Season six of Game of Thrones is almost upon us and with it, it’s seemingly hundreds of plot threads but none more intriguing than what’s going on in the great North, particularly beyond the Wall. While there are some very colorful characters in the North, none have grabbed our attention quite like the Night’s King.
The Night’s King has been seen only two times, unless you count Bran’s vision in season four’s episode “The Lion and The Rose” then it’s three. Though we’ve only seen him a few times we have seen the kind of power he holds within his hands. But who exactly is the Night’s King?
It’s said in the Age of Heroes, the Night’s King was the thirteenth Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch who traveled to the Haunted Forest just beyond the wall and found a woman “with skin as white as the moon and eyes like blue stars”. The Night’s King fell in love with this woman and brought her back to the Nightfort and married her naming himself king and her, his queen. For thirteen years the two ruled together bringing darkness to the Wall and The Gift, tales of their awfulness are still travel throughout the North.
It wasn’t until Brandon the Breaker (Brandon Stark), the King in the North joined forces with Joramun, the King Beyond the Wall, that the Night’s Watch was able to free themselves from the grip of the Night’s King and Queen. It wasn’t till after the battle they discovered the Night’s King and Queen had been sacrificing humans to the Others, also known as the White Walkers. Because of this, all records of the Night’s King were destroyed and only the tales lived on through time. This is also the reason the Watch must remain neutral in political affairs and serve only as the protectors of the realm of men.
As time passes and with no concrete evidence who’s to say for sure who the Night’s King really is though? Everything we know about him, so far are just theories and stories told within the world of Game of Thrones from different character perspectives.
We’ve seen him do everything from turning a living baby into an Other to bringing an entire army of the dead to back to consciousness to fight for him. What other powers could this mysterious being hold and how does one go about stopping something so powerful? I suppose only time will tell as we further our descent down the twisting and winding awesomeness that is Game of Thrones.
Also, as a side note and something to take in to consideration, George R.R.Martin was asked about whether the Night’s King (the term he prefers over the Night King) was the character we see in the show or not. His response was, “As for the Night’s King (the form I prefer), in the books he is a legendary figure akin to Lann the Clever and Brandon the Builder, and no more likely to have survived to the present day than they have.” Take that as you will from the man himself, if you wish to find the quote and/or the live journal post he mentioned it in.
Update: After Game of Thrones season 6 episode 5, The Door, we have learned more about the White Walkers and the Night’s King in one episode than the entire series combined. In an unexpected turn of events, we came to know that the White Walkers were created by the Children of the Forest (COTF) in order to create a formidable enemy to the First Men who were slaughtering the Children of the Forest and cutting down their Weirwood trees.
For the COTF there seemed no other option at the time but later they realised that they made a big mistake as the White Walkers started creating undead armies of their own to take over the world. Also from the episode it seems that the Night’s King is the same person who was shown in the episode and hence, he seems to have survived to the present day, just as Leaf and other COTF did.
It will be interesting to find out the real identity of the Night’s King. Hoping that we find it out before the season gets over.
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