Season 8-Episode 03

Episode 70: The Long Night

“Theon. You’re a good man. Thank you.”

Major Plot Points: Jon yells at a dragon.  Dany uses a sword.  Sam cowers.  Arya does her spooky assassin thing. Theon Greyjoy kills Reek.

Observations from a Book Reader:

1. The episode title describes the battle, but it also references the first fight against the White Walkers thousands of years ago.  Called “The Long Night” or “The War for the Dawn”, the Children of the Forest and the First Men joined together to push back the White Walkers.  Presumably the Wall was built shortly after.
2. The Long Night is also where the legend of Azor Ahai comes from.  He of course was the mythical hero of the Lord of Light, and it was foretold he would one day be reborn.  Mel once thought Stannis was Azor Ahai.  After this episode, I think that the prophecy was always kind of a bait and switch.
3. Thoros was able to light Beric’s sword on fire, and Mel did the same with Stannis’ sword.  But in this show Beric can light his like a lightsaber, and Melisandre lights about 500 Dothraki blades at once.  It gives an incredible affect when you see them turn off one by one, but it does seem a tad overpowered. How could anyone not believe in the Lord of Light after this?
4. The White Walkers are able to bring winter storms with them wherever they go, and utilized this tactic well against the Night’s Watch at the Fist of the First Men.
5. The Night King does not exist, and the White Walker’s motivations are completely unknown.  If the next books come out, I really hope we get more explanations into their conquest of Westeros. 
6. Azor Ahai reborn will probably end up being a combination of Daenerys and Jon.  Or neither.

Other Points to Notice

1. While I am glad that Melisandre made an appearance, I think they could have had her arrive at the end of last week.  It seems a bit strange she is able to appear right in front of the undead army. 
2. Jorah being one of the only people to return from the front lines seems like an unnecessary flaunt of plot armor.  Obviously he dies later in the episode, so why send him out there at all?  Characters living through battles is a mainstay of thrones, but putting them in ludicrous situations where they have no right to survive seems like nothing more than stirring up fake dramatic tension.  This episode has quite a bit of that. 
3. Sansa entering the crypts with the women and children is very similar to her entering Maegor’s Holdfast with Cersei during the Battle of the Blackwater.  She demonstrated leadership skills there by getting all the women and children to join her in singing a hymn.  Apparently there were cut scenes in this episode of her calming the people in the crypts as well. 
4.  Jon does not do much during this battle.  He could have at least used Rhaegal to light the trench on fire.
5. Arya’s library scene is probably the best display of her non-lethal assassin skills we get.  If anyone is able to sneak up on the Night King in the entire world, it’s her.
6. Hard not to make the blatant (somewhat on-the-nose) connection between Beric with his arms up against the doorframe, and Jesus dying on the cross.  Beric even dies so Arya can live.  Melisandre tells this to Arya, and reminds her of all the “blue” eyes she will shut.  This is enough to make Arya realize what her true purpose in this battle is.
7. In the Season 7 episode Beyond the Wall, Drogon leaves a huge trail of dragon fire on the ground.  The Night King walks through it without any problem.  Because of this, we knew there was no chance of him dying to dragon fire
8. Great visual when the Night King brings all his soldiers, and the Winterfell soldiers, back to life.  But it does bring the plot armor issue into light again.  We see simultaneous shots of Jon completely surrounded, and then the next shot he is back in the open.  This happens with Jaime, Brienne, and Tormund too. Again, there is nothing wrong with main characters surviving (the idea of main characters always dying in this show is VASTLY overstated) but it is annoying to see them put in impossible situations they have no chance of overcoming, and then getting through them unscathed.  Main characters living is not new to this series, but these unrealistic situations are way more prevalent in later seasons. 
9. Drogon surviving all of the undead climbing on him is not a surprise to me.  It takes insane force to pierce a dragon’s scales (Just ask that creepy fuck Qyburn), and lil zombie boys with daggers probably couldn’t do him any real harm.
10. In the end, no matter how this series ends, I hope people can look back and remember just how incredible of a job both the writers, and Alfie Allen did of portraying Theon’s story.  Best redemption arc I have ever seen.  It ends with him running head first against an opponent that he knows is better than him, and it makes up for him doing the exact opposite against his uncle. Bran even forgives him at the end, which proves that a little piece of Brandon Stark still lives. 
11. Bran gave Arya that dagger last season.  Fitting the dagger that was once used to almost kill him, ends up being the exact dagger that saves him.  We also see Bran look past the Night King’s shoulder, which makes it seem like he knows Arya is on her way.
12. The Night King dying 3 episodes before the finale was a huge shocker, but it actually begins to make a lot of sense when you think about it.  GRRM always claims how he finds vanilla “good vs evil” conflicts to be a bit boring.  Obviously, the White Walkers were always built up as the main threat of the show, but the political intrigue and house warfare was what made ASOIAF so unique to begin with.  GRRM also talks about how he enjoyed the post-Sauron LOTR content immensely.  In the books, the hobbits returned to the Shire to find it in ruin, and under the control of Saruman.  They had to use what they learned to overcome this final obstacle.  With 3 episodes left, I expect it to be a similar situation for Jon and Dany.  We have a lot of characters left on the board and for the first time in the entire series, it actually is all about the Iron Throne.  This also makes me feel like we are going to see real conflict between the Starks and Daenerys.  I expect many more actual main characters to die to get to the bittersweet ending. 
13. For all intents and purposes, the Night King and his army won this battle.  There was no way any of the living characters could escape him here, and Arya was able to use her assassin skills as a hail mary to stop him.   If the Night King doesn’t die during this battle, there is no realistic way he would ever be defeated. 

Stray Observations:

1. I really don’t understand sending the Dothraki out first.  Seems destined to fail
2. If Davos executes Melisandre in the beginning of the episode, no shot the human team wins.
3. Sam spends the whole time on the ground, and gets Edd killed.  He really should have stayed in the crypts, it’s a bit unrealistic he survives the battle the way he does.
4. Random thought.  I wonder if we will ever see Edmure Tully again.
5. I really hope Bran was up to some elaborate scheme, and didn’t just warg into ravens for the whole battle.
6. The Night King gives his giant a weapon.  Why didn’t Jon give Wun-Wun a weapon during the Battle of the Bastards?
7. We all saw the crypt revival coming, but all named characters surviving seems unfair at best.
8. Dany really should have taken off with Drogon immediately. 
9. Sansa and Tyrion pulling out the daggers almost gave me the feeling they were going to kill themselves.  Similar to how Cersei almost poisoned Tommen when she thought Stannis would win the Battle of the Blackwater. 
10. Incredible music choice for the end of the battle as the Night King slowly walks up to Bran.  We see everyone at their most dire moment, and then bam, Arya attack.
11. Jon completely gives up in the end, and screams at Viserion.  Poor guy really just wants to rest.
12. Melisandre, always the exhibitionist, of course dies while taking off her clothes. 
13. In a way, this episode marks the end of the series.  To me, the rest is the epilogue.  And for once I have no idea what is going to happen next week.

RIP: Theon Greyjoy,  Beric Dondarrion, Jorah Mormont, Lyanna Mormont, “Dolores” Edd Tollett, and Melisandre the Red Woman of Asshai.