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At the end of season 5:

We see the Night King raise all the dead soldiers of Hardholme into wights. This seems to be done through the Night Kings proximity to the dead soliders.

In the most recent episode of season 7:

We see one of the dragons turn into a wight dragon. I assume this was done by the Night King felling the dragon with his spear.

However, in season 1:

The corpses of two members of Benjen Stark's scouting party are found near the Wall. They are taken back through the Wall to Castle Black where they eventually reanimate as wights, and they attack Jon Snow and Lord Commander Jeor Mormont.

So my main question is, how are wights reanimated?

The events in season 1 seems to contradict the idea of the Night King needing to be in proximity to turn the dead into wights. If wights can be reanimated beyond the wall why doesnt the Night King reanimate all the dead he can beyond the wall? Or was something done to those two corpses (perhaps in the way they were killed) that made them eventually turn into wights?

Jimmery
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  • The newest recruit was reanimated by touch, the same way the baby humans are shown to be turned into white walkers. I assume the two beyond the wall were turned into wights the same was as at Hardholme. – TheLethalCarrot Aug 22 '17 at 12:23
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    I am actually curious about the season 1 reanimations as well. But the Dragon was reanimated by touch. – LeonX Aug 22 '17 at 12:26
  • I always figured that the Rangers' bodies found in season 1 were wights from the start (i.e. reanimated previously) and just pretending to be dead. They're undead, how hard can it be to lie still and not breathe? – Llewellyn Aug 22 '17 at 19:43
  • apparently the wall has magics in it that prevent wights from crossing, according to the answers i was given here: https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/79180/can-the-dead-cross-the-wall – Jimmery Aug 23 '17 at 08:28

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We see two ways of reanimating the dead:

  • The Nights King touches the dead to turn them into a White Walker. This is shown with him touching Crastors babies. This also happens in Season 7 Episode 6 with the Viserion, not by the spear as you seem to think, however, it is unclear as to whether the dragon is a white walker or a wight.
  • The Nights King does it remotely. We see this at Hardholme when he raises his hands to turn all the dead into wights.

Note I have only said the Nights King in the above examples because although from the latest episode we know other White Walkers can create wights we have not seen how this can be done.

We know that no White Walker was beyond the wall in Season 1 to turn those two corpses so it must have been done remotely. We have no information on the range of this or any other specific details so how exactly it was done is a mystery. It would stand to reason though that the WW's do not have to see the dead they are turning as the Nights King couldn't have seen every single wight he turned at Hardholme as there were structures and other things obscuring parts of the battlefield.

TheLethalCarrot
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    I'm not 100% sure the Dragon became a White Walker instead of a Wight. Most theories point that for one to become a White Walker he must be alive. And we most also think it must be a human male to become one. – LeonX Aug 22 '17 at 12:34
  • @LeonX My personal opinion is that it would be a white walker due to the way it was reanimated and the colour of it's eyes. However, I have edited to clarify on the uncertainty of this point. – TheLethalCarrot Aug 22 '17 at 12:36
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    The Wights also have deep blue eyes. – LeonX Aug 22 '17 at 12:38
  • @LeonX They have cloudy blue/white eyes. The white walkers have more of a clear normal looking eye with a very sharp blue colour. – TheLethalCarrot Aug 22 '17 at 12:52
  • @LeonX - I don't think the touch was necessary to re-animate the dragon, and saw it more as a "my Precious" or "I have an awesome new toy" kind of a thing. Think of a sad, middle-aged guy before he gets into his middle-aged crisis sports car he just bought, for the first time. :D – PoloHoleSet Aug 22 '17 at 16:25
  • @PoloHoleSet See my answer here as to why I believe the touch was necessary. Though it is unclear on the true answer as of yet. – TheLethalCarrot Aug 22 '17 at 16:28
  • You can see from my answer to the same question, why I think it wasn't. :D We'll find out in less than a week, I think. – PoloHoleSet Aug 22 '17 at 16:30
  • @PoloHoleSet I hope some of it gets clearer because even though I liked this episode, I gotta admit that if was filled with Lost feelings where more questions were raised than we hope they'll answer. But I think the touch was necessary, although he could simply raise him from underwater. That dragon breaking soaring from the Ice Water would make a much more interesting scene than the cliché eye opening. – LeonX Aug 22 '17 at 16:38
  • @LeonX - I was thinking that getting a re-animated dragon to try and get itself out from under an ice sheet greatly increases the chance that to damage the goods, or to lose other wights to the lake bottom by ice-smashing mishap. But I'm not a wight authority, by trade. Since wights don't heal, avoiding damage increases the potential time of use, especially from an aerial perspective. – PoloHoleSet Aug 22 '17 at 18:07