Game Of Thrones Creators On The Origins Of The Night King, His Motivation

As a fan of Game of Thrones, I’m an interesting case study. In terms of the show itself, I’m up to date on the spoilers and characters and such, but have only watched the first four or so seasons. And yet, I got my introduction to the series through the books, of which I’ve read the first three. I cannot, for the life of me, make it through A Feast for Crows, and every time we have an Iron Islands chapter, I feel like ripping out my own hair.

As a result, I genuinely did not know the Night King, the main leader of the White Walkers in Game of Thrones, was a character exclusive to the series, and not a fabrication of George R.R. Martin himself. So, with that in mind, we have to ask…where did this guy come from? In my mind, it just makes sense to have a personification of the main threat, but it apparently goes deeper than that, as showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff revealed to Entertainment Weekly.

“It was almost logical as you went back in time, as you create the prehistory for all this,” Weiss said. “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 to time but that the White Walkers had a history — that something that seems legendary and mythological and permanent wasn’t. They had a historical cause that was comprehensible like the way the wars on screen we’re seeing unfold are comprehensible. They’re the result of people, or beings, with motivations we can understand.”

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“And once you go back into that flashback scene, that required a person there — and that was Vlad, who for a long time was our best stuntman,” Benioff added.

But what’s his motivation? Well, Benioff believes he has one very simple motivation — and it’s a motivation that’s somewhat out of step with the characters created in this story.

“I don’t think of him as evil, I think of him as Death,” Benioff said. “And that’s what he wants — for all of us. It’s why he was created and that’s what he’s after.”

It’s so simple. So black-and-white, which does seem to go against the many shades of gray Martin paints his characters with.

Regardless, he’s certainly an imposing figure, even as a mute. But why doesn’t he talk? Well, Benioff gave the outlet one simple reason, and this is one that DOES make sense to me.

“But what’s he going to say? Anything the Night King says diminishes him.”

How do you feel about the Night King, his motivation, and his mute nature? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: EW

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