The Night's Watch

"The Night's Watch" is a short video and part of the "Histories & Lore" feature of the Season 2 bluray set. It features Rose Leslie as Ygritte, who provides the perspective of the Free Folk about the Night's Watch.

Narration
"Swords in the darkness", Ygritte recites, and concedes that the Black Brothers of the Night's Watch are that, at least, as too many of the Free Folk know. She considers "southerners" strange: a man murders and he's trained to kill better, but if a man thieves or rapes and he's sent where its dark and private. She ironically adds that, at least, the second man is made to promise to be good.

But then, said man's made to regret even that for from the time he wakes to the time he's allowed to sleep, he walks the frozen Wall, carries frozen stones, or boils frozen food. When he lays down at night he can't have anybody to warm his frozen bed, not unless "crows" like to "nest together", she jokes.

She wonders if the proverbial man remembers the stories he was told, about when the White Walkers woke in the Lands of Always Winter and how the Wall and the Night's Watch were raised to stop them the next time; nevermind trapping the Free Folk on the other side.

But the Free Folk have their stories, too. Like one about how one of the "King Crows" found "something cold" in the woods, how he brougth her home through the Wall and declared himself "Night's King". Thirteen years he and his Queen ruled over his sworn brothers, making sacrifices "as black as their cloaks".

Ygritte adds that, lucky for the southerners, the Free Folk rallied to a King-Beyond-the-Wall, as they will when needed be, and marched on the ancient castle the Night's King had taken for his own. With the help of the Starks, the Free Folk killed "the demon", and cleansed the "precious" Watch. She sarcastically adds that the Free Folk were given thanks, and then kicked back across the Wall, as they always have been. She lists Gendel, Raymun Redbeard, the Horned Lord, each chosen as a King-Beyond-the-Wall, each promising victory, and all fallen to the Night's Watch and the Starks.

But this time its different, warns Ygritte. The new King of the Free Folk knows the tricks of the Night's Watch. He was called a Brother Crow once, but he never forgot his wings. Ygritte reminds that they know how the Watch thinks, they know where they are weak. She boasts that they can watch from their Wall if they like, for in the cold they'll never feel the blade slip into their backs.

Characters

 * The Night's King
 * The Night's Queen
 * Joramun (not mentioned by name)
 * Gendel
 * Raymun Redbeard
 * The Horned Lord
 * Mance Rayder

Noble Houses

 * House Stark

Locations

 * The North
 * The Wall
 * The Nightfort
 * Beyond the Wall
 * Haunted Forest

Races

 * Free Folk
 * White Walkers