[Major Spoilers Ahead!]
In one of the most gaspworthy, high tension moments in television history the biggest villain on Game Of Thrones was finally taken down in Sunday night’s “The Long Night.”
But the Battle of Winterfell didn’t end the way most people expected.
Related: Our Full Episode Recap
The noble hero Jon Snow was pinned down by the (blue fire? ice flame?) breath of the wight dragon Viserion and couldn’t get to the Night King to save his brother Bran Stark.
In fact, no one could.
And of course, by no one, we mean Arya Stark, the lost little girl who’s spent the last seven seasons becoming the most badass assassin in the Seven Kingdoms.
She runs in, past the dozens of wights and White Walkers and ninjas the Night King:
She even uses that cool little knife flip move she learned while training with Brienne.
And just like that, Arya Stark defeats the Army of the Dead with one blow.
After the episode aired, showrunner David Benioff revealed they’ve been setting up Arya’s victory for several seasons:
“For, god, I think it’s probably three years now, we’ve known that it was going to be Arya who delivers that fatal blow. We hoped to kind of avoid the expected. Jon Snow has always been the hero, the one who’s been the savior, but it just didn’t seem right to us, for this moment.”
Nah, that whole episode wasn’t a fantasy epic, it was a horror movie. And for a horror baddie, you need a final girl.
That’s why they gave Arya all the tools she needed — including her clairvoyant brother giving her the Valyrian steel dagger she needed, right there in the spot she would do the deed.
Innerestingly, one person who wasn’t sure about the ending was Maisie Williams!
The Arya portrayer told Entertainment Weekly:
“It was so unbelievably exciting. But I immediately thought that everybody would hate it; that Arya doesn’t deserve it. The hardest thing is in any series is when you build up a villain that’s so impossible to defeat and then you defeat them. It has to be intelligently done because otherwise people are like, ‘Well, [the villain] couldn’t have been that bad when some 100-pound girl comes in and stabs him.’ You gotta make it cool.”
Um, when that 100 lb girl is Arya freakin’ Stark, the Ghost of Harrenhal, No One, The Avenger of the Red Wedding, probably Iron Man’s great great grandma?
Yeah, nothing cooler than that, girl.
Video: Sophie Turner Reacts To Her TV Sister’s Big Moment
Unfortunately her man didn’t give her that kind of supportive talk. She continued:
“And then I told my boyfriend and he was like, ‘Mmm, should be Jon though really, shouldn’t it?'”
What the serious eff, guy??
Luckily the episode itself had the reminder Maisie needed to get on board — Melisandre meeting her again, just as she prophesied, back when she also told her she’d shut “blue eyes” forever.
Maisie explained:
“When we did the whole bit with Melisandre, I realized the whole scene with [the Red Woman] brings it back to everything I’ve been working for over these past 6 seasons — 4 if you think about it since [Arya] got to the House of Black and White. It all comes down to this one very moment. It’s also unexpected and that’s what this show does. So then I was like, ‘F**k you Jon, I get it.'”
Ha!
For what it’s worth, Kit Harington was just as shocked as the audience, saying:
“I was surprised, I thought it was gonna be me!”
However, unlike her BF, big bro Kit was cool with the twist:
“I like it. It gives Arya’s training a purpose to have an end goal. It’s much better how she does it the way she does it. I think it will frustrate some in the audience that Jon’s hunting the Night King and you’re expecting this epic fight and it never happens — that’s kind of Thrones. But it’s the right thing for the characters. There’s also something about it not being the person you expect. The young lady sticks it to the man.”
He also notes the moment got “a huge f**king cheer” in the table read.
So at least Arya’s TV fam are supportive! Even if her man isn’t! LOLz!
What did YOU think about the shocking ending??
[Image via HBO/YouTube.]
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