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[[WMG:[[center: [- ''Series/GameOfThrones'' '''[[Characters/GameOfThrones Main Character Index]]'''\\
[[Characters/GameOfThronesWesteros The Seven Kingdoms of Westeros]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseStark House Stark]] ([[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseStarkChildren House Stark Children]] [[[Characters/GameOfThronesJonSnow Jon Snow]], [[Characters/GameOfThronesSansaStark Sansa Stark]], [[Characters/GameOfThronesAryaStark Arya Stark]]], [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseStarkHousehold House Stark Household]]) | [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseBolton House Bolton]] ([[Characters/GameOfThronesRamsayBolton Ramsay Bolton]]) | [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseKarstark House Karstark]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseMormont House Mormont]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseReed House Reed]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesOtherNorthernHouses Other Northern Houses]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseLannister House Lannister]] ([[Characters/GameOfThronesTywinLannister Tywin Lannister]], [[Characters/GameOfThronesCerseiLannister Cersei Lannister]], [[Characters/GameOfThronesJaimeLannister Jaime Lannister]], [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseLannisterHousehold House Lannister Household]]) | [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseClegane House Clegane]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseBaratheonOfKingsLanding House Baratheon of King’s Landing]] ([[Characters/GameOfThronesJoffreyBaratheon Joffrey Baratheon]]) | [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseTargaryen House Targaryen]] ([[Characters/GameOfThronesDaenerysCourt Daenerys I’s Court]] [[[Characters/GameOfThronesDaenerysTargaryen Daenerys Targaryen]], [[Characters/GameOfThronesTyrionLannister Tyrion Lannister]]], [[Characters/GameOfThronesServantsOfDaenerys Servants of Daenerys]]) | [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseBaratheon House Baratheon of Storm’s End and Dragonstone]] ([[Characters/GameOfThronesStannisBaratheon Stannis Baratheon]]) | [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseGreyjoy House Greyjoy]] ([[Characters/GameOfThronesEuronGreyjoy Euron Greyjoy]], [[Characters/GameOfThronesTheonGreyjoy Theon Greyjoy]]) | [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseArryn House Arryn]] ([[Characters/GameOfThronesPetyrBaelish Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish]]) | [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseTully House Tully]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseFrey House Frey]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseTyrell House Tyrell]] ([[Characters/GameOfThronesMargaeryTyrell Margaery Tyrell]]) | [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseTarly House Tarly]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesHouseMartell House Martell]] ([[Characters/GameOfThronesSandSnakes Sand Snakes]]) | [[Characters/GameOfThronesTheFreeCities The Free Cities]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesSlaversBay Slaver's Bay]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesTheDothrakiSeaAndTheRedWaste The Dothraki Sea and the Red Waste]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesQarth Qarth]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesNightsWatch The Night's Watch]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesRoyalCourt Royal Court]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesTheOrderOfTheMaesters The Order of the Maesters]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesTheKingsguard The Kingsguard]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesWildlings Wildlings]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesBrotherhoodWithoutBanners Brotherhood Without Banners]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesTheFaithOfTheSeven The Faith of the Seven]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesRedTemple Red Temple]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesIndependentCharacters Independent Characters]] | [[Characters/GameOfThronesTheatreTroupe Theatre Troupe]] | '''Supernatural Beings''']]]]-]

!!!See also the [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireBeingsBeyondTheWall book character sheet]] for these characters.

'''Only spoilers from the current season will be hidden, so beware spoilers if you're not up to date on the episodes.'''

----
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:The White Walkers]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/white_walker.png]]

->''"Oh, my sweet summer child, what do you know about fear? Fear is for the winter, when the snows fall a hundred feet deep. Fear is for the long night, when the sun hides for years, and children are born and live and die all in darkness. That is the time for fear, my little lord, when the White Walkers move through the woods."''
-->-- '''Old Nan'''

A legendary race from beyond the Wall. Eight thousand years ago, during a generation-long winter called the Long Night, they descended on Westeros with an army of undead warriors. In a conflict known as the War for the Dawn, they were eventually defeated and driven back into the north by the First Men and the Children Of The Forest, leading to the construction of the Wall and the establishment of the Night's Watch. Now they have resurged, and are rebuilding their army of the dead to march on the south. Essos and the Seven Kingdoms are mostly unaware of their resurgence and doubt they ever existed, but those who do know of them consider their return a dark omen; if the living are not ready to face the Walkers when they come for the Seven Kingdoms, civilization is doomed.

----

* AchillesHeel: Dragonglass and Valyrian steel. Both cause LiterallyShatteredLives, explosively so in the case of the latter. When Sam stabs a Walker with a dragonglass dagger, the Walker has enough time to turn around and scream at him before falling to his knees and then to pieces. When Jon Snow delivers the killing stroke with Longclaw, his adversaries [[http://photos.vanityfair.com/2015/06/01/556bb676378caf0d670e4d50_jon-snow-white-walker.gif explode on contact]].
* AdaptationalUgliness: In the books, the Others are described as oddly beautiful, sort of ice-themed versions of TheFairFolk. In the show, they look like [[EvilOldFolks extremely aged]] and mummified/freeze-dried corpses, though not without an eerie air of dignity in their own right. The novels also state that they wear reflective armor that acts like camouflage (much like real-world stealth technology), absorbing and reflecting their surroundings. In the show, they are shown as being balding old men with white hair, and the only armour they wear is likewise black.
* AdaptationDyeJob: In the books, their armor is reflective and provides a sort of active camouflage. In the series, they don't wear much armor at all with the exception of the Night King's court, and what little they do is black and grey material which makes them stick out in the snow.
* AdaptationNameChange: Of a sort. They are also known as White Walkers in the books, but "the Others" (which doesn't appear in the series at all) is much more common. Benioff and Weiss were afraid of viewers not realizing that "Others" was a proper term given spoken dialogue can't rely on CapitalLettersAreMagic- -"Which others are we talking about? The other whats?" Also, this name is much more [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast frightening]] and evocative of [[AnIcePerson what they]] [[ZombieApocalypse actually are]].
* AlliterativeName: '''W'''hite '''W'''alkers.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: They are a horde of {{Monstrous Humanoid}}s who pose a threat to life itself by the way they radiate cold from their bodies and are slowly turning the world into a graveyard of undead minions. Season 6 indicates that they were created with the sole purpose of killing humans, but that purpose was extended to all life; to that end, its possible that they are merely, in their minds, fulfilling their reason for existing. [[spoiler:Season 8 reveals that the Night King wants to destroy all trace of humanity's world, suggesting the others are simply following his lead.]]
* AnIcePerson: Prominently, cold radiates from their bodies. White Walkers wield weapons made of ice, and strokes from these weapons or even their bare palms' touch can freeze and shatter non-magical blades almost instantly. Their footsteps can put out flames merely by walking through them and instantly freeze small puddles of water. This appears to answer a debate in the books over whether White Walkers come with the cold, or cause cold where they travel.
* AnimateDead: They can reanimate any dead thing they have access to as a wight, unless it has been burned.
* ArmorPiercingAttack: Nothing except Valyrian steel and possibly dragonglass can block their icy blades, metal weapons shatter and it goes through people like butter. Even dragon scales pose no resistance.
* BarehandedBladeBlock: White Walkers can not only pull this off, but also freeze the blade and shatter it.
* BadassFamily: An unknown (but large) number of them were culled from Craster's sons.
* BeardOfEvil: One of the White Walkers at Hardhome has a white beard, showing that the species can grow facial hair.
* BigBad: They start out as this to the Night's Watch storyline, as they're responsible for both the Army of the Dead bearing down on the human realms and more indirectly the invasion of the North by the Free Folk. As of season 7, they're promoted to the Big Bad role for entire series, as pretty much all the main characters and their armies (except for Cersei and Euron, and the troops they command) come together to fight the Walkers. [[spoiler:In Season 8, they become a DiscOneFinalBoss and don't factor into the last three episodes' story conclusion]].
* BioweaponBeast: A magical variant. They were created to be a weapon by the Children of the Forest in their defensive war against the First Men. It backfired spectacularly when the White Walkers turned out to be far too indiscriminate in their targets.
* ChillOfUndeath: They're implied to be not alive in the traditional sense, and they practically ''radiate'' cold and bring blizzards with them wherever they go.
* ConflictKiller: In "Mhysa", Stannis abandons his campaign in the South after learning from the Night's Watch that the White Walkers have returned, knowing that if they manage to break through the Wall, "it won't matter whose skeleton sits on the Iron Throne". As Davos later points out, ''everyone'' in Westeros will be screwed. Daenerys herself ends up convinced to stop them after spending a chunk of Season 7 somewhat at odds with Jon about it.
* CreepyBlueEyes: Shared with the wights, implying a magical cause.
* DarkIsEvil: All of them wear black and grey armor, and their blizzards blot out the sun if they're moving during the day.
* DeaderThanDead: [[spoiler:Immediately after Arya slays the Night King, the White Walkers disintegrate and their Wight army become lifeless corpses]].
* DidntSeeThatComing: The first death of a White Walker by Samwell using dragonglass is implied to be the reason by the other Walkers start donning armor instead of walking around half-naked. The White Walker which Jon duels in "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS5E8Hardhome Hardhome]]" has a visible OhCrap reaction when [[spoiler:Longclaw deflects the Walker's blade without shattering, due to being Valyrian steel]].
* TheDreaded: Gradually built up: the people of Westeros either believe they were all destroyed thousands of years ago and are long extinct (mainly in the North), or are just a myth (everywhere else). Once a Westerosi is finally convinced that the White Walkers are real, the horror they can inspire quickly takes hold.
* EvilIsDeathlyCold: Taken to its logical extreme; see AnIcePerson.
* EvilOldFolks: White Walkers with the exception of the Night King look like humanoid old men. Though some if not most of them originated as babies who were offered to the Walkers by Craster.
* TheFairFolk: Despite the difference in appearance from their book counterparts, the Walkers here still bear a number of similarities to the faerie folk of myth, most notably kidnapping babies to turn them into more of their kind.
* ForebodingFleeingFlock: PlayedWith in "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS3E8SecondSons Second Sons]]", where birds behaving oddly and flocking together eerily forebodes a single White Walker's approach.
* ForTheEvulz: Their undead army is so nigh-invincible that they treat war like a sport, singling out strong opponents to duel (and pulverize), ignoring key units and structures in favor of self-imposed challenges (like spearing a flying dragon literally a mile away instead of attacking the dragon ''mounted by half of Westeros' ruling class''), and generally allowing lowly foot soldiers to live so they can rally the south for a better fight. None of this stops them from killing children or having their wights eat soldiers and defenseless villagers alive.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Their eyes have a subtle glow, which becomes especially notable in the dark.
* GodzillaThreshold: The last time they emerged from the Lands of Always Winter, it took the combined efforts of the Children of the Forest and First Men to drive them back. They did enough damage to Westeros to warrant the construction of the Wall and the formation of the Night's Watch just to ''try'' and keep them contained in the North. [[labelnote:From the books...]]According to legend, the thirteenth Lord Commander of the Night's Watch was seduced and corrupted by a female White Walker and became the "Night's King", driving the King in the North to ally with the Wildlings to kill him and his Queen. [[/labelnote]].
* GoneHorriblyRight: The Children of the Forest created them to kill the invading humans. Unfortunately, they did the job a bit '''too''' well and to put it simply, [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters bye bye COTF.]]
* GreaterScopeVillain: To all of Westeros, and possibly the entire world. While they don't directly antagonize anyone except the Night's Watch until the season 7 finale, they're a threat to all who live regardless. Commander Mormont gloomily tells Jon that while the War of the Five Kings is beginning now, if the Walkers descend on the Seven Kingdoms, it won't matter who wins. [[spoiler:Based on [[HopeSproutsEternal a particular shot]] at the [[Recap/GameOfThronesS8E6TheIronThrone final episode's end]], their magic might even be responsible for the world's unpredictable season cycle[[note]]George R.R. Martin stated when referring to the books that Westeros and Essos' unearthly seasonal cycle is due to magic, and implied the world once had an annual cycle of short seasons like in the real world[[/note]] until their death causes the seasons revert to an annual cycle]].
* GrimUpNorth: And they are very grim.
* HellIsThatNoise: Their shrieks are very much the sound you'd expect to hear from demons that come in the night to raid villages. InUniverse, the sound of '''Three''' Blasts from a sentry horn is [[MassOhCrap the cue]] for men of the Night's Watch to begin [[BringMyBrownPants soiling themselves]].
* HorsemenOfTheApocalypse: The four most prominent members are the Night King and three of his generals, all of whom appear on horseback while overseeing the ZombieApocalypse. This is seemingly a rotating cast, as Jon kills one of them at Hardhome, and Meera killed another.
* HumanoidAbomination: Eerie, undead creatures resembling tall, mummified men with unearthly blue eyes, who emanate freezing cold temperatures, reanimate corpses as wights, and carry themselves in a highly inhuman manner with only the briefest flecks of human-like emotions if any. Their legendary reputation among the Westerosi as demonic and otherworldly beings is well-earned.
* ImplacableMan: Or MonstrousHumanoid, in any case; much like their wights, there isn't a lot that can faze a White Walker, and even when faced with the deaths of other Walkers they don't ever stop until every living thing around them is dead or turned into one of their wights. The way that they're treated InUniverse is more akin to preparing for a horrific natural disaster than a conventional army.
* ItCanThink: They're much more than a mindless evil. They didn't much bother with armor in the first few seasons, but after Sam killed one of them with a dragonglass dagger, they started. After they witnessed Jon kill one of them with Longclaw, they started sending in the wights to fight for them more often. They've also started traveling almost exclusively as a group instead of going off alone and getting picked off.
* KeystoneArmy: [[spoiler:In Season 7, when Jon killing a White Walker causes most of the wights accompanying it to suddenly become lifeless, he and his expedition later theorize that killing a White Walker kills all the wights whom that Walker reanimated. Beric Dondarrion suggests that if one can kill the Night King, it could kill his entire army, since "he turned them all". He's proven correct in Season 8]].
* KryptoniteFactor: Dragonglass (obsidian) and Dragonsteel (Valyrian steel) weapons will typically inflict an instant death blow if the White Walkers' bodies are dealt a blow by such a weapon, [[FireIceDuo likely due to the materials' relations to extreme heat and fire]].
* LegendFadesToMyth: Most of the world outside the North believe they never existed as anything more than a myth to begin with. They're also described as riding [[GiantSpider "pale spiders big as hounds"]] in Old Nan's tales of the Long Night, but said creatures are never seen when they return in the show.
* LiterallyShatteredLives: They disintegrate into ice shards more or less instantly when they're killed.
* {{Loincloth}}: They wore scraps of brown cloth around their waists and even on their hands until after the third season. The need of undead {{Monstrous Humanoid}}s to keep their groins covered is rather odd, considering this is ''Game of Thrones''.
* MadArtist: They've arranged the corpses of their victims artistically twice. A group of wildlings were lined out to form some kind of symbol, and some of the Night's Watch's horses were chopped up and the chunks were placed in a spiral. A third time, severed human arms were nailed to the wall of Last Hearth's great hall, with the young Lord Umber in the center. We have no idea why they do this, but "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS6E5TheDoor The Door]]" reveals that the spirals are recreations of the stone monument that played a part in the ritual that created the White Walkers.
** One possibility is that they do this simply because they enjoy [[ForTheEvulz screwing with people]].
** Another is that these patterns are part of the magical ritual that animates corpses as wights.
** In "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS8E1Winterfell Winterfell]]", the Night King made the symbol with the newly-[[ZombieApocalypse raised]] Lord Umber seemingly to taunt the Northmen as a symbol of his coming.
* MonstrousHumanoid: Each White Walker WasOnceAMan (or rather a baby), and they look like emaciated corpses that were left out to freeze but with winter-themed color coding.
* {{Necromancer}}: Their magic can raise the dead as wights. They are good enough at this to raise an enormous army of their undead servants, formed from the people they've killed.
-->"''An army which doesn't leave corpses behind on the battlefield.''"
* NonHumanUndead: There appears to be nothing they can't raise from the dead. Humans, animals, giants, ''dragons''; all of it is fair game.
* NoOntologicalInertia: [[spoiler:In Season 7, it's discovered that if a White Walker is killed, the wights reanimated by that Walker will all die as well. In Season 8, managing to kill the Night King causes his entire army to promptly follow him]].
* NoSell: Swinging any normal weapon at a White Walker won't do a lot -- it'll just freeze the blade and shatter it. [[spoiler:They're also unfazed by the Children of the Forest's magical fire-barrier, which they just walk right through while their cold beats back the flames]].
* NothingIsScarier: Their morality is undetermined to be either actively malicious or just [[BlueAndOrangeMorality completely alien]], and it's uncertain why precisely the Walkers follow the Night King's goal (see his folder for more info).
* NotSoExtinct: Just about everyone in Westeros thinks that the White Walkers are extinct, and some even believe that they never existed in the first place. [[AStormIsComing They're all in for an unpleasant surprise]].
* OhCrap: The Walker that Sam kills has this reaction after it realises it's been stabbed with dragonglass. Later, in Season 5, the Walker lieutenant that Jon faces at Hardhome reacts with a wide-eyed JawDrop when its metal-shattering spear fails to break Longclaw.
* OffscreenTeleportation: As demonstrated in "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS1E1WinterIsComing Winter is Coming]]", when the [[MadArtist pattern of corpses]] manages to vanish in less than a few minutes with no trace whatsoever, they can be surprisingly effective at this when they want to be.
* OffWithHisHead: They seem to favor removing their victims' heads offscreen when they want to play the MadArtist.
* OminousWalk: They've never been seen running, and it goes with the name.
* OneGenderRace: All the White Walkers we have seen on-screen are male. They are shown to reproduce by stealing human children to create new members. The only children known to be taken are Craster's baby sons, so it's unknown if they ''have'' to convert males for some reason or if it's simply the Night King's preference. [[labelnote:From the Books]]The novels have only featured two on-screen appearances by the Others and White Walkers as of ''Literature/ADanceWithDragons'' and while there are hints of Craster and his wives giving their babies as servants for the White Walkers, nothing more is mentioned, with the Others mainly being described as cold, beautiful, and pompous, with no hint of them being entirely male or female. The original lore of the Night's King from the books states that the thirteenth Lord Commander of the Night's Watch met and fell in love with a [[HumanoidAbomination strange woman]] who's suggested to be a female Other[[/labelnote]].
* OutsideContextProblem: Most people assume they're all gone, if they believe they existed at all, and their reemergence has more or less nothing to do with all the politics and wars of the Seven Kingdoms and Essos during the first five seasons.
* RaisingTheSteaks: Old Nan said that they rode on undead horses. At the end of the second season finale we see that this is true. Season 7 adds undead bears to the mix.
* SilentAntagonist: The only vocalizations they have made are a shrill, bone-chilling shriek. It's currently unknown if they either can't speak, choose not to speak, or don't understand/haven't bothered to learn the CommonTongue that mankind uses.
* SuperStrength: One throws Sam's considerable bulk back several yards with a simple punch, while another breaks Jon's ribs with a hit.
* TaughtByExperience:
** Until Sam Tarly killed one with dragonglass, they went around shirtless. The next time we saw them afterwards, they started wearing black leathery armors. Said armors are thick enough to prevent the Walkers' skin from being in contact with the dragonlass, as shown during their assault on the cave of the Three-Eyed Raven when a Child of the Forest unsuccessfully tried stabbing a Walker in the belly section -- Meera Reed destroyed it by throwing a dragonglass spear in its exposed head.
** No White Walker whatsoever is seen amidst the Battle of the Dawn until most of the North's armies are slaughtered and the heroes too busy, isolated, exhausted and desperate fighting off endless waves of wights and the Night King and his {{Dracolich}} to be a threat. The Walkers preferred letting the wights do all the job and wait from a safe distance. This comes after losing some of their own during the battle at the cave of the Three-Eyed Raven and the battle of Hardhome, during which some Walkers decided to directly confront heroes only to find out the hard way they were equipped with dragonglass and/or Valyrian steel.
* TranshumanAbomination: The show canonizes the books' unconfirmed speculation by Craster's wives that the fate of the baby boys sacrificed to the Walkers is to become Walkers themselves -- one touch from the Night King turns the babies into something like what he is. It's heavily implied that each and every Walker besides [[MonsterProgenitor the Night King]] was created this way.
* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: They were originally created by the Children of the Forest to fight the First Men. Needless to say, it's GoneHorriblyRight.
* VillainBall: The first two White Walker deaths could have been prevented if they simply killed their opponents right away instead of toying with or ignoring them. This behavior seems to stem from a belief that humans simply cannot kill them, which, given the rarity of the items necessary to do such a thing, isn't unfounded.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: In Seasons 2 and 3. Apparently Sam Tarly stabbing and killing one of them with Dragonglass made them decide to start wearing protective armour.
* WasOnceAMan: At least some were once human infants sacrificed to the White Walkers and converted to their race by the Night King. It's revealed in Season 6 that the Night King himself was transformed by the Children of the Forest to fight against the humans invading Westeros at the time.
* WeaponizedWeakness:
** The dragonglass blades at the Fist of the First Men.
** Season 5 revealed that Valyrian steel does just as well as dragonglass, even holding up to their weapons which can otherwise shatter a normal blade.[[note]]And if the reaction of the Walker Jon was fighting coupled with the steel's Valyrian origin on another continent are anything to go by, the Walkers might have not known about this weakness either.[[/note]]
** In Season 7, Jon Snow has the dragonglass deposits of Dragonstone mined to be turned into weapons to face the White Walkers. [[spoiler:It benefits the living army against the wights in Season 8]].
* WalkingWasteland: They radiate cold from their bodies, and a blizzard follows the main army courtesy of the Night King.
* WouldHurtAChild: In all but one of their appearances they have been threatening children in some way, and they have child wights in their army.
* ZombieApocalypse: Basically their entire plan is to create and lead one to conquer Westeros.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Night King]]
!!The Night King
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/night_king_s7.png]]
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/RichardBrake (Seasons 4-5), Creator/VladimirFurdik (Seasons 6-8)

->''"The true enemy won't wait out the storm. He ''brings'' the storm."''
-->-- '''Jon Snow'''

A First Man who the Children of the Forest turned into the first of the White Walkers. As his name/moniker suggests, the Night King is the leader of the White Walkers, and perhaps the most formidable foe Westeros has ever faced.
----
* ArchEnemy: For all of Westeros, humanity, the children of the forest, the Wildlings, the Night's Watch, Bran Stark, Jon Snow, and Daenerys Targaryen after he kills one of her dragons. The battle of Hardhome cements the great enmity between Jon Snow and him, since Jon discovers how to kill White Walkers right under the Night King's eyes. The two of them then exchange {{Death Glare}}s as Jon escapes the place and the Night King raises the fallen Wildlings of Hardhome in undeath as a demonstration of his power.
** Bran notes that the Night King and the Three-Eyed Raven are this: the Night King wishes to eradicate all memory of the world of Men, and as the Three-Eyed Raven possesses all memory of the world, the Night King wants him dead more than any other.
* ArmorIsUseless: [[spoiler: Arya's blade doesn't go through the pieces of plate armor of the Night King but through one of the gaps between the armor where there is only what appears to be leather.]]
* AssimilationPlot: [[spoiler:One aspect of his creating the Army of the Dead is that he wants to make everything undead just like him so that there's no more humanity left alive to remind him of what he's since lost by becoming the Night King.]]
* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: It's clear that he's the best fighter among the White Walkers, as well as possessing the strongest necromantic powers. Perhaps his greatest victory is of his own making, when he personally kills Viserion with a spear throw, then proceeds to resurrect and use him to destroy a part of the Wall, allowing his gigantic army of the dead a passage into the Seven Kingdoms.
* AttackItsWeakPoint:
** His spear toss doesn't kill Viserion through raw force, but by striking his neck as he was breathing fire. The resulting explosion does most of the damage and causes the dragon to bleed to death. Now the bigger question is, did the Night King get lucky or does he ''know'' where to hit?
** [[spoiler:Arya kills him by stabbing him with a Valyrian steel knife in the same place the Children of the Forest stabbed him to turn him into a monster. According to the post-episode interviews with the showrunners, this is the only way to kill him.]]
* BadassBoast: He does an iconic, non-verbal one when he converts all the Wildlings and Night's Watch men his army killed into wights -- in front of clearly-distressed Lord Commander Jon Snow.
* BaldOfEvil: The only White Walker without any hair at all, instead having his crown of horns.
* BigBad: Quite possibly of the entire series, book and show alike. Contenders for the BigBad throne include some rather nasty people, but none can hold a candle to the Night King.
** As of Season 6, he's this in Bran's storyline and since Ramsay's death and the elimination of House Bolton, he's set to become the new North storyline's BigBad.
** He remains as the North storyline's BigBad in Season 7, and preparing the North remains Jon Snow's priority, to the point that he personally comes to treat with Daenerys Targaryen in Dragonstone, requesting help from her and her dragons. After seeing the threat first hand, Daenerys agrees the Night King must be stopped at all costs and he essentially becomes the ultimate BigBad for the whole world. [[spoiler:Although he is destroyed midway through Season 8, he is still by far the most powerful enemy the protagonists had ever or would ever face, threatening the entire planet, leaving the villains that came after him looking completely insignificant in comparison - even Daenerys, who burned all of King's Landing to the ground after her tragic fall to darkness.]]
* {{Bookends}}: His existence as the Night King began when he was stabbed through the heart with an obsidian dagger under a weirwood by a being resembling a teenage girl. [[spoiler:It ends from a quick stab from Arya's Valyrian dagger, also under a weirwood]].
* BringIt: He locks eyes with Jon while he raises his arms and raises the dead at Hardhome as wights.
* ConflictKiller:
** Jon mentions to Sansa in "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS7E1Dragonstone Dragonstone]]" that after seeing the Night King, he's been consumed with stopping the Night King and the army of the dead to the point of forgetting about all of the smaller conflicts to the south.
** {{Subverted}} in the Season 7 finale. Despite clear evidence that the Night King exists and poses an existential threat to humanity itself, [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Cersei]] still won't commit her troops to fighting the White Walkers because she wants her political rivals to weaken themselves as much as they can against the terrible menace she underestimates and hopes she can come out on top against whatever or whoever survives.
* CrazyPrepared: The most dangerous thing White Walkers can face besides Valyrian steel and Dragonglass is dragons, and he's prepared to deal with them, as demonstrated in "Beyond the Wall".
* CreateYourOwnVillain: He was turned into the first White Walker by the Children of the Forest.
* CreepyBlueEyes: Just like his foot soldiers. A close-up picture reveals that his pupils are in the shape of a seven-pointed star, making them even creepier.
* CrownShapedHead: The Night King sports a crown made of ice shards covering its head.
* DarkIsEvil: Wears all-black armor and is a dire threat to humanity. His powers also include blocking out the sun.
* DeathGlare: He has one of these for Jon once he sees the Lord-Commander slay a White Walker with Valyrian steel. When Jon and co. are later trapped on an ice lake after attempting to capture a wight, Beric suggests that maybe killing the Night King will destroy his whole army. At that point Jon and the Night King again share death glares.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: [[spoiler:A very interesting example for Season 8 (the final season). He meets his demise in the third episode, seemingly leaving Cersei as BigBad for the three remaining episodes, until Daenerys becomes a FallenHeroine in the second to last episode and wipes Cersei and most of King's Landing off the face of the planet, serving as the final BigBad]].
* DragonRider: He becomes one when he turns Viserion into a wight/White Walker and uses him to destroy a portion of the Wall at Eastwatch.
* TheDreaded: Even more so than the "ordinary" White Walkers. Jon Snow, one of the few people to have killed a White Walker in the series, warns the entire Northern alliance about him--visibly shaken by their encounter:
-->'''Jon Snow:''' The true enemy won't wait out the storm. He ''brings'' the storm.
* EvilCounterpart: He eventually becomes one to Daenerys, since he's also a far-off, would-be conquerer of Westoros who can ride a dragon.
* EvilIsDeathlyCold: He's intimately associated with cold. His skin is icy blue, his "crown" is an array of ice-like spikes on his head, he wields weapons made of ice, and he usually travels within a blizzard, which Jon Snow at one point implies is actually created ''by'' his presence. In "Beyond The Wall", he's also shown walking across a line of fire lingering from one of Daenerys' dragons' shots, and the flames are visibly extinguished as he gets near them.
* EvilOverlord: Everyone was thinking that there are no remaining White Walkers in Westeros, and that the Night King was dead. They're wrong. He even has a glowing green mountain of doom to call home.
* EvilerThanThou: The Boltons are small time compared to him. [[spoiler:As is Daenerys (though this was before her FaceHeelTurn); she's [[NoSell totally helpless]] against him even with her dragons and slave armies.]]
* TheFairFolk: His minions capture human infants and he transforms them into new White Walkers.
* FinalBoss: Effectively serves as this for the series. The final confrontation with him in the final season, built to since the very first scene in the series, represents the largest and most important clash in the world's history. There are two antagonists that technically come after him (Cersei and [[spoiler:Daenerys]]) but neither are anywhere near his threat level (the stakes revert to "who gets the throne" rather than "will humanity survive") and both are easily dealt with in a single episode each, making them more like [[PostFinalBoss Post Final Bosses.]]
* FisherKing: It's heavily implied that his magic is what's responsible for turning the lands North of the Wall (which are shown to have been lush and green when he was first created) into the subarctic wastes they are today, and possibly also for the BizarreSeasons Westeros has been experiencing for the past several millennia. [[spoiler: After his defeat, in the show's last episode, the weather is shown to be much more mild, with grass even shown sprouting past the Wall (bear in mind that a very short length of time has passed since the Westerosi winter's beginning at the end of Season 6 and that it was being predicted throughout the show that the encroaching winter would be a long one), implying that the seasons are returning to normal now that he's gone]].
* FlatCharacter: Comes with being TheVoiceless ''and'' TheStoic. He's stone-faced to a fault (save for his smirk to [[spoiler:Daenerys]] in "The Long Night" after [[spoiler:[[NoSell no-selling]] Drogon's fire]]) as he has zero personality to speak of. Likewise, his motives are a complete mystery save for washing away everything in death and ice, somewhat making him a GenericDoomsdayVillain as well. But because of the sheer threat he poses, rather than a ''character'' he's something closer to an extreme force of nature that must be dealt with.
* FrontlineGeneral: Personally leads his forces during the assault on the Three-Eyed Raven's cave. Averted when he fights Jon Snow, as he keeps an army of undead between him and the living, with his lieutenants, watching the fight from afar.
* {{Foil}}: To Daenerys. [[spoiler:Both are [[BigBad Big Bads]] reliant on magic, both have their "children" as their main minions,[[note]]Daenerys proclaims herself "Mother of Dragons", and the Night King is the one who created every current White Walker.[[/note]] both were once part of Westeros but now act as external invaders who bring terror on it, and they're associated with opposite elements- fire and ice. Their clothing (Daenerys wears white, the Night King wears black) and titles (Night King and Dragon Queen) also allude to this. The main difference is that the Night King was pretty much evil from the day he was born and was an [[ObviouslyEvil obvious villain]] when the show first showed him. Daenerys on the other hand started the series as a hero, and one of the series {{Big Good}}s but starts SlowlySlippingIntoEvil due to going increasingly insane in the final two seasons before [[BigBadSlippage becoming the series final antagonist]].]]
* FromNobodyToNightmare: From a First Man the Children of the Forest captured to perhaps the greatest threat Westeros has ever faced.
* GenreSavvy: It's not clear if he knew that Valyrian steel weapons could kill his kind (the White Walker that Jon kills in "Hardhome" certainly seemed surprised), but once this is established, he never again puts himself in a position where Jon -- who wields the Valyrian steel bastard sword Longclaw -- can get to him.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: His eyes glow bright blue, just like the other White Walkers.
* GoneHorriblyRight: Originally a human, the Children of the Forest turned him into the Night King (and made other White Walkers as well) as a last-ditch effort to defend themselves against the invading First Men, whom the Children were in danger of being exterminated by. In the intervening time, something happened leading to the Walkers turning on the Children (or vice-versa), forcing the Children to ultimately side with humanity in an attempt to defeat their creations.
* GreaterScopeVillain:
** Few people know he is coming, fewer that know that he is coming are still alive, and Dolorous Edd and Jon Snow (who considered just giving up after being brought back to life) are the only ones who haven't given up the idea of stopping him. That's a bad sign, especially when he was made to kill all humans in Westeros.
** By the end of Season 7, pretty much everyone who's still alive knows he's coming. It doesn't prevent Cersei from caring about her own plans first and foremost instead of sending her forces to deal with the army of the dead.
** [[spoiler: ''House Of The Dragon'' all but states that one of the main reasons [[TheConqueror Aegon, Rhaenys and Visenya]] first arrived in Westeros to conquer it was to stop The Night King from ending the world, thanks to a [[DreamingOfThingsToCome dream]] Aegon had. This means that he's responsible for ''indirectly shaping the history of Westeros as a whole.'']]
* HeroKiller: Heroes run for dear life when this being appears. In Season 6, he personally kills the [[BigGood Three-Eyed Raven]]. Later, he manages to OneHitKill Viserion, one of Daenerys Targaryen's beloved dragons. He only barely misses killing Drogon as well. Season 8 adds [[spoiler:Theon]] to his list of victims.
* HiddenAgendaVillain: He's raising an army of undead and leading a supernatural force south... why? What does he want? Simple conquest? Eradication of the human race? ''Fleeing something even worse?'' We just don't know yet, and he's not talking. It is revealed that he was made to kill all the humans in the continent but decided to not stop at humans, but there is still some questions about other motives.
** Finally put to rest by Bran in Season 8, where Bran reveals that the Night King simply wants to annihilate the Realm of Men and create an endless night in which only the living dead exist. His immediate target is the Three-Eyed Raven, now Bran, because the Three-Eyed Raven represents the memory of the World of Men.
* HornedHumanoid: He has a set of horns growing out of his skull that give the impression of a crown.
* HumanoidAbomination: More so than even his minions, given that he is likely in charge of the world-ending army of wights and walkers and has powers even the normal White Walkers themselves do not possess, such as being able to manipulate the weather. This guy is basically a humanoid apocalypse.
* ImmuneToFire: He's completely immune to heat and fire. Even when Daenerys has Drogon breathe a jet of dragonfire directly onto him, [[NoSell he is completely unharmed when it ends]], and even gives Daenerys the tiniest smirk in response.
* InNameOnly: He shares a similar name and title to [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireLegendaryFigures the Night's King]] in the lore of ''[=ASoIaF=]'', but is otherwise an entirely different character in terms of backstory and origins. George R.R. Martin states that the "Night's King" of the books is [[http://grrm.livejournal.com/428790.html?thread=21723638#t21723638 a legendary figure]] only and is there primarily for the WorldBuilding (comparing him to Lann the Clever and Bran the Builder) -- within the main series of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', the Night's King has a grand total of two InUniverse mentions (from ''Literature/AStormOfSwords'' and ''Literature/AFeastForCrows''.[[labelnote:From the Books]]The original Night's King was the thirteenth Lord Commander of the Night's Watch who went beyond the wall and found and fell in love with a female White Walker. Now given that the Night's Watch and the Wall were erected ''after'' the original Long Night, this automatically erases the context of the show, where's he a human guinea pig transformed into the Ur-White Walker by the Children of the Forest in their war against the First Men[[/labelnote]]), so even within the Lore, he's not painted as having a very large profile.
* InvincibleVillain: He was made as the ultimate weapon to wipe out every humans in Westeros and elevated to every being in Westeros. The first union of Children of the Forest and First Men didn't succeed in killing him, only pushing his army back North where he bid his time.
* ItsPersonal: With the Three-Eyed Raven. Bran relates the Night King wants him dead more than any other; as the embodiment of the world's memories, killing him would be a major success in the Night King's campaign to wipe away all trace of men's existence. Bran also notes the Night King has tried hunting down many previous incarnations of the Three-Eyed Raven, but failed to kill them (at least before they had a successor).
* JavelinThrower: He's a terrifyingly good shot with ice spears. He kills Viserion, one of Daenerys' three beloved dragons, this way.
* KillAllHumans: His goal. Bran Stark goes even further by suggesting not only that he wants to end all human life, but the experience of ''being'' human as well, which is why he sees the Three-Eyed Raven as his ArchEnemy.
* KillItWithFire: [[spoiler:Averted. Wights are succeptible to fire, and ''extremely'' vulnerable to dragon fire, but the Night King and his White Walker generals are impervious to fire. The Night King in particular is able to put out fires with his mere presence, and even takes a blast of dragon fire strong enough to melt a castle head-on and barely flinches.]]
* KnightOfCerebus: While previous {{Big Bad}}s such as Joffrey and Ramsay has had some measure of BlackComedy, the Night King holds no such nonsense and is entirely grim from the get-go.
* [[spoiler: LoadBearingBoss: His greatest weakness. If he is killed then 'every' White Walker and wight that has been raised will all instantly die.]]
* MadeOfIron: After being knocked off an undead Viserion, Dany engulfs him with Drogon's fire for about half a minute. Once the fire clears, the Night King is revealed to be untouched and just gives Dany a smug grin. Note that, as seen in this episode and a few episodes later, dragon fire can pulverize entire towers made of solid stone like nothing.
* MenacingStroll: The Night King never moves faster than a walk. [[spoiler:This bites him in the ass in the Battle at Winterfell; if he had moved faster, Arya would not have been able to stop him from killing Bran]].
* MonsterLord: Effectively the king of all undead creatures (except [[FrankensteinsMonster Gregor Clegane]]).
* MonsterProgenitor: He was created by the Children of the Forest from a normal human by shoving a dragonglass dagger into his chest. He in turn created the entire White Walker race and the Wights.
* {{Necromancer}}: Whereas the other White Walkers raise the dead with a touch, the Night King can raise them ''en masse'' just by lifting his hands. He can also raise ''dragons''.
* NoOntologicalInertia: In Season 7, Jon hypothesizes that if he dies, then the entire Army of the Dead dies with him. [[spoiler:Season 8 proves this hypothesis correct.]]
* NoSell: [[spoiler:He's immune to dragon's fire, to Dany's horror.]]
* NothingIsScarier: Given his nature and silence, it's unclear whether he's a psychopathic WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds who's embittered by his fate, or a HumanoidAbomination who literally doesn't think and feel with thought processes that a human brain can understand (or [[WasOnceAMan not anymore,]] at least). The writers and Vladimir Furdik likewise have differing opinions on whether the Night King is motivated by revenge or by doing what he was created to do.
* OccultBlueEyes: Just like the rest of the White Walkers although taken further since his pupils are in the shape of a seven-pointed star, the same shape used by the Faith of the Seven. Though in his case it's due to being stabbed with a dragonglass dagger while tied to a weirwood tree.
* OhCrap: [[spoiler:He gets a very subtle one while he's holding Arya by the throat after catching her backstab attempt. In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, his eyes snap from her face to her now empty hand, and you can see the gears turning when he realizes what she plans to do. Lucky for her, with one hand on her wrist and the other on her throat, he has no way of stopping her from stabbing him in the gut once she catches the dagger with her free hand.]]
* OmnicidalManiac: Possibly. The sheer scale of his massacre of the Wildlings at Hardhome would suggest that the Night King aims at the eradication of all humanity. Season 6 reveals that the White Walkers were made by the Children of the Forest to get rid of the humans settling in Westeros, and the Night King [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters didn't stop at humans]]. Season 8 confirms the Night King's ultimate goal is to not only exterminate the race of Men, but to also [[{{Unperson}} erase all traces of their world]], leaving a [[TheNightThatNeverEnds lightless world]] [[TheNecrocracy inhabited solely by the living dead]] in its place.
* OneHitPointWonder: [[spoiler:Arya is the first and only character to successfully hurt him, stabbing him in the stomach with her Valyrian dagger. It instantly vaporizes him and his entire army.]]
* OneManArmy: An interesting version: he can raise an army from the dead on his own.
* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: As Bran points out, the Night King is obsessed with driving humanity extinct and as such wants to kill its archive of knowledge, the Three-Eyed Raven, personally. [[spoiler:This desire to do the deed himself directly leads to his death. His victory would've been guaranteed if he had stayed off the battlefield and left the task to his wights or White Walkers, who run roughshod over the Northern forces and end up completely surrounding Bran in the Godswood. The Night King exposing himself at this moment allows Arya to sneak up and kill him, totally disabling his KeystoneArmy]].
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Usually leading from behind and never putting himself in harm's way, he raids the Three-Eyed Raven head on and personally deliver the killing blow on him. The Raven and the Children did have a role in his previous defeat after all and he has a personal score to settle with the Children.
* PerpetualFrowner: He is always seen with a dull poker face. The only time we get anything different is his first appearance, in which he appears to have a very macabre smile as he converts Craster's son into a White Walker and when he completely [[NoSell shrugs off Daenerys's attempt]] to [[KillItWithFire destroy him with dragon fire]].
* PhysicalGod: He can control the weather, raise the dead, create more of his kind by converting human children into Wight Walkers, has some psychic abilities, has vastly superhuman strength, is NighInvulnerable,[[note]]Dragon fire that can blast huge sections of a stone castle wall to pieces in seconds doesn't so much as make him flinch.[[/note]] and he shows resistance to other forms of magic (namely the Children of the Forest), and he is immortal.
* PokeInTheThirdEye: He has some psychic abilities, being able to detect nearby Greenseers and Wargs trying to spy on him.
* PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery: [[spoiler:According to Bran, the principle motivation for his [[OmnicidalManiac Omnicidal Mania]] is resentment of the living, which he once was but no longer is. He seeks to eliminate the living reminder of what he lost at the hands of the Children of the Forest (i.e. humanity itself), chief among them the Three-Eyed Ravens who act as the preservers of all human memory.]]
* ReforgedIntoAMinion: We're shown early on that he can transform human infants into White Walkers. Season 6 reveals that he himself suffered this trope in the ancient past, only to [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters turn on the ones who did the reforging]].
* SatanicArchetype: In contrast to Jon and Dany's MessianicArchetype (s). He rules over a kingdom of what are essentially ice demons, and he either serves or is R'hllorism's equivalent of {{Satan}}. As far as we know, the Night King is the ultimate evil of Westeros.
* SilentAntagonist: Never speaks a word in any language on-screen. In an interview, the show-runners have [[WordOfGod stated]] that this choice has been intentional, as it preserves his aura as a mysterious force of destruction.
* SinisterScimitar: Wields a large scimitar made of ice with a long wooden handle in "The Door" when he assaults the cave of the Three-Eyed Raven, and uses it to kill the Three-Eyed Raven while he's warging.
* SlasherSmile: He is prone to giving these off sporadically, especially when he nonchalantly walks through the Children's defensive fire completely unharmed. [[spoiler:He later flashes Dany a positively chilling smirk after she unleashes the full might of Drogon's fire on him and he emerges unscathed.]] Note that both times the Night King did this was when he [[NoSell No-Selled]] fire.
* TheStrategist: In addition to his terrifying power, the Night King demonstrates a cunning military mind; he covers his army's approach with a blizzard, he tests his enemy's strength while holding a force in reserve for a flanking maneuver, and he demonstrates mastery of psychological warfare.
* SuperPersistentPredator: Bran notes that the Night King can track him anywhere in the world, thanks to [[WoundThatWillNotHeal the mark he left on Bran when they first met]]. Bran also adds that the Night King has previously tried to hunt down and kill many previous incarnations of the Three-Eyed Raven.
* SuperStrength: He's super strong by virtue of being a White Walker. Strong enough to throw an ice spear far enough and strong enough to kill ''a fully grown dragon in a single hit''.
* SuperPrototype: In comparison to the other White Walkers, being the first (and being created in a different way) gives him beefed up versions of their powers, including being able to raise an absolutely ''massive'' amount of dead people with only a ''gesture''.
* TechnicallyASmile:
** His first appearance shows him smiling. It doesn't look happy or comforting. Though amusingly enough, the baby he is holding seems both happy and comforted by it.
** He flashes a surprisingly smug one when [[spoiler:Drogon's flames fail to harm him in the slightest]].
* TimeAbyss: As he was the first man to become a white walker, that means he was turned 12000 years before the series, presided over the Long Night and was defeated in the War For Dawn.
* TranshumanAbomination: He was originally a First Man over 10,000 years ago, who was turned into the undead, cryokinetic HumanoidAbomination he now is by the Children of the Forest in a ritual.
* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: The Children of the Forest created him and the other White Walkers to be living weapons against the realm of Man. Somewhere along the line, the Night King expanded his focus and became an enemy of the realm of the living, in general.
* TheUnfought: Appears on the battlefield many times but is never engaged in combat directly until [[spoiler:Dany tries to destroy him with dragon fire, and then Arya stabs him with the catspaw dagger, killing him.]]
* VilerNewVillain: While the series has many [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative bastards]] and power-hungry nobles, they're motivated by human desires and relatable reasons for what they do. By contrast the Night King is a completely inhuman force who only wants to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy every living thing]], and is a FlatCharacter without anything remotely human in his personality.
* VillainBall: [[spoiler:The Night King loses when Arya manages to stab him at the last moment, disabling his entire undead KeystoneArmy. Up until this point, he was close to a perfect victory--the Northern forces stood ''no'' chance against the wights' sheer numbers (helped by the stupid HollywoodTactics). And the Walkers' weather control allowed them to nearly NoSell the North's various incendiary tactics. On top of that, the Night King could just revive any enemy dead at will and turn them to his side. If the Night King were smart, he would've just stayed home and waited, but he ''had'' to kill Bran in person.]]
* VillainRespect:
** During the assault on Hardhome, he quietly watches as Jon slays a White Walker and his reaction carries much more acknowledgment than surprise, even giving a little nod. He deems the human worthy enough to taunt him personally as Jon sails away.
** Implied when he [[spoiler:kills Theon]]. Note that he lets the guy charge at him without any of the wights surrounding them intervening. And after delivering the fatal blow, [[spoiler:the Night King notably lifts his eyes to glare at his intended target Bran; then after a brief cut between scenes, the Night King's suddenly looking back at Theon as if in acknowledgement of the noble lengths Theon went to as the last life leaves the latter]], before he steps past the fresh corpse towards his main target.
* VillainTakesAnInterest: The Night King personally transforms some humans (living children from what we have seen) to full White Walker status but most of them, the ones who are killed are made into wights, and servants. He also takes particular interest in both Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen as opponents.
* XanatosGambit: It's heavily implied that the whole "Hardhome" battle was part of a plan to bait Daenerys into bringing him a dragon to kill and revive; note that the wights already had the massive chains there.
* WasOnceAMan: He was a man captured by the Children of the Forest during their war with the First Men and involuntarily turned into the first White Walker when they stabbed him through the heart with a dragonglass dagger.
* WorthyOpponent: His view of Jon, or so we think. After Jon slays one of the White Walkers attacking Hardhome, he gives Jon the faintest of nods, and takes time to personally taunt and challenge him as Jon, the Night's Watch, and the Wildlings flee the sacked city. We see this again when his army surrounds Jon Snow's crew on the ice lake, where the duo exchange stares while the Wights wait for the ice to re-freeze. When the Night King kills Viserion, Jon angrily tries to fight toward him in a righteous rampage to kill him, until Jon realizes that he's about to kill Drogon as well and runs back to tell Daenerys to leave.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Wights]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wight_s4.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"They were touched by White Walkers. That's why they came back. That's why their eyes turned blue. Only fire will stop them."'']]

->''"We're all the same to them, meat for their army."''
-->-- '''Jon Snow'''

Corpses of humans and animals, raised by the White Walkers to act as their enforcers. Vulnerable only to fire.
----
* AdaptationalWimp: They are vulnerable to dragonglass just like their masters. In the books, dragonglass doesn't affect them any differently than any other blade. The creators have stated this change was intentional, as sword fights are more practical to film than having to burn literally every last one of them. Burning them seems in fact to only be about as effective as it would be on humans, compared to in the books where they go up like their whole body is made of pitch.
* AnArmAndALeg: The method of last resort when fighting wights in the open without fire: dismembering them so badly that they cannot reach and attack you.
* BurnTheUndead: The best way to kill them, though it's not universally effective depending on the wight.
* CreepyChild: Child wights appear in the first episode, "Hardhome" and "Winterfell".
* DemBones: Some of the more severely decayed ones are pretty much walking skeletons. These seem to be much more vulnerable to damage than the newer ones; several examples have simply fallen apart the first time they took a solid hit.
* DeaderThanDead: [[spoiler:Immediately after Arya slays the Night King, the White Walkers turn into dust and their Wight army goes back to being corpses]].
* EliteMooks:
** The Season 7 premiere demonstrates that the Walkers can raise more than just dead humans. Several giants are among their ranks during the march to the Wall, turning them into this trope compared to regular Wights.
** White Walkers will turn any animals they kill into wights. This includes powerful native animals like polar bears. Season 7 shows that bear wights are significantly harder to kill and every bit as vicious as a live angry bear would be. It continues mauling after being ignited, requiring being stabbed with an obsidian dagger to finally go down.
* FragileSpeedster: In contrast to their book counterparts, at least. These wights are fully capable of sprinting and charging headlong into danger without fear, but have an added weakness to dragonglass and are usually put down rather easily. In contrast, the books' version of the wights has them with a typical ZombieGait, no dragonglass weakness, and they can take several hits before going down permanently.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Their eyes don't glow like the White Walkers' do, but they do faintly glow.
* FireKeepsItDead: Burned corpses can't be raised by the Walkers, which is why the Wildlings burn their dead, and possibly a reason why it is traditional for the Night's Watch to do the same.
* HellishHorse: The White Walkers' mounts, which are also undead.
* IncongruouslyDressedZombie: Most wights' clothes are so sodden and decomposed it is impossible to tell what they are, although they are probably Wildlings. Night's Watch (in blacks) and Thenn wights (with cosmetic facial scarring) can be spotted in fights, too.
* ItCanThink:
** Implied, as they can grip and wield swords, and use rudimentary tactics such as ambushes. The former is unlikely to be under the White Walkers' direct control.
** They can also shout to call for help.
** Additionally, when Sandor throws a stone at one, only for it to fall short and hit the lake in front of the wight (which is now frozen solid), the wight takes a moment to regard this, before cautiously stepping onto the ice. When it becomes clear they can cross the ice, they charge.
** In the following battle, after Beric ignites one without finishing it off, the wight promptly ignores the rest of the group to try and kill the captured wight instead.
* KeystoneArmy: Killing a White Walker makes the wights he raised fall apart.
* KillItWithFire: One way to kill a wight is to set it on fire, which will completely consume the corpse.
* KryptoniteFactor: Setting them on fire causes them to go up like kindling, and if stabbed with dragonglass, they stop moving and become truly dead. In the books however, dragonglass was no more effective against them than any other weapons, and they were only truly vulnerable to fire.
* MadeOfIncendium: They completely immolate in seconds when ignited. Good thing too or they'd be even more deadly.
* {{Mooks}}: For the White Walkers.
* NightOfTheLivingMooks: On the way to becoming a full fledged ZombieApocalypse.
* NoOntologicalInertia: In Season 7, it's discovered that if a White Walker is killed, their Wights will all die as well.
* NoSell: Things that would kill the living will barely slow them down. Dismemberment will do the trick in a pinch, even though it won't actually kill them. Fire, obsidian, and Valyrian steel will permanently kill them.
* OccultBlueEyes: The wights end up with this color, no matter what color their eyes were in life.
* OffWithHisHead: Seem to favour decapitating victims. It may also work in reverse as Leaf vaporising a wight's head appeared to stop it, suggesting that complete destruction may stop wights.
* OurWightsAreDifferent: They're almost invincible zombies (or in some cases, skeletons) capable of wielding weapons and working as an army, with fire being the only thing that can destroy them.
* PerpetualMotionMonster: Whatever force animates the wights is unaffected by damage to the corpse, as skeletal wights with barely any muscle can run and fight as well. Without fire, the only valid method against wights is to chop off their limbs so that they cannot effectively fight.
* RaisingTheSteaks: Horses are included among their number. During the expedition to retrieve a Wight, a polar bear wight makes an appearance. Then the dragon Viserion joins their ranks after his death.
* RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain: Averted. Arrows in the head are effective at knocking them down, but the wights can still fight unaffected. The fact that a disembodied wight hand can still move suggests that decapitation is ineffective too.
* UndeadChild: Children aren't any more resistant to being turned into Wights than adults are.
* WeHaveReserves: See ZergRush below; their masters don't bother saving their numbers, as every major attack they commit will usually provide enough corpses to fill in the gaps.
* ZergRush: The tactic shown in Hardhome and the attack on the Three-Eyed Raven's cave, contrasting with the ambush in the shows' first episode, the slow march at the Fist of the First Men, and the ambush on Bran's group. It appears to be the preferred method against prepared groups of enemies, as the frenzied rush of wights overwhelms the enemies' superior fighting skills.
* ZombieGait: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]; Wights are almost as fast in death as they were in life, giving the living only a slight advantage when fleeing. Until the end of the fourth season they played this trope straight, which may have just been the Walkers screwing with people.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Children of the Forest]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leaf_s6.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"We were at war, we were being slaughtered, our sacred trees cut down. We needed to defend ourselves."'']]
[[caption-width-right:300:''[[labelnote:Click to see Leaf as played by Octavia Alexandru'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leaf__s4.png[[/labelnote]]]]
!!!'''Played By:''' Octavia Alexandru (Season 4), Kae Alexander (Season 6)

->''"The First Men called us The Children, but we were born long before them."''

The original inhabitants of Westeros, who carved the faces into the weirwood groves where the Old Gods are worshiped. When the First Men reached Westeros the two races warred against each other, but eventually a peace was made, called the Pact. The Children fought alongside the First Men against the White Walkers when they appeared during the Long Night. When the Andals arrived they burned the weirwood groves south of the Neck and drove the Children into the wilderness beyond the Wall, where it is believed they dwindled to extinction. But rumors persist that they still survive somewhere, and are waiting for the return of their old enemies.
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* AdaptationalBadass: The Child of the Forest in the show can shoot fireballs, something never seen in the books.
* AmbiguouslyHuman: They physically resemble human children somewhat, but are clearly distinct from humans overall.
* ArtEvolution: They first appeared only in the Season 4 finale, then were absent for all of Season 5. When they return in Season 6, their appearance has been ''drastically'' upgraded -- a combination of advances in CGI and HBO nearly doubling the TV series's budget from what it was back in Season 2 (in Season 6, it's $10 million ''per episode''). The upgrade brings them closer to how they were described in the books: slitted eyes like a cat's, slightly more animalistic facial features, and nut-brown skin spotted like a deer's (a minor complaint in the Season 4 finale was that they looked kind of Caucasian, when they're actually not even human).
* TheAtoner: Whatever hatred they had for humans that made them create the White Walkers, they now spend their time helping humans against the White Walkers, even when most if not all of the Children have had to give their lives.
* BadassNative: Are the original inhabitants of Westeros, and fought against both the First Men and the White Walkers for thousands of years.
* BigGood: The main force opposing the White Walkers, the most dangerous creatures in Westeros that the Children created.
* CreepyChild: As beings thousands of years old with the bodies of children, they tend to fall into this.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Apparently, it never crossed their minds that creating an army of undead ice demons solely with the purpose to kill men would backfire.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: Leaf remains completely calm as the wights rip her to pieces.
* TheFairFolk: They seem to be rather detached from humanity and working on a different set of values, in spite of being equally opposed to the White Walkers.
* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: InUniverse, among the Northmen, the Children are seen as BenevolentPrecursors who after fighting against the First Men, heroically banded with them against a common enemy. Jon Snow tells TheThemeParkVersion to Queen Daenerys in Season 7, on finding some murals next to a Dragonglass mine. The truth as Bran discovered from the Tree-Eyed Raven and confirmed by Leaf and the other surviving Children is that they invented the White Walkers, and created them from the humans they captured. They were in fact AbusivePrecursors who tried to exterminate humans only turning to the humans for help, when the White Walkers decided to exterminate the COTF ''and'' the First Men.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Ultimately rendered extinct by the very beings they created to help them avoid extinction at the hands of humans.
* IronicNickname: How they view being called "Children of the Forest", as they existed long before the First Men did and are individually much longer-lived besides.
* {{Irony}}: The last of the beings who once fought against humans and even created the White Walkers to get rid of them sacrifice themselves saving a couple humans from their own out of control creations.
* MagicalNativeAmerican: The original inhabitants of Westeros; and are said to be practitioners of powerful, ancient magic.[[labelnote: From the books...]]They are the reason the Broken Arm, the shattered land bridge on the eastern end of Dorne that once connected Westeros to Essos, is broken. Or that's what they say, anyways; according to legend, their greenseers brought "the hammer of the waters" down onto the Arm in an attempt to stop human migration into Westeros. They tried to do it again by dividing the North from the South of Westeros, but only created a swamp land, which is now The Neck. Unfortunately for the Children, it didn't stop the migrations, only slowed them down.[[/labelnote]]
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In the sixth season, it's eventually revealed that the Children ''created'' the White Walkers by using their magic on captured human victims. The intent was to create a rapidly self-propagating army to drive away humanity. They got it... they just couldn't ''control it''.
* NotSoExtinct: As discovered by Bran and co.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Are said to be thousands of years old, but physically resemble children.
* PlayingWithFire: Able to throw blue fireballs from their bare hands. Season 6 reveals that the fireballs are in fact magic firebomb grenades.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: What appears to be the last of Children of the Forest perishes in an attempt to buy Bran and Meera time to escape from the White Walkers.
* ShroudedInMyth: In-universe.
* UncertainDoom: As of Season 6's "The Door", for all we know, the Children may be extinct for good. None of them were specifically shown to escape the carnage in the Three-Eyed Raven's cave, and there's been no mention of other holdouts where other present-day Children might make their home.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Doesn't get worse than creating the ''White Walkers'' just to fight off the humans trying to settle on your continent.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Three-Eyed Raven]]
!!The Three-Eyed Raven
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/three_eyed_raven.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"You will never walk again. But you ''will'' fly."'']]
[[caption-width-right:300:''[[labelnote:Click to see the Three-Eyed Raven as played by Struan Rodger.'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/three_eyed_raven_s4.png[[/labelnote]]]]
!!!'''Played By:''' Struan Rodger (Season 4), Creator/MaxVonSydow (Season 6)

->''"I have been many things. Now I am what you see."''

A greenseer whose human body is bonded to the roots of a Weirwood tree. He has sought out Bran Stark to help develop his own warging abilities, appearing in his visions as an eerie raven with three eyes. He appears in his physical form at the end of Season 4, being enmeshed in the roots of a large weirwood tree, located beneath a cave on a hill.
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* AdaptedOut: His identity as Brynden Rivers, aside from one reference to "a thousand eyes, and one".
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: In the books, the Three-Eyed Raven, a.k.a. Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers, one of King Aegon IV's bastards, was an albino with one red eye and one wide open eye socket, pierced through with Weirwood tree roots that kept him alive; in the TV show he's an old, bearded man who seems to be merely tangled in the tree roots instead of actually pierced by them. [[InvertedTrope On the other hand]], most artwork portrayed Bloodraven as a {{Bishonen}}, with all the Targaryen's good looks.
* AdaptationalHeroism: Downplayed, but there is something distinctly ''sinister'' about Bloodraven's current appearances in the books, with a ''lot'' of emphasis on decidedly horrific imagery and themes being put into his TrainingMontage with Bran. In the series, the Raven is [[CreepyGood creepy looking]], but is unambiguously one of the most [[BigGood purely intentioned]] characters in the show.
* AdaptationNameChange: Species change more like. The Three-Eyed Raven is the Three-Eyed ''Crow'' in the book.[[labelnote:note]]"Crow" being a Wildling slang term for members of the Night's Watch, it's a further reference to the real identity of the Last Greenseer, Brynden Rivers, who was once Lord Commander of the Night's Watch[[/labelnote]]
* AgeLift: Bloodraven in the books was only about a century old but in the show he mentions that he has been waiting 1,000 years for Bran to arrive. Granted, he may have been joking but with his death, we'll never know. Season 8 reveals that he was not the first Three-Eyed Raven so it's possible he could still be Bloodraven and was just counting his predecessors.
* BigGood: The most straightforward example in the series. His death midway through Season 6 signifies how bad the situation has gotten.
* BrainUploading: As per WordOfGod, the Raven does this at the moment before his death, transferring all his knowledge to Bran.
* CassandraTruth: He repeatedly warns Bran not to interfere with the past but Bran ignores him. Bran finally learns why when he realizes that via MentalTimeTravel, he lobotimized Hodor in the past, and his mental adventures result in the deaths of Summer, Hodor, and the Raven. It's possible that he even knew what Bran would do since just before the Walkers arrive, the Raven takes Bran to that specific moment in Winterfell's past where Hodor would be attacked.
* CoolOldGuy: Especially when played the legendary Creator/MaxVonSydow.
* DeadpanSnarker:
-->'''Three-Eyed Raven:''' ''[to Bran]'' You think I wanted to sit here for a thousand years watching the world from a distance as the roots grow through me?\\
'''Bran:''' So why did you?\\
'''Three-Eyed Raven:''' I was waiting for you.\\
'''Bran:''' I don't want to be you.\\
'''Three-Eyed Raven:''' I don't blame you.
* DreamWeaver: How he communicates with Bran.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Though only officially introduced in the Season 4 finale, he's appeared since Season 1 as the Three-Eyed Raven. Bonus points for appearing as an actual bird.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: He keeps his composure as he's about to be killed by the Night King.
* LegacyCharacter: Due to a literal Brain Upload, both the current character and Bran's uncle Benjen state that in many ways Bran ''is'' the Three-eyed raven now, after the first one is killed by the Night King. It's possible that it's some sort of title for the most powerful living Greenseer.
* TheMentor: Since the start of the series, he's been driving Bran toward him; in order to fully develop his unprecedented abilities.
* MentorOccupationalHazard: The Night King kills the Raven when he invades the Raven's cave.
* MetaphoricallyTrue: After Bran realizes that his father could sense his presence in the past, the Raven tells Bran that the past is already written ("it's dried ink"). The Raven's first denials that "(Ned) heard the wind" are blatant lies. The reason the Raven lies is to ensure that Bran doesn't realize that he can make minor changes to the past and thus ensure that [[StableTimeLoop Wylis is corrupted into Hodor]] so that Bran will be saved by Hodor in the present. The metaphor comes from the fact that the past ''is'' written. All changes to the past made by the Ravens has to happen for the present to occur.
* MysteriousBacker: To Bran. He's been sending him visions ever since Bran lost the use of his legs.
* NotSoOmniscientAfterAll: He can see the past and present clearly, but the future is far more difficult. He didn't foresee the Night King touching Bran in his vision of the undead army, resulting in the cave being found and forcing the Three-Eyed Raven to hurry up his plans, giving all his knowledge to Bran at once rather than over time as he intended.
* ObiWanMoment: When he realizes that the White Walkers are coming for him, the Raven does something to help Bran "become him". In Bran's vision, the Raven tells him to go before disappearing into a black mist as the Night King kills him in the real world.
* TheOmniscient:
** He appears to be all-knowing.
--->'''Three-Eyed Raven:''' I have been watching you, all of you, all of your lives. With a thousand eyes, and one.
* PassingTheTorch: What he essentially did with Bran, teaching him how to visit the past and other places at the present, and how to better warg. Bran thus became the next Three-Eyed Raven after this one perished by the hand of the Night King.
* PragmaticAdaptation: To have the three-eyed raven actually talking would likely look rather silly onscreen, so instead he just squawks, and it's up to Osha and Jojen to explain the exact meaning behind him.
* StealthMentor: To hammer in the point that Bran shouldn't mess with the past, he allows Bran to corrupt Wylis into Hodor. At least this is implied as Bran is so horrified by this, that he's unlikely to change the past intentionally. On top of that, Hodor being created was necessary to ensure Bran would survive the attack. This might not be a BrokenAesop because of the fact that Bran's timetraveling also caused the Night King to find and kill everyone else in the cave including the Raven and Hodor. Again whether the aesop is broken is zigzagged, as Hodor's creation was necessary for Bran to meet the Raven in the first place and all of these events would lead to the Night King's defeat. Unless the Raven was actually trying to teach Bran that sometimes time manipulation is a necessary evil.
* WizardBeard: It's presumably difficult to have a shave when you're stuck in a big tree. He no longer sports one in Season 6.
[[/folder]]
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