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Throughout all the episodes where the army of the dead and the White Walkers are shown in Game of Thrones, the only thing that we can understand is that the White Walkers and their army want to get beyond the wall.

They are going to kill whoever comes in their way, but what is the thing that the Night King seeks? What is he looking for? What is his main goal of getting beyond the wall?

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    Jokes aside, They want to end Hot-blooded life, cover the Earth with Darkness once again and rule the Night. They hate hot blooded life. Basically ethnic cleansing and a realm for his people
    – Aegon
    Aug 17, 2017 at 7:39
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    @Aegon, so there is manichean true evil in GoT.
    – Silver Bebs
    Aug 17, 2017 at 7:42
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    @SilverBebs There is. The struggle between Ahur Mazdan and Ahriman can be directly correlated to beliefs of the Red Priests. They believe in a Lord of Light and and a Lord of Darkness, both eternally at war. The Walkers are creatures of the Dark Lord. The Hot blooded life comes from Lord of Light. At least in the books anyways. Show runners thought "hey lets make Walkers like some bio weapons instead of distinct magical species, it will be so rad bro even if it doesn't make any sense lololol"
    – Aegon
    Aug 17, 2017 at 7:46
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    “the only thing that we can understand is that the white walkers and their army want to get beyond the wall” — are we actually sure about that? It’s definitely a reasonable assumption, but for all we know they might just want to stand near the Wall and stare at it for a bit. Or repair it!
    – Paul D. Waite
    Aug 17, 2017 at 11:37
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    They're just trying to bring peace to the realm. These humans to the south are constantly warring and they are strictly opposed to that sort of thing.
    – Brad
    Aug 17, 2017 at 20:55

4 Answers 4

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It's not clear yet what is his purpose beyond the wall but we know some things and therefore we can speculate.

First and most important: the White Walkers were created centuries ago before the long night by the Children of the Forest as a weapon to fight back the first men as can be seen in the TV show.

Second: after the White Walkers were created both men and Children of the Forest had to fight them. They both made an alliance and were able to defeat the White Walkers (the Azor Ahai legend is from this period of time). After this, they built the wall and for some time the Children of the Forest even provided the Night Watch with Dragon Glass in the case of the Walkers came back.

From this, we can speculate that the magic that created the White Walkers went wrong and they turned against everyone in their way. They could be just a weapon that is out of control (I don't believe so) or they could be conscious and want revenge or even want to conquer Westeros.

Personally, I tend to believe that revenge would be more plausible since the way the Night King (the first Night Walker) was created. He was just a man, probably a soldier from the first men captured by the Children of the Forest.

[EDIT]

As commented below the wall was built after the Night King was created. (The Night King is the reason why the wall was built) enter image description here

Again, we still don't know his objective this is just speculation.

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    Ah the bio-Weapon and Rogue-AI mix like Skynet. ;) slow applause for the show writers. Of course it is way better than carrying on the book theme where Others are a distinct species who want to eliminate all hot-blooded life and take over the world.
    – Aegon
    Aug 17, 2017 at 8:07
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    @Aegon though, from the asoiaf wiki <When asked whether there was a closer relationship between the Others and the children of the forest than there thus far has seemed to be, Martin replied that it was possible, and that the topic would be explored later on in the story.> so it could be that the show spoils the books to come.
    – Federico
    Aug 17, 2017 at 10:17
  • @Federico GRRM has also made it clear that Others are a different form of life, Capable of everything that we are but much more lethal. The close relation would be that Only Cotf, Others and giants are natives to Westeros. Humans came afterwards
    – Aegon
    Aug 17, 2017 at 10:37
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    I feel I should note that he wouldn't have been a soldier captured beyond the wall as there was no wall before the White Walkers.
    – Virusbomb
    Aug 17, 2017 at 15:59
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    @Virusbomb You are right, indeed the wall was built after, thanks for noticing that I'll edit my answer.
    – RVM
    Aug 17, 2017 at 18:10
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Deadline recently interviewed showrunners Benioff and Weiss, and they explained that the Night King is basically a metaphor for Death itself. He is doing what he was created to do: Kill men. He doesn’t take sides. He doesn’t care about kings or commoners. He is Death.

WEISS: I don’t think of the Night King as a villain as much as, Death. He is not like Joffrey, or Ramsey. He’s not really human anymore. To me, evil comes when you have a choice between that and good, and you choose the wrong way. The Night King doesn’t have a choice; he was created that way, and that’s what he is. In some ways, he’s just death, coming for everyone in the story, coming for all of us. In some ways, it’s appropriate he doesn’t speak. What’s death going to say? Anything would diminish him. He’s just a force of destruction. I don’t think we’ve ever been tempted to write dialogue for the Night King. Anything he said would be anticlimactic.

Read the full interview here: ‘Game Of Thrones’ David Benioff & D.B. Weiss On Shocking Season 6 Finale

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  • @ashveli link added now
    – pal4life
    Aug 23, 2017 at 22:53
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It's simple. Night King lived in Lands of Always Winter for 8000 years. One day he walked out of his Ice citadel, turned around and looked at the area and said: "Oh f..k, look where I live... this place s..ks". So he decided to move to the warmer areas but everyone is trying to kill him. So he simply fights for better future for his children.

Speaking of children, could also be he can't have his own so he makes deals like with Craster. He would ally with anyone who will give him 100 sons. Since one Craster's son is missing, he is now going south to find the baby.

Or maybe he is simply an evil king who heard that somewhere exists something called Summer Islands. So since he is from Always Winter, this would be the opposite so him being evil must go and destroy it. Or maybe he saw Fire and Ice and now wants to be cool villain. Either way, Westeros is just in his way... since using ships is not the way he rolls. Boy is he going to be surprised to learn that Summer Islands are not lake islands like Isle of Men.

Long story short, your question doesn't really make sense since only Martin can answer it, and he won't because that's the point of writing books. So, we can only speculate. Until the show is over, your question can't be answered.

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    “Since one Craster's son is missing, he is now going south to find the baby.” — Now there’s an idea. This whole White Walker mess is actually all Sam’s fault.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Aug 17, 2017 at 11:40
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    Yeah, I was even thinking that it's all Jon's fault, just he's too clever to be obvious. And Jon's motives for this are very simple really. I should make a comedy video about this :D
    – Marko Stanojevic
    Aug 17, 2017 at 11:42
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    This is a strange answer. It starts with It's simple. and then goes on to guess about multiple possible outcomes/reasons.
    – Steve
    Aug 17, 2017 at 16:22
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    @Steve I'm pretty sure that's a tongue in cheek opening. Pretty sure... The best forms of sarcasm are just awkward enough to make you think maybe they're serious. If you know for 100% sure someone isn't serious, they weren't quite sarcastic enough. I'd aim for 90% for optimal humorous response.
    – corsiKa
    Aug 18, 2017 at 4:23
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It is not clear yet what the White Walkers really want but there are many theories.

The most logical for me is explained in this video:

Summary: In the long night the first Men and the white walkers made a deal to end the war. The white walkers built the wall (it's unlogical that a big wall of ice was built by human beings). The White Walkers have to stay north, the first men in the south. The Andals broke the pact and the White Walkers are seeking revenge now or feel threatened.

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    Uh no that is completely wrong. White Walkers were the reason why Brandon the Builder (Brandon I Stark) raised the wall. He indeed had magical help in doing that but it was given by Giants and Children of the Forest. The pact was made between Children and First men to end their war. Andals then sweeped in and defeated both First men and Children, hacking down weirwoods (Except in North which is the last Kingdom of first men, King in the North defeated every Andal attempt to enter North, thats where children found refuge). Andal entry is much later, when Walkers were just legends
    – Aegon
    Aug 18, 2017 at 11:03
  • @Aegon I know that. As in the video explained: How should Children of the FOREST raise a wall of ice? Brandon the Builder could be just a myth.
    – user52558
    Aug 18, 2017 at 17:33
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    using their magic of course. Bran The Builder, Lann the Clever, Durran Godsgrief, Garth Greenhand and other legendary founders of Great Houses are considered legendary but even the Maesters attribute the Wall to Brandon so we shall dance along.
    – Aegon
    Aug 19, 2017 at 10:57

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