A co-worker just brought this one up. With all the illogical time travelling in the last 8-10 episodes, Davos whipping around from Dragonstone to the Wall to Kings Landing, etc.....how come the white walkers aren't where they need to be already? They're dead so they can just walk nonstop. They don't get tired. Don't need to eat. Yet, they've marched and marched and marched while Varys travels wherever he wants in a blip.
I've been thinking this for a while too. I usually dismiss the time travel inconsistencies since I realize they have to speed things up. But this makes no sense. No matter how slow the dead are moving, they would surely be at the wall by now.
The AoD attacked Hardhome in Season 5 episode 8. To put this time frame into perspective, this was the same episode that Cersei was still a captive and had yet to do her walk of shame.
Look at the map below.
Hardome is the top circle in the upper right. The distance between Hardhome and Eastwatch is about 1/4 to 1/5 of the distance between Eastwatch and Winterfell. Somehow the dead haven't made it that far in almost two seasons, yet Euron can travel around the world and back in a single episode.
I have been wondering what is taking them so long for a while now.
Edit: now that I think about it, if they travel this slow, are they even an immediate threat? Clearly they are a big threat, but Jon is acting like they will be here tomorrow. At this rate, they wont even reach winterfell for another 8 seasons. Which puts them at Kings Landing 25 after that. So by season 40 the AoD should finally reach KL