okamido

Who is this guy from the season finale?

nuclearguy165

I'm not completely sure (I haven't read the books either), but I think he is probably Masrader (spelling?), who apparently happens to be a white walker leading an army of white walkers. It's a damn shame that we won't be able to fully figure things out for another ten months, though.

Thegn Ansgar

Without spoiling it too much... That is an Other, AKA a white walker.

But that is definitely not Mance Rayder, who is a man and is leading the free folk (the people who captured Jon Snow), not an army of white walkers.

Excalibur

I am just downloading the finale so no spoilers pls here
However i noticed a guy with blue shining eyes was the guy who took out the baby in wood in second or third episode of the second season.

okamido

I am just happy that there was a little bit of dragons at the end.

dschardt

Sorry to repeat but it is an important to be able to distinguish between the wildings and the white walkers, I feel the TV show does not do this adequately enough, or it can be confusing...

The white walkers (this guy pictured above) lead the zombie-like reanimated dead people, which are called wights.
A lot is known about the wights so far, but little is known about their leaders, the white walkers. The white walkers are considered mythical by all those south of the wall, and until recently (haha) the Night's Watch.

The wildlings (aka free folk, free people, savages, etc.) are simply races of men and women who choose not to live in the seven kingdoms, so they moved north of the wall, they are led by a guy named Mance Rayder (aka the King-beyond-the-wall). As the characters in the episodes have already stated, it is uncommon for the wildlings to have one leader, because they usually are clan-like or exist in a state of anarchy.

nuclearguy165

Oh I clearly know the difference between the white walkers and the wildlings. I just wasn't sure whether this was one of those shocking moments when we would have possibly figured out that Mance Rayder was, in fact, a white walker leading white-walkers rather than a wildling leading other wildlings. As it turns out, that is most likely not the case.

I wasn't aware, however, that the leaders are called white walkers and the underlings called wights. I thought they were all just white walkers, so thanks for the clarity there.

sturm

I believe that is just undead horseman and not a particular character, though i might be wrong
Wouldn't it be incorrect to call him white walker since he isn't walking but riding a horse

dschardt

haha, sorry I did not mean to even hint that you would not know the differences, just that some others seemed confused at what the names particularly referred to.

Oh and its no question, Mance is not a white walker, he is very much a man. Again, the TV show is not clear enough when they should be, I have seen a lot of people become confused by the show. The characters quickly talk about some major plot points in one scene then have some long drawn out dramatic scene that is just building character depth with very little plot added in. (Not that it is bad, it just irritates me because so much of the books' plot has been shortened at the expense of drama or surprise, which I think has cheapened the story a little bit.)

While I am more of a movie/tv show guy, I think if anybody really likes the story from the TV show, they should read the books, like tomorrow. They are much more fascinating story-wise.

Excalibur

Honestly The death by the dragon fire was the cheapest death in the whole series.