biteho.com

We’re starting to dig into Q2 2019, and Nintendo Switch is still going strong with ports of Cuphead and Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (that’s coming to Xbox One as well). This episode of New Releases also takes a look at some action-filled titles like the zombie-blasting World War Z and the sword-slashing Katana Zero. Strategy fans can also get their fix with Anno 1800.

Anno 1800 — April 16

Available on: PC

The latest in the long-running strategy series is set during the Industrial Revolution, letting you build cities full of factories and trade goods around the world. New workforce options let you manage those factories better, and expeditions will let you ship your goods across the globe.

More Coverage:

Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster — April 16

Available on: Xbox One, Switch

This two-in-one package includes double the RPG adventures. Final Fantasy X is the story of Tidus and company escorting the summoner Yuna on a pilgrimmage, and X-2 follows Yuna as she searches for Tidus after he disappears. It’s the same turn-based combat and Sphere Grid level-up system as before, plus a new option to toggle between classic and remastered audio.

More Coverage:

World War Z — April 16

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

This co-op third-person shooter is based on the 2013 movie, but you can probably guess what it’s about just from the title: laying waste to zombies all over the world. You can pick from six different classes and hold back the horde using guns, grenades, rocket launchers, barbed wire, and more.

More Coverage:

Cuphead — April 18

Available on: Switch

The delightful and difficult action game is coming to a new platform–and this version actually lets you play as Mugman in single-player (he’s coming to other versions via an update). Otherwise, it’s the same adventure across three islands, where you’ll fight tough bosses and leap through tricky platforming levels.

More Coverage:

Katana Zero — April 18

Available on: PC, Switch

The hero of Katana Zero can slow down time to help him slice through enemies and deflect bullets, but he goes down if he’s hit even once. Fortunately, the level will rewind to the beginning until you get that perfect run. Beyond the action, you’ll have to discover what’s really going on under the surface with your therapist, the drugs he’s giving you, and the nightmares they’re causing.

More Coverage:

April isn’t over yet, and next week New Releases will dive into two very anticipated (and very gory) titles. We’ll take a look at the Fatality-filled Mortal Kombat 11 and the PS4 exclusive Days Gone.

The Winds Of Winter: George R.R. Martin Says Writing On Next GoT Book “Going Very Well Lately”If you take the events of the last few seasons of Game of Thrones at face value, the question “Who is the Night King?” seems easy to answer: He’s an evil ice demon leading his forces south to annihilate the residents of Westeros with icy magic, rotting zombies, and even an undead dragon. That’s pretty cut and dried.

But this is Game of Thrones, and in this complex fantasy world, explanations are rarely that simple. Who is the Night King, really–and what does he want? Why is he marching south? And is the Night King really evil?

Not Bran

Let’s get this out of the way: The Night King is not, as one popular theory posits, Bran. Bran is not the Night King, and the Night King is not Bran. It’s a stupid theory, and I would like to be done with it.

The entire purpose of the Three-Eyed Raven, which Bran has become, is to stop the Night King. If Bran was the Night King, why would the original TER have put so much effort into luring Bran into his cave and teaching him? If Bran is the Night King, his entire arc for the past seven previous seasons is completely meaningless and void.

That’s not to say Bran is a hero in this story, as we’ve been led to believe. Bran could wind up being on the wrong side of this ultimate conflict, with his detached nature and the Three-Eyed Raven’s dubious origins (the show made zero effort to explore the figure’s backstory, so we have no idea who he actually is). But that doesn’t mean he’s going to go back in time, be transformed by ice magic, do nothing for thousands of years, and become a completely different person.

And just in case you’re not convinced, Bran actor Isaac Hempstead-Wright shot it down personally, telling Radio Times the theory is too “obvious,” “cheesy,” and lacking in dramatic weight. So, yeah. Please stop with this.

Good or Bad?

Even once we accept that the Night King isn’t Bran, we still know practically nothing about the character. Clearly he’s a thinking, sentient being, and the White Walkers around him have a society and hierarchy all their own. They make armor and weapons, and they have their own culture and, presumably, language (we’ve never actually heard one speak).

So what is the Night King’s true purpose? The stories passed down by humanity suggest that the White Walkers are a force of evil who arrive with the Long Night to murder everyone they can. But why? What are their goals? Why are they so hell-bent on traveling south?

We learned during Bran’s scenes in Season 6 that the Children of the Forest created the White Walkers in the first place to help them defend against the First Men, who were cutting down their forests as they settled Westeros. The White Walkers turned on the Children, who then joined forces with the Men to drive them back to the far north. So the story goes, but that doesn’t really answer the question of “why.” Hopefully the show elaborates on the White Walkers’ background and goals more in Season 8, because if not, they’ll be the first truly boring bad guys on a show otherwise filled with great and complex villains.

Book Origins

There’s one other thing you need to understand about the Night King: He’s an invention of the show. In other words, there is no “Night King” in the books. There’s a “Night’s King,” who is actually completely different from the show’s Night King; while if the White Walkers have a leader in the books, we’ve yet to meet him.

It’s unclear whether the story of the Night’s King in the books will have any bearing on the show’s Night King, but it may be worth going over just in case.

In the books, the Night’s King is a figure from legend and myth who is said to have lived thousands of years before the series’ events. He was the 13th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch (for reference, Jon Snow is the 998th Lord Commander, so yes, a lot of time has passed). Legend has it the Night’s King fell in love with a White Walker woman, took her as his bride, and ruled over one of the Watch’s castles (the Nightfort) as a rebel of sorts, until an alliance of Northerners and Wildlings defeated him.

Author George R.R. Martin actually addressed the relationship between the show’s Night King and the book’s Night’s King in a blog post in 2015: “As for the Night’s King (the form I prefer), in the books he is a legendary figure, akin to Lann the Clever and Brandon the Builder, and no more likely to have survived to the present day than they have.”

So yeah, according to Martin’s own words, the Night King is an invention of the show, as the book’s version is a figure from history who is no longer around in the present day. Whether the White Walkers in the books (or the “Others,” as they’re more commonly called) have a leader at all is something we might find out if George ever finishes the books.

And as for the Night King in the show? Hopefully we’ll know more about him by the end of Season 8.

Read Next: The Winds Of Winter: George R.R. Martin Says Writing On Next GoT Book “Going Very Well Lately”

Game of Thrones is finally back. Episode 1 aired tonight on HBO, and it served as a setup of sorts to dramatic events to come in the show’s eighth and final season. Now that the episode has ended, HBO has released a nice behind-the-scenes video where showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss break down the episode’s biggest moments and key scenes.

Obviously this video is stuffed with spoilers, so be sure to watch the episode first before checking out this breakdown. With that out of the way, here you go:

For lots more on Episode 1, you can check out GameSpot’s review of the episode here. You can also read the stories below to learn more about Game of Thrones and the first episode; we’ve put spoiler tags on two of them because even the titles might be spoiler-y:

Game of Thrones is approaching its end in Season 8, and some of the elements that have been in play since the beginning are finally starting to wrap up. Among those are Jon Snow’s parentage, the prophecy that Daenerys heard in her travels across the Narrow Sea, and other mystical things that look to be important to the final battle of the Night King.

One giant hanging thread is the question of the Prince That Was Promised, a longstanding prophecy about the hero who will appear to kill the Night King with the help of the Lord of Light. Also known as Azor Ahai, the question of who will fill the role of the Prince That Was Promised has been teased since Season 2 and the introduction of the Red Witch Melisandre and Stannis Baratheon. The premiere of Season 8 might have given a new hint as to who Azor Ahai is, and could be answering a question fans of both the show and the books on which they’re based have had for years.

It starts in Season 7, when Jon had a bonding moment with Drogon, touching the dragon and seemingly gaining his trust. In the Season 8 premiere, Jon actually rides Rhaegal, Daenerys’ other surviving dragon. It’s an extension of that moment Season 7, solidifying Jon’s bond with both Daenerys and the dragons. We saw in Season 7 what might be the reason for Drogon trusting Jon: he’s actually the son of Daenerys’ brother, Prince Rhaegar. He’s member of the royal family of dragon riders who consider themselves to be “blood of the dragon.” (It’s also worth noting that Rhaegal is named for Rhaegar, Jon’s father–a fact Jon will likely find very meaningful.)

Jon riding a dragon seemingly answers a question fans have been wondering about for years, thanks to a prophecy that doesn’t appear in the show, but is in George R. R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” books on which Game of Thrones is based. In that book, Daenerys had a vision of Rhaegar when she was in the House of the Undying in Qarth, in which Rhaegar said his son Aegon was the Prince That Was Promised. He also told Daenerys “the dragon has three heads.” (In the show, Daenerys sees the Red Keep in ruins and the Iron Throne frozen, and is visited briefly by the ghosts of her husband Drogo and their baby, Rhaego.)

First off, we now know that Jon is, in fact, Rhaegar’s son Aegon. That might mean that he’s the returned Azor Ahai–the hero the red priests of the Lord of Light have been expecting to show up and defeat the Night King, using a flaming sword called Lightbringer.

The second part of the vision is still an open question, though, if the show is going to address it. Fans have interpreted “the dragon has three heads” to suggest there will be three key people who will ride Daenerys’ dragons–and maybe even three Targaryens. That tracks with the revelation that Jon is a Targaryen, and now seeing him riding a dragon.

The question is whether “the dragon has three heads” will actually be born out by the show now that the Night King has turned Daenerys’ third dragon, Viserion, into an undead wight. Fans have been expecting a third dragon rider, but now the third dragon rider is the Night King himself.

But there’s still room for another hidden Targaryen to appear. As fans have theorized who might be the third of the dragon’s three heads, a lot of speculation has fallen to Tyrion Lannister. There’s a rumor in Westeros that Tyrion isn’t really the son of Tywin Lannister, but that the Mad King Aerys Targaryen raped Tyrion’s mother, Joanna Lannister. That might be part of the reason why Tywin was so awful to Tyrion his whole life, and fulfill Daenerys’ vision. Tyrion also had his moment with the dragons under the pyramid of Meereen, which makes him one of the few people they seem cool with.

In any event, it seems the dragon has two heads, at least. And if Game of Thrones doesn’t address Rhaegar’s words through the rest of Season 8, it seems there might still be a few tidbits for fans of the novels to look forward to–if Martin ever finishes the series.