The Night King tends to show up at exactly the right moments. RetroZapper Ryan Colantonio asks why.
By Ryan Colantonio // Game of Thrones Season 6 Revisited tackles last season’s biggest reveals and their implications on the story moving forward. This week looks at all things Night King and his possible connection to greensight. Of course, be prepared for material from all books and seasons.
The Choosing
Having largely moved beyond the source material, Game of Thrones delivered plenty of off-book surprises in Season 6. Of these shocking reveals, perhaps none were as significant as the Night King’s origin.
Taking place during the Arrival of the First Men, this origin answered a number of age-old questions. Besides the when, why, and how of the white walkers’ creation, it also hinted at the identity of their menacing leader.
While some had speculated that the Night King was an ancient Stark, the timing here suggests otherwise. The writers make clear that the Night King’s “birth” took place long before the Age of Heroes. As such, Winterfell and a formalized House Stark would not have existed.
This raises the question of why the Children would select a random First Man as their guinea pig, and leads to the idea that the Night King wasn’t some random First Man, but was instead a greenseer. Access to greensight would explain several of the mysteries surrounding the white walkers, so let’s have a look at why this works.
The Reawakening
After their supposed defeat in the War for the Dawn, the walkers passed into legend. One of the many mysteries yet to be answered is why they suddenly returned after millenniums of inactivity. Possible explanations have ranged from a broken treaty to the second coming of Azor Ahai.
Whatever the reason, the walkers would need knowledge of the outside world in order to respond to these events. With the aid of greensight, the Night King could observe any moment across all of time and space.
It remains unclear if greenseers can reliably see into the future. However, Craster’s sacrifices hint that the Night King was aware of the Wars to Come. Considering Craster sacrificed nearly 100 boys, his involvement with the walkers must have started well before the series began. Unless the walkers’ reawakening truly was random, this preemptive reinforcement again points to greensight.
Battle Tactics
Leading up to Hardhome, the white walkers had only launched one major offensive: The Battle at the Fist of the First Men. Besides the Night’s Watch, these two battles share one other connecting thread…DRAGONGLASS.
From a tactical standpoint, the attack on the Fist of the First Men makes next to no sense. In the books, Martin explicitly notes that the Fist is a heavily defensible position. While the Watch’s 300 men camped atop this fortification, Mance Rayder’s 100,000 wildlings roamed unprotected.
If the Night King’s mission was to grow his army, then the wildlings would have been the easier catch. If his mission was to eliminate the Watch, then an ambush would have been more effective. Only something as life-threatening as dragonglass, would warrant such an ill-advised attack. And only through greensight would the Night King have discovered the Watch’s cache.
Hardhome
The walkers suddenly attacking Hardhome minutes after Jon Snow’s arrival is just too coincidental for this series. Instead, showrunner David Benioff describes the massacre as “according to plan” in the accompanying Inside the Episode video. Taking a closer look at the battle, this plan very much appears to involve Jon’s dragonglass.
As if to spell out its importance, the dragonglass features prominently throughout the episode. During the fight, Jon goes in search of the glass only to discover a walker-lieutenant already in pursuit. Later on, the showrunners specifically make note of Jon and Edd leaving the glass behind.
Other theories have proposed that Hardhome’s coincidental timing relates to Jon himself. Either way the Night King would need some way of knowing that he or the dragonglass had arrived. Besides plot devices, the only possible method to achieve this task would be greensight.
Necromancy
Hardhome also introduced the concept of hive-mind necromancy. When the Night King raised his arms, he simultaneously raised thousands of new wights. The Night King’s control over the entire wight army is later confirmed in season six. When Bran’s greenseeing takes him to the Night King’s hideout, the undead army clearly act as a collective body. Much like a greenseer’s warging abilities, this hive mentality implies a psychic bond between the Night King and his thralls. It’s also worth noting that a wights’ glowing blue eyes are somewhat reminiscent of a wargs’ white glare. If true, this link between necromancy and greensight could play a crucial part in the Wars to Come.
The Magic Touch
Bran’s first solo greenseeing attempt lead to the deaths of his mentor, direwolf, and friends. It also provided the most substantial evidence of the Night King’s possible greensight abilities.
As it stands, only the Night King and the Three-eyed Raven have ever physically interacted with Bran while greenseeing. What’s more, Bran’s vision even depicts the Night King camped at an ancient weirwood of his own. Considering that the other walkers didn’t even notice Bran, the showrunners seem to be hinting at something with this vision.
Instead of showcasing Bran’s inability to control his powers, perhaps the scene also serves to highlight the Night King’s abilities. Seeing that Bran had full control during his second solo vision (Jon’s birth) the latter is certainly a possibility.
Closing Remarks
It’s important to remember that Game of Thrones is an adaptation. The Night King has never once appeared in Martin’s five completed books. In fact, the books repeatedly refer to Bloodraven as “the last greenseer”. As crazy and inconsequential as this theory may seem, it does address some of the show’s biggest unsolved mysteries.
In the coming seasons, an eventual showdown between Bran and the Night King is all but certain. The idea of a no holds barred greenseer versus greenseer duel would surely make for some must-watch television.