The third episode of Game of Thrones’ eighth season, “The Long Night”, has delivered the Mother of All Battles: the living of Westeros desperately tried to fend off the White Walkers and their warlord, the Night King, to defend the House of Starks in Winterfell.
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From the very beginning, fans knew that the show’s producers would be ruthless, and there would be a lot of death, but no one could have expected that Arya Stark would kill… the Night King – probably, Bran Stark and red priestess Melisandre were the only people who could foresee him turning into ice chips.
As Theon Greyjoy fell while defending Bran, the Night King approached him with the intent to kill and finally achieve his goal – the Long Night, but he was taken by surprise when Arya jumped onto him and stabbed him with the Valyrian steel dagger. Once he was eliminated, all White Walkers, wights and even his ice dragon met their demise.
The Battle of Winterfell didn’t play out exactly as anticipated and now social media users are wondering what to expect from the fourth episode.
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HBO has dropped a new teaser for Episode 4, in which Daenerys says, “We have won the great war. Now, we will win the last war”, in an apparent reference to the battle against Cersei in King’s Landing for the Iron Throne.
Given Arya’s role as Westeros’ redeemer, many anticipate her fulfilling Melisandre’s prophecy, which suggested that she would “shut brown, blue and green eyes”. So, Arya, who has already killed brown-eyed Walder Frey and blue-eyed Night King, might get back to her to-kill list to assassinate Cersei, who has green eyes.
Some imagined Cersei’s reaction when she finds out that Arya, the faceless assassin, defeated the Night King:
As expected, the Battle of Winterfell was bloody and insanely intense, and, unfortunately, not everyone made it out alive, including fans’ favourites:
- The acting Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch Dolorous Edd, who was stabbed by a White Walker after saving Samwell Tarly;
- Lady of Bear Island Lyanna Mormont, who lived up to her reputation of being the series’ youngest badass by heroically taking out a zombie ice giant before she died;
- Lord of Light Beric Dondarrion, who sacrificed himself to save Arya Stark from a gang of wights;
- Theon Greyjoy, once a Stark traitor, decided to make amends and fearlessly defended Bran Stark from the dead. Seconds before he perished at the hands of none other than the Night King, Theon received the redemption he desperately needed from Bran.
- Jorah Mormont, one of the most loyal advisors to Daenerys Targaryen, died as he lived: always protecting his Queen;
- Melisandre, the red woman, showed up in Winterfell at a crucial moment, and saved the day by providing fire to stall the dead, and boosting Arya’s morale. Once the battle was over, the red priestess removed her enchanted necklace, revealing her real age, and dramatically collapsed into the snow.
The fourth episode will air next week, and there are only 3 more episodes left before the record-smashing series comes to an end: now that the Night King is, hopefully, gone for good, it’s safe to say that Westeros is about to see the final big war for the Iron Throne. And it could be every bit as legendary as the Battle of Winterfell.