'Game of Thrones' season 8 episode 1 mostly indicated that the Night King could be a Targaryen
The greatest threat looming over Westeros at the moment is the Night King's invasion with his army of White Walkers but the question about their intent to take over the living continues to baffle many viewers. Episode 2 of 'Game of Thrones' season 8 will inform us that the White Walkers are barely a night away from attacking Winterfell and as we know, this time the Night King is riding an ice-breathing dragon, Viserion.
This very aspect of the Night King's evolved power has brought up a significant question among fans as to whether the Night King actually is a Targaryen and after creator David Benioff's interview in an 'Inside the Episode' clip, fans are more convinced the Night King might just be another long lost relative of the Mother of Dragons.
In the 'Inside the Episode' clip, Benioff says, "Only Targaryens can ride a dragon." Benioff refers to the scene in the episode where Jon Snow (Kit Harington) hops on to Rhaegal after Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) convinces him that no one knows how to ride a dragon unless they actually ride a dragon.
However, fans took this bit of the interview as a major hint. Fans on Twitter actually began asking if the Night King truly is a Targaryen since, in the finale episode of the last season, he had pretty much burned down the entire Wall while riding Viserion. A fan mentioned on Reddit, "We already know that Targaryen blood has some magical abilities due to the ability to control dragons...". So, could it mean the Night King actually is a Targaryen?
The fan further mentioned, "I've seen posts where people seem to think that the death of Ned Stark was the reason for the White Walkers returning but I think it was because there was no longer a Targaryen on the throne..." The fan also referred to season 1 when Ned Stark beheads a man who tries to inform everyone about the coming of the White Walkers.
Considering the man's crime of abandoning the Wall, Ned Stark sentences him to death and beheads him. "Ned believed the man had deserted the wall when in actuality the man was trying to tell people that the white walkers were waking up. It could be that they had been slowly waking and gathering strength since the death of the Mad King."
Following the death of the Mad King, it was believed no dragons were alive anymore and they were wiped away from the face of the earth. Chances are this is when the White Walkers realized there would no more be fire enough to stop them and this was the opportunity for them to reclaim their place on the earth.
However, what had truly convinced the fans was the death swirl symbol which Tormund and the remaining Brothers of the Night Watch witnessed at Last Hearth. The same symbol has appeared several times on the show like when Jon Snow revisits the Fist of the First Men in season 3 episode 3. Following which it appears in 'The Door' episode of Season 6 around the Weirwood tree where the Night King was created and then inside the Dragonglass cave in Season 7's 'Spoils of War'.
Moreover, on several occasions, we have seen that the Night King does not burn. In the episode, 'The Door', when the Children of the Forest created a circle of fire around the cave to keep away the White Walkers, most of them went around the fire and tried entering the cave from above. However, the Night King walked straight into the fire unharmed and that seems to run parallel with the fact that Daenerys, too, can never be burned. This is actually quite a significant clue to consider in case we are really giving the Night King's identity as a Targaryen a thought.
'Game of Thrones' Season 8 Episode 2 returns on April 21.
