Daily Times

For most of us, the Night King, the primary antagonist in HBO’s fantasy TV show Game of Thrones (sorry, Cersei), is an unstoppable force of evil. Beyond a brief scene, we do not know much about him. Matters are complicated by the fact that there is no such character in the books. There is no single leader of White Walkers there. At least not yet.

While the concept of ice-zombies and a superhumanly powerful being who can kill dragons just by throwing a spear is intriguing enough, there does seem to be a little more to what he wants than the total destruction of all life.

Vladimir Furdik, who plays Night King, told Entertainment Weekly, “Somebody made him the Night King. Nobody knows who he was before – a soldier or part of [nobility]. He never wanted to be the Night King. I think he wants revenge. Everybody in this story has two sides – a bad side and a good side. The Night King only has one side, a bad side.”

While we have had more rounded villains in Game of Thrones like Littlefinger, the Night King is no such thing. He is incapable of human emotions since he is not human anymore. He used to be a human, but then the Children of the Forest turned him into his current state to counter the invasion by First Men.

Furdik also said that the Night King has one, single target. Who is he? Jon Snow? Daenerys Targaryen? Or Bran Stark? It is probably Bran and he appears to be the biggest threat to him, since he can check out anytime what he is up to. If you remember, Night King sent his wights and the White Walkers to kill Bran instantly when he became aware of him.

He did not show such alacrity to kill Jon Snow and Dany.

Furdik said, “People will see he has a target he wants to kill, and you will find out who that is. There’s also that moment [in “Hardhome”] when Jon Snow was on the boat and the Night King looked at him and raised his arms – there’s a similar and even stronger moment between Jon and the Night King this time.”