[FlexGT85]

There are soooo many theories going around. A lot of them make more sense to those who have read the books.

As far as what I'm leaning on:

The crypts "should" be safe... Plenty of characters either mention the crypts directly (old naan while telling stories) or have dreams about them, etc. in scenes that sort of foreshadow what we are seeing now. It could honestly go either way towards safe or unsafe. Mentions are made very early on in the books about how “The vengeful spirits of old kings are kept at bay by laying iron swords across their lap.” This could hint at something that was known but long forgotten, the Starks and the Wights have ties going back generations and it’s very possible that the Starks may have discovered that Night King cant re-animate a corpse if iron is used to protect the tomb somehow. But it’s also known from the books that a lot of these iron swords have deteriorated over time and as Ned walked the crypts, he once wondered whether or not this meant the ghosts were free to roam the castle…

Here’s some book tidbits in case anyone is interested:

“By ancient custom, an iron longsword had been laid across the lap of each who had been Lord of Winterfell, to keep the vengeful spirits in their crypts. The oldest had long ago rusted away to nothing, leaving only a few red stains where the metal had rested on stone. Ned wondered if that meant those ghosts were free to roam the castle now. He hoped not. The first Lords of Winterfell had been men hard as the land they ruled.”

“He was walking through the crypts beneath Winterfell, as he had walked a thousand times before. The Kings of Winter watched him pass with eyes of ice, and the direwolves at their feet turned their great stone heads and snarled.”

“Last night, he had dreamt the Winterfell dream again. He was wandering the empty castle, searching for his father, descending into the crypts. Only this time the dream had gone further than before. In the dark he’d heard the scrape of stone on stone. When he turned he saw that the vaults were opening, one after the other. As the dead kings came stumbling from their cold black graves , Jon had woken in pitch-dark, his heart hammering.”

“He had always heard that the iron in the sword kept the spirits of the dead locked within their tombs. If a sword was missing...”

Based on this, one can safely assume the crypts may not be safe at all… But who knows. Anything can happen. The swords aren’t mentioned in the show at all and I haven’t really noticed them on screen. But I say this all to give an idea of what the author was thinking and in turn what the showrunners borrowed from.

I think that the dead will definitely rise within the crypts, but there is a high probability that the starks of old have some kind of protection set in place… Something that already worked in the past or something that they learned from a past mistake and used to create a failsafe… But who will rise? Ned was decapitated.. Can he be re animated? Some of the Starks were burned as well… But again, I think that they will rise and either they will at first fight for the night king and then switch sides OR people will initially think they are fighting for the night king only to realize quickly that they aren’t. Anybody remember that scene from the trailer of Arya running scared from the crypts?? I think she’s running from the sight of her undead mother and father… What else could scare her that much? Certainly not a living person… Catlyn returning is another interesting and probable theory. Those who read the books know that Catlyn is revived much like John was… But her body was in a really advanced state of decomposition when it happened and because of this she cant even talk and looks like a zombie. They call her Lady Stoneheart and she communicates by snarling through her slitted throat… Very creepy. She goes Nazi on every living Frey she can find with her followers. Its very possible that they waited until the end to re-introduce her given that she was a pretty significant part of the books after she was revived.

But again… Who the hell knows. Maybe there is a giant Dire Wolf-Dragon Hybrid buried beneath the crypts? Hell of a secret weapon that would be.