We finally know the origins of the White Walkers on 'Game of Thrones'

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Game of Thrones," including speculation of future events.

Sunday's "Game of Thrones" was chock-full of death and revelations — par for the course when it comes to the epic series. But the reveal about the White Walkers and Night's King origins was one of the most unexpected moments for fans.  

In George R.R. Martin's book series, we are told very little about the White Walkers (also known as "Others"). No one knows where they came from, what they want, or why they are suddenly active again after lying dormant for thousands of years.

The books (so far) have no leader figure like the show's Night's King, and there's been no battle with the White Walkers like the massacre at Hardhome in season five. The show also featured a mysterious scene back in season four, when we saw a White Walker bring a human baby to an altar, and the Night's King turned it into a White Walker.

So book readers were already used to getting a lot more information about White Walkers from the show — but this is a whole new level. Now we know that the White Walkers were created by the Children of the Forest.

In Sunday's episode, Bran and Bloodraven traveled back to an unknown time, likely many millennia ago. They arrived at a cluster of stones, arranged in a spiral pattern with a weirwood tree in the center. A group of the Children were talking amongst themselves, while a shirtless man was tied to the trunk of the weirwood. 

Leaf, one of the Children who has been helping Bran and Meera in the present day, stands and walks towards the tied-up man. She stabs him with a dagger or sharp rock of some kind (it looks like obsidian or "dragonglass" but more on that later).

The man screams, and then falls silent as the camera zooms close into his face. His eyes turn ice blue, and then Bran wakes up. He immediately confronts Leaf.

"It was you," he says. "You made the White Walkers."

"We were at war. We were being slaughtered, our sacred trees cut down," Leaf replies. "We needed to defend ourselves."

"From who?" Bran asks.

"From you," Leaf says. "From man."

This is major for book readers. We knew the Children were an ancient race of magical beings, but there was no direct indication that they were responsible for the creation of the White Walkers. Not only that, but they created the White Walkers to combat the First Men in Westeros, and then their "weapon" took on a life of its own.

Several Redditors have made comparisons between the White Walkers and a nuclear bomb — weapons of war which are more powerful than their creators and threaten the existence of the world as we know it. 

In both the books and show, we know that the White Walkers were responsible for the "Long Night," a period of darkness that fell over the world and threatened to wipe out both humans and the Children. Legend has it that a hero teamed up with the Children to fight back the White Walkers. It was after this that the Wall was built and the Night's Watch was created. 

So the Children created the White Walkers because men were a threat, but then humans and the Children had to ally against the White Walkers when they grew more powerful.

Despite getting this long-awaited answer, we're still left with many questions. First of all — was that a piece of obsidian that Leaf used to create the first White Walker? It sure looked like it, but that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. We know that obsidian is one of the few substances that can kill White Walkers. How could it both create and destroy them?

 

Secondly, we still don't know why the White Walkers have arisen for a second time. What was it that motivated them to begin killing and moving south again? What do they want that lies on the other side of the Wall? Martin is notorious for not writing pure good or pure evil characters, so the White Walkers must have a more complex motive than "destroy everything."

Sunday's episode showed Leaf sacrificing herself to save Bran, and we watched as many other Children were killed as well. Though the show hasn't made it explicitly clear, there's a chance that the Children inside Bloodraven's cave were the last surviving ones. Did the race of the Children just get wiped out entirely? 

Last but not least, we still have no clue as to how people in Westeros will be able to stop the Night's King and his army. Many believe Daenerys' dragons will be involved, but so far it's all speculation. Fans will have to keep watching for even more revelations from Bran and his time-travel visions.

Source: www.techinsider.io/