Hi all,
This blog post definitely talks about the battle of Winterfell and it is full of spoilers if you have not seen it.
Here goes…
The battle of Winterfell recorded the longest war screen time with largest number of actors in an episode for any TV/movie franchise. It definitely kept us on our seats enthusiastic about the Night king and his evil intentions to delete the history and kill Bran Stark. However, I had a very different approach to the episode and slightly contrasting feedback which brings to write about the only episode of Game of Thrones.
The Night King was created by Children of the Forest using a dragonglass dagger to protect them from First men of Westeros, who were cutting their sacred trees and slaughtering them.
Later, when Bran decides to experience a vision on his own, he finds himself looking at an army of Wights and the Night King and the other White Walkers at the back. Bran walks closer and is shocked to see that the Night King notices his presence. Bran wakes up screaming after the Night King suddenly appeared right next to him.
The Three-Eyed Raven says that the Night King touched him, which Bran confirms when a blue hand-mark is imprinted on his forearm. The Three-Eyed Raven says because of that mark, the Night King now knows exactly where they are, and the cave cannot protect them anymore.
The Three-Eyed Raven says that the Night King touched him, which Bran confirms when a blue hand-mark is imprinted on his forearm. The Three-Eyed Raven says because of that mark, the Night King now knows exactly where they are, and the cave cannot protect them anymore.
We all know what happened after that as the Night King captures Viserion as his personal mount and assaults the Wall at Eastwatch by the Sea.
Now that we have a back story, Episode 3 of Season 8 showed Arya stark killing the Night King using the dagger given to her by Bran and it was viewed as one of the most shocking scenes of GoT franchise. This refuted most of the theories if Night king is Bran or Night king is going to sit on the throne. I feel the directors didn’t do justice to the character by killing him in 1-episode battle without him having much of the impact in the war.
Following are the reason why:
1. If Bran (who refers to himself as he is not Bran anymore) knew that Arya was going kill the Night King, why didn’t he do anything save Theon by alerting him? Why didn’t he alert Jon to not pursue capturing the dead to show it to Cersei, if she wasn’t going to send the army (compromising Viserion in the mission)? But he is not Bran anymore, so it leaves us to believe he can’t change the death.
2. When Mel lit the boundary stopping the dead to enter Winterfell, why did Jon and Dany not think of attacking the army with the dragons as they were just standing still.
3. Where did Jon’s dragon go in the middle of the battle?
4. The hype of Night king began in episode 1 and since then it has been about ‘Winter is coming’ and the army of the dead who never die, but his death was quite simple. If the NK could sense Jon running behind him, he most certainly sensed Arya (knowing that she is trained) and while holding her neck, it wasn’t difficult to press it. (Although the dagger drop-and-catch was badass!)
5. When we see the army of the dead at Hardhome, we notice more than 1 Giant in the army, but in the Battle of Winterfell, only 1 turns up.
6. The White walkers had no part to play in the battle. My theory would be if she took one of the White walker’s face to deceive the Night King as it was too difficult to believe no one sensing her but just one wind, which blows the White walker’s hair, to show she passed by.
7. Lastly, the bond of Edd-Sam, Jaime-Brienne, Hound-Beric was not plausible considering they are having time to help each other or talk to each other or even breathe. The Battle of Bastards showed evilness or Ramsay playing with Rickon, his death was satisfying. But the NK, he really didn’t do much, we lost characters who were not even that important to the viewers except Theon.
8. The remaining episodes will show the war for the throne, but does it really matter who sits on the throne, now that the only enemy they have is themselves. A family of Lannisters who have their own turning backs on them, the Dany-Aegon paradigm of who should sit on the throne, or Sansa who doesn’t want Winterfell to bend knees to the King’s Landing, but does it really matter?
9. Each and everyone of them is evil and foul-minded, Dany wants the throne despite realizing she is not the heir, Cersei doesn’t want her brothers to live, Jon doesn’t want the throne, Sansa and Arya want to protect their family, but from whom?
The fan theories I wanted to see in the series:
1. The Night King as the Mad king because:
• He can ride the dragon
• He wanted to conquer Westeros using his dragon
• He wants to delete the history
• HE SURVIVED THE FIRE!
2. The Battle of Night King for the throne instead of just being stopped at Winterfell just to enjoy the pleasure of the following picture.
3. It doesn’t matter who sits on the throne in the end as we will never be able to see what happens after as the Series ends, but if this happened, We would be certain that it was unpredictable, the Winter has come, and the end of series was justified because now there would be 700 years of long nights of Winter.
4. It is super cool to see Jon as his arm commander and Tyrion as his hand in the picture. Not to forget, Dany as his dragon commander, Arya as Jon’s second and the axe to the right bottom, yes that’s the Hound.
The battle really showed that the rest of the episodes are unpredictable and there will definitely be someone to sit on the throne and rule Westeros, but Jon really convinced Dany, Men at Night’s watch, Starks, Karstarks, etc about the Night King who was deprived of showing his hand-to-hand battle with at least 1 of our favorite characters.
Secondly, Melisandre single handedly, saved them from Night’s king by doing almost everything in the war and by just showing up moment before the battle began, now that’s meh!
In Conclusion, Yes the Battle was exciting , Personally, I would rather have watched Jon fight the Night King there in front of Bran and then have Arya steal his thunder with her leap attack and sick knife drop. Because Jon? He yelled at a dragon.
God, how many times have we heard that “no one” can take down the Night King. Well, a girl is no one, after all. I loved watching Arya’s moves tonight. She’s not a hack n’ slash knight, she is an assassin. I thoroughly enjoyed her scene stealthing through the crypts.
I mean, I’m certainly not unhappy that Brienne still might get to wildlin’ with Tormund or that maybe, maybe Grey Worm will one day sip mojito on a sandy beach and that CleganeBowl is still on track. I’m trying to be optimistic and hope there’s still some big surprises to come in King’s Landing.
Because once you defeat the White Walkers, getting killed by Euron Greyjoy would be the most pathetic, enraging thing ever.
I loved the score tonight, especially as it built towards the confrontation in the Godswood.
P.P.S: If this is unsettling, 'to each his own'. This phrase works every time.
