In "Game of Thrones" Season 6's infamous "Hold the Door" episode we learned how the Night King was created. The Children of The Forest captured a man, tied him to a Weirwood tree and shoved a piece of dragonglass into his chest, thus transforming him into what he is today, a fully fledged White Walker, with a little crown on his head. Nothing to be confused about, right?
But then in Season 7's "Dragonglass cave" scene when Jon Snow was walking Daenerys through a bit of Long Night history among the ancient drawings of the Children of the Forest, there is one drawing in particular that depicts the White Walker leader with a crown and a beard.
All in all, he looks nothing like the one we see in the show.
Assuming that the Night King didn't just shave his beard with Valyrian steel blade, this picture alone proves that there were at least two Night Kings in history. One explanation is, of course, that the current Night King was created after the one with the beard was defeated, but today's theory offers a different, and, I dare to say, far more interesting solution. So without further ado, let's see what it is all about.
The three types of the Others
First, take a look at the Dragonglass cave scene from "Game of Thrones" Season 7. The drawing of the "enemy that has always been real" is at 3:38.
According to Reddit user MrSilenceT, there never was one single Night King to rule all the White Walkers, at least not during the Long Night.
Instead, the Children of the Forest created multiple Night Kings at the same time, and each of them had the ability to create his own army of White Walkers and wights. With that in mind, it's safe to say that there were three types of undead beings a.k.a. The Others during the Long Night.
- Night Kings, created by the Children of the Forest, the most powerful entities of the three, with the unique ability to create and control White Walkers and wights
- The White Walker generals, their subordinates, that have the ability to raise people and animals from the dead
- Wights (mindless footsoldiers in the Army of the Dead) that are raised and controlled by the White Walker generals or the Night Kings.
Why is the Night King special?
This theory further suggests that all the Night Kings were destroyed during the first Long Night, except the one we see today.
For a reason, unknown at the time, neither dragonglass nor Valyrian Steel could kill this particular Night King. Instead, the theory reads, the combined forces of men and the Children of the Forest managed to imprison the Night King far away in the North, beyond what will eventually become the Wall, where he couldn't cause any trouble.
It wasn't until approximately 50 years before the present timeline that the Children decided to release the Night King. But that's the story for another time. Now, on to the reason why the Night King couldn't be destroyed during the Long Night.
According to the Redditor, this particular Night King couldn't be destroyed during the Long Night, because Bran, whose spirit is trapped inside the Night King hasn't been born yet. This, of course, implies that the only way to kill the Night King is to kill Bran. And to see how this could play out in "Game of Thrones" Season 8 check out my "The Night King will save mankind" article.
What do you think about this theory? Let me know in the comments below. And next time, I'm going to talk about the Children of the Forest and their secret vow to destroy mankind.
