight it again, wake the sleepers and defend the realms of men.

Also read: Why do people join the Night's Watch?

Comments

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...

Blog

Search This Blog