After seven seasons, Winter has finally come to the land of Westeros, and in Game of Thrones Season 8, the Night King has a very specific target he wants to kill.
Game of Thrones actor and stuntman Vladimir Furdik, who has played the villainous Night King on Game of Thrones since Season 6, told Entertainment Weekly that his character not only wants to wipe out humanity — just as his creators the Children of the Forest intended — but the Night King has a more specific target.
Furdik revealed that the Game of Thrones big bad wants to kill one character specifically.
“People will see he has a target he wants to kill, and you will find out who that is,” Furdik said. When asked outright what the Night King wants, Furdik offered the reminder that the Children of the Forest transformed him into a monster. “He never wanted to be the Night King,” Furdik said. “I think he wants revenge.”
The Night King can be seen raising his arms toward Jon Snow in the Season 5 episode “Hardhome,” like some kind of brazen challenge.
The Night King raises his arms to Jon Snow in the Season 5 'Game of Thrones' episode "Hardhome."
But our guess is that the Night King’s likeliest target is actually Bran Stark.
The Night King has actively pursued Bran in the past.
Even if the youngest surviving Stark only rarely takes center stage on Game of Thrones, his importance has been highlighted time and again during the long-running epic.
Bran vs. the Night King
Plenty of theories have drawn connections between Bran and the Night King, including the more ridiculous ones that assume they’re the same person.
A new twist on their connection resurfaced on Reddit from u/DaughtersOfTheHarpy who believes that after creating the Night King to defeat the First Men, the Children of the Forest eventually created the Three-Eyed Raven to correct their mistake and combat the Night King.
Game of Thrones has been hinting about deeper connections between the Night King, the Three-Eyed Raven, and Bran Stark for years.
In Season 3, the prophetic greenseer Jojen Reed referred to Bran Stark as the “only one thing that matters,” and he gave his life just so Bran could be trained by the previous Three-Eyed Raven. Then, in Episode 6 of Season 6, the undead Benjen Stark said to Bran of the Night King, “One way or another, he will find his way to the world of men, and when he does, you will be there waiting for him — and you will be ready.” It’s as if Bran is the only one who can possibly defeat the Night King.
Bran Stark and Meera encounter Benjen Stark just north of the Wall.
During the “Inside the Episode” behind-the-scenes video on that same episode, series co-creator David Benioff confirmed that Bran isn’t exactly human anymore after becoming the Three-Eyed Raven: “It’s not just a title you just get. There’s a part of him that’s no longer Brandon Stark but is the Three-Eyed Raven, and the Three-Eyed Raven is not, you know, entirely human.”
Bran Stark is something less and more than human, just like the Night King. There’s a kind of duality at play here that makes it seem like they’re the two most powerful players in Westeros.
The u/DaughtersOfTheHarpy theory goes one step further to explain that like the avatar in The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, the Three-Eyed Raven might be less of a title and more of a transferred state of existence. As soon as Bran became the Three-Eyed Raven, he absorbed the memories, experiences, and knowledge of all the past Three-Eyed Ravens. That would also explain his odd behavior, talking about how he is and isn’t Bran Stark.
On the red carpet for Game of Thrones Season 7, actor Isaac Hempstead Wright, who plays Bran Stark, told Insider that assuming the role of Three-Eyed Raven made him “the sworn enemy of the Night King.”
In an August 2017 interview with Vulture, he referred to them as “two of the ancient beings of Westeros.”
If it is revenge that the Night King is after, then he probably wants to kill the Children of the Forest and anyone associated. That definitely includes the Three-Eyed Raven. If Bran dies, does that mean all hope is lost?
We’ll have to wait to find out.
Game of Thrones Season 8 begins April 14, 2019 at 9 p.m. Eastern.
