Why Did Night King Turn Baby Into Whitewalker

The Night King and his ground forces of White Walkers are coming — but why? In flavour 7 of Game of Thrones, an impossible predicament with blurry motivation jammed a metal bar between the spokes of Westeros' spinning political cycle, forcing mortal enemies into the arms of their near hated adversaries. The season 8 premiere, "Winterfell," reminded us that the upcoming battle is not with a wave of brainless zombies. The Night King left a message, and what it means could exist life or death for our heroes.

At the end of "Winterfell," Beric, Tormund, and friends venture out to investigate Concluding Hearth, just to find Lord Ned of House Umber pinned to a wall, surrounded by severed arms, his business firm rendered extinct by the Night Male monarch'due south regular army. A blood-curdling scream from the undead boy prompts Beric to thrust a sword into him, engulfing the display in flames.

Beyond being frightening, the temper of this moment was made more eerie by the cognition that the Night King went out of his way to create this grisly scene. And it'due south non the first time: We've seen this spiral motif at multiple points in Game of Thrones, adopted by the Walkers from the stone system around the weirwood tree where the Children of the Forest created the Night Male monarch. It was later on found on the cave walls of Dragonstone.

There's a theory that the White Walker swirl is a mutated version of the Targaryen sigil, an reply-chasing hope that has but heated upwardly since Beric ready the mutilated-body calling carte aflame. The potential connexion between the Night King and the Targaryen bloodline is even more interesting when you consider one of the terminal shots of flavor 7, in which nosotros saw the White Walkers head due south later on destroying the Wall, forming the shape of the Stark sigil every bit they marched. Spooky. As is so oft the case with Thrones, it's like shooting fish in a barrel to get lost discussing the puzzling symbolism of the choices — especially the White Walker spiral — but the most curious office of the big flavor 8 reveal is what's in the center of it: a child.

Helen Sloan/HBO

The Night King made a bloody example out of Ned Umber, but in the past, he has spared plenty of living people across the series, including Samwell Tarly and Bran. Hell, he could take wiped out both Jon and Dany when they went beyond the Wall, but instead, he chose to bide his time, using his spear to kill Viserion instead and and then resurrecting the dragon. Clearly, there is some method behind the madness.

And the White Walkers are seemingly open to diplomacy with characters like Craster, who worshipped the Night Rex and his legion as gods, cutting a sinister deal in which he sacrificed his offspring to secure his own safety.

What does the Nighttime King want? If there'southward any desire seemingly driving his deportment, it'southward children. He tin make millions of wights out of corpses, but he tin't simply create new White Walkers. Equally nosotros know from Bran's vision and Leafage'south confession, the Walkers are all formerly human, and the more organized members we've seen clad in blackness armor seem obsessed with creating new recruits by turning the naive eyes of children icy blue during infancy.

Perchance the Nighttime King and his troops aren't so different from the political class fortifying Winterfell equally nosotros speak. Their existence threatened, they want to survive, and this is the only way to prolong their species. When Sam and Gilly escaped the mutineers at Craster'south Keep in season 3, a Walker followed adjust and tried to kidnap her surviving son, forcing Sam to stab the undead being (and learn the true power of dragonglass). This was ane of the showtime instances of the Walker'south methodic hunt, spurred on past a broken pact with Craster and a missing child, Sam Jr., that was initially promised to be theirs. By using a child's body to send his gruesome warning to the group entering Final Hearth, the Nighttime Male monarch could be sending an overt message virtually his mission.

HBO

In the books, Bran is told stories of a "Night'southward Rex" past Old Nan. This king, a Stark from the Age of Heroes, barbarous in love with a White Walker "with skin every bit white equally the moon and optics similar blue stars." Nan notes that "when he gave his seed to her he gave his soul as well." This fabled king enacted rule from the bedraggled Nightfort, committing all sorts of vile acts with his lover as his queen. Maybe not a keen bedtime story, but helpful for all of us interested in White Walker history.

According to legend, the Night'due south Male monarch also sacrificed children to the undead in order to keep them at bay, and that's why his triumphs were stripped from the history books. He was somewhen dethroned past a "Stark of Winterfell."

A Song of Ice and Burn author George R.R. Martin has separated this graphic symbol from Game of Thrones' Night King (notice the lack of apostrophe) in interviews, but it's nonetheless very yummy nutrient for idea. The cyclical, historical parallel of a sordid pact with the Walkers has great potential to announced again. Only this time, it could be a cede that decides the fate of Westeros.

With Dany, Jon, Sansa, and Cersei all dealing with political pressures as the Night King marches south, the remaining question is whether the surviving leaders will condemn their troops to die fighting to suspension the cycle or succumb to the sacrificial ultimatum, enabling the wheel again to keep the undead at bay.

Every bit well as an army of infants to survive his loyal guard, mayhap the Night King wants the ultimate heir apparent to succeed him. Whose infant? There are a few options, simply one could be an apocryphal child born of ice and fire, ane who might be imagined to pb a new unified Westeros. With v episodes to go, the only thing we know for certain is that the White Walkers' mystery leaves plenty of room for everything nosotros call back we know to exist upended.

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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer based out of Newcastle, England's equivalent of Winterfell. You can find his writing on games and amusement in Eurogamer, Kotaku, GamesRadar, and more. Follow him on Twitter @JordanOloman .

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Source: https://www.polygon.com/game-of-thrones/2019/4/18/18485076/game-of-thrones-night-king-spiral-children-white-walkers-theory