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In S07E04-07,

Team Jon decides to go north of the wall and capture a wight to show it to Team Cersei. They carry on with their plan and actually bring one to King's Landing.

However, in S06E10,

Benjen said "The Wall’s not just ice and stone, Ancient spells were carved into its foundation. Strong magic. To protect men from what lies beyond. And while it stands, the dead cannot pass. I cannot pass.".

How could this plan even work?

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    My personal speculation is that Bran broke the spells by crossing the wall in the same way he broke the ones in the 3ER lair. I've also made the title a little more meaningful while being completely SPOILER FREE
    – Edlothiad
    Commented Aug 30, 2017 at 13:53
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    Perhaps the dead cannot pass the Wall themselves, but they can be brought through the Wall by others. It is magic, after all.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Commented Aug 30, 2017 at 14:00
  • @PaulD.Waite Why didn't Coldhands cross with Sam then? (Or Benjen crossing with Bran?)
    – Aegon
    Commented Aug 30, 2017 at 14:01
  • @Aegon: no-one drags Benjen! It’s unclear in the show what the heck Benjen is, and when he says he can’t pass, for all we know he’s talking about duty or destiny or something.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Commented Aug 30, 2017 at 14:04
  • @PaulD.Waite He didn't have to come south forever. He just had to cross, fetch Bran and go back North. And he told Sam he couldn't do it, because of Magic. Either he was speaking the truth or he was just being lazy.
    – Aegon
    Commented Aug 30, 2017 at 14:06

3 Answers 3

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Jon answered it in Season 7 Episode 5, when they were planning the Wight expedition and someone questioned feasibility of the plan:

The first wight I ever saw was brought into Castle Black from beyond the Wall.

So from that precedence, he was certain they could do it again. The first wight mentioned here are the ones Jeor Mormont brought in Season 1.

This is inconsistent however. Show adapted book scenes for Season 1 but in Season 7 they are making their own story. Doubt it will happen that way in the books.

Anyways, a speculation can be, as long as a Night's Watch man accompanies a Wight, it can cross. But then the question is, Why did Benjen think he couldn't cross with Sam?

The spells on the Wall seem to be tied to spells on Three Eyed Raven's cave as pointed out by Edlothiad, so it is possible that Bran rendered them useless. But then again, Wights did cross the Wall in Season 1, Long before Night's King touched Bran.

Also they had a ship, so they could load the Wight on the ship and circumvent the Wall.

As it happened however, they had air-support when Dany answered Jon's call. But Jon didn't know she would come when he was planning so it could not have impacted his planning.

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    Also wight =/= White Walker. Benjen seems to be closer to a White Walker than a wight.
    – Skooba - Stands Against AI
    Commented Aug 30, 2017 at 13:55
  • @Skooba Indeed. I think whatever was possessing the wights at that moment, went out of them when they were crossing the wall, and then gained remote access again. We will know when we know
    – Aegon
    Commented Aug 30, 2017 at 13:55
  • Also, they made their way back on a dragon, who can just fly over/around any spell barriers.
    – Annatar
    Commented Aug 30, 2017 at 13:57
  • @Annatar At the time of planning, Air-Extraction was not an option. Dany was not going to get them out so Jon couldn't count on it. Things turned out that way later but they didn't know it would happen quite that way.
    – Aegon
    Commented Aug 30, 2017 at 13:58
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    @7hibault They were already converted into wights, their eye color had changed, their flesh was not rotting. That was why Rangers took them inside. And yes what you say is a possibility, what I mentioned to Skooba in second comment. It could be that whatever was running them left their bodies temporarily. Once they were beyond the wall, they regained access and Wights rose.
    – Aegon
    Commented Aug 31, 2017 at 7:58
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The last that we saw of the wight in S07E06, it was stuck to Drogon's spikes.

It's highly likely that Drogon flew over the top of or around the Wall before dropping off his passengers, which completely bypassed the issue of the wight passing the Wall itself and coming into contact with its magical properties.

However, they also had access to boats, as that is how they ended up transporting it to King's Landing. Had their plan succeeded, they would have had the time to bring a boat up from Eastwatch without having to worry about having to deal with the entire army of the dead, and they could have again simply gone around the Wall to avoid its magic.

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I think there is no magic that prevents a living person from carrying a corpse (reanimated or not) across the wall. Because corpses were brought across in Season 1 we can even see that nothing prevents a Wight from being raised on the far side of the wall either.

I think one of two things is instead true:

  1. The magic prevents the dead from willingly crossing the wall.
  2. The magic prevents the White Walkers from crossing (Which Benjen is related to, as he was turned to that instead of being risen as a simple Wight.) A wight could, but the usefulness would be limited if the White Walkers couldn't oversee and direct them on the far side.
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