Recaps

Greatjon Umber urged Ned Stark to hold Lynn and Arya Stark’s wedding that night, and Ned agreed as the North’s lords rallied around the match. After Roose Bolton decided to provoke wider war to advance House Bolton, Lynn and Arya married beneath the weirwood, while Lynn glimpsed Roose watching from the shadows.

• Greatjon Umber proposed that Lynn and Arya marry immediately in Winterfell’s Godswood, and the lords enthusiastically supported him.
• Arya made clear she wanted the marriage, and Ned Stark agreed to hold the wedding that night.
• Roose Bolton realized the marriage had strengthened House Stark and decided to use House Frey and the coming war to create chaos.
• Ned gave Arya’s hand to Lynn beneath the weirwood, and Lynn and Arya exchanged vows before the northern lords.
• Lynn and Arya kissed as the gathered lords cheered, and Lynn spotted Roose Bolton slipping through the shadows.

Lynn and the Stark allies staged a reckless march on the Twins to mislead Roose Bolton, then revealed a secret plan to cross the Neck and seize Robert Arryn at the Eyrie. The North prepared to use Robb’s army as bait while Lynn’s forces struck the Vale and Manderly’s fleet blockaded Blackwater Bay.

• Lynn gathered the northern lords, counted their forces, and secured their agreement to appoint Robb Stark supreme commander.
• Robb publicly proposed marching the North’s army south along the Kingsroad to attack the Twins, and the lords—including Roose Bolton—approved the plan.
• After the others left, Robb revealed that his proposal had been a performance, and Lynn warned that Roose might pass the false plan to the enemy.
• Lynn secretly instructed Robb to lead ten thousand men south as a conspicuous decoy and Wyman Manderly to sail his fleet south to blockade Blackwater Bay.
• Lynn revealed that he would cross the Neck with Crannogmen guides and strike the Eyrie while the Vale’s forces were occupied, capturing Robert Arryn to force Lysa Arryn’s surrender.

Lynn brought Arya to the Gift, where she witnessed his disciplined Wildling army and learned that he could create White Walkers who obeyed his commands. The chapter ended with Arya staring in shock as Lynn's newly created White Walker knelt before him.

• Arya joined Lynn on Winter as he flew from Winterfell to the Gift.
• Lynn reunited with Ygritte and Tormund, then ordered the Wildlings to assemble for inspection.
• Arya watched Lynn's army display five thousand infantry, hundreds of Giants, and fifty armored mammoths.
• Lynn led Arya into an underground cave filled with corpses and used a burst of cold to transform a dead Wildling into a White Walker.
• Lynn commanded the White Walker to kneel, and it obeyed before Arya.

Lynn revealed to Arya that he could create White Walkers, and she accepted his secret and named them the Winter Wight Legion. He then rallied his army and used the Horn of Winter to summon a Frost Giant, which knelt in submission before him.

• Lynn tested a resurrected White Walker's swordsmanship against his own, and Arya saw it reproduce the styles of renowned warriors.
• Lynn told Arya that a god had granted him the power to gain abilities from enemies he killed, including the ability to create White Walkers; Arya accepted him and named them the Winter Wight Legion.
• Lynn created ten White Walkers, then addressed his assembled Wildling army, Giants, and mammoths at Dragon's Landing Castle.
• Lynn sounded the Horn of Winter and summoned a Frost Giant more than fifteen meters tall from the snowfield.
• The Frost Giant knelt before Lynn, while Arya watched with pride and renewed eagerness for battle.

Lynn reasoned that the Night's King was trying to break an endless cycle created by the Three-Eyed Raven, and decided to use the Horn of Winter despite the risks. After summoning a Frost Giant and winning the Wildlings’ worship, he ordered thirty thousand warriors to march on Winterfell the next morning while the rest prepared supplies for the Long Night.

• Lynn concluded that the Night's King was his ally and that the Three-Eyed Raven was the true enemy behind the repeating cycle.
• The Frost Giant knelt before Lynn, and tens of thousands of Wildlings hailed him as a god.
• Tormund begged Lynn to give him the Frost Giant as a bride, but Lynn explained that it was an ice combat puppet without a sex.
• Lynn ordered thirty thousand of the finest Wildling warriors to march south and told the rest to build defenses and gather food that would not spoil.
• Lynn announced that the army would march on Winterfell the next morning.
• That night, Ygritte slipped into Lynn's bed and crowded beside him and the sleeping Arya.

Lynn infused Ygritte and Arya with dormant Ice Magic that would form protective ice armor against fatal threats, then led thirty thousand Wildling warriors south at dawn. As the army marched, the Night's King looked toward the Wall.

• Ygritte confessed she feared dying and never seeing Lynn again, so Lynn promised to protect her.
• Lynn infused Ygritte with Ice Magic that would create ice armor against potentially fatal threats, then gave Arya the same safeguard.
• Ygritte secretly seduced Lynn beneath the covers while Arya slept beside them, and Lynn distracted Arya when she briefly woke.
• At dawn, Lynn rode Winter with Arya as thirty thousand Wildling warriors assembled and began marching south.
• In the Lands of Always Winter, the Night's King raised his head and looked south toward the Wall.

The Horn of Winter shattered the Wall’s magic, freeing the Night’s King to act and giving the Three-Eyed Raven hope of escape. The Night’s King cornered Brynden Rivers in his cave and sent White Walkers south with a letter and a blood-red branch addressed to Lynn.

• Jeor Mormont heard the Horn of Winter, watched cracks spread across the Wall, and realized its protective magic had failed.
• The Night’s King empowered a Wight, prepared a letter on black ice, and sent two White Walkers south to deliver it to Lynn.
• Brynden Rivers celebrated the weakening Wall, but the Night’s King blocked his power inside the weirwood cave and prevented him from sending his consciousness south.
• Jeor Mormont and the Night’s Watch saw five Wights and a White Walker waiting outside Castle Black with a branch and an ice letter addressed to Lynn.

Jon Snow accepted a letter and blessed items from the White Walkers for delivery to Lynn, while Jeor Mormont argued that the mission was vital to the Night’s Watch. Jon and Benjen Stark left Castle Black disguised as ordinary travelers, carrying the mysterious message south.

• Jon volunteered to retrieve the letter, and Jeor Mormont allowed him to approach the White Walkers with Ghost while Benjen promised to cover him from the Wall.
• Jon carefully accepted a weirwood branch and an ice-crystal scroll from the White Walker leader, and the White Walkers and wights departed into the blizzard.
• Jeor identified the scroll as a letter from the Night’s King and told Jon to deliver it and the blessed items to Lynn.
• Jeor persuaded Jon that the mission would help the Night’s Watch survive, and advised him to conceal his black-brother status by posing as a messenger from Winterfell.
• Benjen joined Jon for the journey, and the two rode south from Castle Black in ordinary clothes with the letter and blessed items.

Jon Snow and Benjen Stark brought Lynn a sacred branch and a warning from the Night's King about the Three-Eyed Raven, while Lynn's immense army impressed the northern lords. At the Neck, the swamp blocked their advance, and Lynn prepared to show how he would get the army across.

• Jon Snow and Benjen Stark arrived with a branch from the Cold Gods' Sacred Tree and an ice scroll warning Lynn not to let the Three-Eyed Raven take a new body.
• Lynn consumed the sacred branch, gaining ten points in every attribute, and kept the scroll's warning from Jon.
• Lynn led his Wildling forces, Giants, Mammoths, Frost Giant, and White Walker guards to Winterfell, where Robb Stark and the northern lords marveled at the army.
• Robb and Lynn marched south with a united force of fifty thousand, but halted at the impassable swamp at the Neck.
• Lynn dismissed the lords' fears and raised his hand toward the swamp as the air around him grew colder.

Lynn secretly froze a road through the Neck and led his forces toward the Bloody Gate while Robb Stark served as bait on the Kingsroad. Robb outmaneuvered the Vale army despite Ramsay Bolton’s betrayal, trapping its knights in a deadly encirclement.

• Lynn publicly chose the Kingsroad, sent Robb and forty thousand men ahead, then froze a highway across the Neck and marched toward the Bloody Gate with Arya, Jon, Benjen, the Wildlings, giants, mammoths, and Winter Wights.
• The Vale army ambushed Robb’s force on the Kingsroad, but Robb reorganized the northern troops and used a three-rank spear formation to stop the Vale knights’ charge.
• Robb ordered Greatjon Umber and Lord Karstark to attack the Vale flanks while his main force pressed forward, and Ramsay realized Lynn’s army had taken another route through the Neck.
• Ramsay withdrew his Dreadfort soldiers, but Robb staged a panicked retreat to draw Nestor Royce’s pursuing knights onto the open plain.
• Greatjon and Karstark closed in from both sides, trapping the Vale army, and Robb led the northern charge into the encircled knights.

Robb routed Nestor Royce’s Vale army with a feigned retreat while Lynn’s force crossed the Neck, and Lysa mistook Lynn’s staged Frost Giant sighting for proof that he planned to attack the Bloody Gate. Lynn reached the Riverlands with his army and prepared to use both Robb’s force and his own as bait for a secret plan.

• Robb’s Northern army encircled Nestor Royce’s knights and routed the Vale force, inflicting heavy losses before Robb ordered his troops to rest rather than pursue.
• Lynn received 16,802 Experience Points from Robb’s victory and admired his brother-in-law’s unexpected skill in battle.
• Lysa rejected Ramsay’s warning about Lynn’s monsters until a scout reported seeing a giant made of ice, then ordered Nestor to retreat to the Bloody Gate and Walder Frey to attack Robb’s army.
• Lynn’s deliberately exposed Frost Giant led Lysa to believe he was targeting the Bloody Gate, so she concentrated the Vale’s defenses there.
• Lynn’s army crossed the Neck into the Riverlands, where he confirmed that Lysa had taken the bait and revealed that his own force was bait for a further secret plan.

Ramsay Bolton led three thousand Dreadfort soldiers toward Winterfell, hoping to seize the castle while the North’s forces were away. He found Ned Stark and a prepared army waiting instead, and as the battle began, Ramsay charged into the Northmen’s attack.

• Ramsay convinced his soldiers that Winterfell was undefended and promised them land and women if they helped him seize it.
• After two days, Ramsay reached Winterfell and watched its gates open to reveal Stark, Manderly, and Umber soldiers.
• Ned Stark revealed that he had never left Winterfell and that Lynn had impersonated him with a Man-Faced Mask.
• Ned called Ramsay a traitor and offered the Dreadfort soldiers a chance to surrender before ordering his army to attack.
• As the Dreadfort ranks faltered, Ramsay charged alone into the advancing Northmen, determined not to die.

Ned Stark defeated Ramsay Bolton’s army outside Winterfell and promised the surrendered Dreadfort soldiers a chance to face judgment, then had them massacred in a trench. In the Riverlands, Lynn received experience points for the deaths, bringing his total to 26217.2.

• Ramsay Bolton’s forces were routed, and Miranda died defending him from Stark soldiers.
• Ned ordered Ramsay and Miranda taken alive, then offered the surrendered Dreadfort soldiers custody and a future judgment.
• The Stark soldiers disarmed the three thousand prisoners, stripped them, and drove them into a trench.
• Ned ordered archers to kill everyone in the trench, then told his soldiers to fill it in.
• Lynn received system notifications for the Dreadfort casualties, raising his experience total to 26217.2.

After seeing Ned execute the surrendered Dreadfort rebels, Lynn discovered Ramsay’s threats against the women he loved and erupted in fury. He resolved to make Ramsay suffer, then revealed that the Wildlings’ real target was the Eyrie, which he planned to seize with Winter and a small force.

• Lynn used Greensight to witness Ned order the execution of the surrendered Dreadfort soldiers and saw Ramsay captured alive.
• Lynn heard Ramsay threaten the women in his life, and the rage he felt sent freezing power surging through the forest.
• Lynn told Arya, Jon, and Benjen that he had changed his plans for Ramsay and intended to keep him alive for a cruel punishment.
• Lynn gathered Tormund, Ygritte, Mance Rayder, and the Wildling leaders and said their assault on the Bloody Gate would be a diversion.
• Lynn pointed to the Eyrie as the real target and said Winter would carry his group there, with only eleven people needed to take it.

Lynn ordered Mance, Tormund, and Ygritte to pin the Vale’s forces at the Bloody Gate through harassment rather than a costly assault, while he flew with Winter toward the Eyrie. He left Arya, Jon, and Benjen with the wildlings and began a direct approach to the Vale’s seat.

• Lynn explained that the wildlings should avoid head-on fighting and use harassment to keep the Vale’s soldiers occupied at the Bloody Gate.
• Mance agreed to command the force, with Tormund and Ygritte as his deputies, and to minimize casualties while keeping the Vale’s main army pinned.
• Lynn instructed Arya to stay with Jon and the others and follow Mance’s lead before he departed on Winter with ten White Walkers.
• Winter flew over the Mountains of the Moon and reached the Eyrie, where Lynn directed the dragon into a silent dive toward the castle.

Lynn used a mask containing Petyr Baelish’s memories to turn a White Walker into his likeness, then brought Winter to the Eyrie and overwhelmed its defenses. The Vale’s nobles and soldiers surrendered, and Lynn revealed the disguised White Walker as Littlefinger.

• Lynn placed the Petyr Baelish mask on a White Walker, transferring Petyr’s memories and mannerisms into it.
• A guard spotted Winter approaching the Eyrie, and Ser Maqo Arryn ordered the Dragon-Hunting Ballistas to fire.
• Lynn shielded Winter with Ice Crystal Armor, which shattered the incoming bolts without damage.
• Winter destroyed the Eyrie’s defenses with frost, fire, and lightning, forcing its defenders to surrender.
• Lynn landed in the Moon Door Gardens, questioned Ser Marq Arryn, and revealed the White Walker’s Petyr Baelish face.

Lynn exposed Petyr Baelish’s role in Jon Arryn’s murder and the war, then demanded that the Vale surrender Robert Arryn. When Grady Grafton challenged him to a duel, Lynn proposed a contest whose outcome would decide the Vale’s fate.

• Lynn introduced the masked White Walker as Petyr Baelish, who confessed to arranging Jon Arryn’s murder and fabricating the accusation against the Lannisters.
• Lynn demanded that Ser Marq Arryn hand over Robert Arryn so Ned Stark could raise him at Winterfell, promising to leave the Eyrie unharmed.
• Grady Grafton challenged Lynn to a fair duel, and Vale knights rallied behind the challenge.
• Lynn accepted but proposed that ten of his men face the Vale’s chosen hundred strongest fighters for as long as a candle burned.
• Lynn declared that if his ten men won, the Vale would swear allegiance to him and join his attack on the Riverlands.

Lynn challenged the Vale to send a hundred knights against him and nine black-robed companions, and the nobles accepted, convinced they would win. Outside the Bloody Gate, Tormund persuaded a Frost Giant to tap the fortress, and the giant destroyed it with one punch.

• Lynn proposed a duel against a hundred of the Vale's strongest knights and agreed to stay at the Eyrie for three days before the contest.
• Ser Gretly Grafton accepted Lynn's challenge and promised to gather the Vale's strongest warriors and release Bronze Yohn.
• The Vale nobles celebrated their expected victory, while Ser Marq Arryn worried that Lynn seemed too calm.
• Tormund grew frustrated with the wildlings' nightly harassment of the Bloody Gate and asked the Frost Giant to tap one of its pillars.
• The Frost Giant ignored the defenders' arrows and crushed the Bloody Gate with a single blow, leaving a passage through the mountains.

Tormund’s suggestion led the Frost Giant to destroy the Bloody Gate with one touch, but Mance Rayder ordered the Wildlings to withdraw and continue drawing the Vale’s forces away. Ser Ronald and Ser Nestor struggled to understand why the enemy left without attacking, while Nestor decided to stop his march and learn what Lynn intended.

• The Frost Giant accidentally demolished the Bloody Gate, and Mance Rayder reprimanded Tormund for ruining Lynn’s plan to keep the Vale’s army occupied.
• Mance ordered the Wildlings to retreat into the mountain forests, leaving the stunned Vale garrison unharmed.
• Ser Ronald concluded that Lynn had destroyed the gate as a warning and sent word to Ser Nestor and Ser Brynden Tully.
• A scout told Ser Nestor Royce that the Bloody Gate had been punched down and the Wildlings had left without casualties.
• Nestor halted his cavalry, ordered the army to camp, and resolved to find out what Lynn was planning.

Mance Rayder kept the Wildlings at the ruined Bloody Gate to pin down the Vale army, where growing camaraderie gave him a chance to reveal Lysa’s crimes and explain Lynn’s cause to Ser Ronald. Ronald began questioning his orders just as Nestor Royce’s army arrived, leaving a new confrontation imminent.

• Mance Rayder ordered Tormund to keep harassing the Vale soldiers instead of storming the ruins, and the Wildlings continued their assignment despite the soldiers’ indifference.
• After several days, Tormund traded water and food with the Vale soldiers, and both sides began exchanging goods and talking as ordinary people.
• Mance Rayder approached Ser Ronald and accused Lysa of Jon Arryn’s murder, framing the Lannisters, and sabotaging Lynn’s fight against the White Walkers.
• Ronald and his soldiers reconsidered their role in the conflict after Mance argued that Lynn had spared them and that they were pawns in Lysa’s scheme.
• A scout announced that Nestor Royce’s army had reached the mountain pass, and Ronald wondered whether to obey Lysa or side with Lynn.

After learning that a Frost Giant had destroyed the Bloody Gate, the Vale nobles prepared to settle their conflict with Lynn through a duel. One White Walker routed their finest knights, and Lynn revealed that the fight had only begun as he and eight more armed themselves with ice weapons.

• A raven reported that a Frost Giant had erased the Bloody Gate and that the Wildling army had moved on, prompting the Vale nobles to recognize Lynn’s power and accept the duel as their chance to preserve their honor.
• Ser Grady ordered the Vale’s best warriors assembled and Bronze Yohn Royce released from the dungeon to lead them.
• Lynn lit a candle, sat aside, and sent one Black-Cloaked Man to fight the hundred knights.
• The Black-Cloaked Man summoned an Ice Sword and swiftly defeated the knights, killing several before Lynn ordered him to spare the rest; he then broke weapons and injured the survivors, including Bronze Yohn.
• Lynn declared that this counted as only one opponent, revealed eight more Black-Cloaked Men with Frost Longswords, and summoned Ice Armor and two ice Greatswords for himself.

Lynn defeated the Vale’s nobles in a one-sided duel and secured their loyalty, persuading them to send Robert Arryn to Winterfell as Ned Stark’s student. He then ordered the Vale’s troops to join Robb’s campaign in the Riverlands and summoned Lysa Arryn back to the Eyrie.

• Lynn revealed his Frost Greatswords and overwhelmed the Vale’s fighters, prompting Bronze Yohn to admit defeat.
• Lynn reminded the Vale’s nobles that Ned Stark had been Jon Arryn’s foster son and said Robert would go to Winterfell as a student, not a hostage.
• Ser Marq Arryn accepted Lynn’s rule, and the Vale pledged its loyalty.
• Lynn ordered the Vale to recall its troops and join Robb in striking the Riverlands from north and south.
• Lynn ordered the passes opened to allies from Beyond the Wall and sent word for Lysa Arryn to return to the Eyrie.

Lynn secured the Vale’s allegiance after Bronze Yohn denounced Lysa Arryn and the Vale’s forces agreed to cooperate with Mance Rayder. At Riverrun, Lysa received Lynn’s message about her son and fled toward Walder Frey, believing Lynn had set a trap for her.

• Bronze Yohn declared Lysa unworthy to protect the Vale and pledged House Royce’s allegiance to Lynn, prompting other Vale nobles to follow.
• Lynn ordered Bronze Yohn to tell Ser Nestor Royce that the Vale’s war was over and to coordinate defenses and Riverlands operations with Mance Rayder.
• At the ruins of the Bloody Gate, Mance explained to Nestor that Lynn did not seek war, and Bronze Yohn arrived to confirm the Eyrie had sworn allegiance to Lynn.
• Bronze Yohn delivered Lynn’s orders for Nestor and Mance to jointly organize the Vale’s eastern defenses and coordinate with the northern army.
• At Riverrun, Lysa read Lynn’s message that her son missed her, feared Lynn had captured him, and ordered her guards to take her to Walder Frey.

Lynn agreed to bring Robert Arryn to Castle Black, but secretly prepared a White Walker disguised as the boy to deceive the Three-Eyed Raven. In Riverrun, Edmure Tully endured his wedding to Roslin Frey, knowing the Vale’s surrender had made the Freys’ bargain pointless.

• The Three-Eyed Raven visited Lynn at the Eyrie and asked him to bring Robert Arryn to Castle Black so he could take the boy’s body.
• Lynn pretended to agree, then used greensight and a Man-Faced Mask to transform a White Walker into a perfect copy of Robert Arryn.
• Lynn prepared to use the disguised White Walker as a trap for the Three-Eyed Raven.
• At Riverrun, Edmure Tully married Roslin Frey while resenting Walder Frey and the loss of House Tully’s independence.
• Edmure learned the Vale had surrendered to Lynn, rendering the Freys’ military bargain futile, but he continued the wedding.

Ned Stark and Catelyn Tully arrived at Riverrun during Edmure’s wedding feast and confronted Lysa Arryn over her plans and the coming armies. After Edmure invoked guest right, Lysa appeared to agree to postpone the dispute while she and Walder Frey secretly prepared to betray their guests.

• Ned Stark and Catelyn Tully entered the wedding feast with eight Northern guards, and Lysa Arryn welcomed their arrival as a chance to trap them.
• A Frey knight tried to stop the pair, but one of Ned’s guards broke the knight’s wrist.
• Edmure Tully offered Ned and Catelyn bread and salt, establishing guest right before they spoke with Lysa.
• Catelyn demanded that Lysa surrender, while Ned told her to beg Lynn’s forgiveness or face the consequences.
• Lysa decided to kill Ned and Catelyn despite guest right, then pretended to set their dispute aside as Walder Frey ordered the musicians to play “The Rains of Castamere.”