Game of Thrones’ Night King isn't a character known for his friendly face and adorable smile,
and the extra-weird look he gave Bran Stark during the Battle of Winterfell had everyone
wondering what was going on in his frosty brain.
Here's what was really going on during that eerie exchange.
You probably remember how the scene went down: Bran sat beneath the weirwood tree in the
godswood of Winterfell, awaiting the Night King's arrival.
When the icy villain finally approached, he ambled toward the youngest living Stark man
before stopping and staring into his eyes with an eerie look on his face, an expression
most fans took as clear intent to kill Bran, a.k.a the Three-Eyed Raven.
According to the Night King himself, Slovakian stuntman Vladimír Furdík, that isn't exactly
what was going on in his own head.
Furdík recently revealed to Vulture the real reason why the Night King looked at Bran like
he wanted to turn his insides to icicles.
As it turns out, the Night King’s glowering glare at Bran wasn’t solely motivated by
a desire to kill an enemy.
In actuality, the strange look he gave Bran was mostly the result of some interesting
direction Furdík got ahead of shooting the scene.
The director of the Battle of Winterfell episode, Miguel Sapochnik, instructed Furdík to walk
toward Bran Stark actor Isaac Hempstead Wright and imagine him as a cake that he desperately
wanted to eat.
Kind of weird, right?
When Furdík breaks it down, though, it’s actually not the oddest direction in the world,
and he was clear in the interview that he considers Sapochnik a, quote, “great director,”
who gave him “very good direction.”
The actor explained,
“I remember a couple of times when I did the walk, and I go for my target, which was
Bran, and he said, 'Bran, he is not man.
He is a cake.
And you would like to eat this cake.
And I would like to see you acting, you're walking to him, you're walking like you're
looking for that cake, which is waiting for you under the tree.'"
Furdik continued to elaborate on the direction, saying,
"Adults never run for the cake.
They walk.
You can see from an [adult's] body, they're going for a cake from grandmom, and they're
looking forward to eating this cake.
When I walk, you can see what Miguel said: 'Don't be a soldier.
No.
Just walk, confident.
There's a cake.'"
"Lemon cake’s my favorite."
"So we’ve been told."
Furdík also shared that he’s still not sure that the Night King even wanted to kill
Bran in the first place.
He said to Vulture,
"Look, we think he's going to kill Bran, but who knows if he's going to kill him?
He doesn't rush.
Maybe he had different [plans].
Maybe he wanted to do something else.
You know?
Then [Arya Stark] kills him.
But maybe he was gonna show them, 'No, no, no, wait, I'm here for something else!'"
Just as Furdík received instruction on how the Night King should look at Bran during
the tense sequence, Hempstead Wright also spoke at length with director Sapochnik to
decide the way Bran should look back at the Night King.
The 20-year-old actor revealed to The New York Times that he and Sapochnik, quote, "came
up with this idea that the look Bran gives the Night King is one of pity."
Hempstead Wright further explained,
"Bran saw the creation of the Night King, or the first White Walker, or whatever.
He realizes that he was once just a normal guy who was forcibly strapped to a tree, and
had a piece of dragonglass plunged in his heart...He didn't ask to become this raving,
crazy ice killer…So we tried to get a moment where Bran is feeling sorry for him.
Bran is looking at this ancient being who didn't want to become this murderer, but is."
While Hempstead Wright acknowledged that the Night King did have it out for the Three-Eyed
Raven, he offered another explanation as to why he stopped to look at Bran with that haunting
look on this face:
"The reason the Night King takes so long is that he's been programmed to destroy the Three-Eyed
Raven from the moment he was created, so he's taking a moment to savor it."
That pause wound up costing the Night King everything, as it opened up a window for Arya
to attack and kill him, plus destroy his pack of White Walkers and wights in the process.
"Just when you think that Jon Snow’s going to be the hero, again, we realize, that Arya
appears through the mist."
In the end, the Night King didn't get to have his cake or eat it, and the plants that sprouted
through the snow during the closing moments of the Game of Thrones series finale seem
to suggest that he never will.
Winter is over, and the Night King is dead.
Good job, team, you all deserve a snack for this one.
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