While the world of Westeros has expanded on HBO since Game of Thrones ended in 2019, certain events feel like they happened just yesterday for me even as House of the Dragon Season 2 approaches in the 2024 TV schedule. The third episode of GOT Season 8 was “The Long Night,” with the Night King and his army of wights and White Walkers marching on Winterfell. He nearly succeeded in killing Bran until one of his family members swooped in for the kill… but it was not Jon Snow, as was widely expected.
Arya getting the kill at the Battle of Winterfell has been divisive among some fans for years, so I looked back on the five-year anniversary of "The Long Night," which aired on April 28, 2019. And after revisiting how it went down, I still believe now what I believed five years ago: she was the right choice. Let me explain.
A Refresher On The Battle Of Winterfell
First things first! The Battle of Winterfell was quite a long time coming, as it was arguably set up all the way back in the pilot when Ned executed the Night’s Watch deserter who fled one of the White Walkers. (Yes, I just rewatched the Game of Thrones pilot.) It truly was set up as a song of ice and fire, with Jon Snow leading the Northern forces while Daenerys brought the Dothraki, the Unsullied, and her two surviving dragons to the fray.
While it was an extremely dark episode – as in, frustratingly darkly lit from almost start to finish – I also found it pretty epic, and still consider it the last truly good episode of Game of Thrones, even if not necessarily on top of the list of best Game of Thrones episodes. Despite Dany’s dragons and all the foreshadowing of a final showdown between Jon and the Night King, Arya – who got the reminder of Syrio Forel’s “Not today” response to “What do we say to the god of death” shortly beforehand – took the iconic Valyrian steel catspaw dagger to the Winterfell godswood and stabbed the Night King.
Do I know how Arya launched herself almost horizontally out of a tree in the godswood to take the Night King by surprise? I do not. Do I think that Melisandre telling Arya several seasons earlier that she’d kill somebody with blue eyes was always meant to foreshadow her getting the big kill? Not that either. Could there have been more major character deaths to really raise the stakes? For sure. But now as then, I believe that there was no better choice than Arya to kill the Night King, based on how the episode set up the Battle of Winterfell.
Why Arya Was The Right Choice
Game of Thrones was subverting expectations for non-A Song of Ice and Fire readers going all the way back to when Ned lost his head in the first season, when there had been every reason to believe that Sean Bean would be leading man for the long run. Many of us expected Jon to kill the Night King by Season 8; it was a very Game of Thrones twist for somebody else to take him down.
I know that’s not a very satisfying response, but I think the build up to the climax of “The Long Night” set up why it couldn’t be Jon. He was the obvious choice to the Night King and his forces as well, so their focus naturally would have been on stopping him, and he was pinned down from getting to Bran by undead Viserion.
Nobody was getting close enough to Bran to charge in and save him, let alone the man who had already given the White Walkers reason to be on the lookout for him. Even accounting for Longclaw as Jon Snow’s Valyrian steel sword, would he have fared much better than Theon did if he tried to fight his way through the White Walkers? Skilled swordsman though he was, Jon was still one man and not exactly in the best shape by the end of the battle.
It had to be Arya. Nobody else had the assassin skills and a Valyrian steel blade to kill the Night King, and it was a very close call after he grabbed her by her throat when she jumped to stab him. Plus, nobody was expecting her. Even if the world of Westeros is one with magic and dragons and resurrections, there is usually an element of realism, and it would have been unrealistic for Jon to escape undead Viserion and kill the Night King when the unnoticed Arya was an option.
Why It Was A Great Scene Altogether
Even if you’re not a fan of Arya getting the moment, I hope we can all agree that the scene of her taking down the big bad was scored with one of Ramin Djawadi’s best tracks, called “The Night King.” In fact, I’d rank it toward the top of his GOT tracks alongside songs like “Light of the Seven” from when Cersei destroyed the Sept of Baelor and when the instrumental version of “The Rains of Castamere” tipped Catelyn off that something terrible was about to happen at the Red Wedding. Epic music for an epic (if darkly lit) scene! Of course fans went nuts for Arya’s big moment at the time.
“The Long Night” wasn’t a perfect episode, of course. The darkness is somewhat headache-inducing, and most of the major characters who were in the trenches against the wights survived against all odds. I understand the frustration of some viewers that Jon Snow didn’t get the climactic kill in the “ice” half of the song of ice and fire, and I didn’t love Arya’s story on the show after it outpaced George R.R. Martin’s source material with the wait for The Winds of Winter continuing.
But do I sometimes go back and just rewatch the scene of Arya killing the Night King when I'm in the mood for a Game of Thrones-related pick-me-up? I sure do, and I wouldn’t swap her for Jon in that scene for anything. And I definitely think the Game of Thrones cast killed it in “The Long Night.”
All in all, I have fond memories of being invested to the point of stress in “The Long Night,” and I’ll stand by the Battle of Winterfell for the most part. Just don’t ask me how the skeletons of Starks who had been dead for hundreds of years were intact enough to pose any threat to Sansa, Tyrion, and Co. in the crypts!
For now, during the wait for the upcoming Game of Thrones shows and House of the Dragon’s second season, you can always revisit the original series streaming via a Max subscription.
