Major spoilers follow for Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 3 ‘The Long Night’ so be warned! The Battle for Winterfell is finally here, and it does not disappoint. Fans have waited the past few seasons to see the Night King and his army reach the south and fight out main characters. This episode was also boasted as featuring the longest fight in television and film history, and it was glorious. I’ve already seen some complaining it was hard to keep track of things due to how dark it was, but I honestly don’t get that at all. Part of what made this battle so great, was the fact that it took place under the cover of darkness. Fans will definitely be talking about how this episode and the conflict with the White Walkers was resolved, as it was Arya who took down the Night King. We also lost several major characters like Theon, Jorah, Lyanna, and Beric. I’m definitely sad about losing Jorah, he’s always been one of my favorite characters on the show. I really enjoyed a lot of this episode, but I do have a couple nitpicks. Mostly the fact that Bran has been kind of useless lately. For my full thoughts on the episode, check out the video below!<doc-sep>If you haven't seen Game of Thrones season 8 episode 2, look away now. In our latest behind the scenes look at the making of the HBO mega series, David Benioff, executive producer and writer, explains why this pre-battle episode is so important. "For us what was interesting about this episode was always that it's our last night together, and everyone, I think, would face the end in different ways," says Benioff. "Some characters want to make love for the first time, because they've never done it before. There are other characters who are getting drunk and singing songs, and then there are characters who are just trying to find some kind of human solace together like Sansa and Theon." The episode had some lovely reunions, some unexpected joys - like Brienne of Tarth's knighting or Tormund's giant story - and a creeping sense of dread for fans who know that their favorites are probably going to go to the big tavern in the sky in next week's episode. "Everyone faces it in different ways but they're all facing it," adds Benioff. "That's why this episode was so important to us because it's all these characters that we've been following for so long and now they're all facing a common enemy." "The most wholesome episode ever" – how the internet reacted to Game of Thrones season 8, episode 2<doc-sep>For eight seasons, the Red Witch Melisandre has been talking about the Prince That Was Promised (aka Azor Ahai), a prophesied hero who would return to defeat the White Walkers with a flaming sword. Anyone who’s already watched Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 3 knows that’s not exactly what happened, so what does the Great Battle of Winterfell’s thrilling conclusion actually mean for the legend of Azor Ahai? Is it still relevant at all? Is Arya Stark somehow involved? Let’s dive in. Warning: Dragon-sized spoilers for Game of thrones Season 8 below. Still here? Cool. So Arya Killed the Night King, but does that make her Azor Ahai? As with any character and this loosely interpreted prophecy, you can make the argument either way, but in the end, it may not matter at all. Regardless, let’s breakdown the pros and cons of this theory. Maybe Arya IS Azor Ahai... HBO Arya Is Azor Ahai/The Prince That Was Promised Aside from killing the Night King, which is the whole purpose of this prophecy, according to Melisandre, there’s a few other clues that Arya might be Azor Ahai. Subscribe for free to Multiverse and get Game of Thrones coverage delivered to your inbox the night the episode airs. For one thing, the Valyrian steel dagger she used to do the deed might not be a literal flaming sword like the one in the prophecy, but it’s still embued with a lot of significance. The dagger, which originally belonged to Littlefinger, was given to a would-be assassin who tried to kill Bran Stark in Season 1. Arya later used it to execute Littlefinger in Season 7. The dagger’s origins before the show began are unknown. It could be an ancient weapon passed down by early Targryans; it might even be connected to the original Azor Ahai’s flaming sword. Samwell Tarly actually finds a drawing of what looks like the same dagger in an old book, though it’s never confirmed if that’s actually the same weapon or just a coincidence. This dagger really gets around. HBO Additionally, in Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 3, Melisandre gives Arya some cryptic advice. We may not hear the words “Prince That Was Promised,” but the Red Witch essentially gives Arya the motivation she needs to kill the Night King. So that’s gotta count for something, right? Arya Is Not Azor Ahai/The Prince That Was Promised If you actually consider any of the “official” criteria, Arya doesn’t seem to make the cut. She wasn’t born amidst “salt and smoke” (whatever that means), and she wasn’t born “under a bleeding star.” Her story also doesn’t exactly match up with the legend of Azor Ahai forging the flaming sword, Lightbringer, which involves breaking early versions of the mythical weapon in water and then in the heart of a lion before plunging the final sword into the heart of his beloved. Arya’s killed a lot of people, but never anyone she loved. So if we’re going by the rules then Arya probably isn’t Azor Ahai. In that case, how did she kill the Night King? Azor Ahai Doesn’t Matter Anymore in Game of Thrones If there’s one thing “The Long Night” proved, it’s that Melisandre is kind of useless. Sure, she may have brought Jon Snow back to life, but besides that, her plans usually fail. That holds true in Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 3. First, she gives the Dothraki flaming swords, but they still die almost instantly. Then, she lights the moat around Winterfell on fire, but the wights get into the castle anyway. See what I mean? Useless. (Don’t even get me started on her whole Stannis Baratheon obsession. Renly put it best in Season 2: “Born amidst salt and smoke? Is he a ham?”) Nice zinger, Renly. HBO Considering the Red Witch’s track record, it’s not unreasonable to think that perhaps the entire Prince That Was Promised prophecy was always a huge misdirection. Maybe the real Azor Ahai was the friends we made along the way. Regardless, now that the Night King is dead, the whole prophecy is pretty much meaningless anyway. Maybe Jon, or Dany, or Jaime, or even Gendry really was supposed to be Azor Ahai. But leave it to Arya to jump the queue and take care of business. Prophecies be damned. Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9 p.m. Eastern on HBO.<doc-sep>
At the climax of Game of Thrones season eight, episode three, “The Long Night,” the Night King finally met his match — though only partly, as many viewers had speculated, at the hands of Bran Stark and a carefully laid magic trap. Instead — spoilers ahead! — the show’s resident teenage girl assassin did her thing, and Arya Stark wound up saying no to the god of death in spectacular fashion. If you found it difficult to follow what was happening throughout the long, action-packed, scene-jumping, and very literally dark Battle of Winterfell, here’s what went down: In the middle of the fight, Arya briefly confronted Melisandre, the Red Witch. It was a hostile encounter; after all, Melisandre was on Arya’s kill list at one point for being mean to her best friend (and eventual love interest) Gendry. But during this meeting, as Melisandre recounted their previous one years earlier, she pointedly reminded Arya that she’d prophesied that Arya would take many lives, including those of beings with blue eyes. In other words, she seemed to be suggesting that Arya use her assassination skills to go after the Night King. Arya was clearly paying attention, because in the episode’s climactic moment, just as the Night King was about to kill a thoroughly indifferent-seeming Bran Stark, Arya pounced on him out of nowhere and stabbed him with her trusty Valyrian steel dagger. It was the same dagger that’s been knocking around Game of Thrones since the show began, and one that’s has played an important role in both triggering and ending major events throughout the series. Valyrian steel is one of the few things that can kill a White Walker, and when Arya stabbed the Night King with it — after Bran first conveniently lured him into a weirwood forest similar to the one where the Night King was created centuries earlier — he immediately shattered into pieces. (Game of Thrones co-creator David Benioff confirmed during the “Inside the Episode” featurette for “The Long Night” that luring the Night King to the weirwood was crucial to his demise, at least partially confirming a long-held fan theory about how the Night King would be “unmade”.) This prompted a domino effect throughout his entire army, as they were all destroyed in turn. But why? Was taking out the Night King’s entire army really that easy? Turns out, yes. When Arya killed the Night King, all the White Walkers and wights he’d created were killed in turn The theory that if the Night King could be killed, all the White Walkers and wights he created would also subsequently all die was a popular one going into the episode. We already knew that if you kill a White Walker, all of the wights that White Walker “sired” would die. By extension, it was natural to assume — as voiced by Beric Dondarrion during season seven’s big White Walker confrontation in “Beyond the Wall” — that if you kill the Night King, all the White Walkers he sired would also die, causing all the wights they sired to die too. And in the end, that’s exactly what happened: When Arya killed the Night King, she took out the Night King’s entire army of thousands in one stroke. Not bad for little Arya Underfoot.