Ok, ive gotta hear the whole Coldhands=Danny Flint theory bc its been bouncing off the walls of my brain since i saw that art. Like, i LOVE Danny Flint and I’m obsessed w her and i wish she had more of a presence in the story. I want it to be true even if its just a “wouldnt this be cool if it happened” theory
Hey, love to see someone else loving Danny Flint that much!
So basically the whole theory is about how Danny Flint could have been the one who became Coldhands because it vaguely lines up with both the timeline and their stories as well as some of the things that were said about Coldhands (and also because it would be awesome):
The timeline parallel can be summed up quickly by him being described as having been "killed [...] long ago" by Leaf, which technically makes him too old to be any of the dead brothers of the nights watch that we met in the time the story took place, while at the same time there are very few historical night's watch members that we actually know anything about, Danny Flint being one of them.
The story part goes a little bit deeper; we know that Coldhands was once a brother of the night's watch, that he was killed by the wights, and that he was raised from the dead, presumably by the children of the forest - he also knows about the black gate under the Nightfort, wanders the lands beyond the wall alone with only his elk, and considers the night's watch men that him and Bran encounter foes. Danny Flint joined the night's watch disguised as a man and faced incredibly cruel consequences for it by her "brothers", who are implied to have murdered her as well, is well known as a legendary figure of songs for her bravery, and she served at the Nightfort, which her ghost is said to haunt until this day.
Now the connection here is really far fetched but there are definitely some interesting parallels that keep me up at night:
-Coldhands knowing about the black gate under the Nightfort even though no living man remembers, Danny Flints ghost haunting it still, and the gate being what connects the Nightfort to the world beyond. Maybe her ghost is still there, and now on the other side
-Danny Flint being an outsider in the brotherhood and trying to fit in standing in direct contrast to Coldhands staying on his own, now an outsider on the other side of the world, but maybe having found peace in his existence among the dead and inhuman, as opposed to the cruel side he saw of humanity
-Her ghost remembering what her brothers did to her and Coldhands seeing the ones he meets as his enemies, with the exception of Sam, whom he found protecting someone else who does not belong with the night's watch
-Coldhands having been killed by "them", whether "they" were the others, the wights, or even who they once were - we literally don't know
To be fair, there's not really proof that any of this is related at all, but there isn't really anything speaking against it either? And yes, it's definitely a theory falling in the "wouldn't it be cool if it happened" category, but literally it would be so cool like. imagine
(Also I should definitely mention that I'm not the one who came up with it and I'm not even sure if its an "official" or even well known theory, so most of this comes from what I read elsewhere, my own thoughts, or possibilities I talked about with friends but its such an intriguing theory nonetheless!)