Theory on the true identity of the Night king

Hopefully some others will see this thread. Stuff in here doesn't get read quite as often as in the Seasons 7 and 8 forums but I can see why it's a general theory discussion thing!

There's a lot of argument over whether the current Night King is the same as the one of legends. "Night's King" vs. "The Night King", etc... I know when he first made an appearance there was a lot of argument about his history and how far back he goes.

Now I understand the "Night's King" to have been a regular mortal man (not a White Walker) who was very evil and the 13th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. A lot of speculation who he really was, but Old Nan says his name was Brandon and he was a Stark (There sure were a lot of famous Brandons!) ... He also married a woman we can presume was a female white walker based on her description.

So we can presume the Night's King and The Night King are definitely not the same entity and that The Night King is much older, being the original leader of the "The Others" and the first one created by the Children of the forest, I do finally understand the difference!

But as for THE Night King, we have very little to go on other than what's presented to us on the show since I doubt he's the same man as The Night's King of legends since that man was taken down in battle by Brandon the Breaker (see, another one!) and Joramun the King beyond the wall. He can't be the same man since this one was created by the Children of the Forest and was previously a living man, not killed as described in the legend of the infamous Night's King. I read a lot of things stating the show's Night King is based loosely on the Night's King of legend, but how can he be? If the Lord Commander version was killed in battle, he was not alive to be turned into a White Walker by the CotF which must have happened long long before that since he was the first of the White Walkers and began raising other ones. Plus, the LC version Night's King was also giving sacrifices to the White Walkers/Others just like Craster did - so they already existed then, as did the wall.

So this guy ... THE Night King, is much much older and definitely from the time of the first men, evident from those cave paintings.

I don't know about him being Brandon of the Bloody Blade, that's a lot more obscure legend and again, we have very little info on him other than he killed a LOT of CotF which could defnitely make him a candidate for them to capture and turn into their ultimate weapon (that backfired on them). I think it's a worthy theory though. It also means he may be an ancestral Stark. I always kind of got the feeling The Night King is well aware of the Starks and recognized it in both Jon and Bran when he saw them.

I too think it would be an interesting twist to find out he's an ancestral Stark from the time of the first men and after the children turned him and that backfired, the rest had to band together to defeat him the first time... but he wasn't really defeated so much as driven back? I've never understood what happened then. Powerful magic was put into the wall and he hasn't been able to cross it, so I guess they just went into hibernation until now, when events of magic started to waken them for another long winter... not really clear on all of that.

As for Bran being the Night King, no - I don't think that one's likely. I do think it's possible Bran is actually the older Three Eyed Raven as well as Bran the Builder but that requires some time travel paradox stuff I'm also really not sure about.

Yeah I just don't know on all of this ... we're nearing the end of the story and we still don't even know his motivations. Having him not speak is a good piece of storyline as it provides the mystery needed to drag out his motivations and even his story/origin as long as possible.

I do think this last episode revealed his weakness though ... so long as he's living, the wights will continue. He's also the one who creates the other White Walkers (like Craster's babies). As Beric said, take out the Night King and they all fall.

I suspect that first time around is as you said, some sort of pact/agreement which is why the wall was built. The wildlings being on the wrong side of it (and growing in numbers over the generations) is probably what broke the pact, plus Night's Watch ranging north of the wall as well.