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When Bran Stark along with Hodor and others go towards the Three-eyed raven, they are attacked by skeletons. They are rescued by the girl with fire bombs. Are those skeletons White Walkers?

When the White Walkers attack the Wildlings settlements when Jon Snow comes to rescue them, the starting line of those White Walkers are made of skeletons too.

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    Not White Walkers. Those are Wights. WWs are the guys on horses with beautiful blue eyes and white hair, flowing in the wind like in a shampoo commercial – Petersaber Aug 12 '15 at 10:43
  • @Petersaber I don't think that below answer is satisfactory one. If you see the series properly, Bran Stark and his friends are attacked by actual skeletons. While the skeletons in White Walker's army are decomposed bodies. There is some difference. Skeletons that attack Bran are some sort of guardians guarding the God Tree. White Walkers are just zombified savages. – GuruGulabKhatri Aug 25 '15 at 8:54
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    Wights don't stop decomposing. The ones that attacked Bran were there for some time... other sources tell me those are Wights. I'll update the answer to include them – Petersaber Aug 25 '15 at 8:59
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    Because they don't stop decomposing, after thousands of years under snow, only bones remain – Petersaber Aug 25 '15 at 9:13
  • @Petersaber Another concern is, if the skeletons that attacked Bran were white walkers, why were they guarding the Gods. I mean White Walkers follow the command of the snowlike leader who wakes them from dead, right? (As seen during the attack on wildlings). – GuruGulabKhatri Aug 25 '15 at 9:18
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No

Those were wights. Undead servants (human or animal) resurrected by the White Walkers.

wight holding a sword

They are stupid, mindless, they use regular weapons (whatever they were holding onto when they died) and extreme "survivability" - to take one down permanently, you have to burn it.

Bran recognizes them in the book:

The wights, Bran realized. Someone set the wights on fire

Sources: A Dance With Dragons chapter 13 ; Book chapter summary; Wiki, season 4 appearances

These are White Walkers ("Others"):

White Walker looking at the camera

They use ice weapons and magic, they are intelligent, and the only way to kill them is with Valyrian steel or Dragonglass.

Not even dragonfire can kill them, or at least the Night King, as shown in season 8 episode 3.

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  • Arguably, you should also be able to kill a WW with actual dragon fire. – Alfredo Hernández Aug 25 '15 at 9:56
  • @AlfredoHernández Duh :D let me edit that in xD – Petersaber Aug 25 '15 at 12:54
  • I am going to agree with @GuruGulabKhatri, These skeletons seemed to differ in certain aspects from the WW's skeletons. (In a sense, these are skeletons where the WW minions seemed more akin to zombies) – LepelLeLama Aug 25 '15 at 13:09
  • @LelelLeLama Most of the OP's question follows from the clearly incorrect premise that the skeletons are White Walkers. On the other hand, it's true the skeletons look different to other Wights, but I'd say it's pretty reasonable to infer they are simply Wights in a more advanced state of decomposition. Therefore, this answer has my +1. – Andres F. Aug 25 '15 at 13:58
  • One of the more painful parts of adapting the books to TV; it's a shame that "Whites" and "Wights" are pronounced identically. – MartianInvader May 23 '19 at 17:38

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