Chapter 35 - Jon - The Night's Watch is a-changin'

Jon is sending Val out beyond the Wall to find Tormund Giantsbane.  At first, it doesn't seem to be very clear as to why he is seeking Tormund, but by the end of the chapter we know.  If anyone can navigate the area north of the wall and get to him to deliver Jon's message, it's Val.  She is a very confident, very strong woman and I doubt much can stand in her way.  What will happen if Stannis returns before Val does?  Stannis lets Jon get away with quite a bit, but will this push him past his limits?  Part of me wonders if Stannis is ever going to return.  You know, because he might die fighting the Boltons.

Afterwards, Jon is in his quarters when Bowen Marsh and a couple others appear to give him a hard time about it.  It turns out that they already know about Val being sent out and they also have quite a few other concerns such as who is going to become Jon's steward when Dolorous Edd is gone and who is going to train the new recruits.  Bowen Marsh is really beginning to irritate me.  The Night's Watch in general really feels like the United States government.  It's been around for a long time and it's really set in its ways.  It has a system that worked a long time ago, but don't try to modify it to fit the times!  That'd be terrible.  The Night's Watch is about to face the greatest enemy they have ever faced.  They are about the face the enemy that they are basically there to face and Marsh and the other men are concerned with titles and rank.  They don't care about skill or need.

Jon then tells them about a mass of Wildlings that are sheltered in a "haunted" area of the North called Hardhome.  Apparently, it's been haunted for 600 years.  I doubt that it's really haunted.  I think it's folklore and it's the Night's Watch men being superstitous and stuck-in-their-ways.  Marsh is way too happy to let all of the Wildlings die there.  Jon manages to point out that a few thousand dead Wildlings could easily become a few thousand wights ready to swarm the Wall and destroy them.  Yet, Marsh and the others still don't get it and leave angry.

I'm not sure what's going to happen at the Wall.  It seems that either Jon does nothing but the norm and the men are happy but the Others destroy them or Jon tries to prepare them and the men are unhappy and possibly ready to rebel.  Good times for Jon Snow.