Hey YouTubers, it's Charlie! So, special bonus video just because the game of thrones finale's coming
up. A lot of you have been asking about Azor Ahai and the nights king so this is going
to be all about that, especially some things George RR Martin just said. Martin was talking
about the differences between the show and the books and clarified something about the
nights king character that I think implies something about Azor Ahai too. He said that
the nights king that most people refer to the historical figure is no more alive today
probably no more alive today that is then land the clever or brand the builder he said
that in his opinion the nights king is a historical figure someone from antiquity that died a
long time ago meaning that the nights king is just a high-ranking title that the others
passed down somatically I think you can draw the same conclusion about Azor Ahai too. There
is no reincarnation or anything like that is just that the forces of the red God choose
their champion just like the others choose their champion whenever they need one. On the
show right now this person is the champion of the others on the other side of that coin
Melisandre keeps telling Stannis that he is the chosen one he is Azor Ahai they even
lit his blade on fire a couple seasons ago I know a lot of people are just wondering Azor Ahai is
supposed to have a flaming blade is that a special sword or just any sword that the chosen champion
of the red God wields the gets lit on fire the reason this is a big deal the fact that these
titles get passed down Azor Ahai and the nights king mean that there's a certain mortality
to these people on the show if one were to die off like say the nights king gets killed
than the others would have to choose a new champion ya know meaning we might seek characters
on the show take their places the cosmic conflict that's going on between the others and the
forces the red God is called the war for the Dawn. There's a certain cyclical nature to the
minute, as in you know like one prevails another falls and then they start the cycle again
it's like the way some ancient cultures talk about the sun chasing the moon and then the
moon chasing the sun as we start talking about the others the forces the red God you're also
talking about climate change very practical real-world events that people used to build
myths on but just remember that magic does exist in this world so there certain magical
components to what's going on too. The changing of the seasons. A lot of you guys were asking after
episode eight if the white walkers bring the cold or if they just follow the seasons like
if it's getting cold and then they come out you know chicken or the egg the answer is
is that I think that these two gods do exist, they are two separate entities and their followers
are using their magic to aid in the changing of seasons but that's all built on natural
processes so like like in real life you know as the earth spins you know day and night
have certain durations but if the Earth's position relative to the Sun were to change
then the duration of night and day might change and that would also change the seasons so
that's going on in a song of ice and fire but but you also have these magical forces
that are trying to influence things one where the other I will go so far to say is like
the big climate changes affect the powers of these relative forces so as we move towards
a more Wintery environment the white walkers probably get stronger a really good example
of another series that the deals of this kind of thing is legend of Korra and the last airbender
if you've ever watched those anime series or cartoons however you want to think about them
as certain natural events happened it affects the relative powers of certain vendors
in their spiritual alignment the way they deal with mystical things is very different
from a song of ice and fire but you get the idea but who is the nights king and who is
Azor Ahai so we'll start with the nights king first he lived about 8000 years ago that tell
the nights king starts with the building of the wall in the 19 castles chiefly the night
Nightfort which is the biggest castle along the wall but is currently unmanned remember that
because if that was the seat of the nights watch for thousands of years then there might
still be something that they can find to help them fight white walkers in there in present-day
it's fallen into disrepair it was too big for them to maintain so they moved to
smaller castles as the nights watch itself shrunk in manpower the mythical figure that
was the nights king is said to be the 13th Lord commander of the nights watch it's rumored
he fell in love with a female white walker but it actually describes her as a pale sorceress
so it's not known whether or not she was an actual white walker she could've been
like their version of Melisandre it's a big question because we haven't seen any female
white walkers on the show is far as we know there are all the sons of Craster remember
what George RR Martin said about the nights king it's a title that gets passed down meaning
that white walkers probably can't reproduce which is why they need Craster sacrifices
so any of those white walkers we see on the show are probably Craster sons that he sacrificed
that the white walkers perform magic on to turn into white walkers the nights king
was said to be the brother of the current Stark king the current king of winter his
name was Bran the breaker not to be confused with Bran the builder so after this nights
king figure fell in love with this pale sorceress what they called his corpse bride they ruled over
that part of the North from the Nightfort for a period of about 13 years till Bran
the breaker struck them down in order to defeat them the Stark king of the time had to form
an alliance with the then king beyond the wall named Joramun that name Joramun
might sound familiar if you've read the books there something called the horn of Joramun
also known as the Horn of winter that's the mythical object that supposed to bring
down the wall when it's blown but it's set in a historical context when Joramun blew the
horn it woke the Giants and they used the combined forces to defeat the nights king
so, you see how that looks like what's going on the show right now Jon Snow forming an alliance
with the king beyond the wall in addition to Stannis's forces to try and defeat the
nights king it's a very Battlestar type theme you know, this is all happened before, this
will all happen again the cyclical nature of history but as the actual identity of that
nights king it is still lost to history a lot of people say it was a Bolton lot of people
think it was an Umber a lot of people think it was that Stark brother what about the original
Azor Ahai who is he? His history is a little more complicated because he gets tied up in
that of the far east and there's much less recorded history about what happened there
It's just that most of what we know about history is recorded by the Maester's the problem with
that is there just certain parts of the world that they haven't catalogued quite as well
so we need to travel to a place called Yi Ti somewhere we haven't been on the show but
it's the oldest and grandest of far Eastern cultures in song of ice and fire it's one
of the few grander cultures like the ancient valyrian empire, the Ghiscari empire, that
still endures to today great civilizations rise and fall but Yi Ti has managed to survive
it said that their wealth was so great that it dwarfed that of ancient Valyria so as
great as ancient Valyria was with their dragons the Empire of Yi Ti was way bigger originally
it was a bunch of different territories but then mythical uniter came in just
just like ancient China and united all the separate states his name was Yin he became
the first God Emperor of Yi Ti the name of that empire became The Great Empire of The
Dawn so you see, it sounds like Melisandre's war for the Dawn between the red God in the
great other this is the culture that gave birth to the idea of Azor Ahai in his bloodline
a lot of the successors ended up fighting , you know, just a very similar situation to what
happened in westeros with future Targaryen errors one of that original Emperor's descendents
killed his older sister to take the throne and became known as the bloodstone Emperor
it said that he practiced dark arts torture and necromancy enslaving his entire race he
took a tiger woman for his bride feasted on human flesh and cast down the true gods to
worship a black stone that was said to have fallen from the sky he became the first high
priest of the sinister church of starry wisdom the funny thing about that is that's like
a real world thing that's part of the Cthulhu mythos it said that the bloodstone Emperor's
practices ushered in the long night so you see how this is like a very different story from what
happened over in westeros a lot of people think that the others were the one that ushered
in the long night but in this version of the story it was the bloodstone Emperor worshiping
this Black stone that fell from the sky so maybe that has something to do with the origin
of the God of the white walkers the great other himself it just makes sense that
if you have this religious war that a single culture invented both the God and the devil
of that story the story goes on to say though that despairing the evil had been unleashed
on the earth the maiden made of light, a mythical figure, turned her back on the world and the
lion of night came forward in all his wrath to punish the wickedness of men, the lion of night
in the story represents the forces of evil the others their great reign of terror ended
when the mythical figure Azor Ahai led the forces of man against them using lightbringer
other cultures have different names for him too there's Harkon the hero, Yin Tar,
Nefarian and eldritch shadow chaser so Azor Ahai is not his only name after that happened
it kind of shattered the Yi Ti culture though they went their different directions so the
great empire of the Dawn didn't completely reform so you see that there are a lot of things going
on here magic is involved but it's- a lot of people in retrospect applying myth to just
regular events like a regular Civil War that being said we still have no idea what the
true origin of the white walkers are it could have something to do with the magic performed
by the bloodstone Emperor with this special Black stone or they could just be another race
that evolved on the planet but I do think that the Empire of the Dawn and the bloodstone
Emperor is the common origin for Azor Ahai the white walkers the great other in the red
God remember this all happened before the rise of Valyria the actual rise the valyrian
freehold is said to have been about 5000 years ago when they first rose to power the nights
king the building of the wall back to the long night about 8000 years ago so long time
before that okay so what is all that stuff have to do with what's going on the show right
now with what I think is going to end up happening is is that by the end of the series the either
the mythical figure of Azor Ahai or the nights king will die and someone on the show is going
to have to replace them just going based on the information the show's given us so far
Stannis is Azor Ahai as Melisandre has told him and the nights king is obviously the champion
of the others Dan and Dave said that they signed all the main cast through season seven
so far with ,you know, potential for season eight but that doesn't mean that everyone is going
to live to the end Joffrey and Ned Stark both main cast member so just because their
main cast member doesn't mean that they're safe pending any rugs being pulled out from
under us you know it seems like the show is been telling us that Daenerys and Jon Snow
are the two most important characters on the show and then you have like a certain cast
of really important other main characters like Tyrion and everyone would love to see
Tyrion on the iron throne but remember the iron throne is in the ultimate goal it's all
about the war for the Dawn Tyrion is serving Daenerys right now so in the narrative she
is way more important than he is so if any new mythical champions are going to rise it's
going to be like Daenerys and Jon Snow Stannis it seems that the show, you know, based on him killing
Shireen it wants us to feel like it's okay for him to die and making them seem super
crazy is a way to clear the path emotionally for the audience to feel like it's okay for
Brienne to ram Oathkeeper through his face so even if he does ultimately die then Melisandre
will just look for another vision in the flames and see who they select as the next champion
just remember though Melisandre has been known to misinterpret her visions so it's not like
her magic is a concrete roadmap for the future. so here's my big question for you guys in the context
of the series when you look at like season 6 7 8 ya know how many ever seasons it gets do you
think that we'll see characters right now be chosen as the new champions of light and dark
if you ever saw the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie Will kills the captain of
the Flying Dutchman it serves this grand cosmic purpose of ferrying souls from the world of
the living to the world of the dead so it must have a captain if you kill the captain
you have to take his place so if the nights king and Azor Ahai die someone has to take
their place that being said we just met the nights king I don't think we're gonna see him anytime
soon the show wants us to feel like he is this grand terrible figure killing him off
in the finale would completely undercut that so if there's going to be a new nights king on
the show we probably won't meet him for a long time Azor Ahai though is a completely
different story is that collectively I feel like the audience right now really wants Stannis
to die in the most horrible way imaginable so I know you guys will be excited about this, I have
another signed copy of A Feast for Crows signed by George RR Martin it's a hardback,
I'm going to give it away in my finale video so be sure to subscribe to get that I'll also be doing another
a Bonus video on Sunday so if you have any requests for that just leave them in the comments
whenever we do get to the finale I'll announce what my bonus video schedule is going to be for the rest of the summer
and I will continue to do a weekly giveaway so while you wait for that to post you can
click here to learn all about Asshai, the place that Melisandre comes from and you can click
here for my episode nine video thank you so much for watching, everybody let's high five.
I'll see you guys tonight!