Within the Weirwoods - ASOIAF Theories (ft. MichaelTalksAboutStuff) 

Fun Fact: Niter is a common byproduct of making maple syrup! Tree sap contains niter that needs to be filtered out in the process of turning the raw sap into syrup

Thanks again for having me on guys! Can we take a moment to appreciate now that the second Tom started talking about the fluid in the wall he brings up sealing the tunnel at castle black and asks "is that a good tree to bark up" and I couldn't resist saying "that's a good way to word it", but the tunnel at castle black wasn't actually related so I had to scramble to not give away the game that it's all about a big tree the fluid goes up hahaha

This explains two weird things. One, the NW Builders spread gravel on top of the wall to keep it from getting slippery (as ice accumulates). If the Wall was melting like a glacier, the Builders would have to sweep newly exposed loose rocks off the top, not add more. The Wall building itself up from below makes much more sense anyway, compared to the immensely labor-intensive and inexplicable strategy of adding an impossible amount of height and weight to a structure made of ice. Two, not only are wells inhumane places to throw unwanted children, but dead children are irresponsible additions to wells. Ruining drinking water with human bodies is usually unnecessary, so either Westeros lost track of their metaphor, or the wells were actually weirwoods or weirwood-adjacent infrastructure.

No legend of Zelda connection but there might be a Link.

According to legend, the Horn of Winter will bring down the Wall by awakening giants underneath. Maybe the legend confuses giants with the Others tied up to the Weirwoods making up the Wall, and the Horn just releases them from the Weirwoods. Imagine if the Horn is blown at the Wall, nothing happens, and then an army of Others begin pouring forth from the castles.

It’s pretty hype hearing other people excited about this theory cause I was stoked lol

Insignificant thought maybe, but does the gate open for Sam because it recognises him as a brother of the watch because he said his vows at/to a weirwood tree. It would make narrative sense, as doing so has made no difference to the story so far. Maybe some other night's watchmen tried to go through the nightfort, but couldn't because they said their vows in a sept.

this could also explain how bloodraven is introduced as tied up in the weirwood network. george loves lovecraftian stuff so the idea of sleeping deities still controlling things while dormant could be these others in the trees and bloodraven is much more of an intruder to the weirwood network rather than the master of it, and he’s working to make sure the tree others/ weirwood network doesn’t wake up and release the full force of its magic. martin loves wearing his influences on his sleeve so these “sleeping giants” could be lovecraftian elder god type others that on bloodravens death would wake and cause havoc. it even mirrors how the show sidestepped this in favor of viserion, a freaky big other waking up and bringing down the wall

Great discussion boys. Absolutely love this theory. On the Pando side - it was said in TWOIAF that back in the day, the Blackwoods once ruled the Wolfswoods of the north, before being driven from there by the Kings of Winter (with some runic evidence in support). So (a) the Blackwoods would have known about this wall construction and the requirement for ongoing blood sacrifice, and (b) maybe when they were ousted by the Starks, they were cut off from this process / tradition as a punishment - ie the Starks killed their part of the Pando Tree network as a symbol of dominion/ power! Also gives good context for how / why Bloodraven knows what he does.

The branch in Night Fort kitchens is reaching up as if trying to touch Bran...just like Bran as a tree trying to reach for Jon....wow

You gotta do the follow up video. The new context about the foreshadowing in the bran flight dream and Daenerys shade visions is crazy, plus the addition of how glass candles tie in!

I desperately need a sequel/followup video on this, this was great!

Luwin told Bran that the castle of WF was stone weirwood, and the crypts and tunnels were the roots

Fantastic theory!

I found Michael’s channel from the companion video and it was really fun hearing the theory in this way. I love this collaboration too. Anyway the theory itself takes my breath away just like the first time. I absolutely think you’re dead on. Love it.

I keep coming back to this video I cant stop thinking about this theory.

Love the video guys. Looking forwards to more videos like this one in the future.

Wald is the German word for forest, so George might be punning. I know I've used a forest as a "wall" in a D&D setting based on that pun. Also, Walder Frey is a border sentinel of sorts. So maybe "Forest"er, "Lord of the Crossing" Frey is another pun.

This was amazing, the heart tree being the mother of the weirwoods that all the roots come from would make sense, like an aloe Vera that brings up babies from its roots and grows other aloes, and that’s why it’s called the heart, it’s at the centre of everything beating water into the veins of Westeros, and with the others trapped inside? This needs a follow up video for sure

THIS IS ABSOILUTELY OUTSTANDING WORK

YOOO what if the "sleeping giants" are kaiju sized weirwood ents???

Bran didn't like the heart tree at Winterfell either... Catelyn didn't either,it thinking it's long slow thoughts

Knowledge of plants and botany really adds to this theory but also adds to the story and is just plain interesting. Aspen trees in the western US are “clonal trees”, what appears to be a dense forest of similar sized trees is actually one tree, as the roots spread out it sends up new shoots, they emerge looking like a seedling but grows very fast because it’s all one organism, the other “trees” are all sending energy to these new shoots. In time one tree can spread to cover acres and acres with thousands of individual trunks, similar to bamboo. Even better are stoloneferous plants! Some elephant ears grow tentacles known as stolons. They shoot out of the mature bulb, usually popping out of the ground and running along the ground for a few feet, maybe as far as 10’. Every foot or so it will send out roots that plug down in the ground, a new bulb will form and leaves next, tge mother plant feeds them so they grow very fast, they can scrabble over rocks or driveways, or even dangle into waterways and happily grow in tge waters edge, it’s a great strategy to find fresh soil or move to a better area. These tentacles absolutely look like they coukd come to like and wrap you up! They’re often deep purple, red or black, they dont taper at all, looking very much like a piece of co/ax cable has come to life and is voraciously trying to cover the whole world, and in fact they can be very invasive and hard to eliminate… running bamboo is far more vigorous and invasive but just doesn’t look as freaky. Cheers

Shocked Pikachu meme

This was mind blowing.

Oh this was so fucking good

Wow fellas! I really like this one.

Could also explain why Bran is the target of the others. He knows how to rebuild the wall.

Hear me out, it's not others crucified, it's children of the forest. The others are repelled by them, which explains blood ravens cave

Must always be a Stark at WF,to kill deserters and clean the sword ICE

Maybe the Horn of Winter doesn't break the wall, maybe it breaks the chains holding what is crucified inside the wall.

just a couple minutes in to the video and I'm excited - I've been rereading fire & blood, and I'm really focused on where there are weirwoods especially with the theory that wyrms might be involved in underground tunnels

If the wall is cooling everything down the heat still needs to go somewhere. Is Winterfell heated by the geothermal action?

Theory: bran says that the wierwood looks like a man aging but being unable to die so what if greyscale eventuality makes you unable to die turning you into a wierwood.

Wow this is good

I wonder how the Isle of faces plays into this theory maybe there is some significance there

What if those others are the nights kings kids and the horn of winter had a spell to put them asleep because if the lord of winter fell killed them it would’ve been kin slaying

Do the Five Forts have something similar going on?

LGBTree tracks.

Humans are not magical. Children of the forest are magical, others are magical, etc. So what if children are the ones who made all that, built a wall and told people to poor blood into the wall or else others will come and kill everyone. I mean others gaslit humans to give up some of their kind to this giant wall or else all humans die. Also we talked about how the night watch got a lot less since the visit of Good quin Alisent. What if Alisent realized all that and said no, we will not continue to do the blood thing and since than only criminals were send to the wall. Hence less men, hence less blood sacrifice. And then Targs died, Stark father and son died and everyone who knew no longer lived. Does Bloodraven know? Bloodraven sits up north with children of the forest. He calls the most magical kid to him. He shows this kid all tree magic staff. So one day Bran can reaffirm the pact with the others and continue the blood sacrifice?