How The Night King Became the Main Villain on 'Game of Thrones'
Game of Thrones for the first few seasons dealt with all the political backstabbing and fighting over the Iron Throne, but now it's all about the few living characters facing off against the formidable White Walkers.
While they were at first seen as mindless creatures, the show has introduced the original character of the Night King to lead them on a quest to do... something. His ultimate goal hasn't been revealed just yet.
Some might think that giving the White Walkers an intelligent leader undermines their whole 'force of nature' thing, but showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss argue that his creation is "logical".
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Weiss said: "It was almost logical as you went back in time, as you create the pre-history for all this.
"We've seen what the White Walkers do, we've seen how they perpetuate themselves and created the wights. If you're going backwards, well, they made these things... so what made them?
"We always liked the implication that they weren't some kind of cosmic evil that had been around since the beginning to time but that the White Walkers had a history-that something that seems legendary and mythological and permanent wasn't.
"They had a historical cause that was comprehensible like the way the wars on screen we're seeing unfold are comprehensible. They're the result of people, or beings, with motivations we can understand."
Benioff added that he doesn't think of the Night King as evil, but rather "as Death", and that he will never speak because that would diminish the character.
Game of Thrones season eight will premiere on April 14, 2019, on HBO.
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