S8E03 update – Long Night thoughts (Patreon)

So the S8E03 Explained video is looking to be a similar length to the last couple videos. There's some analysis and book perspectives on the Dothraki, Melisandre, dragons, Lyanna, etc. But a lot of the video discusses the Night King's death, and what it all means for Arya, Jon, Daenerys, and the end of Game of Thrones. It's pretty subjective stuff, so we'll probably edit this down for the video, but I'd like to hear your thoughts –

There’s a lot of foreshadowing in the show leading up to Arya killing the Night King. Bran gave Arya her Valyrian knife in the godswood in Season 7, and you can tell he had a special purpose in mind. That’s the same knife that was used in an attempt to kill Bran in Season 1, so it’s neat that it saves Bran in the final season. Arya sneaks up on Jon in the godswood, just as she sneaks up on the Night King. And Arya uses the same hand-switching trick with the knife that she used against Brienne. In Season 1, Jon told Arya to “stick them with the pointy end”, and Syrio said to tell death “Not today” . Arya has trained for seasons to assassinate targets with skill and stealth. Her story is about death, and the Night King is the embodiment of death. Maybe now that she’s killed him, Arya can let go of her vengeance quest, and be more human and happy again. So from the perspective of Arya’s story, her killing the Night King makes a lot of sense. But what does it mean for Jon, Daenerys, Bran, the white walkers, and the deeper themes of magic and prophecy?

It’s been clear from the start that Jon and Dany are central to the song of ice and fire, the magic and prophecy that runs deep through the story. Daenerys was miraculously reborn from a fire with dragons beneath a bleeding star. Jon Snow was resurrected, and they both come from the ancient magic Targaryen bloodline. Jon has been fighting the walkers since Season 1, he’s been staring down the Night King since Hardhome. And Daenerys represents fire against ice. In the books, this goes deeper, with intricate prophecies hinting that Jon and Daenerys and some sacrifice will save the world from the white walkers. The show doesn’t mention prophecy much, but even if you ignore it, it's obvious that Jon and Dany’s destiny leads to the defeat of the white walkers. So it’s so weird that while Arya kills the Night King, Dany sobs over Ser Friendzone, and Jon.. yells at a dragon? The story had hinted so heavily that something big and magic and climactic would happen with Jon and Dany to defeat the walkers. But did they even really make a difference? Like, sure, Jon and Dany gathered the armies and helped fight the dead. But this was always a losing battle, they were only waiting for the Night King to turn up. If Jon and Dany and their armies weren’t there, the Night King still would’ve come to Bran, and Arya still could have killed him, right? So what was the point of all the magic and prophecy in Jon and Dany’s stories if they weren’t even necessary for the defeat of the Night King?

And what was the point of Bran? He spent seasons journeying to the three-eyed raven, learning to warg and have visions, losing Jojen Hodor Summer and his own humanity along the way. He said his powers were needed for the war with the walkers – but what did he do in this battle? He didn’t warg a dragon, or have some important vision, or tell anyone anything useful. He was just a MacGuffin on wheels. Is that it? The climax of Bran’s arc?

We also learned nothing new about the white walkers. No great revelation about their motivations or origins.  Nothing about these spirals, or baby sacrifices, or the Night King, or the deeper mysteries hinted in the books. And maybe that’s fine – the white walkers aren’t really characters, they’re a device. Like zombies in other stories, their purpose is to push the human characters to extremes, to show what they’re really made of, and make them do extraordinary things. But in this battle, the main characters did nothing new or unexpected. Jon and Daenerys were brave. Arya was badass. Tyrion drank wine. Bran was confusing. We did get conclusions for Theon and Jorah [and Beric and Mel] – but they were secondary characters, loose ends getting tied – they could’ve sacrificed themselves any number of ways. You’d think the final confrontation with the ultimate bad guys should bring out something new or climactic from the main characters. You’d also think that at least one main character would have died. Walder Frey killed more important characters than the Night King did. So what was the point of the walkers?

We’re told over and over that the walkers are an existential threat that make all the human conflicts petty and irrelevant. They show how pointless and self-destructive the endless wars for the Throne really are, and they brought people together – the north, the wildlings, and Daenerys unite against a true enemy. But now, that that’s over in Episode 3 – so will Dany and Jon march south to fight yet another war for the Throne against Cersei? Were the walkers just a distraction from the Throne, another stepping stone to one more petty war? The ancient ice demon apocalypse was just a warmup for the war against a drunk queen and her pal the horny pirate? Thrones author George Martin says his series will end like the Lord of the Rings books, with the Scouring of the Shire. In the final chapters of Rings, after the good guys beat Sauron, the hobbits go back to the Shire and deal with Saruman. It’s a bittersweet epilogue that shows that the world is saved, but it’s also changed, and its heroes have too. Maybe Game of Thrones will do something similar. The big bad white walkers are defeated, but taking Cersei off the Throne will be a time to reflect on how the last eight seasons of conflict have scarred Westeros and its people. But there are three long episodes left, and if they’re filled with more epic battles and petty politics, that would undercut the whole point of the white walkers as a metaphor for how terrible and self-defeating all the wars for the Iron Throne are.

Another – slim – possibility is that maybe, just maybe, there’ll be a twist. The Game of Thrones showrunners have promised a third ‘holy shit moment’ at the end of the series. Maybe it’ll turn out that the white walkers aren’t all gone. The actor who plays the Night King just tweeted about how the Night King’s touch can “change” characters. The Night King touched Arya – maybe she’ll change into something walkery. Or maybe something’s up with Bran – we still dunno what he was doing with his magic all battle. And there’s that tree in the far north where the walkers were created. Maybe the Night King will respawn for Round 2, and we’ll get a proper song of ice and fire in King’s Landing. But… that doesn’t seem likely.

We’ll have to wait and see what this all means. We’ll know the end of Game of Thrones in a few weeks.