Oh seven hells, this isn’t good. In what looks to be an incredibly epic spoiler on the part of HBO, Game of Thrones has revealed — and then unrevealed — that a character seen at the end of “Oathkeeper” is actually one we’ve yet to see in the books at all. And it’s sort of a big deal that he even exists. Care to know more? Not afraid of spoilers? Then tread lightly onward, my friends, but don’t say that we didn’t warn you.
SPOILERS BELOW!
So, remember at the end of the episode, when that White Walker brought the last of Craster’s baby boys to that crazy expanse of ice and jagged rock? Where he was then picked up by another White Walker with little horns on his head? Yeah well, apparently that wasn’t just another run-of-the-mill Walker, but rather The Night’s King, a character we haven’t even met in the books yet… IF the snafu from HBO’s viewer’s guide website is to be believed.
Thanks to the adept and always-paying-attention minds over at Reddit, we have a screen grab of the now-omitted tidbit:
That would be this happy-go-lucky lil fella picture above, who at the end of the episode, turned a baby into a White Walker (they cannot procreate, after all) with the touch of his grubby nail. For those of you who may have missed the few mentions of Night’s King the series has provided thus far, you’re not alone. Book readers are likely the only ones to know who he is, and even they have yet to meet the mythic king. Up until this point he’s been no more than a legend told to children by people like Old Nan. As the stories tell it, he was the thirteenth Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch during the Age of Heroes (when magic was in full-force) and was — wait for it — named Bran, also a Stark of Winterfell. (Though several iterations of the story claim he may have been a Bolton or an Umber. But we trust Old Nan most of all.)
HBO has changed their online Viewer’s Guide to note that this fella is nothing more than “a Walker,” but the implications are huge. Unfortunately, the episode’s writer, Bryan Cogman has already stated on Twitter that he “obviously can’t comment on certain scenes,” and it seems as though the show’s creators D.B. Weis and David Benioff are staying mum as well. Our only hope at this point is that maybe — just maybe — the novels’ creator, George R.R. Martin will have something to say about it.
What do you think, Game of Thrones fans? Was that the Night’s King? Do you think that changes anything all that drastically? Let us hear it in the comments.
I think it’s the CURRENT Night’s King. To me, that was a third type of “other.” The white walkers and the wights are two, and whatever that was is a third. It was too distinctly different from the things we’ve seen. My take is that the original Night’s King had a hybrid human White Walker with his queen and those and their offspring are what we saw in the episode.
I’m with Ryan of ___ May above: Having read everything available from Geo. Martin (including slightly related anthologized bits), I thoroughly enjoy the twists and turns the TV show throws in to keep us intrigued (unknowing) about upcoming plots. Have to say, I missed this one!
Doesn’t George RR Martin sign off on the shows storyline? Either way the show hasn’t shown some pretty major magical characters that are in the book. So I’m enjoying the little twists that are in the show. It gives the readers of the book something that they don’t know and keeps even them guessing.
“White Walker Blue”, the perfect paint color.