Though a song of ice and fire is a fantasy series, there are elements of other genres present as well perhaps the most

prominent is horror it starts right away with prologue a chapter that could probably work as a

standalone short story.

In that prologue we feel the fear building within will until it peaks when he sees the others.

It's not just the fear of death, he's faced that before, is clearly present it's not like it's not important but it's the fear of something that should not be a thing that shouldn't exist this is what he's never seen before and Will grapples with that as he's

frozen in place clinging to the tree. What he's seeing is outside his reality that he cannot deny that it's happening.

In the Clash of Kings, we meet a man who claims to worship these beings,

though maybe worship isn't the right exact word. He calls them by another name too, the cold God. So worship that maybe isn't worship,

others that aren't actually other, anyway. For this he considers himself a godly man. He says it a lot.

This despite his blatant practice of incest, which is very much not godly in the eyes of

most northerners and most southerners too really the old gods don't really approve of

incest and the old gods and the cold gods are not the same though so we can get into

that there can be no doubt that the way he treats his wives slash daughters is an

abomination both to us and most people in the story in the world. Other free folk don't seem to

like him though his shelter has saved the lives of many a Knights Watch ranger,

which to be fair might be part of why other free folk don't like him.

Despite how horrible the man is, he's an extremely unique individual with knowledge that we have a great interest in thanks to the

Overlying mysteries of the story. There's really no one else like it the revulsion we feel for him is oddly matched by our curiosity.

Something that only an expert writer like George R. Martin can pull off.

Does he actually sacrifice to the others because he wants to because he thinks he has to

somewhere in between what happens to the children he leaves out in the snow for them are they just

dead or is it like one of his wife says that they become the others themselves?

...