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While it feels like there is an abundance of ideas to write about from that fairly epic battle between the living and the dead, the death of the Night King puts a weird twist on reflections from episode three. All the little caves of inter-personal delight that we got in the first two episodes of season eight obviously fell away to a delightful piece of viewing pleasure as we were treated to the type of viewing that legit felt unique.

Unique, like no one else is making this type of shit and a wee example of that is the music for the scene that saw Arya do her thing…

Uploaded by Alexandru Mortimer on 2019-04-29.

Not your typical suspense music track huh? Weird, fitting and lovely. I was enthralled by the artistic elements of episode eight, but with all our favourite characters fitting for their lives, there isn’t a whole lot to discuss other than having a whinge because things didn’t play out as you had hoped. The Night King’s death does raise a whole lot of questions and those questions are now attacking my noggin’ like the wights he was in control of.

Most of this centres around how the Night King story fits in with the upcoming antics with Cersei. Maybe it won’t? The Night King represented death and it’s equally as foolish to think that the Night King has to represent a whole lot more than just straight up death, as it is to think that anything to do with the Night King will not be relevant in the upcoming battles.

The idea that the Night King is death, allows for his death to be the death of his involvement in the show. Death is final and it would make sense given how much discussion there was in previous episodes, as well as the Hound’s little mental breakdown mid-battle, that this would flow into the end of the Night King. Perhaps one could compare it to death in real life, where often times there a lot of unanswered questions and unresolved ideas as death strikes; death isn’t a nicely wrapped gift.

All that is to highlight that the death of the Night King may be exactly that. Then again, given how little we know about his powers etc, there’s every chance he pops up later on or something crazy like that. The folk who survived the battle of Winterfell will be feeling pretty good about themselves right now, confident that they can steamroll south and repeat the dose against Cersei. Cersei though …. she could be viewed as a different embodiment of death.

With the death of the Night King, is Bran’s role finished? For starters, the Night King gave Bran an inquisitive look moments before Arya popped up, a look that to me suggested that Bran had out-played the Night King in this little game. It was just a little twist of his chin, but for a bloke who doesn’t talk, all we have are those movements to judge the Night King from. Bran defeated the Night King and it wouldn’t be crazy for Bran to feel like his job is done.

At this point, I’m way more interested in the scene being set for the cuzzies to head south. Other than thoughts about the Night King and Bran, it’s weird to reflect on the battle over the excitement that now lives in how this is going to unfold against Cersei. I had that same feeling prior to hitting the bong as I limbered up for episode three and knew that episode three was going to be awesome, without knowing how that awesomeness would occur. Now the anticipation sits in the human realm and perhaps the intricacies of that ol’ game of the throne.

Wildcard

Right, so… now what? Don’t get me wrong, the Battle of Winterfell was everything it was cracked up to be. Between the coordination needed to create it all and the artistic vision that made it to the screen, the filmmaking precision on show was incredible. Could have done with a little more sunlight to be fair, maybe the dawn creeping over the hills after a while so I didn’t have to keep adjusting the angle of my laptop screen, but it was definitely atmospheric.

We got plenty of drama within the drama. Arya’s hide and seek game in the library, Melisandre lighting the trench torches, the Dothraki charge witnessed from above (so like are they all dead now or something? Bit racist to send them all out first), and the utter silent tension in the crypts... until it wasn’t silent no more. Drama that was loud and drama that was quiet, contributing to an almost overwhelming experience across 80 minutes. I mean, they dragged this thing all the way out and still kept it captivating from start to finish. The whole thing had a degenerating feel as if the battle was slipping away, the living struggling to withstand the dead, just looking to buy enough time because we knew that there was only ever one way to defeat this otherwise unstoppable force and that was to destroy the Night King.

And yeah, it turns out that’s way easier than we thought. Using the knife first seen in season one in an attempt to kill Bran Stark, Arya snuck up on Ol’ NK and with some clever sleight of hand she shanked the chilly bastard right in the belly, cold Valyrian steel piercing his frozen armour, in the exact place the Children of the Forest had cut him to turn him cold all those thousands of years ago… and the son of a bitch just shattered. With him went the entire army and, jeez, that was simple.

All those other White Walkers who took no part in the battle and then stood and watched their king get got. Bit of a waste. There were basically Steven Adams sitting on the bench watching Russell Westbrook brick fourth quarter buckets and guarding way too deep on Damian Lillard as he pulled up for the game-winner from deep, except without a head coach to restrain them. Where was Arya even hiding? We know she has immense stealth skills and even earlier in this episode we were reminded of that… was she hovering above in the weirwood tree or did she honestly creep up in the dark unnoticed? Somebody ask Bran to check the action replay.

Arya was an absolute boss in this episode, first with that spear of hers and then getting creative inside before doing the business at the end. As Jon was held up trying to get past a feisty blue dragon towards what he assumed was his destiny, it was Arya – whom he gave her first sword to back in the day – that stepped up and took the winning shot.

Thrones is three for three this season. Absolutely smashing this final run of eps. That moment when the Night King summoned up the dead once more was genuinely terrifying, it was then that the sissyphean nature of it all became clear. The more they killed, the more would rise. Even down in the crypts the old mummified Starks got up to no good… I figured that was a bluff but okay. Clearly not all the tombs were concreted well enough, hope they kept the quote.

By the way, I’ve seen a fair bit about the dragons not really pulling their weight in the clutch there… I dunno. I don’t reckon the living get bugger all done without those dragons. They didn’t strike the crucial blow, Mr Night King walking through fire and doing a Dany to Dany herself, but they held the dead at bay with fire for a lot longer than was otherwise possible. They missed the cue to light the trenches when the snow came over but they nullified the dragon on the other side and also knocked NK off his seat which exposed him to the battle, finally. Tell you who was really useless though: Bran. Young fella spent the whole time watching as a crow and doing absolutely zero to help. Didn’t even bother sharing a scout report. He offered a nice send off for Theon but then didn’t say a word to the Night King which seemed like a let down after all that build up between the two.

Thus I return to the opening statement: now what? That was a pretty excellent episode but I’d be lying if I’m not a little pessimistic about what’s to follow. The whole series the message has been to ignore the petty human squabbling and focus on the great environmental crisis heading their way and then it’s over as quick as that without any real closure. Some of that closure might come next episode, since Bran has the capabilities to fill in the blanks, but apparently the White Walkers are now all dead, proper dead, and… that’s just that? Surely not. There are three more episodes all of a similar length to this one and quite frankly I don’t care enough about Cersei right now. This was supposed to be the climactic battle of the series, the grand final that we were building up to from day one, and now there’s four more hours of denouement to get through.

I wanted to know more about the Night King and about the White Walkers in general. There has to be more than what we’ve been told. Perhaps the Children of the Forest are still out there with yarn to spin. What about that baby White Walker? All Craster’s male kids? It’s possible that the deal ain’t done yet, because this all seemed to simplistic. Like, I’m big on the White Walkers = Global Warming theory and if these jokers are trying to tell us that you can solve the environmental crisis in a frosty morning’s work then I’m stunned.

Honestly, we’ve seen a trend since the show began going off book where it’s lost George RR Martin’s style of storytelling, because there’s no way he’d wrap it up as easy as that. There’s no way his major villain would be out for destruction and nothing else more complex. None of his characters are that rudimentary. And there’s absolutely no way that he’d have allowed a battle to take place as drastic as this one without hardly any of the main characters dying. This show got its reputation for being ruthless and killing folks off without giving them their closure, leaving the survivors to pick up the pieces. Now they give everybody closure and don’t even kill them after.

For all the instances of a character being hopelessly surrounded by zombies only to still be fighting valiantly twenty minutes later when we come back to them… surely somebody had to cop one sooner or later. Pour one out for Beric, Jorah, Melisandre, lil Lyanna Mormont, and Edd. Mel was a secret MVP here, who they couldn’t have done it without. She knew it was gonna be Arya. Lyanna killed a zombie giant (they’ll sing songs of that one for sure). Jorah died as he lived: hopelessly friend zoned. Edd took a second off to tell Sam to get up and that second cost him bad. Meanwhile Beric pretty much did a Hodor in saving Arya… who ironically once had him on her kill list.

Oh yeah and pour an especially big one out for Theon, a good man, who would have lived a long life had he only waiting two more minutes instead of charging at the Night King as he did. Some say it was heroism at its purest. I say it was suicide, the poor miserable bastard.

But Grey Worm, Gendry, Davos, Sam, Jaime, Brienne, Podrick, Tyrion, Varys, Missandei, Jon, both dragons (only just), Tormund, all the Starks, The Hound, Gilly, and Baby Sam all lived… even Ghost survived because the furry bugger’s in the preview for next week. The wolf was there at the start then never seen again that I can recall… must’ve gone hiding. Nobody died who hadn’t served their purpose, which is screenwriting nature, not GRRM nature. He kills them early. In respect for how close the living armies came to absolute destruction, they probably needed to whack Tormund and Grew Worm in the very least, as much as it pains me to say that.

Then again, the White Walkers might be beastly forces but their hordes of zombies are only useful because of their incomprehensibly big numerical advantage - as seen when they piled bodies on the flames to break through the trenches. Or when they were all resurrected again. But individually they’re absolutely useless. They have no capacity for thinking, they move fast but their reactions are piss poor. Bloody abysmal in singular combat, that’s no lie. Swing a sword and you rattle those bones to the ground. So someone like Brienne probably could just stand there in a good position and fend them off for an hour so long as they only came at her one at a time, filtered by the gates and the fire trench. Chuck that next to the devastating Achilles heel of Kill The Head Vampire And They All Die and maybe these jokers really weren’t as tough as they were built up to be. Which is… an anti-climax.

But, you know, nothing that can’t be polished up next week. This one was purely about the battle and it was a spectacle from start to finish, that vision of the Dothraki charging with flaming swords only to see the flames progressively extinguished from a distance… that’s as memorable as it gets. It feels like the mythology of the series took a backseat despite coming face to face with its most metaphorical character but as long as Bran lives then so do the histories. And I think the telly writers, trying to wrap this enormous cultural phenomena up in a tight bundle, have less room for complexity than Martin does with his books anyway (extremely excited for how much those books will differ, if they ever actually get written). This streamlining trend’s been on show for at least two seasons already.

So as to that now what question, I guess now we wait and see. There’s simmering tension still between Sansa and Dany which Sansa didn’t even bother trying to hide down in the crypts, while we still haven’t had Jon and Dany’s big chat done properly. The Mormont family’s been wiped out but plenty others are hanging in there with ideas about what’s up. Clegane Bowl remains on the cards, as does Jaime vs Cersei: The Kingslayer’s Revenge. Don’t forget that upcoming travel show spinoff where Grey Worm and Missandei visit the beaches over the seas. Also Gendry better watch out because Arya’s got some partying to do after that legend-defining moment. That was Grant Elliot in the 2015 World Cup semi-final, give it a bit of room and pop that thing straight down the ground and back where it came from. Eden Park erupts.

GOT S08E03 Character Power Rankings

Arya Stark – She is most definitely That Bitch
Melisandre – Basically turned up and saved the day like three times. Then walked off into the sunrise and disappeared as swiftly as she arrived. Fair to say this made up for the smoke baby
Lyanna Mormont – The smallest soldier against the biggest enemy, nothing a shank through the eye won’t solve. Rough day for the Mormont clan though… if there are even any left
Beric Dondarrion – One of the greats. Kept The Hound’s head in the game then shielded Arya to safety before dying for the seventh and final time. The ultimate role player: he did his job.
Bran Stark – He knew all along, right?
Jorah Mormont – Wouldn’t have minded a shot of him scrapping the dead folk and seeing Dany drop off the dragon so he didn’t just appear out of nowhere and save her but okay – he died in the arms of the woman he loved too, even if she never loved him back (in that way)
Theon Greyjoy – Was a good man, if a little miserable. Probably shoulda packed more arrows though
Ser Davos – Just a quick shout out to a man with zero combat ability who somehow manages to survive every major battle. Where even was he all that time?
Daenerys Targaryen – Brought the dragons, had a decent crack at the Night King… had Jorah to thank for saving her at the end but she outshone Jon during the whole thing for sure
Grey Worm – With all due respect to Ser Brienne, Ser Jaime, Tormund Giantsbane, and the rest of them, there ain’t none better on the battlefield than this bloke, plus he’s a team player too. None of that solo mission, hero ball madness

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