Stronger than Jon Snow, more sadistic than Cersei, more frozen than Daenerys, the Night King is one of those characters that could shake up the Game of Thrones plot. Unfortunately, his motivations are still unknown, despite recent guesses and theories from the actor who plays the Night King, it’s now up to the showrunners to give their opinions.
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An army of the dead is approaching
During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the series’ showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, decided to reveal the Night King’s real motivations – you can find the video just above. The Night King is at the head of an army of the dead and determined to have his reign of terror over the 7 Kingdoms.
They don’t exist in the books
Did you know? The White Walkers aren’t in the books! Yes, they were created from scratch for the HBO series. This was surprising for fans since the Night King has been a central theme in the show since season 4. Luckily, Entertainment Weekly did some digging and could now reveal why the Night King was created.
‘It was almost logical as you went back in time, as you create the pre-history for all this. We’ve seen what the White Walkers do, we’ve seen how they perpetuate themselves and created the Wights. If you’re going backwards, well, they made these things… so what made them? We always liked the implication that they weren’t some kind of cosmic evil that had been around since the beginning of time, but that the White Walkers had a history.’
During season 6, Bran’s flashback showed that the Night King was created by the Children of the Forest. In this episode, we see a man tied to a tree, speared by a ‘dragon glass’ blade and sadly turning into the famous Night King.
The reason why the White Walkers were created
One last point remains to be seen: why the White Walkers were created. The Children of the Forest could have created them for one simple reason: to defeat their enemies, the humans. But obviously, this didn’t go as planned. The White Walkers became a lot more important for the creators, the famous Battle for the Dawn broke out and they had to flee to the North.
The Night King was therefore created to exterminate the human race and it’s clear he intends to do so. However, with Game of Thrones – and especially George R.R. Martin – anything could happen. The Night King’s real plan could in fact be something completely different, but we won’t know until 14th April. In the meantime, we have to be patient!
