White Walkers e o frio

No livro Um banquete para os corvos ; Jon Snow e Sam Tarly está falando sobre ' Os Outros ' (The White Walkers do show) depois de Sam ter passado algum tempo estudando-os na biblioteca de Castelo Negro . Isto é o que ele diz sobre este assunto:

“Long ago,” Jon broke in. “What about the Others?”
“I found mention of dragonglass. The children of the forest used to give the Night’s Watch a hundred obsidian daggers every year, during the Age of Heroes. The Others come when it is cold, most of the tales agree. Or else it gets cold when they come. Sometimes they appear during snowstorms and melt away when the skies clear. They hide from the light of the sun and emerge by night... or else night falls when they emerge.
^{[emphases mine]
-A Song of Ice and Fire: A Feast for Crows, Chapter Five (Samwell I).}

Não sabemos ao certo, mas há uma menção no World of Ice and Fire sobre a Longa Noite , onde é mencionado que os Outros trouxeram o frio e o escuro.

According to these tales, they [The Others] came from the frozen Land of Always Winter, bringing the cold and darkness with them as they sought to extinguish all light and warmth

_{page 11}

Mas, essas são histórias difíceis de serem creditadas, então os Maesters não podem ter certeza se são os Outros que trazem o frio.

O programa de TV realmente dá uma resposta definitiva à sua pergunta no episódio 5 da 8ª temporada: "Hardhome" .

When Jon and the wildling Loboda search for the dragonglass daggers in the burning townhall, they encounter a White Walker warrior. The White Walker warrior walks through the fires without paying attention to them and the fires in his vicinity diminish and die out.

Há um clipe no YouTube que mostra o que descrevi aqui. Então parece que, no programa de TV, pelo menos,

the White Walkers are responsible for the cold.

De acordo com o show canon, os White Walkers trazem o frio com eles. Isso foi explicado pela companhia de efeitos visuais que fez o trabalho para o final da 2ª temporada quando os Caminhantes Brancos e seu exército de guerreiros estão marchando no Punho dos Primeiros Homens.

“On top of that we had to add the zombie makeup to the horse, and our actor had a bit of a belly, so we had to reduce his belly a bit, and we added some cold emitting from his body, so there’s a particle system coming from him. Of course we had to create his blue eyes, and a snow particle pattern on top of everything. We also replaced the green screen with a full CG environment and matte paintings and a dramatic sky and, of course, an atmosphere. The atmosphere was meant to make the shot look more beautiful and fit in with this idea that the White Walkers are bringing the cold with them. At the same time it was meant to hide from all the imperfections that we would get from all of these plates.
_{Fast Company, Collaboration Isn’t Always Pretty–Behind The Emmy-Winning VFX For “Game Of Thrones”}