'Game of Thrones' Fans Believe the Show Revealed How to Kill the Night King

From Esquire

Near the end of the premiere episode of Game of Thrones Season Eight, fans were treated to a little action north of Winterfell in the House Umber seat of Last Hearth. There, we see Beric, Tormund, and the gang-alive after The Wall fell, somehow-walking through what remains after a huge slaughter. What they find is young Ned Umber's body, staked to a symbol in the castle. Except, the boy has been turned into a wight. Beric plunges his flaming sword into the boy, killing the being and setting the entire symbol ablaze.

What is the symbol though?

Well, that spiral pattern goes all the way back to the Season One premiere, when Night's Watch rangers come across it made with the bodies of wildlings north of The Wall. Later in Season Six, we see that symbol again when Bran travels into the past to see the Children of the Forest turning a human man into the Night King.

Photo credit: HBO
Photo credit: HBO

As one Reddit user has pointed out, this scene could have been some of Game of Thrones' classic obtuse foreshadowing using the symbols of the Night King and the powerful Weirwood trees. As the user explains:

I think the wight that beric killed is a representation of the Night Kings power. The Weirwood symbol it was centered on indicates the Grand Weirwood located on the Gods Eye is the main source of that power. In order to shut off the night king, they will need to burn down the grand weirwood with a flaming sword. Im guessing Jon will be the one who pulls it off so Beric will eventually teach Jon how to get the firesword.

In that scene in Episode One of Season Eight, Beric plunging his sword into the wight causes a chain reaction through the rest of the spiral formation.

I believe the Children of the Forest also created the Three-eyed raven in a response to the white walkers. The Three-Eyed Raven was meant to be an all-knowing library of knowledge, specifically created to house the memory for defeating the Night King. Its almost as if they knew the white walker concept would become lost to men and/or they couldnt trust even something like the citadel to keep the knowledge. So this would mean bran would be a shoe-in to die as well.

Going even further, I also think the Lord of light is synonymous with the Grand Weirwood, and uses these Weirwoods as a beacon to communicate with the physical world. Children of the forest can communicate directly through the trees, but for men, it can only translated by staring at fire. But for men it also includes blood magic. Almost like “give some blood, receive some magic in return”. Ex) Melisandre taking gendry blood, Beric using his blood to ignite his sword on fire.

In theory, this connection to this network is also the thing that's keeping resurrected individuals like Beric and Jon Snow alive.

But since killing all these characters at once would be stupid, i could see Beric dying early, but beforehand, tells jon that to get the power of the firesword, you gotta kill someone you love yady yadda... so prob gonna kill dany or something. And at some other point, i see bran dying because no way a paralyzed kid in a wheelchair survives when a wave of zombies come crashing through. It will be along those lines when bran finally reveals what Jon must do, and thats to take that Flaming sword and burn down the Grand Weirwood, knowing he will die in the process.

It's an interesting theory that certainly aligns with some of the prophecies in the show-specifically that of The Prince That Was Promised and his (or her) flaming sword. And while some parts of this theory are a bit of a stretch, I feel like-on a very basic level-it could be accurate. That scene definitely seemed like some sort of foreshadowing, and we do know that killing one White Walker creates a chain reaction that also kills the undead that said White Walker raised.

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